SVX gravel rally car...surely not? Absolutely...
 

At the request of some others, I thought I'd detail the work in progress which is the build of the SVX into a gravel rally car in Australia.

This is not intended to be a place where people tell me how this car is not suitable, or how it's not going to work...I'd rather assistance when I get stuck.

For a range of reasons, which if you search my user name you'll find the angles I'm coming from, I've decided that the SVX has the potential to be a great gravel rally car. With the potential for 300-350hp, AWD, Subaru swappability etc...it should be pretty easy to do.

The big hinderance has always been whether I can get the weight out, but spurred on by Benebob and Hocrest's racer (which is down to 2700lb's), I've set myself a target weight, fully prepared, of 3000lb's (lighter would be great). You guys are probably thinking that's too heavy, but it's consistent with a few cars around in the class, so it should be competitive.

So enjoy the ride!!!

Finding the right car

I didn't have an SVX, so the first thing I needed was to find one.

Because the car will be virtually destroyed (I'm sorry to some of you guys), the main goal was to get one for as cheap as possible.

I rang virtually every wrecker in Australia to see if they had any. Considered importing one from Japan (without a sunroof would have been great), but unfortunately, the rules and regulations of Australia meant that wasn't possible.

Most road going ones were in reasonable shape, but were asking about $10,000AUD ($7500USD) and more. That was too much, so I kept watching auction sites, and various other places where they come up cheap.

I just missed out Misanthropy's one which was traded for $6,000AUD ($4500USD) as it went too quickly through to the wholesalers.

When I was almost giving up hope, I happened across one that was for auction through one of the damaged vehicle auctions. Yay!!

The car was in Adelaide (about 1300miles) so it was challenging to "drop in" and have a look. The advertisement said it had "front right damage" and the photos showed virtually no damage whatsover...that was weird? So I rang the place and spoke to one of the guys who goes out into the yard and has a look at them for you. Just at that same time as I was ringing them, the ad was updated showing now that it had "significant underbody damage". Aaahhh...that would explain that the photos showed not much damage...so how bad can underbody damage be? I had worst case ideas that the entire chassis would be bent...or worse, that the engine or box had been hit by something?

The guy was helpful, he said there were no leaks from underneath (phew), but that the front right wheel was pointing at a really bad angle, and both rear wheels also seemed to be pointing at funny angles...hmmm, could be bad.

I asked him to check panel gaps around the car to see if it was really banana'd or something, but it came up clean.

So I figured, the most I had to lose was to bid on it and see where it got to.

The auction is a whole separate story (internet bidding was down on the day, so the lady said "bad luck, you'll miss out" aaaaghh!!) but suffice to say, that I got it finally as it was passed in. Ended up paying $3500 for the car, but then add in auction fees, GST etc, and then shipping to Brisbane and it landed for about $5000AUD ($3800USD).

Yay, so I now owned the car, but hadn't laid eyes on it, let alone driven it...what would the delivery truck give me...a pile of crap, or a great project???

Stay tuned

And the truck arrives...

Through the wonders of vehicle tracking on the internet, I knew when the car was due to arrive.

I left work early the day it was due and met the truck there.

First impressions were great...the car looked in reasonably condition. The wheels were exactly as the guy at the auction house had said...all sorts of funny angles.

And inside stank from years of cigarettes...blech.

However, it started, and was able to be driven into the garage (first drive!!!).

Then I got it up onto the jack to have a look at what was what.

The photos below show what I found.

In a nutshell, I had to replace the front RH strut and strut top, and the rear lateral arms on both sides.

It came on 3 alloy wheels, and the spare...so I tracked down some Nissan Skyline GTT wheels (17"x8") and got some new tyres.

After the repairs had been done, and I literally didn't touch anything else, I was able to get some licence plates onto it and finally drive it around.

I used it to get to and from work for a few weeks and thoroughly enjoyed the car. It felt great too when I got the SVX wave from a fellow owner!

However, all good things must come to an end, and I finally decided that I should pull it off the road to start converting it to the rally car.

Stay tuned....

The preparation begins...

The most important part of the rally car is its roll cage. In order to get the cage in properly, the car needs to be stripped back to a bare shell...literally everything has to come out or off.

So from the third picture above, there's a whole heap of work to get it stripped down. Hours and hours pulling apart everything that Mr Subaru spent putting together over 11 years ago!!

Lots of the stuff won't be going back into the car and other stuff will be upgraded.

It's amazing how much some of the car weighs though...for no apparent reason. So far, I reckon I've got about 350kg (800lbs) out of the car in various things...AC system, airbags, sound deadener, electric seats (:eek: ), carpets, hood lining, sunroof, 15 little ECU things etc...

For example, todays job was the crash structure behind the front bumper. From the factory it weighs about 30lbs...this is for very good reason to protect you...but I don't need it, so it has been hacked apart with an angle grinder and now weighs 8lbs. I expect the rear is the same, but I've killed my angle grinder, so it'll have to wait!

Benebob and Hocrest know exactly what I've been through (and am still going through)...it's a huge process.

The photos should show you what I mean. BTW, all panels etc will be going back on, they are just off for ease of access.

The interior sound deadener on the floor was easy to get off with some dry ice...never done that before, but it made such a difference.

It's now at the roll cage guy...waiting for him to finish. More updates in a few weeks.

Help from friends

I should add, about the time I was posting introducing myself and talking about building an SVX rally car, Desertrunner started emailing me and he was just as keen as me to see one of these cars out there.

We spent a long time discussing the potential of the car, mostly me learning from his experience, as he's got two of them, and we both agreed that the whole car has the potential to be a great rally car.

Being just as keen as I am, Tony is chipping in some dollars to help with the big items, which is a huge help, and his generosity will see the car getting out to its first rally sooner rather than later.

So, thanks Tony, for your help, here's to getting it out there ASAP so we can enjoy our work!!

Thanks again,
Matt

Matt,

You are a brave, brave man.. I wish i had the cajones to take some of the weight out of my car... Would have never thought to use dry ice. But after seeing the car with the new wheels on it , it sure looks sharp! .. On top of that, you were able to pick up the car at about what we get them in the states for , so congrats on that. I'm really excited to see how she turns out, thanks for sharing this story with us! :)

How dare you gut a beautiful car such as the SVX just to turn it into a racer :mad: :mad:

Oh wait... I mean nice job, you have the interior gutted more than we do. What are your plans for the wiring harness? Are you going to sort it out and replace bits and pieces? Or create somethig from scratch?

Did you happen to weigh all of the plastic crap from the interior floor? I'm curious what we have to save by pulling that up. I broke off a couple pieces and it seems light, I figured about 1 lb total, so I left the rest there...

Hocrest...plastic crap from the floor? Do you mean the tar using the dry ice?

I spoke to Benebob about it...30lb's mine was. It's double thickness on the front floors...it's worth getting rid of, but he reckons we should just have a pee before a race instead!!

Matt,
Nice job! Can't wait to see the cage in it. I'm with Dave on the wiring harness, are you just going to fabricate a "bare essentials" version with everything switch operated from a master panel near the steering wheel?
My hat is off to you and Dave and Ben and the SVReX gang for paving the way for a whole new SVX experience...I'm going to get around to it one of these days....just might take a new garage though:rolleyes: :cool:
-Bill

Good luck with the project. Great pics. Can't wait for some shots of the car in action.:cool:

Wiring harness...I'm in two minds. I could just fab a new one, but then, it's easier and quicker to just spend the time and modify the original one.

Completely rewiring is pretty expensive and time consuming. At this stage, I'm leaning towards reusing most bits, and hacking out the non essentials (and there's tons of that).

It's easier to have switches on the dash...probably where the factory AC stuff is. I'll need separate switches for ignition, fuel pumps, driving lights, etc...I'd actually prefer circuit breakers or relays.

I reckon the complete loom for the car, including all dash, fuse boxes etc, would weigh close to 50lbs. That's worth reducing.

Matt

Man that's awesome. Can't wait to see what you have in store for it.

Gosh time flies when you're waiting for people.

Finally got my baby back today with it's new roll cage fitted.

Updates will now be coming thick and fast as I get it ready for the next rally.

Awesome work.
 

I will be watching this closely and taking notes for my strip, you tease!

this project looks awesome! i have always wondered how a svx would do in a rally, and searching for a svx rally car all i could find was one picture and nothing more. good luck!