jackso11 Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 It was my birthday a couple of days ago and my missus has signed me up for this http://www.wackyrally.co.uk Basically its a 1500 mile rally from North France to Barcelona over some amazing roads....in a car costing no more than £300. My question to you lot is what car should I do it in? They don't check the price of the car you enter so you can go a little over but ideally I want to stick within the limits (give or take £50) for good sportsmanship, and the challenge I was thinking of getting an old mk1 mx5 as they are great fun to drive, the engines are very reliable and being a convertible would be great (race is in July next year). Equally a convertible old escort would be good, more seats but not quite as reliable! Open to a million ideas please Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abz Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Lucky sod! You can't go wrong with an MX5! Hard to beat for the budget! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Attero Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 That should be good fun. My brother did the same thing but went across to Europe rather than downwards. He bought the car for £50 and it broke down half way but they sorted something out. They had so much fun. Hope I can do something like that sometime. I'll post a pic up of the car they used if i can find it. They did some homemade body work to it too, just to spice it up a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darragh Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 You got to think about your bags and maybe tools to help on a basic breakdown, I was gonna do the scally rally in Ireland were your budget was £150 and I had a mk3 golf 4 door for that price but something else came up and I couldn't do it, Go look for a big old merc or a BMW of some sort or even better a ford sierra all of which being rear wheel drive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SupraDan24 Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 This event left from Great Yarmouth a few years back, it looked great fun. I was debating signing up at the time but was worried my mechanical knowledge wouldnt get me out of a bind if it all went pete tong lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackso11 Posted October 6, 2011 Author Share Posted October 6, 2011 Home made body 'enhancements' is the plan I signed up for the student gumball rally when I first finished uni but then my first job started on the same week so I had to bail out of the gumball. Pretty much all of my mates did it and stil talk about how good it was years later so I can't wait to do this one! I will be taking my socket set and drivers, I can fix pretty much everything with those tools so am not worried about the car making it. I plan to get it far before the rally and give it a basic service, then drive it around for a few weeks to make sure there are no problems....although on a long journey the story may be different of course! That is one reason why I would like a jap engine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Attero Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 When the car broke down, they left it on the side of the road and never saw it again... Caught a train for the rest of the journey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackso11 Posted October 6, 2011 Author Share Posted October 6, 2011 bit like my mates on the student gumball. They were in one of their dads mondeos, killed it, took it to a garage in a town outside off paris and got a train to paris and got a rental car to continue (it was on the way home so not actually on the rally still). They had no idea what town they left the mondeo in so never saw it again! although it was old and not worht recovering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swampy442 Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 You cant go wrong with a french diesel, the engines go for ever, just the rest of the stuff attatched to the engine lets them down! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 If it were me I would be going for a corsa or nova diesel 1.7, but only the one with the Isuzu non turbo engine in (that's most corsa vans btw). They have been widely marketed and subsequently written off or scrapped in the countries en route so spares readily available and so long as you have changed the cam belt they will go on and on. My Engine and box has been to Romania on several occasions, South of France twice and still going strong despite covering 210,000 miles, in two different cars. So long as you can get at tiny voltage to the diesel pump it will let you run so in the event of alternator or electrics failure you can still run as it's a mechanical fuel system. Also they will return between 45 - 55 mpg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackso11 Posted October 6, 2011 Author Share Posted October 6, 2011 thanks shane, that is something to think about. Didn't think about spares on the way. I should have, I was driving from Alice springs to Darwin in Australia once and camped up in a town called Elliot for one night....I say town, lonely planet said town, it was a garage, a house and a camping area all owned by the people that lived in the house. I had to knock on the house door in the morning to get them to open the garage to give me petrol to leave! Anyway, there was an english couple camped there in a VW Camper that had broken down, they were waiting for a part to arrive and had been there for 8 nights and it looked like they would be there for at least another week! Aussies told me only stupid travellers buy the old VW camper vans to drive around Australia, air cooled engine in 60 Degree heat = problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 thanks shane, that is something to think about. Didn't think about spares on the way. I should have, I was driving from Alice springs to Darwin in Australia once and camped up in a town called Elliot for one night....I say town, lonely planet said town, it was a garage, a house and a camping area all owned by the people that lived in the house. I had to knock on the house door in the morning to get them to open the garage to give me petrol to leave! Anyway, there was an english couple camped there in a VW Camper that had broken down, they were waiting for a part to arrive and had been there for 8 nights and it looked like they would be there for at least another week! Aussies told me only stupid travellers buy the old VW camper vans to drive around Australia, air cooled engine in 60 Degree heat = problems. Oh dear.... I have done quite a few road trips over the years, some for work and some for fun. Drove from Nairobi Kenya to Rumbek town in Southern Sudan once, now that was epic! Not a fantastic distance but serious conditions and terrain. Done loads and loads of trips from the UK to various Eastern Europe countries, mainly when they were in turmoil and can say that it is inevitable you will get mechanical failure at some point but the important thing is to be prepared to improvise to get you going. When we were going to Romania a couple of times a month in the early 90's we used commercials like Man or Merc as there were sold everywhere pretty much, and for smaller stuff we use to always go for Fiat Ducato vans as they were made as Citroen C25 and Peugot J5 in France, Talbot Express in the UK and Fiat elswhere meaning you could always normally find bits if you had to, but of course they have long gone by the wayside now! If you can get a corsa diesel I may be able to give you a few bit of advice on prep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobgoblin Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 What you need for just a few more quid, is a silver Vectra...... now where have I seen one! http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?255903-Cheap-Winter-Runaround-Vectra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooter Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 You cant go wrong with a french diesel, the engines go for ever, just the rest of the stuff attatched to the engine lets them down! i agree i got a 205 td for £250 a few years ago and that was a little pocket rocket! and out on a useful 15K miles for me before expiry.........the same engine is in citroen zx's etc........a safe option to travel through france in! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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