"RallyBrick" -- Rally 242R

(Photo by Me; Backyard following Rim of the World Rally 2007)

Some tongue-in-cheek BS to start things off with...

(I will be updating as we go along).

Consider this an evangelizing thread about rally and RWD's proper place in it (sideways, full opposite lock, that is).

I was a little apprehensive about posting the history of such a car in the “Showroom” thread as this car isn't beautiful – it was never meant to be. It's not the fastest thing on the road, but it's tough and reliable. It won't turn a ? mile in 12's, but it'll do 100 mph in a drift on a fire road with a sheer wall on one side and a 1000 ft dropoff on the other without flinching (the driver, maybe not so much). It's not the most expensive build, either, but it's more important to last a season of hell than a single event of bliss – and the logistics of running races costs money outside of car prep. It's not nicely painted because you're just going to sandblast it with gravel anyway. There's no money in rally, so the less you spend on pretty parts, the more you can spend on go fast bits, unbreakable **** made out of unobtanium, and beer for your volunteer crew. What it is – is a mean bitch with hell-on-wheels determination to do one thing – haul ass on gravel. This ain't a garage queen here – this is the SOB that came in and roughed up your garage queen, made some snide comments to that AWD poofter in the corner, slapped your FWD econobox in the forehead on the way out, and then took off to go have fun with its buddies, tear-assing out in the forest.

It's kept together by souls who will go to the ends of the earth (literally) to spend hours shivering in the dark and the rain or the heat and the dust waiting for the opportunity to wildly thrash on the car for a few mins when you come in for a service break, even going so far as to use a BFH or a truck and a chain to get something more-or-less “realigned” so that it will drive and you can finish a race. Precision? Not always. Blood and Guts (ala Patton)? Yes. This invective applies to body panels as much as axles. It's broken more stuff in a season than most daily drivers will their entire lives.

It's been nosed in, spun out, high-centered, pushed, pulled, towed, yanked, jumped, broken, bounced off of rocks, caught fire, overheated; had its metal torn, suspension ripped off, glass shattered; and eaten alternators like they were jerky. Remarkably, it's probably been less abused than John Lane's 260 rally car.

Unthinkable things have been done to this car in the name of Victory at all costs (or at least “finish” at all costs). Innovative and shameful things. And it has the scars to prove it. It has worn many shades of duct tape like bandages, zip ties like sutures, and ratchet straps like transplanted ligaments after bare knuckle brawls against nature it has both won and lost. And yet it survives another day to taunt those made of a lesser fabric. Each time it drifts past a group of spectators waiting in the forest, they are titillated by the spectacle of the “way of the side”. As it lurches past them in a cacophony of growls, snorts, gravel spray, and dust – it makes mothers shiver, old men cry with joy, fair maidens blush, and young men shout with wild bloodlust.

It is the RallyBrick.

You've been forewarned.

<hr>


(Photo by Ben Simpson; North Nevada Rally 2008)

“RallyBrick” is a purpose-built gravel rally race car that is currently intermittently campaigned in the southwest through the California Rally Series. RallyBrick has also been known as the Valencia R Sport 240 (the original). Calling it a brick is an understatement given its staunch build and considering that the car has endured 87 documented rallies over approximately 15 rally seasons (and counting). Most other rally cars generally have a lifespan of 30-40 rallies before they literally fall apart.

RallyBrick's current configuration includes the following:

Technical Specs:

Chassis:
Originally a blue (non-metallic) 1980 242 DL
Full roll cage (currently NASA Rallysport spec/logbook)
Chassis seam welded and lightened
Integrated receptacles for custom pin-stands (in the rocker panels of all 4 corners) for quick up/down in service
Side and rear windows replaced with Lexan panels
Custom roof vents (the damn things are worthless in the rain)
Aluminum hood vents and intake port
Spare tire wells (“butt cheeks”) removed for clearance
Custom 6061 aluminum skidplate (it's HUGE – about 4' long and responsible for much of the nose-heavy attitude in jumps)
Lots o' HDPE underbody production and LDPE mudflaps
Custom, overbuilt rear tow hook from hell

Engine:
Ported 531 head
Grp A cam (from SAM)
Double valve springs
93 B230FT bottom end (nothin' special – to be replaced eventually with a B21FT block bored to 2400 w/SAM Group A baffled oil pan)
90+ ported/matched exhaust manifold with EGT sensor port
Homologated Group A AiResearch turbo (50mm inlet) (had ETCC track time before it was returned to SAM)
SAM Group A oil feed line
Avalanche Performance Tuning underdrive crank pulley
91+ PS pump directly driven from crank pulley
100 amp alternator
Hallman Boost Controller (manual)
Boring old OEM turbo external oil cooler
Bell custom aluminum intercooler
Ron Davis Racing custom aluminum radiator
Spal electric puller fan; Auxiliary electric pusher fan
SAM heavy duty competition rally engine mounts
Custom chipped LH 2.4 EFI from B204FT (minus the TCG) with custom factory-built harness
960 3” AMM
Blow off valve recirculating to turbo inlet
Custom 3” mild steel exhaust (with high-flow racing cat) – mild steel because it will be pelted with rocks and bits of it torn off anyway – why go stainless?

Driveline:
Flat Bosch 60-2 flywheel
ClutchNet custom 6-puck clutch & red pressure plate
Vintage Performance modified bellhousing and T-5 adapter kit
Ford Racing T-5Z WC transmission w/short-throw shifter
Hurst Shifter with cueball (awesomez)
Custom trans mount (directly to floorpan – for function, not comfort)
Wenco custom driveshaft with custom supports
Dana 1031 rear end with Eaton Detroit TrueTrac LSD
4.10 rear end gearset

Brakes:
Dual Girling brake master cylinders
Tilton brake bias balance bar system (modified OEM brake pedal)
Custom hydraulic handbrake
Standard ABS-model 240 Girling front calipers
Standard 240 ATE rear calipers
Zimmerman cross-drilled front rotors (dumb idea due to rocks having a tendency of getting stuck in there)
Pagid racing pads
Goodridge steel braided lines

Cabin/Electrics:
R-Sport gauges
Terratrip 303 rally computer
Peltor FMT-110 rally intercom (separate FMT-100 backup)
Custom dash w/700 series center-mounted fusebox (yes, we've held aluminized gum wrappers in there to finish rallies before)
122 blower motor/fan box
2 x 10 ABC Amerex fire extinguishers
SFI/BSCI approved roll cage padding
Optima Red Top battery (relocated to center of cabin)
ATL 12-gallon fuel cell (relocated over the rear axle)
Holley red body pre-pump
140 washer bottle
Custom trunk spares accessory box (space for med kit, spare bottles of brake fluid and motor oil, triangles)
Freaking air horn!
Icom dual-band HAM radio (occasionally)

Safety/Comfort:
Momo Corsa steering wheel
Cobra racing seats
Schroth 6-point 3” racing harneses
Sparco co-driver's footrest
Customized $14 Pep Boys cargo net for helmet storage during transits (Sparco helmet box pwnd!)

Suspension:
Boxed A-arms and trailing arms
Poly bushings and some remaining SAM nylon bushings

Front: JVAB 40mm front coilovers w/custom valved Bilsteins
Custom aluminum upper strut mounts w/GT reinforcing plates
Custom strut tower brace
Custom uniball tie-rod ends

Rear: SAM progressive rally springs
Sellholm Tuning custom rally-valved Bilstein shocks

Small swaybars or none at all (we're on gravel)

Exterior/Tires:
Custom removable rally light pod
Hella Rallye 2000 driving lights
Hella Rallye 4000 cornering lights

Silverstone or Michelin rally tires (usually 16/65-15's)
740 Diesel rims with spacers and customized lugs

Tons of character
Jetzt, mit Streifen - nicht Crayola erbrechen!

Fluids:
Cooling: Distilled water with Water Wetter (USFS regulations)
Oil: Mobil 1 synthetic 15/50
Gearbox: Mobil 1 ATF
Diff: Motul or Redline
Driver: 15 year single-malt Highland or Speyside (Glencadam preferred) or IPA
Co-Driver: Anything in a silver can

To be added:
Federal Signal Corp/Whelen 100w PA system (for the “Romeo Foxtrot, shall we dance?”)
Adjustable torque arms with Heim joints
B21 bottom end (bored to 2400) with SAM Group A baffled oil pan

History of the Car

Part I: The CRS Stock Class Days

The car began its life as a light blue 1980 242 DL owned by a nice little old lady from Pasadena (or something along those lines). It had been a customer's car at the shop Bill Malik worked in and at sometime in 1988 or 1989, the car was brought to the shop in non-running condition. Once presented with the repair estimate, the customer felt that it was a write-off. Bill was able to buy the car from her and he then proceeded to build it into a CRS (California Rally Series) Stock Class rally car. CRS Stock Class at the time was limited to two wheel drive cars with few modifications – the interior was still required to be intact at the time (despite the full roll cage). The driveline was the stock B21F with an M45 (4 speed synchro) manual transmission and K-Jet. The livery was a white base with yellow stripes on the sides and blue accents, with quad round headlights and a flathood grille in black. Roine Anderson, who was a fellow technician in the same facility, fulfilled the navvie role. Roine and Bill would rally together until 1995; he would come back later to co-drive a few races for Thomas Liljequist, who was a friend, sponsor, and customer to Malik's Valencia Volvo (a shop Bill later opened on his own). You;ll see the black Group 5 242 elsewhere in this thread.


All shiny and clean and the new, shiny and clean shop!

The car received an SCCA logbook (SCCA continued to sanction rally until about 2003) and would run so many events, it would fill up two logbooks and was half-way through the third when NASA took over sanctioning and a fourth logbook was issued. The first documented race was East of Indio VIII on April 14, 1989. (Rally Racing News only goes back to 1995 for this race, so results are unclear). Bill didn't remember how it turned out, although during one of the Indio runs (once upon a time), they accidentally followed another racer off course into a wash. Several other cars made the same mistake and everybody got confused and started driving back and forth in the dust in the wash looking for a way out and back onto the road – it sounded like a Herbie the Love Bug movie.


Looks like Gorman (probably on the North Boundary Stage, which is under the powerlines – we still use this stage).

At the time, SCCA was the main sanctioning body in the US and they had the PRORally (national) series and ClubRally (divisional) series. In the Southwest, the California Rally Series was an overlay championship series that was quite popular (and actually pre-dated SCCA's involvement in Rally). You'll hear a lot about CRS throughout this story.

Rally, like every other form of racing, has different classes to promote competition. While the names changed over the years and with each sanctioning body or overlay series, the basic divisions of production, 2 wheel drive open (usually separated into two displacement classes), and open class (just call it AWD turbo) still remain. For a while, cars were assigned numbers based on their position in the championship the year before -- #1 was obviously the previous year's overall chamipion. Since SCCA's exit and a split in sanctioning between NASA and Rally America, this is not necessarily true anymore (depends on series, individual race, and region). You'll notice in the early days of the car that the numbers started high (low seed/speed factor) and got lower (continued improvement in the championship). The car finished under Malik with #28.

The car started out in CRS Stock Class (a production class). Stock at the time disallowed many modifications and required you to keep the interior intact. (It's crazy to see back seats in rally cars trimmed to allow the backstays of the rollcage pass through. This practice was changed in the “new century”.


Photo most likely from a turnaround at Gorman Ridge Rally, early 90's.

Rally in the US in the 70's and at the regional level was a wild and hairy adventure. Safety requirements were things like having enough flares, maybe having a bolt-in hoop (there were people rallying open top Jeeps), a helmet, and the standard seat belts. By the late 70's and early 80's, the cars were getting roll cages and you weren't allowed to rally in shorts anymore. (Some cars, like Volvos and SAABs were actually deemed to have strong enough bodies – especially A and B pillars – that they were exempted from some roll cage requirements!) By the late 80's and early 90's, full cages were the norm, folks were required to have racing harnesses, fire resistant racing suits, and more safety gear. Of course now, we have HANS and APRS and bunches of other safety crap that one old codger on the main US rally board always shakes his cane and says “We may as well be racing in Nerf cocoons filled with AFFF!” (Aqueous Fire Fighting Foam for those folks who don't know what that term means). Sometimes I think he's right.

The car was built with an FIA-homologated Safety Devices bolt-in cage. The cage still remains but has been welded and has undergone significant upgrades and updates over the years (it's grandfathered but functional).


Photo most likely from Rim of the World or Treeline Rally – looks like Angeles Nat'l Forest, early 90's.

Notice the Draco rims. Bill has one hanging on the wall of the shop that crumpled and failed him while he was in the overall lead of the East of Indio Rally (that's rally). Eventually the car got real Compomotive rally rims, but this was rallying on the cheap.


#47 — must be another season and the car’s making the climb up the ranks. Probably Indio.


Probably the same vintage – likely Rim of the World. The rally lights are still permanently attached and the grill is still black. Sideways in the mud — that’s what 2WD is all about! Probably Rim of the World.

Back in these days, rallies were run with a routebook, not pacenotes (or stagenotes). The quality of routebook instructions varied dramatically across the country. Back East, John Buffum (he's a whole other rally history lesson on his own) organized one rally and was notorious for having very few instructions. You could have a 10 mile stage and only have 7 or 8 notes – usually just noting cautions and junctions so you stayed on course. You had to read the road yourself and decide if you wanted to go 10 mph or 100 mph over the jump. There was no recce and you didn't have notes on every turn – today you might see the following on one line in a stage note book: 100 L4>L3 into !! R1/Cr o.c. Exp. outside (Translation: 100 yards left 4 (longer turn) tightens into 3 into double caution right 1 (very tight) over crest, off camber, exposure outside).


Now it’s #12 and the lights are gone. Judging by the jump, let’s hope they’re not laying on the stage a few miles back after a hard landing! Probably Rim (and a notoriously rough “water bar”).

Southwest rallies are a bit more technical (read that as twisty), rough, and desert-like (duh, it's the dry southwest) than rallies found elsewhere in the US. If you went off, you usually hit rocks or shrubs instead of big trees. Rim of the World is a famous rally that ran in the Angeles National Forest until 2007, when USFS politics finally sounded the death knell. Rim had been compared to the Cypress Rally in WRC and featured narrow roads with some spectacular drop offs. It also featured the dreaded “Water Bar”, which was essentially a diagonal cut across the road to aid in drainage. Sometimes they were like mild speed bumps, other times they were like ditches with 2' mounds on the lower side. Their severity often depended on the season before the rally and the last time it had been graded. East coasters who'd never been to Rim were often caught off guard. Water bars broke a lot of suspensions, ate some intercoolers, and led to some bad hops that didn't always turn out great.

Up next in History: Circa 1994, the move to Group 2 (open 2WD), and the beginning of championships.

<HR>

Part II: Group 2 (Open 2WD)

Sweet 90's inspired graphics).

Sometime around 1993 or 94, Bill opened up his own shop. About the same time, he decided to tackle Group 2, which was a 2WD open class. At the time, the SCCA classes specified Group 2 and Group 5. Group 2 had a displacement limit (around 2400 cc) -- anything above that up to 5 liters (modifiers were also used – ie. a turbo is a 1.6 modifier, so 2.3 l = 3.6 l) was moved up into Group 5. Over the years in CRS, the regional class structure changed from a single Open 2WD to CRS-2 to combined CRS-2/5 – it was similar to the SCCA classes but reflected the actual subscriptions to the classes. If CRS-5 had 1 person racing in a season, why keep it as a class? Combine it with CRS-2.


(Chassis lightening: Before and After)

The great thing about these open 2WD classes is that there was much more freedom to modify the cars. However, since rally is predicated on racing a car based on an actual street car, you can't go too crazy. (A tube chassis with fiberglass skins from a Camry wouldn't be allowed). So the car was lightened and was continually developed.


(Note the hydraulic handbrake and the primitive roll cage)

Over the next few years, the car was fitted with the following drive trains:

B21 Bottom w/Carburated SAM G2 Head; SF-Pyora M45 Dogbox
B23 w/MoTec; M45 SF-Pyora Dogbox
B230 Kent Karlsson “Evo” Motor; M45 Dogbox (1 season)
B230 Kent Karlsson “Evo” Motor; M51 Getrag Dogbox (partial season)

Bill was known as being very hard on gearboxes (especially 2nd gear). His father (also a rallyist) apparently once asked him, "Why do you shift like that -- are you afraid it is going to run away from you?" In one race the shifter broke at the ball and they had to improvise. They finished the stage and got to service by using the tire iron -- Christian held the bottom of the tire iron on the stub left from the shift lever and they got just enough leverage to shift gears.


During the 1996-97 season, he took on a new co-driver, Farina O'Sullivan. (She is the sister of Lauchlin O'Sullivan, who was a long time CRS competitor and became a Mitsubishi factory driver in the last days of the factory rally effort in the US a few years ago; Lauchlin shows up at other rallies now and again but mostly does stunt work these days).



In 1998, Christian Edstrom became bill's co-driver as they mounted a national campaign. Edstrom (as noted earlier), was Travis Pastrana's co-driver in the Rally America national series until recently, when Travis announced he would be concentrating on NASCAR.


(Why you need quad-rounds – redundancy).

In 1999, Bill hooked up with Eric Tremblay, a Canadian and they rallied together until 2001, with Rim of the World Rally in June of that year being the final race in the white car. Unfortunately, the car DNF'd (Did Not Finish) this last race due to transmission trouble.



One funny note – since Tremblay was French Canadian, Bill sometimes had difficulty understanding him in the heat of the race. Once on stage, Tremblay called a “Caution – kittle gaayerrrd” and Bill couldn't figure out what that instruction was until they went through a cattle guard at a high rate of speed!

I'm still working on getting the info on the exact events/years each co-driver ran in the car, so this is sort of preliminary.


(Splash graphics, E-Codes).

The paint scheme went through two major changes during the G2 years. The first paint scheme was somewhat similar to the original Stock scheme – white body with some angular multi-colored stripes. The second paint scheme is probably the best recognized and has been described as “crayon vomit” down the sides. We kept the paint scheme on the car until 2010, when it underwent an entire color transformation. Some people say it's bad luck to change the color of a rally car (like changing the name of a boat), but we got tired of hearing the jokes and also being asked if it was Malik's old car.


(Ah, a trip through the woods).

During their time in G2, the various configurations of the team and car managed the below results, combing the US from Southern California to Maine, Washington state to Pennsylvania. it might also be said that this was one of the strong periods of rally in the US – in 2001 and 2002, national events were starting 80 or 100 cars with wait lists – today we're lucky to get 40-50 and less in regionals. And for a few years, the car was campaigned in 10 rallies throughout the year, many of them multi-day affairs.

1995 Champion: SCCA ProRally SoPac Division Group 2
1995 Champion: California Rally Series 2WD Open Class
1996 Champion: SCCA ProRally SoPac Division Group 2
1996 Champion: California Rally Series 2WD Open Class
1997 3rd Place: SCCA ProRally National Division Group 2
1997 Champion: SCCA ProRally SoPac Division Group 2
1997 Champion: California Rally Series 2WD Open Class
1998 2nd Place: SCCA ProRally National Group 2
1999 2nd Place: SCCA ProRally National Group 2



Some individual event highlights:

1995 Treeline Club Rally 1st Overall (Including Open)
1996 Wild West Rally 1st Group 2; 3rd Overall (Little Creek Casino Regional)
1996 Rim of the World ProRally 8th Overall
1996 Gorman Ridge Rally 1st Group 2; 2nd Overall
1996 Treeline Club Rally 1st Group 2; 2nd Overall
1996 Prescott Forest Rally 1st Group 2; 2nd Overall
1996 Ensenada Rally 1st Overall (Including Open)
1997 Wild West ProRally 1st Group 2; 8th Overall
1997 Rim of the World ProRally 2nd Group 2; 5th Overall (6 seconds behind Dave Whited, G2 Winner)
1997 Gorman Ridge Rally 2nd Group 2; 4th Overall
1997 Prescott Forest Rally 1st Group 2; 4th Overall
1997 Treeline Club Rally 1st Group 2; 3rd Overall
1998 Ramada Express International Rally 1st Group 2; 13th Overall (3rd overall on Day 1 – behind 2 Audi Quattros)
1999 Lake Superior ProRally 2nd Group 2; 13th Overall
1999 Maine Forest Rally 1st 2WD; 5th Overall
2000 Prescott Forest ProRally 1st Group 2; 8th Overall

The car was retired during the summer of 2001 and some of the parts were moved to the new blue and silver car, although much of the new car was a ground-up build. The new car had been in the build up stages since the end of 2000 and was premiered in Fall of 2001.


(Sideways at Rim of the World 2001, the last race of this era and the first rally I ever attended).

I bought the white shell shortly after and started to rebuild the car. Unfortunately, I went through a major career change and so didn't finish it and have it ready to race until 2006. At that point, it was reconfigured with a B230FT and an M45 running LH and we were classed in Group 5/CRS-5 due to the turbo. One of the great things about working with Bill was that he had an immense knowledgebase about the 240's in rally (especially about this particular car). The bad thing was that he had the mindset of a champion not afraid to spend money. So while he suggested getting replacement dogbox gears from SAM or from some company in Norway (I think) for the M45 and running that (bit $$), much to his chagrin, I installed a $75 junkyard M45 I'd gotten. Although the car had the pedigree of a champion, it was now owned by somebody who just wanted to go out and race – not beat the world. I guess it was very TurboBricks of me.

Next (in another post): A New Beginning and the Group 5 Years

Subsequent Evolutions -- Additional VRS Cars

Aside from the evolutions of the car and its driveline, it was also the base from which other 240 rally cars were developed. The best known are the original white car (now "RallyBrick") and the blue and silver car, but 4 rally cars total were developed by Valencia R Sport between 1990 and 2002.

#2: Yellow G2 – Tissot

(Photographer unknown; most likely Parc Expose; Rim of the World Rally)

Alex Tissot, who at the time was (I believe) the GM at Kramer/Santa Monica Volvo, had the guys build a yellow Group 2 242 and rallied it with his wife as the co-driver in the CRS for two seasons. The car had a race-prepared B23F motor mated to a close-ratio R-Sport M45 synchro transmission. It utilized a MoTec engine management system and had a fuel cell, lexan windows, and the works. It was reportedly rolled on the first test drive out in the desert and was rebuilt from there. Last I heard in 2009, the car was still in Santa Clarita and was occasionally being driven on the back roads for fun, but then there was another rumor that it was up for sale.


(Photographer Unknown; Most likely from practice session)

Results for Tissot:
1998 Gorman Ridge Divisional PRO Rally: DNF (Unknown)
1998 Reno Divisional PRO Rally: 3rd 2WD
1998 Ramada Express Int'l Rally: DNS (Unknown)
1999 Rim of the World Rally: DNF (Unknown)

<HR>

#3: Black G5 – Liljequist


(Photographer: Jerry Winker; Most Likely Laughlin 2000)

Tomas Liljequist, a Swede who happened to be friends with the boys and a sponsor (“Coffee Fresh” if you see the older pics of the white car) commissioned a G5 242. The car purportedly had a 16-valve rallycross motor imported from Sweden possibly mounted to an SF Pyora M45 dogbox transmission. (I seem to recall the motor was a normally aspirated R-Sport, but am probably wrong; the valve modifiers would have put the displacement into Group 5 without a turbo). Liljequist had rallied before in Scandinavia and did quite well in CRS. The car was black on black. After racing CRS for a few years, it sat in storage, and then was shipped back to Sweden when the owner moved back. Unfortunately, given the VOC, GrH, and other local rules, the motor configuration was apparently not legal in rally in Sweden, so it hasn't seen much use since going back to its motherland.

(Photographer: Lorne Trezise; Rim of the World Rally 2000)

(Photographer Unknown; most likely Rim of the World Rally 2000)

Results for Liljequist:
1999 Prescott Forest ClubRally #1&2: 1st G5
1999 Ramada Express Int'l Rally: 1st G5
2000 Rim of the World PRORally: 1st G5

<HR>

#4: Valencia R-Sport G2 – the Blue “Evo”

Bill built another G2 240 for himself (the last Valencia build) and debuted it in 2002. (The white car's last run with Bill was at Rim of the World in May, 2001). The blue car was spectacular, with a Kent Karlsson B230F rallycross motor mated to an Xtrac 5 speed sequential dogbox transmission. EFI was MoTec; suspension was by Sellholm. There were some SAM bits here and there. The livery was blue and silver. It had the nicest of everything, with a lot of custom alloy metal work by a guy who does vintage aircraft and exotic car restorations. It is perhaps the most advanced 240 rally car I've ever seen in North America (or anywhere else). Christian Edstrom returned for about a season to co-drive in a national SCCA effort in 2002 (in the following few years, Edstrom would co-drive on the Mitsubishi factory team until the manufacturer wound down the team, and then the Subaru factory team for Travis Pastrana until 2011). Following Edstrom, Amity Trowbridge (who had navigated for another well-known brick pilot, Carl Jardevall, in his yellow G5 740 Turbo), also fulfilled navvie duties for a few seasons. As Malik became less and less active with the car, he had a host of intermittent co-drivers, including Edstrom's father and brother as well as Michael Taylor (currently the organizer of the Prescott Rally). In 2004 with H. Edstrom (father) as navvie, the team suffered a serious off at Colorado Cog. The car went over a blind crest into a 5 sweeper and rolled approximately 5 times in front of the spectator area. The team was the 3rd car in a row to go off in that location. The spectators shut down the stage. The car suffered major damage but was rebuilt.






During the 2006 X-Games in Los Angeles, which included the debut of the “Rally Car Racing”event, Bill secured a local practice area for several of the teams. During the day, he struck up several conversations with Colin McRae, who was testing his Subaru X-Games car. Given that they were both Brits and both had a love of RWD (Colin had a vintage Escort) the subject of Bill's 240 came up and somehow Colin got the offer to try the Volvo and he accepted. Bill scooted the 10 miles back to the shop and immediately retrieved the rally car, driving it back to the test area. After Colin's Subaru testing was done (late in the day), Bill and Colin jumped in the car and Colin did some testing for an hour or so. Colin's only complaint was that the brakes were a little soft (dual AP Racing masters with Tilton bias to AP Racing calipers). When they got the car back to the shop, they confirmed that Colin was dead-on as it was discovered that one of the master cylinders needed to be rebuilt. There are some photos of Colin driving the car, but they are tightly locked away. If you ever see the car in person, you will notice that Colin signed the outside of the roof with just his name. If you look inside, you'll notice that he left an inscription – “Bill, Keep it flat out. -Colin McRae”. (Paraphrasing since it's been several years since I've looked in the car). Bill refuses to paint the rear corner that Colin scratched against a bluff wall while drifting a corner on the narrow mountain roads that day. The car was last raced in 2009 at the Gorman Ridge Rally, where it took first in CRS-2 class. (Bill's '99 Subaru 2.5RS rally car was passed up in 2008 and 2009 to race the Volvo).

Racin' Pix Go Here



Have a little fun till I get around to it...

Do the puzzle:
<a href="http://www.jigzone.com/puzzles/C013DC5C7F1?z=0&m=A92509D721.797DE6F"><img src="http://www.jigzone.com/im/tCut2.gif" align="middle" alt="RallyBrick - Gorman Ridge Rally 2006 Jigsaw Puzzle" style="width:105px;height:79px;margin:4px;padding:0;border:1px solid #999;background:transparent url(http://www.jigzone.com/puz/zemThumb?t.up.J.S4.M0.2erpj:jpg)"/></a><a href="http://www.jigzone.com/puzzles/C013DC5C7F1?z=0&m=A92509D721.797DE6F">RallyBrick - Gorman Ridge Rally 2006 Jigsaw Puzzle</a>


Play some Atari 2600! (well, not really...)


Pet the Pesky Perros!

(Light bar and custom pin stands barely visible).

Soon: Mud Wrestling!

Refurb (Not Restoration!) Goes Here

Gots Filler Neck?



Fixin' Da Broke Stuff...

This car is so bad ass

mmmm Two Valve Evo head.

WindowsBreakerG4 said:

This car is so bad ass

Click to expand...

+ everything
hhhhhhhhnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggkkkkkk

About time

Wow nice!

This should have been in the showroom sooner

Badass!

Ok. This car has to come to WM. You must find a trailer.

Put in some more updates in the History section. Unfortunately, this is going to be not just a "check out this sweet BOV I put in" thread, but you'll probably learn something about North American rally (sorry -- I know learning sux0rs). And I'm going to run out of space in the original posts (I didn't realize there would be so much). The thread may get a little less cohesive but I'll also take the time to digest it and put it on my website.

Thanks for the feedback so far. The thing's been sitting in the garage untouched for months in a half-painted state. I'm starting to get a little enthusiasm back to get it back together and out there at least once or twice this year.

You are literally my hero.

rallybrick said:

you'll probably learn something about North American rally

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yes please.

swedishK said:

yes please.

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double please

svenski said:

double please

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Ok, some rally stuff to entertain/inform you if you feel adventurous:

Check out some of the awesome Historic Rally Threads (a mix of historic info and people doing rebuilds/documentation of cars with history) on Special Stage. Especially look for posts started by "autohabit" -- that guy rocks. He just finished one with Colin McRae. (No reg needed to lurk). You'll find the rest of SS.com a bit like Turbo Bricks (arguing, benchracing, lots of unfounded rumors, bad advice, etc). JVL was banninated from there, so it's a bit quieter these days.
http://www.specialstage.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=12

Here is the California Rally Series site:
http://www.californiarallyseries.com/Home/index.aspx

Rally Racing News -- more of a digest site, but great for pulling up history and results. Covers all the major series in US and Canada and has lots of links to rallies in North America.
http://www.rallyracingnews.com/

Gorman Ridge Rally -- the first rally I ever raced (and now I'm a co-organizer):
http://www.gormanridgerally.com/

I'll write some more history of the car tonight after work if the wife lets me. Cheers.

Awesome car!

How do the rally valved Bilsteins compare to standard HDs? Are they valved softer?

casioqv said:

How do the rally valved Bilsteins compare to standard HDs? Are they valved softer?

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The backs are so soft that when we got the first batch, we thought they were worn out and Sellholm had sent us the wrong set. You could push the back end of the car down about 3" with just your pinky. But on the rough stuff, they are awesome and really soak up a lot with the right springs. However the car looks very squatty in the dirt and even comes across as sloppy/loosey goosey on tarmac sections.