My Micra Challenge Rally Car Build

Not every day the company you work for has their own rally car but mine does!

This micra has been under cover since about 2000 when my boss used to race in the Micra Challenge cup... he stopped because he nearly died in a really really nasty accident.

They started work on a new shell, completely stitch welding and strengthening and then for some reason they stopped when most the hard work was done. Spec of the car is unknown but it has aftermarket management and straight cut box and used to do pretty damn well back in the day!

Anyway... thankfully i stepped in to save the abandoned micra and asked if i would be able to rebulid it and maybe race it... the answer from the boss was yes!

So cue a lovely sunday morning and this!

Completely blocked in with a million smashed up panels behind the bodyshop at work!

Yes thats the car under the grey cover!



After about 3 hours of moving everything!



Towed it into the workshop and cleared all the crap out of it













Took it round the valet back and cleaned it all and poslished it so had summit nice to work with!







Engine starting to go in!









Look at the mess.... decided to call it a day as bloody knackered!




Anyway more pics next time i get 5 mins to do more!

that looks like an awesome project. With a nice lot of work already done (Y)

Thanks mate

I need to speak to the bloke at Humphries about loads of stuff... i hear he is on here.

Matt Humphris. Top bloke mate. Been to see him.

Ivan

Looks like an awesome project!
I'll be watching this, don't go giving up on it

hi rob

wow. a rally prepped shell.... in white too...




i love you... lol..... is there anyway i can have your car on a very very long trial basis?..lol

god i have allways wanted to be able to build a car from bare shell, especialy a rally prepped one in white...

Looks like a great project.................. what make is the cage and is it just one for the back.

No matey is a full cage with roof and dash bar and cross diagonal door bars..... so pretty awesome cage!

Antony said:

wow. a rally prepped shell.... in white too...


i love you... lol..... is there anyway i can have your car on a very very long trial basis?..lol

god i have allways wanted to be able to build a car from bare shell, especialy a rally prepped one in white...

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haha you'll prob hate me now.... ive "aquired" 2 more micras today to speed the rally car across with parts and i should have 2 more by Friday!

:grinning:

UPDATE

here are the 2 micras i managed to get today as back up rally cars/spares

Should have more by the weekend

ooh, are you going to have it facelift or prefacelift?

Well im planning to have 4 back up cars... 2 pre and 2 post facelift ones... that way i can paint them all white and have spare front ends if i should stack it! lol

Good idea (Y)

Awesome! Some really good projects appearing now!

oooh that looks awesome i am so jealous

Did loads more today.

Put the rally car on the ramp to bolt engine mounts in properly and do a nut and bolt check of all the bits ive done so far.

Bought the M Reg K11 in the workshop and parked it next to the rally car.

Stripped most the front end off it to find that at some stage in its life its been in a little knock as lots of clips and brackets broken, including headlamps and grill

So have to now strip the later one to use all the front end parts off that.

Other bits got sorted tho.

Put the tailgate and rear lights on, did some wiring in the engine bay and started to put things like coolant hoses and looms back in. Put loads of lube around the cam lobes and loads of penetrating oil down the bores just to keep things nice and then put the rocker cover back on which reminded me out of all the K11's i have a dont have a single complete working distributor

Anyway, wanted to get all the glass swapped over but the windows really didnt wanna be put into a rally car and found one of my almost new Michelin dirt tires has a puncture so gave up and decided to call it a day and go and enjoy the sun.

No pics as camera phone is ######ed!



Quite alot of progress for only a few hours work..

looking good, when are you planning to do your first event?
Does it have standard running gear??

No matey... has straight cut box

hehe

hoping to have the car done in next few months and then im going to do couple of small rallies to iron out the niggles!!

That's what I have got planned to when mine is finished, I have just done a blog for my rally car build, take a look.
Let me know what events you are planning to do as it would be good to meet up with you. We could see if we plan to do the same events and trade stage times :grinning:

Yeah matey that would be great

Im having trouble at moment trying to work out what exactly is needed for entering a rally and the exact spec that the car should be

what sortof event are you looking at entering Rob? Offer still stands to drop me an email / PM and will help where I can.

Rally_Rob said:

Yeah matey that would be great

Im having trouble at moment trying to work out what exactly is needed for entering a rally and the exact spec that the car should be

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Car spec isnt that important to begin with, just getting out and getting used to the car is the first thing, then you can change set ups, try different tyres and suspension settings. When do you think you will have it ready as I am looking to do some testing at a venue that I can get for cheap so you are more than welcome to come along and set your car up too.

As for what you need for entering a rally;
1) Are you a member of a MSA car club? Yes = good, No = join your nearest one do a search on msauk.org site for your nearest.
2) Do you have an MSA licence Nat B or A? Yes = good, No you will need one and they are not cheap to get as you now need to take a test called BARS course. All details are available here;
http://www.msauk.org/site/cms/contentViewArticle.asp?article=2587
3) Enter a rally, you will need a navi/ co-driver and of course pay the entry fee, single venue like old airfields events Woodbridge being one of them in suffolk, or Sculthorpe in Norfolk are around the £190 to enter.
4) Turn up and rally (Iv'e simplified that bit, as its all expalined in the final regs that you get sent about signing on, noise etc etc)

Sorry if you know this stuff just think it might be helpful for anyone else who might be interested.

but what sort of event is he thinking of entering? Presume stage but...... some of the answers above could change depending.

Suze said:

but what sort of event is he thinking of entering? Presume stage but...... some of the answers above could change depending.

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Yes, very true! The above is for stage rallying and as Suze points out would change if it wasn't stage rallying. But then some would argue that its not rallying then if its not stages..... I'm happy to help either way as is Suze.

I thought you were building your car [Pete] up for Enduros? Will speak to you at the gymkhana about stuff anyway as starting, slowly, to build up mine.

I know some could argue if it's not stages it's not rallying but they're wrong... It all is!

Suze said:

I thought you were building your car [Pete] up for Enduros? Will speak to you at the gymkhana about stuff anyway as starting, slowly, to build up mine.

I know some could argue if it's not stages it's not rallying but they're wrong... It all is!

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I'm building two cars up :blush: ! The one that I have on here will be my stage rally car (the blue one ) and then I am also putting together an Enduro one, got alot of the bits already, half cage, suspension, sump and tank gaurds, pair of Cobra seats and harnesses. As I will be doing club events I thought its best to keep to micras and then if I need any bits I have them.
When I had the 205 I had about 5 of them, then ended up selling three of them as rally cars and scrapping 2.

well I presume you have Matt's contact details so give him a shout if you ever have any parts going as may be interested, didn't realise you were building up two cars!!

yeah plan is for stage rallies. I was thinking of competing in rally cross as i live about 5 miles from Lyyden but because the car is so modified it would end up in super modified class which would be against cossie lumped cars!

Hoping to get it finished within a few months.

Havent joined a club yet, Unsure what license to apply for at moment.

Thanks for both your helps by the way guys... appreciate it!

as Pete said go to the MSA website to find a list of local clubs, I'm a Sevenoaks and Chelmsford member and 7oaks isn't too far for you but I'm sure there's clubs closer. Rallycross is fun to watch but not sure I'd do it in my car if it was suitable!

It's probably easiest to decide what you want to do and go from there on the license front, as Pete said doing the BARS is expensive - I don't have that but have the ARDS which is for circuit racing and that cost me £50 "starter [registration] pack for the forms, £250 test, £50 medical and £50 license so not cheap.

Any updates on the car mate?

any updates on this fella

this is brilliant (Y)