Building an Impreza rally car
From Trunkmonkey Racing
By: Sean Sosik-Hamor
NOTE: THIS IS A WORK-IN-PROGRESS AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS NOT GUARANTEED TO BE ACCURATE OR UP-TO-DATE!
Introduction
Before embarking on the monstrous task of building your first rally car from the ground up you should question your motives and understand the immense depth of the project. Although building a rally car sounds like a fairly straightforward task using the rulebook as a checklist you can guarantee that the project will take twice as long as expected and cost twice as much as the initial budget estimate. When asked about building vs. buying your first rally car virtually all competitors will instantly respond buy and then follow up by inferring that building is a good idea for drivers who already have a shell (donor car), spare parts, garage, tools, fabrication facilities, and previous motorsports knowledge and experience.
The Trunkmonkey Pink Impreza rally car project started in June of 2002 when I totaled my first Impreza and opted to go in one of two directions; either purchase a used WRX as an Autocross, Rallycross, and Ice Racing daily driver or purchase an older Impreza and slowly build it up as a fully-prepared Production GT rally car. My scenario seemed like a perfect reason to build from scratch as opposed to buying an established logbooked rally car—I'd buy an older Impreza as a daily driver, slowly build it up as a rally car, and then purchase a tow vehicle as a daily driver once the rally car was complete.
Every competitor I asked said to buy your first rally car; especially the ones who struggled through the build process themselves. I brazenly ignored their advice and recklessly dove into the project by purchasing a used 1996 Subaru Impreza 2.2 L.
This is the story and timeline of my build and the pitfalls encountered.
