1g DSM AWD - Chump Car?

[Speedfreak]

We've been searching for a prospective chump car for a few weeks now, and our general thought was simple, light, reliable. Meaning CRX, Civic hatch, or old Mr2. The CRX/Civic I believe could be a 1600lb car plus or minus, not sure about the Mr2.

Just curious what the lightest AWD DSM with a cage has been out there? The other Chump car thread just got me thinking about doing a dsm instead of the cars we've been looking for. It's a lot harder then you'd imagine finding a dirt cheap Honda/Toyota.

I also have a stupid amount of parts for a dsm in bins, so that could help as well.

Thoughts? Negatives, positives? Good idea, horrible idea? Doable?

[Shane@DBPerformance]

People are running SN95 Mustangs, SC400, Contours, BMWs, Subarus, etc, so there are plenty of non-featherweight cars out there. If you did a 1G, making it handle worth a shit for no money might be some work, 2Gs are better setup for handling, but power potential is lower with the T25. You would also need to go very conservative on the tuning, it needs to hold together for 24 hours worth of full throttle, the stock intercoolers suck at even factory boost, running race gas would cost a small fortune, running E85 might mean too many pit stops, and DSMs are very knock prone on pump gas at much over factory boost levels. If you run too little timing to avoid knock, then you melt the turbo in road racing applications too.

[mlomker]

I'll translate that from Shane-speak into English: No.

[viridionplague]

another shane speak break down... "just because you can. dosent mean you should"

[mlomker]

I'd suppose the larger question is what type of car could be most competitive? That's what every team is trying to figure out. The fact that the ChumpCar races are so long is definitely a big part of that equation.

[Goat Blower]

I read it as a yes with some complications.

[mlomker]

I read it as a yes with some complications.

I wouldn't rule that out. The current state of my motor could be explained by not understanding Shane's advice. I still haven't decided whose fault that is.

[turbotalon1g]

I think Shane is saying it will be tough.
Glad we have some nay Sayers in here that can't put a Dsm together.

Send a message to jack from jacks transmissions, like I said he put one together for either a chumpcar race or lemons race and they were quite successful.

With your ability to weld and fab u should be able to go quite far and I think a cheap eBay fmic would help out a lot.

Good luck, if u need/want some help I'd love to give you a hand.

[awd-drifter]

we should have a Mitsustyle Chump car :D

[Speedfreak]

Intercooler was a major concern when the thought crossed my mind. I'm not familiar enough with rules, so wasn't sure if finding a cheap supra side mount(or any other oem intercooler people dump cheap) or something was an option?

Wondering if by losing 5-800lbs would help the stock suspension handle better?

I knew going into this question, there was a better chance the answer would/could be it will be tough to pull off reliably. Thus the reason I didn't really consider it in the first place.

Thanks for the responses so far, and like mlomker mentioned, if anyone has any other suggestions for a good platform to start with.. throw it out there.