Our 1985 VW Golf

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This is our rally car!

The Beginning

It all started one day back in January of '99. Eddie, his girlfriend Diane and myself were on our way back from skiing at Hunter Mountain, eating at a steakhouse along the New York Thruway when the idea popped into my head: "Why don't we put a rollcage in Joe's old Subaru and rally it!"

Eddie was immediately enthusiastic, but we didn't know much about rallying besides seeing it once or twice late on ESPN2. We had both autocrossed, but neither of us had much experience driving on dirt roads, since he grew up on Staten Island and I'm from Long Island. Never the less, we took to the internet to find out more information. Two things became apparent at first: a) the general consensus was that you're better off starting out by buying someones used car, since when all is said and done (rollcage, skidplate, tires, seats, belts, computer, lights, etc...) it can be more expensive to build yourself. and b) a 4wd early eighties Subaru GL would be severely outclassed in open (not that we're expecting to be competitive anyway).

So the search began... The primary source for used rally cars, and rally related items in the U.S. is Ben's Rally Page. We checked there often to see if there were any new cars on the market. Over the months we investigated a few, had some slip away, almost closed a deal on one, but it wasn't until January of 2000 that we finally made our decision, about one year after we first thought up the idea.

There was no rush, as our primary goal from the onset was to attend the Ski Sawmill Rally Right Rally School in May 2000. We volunteered to work at the May 1999 event to see what it was like. It was fun working the start at stage 2 and getting to see all the cars, but we left thinking, "Next year, that will be us." With a little luck, our application will be accepted and we will be there this May.

Checking Out the Car

Getting back to the car, we had our eye on an '85 Golf on Ben's page for some time and we finally got around to seeing it in January. It had everything we needed to start rallying, rollcage, seats, up to date harnesses, computer, etc... The car was being stored at the home of an employee (Nelson) of Vermont SportsCar, located in Colchester, VT (near Burlington). He said he was going to dig the car out of the snow and bring it down to the shop to replace a broken bracket on the shifter mechanism, so we agreed to meet at the shop. We found a nearby motel and drove up to Colchester on a Thursday night. Through a major snow storm. As the snow piled up during the day, we debated whether we should make the trip or postpone it. I finally said, "Well, we're buying a rally car; they're going to think we're a couple of wusses if we say we can't make it because of a little snow.

We left Princeton, NJ at 6pm on Thursday Jan 20, 2000 in my '90 Mazda Miata with Dunlop D60A2's with about 40k miles of wear on them allready. Needless to say, the ride was slow, especially through New York City. We chose to take the long route, heading over to I-91 in Connecticut and then taking I-89 across Vermont. This was not as direct as going up I-87 and then cutting over, but it was all highway, so we figured the roads would be plowed. Ten hours and 400 miles later we reached our motel in Colchester. We passed numerous cars in ditches along the way, which made the ride very eerie. I noticed my lights were getting dim, so when we stopped for gas I went to clean them off and found them completely covered with ice and sand. Eddie sampled mochachinnos at gas stations along the way, while I yelled at him to get back in the car...

The next morning we checked out of the motel by 8:30am and ate our complimentary continental breakfast. There was a bit of a mix up because we checked in so late, or early, because the computer had allready started a new day. The woman working at the counter said, "I hope you don't have to drive anywhere, the roads are terrible!" I refrained from mentioning we were going back to New Jersey in a few hours. Anyway, we headed over to Vermont SportsCar where our car had not yet arrived, but in the meantime we got to meet Lance Smith and he gave us a tour of their shop. Very cool! We got to see their Lancer Evo which they were getting ready for SnoDrift, as well as the Galant VR-4 they're preparing for Ramana Lagemann, the guy who's VW we were considering buying. After chatting a bit, Lance looked outside at my Miata in the snow and said, "You drove up in that thing!"

Finally, our car arrived on a trailer behind Nelson's van. We went outside and sure enough, it looked like a full blooded rally car. I volunteered to drive it off the trailer so I hopped up in the drivers seat. We were warned that the car had a bit of a cold start problem, so Nelson got in the other side and showed me how to get it started. Flick on the switches for the fuel pump and ignition, press the push button started and give it gas while also manually operating the cold start injector. It took quite some time but finally it idled by itself. Not very smooth, but it idled. I backed it off the trailer without scraping the bottom too much, and we were in buisiness!

As I said before, there was a broken bracket in the shifter mechanism, so the shifter was misaligned. We were able to find 1st, 3rd and 4th, but without 2nd it was difficult to drive properly. We looked awfully silly driving around in a rally car, numbers on the side and everything, revving the engine up in first and then coasting in neutral as we try to find second while traffic behind us crawls along... Other than that, the car drove really well. We went back to the shop and told Nelson we were having trouble with second. He said, "I can find second." so he took Eddie out for a ride. I don't know what he did, but Eddie came back with a big grin on his face, saying, "Yep, second works!"

Picking Up the Car

As we drove back to NJ, we were pretty sure this was the car for us. It certainly has some quirks, but nothing we can't handle. The next step was to mail Ramana our checks, get the title and get the car registered so we could drive it down from Vermont legally. Driving a rally car on the street attracts lots of attention, so we wanted to make sure everything was in order. We got the title in the mail, however there was one little problem. You see Eddie had been emailing Ramana, but we figured since I'm 25 and Eddie's only 24 we should register the car in my name to save a few bucks on insurance (not to mention the fact that Eddie has this '87 Hyundai Excel that doesn't run rotting outside his apartment, but for some reason he still insists on keeping it and paying insurance on it, and didn't want a third car on his policy...). However, Ramana wrote down Eddie's name on the title...

This didn't seem like too big of a problem, as long as the DMV isn't too uncooperative, which is asking a lot apparently... We went down there first thing in the morning and explained our situation (leaving out the fact that it's a rally car, of course...). After being told that Eddie would have to register the car and then sell it to me (which would have been a huge headache, not to mention that we'd have to pay sales tax twice...) we finally found someone that said we could go get a notarized statement from Eddie that he had no intention of buying the car. Where's the nearest notary? They sent us down Rt. 1 to a bank and we rushed off.

Okay, we followed the directions they gave us down to the Lawrence traffic circle and found the bank. Hmm..., no cars in the parking lot... No lights on... What does that sign say? "Branch closed." From the looks of the bank it had been closed a while. So we followed the directions to the closest branch location. We pull into the parking lot (with a few other cars in it, good sign!) and walk up to the door. It's locked! Huh? Oh, the door says they open at 9am and it's 8:55. So, we stand outside for five minutes in the cold trying to stay warm. Finally a woman opens the door. We explain that we need something notarized.

"Do either of you have an account at this bank?"

"No."

"Sorry, that's a service that we only offer for our customers."

"Well, what if I were to open an account, get this notarized, and then close the account?"

"Well, that would be stupid."

We left, but at least they were able to recommend a place down the street. We drove down there and walked in to be greated by a secretary who was surprised to have anyone show up. We explained that we were looking for a notary and she told us that the notary that works at that office was on vacation. For a month. She was nice enough to refer us to a Mail Boxes, Etc. but was not very good at giving us directions:

"Are you from around here?"

"Not really, we're from up in Princeton"

"Okay, do you know where the Hamilton High School is?"

"No"

"Well, you're gonna find it..."

She then rattled off this long series of turns, but we didn't pay attention. By this point I knew where there was a Mail Boxes, Etc in Princeton so we just went there. Of course we stopped at another bank along the way, and received the same sort of treatment as the first bank (without the waiting outside in the cold, of course).

The people at Mail Boxes, Etc in Princeton were helpful; they even listened to our whole story without laughing too much. We got our stamp and we were on our way back to the DMV. It was empty when we were there when they opened, but by the time we got back it was getting crowded. Nothing to do but wait. We handed in our stuff and st down. An hour later we had our license plates. It felt very satisfying.

Two weeks after our first trip to Vermont, we made the same trip, this time to pick up the car. We took Eddie's '95 Miata. Vermont SportsCar was nice enough to change the oil for us before we picked it up. I have to say they're a bunch of great guys and were very helpful. The shifter was fixed, so the car drove a lot better. One quirk we noticed while testing the lights: the right turn signal would turn on the hazards and the left turn signal, well, the lever just wouldn't go down... Well, that'll have to do for now. We saw the gas tank was half full, so we took it to a gas station before starting our trip. It only took one gallon to fill it up; guess the gas gauge isn't very accurate either...

Driving the car back to New Jersey, it immediately became apparent how "lumpy" (as it was described to us) the cam is (it has the 8v engine). It sputters along at idle, doesn't have much power below 4k rpm, but above 4k it really takes off. It took some getting used to, and it seemed like the best way to get moving was to spin the tires a little. One thing we were sure of is we're not going to pass NJ emissions with that cam. You could smell the car at idle.

We made it back without incident, although we stayed under the speed limit the entire trip to avoid any unnecessary attention (we both drive below the speed limit all the time anyway...). Going through the toll plazas was fun. The car was very loud! We had considered taking a radio along to listen to on the trip, but I wouldn't have been able to hear it anyway. I found 3k rpm to be the optimal cruising speed; below that there's no power and above that it's too noisy.

So, here it is! Stay tuned for more details about debugging the car, including the solution to the turn signal mystery and the camshaft fiasco!

Rally Car Specs

Full roll cage tied into front and rear suspension

Seam welded chassis

1.8l 8v VW engine with solid lifters (JH)

Tri-Y header

9A transmission

Sachs Gp. A coilovers

Aeroquip fuel lines

Sparco driver's seat and Corbeau co-driver's seat

TRW Sabelt 5 point harnesses

Alfa Pro Rally Computer