Check out Sport Compact Car magazine's "Project Rally Beater" series. It's about a Datsun 510, but close enough. They go over all the safety requirements, sanity requirements, and nice-to-haves.

http://www.sportcompactcarweb....eater

 

Re: Turning a 240 into a rally car... (erik_s70)

It might depend on what class you want to run in, but in general I would strip the car of all unnecessary interior stuff, including the tar paper sound dampener. Seam weld & add a roll cage through the firewall to the strut towers. Add a LSD of some kind, perhaps a locker since it's cheap an effective. Buy extra wheels and get real rally tires, Michelin or Kumho make some that I know of, and probably Pirelli too.

You may want coilovers in the front and wagon overload springs in the rear with good dampers to get the ride higher & stiffer. Add a second rear sway bar, or just get a bigger one. You'll probably want a good pair of front seats, some 5pt. harnesses, and a good skid plate under the front of the engine. You can cut out the supports under the hood & trunk to save some weight, remove the a/c, and get rid of anything else you don't need.

It just depends on how much work you want to put into preparing the car. The engine could probably use a different cam and a better exhaust too.

Good luck.

 

Re: Turning a 240 into a rally car... (towerymt)

What type of rallying do you plan on doing? I have a '78 242 that is rally prepped. I have done a few modifications, but not many, and it really does quite fine. I have stripped out everything I could out of the interior. I have put all the front chassis braces in place, installed the strut tower re-inforcing plates, diesel front springs, and Wagon overload springs in the rear. I have put Boge Pro gas shocks and struts on, however they are not available any longer, so I would go with koni's if I were to do it again. I have reinforced the motor mounts, and put an engine stabilizer bar from the cylinder head to the strut tower. The car has manual steering and no ac, so I have very few things clustering up the engine bay. I have reinforced the battery tray, and made sure that it will not fly out. I have the IPD 25mm sway bars on F/R. I have put the Aluminum skid plate on it, installed a custom exhaust system that exits out the side with one glass pack. I have a VX3 cam with adjustable gear. I have fabbed up a cone filter arrangement which works well. I also have some Silverstone Rally tyres on 240 turbo rims, and am going to be welding the spider gears here in the next two weeks. I have beat the living hell out of this car, and it is taking it like a champ. I have rolled the car once, hit two trees head on at over 35 mph will very little damage. I have jumped the car 68' and about 9' off the ground, and the car reacts very well in gravel above 60mph! I highly encourage rally racing, but even more so, safety equipment. I will soon be welding up a roll cage, and installing some racing seats and a fire extenguisher. If you have any specific questions, I have been rallying now for nearly 5 years, and have a number of stories and ideas other than these. Just drop me a line here at work.

Best regards,

 

Re: Turning a 240 into a rally car... (eric240)

Well, any news on the rally car project? Just took my 242 rally car out to Hood River for the SCCA club rally event last weekend. I sucked. Really need to weld the gears in the rear end. Even with my Silverstone tires, I had very little traction. The mud out there was very slippery.

regards,