I picked up a 98 Talon Esi to run in the Tarheel Sports Car Club Rallycross series. It's cheap, reliable, and get's 30+ mpg. I'm trying to figure out how I should set it up for our rallycross. I ran the car in one event last year and it did well although I bottomed out a lil more than I would have liked and the front bumper hangs too low.

The 98 has the turbo style front bumper which I plan to change to the earlier style ESi bumper for the simple fact that it doesn't hang down as low and will be less likely to scoop dirt and get damaged. We run mainly in sandy fields or loose gravel and only street tires are allowed.

Here are some questions I have.

1. How can I increase ride height an inch or so for more ground clearance?

2. Should I add a rear swaybar since the Esi did not come with one? I realize this would be beneficial in autox but I wasn't sure about the dirt.

3. Should I upgrade the front swaybar or remove it? Once again, what is a good dirt setup?

4. What the most vunerable parts under the car? Most of the course is soft and sandy but there could be the occasional rock or large stick.

thanks for any advice or experience you can share.

Also, anybody know how the phantom grip works in the dirt?

1. Coilovers
2. Yes.
3. It wouldn't hurt to upgrade. No clue dude i've only autocrossed on pavement. i have the RMDSM bars.
4. Oil pan, and tons more that i can't think of.

Dude that seems like fun!

Definitively some sorta shield for your oil pan/filter... i have "twacked" them going off road (decided to follow a friends jeep through a shortcut aka a road that hadent been finished) here...caused major oil leak problems

the oil pan and oil filter hang real low, and the engine and tranny are only like 6 inches higher then that. Other then that you have the exhaust, and the fuel lines run across the bottom of the passenger side, but they are kinda up and in a lil bit on the car, it'd have to be a big rock to damage em.

As for raising the car, get some nice coilovers. You're gonna want to upgrade the handling as much as possible if you are really serious about it....si i'd suggest strut tower bars, poly suspension bushings, nice coils and struts (or some jic's or tein 1 pieces), get some upgraded sway bars (rmdsm seems the best on the market IMO)...I would skip on lower tie bars, since clearance is an issue...even though you are on dirt, all handling physics still apply...you just have a more "slick" surface to corner on, so you definately will benifit from handling upgrades.

I think the best thing you might do is just get off road tires, again, it all depends on how competitive/serious you are about it. Go nuts on the suspension, but i am biased...the suspension makes the car IMO.

Also, if its solely a rallycross car, why not jus trim a few inches off the bottom of the bumper? :shrug

I really appreciate everyone's advice. I want the car to be a daily driver/autox/rallycross car. I'm not sure if there is a good balance to be had but here are some more details about what I'm doing.

1. We have to run street tires. No snow or off road tires allowed. (offroad tires tear up the course so bad that the 2wd cars can barely run after the 4wd cars run)

2. As of now, I can't run coilovers to raise ride height because i plan to run the car in a stock SCCA autox class. I may rethink this and switch classes just to use coilovers.

3. I really don't want to trim the front bumper. I do drive the car quite a bit and I want to minimize the "ghetto" factor. It gets 30+ mpg and has cruise control. I still think swtiching to the 95-96 style bumper would be a good idea but I'm not sure if there are a direct swap or if things are different.

4. I'm gonna put the car up in the air this week and check nuts and crap and plan out some skid plates.

I'll post pics after this saturdays race...!! broken or not!!!

by the way, this is the guy who won the 4wd class that day stomping about 15 WRX's.

I've done a little rallycross, the most important things I can think of are:

- 95/96 front bumper (eclipse or talon, eclipse is stiff, talon flexes more)
- Remove sideskirts
- Rollcage!!
- Skidplate for oilpan & filter
- Coilovers
- Don't use a PG LSD. Get a quaife or retrofit. The PG will explode.
- Use all the bracing you can get. RMDSM swaybars, front and rear upper STBs.
- Sadly, you'll dent your rear quarter panels all to crap and they're the hardest body panel to repair.
- Rally tires on steel (or cheap 16") wheels - Michelin, Kumho, or at least blizzak if you have to use DOT street.

Here's some pics of a rallycross prepped 2GNT (not mine)

Once again, I'd like to stress that this series isn't a hard core Rally. It's rallycross. You basically take your autocross car and run it in the dirt. Fields, dirt roads, etc... No boulder strewn road, cliffs, water crossing, etc.

That rally talon is sweet but a lil extreme for what I'm gonna do.

I think I'm gonna do the following. What cha think?

front/rear sways (prol from a GSX)
95-96 bumper (maybe have nylon bra made to keep dirt out)
coilovers (prol ground controls)
front/rear strut tower braces (suggestions???)
front end skid plate

Well, last saturday (feb 5th) was the rallycross and I had a great time. The talon did well although my times were still 4-5 seconds off the fastest drivers in the 2wd class. Lighter weight and less powered cars seem to be the fastest in the 2wd class. I had one of the fast guys ride with me and give me some valuable pointers which I plan to practice for the next race. Aside from a slight incident where I got stuck for 14 freaking seconds my times were very good. Here are some pics of the RallyTalon in action once again.

These pictures help emphasize the need for a rear sway bar. The car rotates at will but some additional rear stiffness would aid turn in and front traction I'm sure. I spend all my time modulating the gas pedel to keep the car moving and reduce tire spin.

ahhh that makes me miss my 2gnt-it was a 97 black talon like that awww im sad.......

Hey dOod. you still need that bumper. ??? i got pics...

Sweet pics, yeah the first thing I thought was SWAY BAR!

Also looks like youre getting a lot of wheelhop, hopefully you're allowed to put in aftermarket front struts?

That looks like a fun track. Keep up the updates, I love seeing other rallyx'ers! :thumbsup