My New Hero: $500 BMW competes in WRC Rally Mexico
 

http://jalopnik.com/5497042/how-a-50...yline=true&s=i

Edit: Follow-up with the co-driver: http://jalopnik.com/5500013/i-co+dro...list-rally-car

I really can't stress enough how freaking awesome this story is.

Highlights:

• $500 E30 BMW, bought off craigslist
• He built his own FIA compliant roll cage so he could spend more on tires
• He fixed a hole in his fuel tank between stages with duck tape
• He used borrowed Course Notes, which were in Portugese
• He did shots with Petter Solberg
• He finished, when several big name WRC guys didn't
• He came in 3rd in his class against Rally Prepped Evo's
• Had he competed in the WRC class, he'd have come 23rd of 26 total... as in ahead of 3 $400k WRC Rally Cars!

He got to take his car through the Opening Ceremonies too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z6kESyQXAk

It's WELL worth the read!

holy crap awesome story! that must have been a highlight in that guys life!

amazing. good story , good find! lol

That is one hell of an amazing story. If I ever run into that guy, I'm buying him 2 beers.

That...was..






















Awesome :rofl:

I can't say how much of an adrenaline rush it is to triumph over people who got better cars and deeper pockets when you build a car to do it yourself and win over factory ones. Such is the theme I've done myself in my racing years, while not as low of cost as he has, the feeling is the same. This is probably the biggest thing in his life he's ever done or felt, kudos to him.

Seriously! In one of the emails he mentions someone offering to sponsor him to run in more Rallies... How amazing would it be if some random rich guy flies this guy and his car to another WRC stop?

Awesome story!

Very impressive!

From reading that story, I think that car is done for.

amazing story what a great feat

that is pretty cool! very good for him.

Awesome story.

True enough, but from the sound of it he can't have spent more than $10k on it total... In the immortal words of Jeremy Clarkson, "How hard can it be?"

LOl that was great, I liked one of the comments in the gallery, "build a shitbox; get famuous" priceless :rollingla

im speechless great story. thumps up for the driver...

So apparently if he'd competed in the WRC class... he wouldn't have come in last! Like, 23rd of 26 (there were 25 registered), but he would ACTUALLY HAVE BEATEN 3 OF THE $400K RALLY CARS!

Jalopnik posted a follow up section from talking with the Co-driver: http://jalopnik.com/5500013/i-co+dro...list-rally-car

you can imagine that this story is raging like a wildfire on r3v (e30 forums.)

oh wow that is one amazing story

...Anyone got a doner RX8 with a low compression engine they want to repeat this with next year? :D:

Epic Cruise!
 

Last Friday night during a cruise we were taking our usual cruise route and I spotted this.

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/attac...1&d=1271557465
http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/attac...1&d=1271557465

We pulled over to take some pictures. One of my buddies heard some noises coming from the garage. He knocked on the garage and low and behold Bill Caswell was in there with some of his friends building another budget racecar for the 24 Hours of which is happening as I type this @ Gingerman Raceway in MI.

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/attac...1&d=1271557759
Back Row: Jeff, Bill, Ryan, Jonathan, Mike and Steve. Front Row: Me.

What a great guy. We knocked on his garage @ 330 in the morning, when he and his friends were thrashing to get their newest "Racecar" built, and he took the time to hang out and talk to us for 15 min or so. The car they were working on for the 24 hours of lemons race was a 7 series BMW that they got from a junk yard. The previous owner of the car needed the jaws of life to get out, so they just cut the entire roof off. They were finishing up the roll cage and "custom" exhaust and welding the doors shut. Basically they ended up with a convertible four door 7 series BMW with a V12.

What an interesting night.

That's pretty awesome. Must have been fun.

It was cool. According to the business card he was handing out his race team is called "Chaos Racing". Aptly named for sure.

thats pretty awesome man.

.....here he is again. I was watching a compilation of videos from the 2010 Pikes Peak hillclimb and I spotted him @ 2:35. Looks like fun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot0Sk2R0mfk