A $900 RX8 for the $2016 Grassroots Motorsports Challenge
 

OK, so first things first... Yes, I bought a running RX8 for $900. It had been abused- lowered, "stanced", odd body kit, driven off-road, trashed interior, and a trans that wouldn't shift into gear (or perhaps a clutch). But it was complete, and I did buy it for $900.

My intent is to bring it back from the dead and take it to the Grassroots Motorsports Challenge. Then, maybe in the future an LS swap.

The GRM $20XX Challenge is sponsored by Grassroots Motorsports Magazine. It encourages people to attempt to build a race car for under $2016 dollars, then race it on an autocross course and a 1/4 mile dragstrip, and includes Concors judging for appearance and creativity.

I've been building cars for the Challenge since 2004. Last year I placed 3rd out of about 70 entries in a turbocharged Miata.

This will be the first RX8 to ever compete.

Great idea. Where are you?

Still planning the 4.8l LS swap per your previous thread?
https://www.rx8club.com/new-member-f...plunge-262689/

I'm in South GA 31721. Wanna help??

Still planning the LS, but not this year. The Challenge is this month.

I wanted to start a proper build thread.

I started with the back. It's kind of a weird place to start, but that wing and ground effects bumper HAD to go.


I've been working on weight reduction, detailing, and repairing.



A friend who upgraded his car to coilovers was kind enough to hook me up with his old stock springs and struts after he upgraded for the cost of shipping. I swapped in the rears, and cleaned and detailed every inch as I went. I put it on the lift, pulled off the wing and rear bumper, detailed and painted everything, then started putting things back together.



I bought a pair of spats off Ebay- they cleaned up the rear, and are reasonably subtle.


Still not knowing about the trans, I decided to check for overheating and compression. The battery was dead, and the Canbus is thoroughly uncooperative without a full charge. After charging her up, the car started well, but was unhappy restarting when hot. It also shifted cleanly through all gears (on the lift- no load) Yeah!


I realized the car had the old style lower amperage starter. I snagged a high amp starter off Amazon for $60. After swapping it in, the car starts without hesitation, even when hot.



I did a full rear brake job while I was at it, just because.


I had a set of 5 spoke wheels off a Mustang laying around with the right bolt pattern and some old Hoosiers. They are staggered sizes, which is not my preference, but I sure like the look of the big 315's on the rear. After some serious scrubbing, they looked pretty good!


So, this is how she looks at this moment. I haven't done the front struts yet. Today I turned the car around and put her back on the lift to get started on the front half.

Will be an entertaining thread. Sub'd! keep us updated!

Subbing. This looks awesome.

Interested to see how this goes. Really cool project.

Thank you for saving this car from her misery :) Subbed for the project, great idea.

Sub, looking better already

The Challenge requires everything that is on the car to be in the budget. So, my budget as it currently stands is:

Purchase price $900
Struts $ 69.85 (shipping cost only)
Spats $ 69.99 (Ebay- included shipping)
Wheels $200

Total spent $1239.84

Some safety items are budget exempt, so the brakes I installed do not count.

AND, the rules allow you to sell pieces off the car to recoup some money (up to half the budget). I sold the wing and rear valance:

Wing ($ 125)
Valance ($ 175)

That puts my total budget (in Challenge dollars) at $939.84

Since I have plenty of room in my budget, I will be installing a light weight flywheel. I will also build a splitter, side skirts, and perhaps a wing. I have a used nitrous system on hand which I may play with.

Ooops- I forgot the starter. $999.84. ;-)

Yes. All the nitrous.

I'd like to use the nitrous, but at this point I am running short on time.

Well,the clock is ticking, and I'm making some progress. But I still haven't driven the car.

I got the rest of the suspension swapped, and did the front brakes too.

I also pulled the transmission last weekend. I've checked everything as carefully as I could, and can't find anything wrong with the trans. Clutch looked OK too. The only thing foul I found was a bad pilot bearing. A PILOT BEARING?? Could this car's only problem have been a $6.57 part??

Of course, while I was in there i did a little more work. Since I won't be doing major performance upgrades and there was some money in the budget, I switched to a lightweight flywheel. Cleaned up everything- I will reassemble tomorrow. Cross your fingers- if I don't get the car running this weekend, it won't make it to the Challenge.

I also built a splitter. Thought you'd like to see a few cool pictures of how this car is coming together.

Enjoy!

Great job on that splitter!!
Any chance we could get a parts list and some more pics??

Parts list for the splitter, or for the car?

What additional pics would you like?

That's really cool, the GRM Challenge has some incredibly, fun, interesting and creative cars in it. I've often fantasized about entering it, but like most of my fantasies, automotive and otherwise, it's not likely to happen.

The splitter.
Just a couple from underneath showing how you mounted it.

Thanks

Gotcha. Yeah, I can take a couple more pics.

The materials list is pretty simple. It's a material called ACM (aluminum composite material) commonly used for high tech store fronts (like car dealerships). It's a micro layer of aluminum facing on a plastic substrate. I pulled a bunch of it out of a dumpster at a construction site.

I've been doing the GRM Challenge since 2004. I've done a lot of crazy cars, including a wide bodied Yugo. Last year I placed 3rd overall in a turbo Miata with a custom built fiberglass fastback roof painted to look like the 787B.

Took the car for it's first test drive today.

Suspicions confirmed- the problem with the "transmission" was just the pilot bearing!

Car shifts beautifully.

:mdrmed::rock::mdrmed:

Glad to hear its shifting fine....

Wow, very nice! Great piece of good luck on that pilot bearing as well!

Well, it was a bit of educated guess. I suspected the clutch, even though the previous owner said he "blew the transmission". It just wasn't acting like a bad transmission- no grinding, no bad sounds, no slipping. Just wouldn't engage intermittently (which was another reason I didn't think it was the trans- the fact that I could get it to engage sometimes told me I didn't have a worn gear issue, etc).

When I pulled the clutch and saw a not-so-worn-out clutch disk, I was a little concerned. Thought I had guessed wrong.

Just didn't realize the pilot bearing could have such a dramatic effect. Although, it was TOTALLY shot (no needle bearings left at all, just an outer raceway and a few pieces of small shrapnel).

So yeah, I'm happy. :wiggle: