epic win

20 year old e30 wins 3rd in class at Mexico WRC Rally

Quote :

"Professional motorsport is a cold, hard place. If you want to run with the big dogs, you can't just build a car in your mom's garage and show up, right? Wrong. One guy did just that. Here's his amazing story. This is the multifaceted tale of Bill Caswell, a man who bought a crapcan off Craigslist to run against $400,000-plus rally cars in a World Rally Championship race. It is a tale of a guy who had a welder, a bunch of credit cards, and a lot of free time but no real backing or funds. It is a story of a dude who taught himself how to build an FIA-legal roll cage because he wanted to spend the fabrication fee on race tires instead. It's the story of a gearhead who drove a rustbucket to a third-place finish in an FIA-sanctioned event. Most of all, it is a story of hoonage. Bill Caswell, an unemployed Chicago racing freak, entered the Mexico round of the World Rally Championship in a 1991 BMW 318i that he found on Craigslist. The car cost $500. One year ago, Caswell decided that he wanted to go rallying with Rally America. Two months later, he crashed a car and blew up an engine five minutes into his first event. Four events later, he found a loophole in the FIA rules that let him enter a twenty-year-old car in the same event as guys like Ken Block and former F1 driver Kimi Raikkonen. Full disclosure: Caswell is my friend. We have a long history of collaborating on stupid, pointless projects. Most of the time, we hang out in weird bars and at race tracks and talk about the cool things that I want to do but never find time for, the things that Bill actually goes and does. I am admittedly biased. The story of Caswell's WRC entry is a story of weirdness: He entered the biggest motorsport event of his life with no crew; an untested, week-old E30 M3 engine swap and a junkyard transmission (don't ask); a car that was still covered in dirt from the previous season's rallies ("I'd wash it, but I gotta fix stuff instead"); and a rented panel van. His co-driver, a Rally America genius named Ben Slocum, had not spent more than five minutes in a car with him prior to the event. He did this not out of stupidity, but out of a lack of resources — he wanted to go rallying, and this was the only way he could make it happen. Amazingly, they finished third in their class."

read the whole story here

http://jalopnik.com/5497042/how-to-win-a-professional-auto-race-with-a-500-car

3/25/2010 6:44:47 PM

Quote :

"STORY OF HOONAGE"

3/25/2010 7:25:44 PM

Not exactly a $500 car since he had an M3 swap in it.

But damn cool story

3/25/2010 7:26:12 PM

not to rain on anyones parade but didn't some of the big fish pull out of WRC? I suppose none that run in e30's class.

3/25/2010 8:21:48 PM

The co-drivers story is good to (in case you miss it at the bottom)

http://jalopnik.com/5500013/i-co+drove-the-500-craigslist-rally-car

3/25/2010 8:49:28 PM

reminds me of the guy that i was pit crew for at VIR.

he had a supercharged type R swap in a civic like quinns.. he was the pikes peak uphill champion. it was really impressive, a little civic like that whomping the competition.. then i found out the other competitors had mechanical probs and accidents. lol

i want to say he ended up winning in his class of 3 after all was said and done.

but it was impressive.

3/25/2010 9:58:19 PM

[Edited on March 25, 2010 at 9:58 PM. Reason : ]

3/25/2010 9:58:19 PM

These stories are probably more about the people than they are about the cars, not to say that I don't think e30s are cool, because I most certainly do...

This reminds me of Paul Mumford, the guy that swept the floor with comparatively benign Viper several years ago during a speed channel world challenge race. He did the same to the Sport Compact Car crowd, laying down a lap over 6 seconds faster than the 2nd place TEAM! The cars are secondary to the drivers/characters IMO.

3/25/2010 11:37:33 PM

I'll pay $500 for someone to make my e30 run that well.

3/26/2010 1:08:51 AM

Neat story, makes me feel like I'm wasting my life away in the office

3/26/2010 9:15:36 AM

so much win

3/28/2010 10:37:33 PM