Rallying Hyundai's


I live in regional Victoria in Australia, I own two Hyundai Excels 97 twin cam 3 door and 99 twin cam 3 door. I have also been involved in the rally scene in Australia for a number of years. In 2005 a group of us got together to try and decide on a new affordable one make series based on a contempory popular car that young people could identify with and that was tuneable in terms of suspension. The car also needed to have reasonable performance needed to be front wheel drive and sold in numbers. Our plan was to use this car to launch new careers into AWD rallying and also to encourage new players. Three years we have achieved what we set out to do.

At the end of the day it was a no-brainer in terms of which car we would use, only the Hyundai X3 series fitted all the criteria perfectly, besides it was already developing as a Series in the State of New South Wales, and was attracting not only new people into the rally scene but also bringing oldies back.

So in October 2005 I sourced a good low millage 1999 Model Twin Cam, I stripped it back to a rolling shell used dry ice to remove all the sound deadening in the car and sent it off to be stitch welded and have a FIA approved rally spec roll cage fitted. The difference this made to the stiffness of the car was incredible.

We then looked at suspension and decided to go the Koni line for shocks and Kings for springs, at the rear a adjustable whiteline swaybar was installed and nolethane bushes up front on the sway bar, all other rubber bushes where replaced with new ones. The car was then sent off to be detailed and painted with a full body wrap applied acknowledging my sponsors. When it got home it was fitted out with electrics and Velo Carbon Fibre Race/Rally Seats, a Terratrip, intercom and 6 point FIA approved harness, on the outside mudflaps all round, under body protection for the fuel tank was done in carbon fibre matting and all suspension covered in Urathane Sheeting. Up front a small frame was mounted to the chasis to hold the heavy duty sump gaurd. The car was now ready to rally.

As I learnt to drive and tune the suspension camber pins were fitted and toe adjustments made. The Koni Shockers seemed to work well and while we had to dis-assemble them to adjust the damping it did allow me to experiement with settings to most suit my driving style.

We are now into our third season and have 17 Cars involved all being X3 models, they are driven by a variety of drivers from very skilled ex-Champions through to emerging Champions and mums and dads just wanting to have weekend fun. Some are using the cars to allow there children to have a go at rallying. Even Wayne Bell (ex-works WRC Hyundai driver) has been a strong supporter.

Our cars are required to remain un-modified in engine and brakes other than upgraded material for brakes. This has kept the cost under control and the competition tight. All cars sold in Australia were either single cam or twin cam and all are fuel injected. The photolink below should give you some idea of what they are capable of doing. One of our competitors in recently recorded a 8th Outright against WRX's and EVO's and came away from the event grinning from ear to ear!

(IMG:http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g122/ernysp76/Alpine4of4.jpg)