River City Rally's IS350 Rally Build
 

We (River City Rally in Chattanooga) are super stoked to be building a 2IS 350is rally car to replace the E30 BMW we've been running the last two years... Now that the build is well underway figured I'd share on the forum as you guys have been very helpful with IS info so far (and we like sharing our car stuff with anyone who will listen:-))

RCR will compete primarily Rally America Rally Series starting with 100 Acre Wood Rally Mar 18th in MO. Car is to be a full blown rally car and we hope to be very competitive with it by the end of the year...

Basic specs..
-RWD IS350
-Stock Jarco Inc. direct replacement 2GR engine
-RA62 6 speed (we hope, plan to work with OVTuned to make this happen)
-Custom Valved Bilstein 46mm coilovers with resevoirs. (9.5" travel rear, 8.5" front)
-Full underbody protection
-full 12 point rally cage coil over to coil over mount by Vaught Specialties
-Method VT spec 502 Rally wheels
-Monit Rally computer
-Stylo WRC intercom
-Sparco Seats and harnesses
-FRS Dif... will add MK3 clutch LSD and gears (4.1-5.12 depending on test results) in the future...

We are a bit behind our build schedule as the car we purchased at thanksgiving did not actually make it to TN until after the New Year. That said we are WFO now to make this happen in the next two months for 100 Acre Wood Rally. If you have seen onboard from Higgins/Pastrana at 100 acre you can see the roads there favor big powerful cars, perfect for our IS. We do not want to miss it!

If you guys are interested in the car I will post updates from time to time. Also, our facebook page is also a great spot to see up to date pics/ask any questions as the whole team responds there so it typically doesnt take long for somebody to see. We typically put test/race vids up there as well.

We (River City Rally in Chattanooga) are super stoked to be building a 2IS 350is rally car to replace the E30 BMW we've been running the last two years... Now that the build is well underway figured I'd agar on the forum..

I am glad this site is here. In addition to the info I have found on the site members have been very generous in donating details on manual swaps/abs deletes etc.

I will start a thread in the 2006-13 IS section and update periodically if anyone is interested in seeing the car come together. .. Also, our River City Rally Facebook page will have up to date pics from lost build parties (team effort to make this happen).

RCR will compete in NASA Rally Sport events as well as the Rally America Rally Series. Car is to be a full blown rally car and we hope to be very competitive with it by the end of the year..

Hope you guys enjoy the build. As far as we can tell this is the FIRST IS350 gravel car in the world.

<https://m.facebook.com/RCRfanpage/?ref=bookmarks>
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neat to see a car being built for other purposes! good luck with your build and season. curious as to why the engine remains stock? reliability? regulations?
lastly why this platform?

Thank you! We are staying stock because with a 2wd on gravel you really can't get any more power to the ground on all but the longest straights. Also, with the stock 2gr we can flog it all weekend and not worry about it (our stages are up to 25 min long, most of which will be at 5500 rpm plus)... We will have 320 hp with good power 4500-7000. Honestly we have more power than we can afford tires for! Our E30 was 180 hp and 2650# and itit was very competitive.

We picked the Totota because we are a Toyota family and reakly wanted to get back to our roots. We picked rwd because smiles per dollar it's the best deal. The IS was actually not even on tue table until my brother in law suggested it...the more I looked at the car the more interested we got.. Before committing we picked up a salvage IS250 to put in the air and evaluate for rally worthiness. An afternoon of poking/prodding/measuring and we knew we were all in and super stoked bout the build.

the car certainly has drawbacks... Ie weight, but it actually looks surprisingly suited. Time will tell!

Looking forward to more updates here:driving:

What a build to be done... subscribed!

So will you be running the factory wiring harness and computer with electronic steering? Curious to see what can happen with running that RA62 6sp trans!

Looking forward to more updates!

Absolutely looking forward to seeing build pics as well!

gearbox has nothing to do with eleectronic steering

Progress updates... :-)
 

Wow, stoked to see some of you have liked the thread... sorry for the lack of updates... the team does post a lot of pics River City Rally -RCR on Facebook so if I don't post for awhile there is likely photo updates there...

so... Almost done with the cage and chassis mods. A proper rally cage turned out to be a lot of work in this car. The oddly shaped suspension towers and upper control arms took a lot of thinking to tie into and the way the cockpit narrows at the top was tough for a pillar placement.

We we have fitted a hand brake, foot rear, pedal box, AGM battery mount and have all of the manual trans parts lined up.

suspension mounts are completed, just waiting on our 14" springs to show up. Travel is quite good, but we will need to make modifications to the front ball joints to get some more droop.

Motor is here thanks to Jarco Inc, a 2015 2gr with 9 k miles. We also sourced a Ra62 that came from a 2010, and a 4.10 brz Torsten did with 4K. We have a spec stage 2? Or 3? Clutch and lightened flywheel ready to go as well.

okie,It may not look much different from the first cage pic above, but a LOT has been done. We actually fit the cage in our spare shell as this car didn't show up until the first week of January, so at this point we are two months into the build.

Sadly we will miss 100 Acre next week but do plan to be at STPR in the first week of June... its a great race and we won regional 2wd there last year. We'll be fun to try n get this car to speed.. after last year it willl be very difficult not to push to try and get on podium. Gonna be fun.https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...1d86062678.jpghttps://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...0062816d91.jpg
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Excellent work and amazing progress! Just when we thinking there's nothing more a 2IS can do, BAM! Rally car!!! :)

thanks! It feel a like we've been working on it a year, hard to believe the cArs only been here just over two months. Time flies when It's limited :-). I'll try n get some pics up when motor / trans goes im and we start putting suspension and rally bits on.

Any events in the SC/NC mtns near me?

There was event two weekends ago in Cheraw SC called Sandblast. It's a bit A typical as it is all sand and gets very rutted. Picture Dakar through a pine forest. Southern Ohio Forest Rally isn't too far. sTPR is based out of Wellsboro TN. There use to be a fantastic rally in Cherokee national forest by the Ocoee but unfortunately it is gone. We have to travel quite a bit. This weekend is 100 Acre Wood in Potosi MO.

Never heard of that one. I'm from Oregon originally; so I'm no stranger to TRUE rally stages! Boy how I miss my home state and all that it has to offer regarding the motorsport world.

Very nice build