The new cheap ready to rally Dacia Logan.....

[Tommi]

Source: www.Topgear.com

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Being a racing driver is an expensive hobby. Once you've factored in the repairs, tyres, race entry fees and, of course, the not-insignificant cost of massage oil for all the toned lovelies you'll be bronzing with in Monaco, you're looking at a hefty annual bill.
But that is all set to change with this: the Dacia Logan Motorsport rally car.

Taking Europe's cheapest car - the humble Dacia Logan saloon - as a base and using parent company Renault's sports expertise, the Logan Motorsport promises to be one of the cheapest ways to get into Group N rallying.

The upgrades sound impressive: the Logan Motorsport gets a roll cage, uprated shock absorbers and ECU, racing seats and proper harnesses.
However, it might struggle in the pace department: even after the upgrades, the Logan will develop only 90bhp from its 1.6-litre eight-valve engine.

It'll be cheap, though - you should be able to pick up a rallying Logan for under £8,000... but they're not sold in Britain yet.
That's due to change next year, though, when Renault is set to bring its budget brand to the UK. The Logan rally car can be primed for track, road and off-road rallying, while Dacia is even organising a one-make series in France called the Logan Cup.

And, of course, if you're driving a Dacia, you won't have to worry about all those toned lovelies and their massage oil bills.

 

[Muzaffar]

Wow, that looks cool. Maybe it doesn't look all that powerful or technologically advance but hey, it is cheap and fun to drive right? I wonder how that Logan Cup will be like, maybe it would be more fun than those FXX and MC12 series.....(or any other "special" race series for that matter!)

 

[Tommi]

Wow, that looks cool. Maybe it doesn't look all that powerful or technologically advance but hey, it is cheap and fun to drive right? I wonder how that Logan Cup will be like, maybe it would be more fun than those FXX and MC12 series.....(or any other "special" race series for that matter!)

Exactly, who said fun had to be expensive:tup:

 

[Stevisiov]

The car itself looks fugly, and the power doesnt look inviting, yet i find it very cool that you can buy a brand new rally car for £8000. I may buy one, and have a wee tinker with the engine, 200BHP sounds sufficient. Then it is off to wales or whatever rally track I can find.

 

[Azuremen]

The car itself looks fugly, and the power doesnt look inviting, yet i find it very cool that you can buy a brand new rally car for £8000. I may buy one, and have a wee tinker with the engine, 200BHP sounds sufficient. Then it is off to wales or whatever rally track I can find.

90 HP is about what you can use most of the time in FWD car on the dirt. Unless its insanely high speed, otherwise you just chuck gravel everywhere. 200 is the max you'd want to bother with, period.

This is truly awesome and I wish we had stuff like this in the US. I am one of few that truly wants to get into rally at some point, but its expensive as hell. This would solve that, but lord knows its not coming to the US.

 

[exigeracer]

This is truly awesome and I wish we had stuff like this in the US. I am one of few that truly wants to get into rally at some point, but its expensive as hell. This would solve that, but lord knows its not coming to the US.

I know for a fact that you can run a rally car for a decent while for less than 16,500$. I've seen rally series with cars that guys drive to the events in the cars they are competing with.

 

[Azuremen]

I know for a fact that you can run a rally car for a decent while for less than 16,500$. I've seen rally series with cars that guys drive to the events in the cars they are competing with.

True, but for the SCCA club stuff, when they had it, you needed roll cage, etc. Then classing, entry and getting there. It adds, but yes, you can take a car and get it going, but its time and money. This is just money!

 

[Quattro20v]

90 HP is about what you can use most of the time in FWD car on the dirt. Unless its insanely high speed, otherwise you just chuck gravel everywhere. 200 is the max you'd want to bother with, period.

What is your definition as "insanely high speed" in rallying? I'm not sure if 200 is the max, but I'm sure 90 HP is well below the minimum, period.

 

[Keef]

Tiny. Lightweight. Stripped. Manual transmission. No technology of any sort. Not even any sound deadening material. It might be a little too slow, but that's an easy fix. Looks like it has wonderful visibility, also.

WHERE DO I SIGN UP?!?!?! I WILL GO TO McDONALD'S IN THIS.

EDIT: I'm not kidding. This is the perfect car. I want this car. Obviously they don't care how many of these they sell, because they've put tens of thousands of dollars of work into it (look at the fabulous rollcage), and are selling it for the price of a typical cheap car. I'd bet they're loosing all sorts of money.

And that's one reason why it's perfect. PERFECT.

 

[Scaff]

90 HP is about what you can use most of the time in FWD car on the dirt. Unless its insanely high speed, otherwise you just chuck gravel everywhere. 200 is the max you'd want to bother with, period.

Umm, sorry, but no. FWD rally cars have run in excess of 200bhp for years, a few examples...


Opel Astra (F) GSI 16v - 225 bhp (92 - 96)
Renault Clio Williams - 220bhp (93 - 96)


...or you had the whole of the Super 1600 class, all FWD and all running a minimum of 200bhp...

http://www.rallye-info.com/carmodels.asp?type=6

...you look around and you will find that almost all FWD rally cars in the last decade have kicked out between 150 & 200 bhp. Now that's not putting the Logan down, I think its a great idea, but to say that 90bhp is about the most you can use on dirt is simply not true.

Regards

Scaff

 

[Azuremen]

What is your definition as "insanely high speed" in rallying? I'm not sure if 200 is the max, but I'm sure 90 HP is well below the minimum, period.

Do you do rally racing? Last I checked, 200 HP is just too much to be used on dirt; beyond it and you just toss gravel everywhere and don't accelerate. And high speed means over 80 MPH; below that the no doubt short gear box will work out. Plus that small engine probably makes over 100 ft/lbs of torque, which is more important for alot of rally stuff. Tarmac rally is a bit different though

EDIT for Scaff:

I never said it was the most. I said it was adequate. Full throttle in 1st or 2nd gear with 100-150 HP will just chuck gravel everywhere. 3rd and beyond will benefit much more the increase of power, and on tarmac the extra power will always be noted. I just tend to always discuss dirt rallying because, well, its what I enjoy the most. The max I was referring to, however, is the around 200 HP for FWD threshold. I realize its quite the standard for alot of rally cars, just for entry level 90 HP is not quite as pathetic as it sounds.

Its just with dirt, you can't slap on stickier tires and use the extra power, simply because static friction does not exist on gravel/dirt.

 

[Quattro20v]

Do you do rally racing? Last I checked, 200 HP is just too much to be used on dirt; beyond it and you just toss gravel everywhere and don't accelerate. And high speed means over 80 MPH; below that the no doubt short gear box will work out. Plus that small engine probably makes over 100 ft/lbs of torque, which is more important for alot of rally stuff. Tarmac rally is a bit different though

No, I was just a co-driver somewhere in the 90's. So probably you know a lot more than I do.

Edit: slow

 

[Azuremen]

No, I was just a co-driver somewhere in the 90's. So probably you know a lot more than I do.

Edit: slow

I was asking seriously. Meant no offense.

I'm just going from my understanding of physics and driving from my own experiences flying around on gravel in a variety of cars, from cheap crappy Tercels to WRXs.

I realize you can get use of quite a bit more power than 90hp, like I said.

 

[Keef]

Screw rally racing, guys. This is a track car!

 

[Jim Prower]

But will it keep up with the cars it's meant to compete with?

Okay, I mean, It's great that it's a dirt-cheap racer, for brand new, but there are clunkers at the local dirt track that it would have trouble keeping up with. It's competing against used cars. that dont' say much for a new model. I could acquire a Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z and outright outrun it for the same price. ($16,000 U.S.) on dirt. I'm sure you europeans have similar models.

I mean, If my Nova were in similar tune, It'd Probably be just as fast...with a 4A-GE in the same tune, say goodbye...

 

[Scaff]

EDIT for Scaff:

I never said it was the most. I said it was adequate. Full throttle in 1st or 2nd gear with 100-150 HP will just chuck gravel everywhere. 3rd and beyond will benefit much more the increase of power, and on tarmac the extra power will always be noted. I just tend to always discuss dirt rallying because, well, its what I enjoy the most. The max I was referring to, however, is the around 200 HP for FWD threshold. I realize its quite the standard for alot of rally cars, just for entry level 90 HP is not quite as pathetic as it sounds.

Its just with dirt, you can't slap on stickier tires and use the extra power, simply because static friction does not exist on gravel/dirt.

I was asking seriously. Meant no offense.

I'm just going from my understanding of physics and driving from my own experiences flying around on gravel in a variety of cars, from cheap crappy Tercels to WRXs.

I realize you can get use of quite a bit more power than 90hp, like I said.

My apologies if that is not what you were trying to say, that's just the way I read it.

Now onto the tyre principles of this stuff, no you can't just slap on stickier tyres and get more grip on gravel. You stick on specific rally tyres and they bit down through the top layer of gravel and hopefully clear it away to get to the solid surface under it, which does have lots of grip, you actually want to be throwing that gravel up to a degree.

Its also why on tarmac rallies you have a massive advantage running later, the earlier cars will clear the track surface of most of the top gravel and make the solid base easier to get to.


Regards

Scaff

 

[niky]

Funny... the Dodge Neon SRT4, with over 250 hp (the manufacturer and the dyno seem to disagree on this) going through the fronts... seems to do pretty well in US rallies.

But fug the power... 90 bhp in a stripped car should still scoot you to a hundred kays in under 9 seconds... and there's always modification...

Seems like a good beginner's car, or maybe even a cup or challenge car.

 

[Tornado]

I wonder how the engine was upgraded when the Dacia already has 90bhp in stock form. I also wonder whether you could pull a 2.0L out of a junked Clio and shoehorn it in. The being said, considering the car doesn't weigh anything stock (less than 2200 pounds), I imagine a stripped out version of it would be more or less quick enough.

 

[Azuremen]

Funny... the Dodge Neon SRT4, with over 250 hp (the manufacturer and the dyno seem to disagree on this) going through the fronts... seems to do pretty well in US rallies.

My point was much beyond 200 isn't very useful. WOT with that would mostly achieve understeer or just tossing rocks. I doubt the speed would be much faster from 220 to 250, honestly.

Experts, please disagree if you know better!