Dear Rally Enthusiasts,
I am currently the owner of a lancer evolution viii mr. I am looking to get into road rallying, and eventually rally-x and performance rally. I was wondering if you guys could suggest entry parts to buy. so far i have a works croxx ii plate, and mud guards... do any of you know any online places to buy skid plates for the front and rear of an evo viii ?

Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide.

Road Rally is one thing. You just need a car...any car. It's not about speed, it's about "precision" they say (you have to reach each checkpoint in an exact time, no faster, no slower...basically a Granny sport). If you're up for a Sunday drive then go for it, but you won't need to make any mods to your Evo.

For Performance Rally you will need to spend some serious dough. You'll need a full 6 point roll cage. Get it professionally done. Trying to do it yourself on the cheap will make a mess of your car & probably cost you more. Figure on spending $1500 minimum for a cage.

Then you'll want to seam-weld your body (you don't have to but it's better if you're planning to campaign the car hard).

Then add seats (Sparco's or equivalent), 5-point harnesses, a rally computer (Terratrip) and you're done -- on the inside that is.

You'll want to re-route your fuel and brake lines through the interior of the car. Switch them out for steel-braided lines. Upgrade your suspension and you should be good to go...at least until something breaks.

If you want my advice I would highly recommend buying an already prepped rally car. I trried building my first car (Honda Prelude) and it cost me thousands for a half-**** non-contender. I scrapped that idea and bought a done Audi Quattro for $9K -- pushing 400 HP, fully prepped, logbooked, and ready to race. The guy I bought it from had invested over $50K into it by the time he sold it.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Hope some of it is helpful.