Editor's Note: Since Scott Harvey began rallying (1953) in his MG-TD near Los Angeles while an engineering student at UCLA, he has always gone to win. Over the past 22 years he has competed in major events throughout North America besides several in Europe (The Monte Carlo Rally 1964, South African Total Rally 1972, Finland's Rally of the 1000 Lakes 1973). Besides winning the SCCA National Rally Championship in 1963 and 1964 he was the SCCA Pro Rally Driving Champion in 1973.

Throughout the years Scott has always stressed car preparation as his strong suit. Because of this meticulous nature, his car have usually been at least one step ahead of most others in rally he has ever run. For this reason Rallye Magazine contacted Scott as soon as we learned he was preparing a new competition car.

The Colt is manufactured by Mistubishi Motors in Japan and ir marketed in this country by Chrysler Corporation through it's Dodge dealers. Mitsubishi develops rally cars and enter their two similar cars, the Lancer and the Gallant (Colt) in international rally competition. Thier biggest wins to date have been the East African Safari in 1974 and the last three Southern Cross rallies in Australia. A Dodge colt also won the 1973 Pro Rally Series Championship in this country.

Chrysler's Performance Parts in Detroit sells all the fully developed Mitsubishi hardware necessary to build a rally winning Colt. It is significant that Mitsubishi considers rally competition much more important then racing, so their special parts are developed for "our type" of competition.

Stage 1 Preparation
The easy way to prepare a Dodge Colt for special stage rallies would be to buy a new (or used) Colt and bolt on the following parts: Front Suspension Kit--List Price $200 approximately, Rear Suspension Kit--List Price $165, Rear Axle--List Price $263 Total, Protective Plating--List Price $112.

All that remains is to fit a set of snow tires and add driving lights, interior lights, odometer, roll bar seat belts and fire extinguisher. At this stage of prepartion you will have a car as good as half the cars now competing the the Pro Series rallies, and that's not bad place to start if you are new at the game.

Stage 2 Preparation
For this step your car will need improvement on the fornt brake pads (a good organic lining such as Raybestos-Manhattan 19M or Ferodo DS11), a modest improvement to the engine horsepower (mill head .40", fit exhaust headers, improve carburetion, ect.) and improved weight distrobution. A good start on improved weight distrobution can be acheived by moving the battery to the trunk.

This is the kind of car you should use for your first year of competition. If you do a good job of basic car preparation and have the instincts of a rally driver, you should be able to pick up several hundred dollars in contingency prize money from Chrysler (and other) for finishes in the top 10 on Pro Series rallies.

The next step, for your second season of competiton, is to disassemble your Colt to the last bolt and nut and prepare it as was recently done by the Team Harco operation at their Rochester, Michigan headquarters.

Full Rally Car Preparation
Preliminary
Start by Jacking up the car and placing jack stands under the frame rails at the four corners of the car. Then remove EVERYTHING--the engine, transmission, bumpers, axle, seats, interior trim, glass, door hardware, gas tank and lines, wiring, hood and fenders, brake lines and anything else that bolts on.

The next operation to be done on the car is the one that I least enjoy, but it is a necessary step in preparation since a lighter car is a quicker car. Remove all the undercoating, sound deadener, excess sealing and insulating material from the entire car! Most of this work must be done manually, with the aid of a sharpened file. Use of a heating torch or solvent sometimes helps but usually it is just damned hard dirty work to get the body cleaned up. It's a job done best over a case of beer and with several helpers.

Roll Cage
Next, the roll cage should be fitted. Unless you have done this job before, it would probably be best to make up cardboard templates to obtain optimum shape of the hoop and other members of the cage. Tubing should be as large a diameter as will fit and as thin a wall as the rules allow. In the Colt, I use 1 1/2" diameter and 1/8" wall seamless mild steel tubing for the hoop and lay it in almost against the roof and side windows. A diagonal brace should be fitted into the hoop even though the rules don't require it. The braces to the rear should tie into the frame just above the rear suspension spring shackle mount, and the rest of the cage should go in as tight to the roof and windshield header as possible. Base plates should be 1/8" mild steel and as big as possible to spread the loads. They should be bent to conform to the floor and should go up the side of the sills for a couple of inches where possible.

The most common "incident" on the Pro Series rally circuit is a roll-over so, if you plan to be competitive in this league, invest a few pounds in your best insurance – a roll cage with a diagonal brace in the hoop.

I always have my tubing bent to conform to a template or drawing, then file and grind all the junctions to fit and tack weld them in place with an acetylene torch. The final welding is extremely important and I leave it to the experts at Mayo Welding in Clawson, Michigan to heli-arc my cage in place.

Once the cage is in place, things start to take shape because you can start reassembling the vehicle.

BRAKE AND FUEL SYSTEM
The brake master cylinder should be moved to the left as far as possible on the firewall to allow clearance for the side draft carburetors. Two simple modifications are required. The master cylinder mounting plate and the firewall must be drilled for the new location and a lever must be relocated or added to the brake pedal linkage so the brake push rod lines up with the new master cylinder location.

The brake lines should be armored their full length with 3/16" coil spring type steel. The only other modifications recommended for the brake system are the removal of the front disc dust shield and substitution of good organic break pad material for the front brakes. I stress organic lining because the alternative is a metallic lining which is notorious for erratic performance until warmed up.

A good rally driver does not use his brakes very often but when he needs them, they are frequently wet and stone cold. They must be stable under all temperature conditions so use organic linings.

The new Pro Series rally format has changes the rally car fuel system considerably. With shorter rallies and frequent service stops the necessity of an auxiliary fuel tank has been eliminated. The standard tank or, for safety reasons, a fuel cell, will handle the required fuel load. An electric fuel pump should be installed just ahead of the fuel tank to push fuel through and armored 5/16" diameter steel gas line. This gas line, along with the armored brake line, should be firmly attached at several points along the underneath side of the prop shaft tunnel, on its way to the engine compartment. A fuel filter should be used before the carburetor to prevent contaminants from clogging important passages. The stock Colt filter has proven to be adequate.

One important part of the fuel system is frequently overlooked. The fuel gauge should be calibrated so you will know how many gallons of fuel remain in the tank at any time. If you know your rate of fuel consumption, you can run with minimum fuel load and, hence, minimum weight handicap.

SUSPENSION AND AXLE
The next step in rebuilding the car is simple, but again it is important that it be properly accomplished. The front crossmember should be stripped clean and bolted in place. The next operation is one of the most critical in the assembly of the car and is thoroughly explained in the Colt Service Manual. The special rectangular shaped nuts that hold the lower control arm pivot shafts to the crossmember must be oriented properly on the crossmember. Please install this nut with proper care, otherwise the suspension tends to loosen under the extreme usage of rally competition and the stresses in the front suspension, steering, and crossmember go sky-high. The rest of the suspension installation is very straightforward and consists merely of substituting the suspension parts listed earlier in this article for the stock Colt parts. The only place I deviate from the recommended Mitsubishi suspension kit is in the rear suspension bumpers. I use the standard Colt station wagon jounce bumpers instead of the Mitsubishi rally kit parts.

The rear axle needs only a minimum of modification other than fitting the 4.6:1 ring and pinion and the limited slip differential mentioned earlier. A pair of hose clamps should be used around the axle tube just inboard of the bumpers to retain the armored brake lines to the axle housing. This will minimize chance of the brake line being damaged.

The steering gear and linkage require no special treatment; just bolt them properly in place.

All the fasteners on these parts should be torqued properly to service manual specifications and safety-wire, lock nuts or Loc-tite should be used on each nut and bolt.

BATTERY AND WIRING
The battery should go in the trunk of the car to improve weight distribution. It should be housed in a plastic marine battery case and bolted with 3/8" threaded rod to the floor pan. The voltage loss, because of the long cable, can be minimized by using 00 cable, preferably aluminum welding cable.

The wiring harness should be stripped of all excess wires, not only to reduce weight, but also to simplify the trouble shooting if an electrical problem arises. The new plastic convoluted tubing makes an excellent cover for the harness.

Each electrical circuit in the car should have a fuse and/or circuit breaker. the colt has a big, accessible fuse box which will serve most of the needs of a rally car. Additional fuses, such as those for driving lights,, fuel pumps and interior light should be located and labeled for easy servicing. I prefer the radio type panel mounted fuse holders located adjacent to the switch for the circuit it protects.

Protective Plating
The usually difficult problem of protecting the engine has been solved very nicely by the Mitsubishi rally kit sump shield. It is 1/8" steel and takes a ridiculous amount of punishment wiht very little deformation. It protects not only the engine but the front suspension inner pivots as well. Fitting this shield requires welding brackets (these are included with the shield) in three places-- one below the radiator yoke and at two places on the frame rails. The major attaching points are at the frame rails where bolts are required-- all other fasteners for attaching the shield can be Dzus fasteners or any other quick release type, so the shield can be removed completely in just a couple of minutes.

The rally sump shield is designed for the 1970 through 1973 Colts but a minor rework (lengthening the rear of the shield by 2" and modifying the front attachment bracket) allows it to fit on the 1974-1975 model Colts.

I use a small aluminium plate ahead of the stell shield to prevent mud and stones from being sucked up into the engine compartment by the fan.

The only other protective plating required on the car is a thin .060" hard aluminium plate underneath the gas tank. A 1" thick piece of styrafoam should be used between the tank and the protective plate to keep rocks out and a pair of 1/16" x 1" steel straps will hold the alumnium shield in place.

Transmission
There are two very good transmissions available if you use the 1600cc engine. The 4 speed is a little short on capacity for the 2 liter, so only the 5 speed is currently available if you use the bigger engine.

The transmissions are identical in length and both will bolt-up to either engine. The shift lever is in the same location and the rear mount requires only a slight modification to go from one gearbox to the other. Prop shaft requirments are also identical.

The gearboxes are ready for rally use without any modifications. The speedo pinion should be changed if you go to the tall rear axle ratio so that your speedometer will read as close to statute mileage as possible.

Engine
The easy route on the engine is to use the 1600cc version. All of the good parts are fully developed and available. The so-called C-2 engine kit from Mitsubishi includes a special cylinder head with big valves and ports, pistons, rods, flywheel and clutch, oil pan, rosker arms, oil cooler and plumbing, oil pump, pulleys carburetors, intake manifold, exhaust headers and camshaft. It is just a case of buying a set of parts, bolting them properly to your standard 1600cc block and you have 140 horsepower with absolute reliability. It will turn 8000 RPM's all day and all night without a whimper. the 2 liter engine is another story. Mitsubishi had plans to develop this relatively new engine for rally competition but the "energy crisis" has delayed development work on their "large" engines.

The 2 liter engine is a 4 cylinder, single overhead cam with hemispheric combustion chambers just like the 1.6 liter version. It is similar, but nothing is interchangeable. I started disassembling the engine completely and comparing it peice by peice with the parts form the 1600cc standard and race engines. there are some places the 2 liter definitely needs help, for rally use, but it appears to be an excellent base from which to start. For instance, the standard ports and valves are bigger than the 1.6 liter race versions, the connecting rod bolts are as big and the oil pump appears to have plenty of capacity.

2 Liter Engine Build
The first step in preparation of the new engine was to have the block main bearing housings line bored at a local machine shop. About 5 pounds of excess metal was removed from the flywheel, and then all the rotating and reciprocating parts were sent out for balancing. Meanwhile, the cylinder head parts were cleaned up and and enlarged slightly and the valve seats were blended in for maximum air flow. The cylinder head was then milled .040" to gain about one point in compression ratio. A cam shaft was selected which would provide good torque as well as power and the engine was built up carefully to check the to piston clearance.

Everything looked fine, in fact there was so much piston to valve clearance (.060" is adequate) that when building my next engine I shall have to look for much higher compression ratio pistons.

The engine was completely disassembled, scrubbed anitseptically clean and then carefully reassembled, checking bearing clearance with plati-gauge, Loc-titing every bolt and nut, and tightening each one to the torque specification called out in the service manual.

Oil clearances in the engine should be within service manual specifications but on the high side. The piston to cylinder wall clearances are difficult to adjust. If crankshaft oil clearances are within specification, but on the low side, be careful breaking in the engine. Keep a close eye on the oil temperature gauge, especially during the first few miles.

This engine's oil filter screws onto a pipe nipple on the right side of the block. IN order to provide plumbing for a remote oil filter and an oil cooler, I made up a short pipe nipple with metric threads on one end to screw into the block and 1/2" NPT threads on the other end to screw into an aluminum adapter (available from any hot rod shop) for a remote filter mounting. Aluminum "AN" pipe-to-hose fittings were used throughout the system and the hoses are steel braided aircraft surplus items from Benjamin's Aircraft & Marine Surplus in Detroit, or Earl's Supply Company in California. The remote filter base is another hot rod shop item and the oil cooler, with more than adequate capacity, is a Chrysler Performance part; Item #P2690956, and lists for about $78. The oil pressure and oil temperature gauges are Stewart Warner mechanical gauges. The oil temperature pick-up is in the aluminum "T" pipe fitting just below the oil filter.

The intake and exhaust manifolds were the most expensive items to acquire because they are the first such samples built for this engine. The headers for the 2 liter engine should be available soon from your local hot rod shop as they are currently for the 1600cc engine. The 2 liter exhaust headers were made up to my specifications: equal length, "tri-y" configuration (for better torque) by Larson Engineering in Taylor, Michigan for $300. Larson made up jigs and fixtures off this first set of headers, so subsequent sets should be slightly less expensive.

The intake manifold, complete with thermostat housing, was made up by Adventure Enterprise in Santa Ana, California. The price for the first one was about $150.

The carburetors are twin sidedraft 44mm Solex Mikunis from the 1600cc Colt C-2 engine kit. The venturi diameters have been increased from 34 to 38mm and an assortment of main and air correction jets were acquired to calibrate these carburetors for the new engine. The first competition was run with velocity stacks on the carburetors, not by choice, but because of time limitation. The plan is to fabricate a cold air box to enclose all the carburetor air intakes, then run a flex hose to a remote filter, probably in the plenum chamber, at the base of the windshield.

CONCLUSION
That covers the major components of the car. There are hundreds of details that need to be looked after and many of these can be accomplished while your engine parts are at the machine shops.

Windows, except for the windshield, should be replaced with plexiglass, or better yet, Lexan. The quarter windows and backlight should be pop-riveted in place and sealed with a Silicon RTV sealer. Much of the door and window mechanism can be eliminated or, at least, lightened.

The instrument panel can be lightened considerably and reworked to incorporate the odometer (Halda, or the like) and additional gauges such as oil temperature, oil pressure and tachometer.

Driver seats and steering wheel are important items—find what suits you best and take them with you from car to car. I like the Recaro deep bucket seat (now in its third car) and the fat, soft rimmed steering wheel from a Dodge Charger.

Driving lights are a matter of personal choice. I get very good service from a variety of Cibie lights. Their new "Z beam" headlight units are the best I have used.

Now for the stack of parts remaining from when you removed everything from the car. Don't feel you need to put everything back. Question the necessity of each item. Do you need a heater? Do you need a headliner? The items you do feel the need for—can they be lightened, moved back and/or lower in the car? Always remember that weight and weight distribution are important factors in the preparation of a car for rally competition.