Rat X, Outlaw X, modded X

Thanks for the photos. Nice bit of goodies came with the car. I'll probably be a on third body by the time you get on this car (Just kidding). The nice thing about rats is they are constantly under development with good or bad ideas. Let's make 2019 the year you get started.
 
carl said:
Thanks for the photos. Nice bit of goodies came with the car. I'll probably be a on third body by the time you get on this car (Just kidding). The nice thing about rats is they are constantly under development with good or bad ideas. Let's make 2019 the year you get started.
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Seconded. Mine will start this spring.
 
carl said:
I'll probably be a on third body by the time you get on this car (Just kidding).
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Very likely. I seem to be getting less and less done as the years pass. Yet I keep adding more and more projects to the list. Something's gotta give eventually.


Hasbro said:
Mine will start this spring.
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Have we seen what you are starting with? Or what your plans are? I'm always open to ideas.
 
I've sort of kept it quiet in case this deal didn't come through but thought I'd posted this. And this is happening completely due to Pete making it available to me. It's his old track car and is basically rust free and straight. Lots of parts and it will travel as a roller. By the way, this thread gave me the idea to name it! Never named a car before. Since it's sort of an Outlaw X and an '86; Black Bert. License plate; BLKBRT.
X 1-9, Pete's.jpg
 
Black Bart

I get the Bert(one) part :)

Clever, Trevor (Ian Dury and the Blockheads)
 
Gotta admit, it did not come to me right away. :oops:

This reflects back to your thread about a trailer. ;) That will make a great outlaw/rat street car.
I've always liked having a "track car" type vehicle that is street legal but purely performance oriented. Fun for occasional bonsai runs {anyone remember the popular midnight bonsai runs on the 405 freeway through Orange County/LA in the 80's?}.
 
Dr.Jeff said:
Gotta admit, it did not come to me right away. :oops:

This reflects back to your thread about a trailer. ;) That will make a great outlaw/rat street car.
I've always liked having a "track car" type vehicle that is street legal but purely performance oriented. Fun for occasional bonsai runs {anyone remember the popular midnight bonsai runs on the 405 freeway through Orange County/LA in the 80's?}.
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Why would anyone want to make a midnight run to pick up a miniature Japanese tree? ;)
 
Make sure you leave the decals on.

I went on the DCfiats new years day SOHC drive in the 77. Very nice but it confirmed that I have more fun in a stupidly stripped X on a 30 minute drive.
Naming cars is a personal choice. When the kids were little they named my Fiats just by the color... the red car the blue car etc.

I'm glad to see this thread came alive again, I had been thinking that there was just not enough interest in this kind of thing to keep it going.
 
I hear you, Carl, every time I would go to a cars n' coffee I would always leave early to do what is best; driving.

My future X is stripped. It has no dash, minimal fuse box, full cage, shift light. It's provenance is a racecar. It will actually be aesthetically spruced up to road legal standards but kept as bare bones as possible. Weight goal is 1500 lbs. Very extreme but doable. If it doesn't get down that low it will be an enjoyable attempt anyway. It definitely won't be a budget rat but should still fit in that category.

Don't know why pics are so small
X Bert cockpit.jpg
X Bert Fazas.jpg
X Bert shift light tach.jpg
X Black Bert seat.jpg


edit; the front of the cage unbolts.
 
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Be careful of any roll cage by your head, if it was like the ITC racer I was trying to streetify you will find the north/south upper bars too close to your unhelmeted head.
 
Yes, thanks, curious to see if it will work. I had Kirk Racing build a full cage for a mini that was streetable and it worked very well and he continued to use the pattern even for track only minis. So, perhaps some nip and tuck will be in order, or maybe even removal. Hope not.

Seat placement will be interesting, also. I like a very low seat and that will affect the cage. By the way, I haven't sat in an X in over 25 years!
 
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Don't know how old or limber you are but would be fun to see a video of you climbing into the car with a full race seat, cage and top on! I didn't even try on my ex racer.
 
If you have a crappy X, then speak up. No need to lurk here, you're among friends. We understand. :D
 
Skully, look familiar? Good to see you are still on the forum. Did you get another X by chance?
 
Dr.Jeff said:
You guys are starting to concern me with how nice your "ratty" cars look. Both Carl and Mike talk like their cars are really trashed, but in the photos they look better than my "nice" X, let alone my 'outlaw' crappy one. I'll have to take a couple photos to show just how bad it is. Otherwise everyone else might get the wrong idea about this whole 'ugly car' concept. :p

One thing great about having a car with rough body/paint and nothing major invested in it, is when you go to the store you can park it right up by the entrance - squeezed between those two poorly parked cars by bad drivers that don't respect other people's' cars. Otherwise you have to park as far away from everyone as possible and worry the whole time you are in the store that there will be a door ding in it when you come out.

Carl, once you no longer need to use this X as your car, I still think the cut down 'race' windshield idea would be great. I thought I had pictures of one with a 1/4 windscreen; same angle as stock but much shorter. But all I found was the concept "runabout":

View attachment 14048


And these 'laydown' flat ones:

View attachment 14046
View attachment 14047

But these other examples may help give some ideas:

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Does anyone here have Judge Parker's D/Mod car? It's the blue "205" in the pics from the Aug 11 post. (14046)
 
Curious, where do you find the location for number 14046?

Regarding windshields, some of the ones shown earlier, being plastic, would not comply in many states. Some states that would allow it require a helmet. I very much want to alter the roof/windshield and quite a bit of the body on an X but not this one as it is too nice to tear into. After rolling this one home I would like to acquire a rough one that can be cut up without feeling I'm taking a good one off the road and see if some of the ideas (some are years old) would apply well. I have refrained from joining some of the design discussions since there hasn't been a live one in front of me yet.
 
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