Some inspiration.

[raremotive]

Quote »This is the multifaceted tale of Bill Caswell, a man who bought a $500 crapcan off Craigslist to run against the $400,000+ rally cars in the World Rally Championship's Rally Mexico race earlier this month. It is a tale of a guy who had a welder, a bunch of credit cards, and a lot of free time but no real backing or funds. It is a story of a dude who taught himself how to build an FIA-legal roll cage, with no prior experience, because he wanted to spend the fabrication fee on race tires instead. It's the story of an enthusiast who drove a rustbucket to a third place finish in a FIA-sanctioned race.[/quote]http://jalopnik.com/5497042/ho...acers

[Jesda]

" So before the final time control, I climbed under the car and undid the motor mount arm with the awesome little factory tool kit in the trunk."

I bet BMW didn't imagine their emergency toolkit being used for rallying!

[nissangirl74]

That is beyond awesome. If I ever get to meet that guy, I'm buying him a beer!

[Veriest1]

Absolutely epic.

[Travisty]

YES

[MellowZ32]

He did this not out of stupidity, but out of a lack of resources — he wanted to go rallying, and this was the only way he could make it happen

awesome pic!

[lino]

Love the e30...especially that one

[r34 gtr]

That guy rules. He doesn't even know the extent to which he rules.

[breadbox]

Suite! Rally is f'n nutz. I love it.

[r34 gtr]

Nuckin Futz!

I just want to reiterate that this guy is THE effin man. I want him to read this. I want him to KNOW that he is THE man.

[Frank E Bones]

They said that I must be part Mexican because of the way I fix my car. That's a compliment, right?

I love that line

[skydragoness]

That guy rules. He doesn't even know the extent to which he rules.

So awesome! The part about him sliding over the bridge on 3 wheels was INSANE.

I'm even more impressed with the E30 than I already was. Epic!!

[Veriest1]

So awesome! The part about him sliding over the bridge on 3 wheels was INSANE.

I'd kill to have a video of that. And I'm sure it took longer to explain than to do!

[Pento240sx]

This guy is EFFIN AWSOME

[flohtingPoint]

I posted this in the repost of this thread:

Now for a dose of reality. Bill Caswell did NOT run in the WRC, he ran in a concurrent rally. He wasn't competing against major teams and the drivers he was up against were probably mediocre at best.. His car may have cost 500 bucks to start off with but it's far from that now. Taking a car out there and running a beater is not unheard of, I have photos somewhere from the WRC event in Trier back in '06 where there was a old Civic hatchback running the stages.

This story is severely blown out of proportion. He came in 3rd in a class of 9, four of which didn't finish and one of which didn't count, so 3rd out of 4. Bill Caswell's final time was 5:25:48.5. To put this in perspective, Loeb's time was 3:42:41.7 and the slowest of the professionals was 4:38:31.7. Basically the guy didn't kill his car so he was able to finish with the four other folks in his class. The one person he beat that finished everything, clocked in at a pedestrian 5:51:58.2.

What does this all mean? Of everyone that drove the stages that day, he was the second slowest overall. He didn't "beat 400k rally cars", he just came up heads on the war of attrition and didn't plant his car. Then again, when his car is dirt slow, it's hard to stuff it.

Bad story filled with embellishments and glaring lack of facts, stats and stage times. He did not trick the FIA or slide into the event by the seat of his pants or anything, he just registered for the Rally like the other folks in his class. His car was up to Rally America specs, so there was no problem. Then again, what do you expect from jalopnik, they're not Autosport or anything.