Awesome story - Guy takes 3rd in WRC with $500 Craigslist BMW
03-23-2010, 11:05 AM
#1
Melting Slicks
Thread Starter
Member Since: Sep 2003
Location: If you don't weigh in you don't wrestle Road America
Posts: 3,031
Likes: 0
Received 73 Likes
on
54 Posts
Awesome story - Guy takes 3rd in WRC with $500 Craigslist BMW
Just skimmed through this but for anyone who has sacrificed to race this is a truely awesome story.
http://jalopnik.com/5497042/how-a-50...k-rally-racers
http://jalopnik.com/5497042/how-a-50...k-rally-racers
03-23-2010, 03:55 PM
#8
Melting Slicks
Member Since: Dec 2004
Location: Bay Area CA
Posts: 2,394
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Ya that story is awesome. Already sent that link out to some fellow work people. The guy has to be a pretty good wheel as well to get that "race car" through that event.
I think it is really cool he developed a following and spent time signing autographs etc. Had to be one hell of an experience.
Fej
I think it is really cool he developed a following and spent time signing autographs etc. Had to be one hell of an experience.
Fej
03-23-2010, 04:21 PM
#9
Burning Brakes
HAHA I also liked his showmanship: Co Driver yelling at him as he's going opposite lock sideways through the corner with a thumbs up out the window for the cameras/crowd.
Or how he said he doesn't care if he looses a few tenths by going sideways through every turn banging off the rev limiter..."it makes the crowd go NUTS"
HAHA this guy seems like he would be a blast to watch compete in WRC.
Or how he said he doesn't care if he looses a few tenths by going sideways through every turn banging off the rev limiter..."it makes the crowd go NUTS"
HAHA this guy seems like he would be a blast to watch compete in WRC.
03-23-2010, 05:09 PM
#10
Great story! He actually is from my home town and you can always see old POS BMWs in the driveway and in the backyard on trailers. The funny thing is this is not some rural town he lives in but a pretty nice suburb and it all looks so out of place. I give him a ton of props for putting this run together!! 
03-24-2010, 02:07 AM
#12
Safety Car
Great story, and that is why I love Jalopnik.
I raced with Caswell in the 2004 One Lap - he showed up moments before registration closed in an M3-engine swapped E30 3 series (having *just* finished the swap), with his sister(?) in tow as the co-driver.
I was unable to finish my big build for that year and went in my grandfather's WRX. Next year was even worse, lifter failure the day before the start of One Lap in my LS1 powered RX7.
I raced with Caswell in the 2004 One Lap - he showed up moments before registration closed in an M3-engine swapped E30 3 series (having *just* finished the swap), with his sister(?) in tow as the co-driver.
I was unable to finish my big build for that year and went in my grandfather's WRX. Next year was even worse, lifter failure the day before the start of One Lap in my LS1 powered RX7.
03-25-2010, 01:01 AM
#15
Le Mans Master
Naturally, it was only a matter of time before a skeptic had to
splash a little algid aqua on the story
.
splash a little algid aqua on the story
Originally Posted by flohtingPoint
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 such 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.
ran in a concurrent rally. He wasn't competing against major teams
and such 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.
