Friday 26th May 2017

Shed Of The Week: Daihatsu Sirion Rally 2

Comfortably more than 100hp, comfortably less than both 1,000kg and £1,000 - there's a lot going for it!

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What's best: (1) going fast in a car that could easily go a whole lot faster, or (2) going fast in a car that's going as fast as it can?

If your answer is (2) then you might be interested in this week's Shed, a Daihatsu Sirion Rally 2.

Does it get better from a distance?

When it first appeared in Europe in 1998, the Sirion (or Storia as it was known in Japan) attracted a lot of comments for its looks, most of them negative. Cranking up its well-earned reputation for sophisticated humour, the motor trade called it the 'Silly One'. Ooh me sides.

If it was launched now though you suspect that it wouldn't get such a hard time, city car design having in some way caught up with the little Daihatsu's presciently upswept side windows and inoffensively metrosexual blobbiness. This is a 20 year old design, remember.

In another interesting twist, we see that the basic '98 Sirion had a three-cylinder 1.0-litre engine. Again, all very familiar in today's city cars, but quite radical back in the 20th century. Then you realise that Daihatsu had been doing triples as long ago as 1977, the high point arguably being the gigglesome and now sought-after third-gen Charade GTti Turbo, the world's first 1.0-litre 100hp/tonne production car. Good examples of this rambunctious rollerskate do not come cheap.

Anyway, let's return to our Sirion. Rowing back from the 713cc X4, a deliciously mad domestic-market cult-racer which put 118hp (!) through its twin-LSD (!) 4WD chassis, everyday hot Sirions came in Rally 4 or Rally 2 guise. Both used the naturally aspirated 107hp 1.3 four-pot motor that also saw duty in Toyota's Yaris.

Well we like rare Japanese curios, don't we?

The Rally 4's heavy four-wheel drive system predictably took the edge off its performance, but the 850kg 2's tin-box lightness gave it a highly respectable power to weight ratio of nearly 128hp/tonne. That's 106 GTI territory. In the Rally 2 it meant a 7-second (with a following wind) 0-60 time and a top whack in the order of 115mph. Driven in a quieter fashion you could easily get mpg figures in the low 50s. The insurance will be usefully low, especially on a classic policy.

So far, if you can get around the looks, the little Sirion is starting to appeal as a left-field and extremely rare town/B-road squirter: just 70 Rally 2s are currently registered, and 25 Rally 4s. The downsides could be un-low parts prices and the fact that you wouldn't really want to have an accident in one. Not that you'd want an accident in anything, of course, but if you do have one, have it in something else. At the very least, make sure that more than 40 per cent of your Sirion's front end is involved in any frontal assault. Although the Sirion had enough safety kit for Euro NCAP to give it an acceptable 3-star rating, German TUV/Auto Bild tests exposed a noticeable lack of resilience in front offset crash tests.

The seller of this car has uncovered another of the Rally's weaknesses, namely the brakes, or more accurately the lack of them. For those of a loony disposition, this will only add to the appeal, but for saner folk the effects of relying on the brakes and not on blind luck to get around the next corner are clearly shown in the last minute of this video of a Scotch man having a Buttertubs razz in his one.

You could be kind and call it cute

Contemporary road testers noticed this braking deficiency too, using disconcerting phrases like 'alarmingly soft' to describe the pedal.

What else? Well, the power steering is a bit too helpful, it'll always be noisy in the cabin, the short-travel suspension will challenge anyone wearing ill-fitting dentures, and those above hobbit size might struggle to find a comfy driving position. Surely, though, a little pain in one part of your life helps you to put the rest of it into a more positive perspective. That's how Shed looks at it anyway.

Gran Turismo 2 had a full-house 427hp rally version that cost one million credits. This real one is a lot more affordable at £650. That includes a new windscreen, a brand new MoT and some hopefully-fitted braided brake hoses.

Here's the ad.

Daihatsu Sirion Rally 2 in red - Cheap, reliable motoring
115bhp

85k miles (it's done 84588 to date and is in daily use for the nursery run)
12 months MOT (passed on 10/05/2017)

Just replaced the windscreen, red stainless braided PTFE brake hoses, new window switch.  One of the rear wheels had a flat spot which I have had repaired by a specialist for the MOT.  Other than that, it's totally standard.

There are small dents all over the place on it and the wheels are a bit tatty.
The interior is in really good condition. The brakes, although good enough to pass the MOT are a bit poor in my opinion, nothing that can't be sorted fairly easily and cheaply though (I have 4 cars and just haven't got round to it, I've had other priorities dictated to me my the better half and two small children).

The engine and gearbox are particularly sweet.  Over 4k rpm, the engine really comes alive and just keeps pulling relentlessly to the red line. It's a fun little car and with thicker anti-roll bars and some slightly less compliant springs it would be quite a little weapon. For the price, I think it's a bit of a bargain shed.

 

[AndySA]

I had a 2nd gen charade as my 1st car, still miss it almost 30 years on! The sense of speed at or even below the legal limit made it special. Got a ticket once at 2km/h over its stated max, was so proud I had it framed and mounted behind the bar in my varsity digs. Have many memories of passing much faster cars by simply driving the nuts off it. Mine was an na 3pot built in the alfa romeo factory in South Africa.