Night Navigation Trial Car

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Was just looking some information on prepping a car for a night navigation.

What car would be best suited? Where would I go about getting a good sump guard? As well as this what other modifications would you recommend?

If I was to go down the route of buying an already prepared night navigation car how much do they generally cost?

thanks for the help

ianobrien

For the best car, it's a 4wd Impreza (non-turbo obviously). Ideally the estate as that's got a low 'box. After that, the Forester. If you are starting out, I wouldn't go to the expense of buying one of them. I'd get a '90's Toyota (1.6 Corolla or 2.0 Carina) and use that. Night navs are hard on cars and if you don't like them you won't have much invested. Late '90's ex PSNI Vectras were popular for a while but have started to get rare. Jap cars generally take the beating of night navs but Primera's are too low, Almera's too slow, Civics too low. Don't even think of using Ford (soft gearbox) or VAG (too soft in general). Some would say avoid French but I used a Citroen AX GT for a while (and I was crap at them!)

Sump guards can be anything from made/bashed on by the local metal fabricator/handyman to proper engineered jobs. Other mods are a footrest for the navigator, extra interior light, spotlights, extra reversing light, second hand forestry tyres, tow rope attached to the rear towing eye and thrown into the boot, white painted front towing eye (to find it in the dark), two spare tyres, basic toolkit & spares (bulbs, belts etc). Another one is to extend the front mudflaps to the "10 o'clock" position on the drivers side (and matching on the passenger side) and have it about an inch out from the bodywork. That keeps the mud off the side windows a bit.

Pre-prepped night nav cars can from €500 from basic starter cars to €800-€1000 for tired Imprezas. Upper end it's Impreza, Forest Rally suspension, late 2.0n/a engine, STI quickrack, STI front calipers, intercom, etc.

Oh, don't even bother of fitting HID's into the headlight or into the spots. They are banned (except from headlights where o/e equipment is used for the lights as originally fitted by the manufacturer)

jameson4me

me and my mate that is sittin in with me bought a 01 legacy estate yesterday.. its on 17s so were tryin yo get 15" wheels for it as we have the forestry tyres got plus 15s are cheaper.. also lookin for a set of wrx seats.. have the sump and diff guards got today.. lookin forward to gettin goin.. my mate navigated before but this is my first time doing it so cant wait to get behind the wheel