New Team - Logistics - Towing - etc.?

I live in Arizona, and I've driven to the start of all the rallies I've been on, 7 of them I think. It's usually a 2 day drive, sometimes 3 or 4 to get to the start.

Getting there is half the fun.

edit: ps. Make sure the wheel bearings have grease in them before you leave

When the wheel bearing went out, I was over 1600 miles from home, on a side trip on my way to the rally. You can't buy wheel bearings for an early Tempest, you have to get lucky with junkyards, etc. But I got it fixed. It's a great story. If I'd hauled the car to the start of the rally, the thing probably would have broke when I was not real far from home, but also somewhere where I could not find parts. You just never know how things will work out, or not.

You only live once. Go for it.

I'd throw a hitch on the Buick, and tow a U-Haul trailer with my stuff, driving the Buick! Solves for space! Or you could buy a trailer and incorporate it into your theme.

We want to do a Lemons race in the future so we purposely are trying to keep the car close to $500...or at least maintain the "spirit" of a $500 car. 

Our car is a 99 Buick Century - typical story of most of these cars - was someone's grandma's, they died, it sat for several years, guy on my team found out about it, we offered cash and got it.  It has the 3.1 V6 so still a reliable engine - not the famous 3800 but still good.  Our main issue we're running down right now is leaks and suspension issues.  We're leaking pretty much every fluid, but the engine/trans seem rock solid so far.  We've actually raced together before in another series so we're pretty comfortable with getting the car mechanically sound for the trip and aren't concerned about reliability.

Fitting 4 people into this car is no issue, just fitting 4 people with stuff is a potential problem unless we get really creative with what we pack.  We can probably pack fairly light on the clothing and tool side and get it to fit, but it'd be nice to have things like a full size jack, jack stands, etc. which we will be unable to carry with 4 people and stuff.  Being realistic we can probably fit a small mechanics toolkit and a couple of battery tools along with 4 small suitcases and that'd be it.  I don't think a trailer is an option because in true Lemons fashion the car is quite rusty.

Honestly not sure on loss - we picked up the car about a month ago and just got it cleaned up and started driving it some last week.  We've put less than 100 miles on it so far.  Where it sat for so long we keep springing random leaks.  We've got a trans cooler line leaking at the radiator - I believe the seal/oring is just gone.  We have a coolant leak from a radiator hose that just sprung up.  Also seems like we've got a shot wheel bearing we just discovered as well.  Rear shocks are completely done -  we may not do anything about that but we are eyeballing replacing them because we can found clearance monroe shocks for $20 each.  Nothing concerning, we will get it fixed in time easily.  Thankfully the car has very good parts availability and everything is dirt cheap for it.

Thanks for the inspiration. 

One way is insanely expensive.  Honestly it's so expensive if we drove the Buick up without a support vehicle and broke down it'd be cheaper to fly someone down to grab our tow vehicle and trailer and bring it back up.  When I ran the numbers thru the Uhaul and Penske sites it's $2200-$2500 for a truck + trailer rental one way for the distance we need to go (Boston MA to Johnson City TN).  This is another reason we're considering bringing a support vehicle.  At least a uhaul trailer rental one way is "only" $500 or we could rig up a flat tow or something if we didn't bring our full size trailer.

Honestly, you'll most likely be fine if the powertrain runs fine for at least a week and you can fix most of the current issues.  The car will likely start displaying some additional issues when you start stretching its legs, but if you daily it for at least two weeks, you'll probably cover most of everything.  As far as a jack goes, I highly recommend grabbing one of the little 1.5-ton aluminum jack from Harbor Frieght.  They're a little smaller and WAY lighter.  I keep my jack and stands on the passenger side rear foot well of my Baja, because I have other stuff back in the bed.  Since you have a trunk, you could hide those things (mostly) in a corner.  And there will be other cars in the rally with their own tools, so if there's something you lack, someone else may have it.

  I do my personal clothing and electronics in two backpacks, and I wear pants for multiple days.  Other stuff is easy to pack.  Some things could be stuffed into the backseat.  My family did a road trip home from Atlanta with 5 people and all their stuff in a Chevy Celebrity back in the early 90's, and we made it without killing each other.  I'm sure you guys will be fine.

You can always add a rooftop luggage carrier.  I drove 4 people in a 96 cavalier from Ohio to Florida and the luggage acrrier was the hero on that trip. That era cavalier had little to no trunk.

Oh and no suitcases, everyone is in a duffle.  You can squeeze duffles, but not suitcases!