We have done the Great Beater Challenge every year except for 2022 when we had a family milestone birthday to attend on the same weekend. This year marked our return to the Challenge. As a quick refresher the general idea of the Great Beater Challenge is as follows: buy a cheap vehicle ($700 or less all in including repairs), come up with a team theme, drive it on a road trip while completing a scavenger hunt, and have fun.
This year there was not really funds or space to buy an additional vehicle but we did have a budget compatible Hyundai Elantra already. I had bought it for $1200 but recently someone had hit the front fender with their truck, wrinkling it but they gave us $500 in lei of having to fix it. Luckily this put us into the correct budget ballpark. I banged out the dent and it looks acceptable from ten feet away. As for a theme I figured the Elantra was silver and therefore looked pretty much exactly like the Delorean from the Back to the Future movie series provided one squinted really, really hard.
There were additional points on the line if one had participated in a motor sport event with their beater. Fortunately, the previous summer my two older sons and I had done a few auto-x events. We even managed to finish lower mid pack despite having the most modest vehicle by far.
We now had to turn our Elantra into a time machine with basically no budget. I hatched a plan that involved an old bike rack and my favorite Beater Challenge building material, free dumpster plywood.
After a short time we had two vents plus a sort of tongue to help mount them. Several of the wood screws were re-used from previous year’s builds.
A lick of whatever paint I had lying around plus a Cadillac hubcap followed by tacking on a few bits that were in the garage and the rear exterior was set.
This is what makes simulated time travel possible — the flux crapisitor. It was also built with random bits and bobs. Sharp eyes will spot a few European style fuses, household electrical box, Toyota speedometer mechanical bits, edge trimmer engine bearing and trailer wiring which all went into this one.
Also on the inside we had an old radar detector (genuine Fuzzbuster II with simulated wood grain finish) and an older trailer brake controller. The time circuit panel was printed up with the 2023 GBC date as well as the date of the very first GBC in 2016.
A car with a special edition trim is worth a few extra points. Luckily our Elantra is a totally legit special edition.
The time machine external bits mounted up reasonably easy with some racket straps to hold it all to the bike rack.
We did a sealed beam headlight conversion with some electrical tape for that authentic Deloran look.
The rear tail lights were also brought into DeLorean specification with a similar technique. As a bonus they could help solve many electrical problems on route as needed.
The legitimate Delorean was produced by DMC, ours was sported a HMC badge.
We just need some extension cords attached to the side to complete the look.
My two younger sons would be coming along with me this year. Costume wise we went with two Marty McFlys and one Doc Brown.
The route was very similar the inaugural edition through the southern portion of British Columbia. For this year the title for the whole event was “Ode to a Paint Tray Hood Scoop” which was a nod to the very first year when our K-car sported a custom hood scoop in an attempt to stop over heating (it did not work).
Unfortunately, I do not have the original scoop but I did have the one from the second year as used on the Honda Civic so it made another appearance but with some extra time machine wiring.
That wraps up the conversion from budget commuter car to movie replica. In the installment we will meet the other teams.
The 2023 Great Beater Challenge Series
The 2023 Great Beater Challenge Series
Well, there goes another perfectly good paint tray. 😀
Your GBC posts are so much fun to read.
This is family togetherness your two younger Marty McFlys will never forget.
The photo of your garage (door open), and the long view people may get of it on the street directly approaching your driveway, makes me wonder if drivers might become distracted by the odd things going on there.
Good luck in the run. I hope someone enters Biff’s 1946 Ford Super Deluxe, though getting a running one for $700 may be difficult.
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving Day David, and great work! Nice to see your writing again.
I started to quite like Hyundai styling during this era. Still very generic, but increasingly mainstream. Creative mods, nicely done. Looking forward to this series!
Great Scott!!!! – They’re at it again!
Love these posts David… They were definitely missed last year.
Good Lick in the Challenge, although if you are writing it up, I imagine it’s already done, but then such is the way with time travel.
Oh, and most likely, your Hyundai is going to be more reliable than a DMC-12 anyway.
Oriented Strand Board or OSB actually. Like plywood only half the price. Don’t get it wet if you cut it. Uh-oh.
That was exactly what I said when these Elantras first came out – damned if it doesn’t look a little like a Delorean!
It is too bad you couldn’t have incorporated some fabric into the guts of the machine – or maybe a flax capacitor is less effective for time travel.
Looking forward to this year’s contest!
Thanks all. This event was at the end of August. I just got around to writing it up now.
Spoiler alert. We did see an almost, sort of 1946 Ford Super Deluxe in our travels.
And Happy Canadian Thanksgiving Day as well.
Oriented Strand Board would be great but the plywood was free so hard to argue with that.
Happy Thanksgiving! This is great news that you did the challenge again, a super event to do with your sons.
I wish we had both a GBC and $700 cars in Ontario.
I’ll second that. CAD700 is USD515 as of today. I know Las Vegas is an expensive place to buy cars. Around here, that (2003?) Elantra would sell in the $2500-$3000 range. Well, at least it wouldn’t be a rustbucket if you bought it here.
Our GBC is the Gardiner Expressway and the 401. Maybe more demolition derby, but you get the point.
We don’t even have $7000 cars here.
Looking forward to another ride in the GBC David!
Second that! That would be a hoot to have it out in this neck of the woods. And given the fall colours this time of year, there would be a plethora of fun routes that could be taken on such a challenge.
Sweet .
I look forward to the full write up .
-Nate