Phil,

To be honest pal, and I never get embroiled in the bun fights on here, its horses for courses....A car of that age will have been many different things from the first build to present.

Most rally cars dont end their lives as they begin, some get developed, some have the specs diluted as people selling them remove all the trick parts.

The fact it may have been a grp'n' saph, would suggest the build spec/budget would not have been suffcient to install a weld in cage. I know you understand a weld in cage is better, torsional strength is added and the package becomes safer in the event of an accident, but lots of rally cars both old and new still use FIA approved bolt in cages with great sucess.

The cage looks to me like an OMP or Sparco bolt in, both which will provide some additional stiffness to the car and provide safety in the event of an accident.

The rest of the spec looks very similar to the first saph I ever rallied, the car performed fantasically well on both gravel and tar, and we did actually do the Network Rally in it....although by then it did have a dog box in.....

The car was very reliable and fairly competitive, obviously time has moved on and a similar specced subaru would probs be faster on a stage, but not at £4.5K......

All in all pal, you've got yourself a little bargain, i'd go and put it to the job for which it was built.....

If you need any pointers that way pal, give me a shout...

Ian