Civic are quite good, in that with their wishbone setup, they've got virtually no bump steer, the trade off though is less travel. Civic are good though because they've got good gearboxes. With a rally car, you find a car with a good gearbox, and build the rest around it...
Yep, and actually sold it to a guy in Canberra. If you see a white excel, white fiberglass roof vent, and Supra looking rear wing, that was mine!
As for the excel bit, there's nearly 50 of them across Oz, and name me a better car for a stock one make series? They're cheap, parts are a plenty, they're relatively quick stock, have independent rear suspension (odd for a late model budget small car), and don't break... We regularly knocked off some of the slower WRX and Evo's in ours!