Rally-X'ing Saturday!

After multiple sporadic rallys in my now long-gone Subaru RS, the last of which was at Glen Helen in an INTENSELY MUDDY situation which I think the VX would have kicked ace in, I plan on spinning the Ironman's Geolandars through the probably-muddy-again course at GH tomorrow as a last-minute invite to the event!
Nothing too championshipish, doing it for sheer fun. I do know that last time the cars were basically swimming through the mud so if it's like that again I should cruise through with a nice advantage.
We plan on getting some nice pics and some video so I'll put up what we get.
:_steering

some video would be awesome :bwgy:

Good Luck...make us all proud & bring home a trophy.

Looking forward to some pics.:thumbup:

looking forward to seeing the pictures, good luck!!

Well, I cannot express how :( I am that I found out this morning that my buddy's camera was set to the poorest quality video mode at the rally yesterday. Just one of those small, REALLY inportant things I assumed was ready to go since the PICTURE mode was set to high quality. I pretty much came home with a bunch of pics of the VX just muddy as hell.
It was super fun and a really great course to run, but I'm afraid the videos are such low grade that they're more painful to watch than enjoyable. I'm sifting through them today and I'll load anything that's worth squinting at.
There are new pics in my gallery. Including one of my muffler somehow coming apart at a weld point on the freeway on the drive up :eek:. (I think that's my fault from a month ago :rolleyes:) Luckily there are some WELL equipped individuals at rallys--had to borrow a power saw and cut the entire exhaust back half off! It ran fine, actually sounded twice as mean as before.
As for the race, the dirt actually dried up a bit just before my group, so the competition was fine. I did fine--no cones but made a wrong turn on a cloverleaf on the first run. Like I said before I wasn't trying to win anything. although it would of been sweet. The VX though was by far the attention-getter on the scene.

Rally rocks, glad you were able to get the VX to an event! I can't express how much I miss hosting events here in FL.

Cool pics. Looks like lots of fun. What was your top speed in the mud?

Bart

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Originally Posted by nfpgasmask

Cool pics. Looks like lots of fun. What was your top speed in the mud?

Bart

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Top speed or time?

time=to be honest, i don't know. I was in the last run group of the day and most of the early competitors had left already. It was starting to rain again and everyone wanted to just pick up the course...after a few fun runs of course! They only read off the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers and didn't even bother reading off times. I didn't even check..I only care if I'm close!

speed=on the course, I was too busy counting cones! naw, I don't know, there was good straightaway and I probably got up to about 30 right before a good yank of the E brake.
But there was an unused course behind the main one that I practiced on first and it was a lot more open, so I got to haul *** and even JUMP a nice crest.
YES, there should be video--refer to my earlier post for why you probably won't get to see it :mad:

well, other than the video, glad everything went well and no damage to the VX or you, at least the exhaust system should be easy to fix

sorry, I should have posted AFTER I saw the photos, you're stuck with me 2x in a row now :)
wow, rallying here is not what I was expecting, I've got several old videos of Class B Rallying in Europe with multiple big jumps and gobs of people right next to the race, do we have anything like this here in the East? If so and it's something similar to what your pictures are like, I definitely might do it, I would be too afraid of rolling the VX if this was a Euro-style rally
I'm just going by the photos of the course looking nice and flat

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Let me know next time and I'll drive up with ya.
I can work pit crew...or finally get mine dirty too!!

jo

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Originally Posted by JoFotoz

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Let me know next time and I'll drive up with ya.
I can work pit crew...or finally get mine dirty too!!

jo

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Damn Jo, that would have been cool. There was plenty of open area to play around on up there too. I actually wanted to get a small local meet up going this weekend--with the rain we could have headed east a little and had some OR fun out there--but this came up at the last minute.
Maybe next weekend?

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Originally Posted by Joe Isuzu

wow, rallying here is not what I was expecting, I've got several old videos of Class B Rallying in Europe with multiple big jumps and gobs of people right next to the race, do we have anything like this here in the East?

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I did some work for an SCCA rally in Colorado a few years back. It isn't WRC stuff, but it's somewhat closer. When I was there, I saw an Evo upside down (they're not nearly as pretty that way) and a WRX that sheared off a telephone pole with the passenger door. Amazingly, the door still worked!

I think the problem is that "Rally" gets used for a dozen different sports. My friend used to do Autocross (I think), which was sometimes just cones on a airport runway, and sometimes a muddy field. I can't keep them all straight.

[taken from the FAQ's section of my friend's website]:

http://tommygunrally.com/index.html


How do stage rallies and rallycrosses differ?
Stage Rallies (or ‘ProRallys’ as they used to be called under the Sports Car Club of America, or SCCA) can be viewed as the ‘crème de la crème’ of rally, as they have the most prepared automobiles and are the largest events—both in miles of competitive racing and cost. Events local to us, such as California’s Gorman Ridge Rally and Arizona’s Prescott Rally are typical stage rallies in America and mimic most closely the events you might have seen on television or in internet clips. First, a stage rally requires a co-driver who dictates upcoming road conditions to the driver. The 1- to 3-day event is broken up into 10 to 15 ‘stages’ which each consist of 5-15 miles of flat-out racing through forests, deserts, and any other kind of terrain imaginable.
The cars are separated by 1 to 2-minute time windows and race against the clock. At the end of the event, those drivers and co-drivers with the least aggregate time are declared the winners. National-level stage rallies number just over a dozen nationwide; in addition to numerous regional events that typically have fewer miles, lower costs, and a more compact schedule.

The fundamental difference between stage rally and rallycross is both the level of car preparation and layout of the competitive course. Rallycross, is much friendlier to the novice competitor.
Rallycross cars can vary in level of preparation from street stock, that is, one can purchase it on the showroom, to fully-prepared. ‘Fully prepped’ cars feature extensive modifications to the engine, suspension, and chassis and can in most cases be used as stage rally cars.
Course layouts for rallycross events are quite dissimilar than its’ stage rally brethren. Rather than racing on public forest roads in the middle of nowhere for dozens of miles, rallycross courses are large loops set up in plain sight of both spectators and other competitors, delineated by cones or natural objects. The loop is often between one-half mile to one mile in length, depending on venue and course design.

This is very similar to autocrossing which often takes place in large paved lots, like San Diego’s Qualcomm stadium. Drivers compete alone in their automobiles, as no co-driver is needed to dictate directions.
The focus in rallycross is simply on the driver and his/her precision driving abilities over a short course, rather than highest horsepower or most expensive/trick car setup (sometimes, class winners actually have the least horsepower of others they are racing against, illustrating the focus on a driver’s overall finesse and technique).
After a number of laps are driven by each competitor, times are added together and the winner determined by lowest total time elapsed. The courses are new at every event, and no competitor is allowed access to the course in a motorized vehicle. Also, since the times are aggregated and no laps are dropped from total times, each lap must be raced in the most controlled-but fast-manner, as downed cones or spinning out will usually result in a loss for the event. This is notably different than Solo2 (autocrossing) where simply your best lap wins.

Since the total mileage for a rallycross event numbers under 5, attrition due to mechanical issues is kept to a minimum. This increases the overall attractiveness of the sport to both new and seasoned competitors. This is, of course, in stark contrast to stage rally events, where often 10-30% of the entrants are forced out due to mechanical issues. (back to top)

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Originally Posted by Joe Isuzu

sorry, I should have posted AFTER I saw the photos, you're stuck with me 2x in a row now :)
wow, rallying here is not what I was expecting, I've got several old videos of Class B Rallying in Europe with multiple big jumps and gobs of people right next to the race, do we have anything like this here in the East? If so and it's something similar to what your pictures are like, I definitely might do it, I would be too afraid of rolling the VX if this was a Euro-style rally
I'm just going by the photos of the course looking nice and flat

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Joe,

I missed this post earlier.
No it was nothing like classic, actual stage rally.
The course was flat, but not nice! The cake-up of all the mud gets really clumpy and there were some rather large tracks and divets in the course. A tip over was quite possible for anyone making a semi-drastic miscalculation.
I actually think I babied the VX--and for good reason! (hello, daily driver...)

good posts cyronman, appreciate the education on this, yes, rally x'ing is definitely much more in-line with something I might try, seems like a lot of fun and like you said, not terribly dangerous unless you do something stupid while driving an SUV

ive been thinking about entering an autocross near my moms house, from what ive seen all sorts of vehicles..mostly roadsters and coupes since they are very tight courses, but i've seen a few WRXs and EVOs out there, i havent seen them but friends say they have seen a couple of 2 door blazers and small pickups out there too. Id be willing to bet the VX would do well, based on the website, the courses are mostly dependant on good braking and tight turning.. both of which the vx is capable of..

http://www.capitaldrivingclub.com/

I still think I'd feel better doing the rally-cross over an autocross, I've done several autocrosses before and with the drastic direction changes (left, sharp right, straight, brake, right, left, left, right, etc) I would really fear for upsetting the balance of something as top-heavy as the VX, yea it handles well but you can't overcome physics
this rally cross thing appears to be mostly sweepers and if there are tight corners, they don't seem to be one right after another ad nauseum
last thing to consider is autocrossing is pretty hard on your tires and your brakes
but hey, if you do it, let us know how you do!

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Originally Posted by Joe Isuzu

I still think I'd feel better doing the rally-cross over an autocross, I've done several autocrosses before and with the drastic direction changes (left, sharp right, straight, brake, right, left, left, right, etc) I would really fear for upsetting the balance of something as top-heavy as the VX, yea it handles well but you can't overcome physics
this rally cross thing appears to be mostly sweepers and if there are tight corners, they don't seem to be one right after another ad nauseum
last thing to consider is autocrossing is pretty hard on your tires and your brakes
but hey, if you do it, let us know how you do!

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exactly