Rallycross

[Caithness]

What kind of speeds do you see on these courses? I worry about going sideways at higher speed on a soft surface- it's hard to roll a low-slung car like ours on pavement but get a car sideways in the dirt and it just might dig in and flip.

 

[1LE]

Not very fast, barely out of first gear really. Yeah, cars flip doing this. A far more regular occurance than with autox. If you can't afford to roll it and walk away, don't go flat out

 

[RonJeremY]

I finished my second full rallycross season this year with the Oregon Rally Group, that's www.oregonrally.com for you NW'ers. It does beat on the car, not that bad really, just finds loose/old/weak parts for you before they break anyway. This probably will vary alot region to region based on what you are driving on. All of our events are on wet grass/dirt, no rocks, we use a water truck to keep speeds safe and cars on their wheels. If a car rolls, the track is too dry and/or bumpy. No SCCA safety steward should let that happen very often. I have not seen a car roll yet, but a pickup did the year before I started. You would have to be out of control to roll a DSM, IMHO. Any wheels work fine, I have used my 225/50ZR16 KDW's the whole time (probably why there are still subies beating me), and only pulled a tire off bead in my wife's car with the crappy soft tires that were on it when we bought it. Cost me $3 to have it put back on by a guy who brings an "outfitted" truck with a tire mounting machine and compressor to our events

If you regularly maintain your car, lower the boost to near stock levels, keep your tire pressure normal, and clean ALL of the rally mess off after you are done (under car is important IMHO), you should be ok. Your shocks will get a workout. The only thing that went wrong on mine was I "hurried" up a sticky thermostat. Had to rev it above 3500 every minute or so to keep the bypass opening and my head cool. My wife let me drive her A6 Biturbo 6spd (gasp!) for a few events until I ripped the plastic belly pan off on some piled up dirt! It probably wouldn't have happened if I would have replaced all the missing fasteners first, but I don't sweat the small stuff. It also blew an IC pipe clamp, but if you can't find a hose clamp at a rallycross, you can't be helped! I had time to find a clamp, put it back on, and didn't lose my spot in grid.

Stock DSM's are incredibly fun to drive sideways at rallycross speeds, most of our courses I run in second gear after launching in first. Some tight hairpins I will shift down for, but only for a second. The less lag the better. You want power now, no time for it to "develop". I would reccommend anyone try it, and if you can, thow on some studless snow tires, they are legal in Stock class, and give you much more "dig" and "bite" than large tread blocks. I am going to try that next year, and who knows, I might take home one of those plastic medals! IC sprayers work good for removing heat soak when you leave grid for your next run. Spray your wheelwells with PAM or WD40 to keep the dirt from sticking. Close your sunroof FFS, it is funny how those spinning wheels can throw dirt in weird arcs...

We need to get more people involved, for sure. I am tired of seeing 20 Subies below and 4-6 above me in the results, with a light sprinkling of crazy Audi 4000Q drivers mixed in. Do yourself a favor, and try doing it in the dirt! It is a hell of alot of fun for $25-30. And the people aren't nearly as pretentious and overly serious as the autocross crowd I have also seen some interesting cars show up, like a subie wagon with nitrous and a mercedes kompressor driven by a button actuated clutch, Mad Max style!

Pics at www.pdxsports.com under rallycross, look for the green/blacktop 95 Talon and white 00 A6

Check SCCA's website under rallycross as someone else posted. There are also "brisk gravel" TSD's I have not tried yet, I hear those crazy canadians put on some winter rallies with very high average speeds for snow events.

 

[everbruin]

inaugural rallyX for new venue near Sacramento:
$40 Sun april 29
http://www.csccautox.org/5-7-06.htm

Prairie City OHV info at http://www.ohv.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=1221

 

[DROOPY209]

inaugural rallyX for new venue near Sacramento:
$40 Sun april 29
http://www.csccautox.org/5-7-06.htm

Prairie City OHV info at http://www.ohv.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=1221

not very far from me......

 

[xyexz]

I can't believe this thread is still going , lots changed for me but is there any rallyx in ohio not far from columbus anymore?
They got rid of the ovr events in london.

 

[1LE]

How far away are the WOR events for you? Last I heard they were still active.

 

[xyexz]

I live in Groveport which is about 25mins outside of downtown columbus on the east side.
I don't know much about WOR or where they hold their events.
http://www.ovr-scca.org/_rallycross/rallycrosshome.asp check out the ovr rally-x webpage, just found out from a buddy they have pics of my talon on there . Kinda kewl.
It's the only talon in the pics but there's 3 of them, one of them has caught one of my awd dirt launches where I was really flinging some dirt around, on street tires!

 

[phirn]

hey any got tips on how to set up a rally car i really need some, thou this lucks extremely fun! kinda wann do this myself so any advice would be awesome

 

[everbruin]

for tight courses, i unlink the front sway to get good rotation.
i run stock springs, but different venues can favor different/stiffer susp setups.
if you run coilovers, do whatever you can to get max ride height and travel.
for toe, i like 1/8" out front, 0 back.

 

[1LE]

Stiff springs, soft struts, stock swaybars.