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April 18, 2010 11:52 a.m. madpanda New Reader

I used to think I would have to shell out a couple of Gs to do any kind of driving school and had basically resigned myself to the fact that it wasn't going to happen in the near future. Then, a few weeks ago I found out about a rally school that was going to happen nearby to me and only cost around $350. Sweet.

I called the GF to ask her for permission to be gone all weekend and she said: "I want to drive". Double Sweet.

So last weekend we set off for the Primitive Rally School in Santa Rosa, CA. It was on the list at the end of the Rally Cross article in the April GRM! (The organizer/ head teacher Paul Eklund literally wrote the book erm...article :)

On Friday night we had 5 hours of classroom time and on Saturday we started doing exercises with an instructor in the car. It turns out a base 2001 Golf is really fun on the skidpad. As long as the skidpad is covered in 8 inches of mud The next exercise was the slalom where the Golf promptly proceeded to blend it's left CV joint leading to the first truly GRM moment of the weekend: field repair with a $59 part sourced from Kragen down the street:

Meanwhile the GF's Subaru was as happy as a pig in mud.

The GF was having a blast too and would proceed to beat the snot out of me at the rally cross on Sunday: 1:34 best time for her. 1:58 best time for me. But there were some circumstances that gave her AWD Subaru a slight advantage:

And the other truly GRM moment: I'm pretty sure the Samurai in the background of the last shot had the best times of the day, over caged and rally prepped STIs and such
April 18, 2010 12:04 p.m. ignorant SuperDork

awesomes
April 18, 2010 12:09 p.m. madpanda New Reader

So here are my questions:

The sticky mud ripped off pretty much every plastic shroud piece on the bottom of the Golf including the one that goes around the oil pan and both front fender liners. How much do I need those? and what would you replace them with to make them stand up to rally cross?

It is my daily driver and it's been well cared for until the insanity of last weekend. It's only at 178k so I'd like to keep it my daily driver for another few years.

Question 2: If my GF and I were to pick one of our cars to use for rally cross should we pick the Subaru or the Golf.

On one hand the Subaru is much faster and based on this weekend, tougher. It's also fun to put all the power down on the way out of corners rather than just spin up your new grass slicks.

On the other hand the Subaru is a 2.2 with an auto competing against STIs and Evos. Did I mention it's an auto? and everybody drives a Subaru anyway so it's fun to have something different with the Golf.

Option #3 is to buy a beater specifically for rallyX, something like a Mark III GTI but in San Francisco parking is a pain so I would have to do something creative like park it at work and hope it doesn't get broken into at night.
April 18, 2010 12:14 p.m. madpanda New Reader

ignorant wrote:

awesomes

Thanks!
April 18, 2010 12:40 p.m. ReverendDexter Dork

WTF?!? How did I not know about this? In my own town? ARGH!
April 18, 2010 1:30 p.m. maroon92 SuperDork

buy a beater, or swap the subie.

if you really want to have fun, get something RWD.
April 18, 2010 6:05 p.m. Carson Dork

Awesome! My day looked pretty similar to yours! Well, a lot dryer, too dry, but otherwise pretty similar.
April 18, 2010 9:11 p.m. Keith SuperDork

Sounds as if the Primitive rally school is more hands-on than the California Rally Series one. Excellent!
April 19, 2010 12:36 a.m. madpanda New Reader

ReverendDexter wrote:

WTF?!? How did I not know about this? In my own town? ARGH!

The next rallyX is May 15th and 16th at Prairie City near Sacramento. As far as I can tell this is the official information thread: linky

See you there?
April 19, 2010 12:59 a.m. friedgreencorrado SuperDork

Option #4. Find a ratty Mk.2 Golf, and run that in the 2WD class. It would keep from beating up your DD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5-rlv3cz24&feature=related

EDIT: Extreme coolness with what y'all did! I keep hearing that rallycross is like autocross, if so you should be able to share the Scoobie with your lady at the same event..
April 19, 2010 9:13 a.m. NGTD HalfDork

1 - I would think you want your fender liners, but you don't need the cover under the oil pan.

2 - The Subaru - you could always swap a manual box in. GRM says they are like Lego.

3- This is the way I went. I picked up an old Volvo 240. RWD - Volvos, XR4Ti's, Mustangs. FWD - Neons, Golfs, Hyundai Accents, etc. AWD - Subarus.

madpanda wrote:

So here are my questions:

The sticky mud ripped off pretty much every plastic shroud piece on the bottom of the Golf including the one that goes around the oil pan and both front fender liners. How much do I need those? and what would you replace them with to make them stand up to rally cross?

It is my daily driver and it's been well cared for until the insanity of last weekend. It's only at 178k so I'd like to keep it my daily driver for another few years.

Question 2: If my GF and I were to pick one of our cars to use for rally cross should we pick the Subaru or the Golf.

On one hand the Subaru is much faster and based on this weekend, tougher. It's also fun to put all the power down on the way out of corners rather than just spin up your new grass slicks.

On the other hand the Subaru is a 2.2 with an auto competing against STIs and Evos. Did I mention it's an auto? and everybody drives a Subaru anyway so it's fun to have something different with the Golf.

Option #3 is to buy a beater specifically for rallyX, something like a Mark III GTI but in San Francisco parking is a pain so I would have to do something creative like park it at work and hope it doesn't get broken into at night.
April 19, 2010 9:26 a.m. ReverendDexter Dork

madpanda wrote:

The next rallyX is May 15th and 16th at Prairie City near Sacramento. As far as I can tell this is the official information thread: linky

See you there?

I dunno... Prairie City is where I blew up my last car, hahaha.
April 20, 2010 12:24 a.m. Vigo Reader

Good job!! Makes me SOO wish there was local rallycross
April 20, 2010 1:25 a.m. smog7 Dork

that's sooo awesome. I wish I had the money to do a weekend rally class like this. oh well, looks like i'll have to stick to my dusty backroads and muddy open fields
April 23, 2010 5:37 p.m. pomspeed None

Ivan, glad you still had fun, considering the repair "service" you had to deal with. Thanks for the link for the event at PC, which BTW prereg is open, sign up and have some fun, hopefully no rain, hopefully.

Brent
April 23, 2010 5:59 p.m. EricM Dork

7 years ago we were the coolest people in the world http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfTc2jNY_lM

We have had only one event since then....
April 23, 2010 7:01 p.m. madpanda New Reader

pomspeed wrote:

Ivan, glad you still had fun, considering the repair "service" you had to deal with. Thanks for the link for the event at PC, which BTW prereg is open, sign up and have some fun, hopefully no rain, hopefully.

Brent

Thanks Brent, it's cool that you found this thread way over here on GRM. I know the series of tubes doesn't work that way but in my mind the GRM forum is in Florida and Dirty Impreza is in California...
April 24, 2010 12:02 a.m. pomspeed New Reader

Ivan, actually my GF was looking for rallycross groups and found this forum. Glad to see you were helping spread the joy.

Brent

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