I don't know what kind of torque my car puts down but I hope it is close to 170 (probably not).
I don't know what kind of torque my car puts down but I hope it is close to 170 (probably not).
That's what I figured, but I have a hard track keeping track of all the rallycross (and RX-7/Miata) build threads at this point, lol. Especially since people have different usernames on different forums. What's his username on DI? I"ve probably read his thread a dozen times and not known it was him, lol.
It's the one I just posted in after looking for it. Looks like you have posted in it a bit as well. 
EvanB wrote: It's the one I just posted in after looking for it. Looks like you have posted in it a bit as well.
Honestly, I had no idea that Pete = Knurled. Color me embarrassed....Now a lot of things said here on GRM and on DI make more sense with that knowledge, lol. berkeleying internet!
Reminds me of the time I was always talking with this guy on the Nissan forums years ago, commenting about his build thread, where he referenced a track car. I asked him what it was and he said "uh....I told you at work last week, it's a 300ZX twin-turbo"
Okay, now THAT's funny 
Knurled wrote: Okay, now THAT's funny
I blame it on the screen background colors on the different forums affecting my perception of you 
so anyways...
Prep continues on stuff....
Loaded up the truck with wheels and tires (4 rallycross tires, 3 new tires for the trailer). Gonna put Yoshi to work tomorrow on his tire machines :)
Also decided to check out the trailer bearings and stuff since we've put a couple thousand miles on it since buying it and never checked them when I bought it. One that the p/o said was just replaced was snug and good. The other three had more play than I'd like (the axle nuts were loose enough to remove with my pinky!). I was just going to repack them, but figured I might as well just hit the local trailer place and get some new ones and new grease seals, so did that, reassembled with good synthetic grease (the stuff in there seemed more like motor oil, nasty...), etc etc.
Did a few other trailer projects and stuff, nothing too exciting. Also had a visitor from across the street who came to see what I was up to..
I was watching the kids this afternoon so decided to do a little 10-minute project with their model paints while they played. Because rally tires always look better with yellow lettering :)
And yes, I know it will all be gone about 3 seconds into my first run at Divisionals, lol..
Washed the car today and put back on my front roundel, which had been reduced to no color over the years. I added some color.
fake shiny paint, the "wet" finish lol
In other news, they've now changed the local schedule to accommodate the NEDiv Naitonal Challenge. That weekend is no longer a points event locally, so it won't be as bad that I have to miss it (saves me a drop event). Instead, they've added a second November event, so we'll be up on the mountaintop at the beginning AND end of November in the wind and cold. I may actually need to get my hands on some snow tires :P
not that it's exciting or anything, but with less than a week before we head to Ohio, I've finally finished all the messy work of maintenance on the involved vehicles (Sequioa, e30, trailer) so as to hopefully avoid any hiccups on the tow or racing. I literally haven't done any fluid changes on the e30 since I did the engine swap (other than engine oil), so went ahead and drained the diff and tranny and refilled with Amsoil stuff (my buddy Jason is a distributor so got me a good bulk deal). The Sequioa got the full job since we just bought it 6 months ago and had no idea how the p/o had maintained it. So it got diffs, transfer case, transmission flush, timing job, coolant flush, etc (oh and I fixed the small a/c line leak in the rear, which was a major PITA) all with Amsoil too. Rally tires mounted, trailer has new bearings all around and 3 new tires. I'm notorious for putting off fluid changes for too long (except engine oil) so this long-ish (7hour) tow through the appalachians was good motivation to finally get all this crap done.
So, probably no more updates until we get back from Ohio. Should be good times, with the entire MR class made up of GRM members (3 bmws, 4 mazdas) to boot. Here's hoping all goes well. I feel like it's been forever since the last rallycross so definitely looking forward to it.
Good luck!
So in other news, I got a package today .... from SCCA headquarters (?)
Turns out a month or two ago I posted a photo on the SCCA rallycross facebook page in some GoPro giveaway contest, and it turns out my photo won.
this staged, faux dramatic photo, lol
and this is what showed up....GoPro 3+ Black Edition. Not bad for posting a photo on facebook :)
guess I'll have to shoot some vid this weekend!
In other news, my non-rally car (09 WRX) turned 100k miles today. It literally has had NOTHING done to it in the last 90k miles other than fluid changes and timing belt/water pump (just recently). Not bad for a car I drive hard on bad roads every day, pushing 18lbs of boost and 285tq at the wheels...
Back from the Great Lakes National Challenge in Ohio. More of a write up later, but MR class was a competitive group with everyone running similar times, and the day was mostly decided by a few runs, a few cones, and a few mechanical issues throughout the class. I spun my first run of the weekend (gridded 4th overall in wet grass) so after one run I was down about 15 seconds from the rest of the class. Over the weekend I managed to claw back into contention. With one run left I was down 2 seconds to the leader and one second to my co-driver Nick. I put down a fast run and got within 1/2 second of the lead and 1/2 second past Nick and took 2nd in MR (Nick took 3rd). Lost again to an RX-7, this time Kevin's 2nd-gen from Detroit region. Great weekend and great course. More later.
Here's a vid of my best run on Saturday, which was the fastest run in the morning course for any of the RWD cars out there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi7MAzSJkLE&feature=youtu.be
and a couple quick pics of the MR class
Josh Sennett, me, and Nick
Evan on the left with his turbo miata, Kevin's winning RX-7 on the right
My car with Pete Remner's fast RX7, which fell out of contention after a de-bead
Josh S. spent a lot of time trying to fix broken things on the turboETA
Nick driving my car to a 3rd place finish
I love how you can see the blue smoke in the picture faintly. I enjoyed watching my co-driver take corners and see a big cloud of dust followed by an equal sized cloud of blue.
fidelity101 wrote: I love how you can see the blue smoke in the picture faintly. I enjoyed watching my co-driver take corners and see a big cloud of dust followed by an equal sized cloud of blue.
Pretty much an RX7 trademark, lol. I'm surprised you didn't pass out from that header leak. I could see blue smoke coming out of the driver's compartment sometimes when the car was in the paddock lol....
Also, here's a second vid from one of my faster runs, from my new inside camera view.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHBKN0tRKhA&feature=youtu.be
Good lord. Threads like this make me want to leave behind dreams of auto-x and build a rallycross machine.
Drive a car stock. Build one. Borrow one. Doesn't matter, find a way to get in the dirt any you'll be transformed.
e46potenza wrote: Good lord. Threads like this make me want to leave behind dreams of auto-x and build a rallycross machine.
I made that decision 3 years ago after autocrossing in multiple cars for 15+ years. Once I rallycrossed the first time, I've never felt the urge to autocross any more (except the time I took the rallycross car TO autocross). I have an STU/SM daily driver WRX, and haven't done an autocross with it since the day I bought the e30...
That said, rallycross is longer days, beats up the car more, and not as many clubs/venues to choose from depending on your area. Autocross is a lot easier from a logistical standpoint at least, and you won't beat up your daily driver. And it's still fun, just less fun (IMO).
But heck, who says you can't do both? Just build a car that is good/competitive for rallycross, and it won't be competitive in autocross, but will still be fun! It's actually a lot less expensive to build a competitive rallycross car than autocross, mainly because rallycross is much more driver-than-car, where autocross you really have to have the "right" car and setup to win in any competitive club.
Or do your autocross build, and then just buy a cheap car (e30, e36, volvo240, civic, whatever) to rallycross. You don't need much more than some cheap snow tires to be competitive in stock class.
If you can do both, do it. If I had to choose one or the other, the choice is really easy for me, even though I have about 4 autocross clubs within an hour of me (and rallycross for me is 2-5 hour drive).
If I do anything, it will probably be just buy a cheap civic or focus to rallycross. Many (most actually) of the things I'd like to do/already have done to the e46 would put me in a class where I'd find myself outgunned at pretty much every cone. Also, the gf's Grand Cherokee should be pretty much capable of towing it to anywhere it needs to be 
FYI: rallycross classing isn't like autocross. There is stock (which is basically stock with snow tires). There is prepared (which is some suspension, rally tires, and other smaller stuff with interior). There is modified (anything goes). And those three for FWD, RWD, and AWD. So 9 total classes. And sometimes the stock cars are as fast as the modified cars, depending on surface, course, and driver. So just do something that will be fun, and don't worry at all about classes. You can win any class in any car that is reasonably sporty...
e30/e36 or Volvo and run it. They come cheap and are built tough. You'll do more fixing of stuff on a FWD car in many cases, and do much less sideways ;) Or an early 300zx, RX-7, miata, etc...
I was on snow tires all weekend... They aren't necessarily slower than rally tires 
Until you debead, anyway, but rally tires debead too.
Knurled wrote: I was on snow tires all weekend... They aren't necessarily slower than rally tires
Yeah, I will admit that in the first morning, with the wet grass, I was pretty jealous that you had the snow tires because watching you launch you were getting way more traction than everyone else it seemed. Maybe some winter rally tires ;)
I didn't have any traction (especially on the donk wheels) and it really felt SLOW!!! But if it looked faster than everyone else, then that is just lots of practice at launching as hard as possible without spinning the tires, because tirespin at the launch at a regional is a friendly chat, and then a not-so-friendly mandatory option to go home early.
So the trick is to walk it out just past the start hose as quickly as you dare, and only then do you whack the long and skinny.
I forgot about that being your local rule, yeah. We're used to gravel so we usually hook up pretty fast on starts at our venues (at least until the AWD guys dig it up and make trenches). I haven't had to start a rallycross on a wet grass surface since...well, pretty much ever. And clearly it showed.
That's an interesting rule though. It didn't seem to me that the start got torn up at all with the hard launches. Must be an issue when it's wetter out? I didn't notice any trenches or ruts. Ours get so deep the later cars are dragging skidplates before they even cross the timing hose.
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