BRZ Rally Car

Still waiting on shims, still driving it.  Horses were unimpressed.

You coming to Panthera next week?

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

Probably, provided that I don't break anything expensive riding in the Pine Barrens tomorrow.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Checked the back of my airbox finally. There's some marks on it where the fittings have gouged it up a bit, definitely seems to be a common theme.

In reply to TXratti :

Thanks for the update!  I need to take a picture, but I "inside outed" that corner of the airbox with a heat gun over the weekend- doesn't seem to have negatively effected airflow, will have to see if it's enough clearance.

Finally got what should theoretically be the right carrier shims- backlash is on the tight end of spec but still acceptable:

Coast pattern seems ok:

Drive... not so much:

I think I need to increase the backlash, anybody with more gear setup experience get a different idea from the pictures?

You know it is tight, and increasing backlash is simpler than changing pinion depth. That's where I would start

Asked a friend who's done it before and he sent some ref material. For a used gearset that may be ok. His other comment was that backlash won't help you there, you'd have to change the pinion depth to adjust that.

In reply to TXratti :

This is where I get confused- this setup page says pinion depth will effect the face vs flank location of the pattern, which appears to be fine (I think) and backlash will effect heel vs. toe which appears to be my issue.  I'm sure I've read the exact opposite somewhere too.

I probably won't get back to this this weekend, just signed up for the two day DC event at Panthera.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

In reply to TXratti :

This is where I get confused- this setup page says pinion depth will effect the face vs flank location of the pattern, which appears to be fine (I think) and backlash will effect heel vs. toe which appears to be my issue.  I'm sure I've read the exact opposite somewhere too.

I probably won't get back to this this weekend, just signed up for the two day DC event at Panthera.

You are correct.  Pinion depth looks to be okay.  I'd try and increase backlash a touch, but honestly you're probably OK there.  You may experience premature wear, but in a light/low-ish hp race car, we are talking about years of use before you'd experience problematic premature gear wear issues.  Also keep in mind the tolerances on a ring/pinion gearsets are pretty loose.  I know at my previous place of employment that specifically dealt with machining gearsets), our general advice was set backlash to as close to mid-spec as possible, make sure you're getitng 50+% tooth contact, bolt it down and run it. 

In reply to golfduke :

Thank you- that's very reassuring, hopefully these last few shims get me to "good enough" and it can go in soon!

DC Rallycross 5 and 6, Panthera Training Center, berkeleyall nowhere WV

Panthera is a pretty long haul, so Sara and I decided to load the car on the recently refreshed trailer, bring a dog, and make a weekend of it.  On Friday we towed down to Lost River State Park for a hike up to this awesome overlook:

Then we grabbed some dinner at Sheetz on our way over to Panthera, set up the tent, and turned in pretty early since there weren't many competitors around yet.  It was near freezing, and the next morning things were nice and frosty:

Some of us didn't want to get out of the sleeping bag:

The sun came up, competitors started to arrive, and the morning fog began to burn off:

The usual huge DC MR class was in attendance, and even though we were missing bluej (come back!) we had 95maxrider, irish44j, lxnm, and probably other GRMers I'm forgetting all lined up ready to go.  The course on Saturday was a pretty standard course for Panthera, open by most standards but just average for DC.  I hit lots of cones but generally kept it somewhat together and ran decently fast:

At one point during the morning, I shut the car off and quickly restarted it and was punished for this behavior with a check engine light for a lean condition- after clearing it I couldn't replicate it so I'm hoping it was a freak thing that won't happen again unless I restart the car rapidly while it's hot.  It didn't seem to impact the performance at all.

Sara spent the morning taking photos but after lunch she hopped in the car with me- this is the first time she has been in this car in a competition environment and it was a huge morale boost to hear her get excited about how much better it feels than our previous rally cars.  Apparently running around to photograph every corner and then riding in the car is tiring:

At the end of the Saturday runs, I was somewhere near the bottom of MR thanks to all the cones but otherwise happy.  I went over the car and nothing was loose or leaking, so we went for a little walk with the dog while our BMW friends went back to the hotel before returning with some pizza to freeze with us for a while before we all turned in for the night.

Sunday was another cold morning in the tent, but we had a reward waiting for us- the fastest rallycross course I've ever run on.  Big hills, long slaloms, some choppy stuff, lots of dust, and a hilarious amount of second gear brapapabap rev limiter action awaited, with a big silly pivot turn in there for good measure:

If every rallycross course was this awesome I'd travel all over to run every weekend, it was the best test of the car I could have asked for- even driving at 115% things felt really controllable, I had no issues all day, and just enjoyed getting to really drive the berkeley out of thing while mostly ignoring my times and just trying to keep it between the cones.

Eventually Sara hopped back in and we continued to go fast, including dodging a big rock that took out one of the MR2s immediately after we came through.  The car is fast, I could keep complaining about the Torsen but who cares, look at it go:

I think I got 5th on Sunday?  Doesn't matter, had fun, still feel like this car works very well and don't want to change anything but the diff and maybe make the exhaust louder.  Sara spent the entire tow home and most of last night sorting photos, hopefully those will be uploaded soon- obviously I got to cherry pick mine early.  

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

That looks(and sounds) like an awesome event!

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

There's a reason I still drive down to DC when I'm really in Blue Mountain or Philly region.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Looks like a great event! Fast courses usually are exciting.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

There's a reason I still drive down to DC when I'm really in Blue Mountain or Philly region.

It's not like those regions have any events anyway :(

BRZ looks great slideways

I'm so happy to read the car is working well for you and Sara so far! 

Sara's photos from the event are located here for anyone not in the WDCR RallyX facebook group- there are thousands in total, but those are the favorites.  If you see your car in there and want every single photo that was taken of it, let us know and we'll send them to you.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

That course looks awesome and the photos look great!  Have you guys had any UTV entries in your region?  I'd like to plan a road trip, maybe next summer, to tote around my UTV and hit some cool trail areas and rallyx events up toward that area of the country. 

In reply to Lof8 - Andy :

Unfortunately they're not allowed in DC region, and only rumored to potentially be allowed some time soon in others nearby- it seems like there are enough entries at most events that whatever work comes with adding UTVs isn't seen as worth it, or at least not yet.  You could totally go to the Hatfield-McCoy trails in WV with it and then show up at a DC RallyX with a rental car or something though!

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

I see the logic there.  My region is constantly trying to scrounge up new participants. FWIW, we've had a few UTVs show up now and it really hasn't changed things much.  The course has not been degrading any faster, which was a concern that several people had.  Hatfield-McCoy is exactly what I had in mind, and a rental car isn't a bad idea if the UTVs don't get adopted before then.  I'll have to put this on my official "to-do" list.

In reply to Lof8 - Andy :

You might be able to arrange a co-drive. I'd potentially be down.

Lof8 - Andy said:

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

I see the logic there.  My region is constantly trying to scrounge up new participants. FWIW, we've had a few UTVs show up now and it really hasn't changed things much.  The course has not been degrading any faster, which was a concern that several people had.  Hatfield-McCoy is exactly what I had in mind, and a rental car isn't a bad idea if the UTVs don't get adopted before then.  I'll have to put this on my official "to-do" list.

I think people driving UTVs may have had some near-death experiences on last Sunday's course here. There were definitely a few parts that would be really sketchy with their handling dynamics, I'd think. 

irish44j (Forum Supporter) said:

Lof8 - Andy said:

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

I see the logic there.  My region is constantly trying to scrounge up new participants. FWIW, we've had a few UTVs show up now and it really hasn't changed things much.  The course has not been degrading any faster, which was a concern that several people had.  Hatfield-McCoy is exactly what I had in mind, and a rental car isn't a bad idea if the UTVs don't get adopted before then.  I'll have to put this on my official "to-do" list.

I think people driving UTVs may have had some near-death experiences on last Sunday's course here. There were definitely a few parts that would be really sketchy with their handling dynamics, I'd think. 

Setup on these things is everything.  If you take a stockish machine out to rallycross, you're definitely asking for trouble.  But the SCCA rules do a decent job of pointing you in the right direction, mainly with their ride height requirements.  (The lowest chassis rails need to be lower than the center line of the wheels).  Still, you are right, they can be more sketchy than a car.  But when setup right, they are really fast and fun.