DC Rallycross 7 and 8 Season Finale, Summit Point WV
This has been the first full season of rallycross I've run in years, and I really had one goal in mind at the beginning- get this car developed, shaken down, and reliable by the last event. It's fitting, then, that this weekend it finally had the new clutch pack diff and shorter gearing, and on top of that, I had bluej codriving with me on Saturday to really make sure the car could hold up to back to back runs.
The drive down was uneventful but I definitely don't recommend the 4.88 gears for anybody who does a ton of highway driving- it still works fine, but buzzing along at 4k+ rpm for hours on end isn't super relaxing.
The weather was unseasonably warm, sunny, and generally awesome, and the usual crew was in attendance plus Ozgur and Ricardo shaking down a new stage rally car as well as a number of first time rallycrossers including AWSX in his lowered Miata.
Saturday we ran on Barn Course, which is fast and hard packed- my immediate impression of the new diff was super favorable. Where the car used to wiggle around and change direction under power, it's now super consistent, but bluej noted some understeer on turn-in so I dialed a little more rear bias into the brakes. Thinking about it, that makes sense since the rear wheels are coupled together a bit more now, so where it might have locked one rear brake or the other with the Torsen it now needs enough braking back there to slow them both down at the same time. An extra quarter turn on the bias knob had things feeling great, but I had already collected a ton of cones on my first two runs so I was effectively out of the running.
The gearing, as predicted, is actually not awesome for rallycross. I still believe it's the right choice for stage rally, but on DC's long courses it frequently leaves you with the choice of riding the limiter in second gear or shifting to third before downshifting again a second or two later, with both options probably eating a bit of time when compared to having a slightly taller second gear. Feels awesome exiting corners though, and I really never felt like the car was hurting for power or traction.
Bluej had me a little worried on his early runs- he didn't seem to mesh with the car immediately and I was concerned that I had accidentally built something that required a lot of practice to manage. By the middle of the session, though, he was running pretty much on pace (which again, in MR in DC region is FAST) with cones here and there. I think by the end he wanted a BRZ so I'll call that a win, and the car didn't have any issues with two drivers back to back.
Everybody hung out for a while afterwards, it got way colder but the clear skies meant we spotted a few satellites and shooting stars overhead. Eventually the crowd thinned out as people went home, and those of us who were camping enjoyed a bit of fried chicken reheated on a Tundra's exhaust manifold before turning in.
I've camped at all of the doubleheaders this year, but this time I berkeleyed up- I basically packed the same gear that we brought to Panthera, but had my crappy one-person sleeping bag instead of the good double bag, and with no dog and no Sara to add heat I was freezing even with all of my layers on. It was not a particularly restful night.
The next day, we were over on the choppier, shorter Tree Course and I wanted to try and drive clean since I had been hitting cones all season. That worked great on my first run, but on the second I came through the finish WAY too sideways and picked up four cones after crossing the line, leaving me in position to duke it out with Mike Golden for seventh place in the season championship.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, the diff still felt great although it was hard to work out where to use third vs. second gear just like it had been on Saturday. Irish44j and I switched cars for one run, his car felt great and easy to drive as always although my head was pinballing off the narrow halo seat constantly, and he said the BRZ was "a big Miata with more power" which sounds like a compliment to me. Yet again, no issues and I never so much as opened the hood. When the day was done, I went straight home and was asleep by 9pm- would have loved to stay and celebrate with everybody a bit, but I was running out of steam and just wanted to make the drive while I was still somewhat awake.
Overall, this car has seen 9 days of rallycross and about 3k miles total since I purchased it earlier this year- it has had effectively no failures, handles the way I'd like it to, puts down power like it should, and is super predictable. Cage time is in January, which will kick off a whole series of interior, exterior, and safety related projects, then it'll be ready to get out there and go fast in the woods. I can't wait!
