Rally Cross is Back!!!
 

August 18th Thunder Rally Cross!

Time to Really use that Famed AWD System of our beloved subarus in a setting where it belongs!!! :cool:

Info Here :

http://www.i-club.com/forums/showthr...ght=rallycross

So whos down ? :rolleyes: Me and Ansel?

If I magically get my L running properly in time, I could make it.

damn.... if I only had my old suspension, and a set of rally tires id be all over it like a fat kid on pudding

Rally tires? You didn't need Hoosiers to come out and autocross did you? ;)

no, but i dont want to take my azenis out and chew em up

No winter tires?

The dirt doesn't have enough Grip to Chew up your tires. they plow it with a Tractor.

the risk of suspension damage to a car is ~~ the same as Driving down a snowy reno/carson or tahoe road (actually the snowy tahoe roads are usually much worse than the RallyX surface)

I really can't ever figure out why more Seccs members won't do these events. Often the dates over lap AutoX events, and it makes sense that they would skip them. But there are enough events that don't over lap. And yes your car will throw dirt onto it self and that does tend to dull and in some rare cases chip your paint. So if you are obsessed with a show car finish, then its not for you.

Maybe Derick will come out seeing how he has Mud Flaps !!! :)

I Know Cody has done a 70 mile Dirt drive. Come out on and RallyX !!!!

Watch my car carefully and see how little is Bounces.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnLE9P9-dAg
SMOOTH SURFACE!!

The squaw AutoCross site was MUCH MUCH rougher and worse on suspension than these rally crosses. (The Antioch Site was actually pretty rough, i'de say on par with squaws pavement) However dirt is softer than pavement . You could get away with an STI that's been lowered a full Inch and probably wouldn't hit anything. I've never bottomed out, or tagged my front end. (Again watch the video) The speeds are much slower than at some of our higher speed AutoX's (I've never used 3rd, or even hit the rev limiter in 2nd)
WRX's have 6" of ride height, where as an STI has 4. (and the RS has 5)
I think Cory's subaru is about the most slammed i've seen , but its on very stiff suspension and also wouldn't have any problems.

I've seen a fair amount of Guys on RE070's and a few guys show up on 18's (Love how some peeps won't let tires or rims get in the way of a good time on dirt)

I **think** it comes down to these guys not wanting to throw dirt on their paint..

That or they don't want to show up to an event where i'll actually put a whooping down on them :lol:

The first few seconds of this video the color is messed up, but its a higher quality video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb_vJ...e=user&search=

LOTS of dirt getting tossed around, but that's it. :)

Makes me Itching to do some dirt driving. I wish i could find dirt roads as smooth as the RallyX site around Carson and Reno. I have found one almost as smooth just a lil south of Carson called Pin Nuts. and Sunset pass at the end of Johnson Lane Isn't bad long stretches that are really smooth. although there are a couple sections of washboard that are just murderous (like suspension wear, rim denting bad) :|

Lucky Boy pass just 1 mile south of Hawthorne has been the smoothest dirt road i've ever driven on in my life. and its wicked Curvy. A mini pikes peak. ... I still dream of that road...

You don't happen to have any in-car stuff, do you?

The main deterrent for me is the location. AutoX is 2 miles from my house. Tempting though.

Generally, it's a number of possible factors. Other commitments, budget constraints, car down for maintenance/repair/upgrade, too far to drive (Thunder Hill is a tank of gas, a hotel room night, eating out, plus wear items on the car). Speaking for myself, almost every one of those has applied on rallycross event weekends. Hell, I haven't autocrossed my own car in 5 events.

Not so much. We'll discover that for certain in October if you're up for a challenge. :twisted:

My car's actually not that low... look at MikeK's car, or Derrick's wagon.

I think most of us have put so much into making tarmac cars, taking our cars that ride on >$1,000 suspension and tossing them around on anything other than smooth tarmac is just crazy! Doesn't matter how smooth you tell me the dirt is, I'm not doing it on my coil-overs.

Coilovers FTL. :P

(MPreziv==Truth)
{
guess i just have a different perspective seeing how going to stead is a 90 minute 1/2 tank of gas trip for me, on stock bits. }

ill checkone out for sure. i have shitty paint anyways. i work on the 18th though. maybe the one after that, unless i get tyson coilovers :lol:

Alex, do a search for Pinenut Rd in gardnerville. Its the last stoplight in g-ville as you are heading southbound on 395.

I drove it like a bat out of hell lsat winter in my STi.

I've always wanted to, but my car is kinda low. If I had my Ground Controls still I'd be good.

Oh, and Rock the Bells is that day. Rage and Wu Tang > rallycross. =/

Exactly, just the other way for most of us.

If I still had stock stuff, or even my cheap ass lowering springs I rode on a few years back, I'd DEFINITELY give Rally-x a try. Just too much $ buried in that thing making it a blacktop only car. Don't wanna F something up.

Last time my car was off-road (on the JIC FLT-A2s) my driver's door lock rattled loose and fell inside the door. And that was after just a 15 minutes drive at 10 mph down a rutted dirt road. Rally is just way too harsh on equipment, and doubly so when you've got a tarmac setup on the car.

I wouldn't rally-cross unless I had a total beater or a car prepped for it. It's probably the harshest motorsport on equipment next to top-fuel drag racing. Plus, roll-overs happen at least once per season, compared to autocross where rollovers happen once per decade.

Way to close to the sale of the wagon to go ridin dirty. Much thanks for the invite.

Sperry, Rally is the harshest event by far. no question

RallyCross Is not Rally . :rolleyes:

I've also driven rutted out , wash board roads that are Crazy harsh (i think this is why my struts make wierd noises now) that's also not rally cross, nor can one use to gauge what he surface is like.

Just look at the videos i posted, and compare that to Squaws AutoX
Also note how the video i posted, looks nothing like WRC footage.. :lol:
I know you went to the Squaw even last year. don't you remember how that one kid broke off his front lip spoiler? how there were some gnarly Ups and downs?

Sorry Nick no in car videos from me. searching on youtube for Thunderhill rallycross might find some though. I could maybe try to find contact info for some of the guys who went last year. i know one of them had in car footage.

As far as i know, the only members here to ever rally cross are, Ansel and I.

Hey Ansel, which surface was harsher, T-hill RallyX site, or Squaw's autoX ??

good Call Brian, although i posted up earlier that I do drive pine nuts i just miss spelled it at "pin nuts" :LOL:

the rallycross surface is very much like driving on Pine nuts road. It is not like driving on johnson lane to sunset pass. perhaps brian could describe how rough of a ride pine nuts road is (its not rough)

This does not mean its for everyone. Not everyone wants to spin wheels and drift around in the dirt. not everyone wants to travel 2 hours and stay in a hotel. But if the sole reason a member is thinking of skipping this event, is they are worried its Mad Ruts and Rocks, then rest assured, its not. rally cross is open to 100% stock cars and they take that into consideration when designing the course.

the crappiest of CD players , would not skip while driving at the Thill site

Of course i don't know much about suspension, so maybe driving on dirt (even dirt as smooth as pavement) will cause springs to break and dampers to crack open shooting out oil. Never seen that happen, but maybe that would be the case. /sarcasm

Also BTW in the 10 rally crosses i've been to, i've never seen a roll over. I've only heard of one guy ever rolling over and it was in some Raised up truck, never heard of a sedan rolling over.

I will agree that rallycross != rally, just as autocross != road racing. But I still wouldn't try it in a car setup for tarmac. Even if it's only half as harsh as Squaw was, it's still too hard on the car. Suspension with stock travel or greater is nearly a requirement IMO. And even on really nice and smooth surfaces, there's still the issue of rock spray (I ditched my rally undertray for weight and heat reasons years ago), not to mention my car needs a nice 100 mph breeze to stay cool when it's at high rpms... no way my car would survive sliding around under boost at 5000 rpm and 20 mph.

As was mentioned before, MattR and I actually worked a bunch to try to add rallycross to Reno SCCA's lineup, but we were the only ones interested at the time, and as we learned more about what it takes to put them on, an more importantly what sort of car you need to do it regularly, we decided we'd rather focus on autocross and track, 'cause to be competitive on the track and not destroy the car in the dirt, you need two different cars.

I guess my point is simply: my car would get destroyed at a rallycross, so until I get a beater for it, count me out.

Again, the thing is, most of the people you're trying to convince are driving tarmac prepared, coilover suspension cars. Ask MikeK why he won't auto-x at Squaw anymore. The bumps up there bound up one of his coilovers. Tarmac suspension is not made for that kind of activity. Even the relatively smooth surface you speak of, is likely too harsh for what any of us want to put our setup through. Not WRC, very true, but I get pissed when I have to drive down Peckham for shit's sake! I don't know many people who'd spend $1700 on suspension and willingly take a risk at fucking it up.

this is exactly what im talking about, I put cash in the car to drive and race on tarmac. I love rally, co-drove a race when i was 18, but completely understand what my car could or couldnt take. RT-615's were not meant to be pushed through the dirt, the same with my track series coilovers.

An ice rallyX on a frozen lake would be sweet for all you guys with glass suspension. :P