The Official Rally Thread

[BENCOB]

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2011/09/vw-polo-r-wrc-frankfurt.jpg

 

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/09/15/volkswagen-polo-r-wrc-frankfurt-2011/

Edited October 1, 2011 by BENCOB

[BENCOB]

http://www.crash.net/world+rally/news/173005/1/volkswagen_debuts_polo_wrc_in_frankfurt.html

 

"As yet, Volkswagen hasn't named any drivers for its WRC programme, although Petter Solberg continues to be heavily linked with a drive."

[rad.rac3r]

 

RIP...

 

http://www.crash.net/world+rally/news/173005/1/volkswagen_debuts_polo_wrc_in_frankfurt.html

 

"As yet, Volkswagen hasn't named any drivers for its WRC programme, although Petter Solberg continues to be heavily linked with a drive."

 

NOOO we cant lose solberg!

[rad.rac3r]

what type of tyres do they use in rallying? there seems to be little to no sidewall flex at all.

[Spoonwacker]

Rally tires have very stiff sidewalls to resist punctures, and thick tread patterns and compounds that vary with the surface and temperature. For some examples, check out all the options that Hankook has for gravel rally tires: http://www.hankookmotorsport.com/products.asp?id=7

 

Some of our local TSD rally guys run used gravel rally tires on their cars; they're way more durable for gravel TSD rallies than the snow tires that are second-best, and as I said the thick sidewalls prevent punctures from rocks. Downside is, even if the tire is completely empty, you can't tell by looking at it. You do find out pretty quickly once you start moving...but even then the tires can last for several miles after a puncture. Sometimes you'll see WRC or other stage rally drivers finish out the stage at lower speeds on a blown tire because it would cost more time to replace the flat. Then again, sometimes they don't slow down much:

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgh1VGDEvBw]Antoine L'Estage In-Car Sno*Drift 2010 SS3 - YouTube[/ame]

Bonus LGT spotting at the checkpoint at 11:30...

[I Like It Sideways]

Like spoonwacker said, rally tires are very, very durable. Sidewalls are very stiff and thick. I took one of my sets to get dismounted in favor of snow tires for the winter, and neither Walmart nor Discount Tire were able to get them off the rims. A local ma and pa shop had no problem.

 

One thing of note, they turn to hockey pucks in the cold, snow, and ice and become absolutely worthless.

[SurlyOldManMN]

Some of our local TSD rally guys run used gravel rally tires on their cars;

 

I'm just getting in to TSD lately. I've driven one and co-driven a handful. Also ran a map rally. Working on a port of a curta-esque WP7 app.

 

You guys have a pretty good core out there?

[Spoonwacker]

I'm just getting in to TSD lately. I've driven one and co-driven a handful. Also ran a map rally. Working on a port of a curta-esque WP7 app.

 

You guys have a pretty good core out there?

 

We have a monthly Friday Nighter asphalt TSD series that usually has around 15 cars (I think we had close to 30 for one event last year). A handful of LGT.com members have been running in them for the last couple years - my navigator and I won the SOP (seat-of-pants) class last year. They have a crappy website (http://nwrally.com/). There are also a handful of multi-day gravel rallies that we might start getting into this year (http://pccrally.com/schedule.html). We ran a Monte Carlo a few years ago, but it was a bit of a disaster. How about in MN?

[SurlyOldManMN]

We have a monthly Friday Nighter asphalt TSD series that usually has around 15 cars (I think we had close to 30 for one event last year). A handful of LGT.com members have been running in them for the last couple years - my navigator and I won the SOP (seat-of-pants) class last year. They have a crappy website (http://nwrally.com/). There are also a handful of multi-day gravel rallies that we might start getting into this year (http://pccrally.com/schedule.html). We ran a Monte Carlo a few years ago, but it was a bit of a disaster. How about in MN?

 

Sadly, not all that great. I got interested in TSD by accident and ended up seeking out the "Twin Cities Rally Club (TCRC)". I guess they used to have a HUGE group of people back in the 70's-80's and everyone eventually moved away from it. There is a core group that had been soldiering on doing small events. Lately that group decided to officially get the club back together and has started more aggressively marketing to the enthusiasts in the area.

 

The guys involved are some of the best sources of awesome stories (and locations of awesome roads) I have ever come across. Very well seasoned, events are run without a hitch with only a handful of volunteers. The rallymasters are the same guys that will host and run any national stage rallies that happen to go on in the area. Good stuff all around IMO.

 

The group averages one per month or so. Someone does a Monte Carlo every year, I didn't run it last year. Usually it's 10 or so cars, we have an annual gimmick rally on Halloween that will max out at 50 before they cut off registration.

 

Gaining some steam lately, I'm hoping to pique some more interest.

 

 

Edit:

Here's our facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/110850758955090/

Google site thing: https://sites.google.com/site/mnwisroadrally/

Edited March 2, 2012 by SurlyOldManMN

[Spoonwacker]

Sounds similar to our club. The NWRC is a coalition of 6 different clubs who come together to make the monthly rallies happen. I guess they had huge turnouts in the nineties, but it dropped off sharply until a few years back. Now there's some new blood in the form of myself, the other LGT guys, and a handful of others, so hopefully it'll rebound. They reach out to different specific clubs every few months with a Marque Class (usually Mini or BMW, but they might've done Porsche at some point too), which usually pulls in a handful of entries, some of whom stick around.

 

Like you say, the old guys have some great stories. Actually, even from last year there was a good one - two guys doing a nighttime gravel TSD got run off the road by an RV out in the boonies, went down the side of a mountain, and couldn't climb back up to the road because the slope was too steep The RV didn't stop. Luckily sweep saw their tracks going off and found them. They finally got a tow truck out there and got dragged up the mountain, where they found out the car was still driveable. No damage worse than scratches in the paint.

[SurlyOldManMN]

two guys doing a nighttime gravel TSD got run off the road by an RV out in the boonies, went down the side of a mountain, and couldn't climb back up to the road because the slope was too steep The RV didn't stop.

 

Wow. Rage. Building.

 

 

 

 

I think my favorite so far was Mark Larson (Rally master for Ojibwe Forests Performance Rally) talking about this one jump that kept catching him out every time a certain road was used for a stage. I guess the 2nd or 3rd time he tried it he decided to just go for it. Suspension loaded up when he landed, hit a gnarly bump with no travel left, car rotated off course, flew 75 yards off course and parallel parked itself neatly between two trees, scratching both front and rear bumper against the trees but otherwise sustaining no significant damage.

 

They had to pull it out sideways, the only other option was to cut down one or both of the trees as they were both in physical contact with their respective ends of the car.

 

I love these guys.

 

 

 

Oh, they also have a "no car left behind" policy after they left one in the woods one night and came back to a burnt out shell early the next morning. Jerks.

[SurlyOldManMN]

PS: This is now the official "RALLY" thread, WRC, TSD, Monte Carlo, Trap, Gimmick or otherwise.

 

[Spoonwacker]

Oh, they also have a "no car left behind" policy after they left one in the woods one night and came back to a burnt out shell early the next morning. Jerks.

 

 

PS: This is now the official "RALLY" thread, WRC, TSD, Monte Carlo, Trap, Gimmick or otherwise.

 

 

Awwwww yeah

[berk]

Like spoonwacker said, rally tires are very, very durable. Sidewalls are very stiff and thick. I took one of my sets to get dismounted in favor of snow tires for the winter, and neither Walmart nor Discount Tire were able to get them off the rims. A local ma and pa shop had no problem.

 

One thing of note, they turn to hockey pucks in the cold, snow, and ice and become absolutely worthless.

 

Had the same experience at walmart (in a pinch and needed them done after hours). My Michilens on Enkei gravel wheels broke their machine on the first wheel. Picked them up and took em to a mom and pop.

[joelwatts]

subaru looses another one.

 

http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/drive-on/2012/03/26/dartx-wide-community.jpg

 

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2012/03/dodge-to-go-rally-car-racing-with-dart-travis-pastrana/1

[Spoonwacker]

I went to a GRC (or is it GRCC?) event last year, and the purpose-built rallycross cars (the Fiestas, Velosters, and Skoda Fabia) were pretty amazing, but the fact is that not one of those cars is available in anything but a FF layout. The Dart looks like it is going to be the same, unless they surprise everybody with all-wheel-drive on the SRT version. For now, though, if you want a car with a turbo and all-wheel drive that you might see near the front of the pack on the rallycross course, you're still going to be looking for a Subaru or an Evo (a used Evo at that; there were no Evo Xs at the event I attended). I get the feeling that Subaru has cared less and less about various rally series as the rules have foregone homologation requirements, and to be honest so have I. The new WRC rules were supposed to help, but they still allow AWD conversions - make the manufacturers sell the car they want to race! I'm sure Ford could move, say, 250 Fiesta RS models with big wings, 300bhp, and AWD... Until then I'll stick with watching local rallies.

 

Anyway, rant over. I also wish there were more rally or rallycross events where I could watch Porsches get dirty.

[SurlyOldManMN]

Worked some checkpoints/timing controls for a laid back tarmac map rally in WI this weekend. Only had 7 cars, still totally worth it. Here's a couple of shots the rally master (Clarence Westberg) took:

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7268/7016107999_007735af79.jpg

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7260/7017601647_e1623dddf8.jpg

 

Whole "set":

[ame=http://www.flickr.com/photos/98264744@N00/sets/72157629307484808/]March Muddy Waters - a set on Flickr[/ame]

Edited March 27, 2012 by SurlyOldManMN

[ehsnils]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRvUUQnfYNI]Too fast to race (HQ) (Group B Rally Cars) - YouTube[/ame]

[SurlyOldManMN]

Awesome! I've seen the clip in the Audi many times. Never found the whole movie.

[Spoonwacker]

Navigator and I are having a slow start to our TSD season. We finished fourth in the first rally, and fourth or worse in the second one (two weeks ago). The first one we can chalk up to beginning of the year jitters, but the second one was a result of poor rallymaster work and a simple yet costly mistake on our part.

 

Very early on (I think it was the third NRI after the transit stage), there was a pause 60 for a signal. The light was red when we came around the corner about 300 yards from it, and we were stationary for 75 seconds. I was pissed about this shoddy pre-run work, but we pulled across, stopped for a few seconds, and filled out a 30-second time dec to make up for it. Then we forgot to give it to the first checkpoint, and took a 33 late on the leg . The second leg went very well, and we were surprised at the end of it to see that we had a score of over 100. Turned out the rallymaster screwed up again, and had the official distance off by over a mile. That stage was dropped altogether. The third stage didn't have any glaring errors on our part, but our score wasn't spectacular. If we'd turned in our time dec we would've been second, but as it was we missed out again. No mistakes next month!

 

This is the second time that particular club has run a rally where there was both a too-short pause at a signal and a leg dropped for lack of a good pre-run. I'm not impressed with them.

[Spoonwacker]

This weekend I did a two day rally in SE Washington and NE Oregon. Nearly 500 miles of driving, including 278.85 miles of TSD sections, almost entirely on gravel roads. I left the Subie at home and took my bone stock '91 Camry. It was an absolute blast. By the end of the first day I was left-foot braking into almost every corner with decent visibility and able to get a nice drift over the crown of the road. My normal navigator was out of town, so I invited my girlfriend to come along, thinking it would either be awesome or the worst idea in the history of the world, ever. Luckily it was awesome! She had it figured out very quickly (while I was still trying to figure out the whole gravel TSD thing), and our scores plummeted over the course of the weekend. I think we still wound up third or fourth from last, but we had such a blast that I'll be doing it again next year for sure (but hopefully in something with a manual transmission; dealing with the auto was hell on hillclimb sections!).

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7097/7339183770_c371b2dfd6_c.jpg

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7082/7339176572_cb23e56abb_c.jpg

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7212/7339175232_1a1ab866bd_c.jpg

[SurlyOldManMN]

Gearing up for the first rally of the "winter" season tonight, though there is no snow on the ground yet.

 

http://www.rallymasterpro.com/tombstone/index.php

 

The Tombstone Trail is about as close to a legendary local road rally as we have. I'm excited to run it for the first time. It's a "scavenger hunt" style gimmick rally through rural graveyards that sells out every year.

[SurlyOldManMN]

Not too shabby for the first outing:

 

http://i45.tinypic.com/15mzry0.jpg

 

1st in class and 6th overall (big tie for 4th) out of 37 total entrants.

[Spoonwacker]

Congrats on the great result! I still haven't run any gimmick rallies, but they always sound like fun.

 

RyanGT and I are gearing up for the last rally in our Friday Nighter series on Nov 9. We're currently in 3rd place, 3 points off the leaders' 48 points. The top 4 teams are all within 5 points; 5th place has 28 so they're out of it. With a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 points system, it all comes down to this one. We need to win, and the current leaders need to finish 3rd or lower. We lost to them at the last rally by 3 points, and the next closest car in our class was 98 points behind us.

 

Last year we won based on a tiebreaker (most rallies won) at the last rally of the year...

[SurlyOldManMN]

You think that's nerve wracking? My wife will be co-driving for me for the first time in December...

 

Still undecided on if this is the best or worst idea I've ever had. We shall see...