thecarman

Please forward to anyone (or any list) you think might be interested. Make sure you pre-register ASAP if you'd like to go, because they will cancel the event if we don't get at least 25 people pre-registered by 14-Nov. You do NOT have to pay online when you pre-register. You can just pay your entry fee when you get to the event. The Tarheel Sports Car Club puts on RallyCross events about once a month at a few locations just outside the RTP area (Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Chapel Hill, Durham and surrounding areas). These are like autocross, but on dirt. Only one car on the track at a time, course is layed out by cones, the course is about 60 seconds long. It is in the open, so no chance of hitting trees. The next event is 21-Nov on some private land near Clayton, NC. Directions are here: http://www.thscc.com/general/directions/bmwfarm.html You can pre-register here: http://www.thscc.com/rallycross/prereg_rallyx.html Rules are here: http://www.thscc.com/rallycross/info/rallyx_rules.html If you have any questions about the event, I'd be happy to discuss. Some pics and vids from previous races are at: http://www.thscc.com/rallycross/photos/index.php (for this specific course from February 2009, see: http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff49/csuich/RallyX%202009_0201%20Sandblast%20RallyX/?albumview=grid http://picasaweb.google.com/morgan.mehler/20090201RallyXAtBMWFarm#) The format of a race is that each car in your class gets 3 timed runs in the morning and 3 timed runs in the afternoon. The scoring is cumulative - all your runs count. But to me, how my time stacks up against others is not as important as the fun I have racing in the dirt. With that said, I won the street-tire AWD class last August in a beat 89 GL-10 wagon, and got 2nd overall out of all entrants. While one group is running the course, the other group works the course to watch for knocked-over cones, call them in to the scoring table, and set them back up. Knocked over cones are a +2 second penalty each. We break for about an hour for lunch. The race is usually over by 2PM, after which you can have "fun runs" that aren't part of the competition, but are still timed, so you can practice against the clock or just have fun. You get a plaque if you place in your class, but there is no monetary reward. I have been racing in this series for over a year. I started out with an 89 Subaru AWD wagon, and now have a 91 Audi Quattro. Neither car is far from stock. Last race in the Audi, I glanced down at the speedo, and hit 50mph at the fastest part of the track. That feels very fast on dirt (especially if it's slick). Most cars stay in 2nd gear the whole track - if that gives you an idea of the speeds. Lots of people run daily drivers, but some run dedicated RallyX cars that are gutted to save weight, and there are several highly modded Subarus that throw a lot of dirt and are fun to watch. Even so, I won the street tire AWD class against these cars in a GL-10, and I also won the race-tire AWD class in the Audi we have now. Front-wheel-drive cars are very competitive because they are so light and generally have better dirt traction than a RWD. You can register for multiple drivers in a single car. Since the runs are solo (only one car on the track at a time), this works out fine, and each driver gets their 6 timed runs. I co-own my car with a friend from work. You can also have registered participants ride with you in your car, which is fun (and is also a good way for your co-driver to get a good look at the course before they run it themself). Vehicles have to pass tech, which means no loose suspension joints or bearings (they shake the tires with car on the ground to see if they are loose), brakes work, seatbelts work, no loose items inside the car, structurally sound floor and body, no rust holes in the floor where stuff could fly in. You need an approved helmet. If this sounds like fun to you, definitely come try!

I think you've got air pockets in the cooling system - that's the gurgling noise you're hearing, and that's why the heater doesn't always work. I'm not sure of the best way to bleed it out though.

Thanks all, and sorry about the crappy pics. It was late and I just grabbed my wife's camera, took the pics, and uploaded so I could get to bed. My browser auto-resized them for me, so I didn't realize how huge they were. I can see it now (if I watch them download, I see the giant pic for a split sec before it gets resized). Next time, I will resize before uploading. Thanks again!

I'm swapping a used longblock into my 89 ea82t wagon. I found this sensor on my original engine, and the wires had cracked and corroded off of it. It looks like a vacuum switch between the evap canister and the intake manifold. Pics: http://www.triadfoundry.com/richards_pictures/subaru_sensor/ This car is for RallyX only, and is not licensed for the street. Can I run without this sensor, and just cap the vacuum lines? I have a race on Sunday, and doubt I'd be able to get a replacement before then. (the one from the donor car that supplied the long block had the plastic nipples broken off when I got the car) Thanks! Richard

I've got one of those spoilers for $20 plus shipping from Apex, NC. Assuming I can get it off OK - I think they are glued on.

At our last RallyX event a guy had welded the front diff on a Nissan Sentra. He said it sucked on pavement, wouldn't turn at all (he tried it just to see what would happen, but it is an off-road-only car that he trailers to races). I watched him in the dirt, and it definitely turned. The FWD cars use the e-brake a lot in turning. (But has this Sub been converted to rear-wheel parking brake?) He said he had to re-learn how to drive it, but it was working. We'll see how he does in the FWD class at the next race in March... Is this Sub an oval track car? If so, they are set up way differently, with tire stagger, so that they always want to turn left (taller tire on right-side). I used to help a friend campaign a VERY successful 4-cyl Fox Mustang at several different tracks. When set up right, the car would turn itself - you had to work to hold it straight when you were on the straights. I would imagine with staggered front tires and on dirt, it would turn left well with the welded front diff. I'm interested to hear what happens.

Anyone know how to print that without the text getting chopped off on the right side of the page? (Landscaped was not wide enough - I guess I could use Legal paper...)

I'm not the original poster, but I plan to relocate my battery for better weight distribution at rallycross. So I'm following this thread.

The Haynes manual says I need to pull the starter off of my EA82T before pulling the engine. Is that correct? I thought since the starter is bolted to the trans, and not contacting the flywheel when not in the process of starting, I could just leave it on there. Do I really need to pull it? Thanks! Richard

VERY funny - my roomate in college had both headlight bulbs blow at the same time on an 87 GL-10. Is yours a white 5-speed 4WD wagon? I had never seen this happen before - both at same time, so we assumed it couldn't be just bulbs, so didn't even check. He took it to a shop and was not happy he had to pay just to have the bulbs replaced.

Could there be something between the air filter and the MAF, blocking the flow? One time I left a paper towel in the tube leading to the MAF when I had the air filter off, and it sucked up flat against the MAF and would only let the engine idle, and not rev any higher. Was really glad it was on that side of the MAF, and not the other side, where it could have gotten sucked into the turbo.

Only RallyX during the day, so no worry about lights. This is not full rally like thru the woods, but is rally-cross (X=cross) like short course, 1 car at a time. Maybe takes 1-1.5 minutes to run the course. (You do multiple runs per day) Pics of our local RallyX club stuff can be seen at http://thscc.com/rallycross/photos/index.php Ours is the only older Subaru that competes here. There is one 92 Legacy, and everything else AWD is Imprezas, WRXs, and one Eclipse.

Thanks! Wish I would have had more time to play - the snow is already gone. The passenger headlight is removed, and in its place is a K&N cone filter. (This car does not see any street duty, it is RallyX only)

We got some snow Tuesday in central NC. 6-7 inches, which is rare for us. We're lucky if we get any snow at all each year. Had to work from home, but couldn't keep myself from going out between teleconference meetings to do some donuts in the field behind our house in my EA82T RallyX wagon. http://www.triadfoundry.com/richards_pictures/subaru/SnowJan2009.html My wife got some video too, so will see if I can get it uploaded...

We had a really good run with our EA82T RallyX wagon yesterday. I finished 1st in class and 2nd overall (look for Richard Nuss in the results), which was a big improvement over past races. I beat several newer cars that had race tires. And my co-driver Marek was 2nd in class and 10th overall. Classes: http://thscc.com/rallycross/events/2008/2008-0928class.pdf Overall: http://thscc.com/rallycross/events/2008/2008-0928overall.pdf After the morning runs, we realized that the car's power delivery had felt different all morning - it was much smoother. In the past, this car had a definite boost "hit" that was dramatic and would shoot the car into oversteer. This was with a manual boost controller (TurboXS) set to 5psi (our engine is hurt, so we turned the boost down). I took the stock exhaust off the car just before this RallyX, although it was already missing the muffler (fell off in first race of the year). It now only has the downpipe and the first cat. The car still makes 5psi boost, but seems much more linear, more controllable. For instance, the car used to bog down in second gear if we had slowed down for a corner, then all of a sudden it would spool up and take off in an uncontrollable way. But at this past race, we could leave it in 2nd almost the whole track, and it never bogged - was just smooth. Is the turbo just spooling sooner because of the decreased exhaust backpressure? How does the boost act on your cars? Does it "hit", or is it smooth like this? Could just pulling off the exhaust make the difference we're seeing? I knew it might make a difference, but didn't expect to notice much. The reason I ask - we also just started venting the crankcase pressure to atmosphere. PCV and breathers are plugged. Had to do this because one cylinder is real low on compression is pressurizing the crankcase, and would cause oil to be sucked thru breathers. I realize this is not the optimal configuration for this car, but it's keeping it running until we can work on the engine this winter. So I was wondering if our newly "smooth" car is a freak thing that will go away once we get a good engine in there, or is it normal for a properly running EA82T? For fun, here's passenger-hand-held in-car video of some of our runs. You can play it at that site, but it runs better if you download to your PC and play via Quicktime. http://drop.io/thsccrallyx20080928 . The smoke out the hood is a tube from the center crankcase vent. The valve-cover vents are running down under the car.

Thanks all!

This is a side thought from this thread about lowering/improving my rallyx car (1989 Turbo 4WD EA82 wagon): http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=90839 RX springs are 157 lb/in vs my wagon's 146 lb/in. How much difference will I feel? For those of you who have made that change, how big of a difference was it? Like how noticeable? Also, are the RX springs shorter? I'm curious what will happen to my ride height when swapping to the RX springs. Thanks! Richard

Thanks all for the info, and thanks SubaruJunkie for the pics! Thanks! That was the main thread I had found when searching. Good info there. I'll send you a PM. Would be nice to play around with some before deciding which GR2s to order. Would like to try some RX springs too. Can I buy them new for a decent price?

I plan to lower my budget EA82 rallyx car - 1989 GL-10 Turbo 4WD wagon. I've searched the forum and have gotten a lot of good info, but I want to double-check that what I'm doing will work before I pull the trigger and order parts. The car is stock - no 5-lug conversion. In the front - I will order KYB GR2 front struts from a 2WD XT. These are a bolt-in swap, and will lower the front end 2 inches, right? The car needs new struts anyway. But, ***can I run my stock GL-10 front springs, or do I need to find XT front springs?*** In the rear - XT struts would not lower the rear, so I could just order GR2s for my stock application and flip my top strut bracket for 1-inch drop. I could cut the stock coils if I need to drop the rear more, or order some aftermarket springs. Please - I'm not looking for opinions on whether or not I should lower the car for rallyx, whether this car is good for rallyx, etc. And I'm not looking to do a 5-lug swap, or spend the money on coilovers. I just hope to get the correct combination of parts to lower the car some for better handling (especially less positive camber in the front). And get the new struts that I need, so that I'll spend less time bouncing into the air at the next rallyx. Will this setup work? Are there any better ideas, given the constraints above? Thanks! Richard

Is that really true? I have always thought they were equal, and/or diesel required less refining to produce. (Although the ultra low sulfur diesel we have in the US now takes more refining than what we used to have, but pollutes less) Diesel can create more of some pollutants, like particulates and NOx, but it produces less CO2. You get better MPG with diesel, so you burn less, so you produce less CO2. Sorry that we are getting off the HHO topic!

Hey GD and Pacific NW guys - the majority of everyone here, right? What are scrap prices like up there? Here in the East they are 12 cents per pound at the scrapyard for whole-auto scrap (don't have to pull anything from the vehicle except tires and battery, and don't have to drain any fluids other than gas tank. So even 1000 lbs of leftover stripped-out Sub metal would be $120. And if you can't haul it to the scrap yard, the junk guys out here will pay you to haul off your metal.

I was at that event on Saturday, and unfortunately didn't get to see the stock class, because it ran on Friday. I heard about that Subaru, but never got to see it. I was told that it should have done well, but got stuck on the big rock ledge in this pic http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c105/bugaiskij/DSCN2648.jpg and had to get winched off. There was no point in running a winch like you see on the front of that Subaru. The times were so fast, that if you had to spend time winching, there is no way you could win. A winch is just added weight you don't need in that event. The event had dedicated vehicles with winches positioned at hard spots (like that ledge) to winch out stuck or broken rigs. I sat at the ledge in that pic all day Saturday watching the action. If you see a big group of orange shirts in any of the pics, that's the 4x4 club I'm in. Several of us thought about entering, but you would have to tear your vehicle up to win, so we didn't. The trail has jumps and several places with BIG rocks. The stock class got to take bypasses on 2 of the toughest obstacles. We had a member get 2nd place in C class in a Jeep 4.0L powered tube-buggy with LandCruiser FJ80 axles. He bent his rear axle housing in the process. (Stock class was A, Modified Stock was B, C was up to like 38-inch tires, and D was unlimited class) The manager of 4WHeelParts in Raleigh won B class in a Jeep Wrangler YJ, but he broke his front ring and pinion and both alloy front axle-shafts. He told me he saw that Subaru, and that all the tubing on the back was PVC, not metal??? I find it hard to believe, and it doesn't *look* like PVC in the pics. Some people tore up some serious stuff in that event. It would be cool to buy a beater and build it specifically for this event. If they run this event again, we should get some Subaru folks together and build one. Stock class allowed any lift, any gears, any tires up to 33-inches. No front axle swaps (so could not use a T-cased Sub), no engine swaps. Locked/welded/limited-slip in rear only. Locked center diff fine, of course! Body trimming/weight reduction was legal in stock class (as you could see from the pics of that Subaru) This was more like a rally-race than a rock-crawl, but the course was much rougher (rockier) than a rally would be. To win you had to run some fast times over a very rocky course with jumps. I've run those trails in my Samurai, my Blazer, and in a Jeep Wrangler TJ I used to own (in fact I'm going out there with the Samurai this Saturday). I have driven fast and caught small air in my Samurai, but no where close to as fast as these guys were going. Search on YouTube for Uwharrie 4x4Cross and you can find some videos, but I couldn't find one of that Subaru when I looked last week.

Isn't that a Toyota drivers seat, like MR2 or Corolla GTS?

Mentis - I'm in Apex, which is about an hour closer to you than Asheboro (near Raleigh and Chapel Hill). I don't know anyone around me with an older Sub. I rally-x mine with this club http://thscc.com/. We're the only 80s model Sub at the races. There is one older Legacy, but everyone else has Imprezas or WRXs. They just had an event in Rocky Mount yesterday, but my car's co-owner was sick, so we didn't go. If I go off-roading, I drive my Samurai or Blazer. Hey mudduck - do you take your Sub to Uwharrie National Forest? I'd like to take my Samurai wheeling with some Subs.

Brake light switch at brake pedal? I had this happen to a Toyota I owned.