What To See in 2009 [ January 6th, 2009 ] By: Charles Smith Posted in » Ramblings

New Years bring new seasons of racing, new cars, new toys and new feats of engineering. There is plenty to look forward to in what is going to be a great year.

In contrast with Subaru leaving the WRC, American leagues (NASA and RA) will still feature Subarus as their most common race car (and possibly still their winningest).  With DIRT’s possible new entries into the sport such as their ProjectRS you’ll have plenty of new Subarus in NASA. 

Fans of Petter Solberg will hopefully be able to watch his driving, albeit in most-likely a non Subaru as he is now a free agent. Rally Norway has even extended its entry deadline for Petter until January 13th.  

Rally America is still expected to have its big names return: Travis Pastrana, Ken Block, Andrew Comrie-Picard and the not so well known Kyle Sarasin. So there will be plenty of competition to watch. Infact, with such big names dropping out of the WRC, Rally America could gain in popularity (world wide even).

2009 is set to be an exciting year. Do any of you have big rally plans this year?

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Gas Saving Tip #3 [ July 2nd, 2008 ] By:Charles Smith

Keep Your Tires Inflated

Low tire pressure increases your cars rolling resistance. Why? Because more rubber is in contact with the ground, and while this may generally be a good thing for racing, as we all know racing is not about fuel economy. Increased rolling resistance (which equates to traction) makes your engine work harder. Harder working engines consume more fuel so your MPG suffers. It is the same principle that makes road cyclists ride paper thin wheels and tires. So keep your tires inflated.

Keep your tire pressure around the factory recommended levels. However, if you over inflate your tire you may decrease the life of your tire while decreasing traction (what a loss). So keep an eye on your tire pressures! FYI the tire pressure in my WRX is currently around 36psi.

You should be able to find your factory levels stamped on a plate in one of your door frames. Combine that with the fact that most gas stations have free air for tires you really have no excuse to not keep your tires inflated. Happy hunting!

July 2nd, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Which Car Would You Choose? [ July 1st, 2008 ] By:Charles Smith

If you were to make a rally car, which of these cars would you choose and why?

  • VW Golf GTI (’93)
  • Subaru Impreza STI (’08)
  • Suzuki SX4 Crossover (’08)
  • Mazda Protege (’00)

Granted they have differing price ranges, but there are some pros and cons for each of them. For the older Golf GTI I would say a big con is possible frame damage, but it is the cheapest option. The second cheapest option, the Mazda Protege would be an uncommon rally car (which could be a good thing) but I’m not sure on the frame damage again (2 accidents).

The next two options increase in price a lot. The Suzuki SX4 Crossover (w/ AWD) is a 2.0L Naturally Aspirated car that comes brand new at $15,000. However the Suzuki is the lightest of the bunch stock but it has yet to be rally proven in the US (the WRC has a Suzuki team that debuted this year). Finally we come to the most expensive option, a brand new STI coming in at $33,000. The STI is the only one in the bunch designed for rallying (with the help of Petter Solberg). However, it is also the heaviest of the bunch…stock, and the most expensive.

So which would you choose?

July 1st, 2008 | 4 Comments
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