Two Guys Rally

New Tires for the WRX

After a short while of spirited driving new tires are required. That time has come for my WRX. Normally, if I were happy with the OEM tires I would gladly buy them again and I was happy with them. Except this time around I found out my OEMs (Bridgestone Potenza RE92s affiliate link) cost $250/ea. Thats pricier than most race tires! I loved them, but $1000 just for the rubber seems a bit high for not top of the line All Seasons.

The top rated All Seasons were the Continental ExtremeContact DWSs (affiliate link). Plus they were one of the lower cost ones! That may explain why when I tried to get them, they were on back order. Plus they have a neat looking tread. So I could have chosen to wait for them or grab some other All-Seasons.

So with the DWS on backorder, I went with the Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Positions (affiliate link). Decent performance at about $150/ea. That’s $100/ea savings compared to the OEMs that come with the WRX. So far I’m happy with my choice, and the reviews of the tire claim I’m going to stay happy with that choice for a while (30k-50k miles…more likely <30k the way I drive).

If I had some extra wheels (winter wheels) kicking around, I’d buy some specifically summer tires and some winter tires for only a little more than I paid for the all seasons. Switching wheels is a 10-15 minute job with a jack and jackstands. However, if theres a freak snow storm this summer, I’ll be able to drive in it.

XGAMES 15 - oh my oh my

For any of you who missed the XGAMES 15 coverage of Rally Racing, here’s some stuff that went down:

Ken Block clipped the inside of a corner in practice and rolled it. His crew managed to get his car in working order for the race against Brian Deegan.

Foust is using an electro-somethingmotive sequential transmission in his Ford Fiesta rally car (hmmm, hopefully rally america starts letting this happen).

ACP succesfully landed his second jump of compeition vs Pastrana, but sadly spun at the end. Pastrana won his first race of the event. After the race there was a quick shot of Pastrana and his car being weighed on four scales (random scrutineering?).

Ken Block raced against Deegan. Ken Block tapped the rear right corner of his car against a jersey barrier and did not have enough speed to hit the jump, so he skipped it. Block DQ’d himself by skipping the jump, luckily for Deegan, who had a turbo hose pop off, essentially making his car naturally aspirated (read low power/torque).

Tanner Foust raced Kenny Brack (who beat Dave Mirra). Both fords jumped astonishingly well. Foust either pushed too hard, or was late with turning coming off of the second hairpin and overshot. This mistake cost Foust the race and Brack advanced to the Final.

Travis Pastrana lined up to race Brian Deegan. Deegan’s turbo hose couldn’t get fixed in time. Deegan’s car could not clear the jump with 1/3rd of the power, so he skipped it and was DQ’d. Deegan was shown in car so frustrated and angry to the point of crying. This is understandable considering something so simple as a turbo hose ruining your shot at an X-Games medal.

Travis Pastrana raced Kenny Brack (former Indy Racer) for the gold. Kenny Brack lost his bumper (mostly) on the first jump. Sadly, Travis Pastrana wedged himself into the trickiest corner of the race. Brack won, and this is Travis’ first loss in Rally at the XGAMES.

Kenny Brack: GOLD
Travis Pastrana: SILVER
Tanner Foust: BRONZE

Some notes: Everyone seemed to be using a sequential transmission (hooray new Rally America rules), but I’m pretty sure the Fiestas were using Electro-something sequentials, which would be hopeful for rule changes in Rally America.
These cars are much more powerful than during the normal season. The restrictor preturbo is larger in diameter, and these cars are at least doubling their power just for this event.

The Future of Racing: Loops

Being able to do loops the same way roller coasters and airplanes do could easily get put into the X-Games (knowing how crazy some of the competitors are). “But Charles! That’s impossible! No car can do a loop” Au contraire mon frere. It was done, here’s some proof:

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It was done by the folks at Fifth Gear. While I think most of Fifth Gear is worse than Top Gear, this has got to be one of their better stunts.

Now I may have joked about backflips being done by Travis Pastrana in Rally Cars on April 1st (some of you didn’t get that it was an April Fools joke), but this could actually happen. Speed Racer here we come.

Rally Poland! Whoa.

The WRC brought in a new event this year: Rally Poland.  It really wasn’t a new event, but the last time WRC cars ran in the event was 2003. It was, in fact, a really really old event that was first held in 1921 and was included in the WRC’s opening season (1973).  The only older Rally being Monte Carlo (1911, if you were curious). It’s cool to see some history coming back into the scope with the WRC.

The footage from the race and the results lead me to believe it would’ve been awesome to spectate. Loeb CRASHED! Although, it was not a race ending crash, just a bad off. Still kept him off the podium but he ended up with 2 points. This lack of points dropped him into 2nd place in the overall championship standings. Loeb is right on the tails of Mikkkkkkkkko Hirvonen (only 1 point separating them).

So, some results: MIKKKKKKKKKOOOOOOO grabbed the 1st spot and earned himself 10 points. Sordo, Loeb’s teammate, stole second (and it’s 8 points) from Henning Solberg. Henning’s earning totaled 6 points  which pushed himself ahead of YANNI MATTIE (Jani Mati Latvala) for 4th place in the series. Petter Solberg, one of my favorite drivers to watch, drove his privateered Citroen Xsara to 4th place. The points for Petter tied him with YANNI MATTIE. It’s the Solbergs v Latvala for the 4th place in the Championship. Side Note: I’m biased but I’m also pretty sure Petter is the fastest driver of a Xsara ever.

With 160 points left up for grab in the last 4 races (40 max), this could shape up to be an exciting end of season. I cannot wait for Rally Finland, which is coming right at the end of this month (July 31st, 2009).

Not Rally: Beirut Bot

So, I’m 10 days from graduation and in order to graduate I needed to do a Senior Design project. Since I didn’t really enjoy playing beer pong (long story), I figured I’d make a machine do it for me. That is how my partner and I came up with this:

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Mark was actually a huge help through out this project. He was especially helpful with machining and cannon implementation.

For more info and video on the project visit its website:  http://www.ce.rit.edu/research/projects/2009_spring/Beirut_Bot/

Also, hell yeaaaa, 10 days to graduation. WOO.

Latvala had a Crappy Rally Portugal

Luckily, Jari-Matti Latvala is still around to talk about how crappy his Rally Portugal was. After rolling down a really steep hill/mountain he escaped without serious injury (along with his co-driver). Here is a video with portuguese commentating of the crash:

Link for you RSS peeps. It was even Latvala’s birthday! Speaking of birthdays, today is TwoGuysRally’s first birthday! We’re one year old today (April 6th, 2009).

Travis Pastrana Successfully Flips Rally Car

Just got word from a buddy who lives in Maryland that Travis Pastrana successfully landed a backflip in a stripped down version of his competition car. Video isn’t out of it yet, but hopefully it will be! Someone got a pic of it though:
 

Travis Pastrana really is amazing when it comes to things with wheels and motors. I hope to see him start using this move in his rallies!

Uh oh, I just realized this could also spell doom for rally in America. Just like with Motocross he could be switching to the Freestyle variety. Freestyle Rally, X-Games 09 is looking like it has yet another sport to add.

Sequential Transmission and Rally America: An Update

In June of 2008 I wrote an article lamenting about Rally America’s rules on sequential transmissions. Turns out they’ve caved…a bit. I was reading the rules and I stumbled over this on page 89 section 6c:

Gear Change: The use of an unassisted manual sequential gear change mechanism is allowed.

Neat! You can use a sequential given that you have direct access to the mechanical selector. That is only one step away from an electro-whathaveyou sequential with paddle controls. Although you cannot control many parts electronically (yet), as seen on page 89 section 6b:

Electronic Controls: No type or form of electronic control is permitted for the following components:
i. Suspension, steering, braking, gear change/clutch, front and rear differentials.
ii. Simple engine cut operating during a mechanically activated gear change is permitted.

So you cannot control the clutch/transmission electronically yet. But you can flat shift, which means you keep your foot planted on the gas pedal during shifts and electronically cut the engine’s power. Either way, there is hope for Rally America to become the premiere rally league in the future. Not for a while though.

Rally Cyprus 2009 - YAY!

It is the first time in a long time that a private (not really factory supported) team has podiumed in the WRC’s top class. While we’re stuck with two manufacturers, there are still plenty of teams. One of my favorite teams is Petter Solberg’s self run rally team and he happened to finish 3rd in Rally Cyprus. That really is indicative of the talent Petter Solberg has and it really makes me wonder about Subaru. Maybe there really was something wrong with how Prodrive was making the Subaru WRC car. 

In usual fashion Sebastien Loeb finished first. I don’t know how he keeps that up. Many people would lose focus after winning as much as he has. He keeps getting faster too. It really is quite amazing.

Mikko Hirvonen, Ford’s favorite for the WRC pulled out a 2nd place finish. He’s now only 8 points behind Loeb in the championship standings and with 75% of the season’s points still up for grabs he has plenty of hope to be the World Rally Champion. 

The next WRC race is April 2nd, 2009 and it is Rally Portugal. 

Rally Norway 2009: Results

Rally Norway took place this past weekend and the results were not far from expected. Loeb (Citroen) took the top of the podium with Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) close behind with Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford) rounding out the podium. 

Petter Solberg had an outstanding performance for his first competition in a Citroen. He placed 6th grabbing 3 points for himself. He was squeaked out of fifth by Daniel Sordo (Citroen). Ford had a strong presence in the top eight(5 out of 8), but then again there are only two manufacturers in the competition so they should be split pretty evenly. 

 

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