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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Safety Wiring Bolts [ May 22nd, 2008 ] By:Charles Smith

Safety Wiring is a pretty common thing in most motorsports. I like to think of it as a mechanical thread lock(Loctite/Teflon Tape), but much easier to remove.

What It Is

Safety wire is wire that is passed through holes in bolt heads that is twisted, wrapped and secured in such a way that the bolts cannot loosen without removing the safety wire. The wire is secured to either other bolts (preferable) or mounting points built in to the component.

Why Safety Wire?

Safety wiring is required for various motorsport leagues as it is the only safe way to secure certain critical bolts. Loctite and Teflon Tape can too often fail and let the bolt unscrew. It is impossible for the bolts to unscrew when safety wired correctly, without the safety wire first failing. It can also be thought of as a warning system. It is the first sign of failure without being a critical one.

Safety Wire is used most commonly on suspension and brake components. A failure of either of those would be catastrophic to the car and driver.

It is pretty simple to do, however it is tedious. Who better to explain how to do it than the website I stole the above picture from? NO ONE. Check it out.

May 22nd, 2008 | 2 Comments

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