Project RS

[ScottyB]

so let me tell you about how pants-crappingly fun rallycross is. if you like autocross, cars, noise, dirt, powersliding, cheap thrills, and America - in any particular order or combination - then congratulations! you have just qualified to launch your car into the great filthy realm of sideways rally action that is rallycross.

last weekend i showed up at a vacant fairground with about 20 other cars to slide my subaru to hell and back for the better part of 60 to 70 seconds at a time on a dirt and gravel course in order to compete with other cars against the clock. i got 8 runs in over the afternoon. classing is hilariously simple - 2WD street tire or rally tire, 4WD street tire or rally tire (YMMV depending on who runs it, but it should still be pretty simple). the course is built mostly around existing pathways in the dirt and used cones to create slaloms and direct some of the larger turns, just like autocross.

the reason the classing works with such a stupidly simple model is that for the most part, power means nothing. you are pretty much entirely traction limited and your speed and time are decided largely by how well you maintain your momentum through the turns, except that if you botch it up, you really lose a lot of speed. here comes the best part...you maintain that momentum by keeping the car's speed up and picking an efficient line, and on a low traction surface that means hanging the ass out all over the place. when you get it right, and link together a series of turns and slaloms by snapping the car back and forth between 20 or 30 degree powerslides at speed, it feels like you just passed the field at Sebring in the General Lee while high fiving Bo Duke and getting a lap dance from Michelle Jeneke at the same time. i was yelling shit in the car that didn't even make sense, i was having so much fun.

its also a bit of a sensory overload at first. not only are you dealing with overcoming the fear of purposely getting pretty sideways at 30+mph, you've also get to get used to a new type of braking: ABS is worthless, threshold brake and throw the car sideways to slow down. it feels way too aggressive at first and requires a lot of wheel work, but when it comes together it totally makes sense and is very effective. add in the noise too....it sounds like someone's dumping a bucket of gravel on the roof of your car, but its really just the helmet focusing all the noise in the cabin. on this particular course i was getting deep into 3rd gear which is about 60mph. even in a straight line and on the smoothest part of the course, the car wants to squirm all over the place and it feels closer to 80. quite the rush.

can't recommend it enough. however, you will want to be sure you have at least 4 or 5 inches of ground clearance. it helps to not care about your paint...i have a few chips on the bottom of my rocker panels now, despite my mud flaps. if the course isn't packed dirt, you'll also want to be driving on something like an all season to get some level of traction (if it is packed, you might actually be better off). otherwise, show up and have a blast.

we had everything from open-class WRX's and a Civic rally car to daily driven cars that people brought their wife and dog in. friendliest people i've ever encountered at an event (that wasn't populated with MM'ers ) and tons of fun ride-alongs. i think this is the first hit off my new favorite go-fast crack pipe. i'm already looking for a set of used all-seasons or rally tires.

because it was a non-points event, the timing was kind of half-assed and nobody really got around to posting times after the event. from what i saw before i left, i did about mid-pack, and had one run that would have put me in 2nd. however, i think it was a mis-time or some kind of fluke because none of my other times were close. don't even care though, i was just glad to drive.

the course. basically a figure 8. normally i'd be dissapointed by such a simple course, but it was more than enough to deal with.


this guy was literally backing the car into some turns. it was kick ass.


stock Lesbosled XT, it did great out there.


open-class 2.5RS. due to ECU issues it was limited to 4,000 RPM, but was still really fast.


my closest competition....'04 RS. pretty sure he beat me.


this $500 shitpile was literally burning oil so bad, there was more oil smoke than dust coming off the back of it. it was being rotated between 4 guys and was just being beaten without mercy. on old used snow tires...it was pretty damn fast :lol:


i thought this thing was some kind of joke considering it looks like an APC catalog vomited all over it. turns out it just got back from kicking some ass in the Sandblast Rally and was really fast.