Project RS

[ScottyB]

another 1st place Street Tire 4WD! no times to compare yet but that was the result.
edit: 4th out of 24 in raw time

it was a sloppy mess all morning, in some sections it was like ice and no amount of steering input would do a thing until the car came down to about 20mph or so and then you could turn the nose and chug out. lots of puddles and boggy sections mixed in with grippy sand hard-pack. it was really tough to figure out braking points because of this, until a buddy showed me how to pull my ABS fuse. HOLY CRAP. literally transformed the car. i cannot stress enough how insane this little tweak is for a dirt-driven suby. went from incredibly weak, unresponsive brakes to powerful, modular control that worked even more awesome mid-corner in encouraging rotation.

the afternoon dried out and the dirt turned from slop into loamy topsoil and the sand got grippier. lots of great speed out of some corners now and the RS was really hunkered down on the slaloms. i think i was able to make up time from my weaksauce morning runs. i started getting much more aggressive with my trail braking and newfound NO-ABS goodness, and started to also experiment with tidier lines in the high speed areas and bigger slides in the low speed parts to keep my speed up - and i think it worked? i have a long way to go before i figure this stuff out.

the 4WD street tire field this time was packing compared to last time. every car aside from me and 1 other car in the class were turbocharged. aside from that one other, i was about 50hp down on the next weakest car and over 150 down on the most powerful in the class. i was pretty pleased to be able to hang with them after being pretty anxious since the last event wondering if i just got lucky to win against a weak field or if i could hack it against stronger opponents and actually keep up. and the thing is....i really don't say this to toot my own horn either, but just reiterate just how competitive ANYONE can be in ANY car if they are familiar with how to drive in low traction and know the handling traits of their car. power does NOTHING without control and traction is the great equalizer. you can have fun rallycrossing an 8 year old, 110k mile economy car with a baby seat in the back :lol: and hang with bigger dogs because all the cars out there can only put so much oomph through 4 tiny contact patches!

sorry, no action shots from me. didn't have time to get any.


all kinds of metal showed up, from a roll-salvaged mitsu endeavor SUV to fozzies to sentras


the hour-long ride home felt nice with the wheels packed full of mud. felt like someone left my car on spin cycle.