You're My Boy, Blue

[ScottyB]

first rallyx for Blue under the belt and it was overall a lot of positive punctuated with a lot of negative garbage unrelated to the car.



the good - official times aren't in yet but at a glance i was slightly behind the veteran FWD guys on snow tires, which makes me think i'd be competitive if i had traction.  hilariously tail happy.  more than enough power, long 1st gear made it easy to ride the powerband and stretch it out between corners.  never bottomed out, didn't even scrape the front apron.  suspension held up fine and did a good job of mixing compliance and keeping response.  good brake bias for trailbraking.

the bad - spin, spin, spin.  that Torsen ain't gonna torse if both tires have no grip.  the wheel/tire sizing was perfect, but the tread on the no-seasons was just unable to do anything, anywhere and i spent most of the time just figuring out where i could straighten the car out so i could do more than feather the throttle.  i kind of knew that going in, but its really apparent now that without proper tires i'm just going to stay frustrated.  with (A) aggressive snows or (B) a course that was open enough it would have been a genuinely fast car.

don't laugh at that monte carlo.  he was in the hunt for fastest stock FWD time.




AWD of all vintages out today


not sure if i mentioned the dust.  everywhere.  everything is dust.  


had some time to think on the way home and it hit me that this venue just sucks.  if i'm honest, it sucked the last 2 times i was there in the 2.5RS and it still sucks now.  insanely hot in the middle of who-gives-a-damn GA, choking dust, the course is just way too compact to have any kind of enjoyable flow and we had some real bullshit to deal with from the property management who decided to water down the course in the morning for dust control, which resulted in a course so slick that after the first 5 cars went off, event staff had to take an HOUR (oops now you get less runs) to reroute the course enough that people wouldn't slide into the trees....while course workers (me included) stood in the sun and cooked.  and then the water truck appeared, unannounced, again IN THE MIDDLE OF OUR RUN GROUP, the last one of the day.  just drove in out of nowhere and souped the course.  they couldn't wait 15 minutes for the rest of us to finish and pack the event up, just F you, good luck everybody else.

i know what wet clay does to the chassis of a car.  its also undrivable on street tires.  its nearly undrivable on off road tires.  case in point, here's a seasoned driver in a built rally car on dedicated rally tires, reduced to idling the car through the last half of the course.  what a joke.  oh yeah, it has an LS1.


as a result i just said NOPE and rolled back to grid and packed up, so my last 2 or 3 runs in the afternoon are DNF.  i'm done paying anybody for the privilege to stand in fire ant mounds and get shithoused by clay dust so i can bail on half my runs thanks to a phantom water truck.  i know its hard to find places where people will let 20+ people tear ass in their field, but i'm out there to have fun and this is the opposite.  there's talk of ATL SCCA finding a new venue for rallyx in the fall, and if it looks like a better deal i'll try again.  unfortunately the next closest events are 3+ hours away, so they're out of the question.  until then, looks like Blue will stay less dirty for a while.  

anyway.  got some cool shots of the mod classes while i was working...

this B5 audi is what you call a Bad Mf'er.  V6 non turbo, i can't imagine what an S4 would do.
  

extremely competent, experienced driver with an extremely prepped WRX.  those are UK market WRC headlights and WRC wing among a bunch of other high dollar, rare parts.  almost too nice to beat up.



i know it looks like it should be on the way to the crusher but this VW was so dialed it was scary.  if he's not FTD he's gotta be runner up.  you see this theme a lot in rallyx.


this Mazda3 had 300,000 miles...so rally it


no subarus spun bearings today!  it felt a bit weird seeing them all leave under their own power.  this guy drove 3 hours here and back again, more ballsy than i am that's for sure.


2 N/A imprezas, the wagon was almost identical to my old 2.5RS so i felt the feels.  the blue one was cammed and running rally tires, and a legit contender and what i wish i could have built my old RS into.  the wagon was a mother/son duo, look at that smile!  proper family bonding time.



no pics of my run group since i was the only guy there with a camera.  shame...would have liked to see how the Si looked in action.