Subi.convert

iTrader: (2)

I have the RS&SP gravel 4 ways and love them.

Robevo RS

iTrader: (16)

Jeremy, there is probabaly RNY which is full tarmac next year. They will have it but under NASA.
For that you need a skid plate only, just to be sure. They even had a hill climb class last year.

for gravel , you can finish a rally with stock suspension, but you will be sorry. You have to be very conservative with that.

Talk to RKT, what is the minimum you need to run rally. That is your best bet.

jasonw

Hi Wheelgap, I've only read his stuff on the specialstage forums. I have also met and competed against the people that he makes suspension for. My feeling is the suspension is decent, but nothing to write home about. But Robevo says it best - I think the guy that makes the suspension has his own ideas about how good suspension should be. He and his followers are always claiming they have the same valving as the WRC guys back in the 90s, and they do it for a very cheap price. I can guarantee that the engineers that designed the WRC cars then and now do not share every little bit of information (if any) that would allow them to replicate the suspension. Still, I'd be willing to try it out, but his attitude has kept me at bay.

jasonw

Hi Jeremy, yes, you can run stock suspension, but it won't be pretty, especially if it has any kind of jumps or dips, which is pretty much every rally in the US. I would make sure to reinforce the chassis/strut towers properly, have a good cage (obviously), and a decent aluminum skidplate (although my first one was steel, and it was a tank). Most other things can be kept stock including engine and brakes (but you should get some decent race pads).

Just a side story - I watched WRC Finland in 2006, and one of the Evo IXs had rolled (I forget the driver, but he was from Asia somewhere). When my friend and I looked at the car, we realized that he was only running stock street suspension! In a place like Finland, it is pretty much impossible to run on street suspension. There are some places that just drop off, and the car takes a big hit.

WheelGap

iTrader: (4)

No, you're not crazy. Okay, maybe. You have exactly the same goals as we do, and even not running at the front of the pack is still really fun!

I see you're in Wisconsin so that means most of the rallies around you will be sanctioned by Rally-America. So first of all, do you know if your cage meets the requirements of FIA Article 253? That's what R-A requires and if you don't know you can take a bunch of pictures and post them up on Special Stage and there's some scrutineers on there that can advise you. You'll need to get a Rally-America log book for your car and I'm sure there's someone in your area that can do that.

Since you'd be rallying your Evo and I assume you don't have the 18 coefficients you're going to need to apply for a waiver. That should be no problem with all your hill climb experience. When/if you're ready, shoot me a PM and I'll get you the email address where you send your formal request. Basically spell out all your racing history and if you can document it through links to result pages or something, that's even better.

Also, what mods have you done to your car? That's going to effect which class you run in Rally-America. Even if you've done a bunch of stuff, you can probably still get a waiver to run Open, you just might not be competitive in that class, but it sounds like you're just in it for the fun so that's probably not a problem.

Okay, now we're assuming you have an Art. 253 cage, and you have your waiver and provisional unrestricted license...

What you probably don't have at the moment is a 34mm restrictor and a fuel test port. I don't know if you'll want to pickup a second hand turbo to have a restrictor mated to or the other option is to have a restrictor mated up to your current turbo and have another "not restrictor" to mate up to the intake when you're doing hill climbs. Either way the turbo will have to come off and at least the cold side will have to be sent out to be machined to mate up with a restrictor. You'll also need a few other things, a first aid kit, 2 fire extinguishers that have been certified in the current year, 3 warning triangles, one in reach of the co-driver, and a spill kit. Oh, HANS for both driver and co-driver and you'll want an intercom as well. You can rent HANS if you don't have them already.

As you probably know, most US rallies are gravel and you can probably get by on stock suspension as long as you don't hit stuff and drive with an eye towards car preservation. The one thing is you won't be able to run gravel tires and wheels because of your front brakes. AMS has a couple solutions. If you tried to stick with 17" wheels and Brembos I'm not sure what you'd do for tires. Snow tires have such thin sidewalls I wouldn't expect them to survive very well but maybe there's something out there that would work.

My car is basically bone stock. It has smaller front brakes so I can run gravel wheels/tires and I have the Hotbits but otherwise it's pretty much OEM. I didn't seam weld the shell or anything, and from what I understand back in the day when TAD was importing grey market Evo IV-VI's, he only seam welded the suspension turrets and some of those cars are still running today. The Evo from the factory is pretty tough.

I'm probably forgetting some stuff (other rallyists please chime in!) and I know there's a lot of hoops to jump through to get on the stages, but IMHO it's totally worth it. And it's not like you have to do everything at once, if you want to get on the stages you can start working towards getting the car and yourself legal to the rule book.

jerdeitzel

iTrader: (9)

Thanks for the reply's. Didn't mean to threadjack.

When i went about building my car i really tried hard to build the most universal car i could. So, i'm about 99% sure my cage is RA legal. I kno for sure its NASA rally legal. I remember reading up on RA rules when it was being built and i don't recall any issues with running with them either. I'm also set with a hans, FIA passenger seat and fire bottle's. (i find it funny about certification on those. I use to do that stuff )

I would still need an intercom and all the small stuff but that shouldn't be an issue. I have a 40mm restrictor on a extra turbo cover. Fitting a smaller one shouldn't be a problem. But, what is this fuel test port? I also dont have any extra front strut support but the rear is done.

As far as class, i'm sure i'm stuck in open. I had to build a new motor this past summer and it is no longer stock.

As you can see i am pretty darn close to being able to run a rally with this car. I'm just a bit weary of spending a bunch of money on something i've never done before.

WheelGap

iTrader: (4)

Here's the fuel test port I got:

https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/pr...asp?RecID=3447

If you look on the left hand side of the page the "T" and hose barbs are there. You just plumb it into your fuel line in the engine bay and zip tie a length of hose in the engine bay for fuel testing.

Now, that said I've never had fuel tested at a regional rally, and I'm not sure how common it is at nationals among middle-to-back of the pack rallyists. But they WILL check to see if it's there and it's a cheap part and to not have it and possibly not be allowed to run would be a bummer. Oh, here's the Rally-America tech sheet and though it says 2008, they are still the same:

http://rally-america.com/forms/TechInspectionForm.pdf

As far as spending the money to get legal, that's a tough one. There's definitely some cash involved but if you like something that's truly difficult, maybe the most challenging driving you've done and totally rewarding you'll probably like rally.