Joey's Budget Rallycar: RallyX #10 - Oakshade Raceway

[homeforsummer]

Glad you had fun - that, of course, is the most important thing.

That, and the color scheme stands out in photos.

 

[Slash]

Well the flexplate is what the torque converter bolts to on an automatic car. I'm assuming the flywheel bolts to that on the Neons? That's what I'm assuming but that will be the first time I've ever heard of such a thing.

Same here. Kind of odd. I was under the impression that a flywheel and flexplate were the same thing and the name changed depending on what it was used for.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Nice to see you got the car up and running again. Looks like you had a great time. They didn't put you against those Subaru Imprezas did they? That just wouldn't be fair at all putting a FWD against those AWD cars. I need to come check out one of your rally events.

 

[Joey D]

Rallycross #9 at I-96 Speedway

On Saturday another buddy and I ran a rallycross not too far from where I live, the weather was perfect and the track was really fast. I vastly improved my overall driving and managed a well placed 4th out of 7 drivers, which isn't bad considering I was last only two months ago. The car ran flawlessly too!

Paddocks

Starting Grid, that Colt in front of us actually rolled in the afternoon session. The guys were ok but their car was pretty beat up. They ended up go way off course some how and then got the car sideways in some deep mud.

Action Shots

Fueling up before heading home.

Here's some video shot of our run group too:




Action shot pictures and movies courtesy of Brian Thorpe.

I have some GoPro videos too I'm still working on getting put together that I should have in the next day or so.

 

[motortrend]

Man this is really motivating me to get a track car with a friend, just need to come up with some funds, maybe by the start of next year.

 

[Joey D]

Man this is really motivating me to get a track car with a friend, just need to come up with some funds, maybe by the start of next year.

Do it!

Would you do something like a track/auto x or would you do something along the lines of the best motorsport in the world, also know as rally?

Whatever you end up doing remember the goal is to have fun. You can make just about any car work too since being a good driver is more important.

 

[motortrend]

There's no rally scene (I'd love that) here and going competitive at the track requires a bigger investment. What we're thinking is just getting a cheap RWD car and taking it to track time and drift events just for fun until we can build it up a bit and concentrate on a class goal for circuit. What running costs should I expect given I buy a fully running street legal car?

 

[Joey D]

We just pay for insurance, which is about $500 per year, and plates, which are like $100 or something per year. Other than that it's just wear and tear stuff and we mostly get replacement parts out of a junkyard or off either a Neon forum or Craigslist. Things that directly relate to safety though we buy new.

Our car was more expensive since we built a new engine (twice) and swapped the transmission. If we would have done it smarter the car would have been much cheaper.

Honestly if you get a car for about a $1,000 you could probably dump another $500-$1,000 in it and be pretty set. It wouldn't be the best but it would be enough to get you started.

As with event fees, they vary. With RallyX it's typically about $40 for the event per driver, which isn't bad since we get 8 (or more) runs.

 

[motortrend]

That sounds good, we were thinking about 1000-1500 to start out, car can be beat up outside as long as it's all good mechanically, which is hard to find but there's no hurry here. Miscellaneous costs like event fees, the helmet and gas don't worry me much, brakes and tires do worry me a little though I guess I could always get used tires and beat on those each track day.

 

[Joey D]

Rallycross #10 at the Calhoun County Fairgrounds

We went back to the track we did our first race at last year with a car that was better built and had drivers that had a slight idea of what we were doing.

Since the last race the Neon has been gone over and received new wheel bearings, tie rods, ball joints, and a set of KYB GR-2 struts. The difference was amazing and it didn't feel like the car was about to fall apart. It also stayed way more planted over the bumps.

It had rained off and on so parts of the track were really muddy, which sort of made it fun at first but the course at one point went through a huge mud pit that we all almost got stuck in. They switch the track around thankfully and made it a little easier on the cars. We were up against some of the more skilled drivers so we ended up coming in last and second to last in our class, but we still had fun and we got to play with our new and improved rally light setup.

Here's some onboard (or rather on car) videos of the event:

My Runs:


Jim's (my co-driver) Runs:

 

[Joey D]

2013 Year End Summary

The final race of the season was this past Saturday and because of our allergy to standing out in 17 degree weather with a brisk wind and some snow, we didn't participate. However, the year end results were posted this morning and I was genuinely surprised, out of 26 drives, I came in 14th, Jim (my co-driver) came in 17th, and Jasper (our mechanic) came in 19th, so in other words we aren't completely rubbish at this!

The car is being put away till the spring now since it's not setup for winter racing (read studded tires) and we are worried about how much the salt on the road would accelerate the rust. During our hiatus though, we have a decent list of things we hope to get through:

• New bushings.
• New transmission and clutch.
• New exhaust system.
• New brake pads.
• Possibly new gravel only tires.
• Redo the rally light bar.
• Fix the headlights so they are brighter than candles in a jar.
• Install mudflaps
• Patch some rust.

Obviously we probably won't get to all of these things, but we are hoping to knock some off the list before the first race in April of May of next year.

Some thoughts on this year though, I was pretty impressed with how much better I was by the last race of the year and how much better I was with car control (even though I hit a ton of cones). I'm by no means a professional, but I'm closing in on the "not completely terrible" amateur status. I'm also impressed with how much I've learned with just working on cars. A couple years ago if you asked me how to swap a transmission I wouldn't have the foggiest idea, now I could probably do it after a lot of swearing and maybe a trip to the urgent care to get my hand stitched up. Finally, I've come to the conclusion rally people are way more laid back than other racing disciplines I've been involved in, I've already made some good friends and that makes everything way more enjoyable.

I'm really excited for next year and I hope to have even more success!

 

[Joey D]

Rallycross #7 at Crystal Motor Speedway

After some set backs over the summer and not having our schedules get together, we finally were able to make it to a race. It was oddly the first race we did last year too so at least the "track" was a little familiar and we hoped to do better (we didn't). As always we had a blast doing it despite coming in last, but we are definitely getting better and neither of us hit any cones throughout the race.

The car mostly held together, although the rear sway bar end links are destroyed, the exhaust hangers are completely broke, and there's a short with the fuel pump that keeps blowing a fuse. Those should all be easy to fix though. We've already decided to get a new exhaust, although we need to find someone who will do one that doesn't have a cat on it.

Anyways, here's some pictures:

 

[Ronald6]

👍 👍 That field looks like it 'fluffs' a lot. I bet the ideal line keeps changing through the day. Looks like fun.

"and neither of us hit any cones throughout the race." Well done. Take pride in that.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

The car mostly held together, although the rear sway bar end links are destroyed, the exhaust hangers are completely broke, and there's a short with the fuel pump that keeps blowing a fuse. Those should all be easy to fix though. We've already decided to get a new exhaust, although we need to find someone who will do one that doesn't have a cat on it.

Looks like a lot of fun. Would really like to check out one of those rally events sometime. I don't have anything I would run out there but it would be fun to watch.

For the exhaust. If you cant find anyone in your area that will run the cat free exhaust, my neighbor works at a professional exhaust shop and he is certified. He will run it cat free if you need. He can even run stainless if you want. He ran a cat free exhaust on my WRX. It would probably be about a 30-45 minute drive for you.

 

[Joey D]

@CAMAROBOY69

I'll let you know about the exhaust, the car is on the east side of the state right now since my buddy is sorting out the fuel pump but it should be back over here soon-ish. We have a race coming up at I-96 Speedway in October and one in Marshall, MI in November. I can let you know the exact dates if you're interested in checking out one of the RallyX's. I can even take you for a ride too, and really just about anyone will let you jump in and go for a ride in their car.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

@CAMAROBOY69

I'll let you know about the exhaust, the car is on the east side of the state right now since my buddy is sorting out the fuel pump but it should be back over here soon-ish. We have a race coming up at I-96 Speedway in October and one in Marshall, MI in November. I can let you know the exact dates if you're interested in checking out one of the RallyX's. I can even take you for a ride too, and really just about anyone will let you jump in and go for a ride in their car.

Yeah that sounds great. You can give me a date list and I will see if I can make it one of these days. I would love to go for a ride for sure. I already have a helmet from my road track events so I should be all set with that.

 

[Joey D]

Rallycross #9 at I-96 Speedway

Some how I forgot to post the Rally X from September, no idea how that happened. But I finished my usual last place.

Yesterday, however was RallyX #9 at I-96 Speedway, which is probably my favorite track we race at. The clay is hard packed and there's a ton of grip, people were laying rubber all day long which is pretty cool when you think about it since it's dirt. Before the race we set a challenge for ourselves, basically if we finished last and second to last we were going to sell the car and start with something less cobbled together next year.

After our first couple of runs we quickly realized that we were actually really competitive and turning out really quick times. By mid-day we were somewhere around the middle of the 10 cars in our class. The afternoon we were even fast compared to some of the other times but we didn't really know where we were falling. I was doing really well and turning 30 second times, but on my last run the back end caught the soft dirt just off the racing line and I ended up spinning the car around, which gave me a 37 second time.

At the end of the day when the results were posted, I ended up 6th and my buddy ended up 4th, our best finish since we've started racing! I was only about a second off from getting 5th too, if I hadn't spun, I would have had it. Oh well, guess that's racing. Looks like the Neon will live to see another season.

Anyway here's some pictures:

Here's a few other cars that were out there too, figure since I never post up what we actually are racing against/with, I might as well do it:

Toyota RAV4 with the entire Celica GT4 All-Trac drivetrain in it. To say it's fast might be an understatement.

Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX.

Rally Prepped SRT-4

Stage Rally Escort ZX2 with a turbo on it

Lexus IS300, it's always strange to see this out there

An STI actually being used like an STI should

Full stage rally Subby

 

[motortrend]

Congrats on the finish. As always, looks like great fun. Some of those cars look really impressive, I especially like that RAV4

 

[Joey D]

RallyX # 10 at Oakshade Raceway in Wausen, OH

I wasn't overly thrilled with going to this event since it was in Ohio and a 3 hour drive from my house, but my buddy wanted to do it so I figured I'd suck it up and make the drive. This was a day/night event too, meaning we did our first set of runs in the late afternoon and then the second set once the sun went down. It's always fun since we can play with additional lighting, which I snagged off of Amazon earlier in the week to replace the AutoZone special cheap lights we had on the car. I figured LED's were the way to go so I got some Chinese special one, which worked surprisingly well. To say it was bright might be an understatement since it was rated at 9,000lm.

We did pretty well in the race and our times were on par with pretty much everyone else in our class, which means we keep getting better. Oddly we were even faster at night than we were during the day despite many people being a couple seconds slower. We chalked it up to be the light bar. At the end of the day we ended up coming in 5th and 6th out of 10 drivers, which means we continue to not be completely rubbish! We really feel if we hadn't have had nearly bald winter tires we would have been 3rd and 4th, so that pretty much sealed the deal of need to get some new rubber in the off season.

Anyways, here's some pictures of the car in action:

And some of the other cars we were racing with/against:

Stage rally Civic hatchback.

STI swapped Impreza with an interesting choice in light bars.

H6 swapped Impreza, it was probably one of the worse sounding cars I've ever heard but it was super quick.

Rally America Civic

Another team from Rally America

Light bars, you're doing it right.

 

[carracerptp]

Looks like fun and nice pictures. Everytime I read about rallycross I really want to try it one day.