In reply to irish44j :
Looks good! I might have missed it, but how tall is this trailer canopy? Any plans to cover the sides?
In reply to irish44j :
Looks good! I might have missed it, but how tall is this trailer canopy? Any plans to cover the sides?
Not that the DIY cover isn't cool, but why not just set up another EZ-up over the trailer?
artur1808 said:In reply to irish44j :
Looks good! I might have missed it, but how tall is this trailer canopy? Any plans to cover the sides?
It has a walk-under height of about 6'6. So no ducking.
Ian F said:Not that the DIY cover isn't cool, but why not just set up another EZ-up over the trailer?
Primarily height. No decent-size EZ-up is small enough to actually sit ON the trailer, and unless you bring some 2-3 foot feet, it can't really stand on the ground an allow adult humans to actually walk under it (much less a car with the hood up). Yeah, probably could have just gotten four 2-3 foot 6x6 blocks of wood and carried those around, but what fun would that be? And I'd still have to buy a second EZ-up, and good ones cost way more than I spent on this project.
But mostly I just wanted to build something. My initial thought on this project was to do a pivot/fold-down one like a boat's Bimini top, but after calculating material costs that would have run in the $several hundred range (since I'd have to make it out of aluminum or steel pole). This was the cheapest option to get a similar result, really. Not as cool, and definitely not as great-looking, but hopefully function over form. It will look slightly less dorky by the time I'm done with it lol.
Also memories of SOFR last year where literally every EZ-up in the field got destroyed by a microburst (including ours). Problem with them is they have thin steel legs and spars that just snap. With PVC, I figure the worst that will happen is is will blow off the trailer in similar conditions. Unlikely the PVC pipes will snap like that though (and if they do, they are liek $3 at any home improvement store.
artur1808 said:In reply to irish44j :
Looks good! I might have missed it, but how tall is this trailer canopy? Any plans to cover the sides? The
The whole top section will have grommets on it, so if I want sides I can just use lighter tarps and hang them from there, basically.
So today the Sequioa popped up with a couple of the only codes that these trucks are known for : Secondary air Pump. Which also puts it into limp mode (thankfully, Torque Pro on my phone + Bluetooth OBD plugin can turn that off). Like many cars, Toyota thought it was a great idea to put a pump that shoots air into the exhaust for the first 10-20 seconds of the car turning on, for emissions, via a pair of valves. Well, those valves eventually get stuck and screw it all up (though at 130k, mine made it farther than most). Replacement for the pump/valves runs in the many many hundreds DIY'ing.
That's annoying. I'm doing the "Delete" mod that just blocks the exhaust openings and then tricks the DME into thinking the pump is running (when it's not). Not difficult, we'll see how rusty the two little bolts that hold the two valves to the exhaust are. Probable "very"
Was sitting around last night randomly browsing old cars on FB Marketplace, as I'm wont to do - even though I can't really afford another project car at the moment (well, I can afford to buy it, but I know I'll throw way too much money at it over a frantic next year, since I have no patience in building). So instead I've been goofing around with little things on the Sequoia.
Oh, that reminds me. The "air pump delete" mod came in - it's essentially two small block-off plates for the valves into the exhaust manifolds, and a wiring harness with a small box that plugs into the MAF (and has a pigtail for the OEM MAF plug to go into), and has some kind of electronic stuff in the box that trick the car into thinking the air pump is working correctly (while not actually turning it on), hence eliminating warning lights and limp mode. Anyhow, works like a charm, easy install (other than some serious dexterity needed to get to the nuts where the blockoff plates go), and that's good to go.
Back to what I was saying earlier, while searching Marketplace I stumbled upon a really cheap old Yakima roof box from the 90s. Now, i work at a ski shop and can get these pretty cheap (like half retail price), but I don't love the newer box designs. They just don't look right on an older vehicle and they're a rough finish (except the $$$ ones) which are no fun. I've had a few and sold them all (for profit) after a couple years. But saw this one for really, really cheap (since it is a very old model, with no key for the lock).....And it's an old one with a white, smooth painted finish. And it's a pretty short one, only about 60" long and low/sleek, but pretty wide. Should be good to stash clothing bags, sleeping bags, tarps, and other light stuff in that takes up a lot of space in the rig. And still leaves me with a bit of rack space for other stuff. So went and picked it up tonight after work.
Spotted this nice 944 around the corner
The box was kind of beat-up as if it had gotten rubbed against the roof of a parking garage or something lol....red and yellow paint streaks all over the top.
So broke out the buffer and buffed most of it out, so now it looks almost good as new. Test-fit, though I need to get some different mounting hardware to attach it correctly.
So, that's kind of cool.
What else? Oh, my old HF trailer gear box literally rusted through the bottom. It was pretty nasty. Happy my come-along didn't fall out the bottom, honestly. It was paper-thin rust at this point
So got online and ordered up a cheap Contico box so no more rust. Doesn't have nice latches (which annoys me a bit) so had to improvise a bit, but it does have cupholders on top, which I guess is nice if I want to, uh....drink something while standing by the tongue of the trailer. Anyhow, installed that as well and threw all the trailer gear in there.
So yeah, that's where I'm at. Our next rallycross next weekend was supposed to be a 1-day event with two-day weekend next month (one of them a makeup event), but they switched them around, so next weekend we have two single events back to back Saturday-Sunday up at Panthera. With two drop events factored in, I'm 2 points behind Nick for the class points race (with Stephen and a couple others a ways back), so next weekend will likely decide the season unless we split or something. So, guess we'll see what happens. Still a ton of guys in this class that can win on any given day, so certainly can't rule out Stephen or a few others making a comeback with a big weekend.....
Hoping the weather holds up for this weekend's double-rallycross at Panthera. It's not looking terribly promising. Guess we'll see.
In the meantime, little stuff. I ordered some cheap $10 spring latches off Amazon for my new trailer box, and received these instead. IDK if they're knockoffs or not, but they look very nice
So, instead of wasting them on the trailer, I took the old (actual cheap Chinese ones) off the rally car and used them on the trailer, and put these new ones on the rally car.
I know, I know, try to contain your excitement
the one nice thing about these is they have a 2-position latch. The old ones when latched still let the trunk bump up a bit if the stock latch was unclicked. One reason I kept the stock latch on there, even though it used to lock itself and worry me (plus, Cooper/Kelsey's e30 trunk got locked somehow at STPR and they spent an hour trying to get into it). Cna't have the trunck stuck closed on stage, that's where the spare tire is!
So, with nicer/stronger latches, riveted in with steel rivets, I went ahead and removed the stock meachanism. Hey, saved about 1/2 a pound too :)
Also, browsing around, I saw that someplace had Hawk HPS for Tundra/Sequoia fitment on clearance for half off. That's what I've been using for 25k miles (they are actually very good on the truck) but those are getting a bit low. I don't like the HD pads I picked up last summer, so got another set of HPS for cheap. Guess nobody is buyihng them for 15-year-old Sequoias/Tundras lol...
So, more next week if we have a rallycross. And if not, it'll be a boring weekend...
Event #7 and #3 (makeup) Recap
This weekend we had a double-event up at Panthera, our last at that location for the season. This was the regularly-scheduled Event 7 and also the make-up date for Event 3, so a lot on the line. The weather forecast looked sketchy, with a big storm expected there over the weekend. For that reason, only about half or a bit more of the typical attendees showed up, but among those were all of the Mod RWD top drivers with our class being one of the few with a several-car points race still underway.
So headed up into a the beautiful autumn mountains, arriving above the morning clouds in West Virginia.
[img][img]https://i.imgur.com/kxfxsnBh.jpg[/img]
Because this is rallycross, all the usual oddballs competitors were there...
And of course the usuals....
The morning session on Saturday started off as usual, with everyone full-throttle and Adam casting spells on the cones
Right out of the box, Nick, me, Stephen, Eric, and Jermy laid down similar first runs, foreboding a tight competition all day. Unfortunately, Jeremy's e36 threw its serpentine belt and soon after its LSD diff became an open diff and he had to retire.
Jason Smith was co-driving with him and while Jeremy felt ok with just calling it a day, I offered Jason a co-drive with me for the day. For those who don't know him, Jason co-drives for Jon Kramer in a very fast NA class stage rally Subaru (which wins a lot) and also has rallied both a Volvo 240 and his e36 as a driver, so he knows his way around a RWD rally car, and he spent the entire day laying down runs pretty damn close to my own.
Meanwhile, Nick, Stephen and I battled for the lead as Eric Eisele had some issues with his own e30 losing all its oil over the morning runs and he ended up finishing the day driving Shawn and Katie's turbo Miata (I think)
Meanwhile, Nick and I were going time for time while Stephen quietly pulled away from us in the lead. In the afteroon, Nick's uber-reliable M3 finally got a chink in its armor, breaking the connection for the clutch slave cylinder to the pedal (BMW makes this of PLASTIC??) and unable to finish in his car.
IIRC he also finished in the Miata, but hurt his times somewhat learning a totally new car. At the end of the day. Stephen took a commanding win by over 20 seconds, which was pretty strong since I thought I drove pretty well taking 2nd. That said, Stephen went out on four MaxSport grasstrack tires and I was on less sticky, stiffer, and heavier Federal gravel rally tires. With intermittent rain and the course staying damn, the Maxsports were in their element. At one poitn I thought about swapping on my own (heavily worn) maxsports but the small run group didn't really leave time to do a tire change with two drivers running the car, and it was probably too late by then to try to catch him anyhow. In the end, we did 18 total runs over the day for over 1200 seconds of course time (that's 20 minutes of runs, autocrossers ;) )
And I got to take pics of my own car in action with Jason driving...
Final results were me 1st, Stephen 2nd, Eric 3rd (I think?), Nick 4th or 5th, not sure – results aren't posted yet. Jason ran in “X” class so as not to mess up class ponts race since he isn't usually here, but not sure where he would have been in the final if he had stayed in MR. I'll note that Nick's car is usually rock-solid, and when cars break there's usually another similar BMW to jump into. But with the smaller turnout and the three remaining BMWs already having co-drivers, Nick had to jump into something unfamiliar and will drop this event from the season points. Of course, it's worth remembering that I also too an 8th place finish earlier this season when my car had electrical issues and I spent half the event “trying out” all the other cars in my class (I think I drove 5 different cars). So, that's the breaks. Like most motorsports, rallycross is half about the driving, and half about the car not breaking – or at least not breaking badly enough to DNF – whether it's just a dumb-luck think like Nick's clutch pedal or dumb-luck like my electrical stuff.
To add insult to eric's oil issue, one of his wheels came loose somehow coming down the mountain at the end of the day and came off, screwing up his hub and lugs (though a tap and die, and some loaner lugs from me fixed the issue)
And Chris spent some time re-attaching his and Stevie's exhaust
Kimmett, as usual, put on a show while taking FTD in his STI
Then we all headed over to some rental townhouses that Panthera owns to clean up, went out and got some Mexican dinner at a 20-foot-long table, some shots of Tequila for MF-class leader John Royer's birthday, and then back to the houses, where Shawn and Katie, as usual, brough out their large selection of moonshine, liquor fruit balls, and spicy things and everyone partied til after midnight (well I bailed a bit earlier as I was pretty tired).
VTEC was kicking in, etc.
Day 2.
Well, first we had NIGHT 1. Once everyone got to sleep, the forecasted storm arrived. Around 5am I woke up to torrential downpour on the metal roof of the house. Great. The rain was forecast to stop by 8am, and so it did. With no available makeup date for this event we were gonna run it anyhow, regardless of course conditions (and rain at this VERY hilly venue makes for some really slippery stuff). With bright sunshine and a warm breeze arriving behind the rain, the decision was made to start the event at noon to let things dry up, and just run one giant session (no am/pm) for each run group.
With Eric's car out of commission, I had offered on Saturday to let him drive mine Sunday, since Jason was heading out and we were staying at Eric's rental house. The upside of this turned out to be that he offered up his tires – a nice set of MaxSports – so we could compete against Stephen in the wet ground. I had planned to mix and match my MaxSports with a pair of cut snow tires, which may or may not have done well. With all the BMWs taken, Nick jumped in with Dan Gugger in his sometimes-troublesome Porsche 944. The course was on the “drier” side of the mountain and an uphill climb of S-curves plus a few flat-out sections. Wiht a few very wet sections, but much of the course drying out fast, it was going to be an adventure.
(random pic of the FTD-winner Mike Julian, handing Kimmett a rare defeat)
I got the jump on Stephen from the start by a bit, but for the first handful of runs, Stephen, I and Eric traded times, with Dan Gugger almost matching us in the Porsche, with Nick somewhat slower in another new car (and he hit his first cones of the season, three in one run). Meanwhile, Jesse Reitz showed up in his M42-powered, Red-baron-looking e30 for the day as well and kept pace with the more powerful cars, suprisingly. Chris H., codriving with Stevie, as usual put down consistent times just a tad slower than the front of the class but always a threat. With more rapid-fire runs, the Porsche was having some overheating issues and mashed its front core support (repaired with big zipties), so Dan kind of shut it down and Nick stopped co-driving so Dan could try to finish with more “cooldown time.” Meanwhile, we continued battling and in the end I took the win, pulling away by about 10 seconds over Eric, also driving my car. I think he might like it. Stephen came in 3rd just behind Eric, and Nick got a DNF (which will be his 2nd drop for the season – I've already used my two drops, grr).
Meanwhile, the Jeep Comanche took first in Stock RWD, and looked cool doing it.
Kimmet threw his Sti around so hard trying to catch Mike Julian in M4, he shattered the rear glass in the middle of a run. That's extreme rallycross lol.
Then just when we thought everything was over, We all pulled out to the highway to see Eric pulled over trying to fix something on his e30, for his long drive back to Richmond.
Because rallycross, like 8 cars and trailers pulled over to help or hang out, and we got him back on the road and headed on our way, and that was the weekend.
So, that's the weekend, which worked out well for me in terms of points. With the 1st and 2nd place finishes, that gives me 3 wins and 46 points for the season (42 subtracting my two lousy drop events), while Nick also has 3 wins and 44 points for the season (minus dropping both of this weekend's events). Stephen has the other win but is probably out of striking distance since he had to miss an event earlier in the season. So basically it comes down to the last event. If I win it, I win the season. If Nick wins it and I finish 2nd, we tie. If Nick wins and I finish 3rd or worse, I'm 2nd in points.
Kicker: The last event is the day before I leave for a work trip to Canada. If weather postpones it until the next weekend, I'll have to miss the event and will finish 2nd in points. That would suck, but after my work trip I'm going to the Rally of the Tall Pines up in Bancroft, Ontario to crew for Dan Downey and Kevin Brolin, which will be fun enough to make me feel less bad. But, I still hope the event happens. Fingers crossed..........
So during STPR and the recent rallycrosses I'd occasionally get a heavy gas fume from the front of the car after hard driving and then idling, especially on a downhill. After checking for leaks (no sign of any), settled on it being my fuel breather hose (no charcoal canister). It's been that way for years, but with my old tank it probably had a crack so it wasn't holding pressure - no pressure, no vapors getting out that way.
But with the new tank - installed before STPR, everything is sealing nicely so more vapors out the line and venting to air. After hard running or idling, the fan kicks on and blows the fumes back so you can smell them in the car. Breather was exiting here, under the intake boot...
So, finally got around to relocating it. Cut off the hose off the top of the vapor/overflow tank above the right rear wheel and stuck my little filter (a fuel line filter) on the end, and strapped it up behind the splash panel. I'll check it after the next rallycross to make sure it isn't getting clogged with dirt in that position. It will still vent vapors, but they'll be away from us now, which will be nice.
Can kinda see it tucked up there at the top. Yay.
Some tire stuff.
FedEx came by and delivered some lightly-used Yoko A031 mud rally tires that I got from a guy out in western Canada. These are supposedly pretty amazing on muddy stages. They're pretty tall though - taller than my 15" gravels by a good bit. Hopefully they'll fit fine.
Four were delivered, but only two are for me, and two are for Josh S (bluej). Really just got them in case Ohio becomes a mud-fest next year. They're also snow-rated, so maybe can use at WMWR if conditions are right. I may *try* them at rallycross, but I don't think they're really a good choice since they're so tall and will not be good for gearing. And they're way heavier than a grasstrack mud tire.
Comparison with my Federal gravels:
Meanwhile, with one event left in the season, Nick and I are tied in points (but with drops I'm ahead by two, as previously noted). I have the strong suspicion that Nick will do what he did last year and show up with brand-new tires (since he called me to ask about Maxsports) in order to make sure he wins the event. Not to say new tires are an automatic win anyhow, but they don't hurt lol.
So in preparation for that, I decided to clean up my two remaining Maxsports, which are not long for the rallycross world, to try to get one last event out of them before they're too fargone. At least, if it's muddy at all. So, did some grooving and cutting, which should be decent I guess, sharpen them up a bit.
I also did a standard opening cut (per Pirelli's cut instructions - the Federals have a similar pattern) on one of my two sets of federals (the more-used ones). This isn't likley to affect much for rallycross, but is more oriented toward stage rally with loose conditions.
So yeah, burning rubber and such.
Hey, you're the one who keeps talking about how those Maxsports are the tire to have, and are a big part of the reason Stephen is so fast in certain conditions. As you have readily agreed, my wide gravel tires are far from ideal in many of the conditions we run in. I went from being 0.6 behind Stephen at the end of the dry Saturday AM runs to being like 30 seconds back after the PM runs due to it raining while we were running. That was like 3 seconds a run, which I'm pretty sure is mostly down to his grass/mud tires. I can't help but want to try something new!
The tire groover tool looks fun! The RXAF shirts are funny, are they available for purchase anywhere?
95maxrider said:Hey, you're the one who keeps talking about how those Maxsports are the tire to have, and are a big part of the reason Stephen is so fast in certain conditions. As you have readily agreed, my wide gravel tires are far from ideal in many of the conditions we run in. I went from being 0.6 behind Stephen at the end of the dry Saturday AM runs to being like 30 seconds back after the PM runs due to it raining while we were running. That was like 3 seconds a run, which I'm pretty sure is mostly down to his grass/mud tires. I can't help but want to try something new!
.....er.....WUT? That's some revisionist history lol........I think all the angst over your clutch fried your memory ;) Your first run of the afternoon in your own car was 1 second slower than Stevie (and was the same time as mine). And we all know you are slower on the first run, so that's not shocking..... Then your car broke and you went from driving a well-setup M3 with JVABs to driving a Miata not set up at all for rallycross, with odd boost curves and old tires, which you had never driven..and were getting beaten by every car in the class. It wasn't "due to it raining" lol......... I was on regular 'ol gravels all afternoon and was matching Stephen's times on the runs when I didn't make mistakes (which I did several times, but that wasn't the tires, I just sucked). I got faster throughout the afternoon in the sprinkles, the grip actually improved significantly, it never got slick. Jason Smith was also laying down fast runs in my car on the gravels.
Stevie just had one of those days where he drove perfect - fast, no cones, no mistakes. I had my Maxsports, jack, and gun sitting right behind my car in the grid spot and could have changed any time, but left my gravels on. Changing tires wouldn't have improved anything lol. Maxsports are nice for certain things, but not a silver bullet.
I'm more interested in the temperature at the final event. If it's sub-40 when we start, I'll be on Altimaxes anyhow. Learned my lesson at Summit last year. 10-day forecast has Summit getting down in to the 20s and 30s at night, and our event is a week deeper into November, so frozen ground is a fair bet. Snow tires are gonna be the way to go in the AM session at least.
PS: Maxsports are decent. But for the mud, it's the IndySports that I call the "tire to have" (though the Latvian ones Vaughn has are even better). I'm just not gonna pay $190/tire (+shipping) for some retreads. I get real rally tires for less than that.......winning 1-2 muddy days a season isn't worth $1000 to me. Maxsports aren't a mud tire, they're a grass tire. Now that demontweeks won't ship tires to the US anymore, I probably won't buy maxsports either....they cost about twice as much from the US distributor, more than they're worth IMO. I'll likely be on regular gravels next season, rain or shine. But I will have a set opened up for mud ;)
Spend $100 on a tire groover and you can make any old worn gravel tire in to a mud tire ;) Or, you can borrow mine....it's already been passed around to several people lol. You can also flip the blade and sipe tires with it for winter.....
Lof8 - Andy said:The tire groover tool looks fun! The RXAF shirts are funny, are they available for purchase anywhere?
tire groover tool is not fun, unless your idea of fun is getting really sweaty, huffing burning rubber fumes, and spending 30 minutes per tire. And if you ever do it WEAR HEAVY HEAVY GLOVES....a couple years ago with no gloves on I slipped off and the red-hot blade slashed open my other hand. That wasn't fun (but at least it cauterized!)
The RXAF shirts come from Eric Eisele/Neil Cox, aka "Dirty Industries." If you're on facebook, just look them up and ask. If not, LMK and I'll get you an email. They also come in neon green, so you can wear them in place of a safety vest :)
What is RXAF? Rallycross as _____?
In reply to Justjim75 :
Rallycross all friendly.
irish44j said:
.....er.....WUT? That's some revisionist history lol........I think all the angst over your clutch fried your memory ;) Your first run of the afternoon in your own car was 1 second slower than Stevie (and was the same time as mine). And we all know you are slower on the first run, so that's not shocking..... Then your car broke and you went from driving a well-setup M3 with JVABs to driving a Miata not set up at all for rallycross, with odd boost curves and old tires, which you had never driven..and were getting beaten by every car in the class. It wasn't "due to it raining" lol......... I was on regular 'ol gravels all afternoon and was matching Stephen's times on the runs when I didn't make mistakes (which I did several times, but that wasn't the tires, I just sucked). I got faster throughout the afternoon in the sprinkles, the grip actually improved significantly, it never got slick. Jason Smith was also laying down fast runs in my car on the gravels.
Stevie just had one of those days where he drove perfect - fast, no cones, no mistakes. I had my Maxsports, jack, and gun sitting right behind my car in the grid spot and could have changed any time, but left my gravels on. Changing tires wouldn't have improved anything lol. Maxsports are nice for certain things, but not a silver bullet.
Oops, you're right, I hadn't looked at the results and was going off of memory. Looks like you and Stephen were putting down similar times in the afternoon, which I guess negates part of my argument. But I know I've heard you talk favorably about the Maxsports plenty of times, and he did beat you by 22 seconds overall, which can't just be his driving; nobody ever wins by a margin that large in our class. Tires must have played some part in that. And the fact that you switched to Eric's Maxsports for Sunday (right? Or did I make that up too?) must mean something. I know that on my first few runs in the PM I had noticably less grip than in the morning, and it was drizzling most of our runs. But point taken. Maybe I just can't drive in slick conditions.
mazdeuce - Seth said:In reply to Justjim75 :
Rallycross all friendly.
as berkeley
amongst friends
a fiat
you know, whatever... :)
95maxrider said:irish44j said:
.....er.....WUT? That's some revisionist history lol........I think all the angst over your clutch fried your memory ;) Your first run of the afternoon in your own car was 1 second slower than Stevie (and was the same time as mine). And we all know you are slower on the first run, so that's not shocking..... Then your car broke and you went from driving a well-setup M3 with JVABs to driving a Miata not set up at all for rallycross, with odd boost curves and old tires, which you had never driven..and were getting beaten by every car in the class. It wasn't "due to it raining" lol......... I was on regular 'ol gravels all afternoon and was matching Stephen's times on the runs when I didn't make mistakes (which I did several times, but that wasn't the tires, I just sucked). I got faster throughout the afternoon in the sprinkles, the grip actually improved significantly, it never got slick. Jason Smith was also laying down fast runs in my car on the gravels.
Stevie just had one of those days where he drove perfect - fast, no cones, no mistakes. I had my Maxsports, jack, and gun sitting right behind my car in the grid spot and could have changed any time, but left my gravels on. Changing tires wouldn't have improved anything lol. Maxsports are nice for certain things, but not a silver bullet.
Oops, you're right, I hadn't looked at the results and was going off of memory. Looks like you and Stephen were putting down similar times in the afternoon, which I guess negates part of my argument. But I know I've heard you talk favorably about the Maxsports plenty of times, and he did beat you by 22 seconds overall, which can't just be his driving; nobody ever wins by a margin that large in our class. Tires must have played some part in that. And the fact that you switched to Eric's Maxsports for Sunday (right? Or did I make that up too?) must mean something. I know that on my first few runs in the PM I had noticably less grip than in the morning, and it was drizzling most of our runs. But point taken. Maybe I just can't drive in slick conditions.
I've only every had two Maxsports, and only ever run them on the rear until Sunday. We used Eric's because that's kind of the deal when someone co-drives and has good tires.....we use theirs (We used my DMacks on Eric's car last season when I co-drove with him). That said, I expected it to be way muddier on Sunday, which is why I thought the Maxsports would be better. It turned out to be dry though. Shawn started the day on mud RE32 rally tires and they were actually slower than when he swapped back to regular gravels, IIRC. It's a fine line. Sunday I beat Stephen pretty handily though, and he had the exact same tires. Like I say, in our class, anyone can win on any given day if they drive clean and don't screw up. tires have an effect, but not always. Last season I killed all of you guys at the mud-fest at Summit, and I had two gravels on the front and two worn maxsports on (Stephen had four fresh Maxsports at that event, and Eric was running BFG all-terrains). Remember, Stephen and Chris run Maxsports at almost every event, and it's not like they're racking up wins.
Powerful cars struggle more when it's slippery and you can't use the power. And heavy cars struggle in the mud more because of physics.....they can't turn and stop and accelerate as fast as a lighter car, all things being equal otherwise. And you have the heaviest car.
One reason my car does well on tight courses on maxsports is because I have a very stiff suspension for stage rally, which when combined with very stiff gravel tires tends to make the handling more on the edge and hurt turn-in. The Maxsports calm it down a bit, especially the rear end. There's a reason I run rallycross with two tires in the trunk - because the stiff springs out there make the car damn near uncontrollable without the weight there. I'm not so sure that's the same for other cars with suspension rates more appropriate for rallycross. My spring rates in are something like 75% higher than a stock e30. This year with the new Federals, I've been struggling a bit more since they're larger and wider, and a harder compound than the DMacks I've been running, so I'm having to make driving adjustments. Most of my DMacks were softer compound and had more grip in softer stuff. But, the switch was made for stage purposes. As much as i like winning in rallycross, the things I do to this car at this point are to try to be faster on stage - some of those things are helpful for rallycross too (like more power) and some aren't (like stiffer springs, more weight, taller tires, etc.). Other than more power, this car has consistently gotten worse at rallycross overall for various reasons, while the rest of the class's cars are improving for rallycross without the worry of stuff needed for stage.
Certainly not trying to talk you out of maxsports or whatever - having multiple types of tires is always good as long as you don't outthink yourself and pick the wrong ones lol (see: December event last year for me, when I chose the wrong tires for the AM and lost a ton of time, and switched at lunch and got most of it back). It also makes the car handle a lot different so I have to change my driving style on 4 maxsports vs. 4 gravels vs. 4 snows. You tend to like consistency in the way you do things, and you've won quite a bit running basically the same tires for years now. Changing tires may very well make you win even more, or force you to change your drivign style to suit. That's the game :)
irish44j said:I've only every had two Maxsports, and only ever run them on the rear until Sunday. We used Eric's because that's kind of the deal when someone co-drives and has good tires.....we use theirs (We used my DMacks on Eric's car last season when I co-drove with him). That said, I expected it to be way muddier on Sunday, which is why I thought the Maxsports would be better. It turned out to be dry though. Shawn started the day on mud RE32 rally tires and they were actually slower than when he swapped back to regular gravels, IIRC. It's a fine line. Sunday I beat Stephen pretty handily though, and he had the exact same tires. Like I say, in our class, anyone can win on any given day if they drive clean and don't screw up. tires have an effect, but not always. Last season I killed all of you guys at the mud-fest at Summit, and I had two gravels on the front and two worn maxsports on (Stephen had four fresh Maxsports at that event, and Eric was running BFG all-terrains). Remember, Stephen and Chris run Maxsports at almost every event, and it's not like they're racking up wins.
Powerful cars struggle more when it's slippery and you can't use the power. And heavy cars struggle in the mud more because of physics.....they can't turn and stop and accelerate as fast as a lighter car, all things being equal otherwise. And you have the heaviest car.
One reason my car does well on tight courses on maxsports is because I have a very stiff suspension for stage rally, which when combined with very stiff gravel tires tends to make the handling more on the edge and hurt turn-in. The Maxsports calm it down a bit, especially the rear end. There's a reason I run rallycross with two tires in the trunk - because the stiff springs out there make the car damn near uncontrollable without the weight there. I'm not so sure that's the same for other cars with suspension rates more appropriate for rallycross. My spring rates in are something like 75% higher than a stock e30. This year with the new Federals, I've been struggling a bit more since they're larger and wider, and a harder compound than the DMacks I've been running, so I'm having to make driving adjustments. Most of my DMacks were softer compound and had more grip in softer stuff. But, the switch was made for stage purposes. As much as i like winning in rallycross, the things I do to this car at this point are to try to be faster on stage - some of those things are helpful for rallycross too (like more power) and some aren't (like stiffer springs, more weight, taller tires, etc.). Other than more power, this car has consistently gotten worse at rallycross overall for various reasons, while the rest of the class's cars are improving for rallycross without the worry of stuff needed for stage.
Certainly not trying to talk you out of maxsports or whatever - having multiple types of tires is always good as long as you don't outthink yourself and pick the wrong ones lol (see: December event last year for me, when I chose the wrong tires for the AM and lost a ton of time, and switched at lunch and got most of it back). It also makes the car handle a lot different so I have to change my driving style on 4 maxsports vs. 4 gravels vs. 4 snows. You tend to like consistency in the way you do things, and you've won quite a bit running basically the same tires for years now. Changing tires may very well make you win even more, or force you to change your drivign style to suit. That's the game :)
Wow, I didn't remember the tire specifics from the mud event last year, that's surprising. What I remember most vividly is not even being able to leave the live, it felt like it took me like 15 seconds to reach 15 mph. How wide are your Federals? I've always run 205 width gravel tires. Up until the last event last year, they had been some 10+ year old Yokohamas, then I got the current Maxxis tires. Which, annoyingly, have shredded pretty badly in the rear as the year went by, but the fronts are still looking very good. They're medium compound, but I wonder if I need to step up to hard to keep them from wearing so quickly. I seem to remember reading that the choice of tire compound can be affected by the power and weight of the vehicle, and heavier and more powerful cars (like mine) may need to go up one compound to avoid premature wear. I am worried about the Maxsports a little bit, given how often Stephen debeads them. I'd probably need to carry a spare to grid as a backup. But I am curious to try running a narrower tire, especialy in looser stuff.
95maxrider said:irish44j said:I've only every had two Maxsports, and only ever run them on the rear until Sunday. We used Eric's because that's kind of the deal when someone co-drives and has good tires.....we use theirs (We used my DMacks on Eric's car last season when I co-drove with him). That said, I expected it to be way muddier on Sunday, which is why I thought the Maxsports would be better. It turned out to be dry though. Shawn started the day on mud RE32 rally tires and they were actually slower than when he swapped back to regular gravels, IIRC. It's a fine line. Sunday I beat Stephen pretty handily though, and he had the exact same tires. Like I say, in our class, anyone can win on any given day if they drive clean and don't screw up. tires have an effect, but not always. Last season I killed all of you guys at the mud-fest at Summit, and I had two gravels on the front and two worn maxsports on (Stephen had four fresh Maxsports at that event, and Eric was running BFG all-terrains). Remember, Stephen and Chris run Maxsports at almost every event, and it's not like they're racking up wins.
Powerful cars struggle more when it's slippery and you can't use the power. And heavy cars struggle in the mud more because of physics.....they can't turn and stop and accelerate as fast as a lighter car, all things being equal otherwise. And you have the heaviest car.
One reason my car does well on tight courses on maxsports is because I have a very stiff suspension for stage rally, which when combined with very stiff gravel tires tends to make the handling more on the edge and hurt turn-in. The Maxsports calm it down a bit, especially the rear end. There's a reason I run rallycross with two tires in the trunk - because the stiff springs out there make the car damn near uncontrollable without the weight there. I'm not so sure that's the same for other cars with suspension rates more appropriate for rallycross. My spring rates in are something like 75% higher than a stock e30. This year with the new Federals, I've been struggling a bit more since they're larger and wider, and a harder compound than the DMacks I've been running, so I'm having to make driving adjustments. Most of my DMacks were softer compound and had more grip in softer stuff. But, the switch was made for stage purposes. As much as i like winning in rallycross, the things I do to this car at this point are to try to be faster on stage - some of those things are helpful for rallycross too (like more power) and some aren't (like stiffer springs, more weight, taller tires, etc.). Other than more power, this car has consistently gotten worse at rallycross overall for various reasons, while the rest of the class's cars are improving for rallycross without the worry of stuff needed for stage.
Certainly not trying to talk you out of maxsports or whatever - having multiple types of tires is always good as long as you don't outthink yourself and pick the wrong ones lol (see: December event last year for me, when I chose the wrong tires for the AM and lost a ton of time, and switched at lunch and got most of it back). It also makes the car handle a lot different so I have to change my driving style on 4 maxsports vs. 4 gravels vs. 4 snows. You tend to like consistency in the way you do things, and you've won quite a bit running basically the same tires for years now. Changing tires may very well make you win even more, or force you to change your drivign style to suit. That's the game :)
Wow, I didn't remember the tire specifics from the mud event last year, that's surprising. What I remember most vividly is not even being able to leave the live, it felt like it took me like 15 seconds to reach 15 mph. How wide are your Federals? I've always run 205 width gravel tires. Up until the last event last year, they had been some 10+ year old Yokohamas, then I got the current Maxxis tires. Which, annoyingly, have shredded pretty badly in the rear as the year went by, but the fronts are still looking very good. They're medium compound, but I wonder if I need to step up to hard to keep them from wearing so quickly. I seem to remember reading that the choice of tire compound can be affected by the power and weight of the vehicle, and heavier and more powerful cars (like mine) may need to go up one compound to avoid premature wear. I am worried about the Maxsports a little bit, given how often Stephen debeads them. I'd probably need to carry a spare to grid as a backup. But I am curious to try running a narrower tire, especialy in looser stuff.
lol, if you're tearing up the Maxxis tires,.....the Maxsports are waaaaaaaay softer. Mine have lasted a couple seasons, but again I never used them on the fronts and only on the rear when it was soft conditions. They maybe have one more event on them, realilstically, Unlikely I'll buy them again unless they become available from Europe again. There are other options in the US for similar price if you're willing to pay $200+ per tire for retreads.
Rallycross tears up tires, especially on the surfaces we run on, just the way it is - power or not. And again, it's not your power alone, it's also your weight in cornering, braking, etc. Ironically, stage rally hardly wears tires down at all, even going 50x the mileage.....
My plans for today changed, so instead i jumped in the Porsche and took an impromptu trip up to Skyline Drive to do some hiking and exploring. The car ran flawlessly (and returned about 30mpg for the trip, incidentally). I always forget just how effortless this thing is to drive on twisty mountain roads at any speeds, it never runs out of grip, never gets loose, and the big 4-banger pulls up hills and never asks to be downshifted, even at low rpms. It's really a geat road trip car. Someday I'll get it cross-country (though, I need to reinstall the cruise control first, because it does have a kinda heavy pedal....)
So, I picked up another project as well. From the 80s, of course.
Since it's going to be a full build over a couple years, it's gonna get its own thread so i don't get this one too far off-topic.
So, follow along here if you're interested: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/rad-rally-dodge-raider-akamonteroakapajero-build/160959/page1/
There's something wrong with the in-car photograph. You're in a tunnel and not near redline 
When I visited Summit Point and Cumberland this summer, I made a point of downshifting a lot and making all the cool noises I could, because tunnel. OTOH it's also a novelty for me, the most we have around here are long bridges where they built city over the Interstate.
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