BRZ Rally Car

engiekev said:

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :

I love the look of some big rally lights too, but the LEDs have come an incredibly long way.  You can buy $20 cheapies and get all the fill light you want, spend a couple hundred on a good long range bar, and have more light than a set of massive Hellas for a fraction of the weight and cost.  They do tax the electrical system less as well, the only downside being that they can ice over since they don't generate nearly as much heat.

What brand/model LEDs are you running? Or is that documented earlier in the build thread and I'm thread polluting 

I have some offbrand LED bulb replacements in the high beams I can't remember, Amazon "Safego" for the big round cornering lights and the little angled bars, and a Diode Dynamics Stage Series 18" bar in the middle for long range.

I have also used Nilight and Auxbeam branded stuff in the "cheapy fill light" category in the past with some success.

All the important stuff seems to be fine so let's make that corner a little better:

The new headlight didn't come with the full plastic bumper clip piece so I had to epoxy it back together once I was done hammering stuff:

Then once the light fit and the hood seemed to line up I did more hammering on the fender:

And finally the bumper, which I still need to try and buff out:

Took it back apart and did some paint touch up, which might look worse than just leaving it damaged but we'll have to see after it dries. 

Next was addressing the intake- there's nothing wrong with it for most rallies, but 100 Acre Wood is next and last year 2/3 of the BRZs there lost an engine to water ingestion. Here's the stock inlet behind the bumper:

So I made some clearance:

And did this:

The intent is for this to only be the intake for rallies with big water crossings, I still need to drive it to make sure it's not so restrictive that I can tell just with the butt dyno.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
 

I like it. Mini snorkel for the win!!!

Funny, but most infernal combustion engines do not like sucking water in...

I say that when there is battle damage to paint you just clear coat over it and display your scars :)

If the USRF stuff ever happens I like that the aero allowances would actually also allow spats that could be put onto the front of the body work to deflect the water away from the freaking car. We get a full windshield full of water eat on smallish puddles because of how short the E30 front end is relative to the wheels...

Assembled, drives fine!

Probably should have just clearcoated the damage like Josh said but oh well. 

I think the intake setup is ok, although I'm waiting to hear from a couple people who know more about engines than I do in case there's something bad about it that I haven't thought of. 

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Keeping the water out trumps anything else your snorkel could do. I be you had no power change at all.

The ram air effect is a fallacy at automotive speeds anyhow. While you may or may not be sucking in some slightly warmer air in that location, I don't see why it would have any effect on engine management if you're using the OEM filter box, etc. 

OEMs run pretty comprehensive water ingestion and snow packing tests for the intake, it's possible that heavy fording at speed wasn't tested on the BRZ/86.  Clearly, Subaru needs to hand out cars to rallyists for a full durability test!

I've heard crazy stories of winter test for snow packing (intake), driving behind a cargo plane throwing up maximum snow.  

VW certainly didn't do that with my GTI. Well, the intake is fine, but in any kind of winter weather the front collision sensor gets jammed up with ice, shuts itself off, and puts a giant warning triangle in the middle of the gauge cluster. LIterally happens within 5 minutes of any driving in winter conditions. 

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

Geeze, you'd think they'd have at least driven it in snow for 5 minutes.  Ford didn't do a whole lot better with my RS--the brake ducts are really good at directing supercooled water at the brake rotors.  New meaning to glazed brakes.  Not to mention the undertray which gets packed with snow and breaks the first time you drive it in real snow.

We spent the weekend volunteering down at Sandblast rally, got to see some friends compete and the triumphant return of the now-refreshed Merkur.  Tried to pick up a spare BRZ shell on the way home but that didn't work out since it was more bent than the seller had let on.  Have a few photos, we were running the service park so our event recap is basically "lots of cars broke, some got fixed and kept rallying" :

Oh, and Bryce who was codriving for Gabe 2 weeks ago in Michigan?  He finished his first RallyMoto event midpack after riding his bike to/from the event and sleeping on our hotel room floor since his tow vehicle broke down 3hrs away!

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

We spent the weekend volunteering down at Sandblast rally, got to see some friends compete and the triumphant return of the now-refreshed Merkur.  Tried to pick up a spare BRZ shell on the way home but that didn't work out since it was more bent than the seller had let on.  Have a few photos, we were running the service park so our event recap is basically "lots of cars broke, some got fixed and kept rallying" :

Oh, and Bryce who was codriving for Gabe 2 weeks ago in Michigan?  He finished his first RallyMoto event midpack after riding his bike to/from the event and sleeping on our hotel room floor since his tow vehicle broke down 3hrs away!

That sliding E30 and your old Sierra looks awesome 

Well, we weren't really planning on picking up a different tow rig just yet but a well maintained Tundra with a 9ft flatbed appeared so that was our afternoon yesterday:

That will be perfect

Final equipment checks before 100 Acre Wood:

Seems good, although the throw out bearing is starting to make noise- it probably got some road grit in it at Sno*Drift since there was sand and salt everywhere.   If it keeps up I'll plan to pull the transmission and replace it before the next rally. 

Jelly of the lift right about now, making a trans crossmember while rolling around on my back.

I bet your garage is heated, too 

I wonder if the BRZ uses the same failtastic plastic bearing that Imprezas and such used behind the FB engines. If so, I have seen them destroy pressure plate fingers.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Jelly of the lift right about now, making a trans crossmember while rolling around on my back.

I bet your garage is heated, too 

I wonder if the BRZ uses the same failtastic plastic bearing that Imprezas and such used behind the FB engines. If so, I have seen them destroy pressure plate fingers.

lol....my pre-rally checks recently consist of checking the oil and making sure the car has rally tires on it. 

With 100aw fast approaching, there was a little bit of a question about which tow rig to load up but Sara correctly pointed out how mad I would be if the green truck broke again right after we acquired a replacement so:

The flatbed is a total game changer for packing, just remove the side and slide the totes on. Our weird multilevel garage actually helps now! It also has somewhere around 40% more usable space than an 8ft standard bed, judging by how much room is left over.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Flatbeds are absolutely awesome. It's like having a trailer on the truck. 

How big are those boxes under the bed and are they on both sides? That looks like an awesome setup.

In reply to adam525i :

They go all the way to the frame, so surprisingly large.  I've already got a whole bunch of ratchet straps, tow strap, jumper cables, a tow hitch, and fluids stashed in them with room for more.

When I saw the flat bed, my first thought was one of these:

They are not cheap, tho... 

You'll love the flatbed. I can't believe how useful mine has been.

We're here early and somebody has inexplicably given us a TRX to use for recce.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Someone is letting you fill their TRX with gas?