Would you rallycross your daily driver?

In reply to Brett_Murphy :

Sounds like your standard 4x4 issues with dirt and mud getting everywhere. Im used to that.

In reply to irish44j :

I want to do it once for the hell of it. And I talked to a guy who came in eighth overall in a field of 30 with his Ridgeline. AWD, IRS  and a low stance relative to other trucks has its benefits. But quick or not, there's no way that it would be as much fun as something nimbler.   

I did with my P5 and while it did great I probably would not do it again because the maintenance intervals for everything was dramatically shortened and made the backup for the RX a new project in of itself. 

It also depends on the course/surface you run back when I was normally summit point was the main course and it basically was a slippery autocross when dry and a slippery mess when wet but when it shut down it moved to an old fema site out in western MD and it was pure gravel and rough on everything (after seeing the first report from others I decided not to subject the P5 to it for fear of a 4+hr tow back home)

 Now I have 2 Subaru’s I’m turning in to one as well as a new DD in the GTi and the poor P5 is just sitting in the drive way waiting for a new home (when I get around to listing it lol)

Big cars and rallycross depends a lot on the courses your region builds.  The super tight courses are often won by tiny FWD cars.  The bigger, more open courses will reward size and power.  Size brings higher speed stability at the expense of nimbleness and speed through the tight areas. 

FWIW, when I've run the Jeep, it's not uncommon for me to see the same speeds (or faster) in a big slalom as the fastest cars out there.  But in any tight spots, it might as well be a bus, so it's not all that competitive overall.  Depending on the course, it falls anywhere from mid-pack to much worse. 

The top SR car in the region is a z28 4th gen Camaro. That is in a class of 5-8 miatas and 1 Volvo 240.

I personally would not rallyx with my DD, but rental cars work great!

While not 100% my DD - I have rallycrossed my BRZ. I know I gave up some time be picking a more gentle line in some sections, but I had to drive it 2hrs home after the event.

I've cleaned the inside and out many times since the last event and there's still red clay dust around. It'll never be gone. That's OK. 

I'll feel a lot better at my next event if I bring the car on a trailer.

So yes - you can rallyX your DD but you might want to take it a little easy. You'll see the rough or rutted sections and know. Want to be as competitive as possible? Then you'll want a car you don't love or depend on.

I considered running an event with my DD last year, but decided against it.  I couldn't afford to pay for a major mechanical failure with my DD. 

I can only imagine trying to get a warranty claim approved with a car that's drowning in dust/dirt underneath.  I hadn't even contemplated the dirt issue.  I keep my cars pretty clean...but don't enjoy cleaning them, so this would definitely matter.

In my experience, it depends on the courses and tracks that are used.

Hard packed courses tend to be easier on DD's as they don't rut up as bad, they tend to have predictable locations where they get rough, etc.

Courses with lots of sand develop ruts and holes that will hurt cars. Courses with lost of loose rocks can damage cars as well. 

Before you run your DD, take a run out, volunteer at the event and watch carefully how the course changes over the day and see if you'd want to run your DD on it.

Personally - No. The place where I have run is sandy and ruts up bad. I have torn exhaust systems off etc. I would never run a DD there. I can tell you from experience that if you drove your car there, you will lift and save the car in certain areas, where the guys on trailers will hit it much harder. That doesn't always work out well for them, but most of the time they are quicker.  

RallyX'd my DD for 10 years. It was an older car I bought specifically to beat up. Always had a backup car or motorcycle for when things needed to be fixed after. Ratio of seat time to cleaning the car was pretty poor. I had a higher tolerance for stiff suspension, loud exhaust, no AC, etc. when I was a little younger. Now in my 40's I wouldn't, but back then it was a point of pride that I could go out an win events with my cheap 200k mile beater on the weekend, drive it hundreds of miles home, and commute with it all week.

NGTD said:

In my experience, it depends on the courses and tracks that are used.

Hard packed courses tend to be easier on DD's as they don't rut up as bad, they tend to have predictable locations where they get rough, etc.

Courses with lots of sand develop ruts and holes that will hurt cars. Courses with lost of loose rocks can damage cars as well. 

Before you run your DD, take a run out, volunteer at the event and watch carefully how the course changes over the day and see if you'd want to run your DD on it.

Personally - No. The place where I have run is sandy and ruts up bad. I have torn exhaust systems off etc. I would never run a DD there. I can tell you from experience that if you drove your car there, you will lift and save the car in certain areas, where the guys on trailers will hit it much harder. That doesn't always work out well for them, but most of the time they are quicker.  

This is spot on. I think you are referring to the Bancroft MLRC course and that is one that I won't take my daily on (07 Legacy Wagon 5sp), however the course our club runs (KWRC) at Humberstone speedway holds up really well. I don't hold back at all and the car takes it now problem, the biggest issue is when the course has been wet down or wet from rain, then the clay sticks and is a pain to clean up. 

For me if I couldn't rallycross my daily I wouldn't be rallycrossing at all and that is no fun. I do all of my own work on the car so the fear of breaking something is less and it forces me to keep the car in better shape mechanically. There's also the bonus of driving the car everyday instead of just at events so I am very comfortable with how the car behaves and what it is going to do. It also helps that a decent rallycross setup is great to DD, my car just eats up our crappy winter heaving roads around here.

Adam

Its looking like Im just going to rallycross the NA and then trade my subaru in on a ND2 RF in a few months. So problem solved i guess.

It already had a manual boost controller (cheaper than replacing the failed wastegate solenoid), an aftermarket cat/downpipe (OE parts died), stiffer front springs (cheaper than factory replacement) and adjustable rear shocks, and my RX-7's rally tires were originally from this chassis, so why not run it in PF?  Contrary to what people might imagine, I used the MBC to significantly turn the boost DOWN relative to stock, and for rallycross I would adjust the rear shocks to full-soft in order to get the most front grip. 

The cat rules are kinda weird in Stock.  By the letter you must run the OE converter, not an aftermarket one, and cat back exhaust is free.  This car had a turbo mounted cat and a rear cat.  The downpipe died and I replaced it with a Magnaflow unit.  As far as the rules are concerned, "cat back" starts at the rearmost cat, so that is Stock-illegal.  Prepared would have allowed me to install a cat delete turbo outlet, but that wouldn't be streetable since that converter was the one the rear O2 sensor was monitoring!  The rear cat, the one I replaced with a Magnaflow, was unmonitored...

Seems easy. Is your DD nice? Don't rally it, because it will no longer be nice.

Is it not nice? Go for it!

This is what you may have to deal with after RallyXing your daily:

Ha.  I've thought about taking our CX5 out.  I wonder if it will just murder the tires, 225 snows on a 3800 lb car.  I also wish these CX-5 rode a little lower, it seems to have a bit more wheel gap that the other small SUVs in it's class.  it also seems to handle pretty well compared to them, but I would be more comfortable if it had a little lower center of gravity.

adam525i said:

NGTD said:

In my experience, it depends on the courses and tracks that are used.

Hard packed courses tend to be easier on DD's as they don't rut up as bad, they tend to have predictable locations where they get rough, etc.

Courses with lots of sand develop ruts and holes that will hurt cars. Courses with lost of loose rocks can damage cars as well. 

Before you run your DD, take a run out, volunteer at the event and watch carefully how the course changes over the day and see if you'd want to run your DD on it.

Personally - No. The place where I have run is sandy and ruts up bad. I have torn exhaust systems off etc. I would never run a DD there. I can tell you from experience that if you drove your car there, you will lift and save the car in certain areas, where the guys on trailers will hit it much harder. That doesn't always work out well for them, but most of the time they are quicker.  

This is spot on. I think you are referring to the Bancroft MLRC course and that is one that I won't take my daily on (07 Legacy Wagon 5sp), however the course our club runs (KWRC) at Humberstone speedway holds up really well. I don't hold back at all and the car takes it now problem, the biggest issue is when the course has been wet down or wet from rain, then the clay sticks and is a pain to clean up. 

For me if I couldn't rallycross my daily I wouldn't be rallycrossing at all and that is no fun. I do all of my own work on the car so the fear of breaking something is less and it forces me to keep the car in better shape mechanically. There's also the bonus of driving the car everyday instead of just at events so I am very comfortable with how the car behaves and what it is going to do. It also helps that a decent rallycross setup is great to DD, my car just eats up our crappy winter heaving roads around here.

Adam

Correct - I ran a $500 Outback at that course and it took the pounding, but I would not run my DD. I drove the Outback there and back (even without the exhaust!!)