BRZ Rally Car

Is the hydro on a separate circuit from the service brakes, or does it just tie in to the rears?

It's inline with the rear circuit- you can actually feel the pressure from the master cylinder preload the hydraulic handbrake if you pull the lever slightly while using the pedal.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Mark 1 Ford RS1600 Ford Econoboxs had a second caliper on each rear wheel. Some folks rig these with 2 masters and a fiddle stick to proportion rears side to side as well.

This thread has been light on updates lately, but we are still full speed ahead on various rally operations.  I have been chipping away at resurrecting a Husqvarna TE450 which has been dormant in a friends' basement for a while- ideally it'll be ready for a rallymoto event late this month:

I have also been digitally working on another rally BRZ- version 2, if you will.  This will get its' own thread when it starts becoming more of a physical reality:

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

And just what is that red blotch in the middle?

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

And just what is that red blotch in the middle?

Two K20's and a lot of JB Weld. 

In reply to Spearfishin :

I've seen it. Chris is really good with TIG...

I deny any allegations that I have any idea what to do with a tig welder, the red blob is a minivan engine.

The rallybike moves under its' own power again!  I promise I'm not neglecting the car, call this cross-training:

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

I deny any allegations that I have any idea what to do with a tig welder, the red blob is a minivan engine.

I have been very pleased with my red blob and think you will enjoy it too.

A little stuff on the car this weekend- more underbody touchup.  At this point I think every single weld nut and nearly every tapped hole in the pinch weld reinforcement, has had to be retapped or replaced.  I think next time I'm doing underbody plastics on a rally car, I'll make a point not to put anything serviceable behind them and just rivet them on- the bolts are a nice thought and make things serviceable, but drilling and re-riveting would actually be less work:

Also made some fabricated front control arms, there will definitely be a v2 and these are most likely only going to be test fit pieces and maybe spares- I don't like how thin the swedged tube is, and I cut the boot on one of the balljoints pressing it into the little machined piece at the end, but these will be just fine to learn what I didn't think of drawing them up, and check any clearance issues that may arise:

The adjustable arms also aren't strictly L2wd legal unless adjusted perfectly to the same length as stock, so this is all really just an experiment to see what, if anything, I'm missing about making these sorts of things myself.

Fit check will have to wait, though, because next weekend I'll be at McCreary (and so will Sara, codriving for Kevin Schmidt) in my first RallyMoto event in years!  Why? Well, other than being a much cheaper way to attend a stage rally, this year marks the 10 year anniversary of my first rally- I had a DRZ that I'd traded my rallycross foxbody for, a cheap helmet and armor, a pair of boots that I bought off craigslist for $50, and Sara and Kila as crew. It was overwhelming and awesome and I had no idea what I was doing, and I ran the bike for two years before we got our first car- seemed fitting to try to do it again a decade later, although the TE450 is definitely more capable and considerably less reliable than the trusty DRZ.

A couple pictures from that first event in 2014, and one from the year after because GRM shirt:

Had a good time down at McCreary Gravel Rally despite leaving the BRZ at home- I was back on a bike for the first time in 8 years, and Sara was back in an RX7!  She and Kevin had a bit of a time that I'm sure he'll tell you all about in his thread:

We camped and managed to have an at least slightly more relaxed time than we usually do at a rally- I managed to keep the bike upright and moving the correct direction all day so I'll call that success.  Here's a smattering of photos from...

Keith Kreatives at parc expose:

Zachary Kitz somewhere on SS7-9 I think:

Nathan Proctor on a couple stages:

and some friend photos from the finish:

One of these days I'll get back out there :/

Oh hey :)

4 years after the start of this thread, I'm going to try and do it again, but better.  These threads will be parallel for who knows how long- the current car is still full speed ahead and I'm going to attempt to split my time intelligently enough to keep it running as well as it ever has.

Wow, a whole month without an update, I'm slacking.  Sara has been running with team Pura Vida and winning whenever they don't break something:

We just got back from SOFR where I crewed for Adam Brock's awesome Volvo along with EvanB:

And overall lots of stuff is going on in a number of places and has us all feeling a little like Mezi here at parc expose:

Car is hopefully ready for STPR, which is coming up fast.  I'm excited to get behind the wheel again and hopefully the 50mm Bilsteins continue to hold up despite the minor bends in them:

Car seems happy after final checks and test drive including some near-100F farm assistance:

Truck is mostly packed.  We set sail for STPR Wednesday!

STPR 2024

Lead-up and Recce

When I made that last post above, I was feeling pretty crappy and didn't know why but just figured I was dehydrated and had overdone it on a mountain bike ride earlier that weekend.  To condense several days of unpleasantness into something more concise, it turned out I was yet again fighting Lyme Disease (something that's been ongoing for about half my life now) and I went on antibiotics the day before we left for the rally.

Once we were on the road, it was immediately clear I wasn't improving fast enough- I couldn't really focus my eyes very well, and it made towing pretty unpleasant, so Sara took over and towed the rest of the way to the event.  We agreed that if I couldn't make it through recce the next day, I probably shouldn't race either, and had a tentative plan to switch seats if we needed to- I wouldn't be a good codriver in that condition either but it'd be safer than passing out at the wheel or something.

On recce day, I woke up feeling pretty rough again but through the power of gatorlyte and granola bars, managed to get my brain into some semblance of order and we actually wrote really solid notes.  I was sort of getting tunnel vision as I drove, but it was a massive improvement over the focus issues from the day before, and the general fatigue was only something I'd notice if I stopped and thought about it- occasional recovery stops were enjoyed more by the dogs than by me:

We made good time, the notes were solid, and.... the reasons to give up just kept mounting anyway.  Ridley, our border collie, had a seizure that evening (she recovered quickly and was just fine for the rest of the event) and after medicating her and doing some video review, there was an (erroneous and soon retracted) message from the clerk of course that we had been banned from the event for recce speeding- turns out their tracking software had had some sort of update that gave misleading data but, all in all, the feeling on Thursday night was a strong impression that the rally didn't want us there.  So naturally Sara cleaned up her notes and we got some rest to go for it anyway.

STPR 2024

Friday, Day 1

At parc expose, I had to just keep pacing around because if I stood still I would get extremely nauseous.  I was trying to get all the electrolytes and nutrition I could into my body in the hopes that some part of it was what I needed in order to have enough energy to make it through the day and keep my brain functioning and only talked to people briefly before resuming milling about.  We did stop to snap this picture with David and Leah (ralleah), at least:

Soon enough it was go time and we set off- the first transit felt less than awesome, but we were moving and the rally was happening despite the universe's efforts to the contrary.  We made it to the first stage (Mill), checked tire pressures, and got ready to go.

And as soon as we got moving on the stage, which is a pretty fast and narrow one to start a rally with, things started working- adrenaline took over and with the nice dry conditions and good visibility, I could just do my thing and forget how I felt for a bit.  We put in a respectable although not stellar time and transited to the next one.

So that would be the theme of the day- I'd feel like crap on the transits, almost to the point of exhaustion, and then wake right back up on each stage and if you ignored the fact that I was drenched in sweat and breathing more heavily than usual, it was almost like nothing was wrong.

SS2, Phasa, was yet again nothing special but we ran an acceptable time and were feeling good.  Photo of the spectator bridge corner by 86snowwhite on instagram:

Waiting in the time control for SS3 Waste Management, I started to feel really fuzzy again, but Ethan (dirtbug codriver) gave me a powerade and between that and a granola bar I managed to perk back up a bit.  We love the WM stage, and I have more seat time there than any other single stage in rally, so when it was time to run my brain went right back to stage mode and we ran the 3rd fastest 2wd time despite having to take it super easy on the jump (this car doesn't fly well and neither does a brain full of tick disease).

Then a short transit to SS4, Rattler, which is just a super fast uphill thing with mostly big sweeping turns.  We managed to run the 2nd fastest 2wd time here and it felt pretty good.

And then a SUPER long transit back to service, which really sapped the energy right out of me again, although we enjoyed following the Zapsky's Subaru towing Cessna's BMW the whole way.  When we got there, I got out of the car and immediately took a power nap in the shade while Sara moved the BRZ through the regroup control.  Eventually I got up and hopped back in the car to drive into service, where Leah and David made short work of checking the car over while I snacked and rested:

Then it was right back out for the same loop of 4 stages again, where the magic of adrenaline and practice kept on doing its' thing and we honestly did pretty great for all of them- 2nd fastest 2wd times across the board, no real mistakes, and we even topped our previous best on Waste Management by a second or so.  At the end of the day I was happy, if totally exhausted.  Tony (announcer) gave me a slice of pizza at the finish line, which honestly was exactly what I needed in that moment.

A quick reprep with David, Cam, Pat, and Sam back at the Wellsboro fairgrounds to rotate the front tires to the back, remove the now-shredded rear tires (WM has lots of rocks), and install our wet weather medium compound Hoosiers up front for the anticipated rain of the next day.  We also ziptied the blower motor plug in, since it had been getting flaky throughout the day and we knew we'd need it to defog the windshield if things got wet.

We were sitting well back in 2nd place L2wd at this point, with Chris Cyr way ahead and Alan Edwards a reasonable way back from us.  The overall 2wd position matched, with Cessna's issues having moved him back a ways behind us.

Back to the house, ate some food, and got some much needed rest.

Glad you're recovering, I read the report that mentioned your discomforts.

In reply to TurnerX19 :

Still working my way back to normal, the event took a lot more out of me than I had initially given it credit for.

STPR 2024

Saturday, Day 2

When we got up, it was raining- it mercifully stopped for Parc Expose at The Green in Wellsboro, but it was clear that the stages would be soupy.  I yet again did my routine of milling around while cramming all the electrolytes I could into my body, and after a long wait it was time to go again.  Leah's daughter waved the flag for us at the ceremonial start and we were off on yet another very long transit:

SS9 was Patterson Hungry, a big messy mud hill that we had to be cautious on- to be honest, on this day I was not nearly as good on the stages as the day before, I simply didn't have enough spare processing power to deal with the additional factors of mud and decreased visibility.  We ran a midpack time and marked up our notes for the next pass, since there were a few sections which had become even slippier than anticipated with the rain.

SS10 was Shepard, and it was here that our blower motor issues yet again made themselves known- it cut out mid stage, the windshield fogged, and it was overall just not a fun time.  We still did halfway decently, but it was clear the plug wasn't going to stay seated with just a ziptie.    Erik Sils photo from the spectator corner:

Before the next stage, I slapped some duct tape over the blower motor plug as tightly as I could, and we ran the 5th fastest 2wd time on SS11 Wilson, which was about all I could do that day.  Back to service for the basics and to attempt to fuel myself up again to finish out the day.

Nothing of note was found on the car, I ate and drank everything that seemed like a good idea, and we headed back out.  On SS12 (Patterson again) things were even sloppier, and at the top of the hill where the road turns to grass briefly, we spotted Chris Cyr off in the woods, having been taken out by the reduced traction in that spot.  Suddenly, we were leading L2wd and in fact all of 2wd for the rally- not the way I would prefer to take the lead, but dammit I wanted to make the best of it.

But my body had other plans- on SS13, Shepard, I was doing halfway decently running a conservative pace when I'm pretty sure my brain fully ran out of energy to draw on.  I got confused, disoriented, couldn't tell what the car was doing, and asked Sara how far we had to go as I was staring at a course marker- a marker that I was certain, at the time, was in the final mile of an entirely different stage.  This was not good, I drove very slowly in order to keep the car on the road, and we lost 1:40 on that stage alone.

But hey, we got this absolutely glorious picture by Boosted Media from it:

So with one stage to go, I was feeling absolutely cooked, and suddenly we had a lead to defend with Alan Edwards less than 30sec back after my little episode on SS13.  We couldn't afford to have that happen again, and I was, to put it politely, pretty berkeleying wound up about it.

On that transit, I ate every snack we had in the car, drank every electrolyte drink and at least one water bottle, and generally just tried as hard as I could to wake back up for one more run.  At the time control I dropped all of the tires to 24psi in the hopes of more grip, and we lined up for the last one- Wilson, SS14, a really fast 2 track thing with little room for error.  And we ran it as fast as my fading brain would take us.

At the finish line we waited for Alan and Dan to compare times- we had only bled 5 seconds over that final stage, hanging onto our lead!  WE DID IT!!!  Our friends were waiting at a corner on the final transit, and the view from the muddy bumper camera tells the whole story- this is about what it looked like to me, too:

One more transit back to Wellsboro, hand in the time card, park the car, crawl out, sit on the ground behind it.  I was done.

I don't really remember what happened on the podium, although I know I had trouble opening my champagne bottle and got absolutely hosed down by everyone else.

I DO remember our friends on the podium- Tim and Ethan getting on the O2wd podium in the dirtbug, Andrew and Julia (Bit By Bit/rustbucketlegacy) and Dan and Nate (War Weasel) taking 3rd and 2nd overall respectively after battling the whole rally, and Dylan and Downey taking the overall win!  Downey did a shoey and got Tony to do one too, and I remember him sputtering out "this is the official voice of STPR, signing off!" to end the awards- it was beautiful and the crowd went nuts.

So among all the friends, there are something like 16 trophies in this picture:

One more of us for good measure:

A few more photos, Leah helped us load the car up, and also lent us a shower at the hotel before meeting up with friends for food- what a thing this was.  Thank you so much to everyone who helped, cooked food, handed me a gatorade, helped the dogs, helped a friend- you're all the best. 

I hope to never do one like this again but I'm glad we did.

Awesome to have the GRM version of the Michael Jordan flu game. Hope ya feel better soon and glad the dogs all right!

Congrats on the win and just completing the event. That sounded really rough, hope your recovery goes well.

Nice job all - wish I could have made it this year, always have a good time at STPR.  hope you start feeling better!

Sounds like a feat to just finish, let alone podium! Heal up.