I did a bit of googling, and it looks like a few showed up at the 2016 Nationals (regular WRX in SA and STi in PA), and weren't at the top of the heap, but at least the regular one seemed to be mid-packish. I was thinking with the better low end torque than the 2002-2007 models (peak at 2000 instead of 3500-4000), and steeper differential gearing (4.1 vs 3.9), they might more than make up for the added weight. Haven't really found anything about their durability yet, and I'd hope now that they have been out for a few years, any weak points might be found out. I only found a few videos, and they were STi models on what looked like relatively smooth courses.
Anyone seen them at one of your events? We had a launch edition STi at one of ours a few years ago, but he (understandably) babied the car around the course. We have fairly rough courses here in SW Ohio. I'd really like to know if they are suitable, both in performance and durability. I think they could make a fun SA/PA class car.
I'm still daydreaming about a new WRX. My thinking is I could pick up a 2018 now, have it as a daily driver for 5 years, then, once it is out of warranty, I could race it to my heart's content. If I were to buy used one to rallycross with, I'd probably be looking at a 2004-2007 STi, and they are holding their value way too well, not to mention the usual issue of finding a stock (or even stock-ish) one in good condition. I figure I could use resale value to my advantage, and not be upside down on a new one, as long as I put down a reasonable downpayment, and have a much nicer car to drive for a while. Would just have to rallycross the Neon or some random beater for a while longer.
In reply to eastsideTim :
Did Jon sell his Evo X yet? It's stock, or at least stock legal.
Jaynen
UltraDork
3/4/18 5:52 p.m.
So my buddy and I took his 2015 WRX to 2-3 autocross events. We ran it on the stock all season tires. Everyone told us we should remove the front bumper as it hangs down a bit and is kind of low but we did not have an issue. When he traded it in however I think it was still packing a couple hundred pounds of mud that had caked into everything underneath.
It's the only car I have rallycrossed so I can't give you a lot of comparison other than to say the engine doesn't feel like much is going on until 3k+ torque is not a word I would use to describe it
In reply to Knurled. :
Didn't know he had it for sale. I'm not sure I'd buy one anyway. If I bought used, I'd want to want to pay cash, and am not yet in a position to do that. Right now, all I can afford is a rough early WRX. In a year or so, I think the budget would be there for a well-used STi, and maybe 1.5-2 years for a nicer one or an Evo. I refuse to finance a toy, and if I am actively rallycrossing it, it's a toy. Not to mention, buying a used WRX or Evo seems to be spinning the wheel of fortune as to whether you end up with a reliable car or a project, no matter the price. If I buy something new and am making payments, I'll have the self control to keep it off the rallycross course.
In reply to Jaynen. :
Was it still pretty fun to drive, despite the torque deficit? I'm running a 2.4 swapped Neon right now, so it's got decent low end for it's weight, but I'm still guessing the WRX will be in a different league. I'll have to pay attention to where the power seems to come on if I give one a test drive. Right now, I'm still kind of in the "what if" phase of looking at cars.
My brother in law is selling a stock 04 Forester xt if you want to dominate SA.
EvanB said:
My brother in law is selling a stock 04 Forester xt if you want to dominate SA.
I saw the ad on FB, but didn't take too close of a look, after seeing the automatic. I'm guessing it mates a lot better with the 2.5 than the 2.0 if it'd be good at rallyx. Still more inclined towards a manual or DSG, but will look at the ad again in more detail.
Autos work surprisingly well in rallycross. The torque converter can make up for a lot of missing low end and there's never a "crap, I should have been down a gear there" moment.
rslifkin said:
Autos work surprisingly well in rallycross. The torque converter can make up for a lot of missing low end and there's never a "crap, I should have been down a gear there" moment.
They sure can. I used to have a 3.1L V6 Corsica that was pretty good. Of course, it had a decent amount of low end torque to begin with. But it was really easy to drive, just put the shifter in 2nd, and go. Also had a 83 LeBaron automatic that was not so great, just underpowered. I think there still needs to be some balance with an automatic(and a decent amount of power/torque to begin with), it's just that you have more slack to deal with when it comes to mismatched gear ratios.
There was actually three at 2016, two WRX's and the STI. All three had drivers that were essentially novices. The PA STI rallycrosses with us (Iowa Region) regularly now and has gotten quite fast. He's still rocking snow tires but is turning in times very close to those of MA and PA cars on rally tires.
In reply to rslifkin :
Also you can do a torque converter in Prepped that keeps you in boost longer. You can't do that with a manual.
In reply to FooBag :
Thanks for the info. How was the course in 2016? It looks like everyone got 12 runs in, so I'm guessing it wasn't a total sloppy mess. I went back and looked at the results, and the times are pretty impressive if the drivers were novices. The faster one in SA was running up in the same time range that the fast MR guys from Ohio were running, and they consistently beat me, so I now have a very rough baseline for the car's performance.
Would still love anyone else's personal experiences if you have anything to add.
Prepared had to eat grass on all three courses, so no rally tires was a significant disadvantage. Morning course was damp both days, Saturday afternoon was fast and dry. I seem to recall significant course changes between stock and mod, so it's tough to compare the times. Sat morning course was tight and slalom-y. Sat afternoon flowed well and was fast. Sunday was designed to be fast, but had enough moisture to hinder speeds.
To clarify my novice comments: Woody had done less than 10 rallycross events (iirc), but had other experience racing. For Michel Phelps (not the swimmer), it was his first rallycross in the car, but he had autocrossed it. Michael had maybe 6 rallycross events under his belt at that time. Woody was awarded the rally school award for his performance.
Jaynen
UltraDork
3/5/18 2:49 p.m.
eastsideTim said:
In reply to Knurled. :
Didn't know he had it for sale. I'm not sure I'd buy one anyway. If I bought used, I'd want to want to pay cash, and am not yet in a position to do that. Right now, all I can afford is a rough early WRX. In a year or so, I think the budget would be there for a well-used STi, and maybe 1.5-2 years for a nicer one or an Evo. I refuse to finance a toy, and if I am actively rallycrossing it, it's a toy. Not to mention, buying a used WRX or Evo seems to be spinning the wheel of fortune as to whether you end up with a reliable car or a project, no matter the price. If I buy something new and am making payments, I'll have the self control to keep it off the rallycross course.
In reply to Jaynen. :
Was it still pretty fun to drive, despite the torque deficit? I'm running a 2.4 swapped Neon right now, so it's got decent low end for it's weight, but I'm still guessing the WRX will be in a different league. I'll have to pay attention to where the power seems to come on if I give one a test drive. Right now, I'm still kind of in the "what if" phase of looking at cars.
It was our first rallycrosses so our experience would be tempered based on that. I would say that it was harder to enjoy rallycross even more than HPDE/Autocross with a car that I was afraid of breaking. We felt weird having the nicest car at Rallycross and I don't think we were comfortable with driving it to its limits because of that. I thought the car felt slow for having 250+hp and this is from someone who autocrossed a 1.6 miata, maybe because my daily is a diesel benz and the torque on it just goes all the time.
