I should also say:
Locally we have the following classes:
2WD (over 2.4 litres, rally tires, street tires, turbo, caged, new old, whatever. If it is 2wd it goes here)
AWD Street Tire (this is where I am now)
AWD Rally Tire (the stage rally guys come out and run in this class to tune their cars)
That is it. I'm nowhere good enough to think about nationals, so I could prepare my car any way I liked.
Fast sweeping course is a RWD course if there ever was one. It's the tight technical 1st-gear courses that favor front drive.
irish44j wrote:Brett_Murphy wrote: Apparently while I was editing this post I screwed it up: BMW: I've owned E30s. They are great. Finding an example that isn't nice, isn't an automatic and isn't over $2500 is the problem. E36 models are cheaper, but I'm not sure how they would do. They might be great. I should do research on this.e36s do well. Better rear suspension than an e30 and more power in many cases. Quicker stock steering rack than an e30 too. They do have a slight weight/size penalty, but it depends on what kind of courses you guys run. IIRC an e36 won or placed 2nd in one for the RWD classes at nationals this year.
The e36 placed first, much to my dismay.
EvanB wrote:irish44j wrote:The e36 placed first, much to my dismay.Brett_Murphy wrote: Apparently while I was editing this post I screwed it up: BMW: I've owned E30s. They are great. Finding an example that isn't nice, isn't an automatic and isn't over $2500 is the problem. E36 models are cheaper, but I'm not sure how they would do. They might be great. I should do research on this.e36s do well. Better rear suspension than an e30 and more power in many cases. Quicker stock steering rack than an e30 too. They do have a slight weight/size penalty, but it depends on what kind of courses you guys run. IIRC an e36 won or placed 2nd in one for the RWD classes at nationals this year.
I couldn't remember and was too lazy to look it up, and didn't want to accidentally diss you by saying he beat you if he didn't ;)
Brett_Murphy wrote: I should also say: Locally we have the following classes: 2WD (over 2.4 litres, rally tires, street tires, turbo, caged, new old, whatever. If it is 2wd it goes here) AWD Street Tire (this is where I am now) AWD Rally Tire (the stage rally guys come out and run in this class to tune their cars) That is it. I'm nowhere good enough to think about nationals, so I could prepare my car any way I liked.
wait, what? only 3 classes total? What about 2WD under 2.4 liters (e.g. most 4-cyl RWD cars)?
I take it that's not SCCA classing then.
RWD having to run against FWD blows.....
In reply to irish44j:
Fresh suspension and composed beats blown shocks and bouncing all over the place. 
irish44j wrote: wait, what? only 3 classes total? What about 2WD under 2.4 liters (e.g. most 4-cyl RWD cars)? I take it that's not SCCA classing then. RWD having to run against FWD blows.....
That's the way it was when I started, U2, O2, U4 (always empty), O4, and 4x4. This was before the rule about only being allowed to enter once, so there was someone who would show up with two cars, and he and his friend would enter twice, running in O4 and 4x4. And then place 1st and 2nd OA with his friend not far behind.
I didn't mind running against front-drivers for all those years. If you're concerned about winning, you just have to be quicker than them, that's all.
Knurled wrote: I didn't mind running against front-drivers for all those years. If you're concerned about winning, you just have to be quicker than them, that's all.
Not arguing that, I just prefer to run against like drivetrains, since (at least at our venue), the course conditions have a massive effect on the different drive configurations for cars.
We only have 3-4 FWD cars that come out to our events though (vs 15+ RWD), and most of them are either stock (like Tom's) or pretty slow. So it's kind of a moot point for us. My car beats the majority of the AWD cars at every event too, but I sure as hell don't want to just put everyone in the same class together 
Rallycross having 9 classes total doesn't seem to be a big issue when you consider the 1,456 different classes at a typical autocross ;)
EDIT: I'll note that our region has 55-60 cars at each event though with pretty competitive PR, MR, and MF classes (5-15 cars per)..... (no SR, and no PF last I checked), so in other regions with just a few FWD and RWD cars I can see the rationale for combining the classes. I think we have more RWD cars running than some rallycross programs have TOTAL cars running, lol.
We have been having attendance issues. We used to have 2wd under 2.4 and 2wd over 2.4 and rally/street tires classes for 2wd as well.
You can see a typical course layout in my video in my Forester XT build. I'm not happy with how I was driving last time, but it was several months since my last outing and I was way, way, rusty, too.
I should have also titled this "Budget Rallycross Car" because that is really what it is.
A quick look on Craigslist showed that I can get E36 cars with bad auto transmissions under a grand all day long.
Miatas are still expensive in these parts. I guess I have to wait for the 2nd or 3rd good cold snap closer to Christmas for the prices to really start to fall.
Oh, and I want to stick a 13b rotary (painted like my avatar) in this car SO BAD.
http://charlotte.craigslist.org/cto/4076442645.html
irish44j wrote:Spoolpigeon wrote: 240sx? I realize that these have a high drift tax, but I've seen some rough ones go for under $1500 before.I've always wondered how they'd be at rallycross. I just remember my roomie's 240 in high school seemed to be backwards a lot whenever it rained. How was the weight balance with them?
My old 240 was 52/48 weight split. It was, by far, the easiest car to drive sideways. Fairly long wheel base, lots of caster, and an LSD made it easy to control.
how's the suspension travel?
Was yours the hatch or the notchback?
how about a cadi catera? small, lightish, rwd. must be cheap to buy, not sure about parts.
Spoolpigeon wrote: My old 240 was 52/48 weight split. It was, by far, the easiest car to drive sideways.
That's bad. If you're sideways, you're not accelerating, and if you're not accelerating, you're losing time where the other guys aren't.
I don't think they offered the Catera in a 5 speed.
They didn't. If they did, i'd have one.
irish44j wrote: how's the suspension travel? Was yours the hatch or the notchback?
Coupe. The suspension travel was kinda limited in the front (at least lowered like mine). Stock height should have plenty of travel.
Knurled wrote:Spoolpigeon wrote: My old 240 was 52/48 weight split. It was, by far, the easiest car to drive sideways.That's bad. If you're sideways, you're not accelerating, and if you're not accelerating, you're losing time where the other guys aren't.
Very true. I was just implying that the car is easy to control when things go wrong. It was still easy to drive within its limits.
I went looking for Accents at lunch. I'd expected them to be cheaper.
1996 5 speed with awful wheels and flat black paint for $1250 and 125K miles.
i'd vote accent, ZX2 or BG chassis mazda
After driving a Volvo 740 turbo wagon and Nissan 240SX (both mine, both well worn) I'd rather rallycross the 240sx. Where the Volvo soaks things up and just plows through rough stuff it was a lot more difficult to control than the 240 if you got it very sideways. 240 is just much more nimble and balanced.
So don't go sideways... problem solved!
Brett_Murphy wrote: Oh, and I want to stick a 13b rotary (painted like my avatar) in this car SO BAD. http://charlotte.craigslist.org/cto/4076442645.html
Funny you say that... just noticed this bad boy on SpecialStage today:
http://www.specialstage.com/forums/showthread.php?58017-My-super-duper-Miata-RallyX-car-(roller)-for-sale
(Jerry comes in to the rallycross car thread to say his usual "MR2"...)
How about an MR2? MK1's are fairly cheap (around here), and the MK2 is pretty common and seems to be even more supported aftermarket. RWD = fun.
The smart thing for me to do here would be to get the Golf running and finish building it the way I wanted to, including the LSD. Then I should run it and maybe sell it if I really don't like it.
I know that. I might have to haul it down the road to Black Forest and see if they can get it working. The shop I have it at is just taking too long.
Then I find something like this:
http://onslow.craigslist.org/cto/4154894357.html
I think the main thing is that the car has been sitting at the shop for months now. I've not driven it in 18 months. Besides the title, it is like I don't even own the Golf at the moment. I should swing by the garage and tell them to forget the "take your time" part and just get it fixed.
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