GRM Challenge game changer

Just to veer this off course some more.

This is what I think would be a cool idea. GRM usually has a few project cars going at a time. Have a contest where you select half a dozen entrants from the subscription pool. Let them do their best times in the grm project cars at the challenge autox and drag. Best combined time wins some cool prize.

OR

Since you guys don't get a chance to compete building a challenge car, because it would be a conflict of interest. Perhaps you build one for the magazine with the intent to document the process for the readers. Have a contest amongst the readership to select three finalists. They each get to run the car at the challenge in the autox and drag. Best combined time wins the car.

I know, you guys don't have enough time as is. Just figured as long as we were dreaming, I'd try to dream up something different.

sachilles wrote: Just to veer this off course some more. Since you guys don't get a chance to compete building a challenge car, because it would be a conflict of interest. Perhaps you build one for the magazine with the intent to document the process for the readers. Have a contest amongst the readership to select three finalists. They each get to run the car at the challenge in the autox and drag. Best combined time wins the car.

Tim built a Formula Vee one year, there may be others, I don't recall.

Dan

In reply to sachilles:

Personally, I think it would be cool to have the GRM guys drive our cars.

I know that they are UUUBBBER busy that weekend, but I think the articles about the cars they write about would be even better.

I have NO idea how they can do that.

(and I may need to look into my vacation time to come down and drive this year... )

The Challenge showcases cars that

1. Look Good
2. Handle Well
3. Go fast, quickly.

A bigger game changer would be to add one more, final event that required the cars to drive 5 miles of public roads under their own power. This would be a pass/fail event, with either full points or zero points awarded.

In other words, they'd have to be street legal and still in good enough shape to make the trip =)

914Driver wrote:

sachilles wrote: Just to veer this off course some more. Since you guys don't get a chance to compete building a challenge car,

Tim built a Formula Vee one year, there may be others, I don't recall.

I think Tom Suddard is on a team this year.

I'm a little surprised by the negative impression and possible misconceptions of rallycross that (some) folks seem to have. Perhaps we're talking about different kinds of rallycross maybe? Afterall, with the new GRC series and the proliferation of videos of european style rallycross out there, I suspect some folks may be worried that I was talking about some sort of semi-insane X Games style door-to-door, 30m jumps kinda thing. And I even recognize that some regional versions of rallycross seem more like mini rally stages, which can be intimidating to be sure. But to clarify, given the context of the GRM Challenge, I was talking about something more along the lines of the SCCA's version of rallycross (and their course rules), which is much more like autocross on dirt; the SCCA rules even discuss it in a similar way with regard to cars and course setup. In fact, in their own course rules, SCCA states "A RallyCross event is also open to novices in any vehicle that can pass safety inspection"; we're talking regular street cars here folks. The point is that rallycross as I'm talking about shouldn't seem so extreme to folks that it would or should alienate autocrossers by any means.

dculberson wrote: The problem is that swiss army knives aren't very good at any of the jobs they do. The challenge has cars breaking into 10 second quarter miles and some really amazing autocross times. It would seem like a step backwards to slow things down.

I see whatcher sayin', but I guess I just don't share the feeling exactly. Why is it necessarily a step backwards to ask folks to do something different that might not be as measurably fast. Fast is relative; the metric and times would just determine the new "fast". And comparatively, I think flying down a gravel road with trees 10-20 feet from your doors @ 70-90mph might could feel faster than running a 10 second 130mph quarter mile on a nice track.

Perhaps I'm just being overly hopeful, but based on my talks with folks, the appearance and success of rally in the X Games and the new GRC series, and the obvious general enamor with Ken Block's gymkhana videos, I think rallycross has potential to grow significantly in popularity in the not-so-distant future.

...

BTW, to all the autocrossers out there... consider the next time you go out to an auto-x and there are 50, 60, 70+ cars you get 4, maybe 5 runs at maybe a minute long, that many rallycrosses have much fewer numbers of cars, you often get 6-8 runs, and the courses are often upwards of 2+ minutes long.

This thread sucks almost as much as rallycross.

lol...

Don't get me wrong, I love rally and rallycross! I just don't think the same build applies to rallycross, autocross, and drag racing. Autocross and drag racing are already very different beasts, throwing in rallycross makes it that much more of a compromise build.

I am fully on board with a separate event that is rallycross centric.

I am fully on board with a separate event that is rallycross centric.

Fortunately for you, there is one! It's called rallycross.

poopshovel wrote:

I am fully on board with a separate event that is rallycross centric.

Fortunately for you, there is one! It's called rallycross.

Bwaaahahaha!

I love the challenge, don't change it, fine by me. I was there in 06.

But, the premise has been proved many times in a variety of ways: You can build an awesome car for $201X dollars.

Anyway, here's my crazy idea:

At the challenge banquet, gold colored envelopes will be offered sketching out the vehicles/powerplants/misc/etc specific to the contest for the following year.

Maybe the first year will be "VW vs. Honda" and otherwise Challenge rules will apply, you just have to pick and build a VW or Honda to challenge rules.

Or: American V8

Or: 165 max width tire

Or: No power adders

Or: Mazda Only (sponsored by Mazda)

Or: 4cly only

Each year could be different.

There are several reasons why people wouldn't like it, but it could be interesting.

(esp when someone shows up with 8 165R tires on some crazy contraption.)

-James

Isn't the $2000 Challenge enough of an oddball for you guys? lol It might look easy to build a 10 second car and/or something that looks as good as it goes around the AutoX course, but it is a lot of work. It isn't a lot of money, it is a lot of time.

I'd be all for thrashing my Challenge car around a dirt field, but I know a lot of my fellow Challengers would throw up in their mouth watching their carefully sculpted body parts getting ripped off during the RallyX.

Yeah sure, all you need is a fully adjustable suspension and 4 hours work between the autoX/drags and the RallyX. No problem. We've all got TONS of money left in the budget and time to spare. :)

miatame wrote: Yeah sure, all you need is a fully adjustable suspension and 4 hours work between the autoX/drags and the RallyX. No problem. We've all got TONS of money left in the budget and time to spare. :)

THAT'S THE SPIRIT!

Took our 2004 GRM Challenge Talon to Beaverun rallycross and had a ton of fun, hitting a haybale@approx40ish mph,(bent intercooler), broke a rear spring perch doing the jumps. The worst part was cleaning dirt out of everywhere.

westsidetalon wrote: The worst part was cleaning dirt out of everywhere.

Exactly... that really is the worst part (unless you do something particularly stupid while driving). It's been a couple weeks since my last rallycross and I'm still cleaning dirt off of it.

In reply to Joe Gearin:

About about the Lucas Oil show on Speed?

http://www.speedtv.com/programs/lucas-oil-on-the-edge/

I would think that would be a good fit.