I think I'm done with racing.

I had a BLAST on some rocky, rutted mountain trails in VA's Blue Ridge Mountains. What was I driving you ask? A bone stock '97 CR-V AWD with 200k miles. I made my wife a little nervous a few times, and eventually I turned around (no cell phone service plus wife and 2 year old in the car means time to go back ). I agree, you don't need some monster off road machine to have fun. Soft roaders are some of the best, IMHO. (CR-V, Rav4, Forester, etc). Make that Trooper an article in the mag!

What about a Mitsu Montero for challenge money? How are these things in the woods?

http://macon.craigslist.org/cto/4172725615.html

Doesn't have to be 4 wheel drive...or a truck/ SUV...

You forgot the best ones!

ultraclyde wrote: What about a Mitsu Montero for challenge money? How are these things in the woods? http://macon.craigslist.org/cto/4172725615.html

The old Monteros were pretty good in the woods.

E36 M3 i just kinda want that thing, period. That's awesome.

sethmeister4 wrote: You forgot the best ones!

He certainly did:

Swank Force One wrote: E36 M3 i just kinda want that thing, period. That's awesome.

I'm having the same problem, but no money to play.

These won't help -

In reply to ultraclyde:

I would really like to see a few articles on off-roading in the mag as well.

Grassroots Grassstains?

I know some folks who have done amature rock-crawling... that'd be a grassroots motorsport.

I don't have time to be interested in this. I don't even know how far I'd have to be to go off road properly.

I did have a little too much fun driving our now-gone F250 4x4 through a temporary pit in our backyard during patio construction...

I can see the appeal, to my chagrin.

Keith Tanner wrote: GRM should totally do an offroad article or two. It's motorsports, and it doesn't get much more grassroots. You don't even need a monster truck to have fun, you'll have just as good a time stretching a less capable vehicle at a lower risk level. If the writer wants to visit Moab, just give the word. I'll play tour guide, and can arrange for a world-class guide and a range of vehicles. That last picture of the XJ is on an obstacle called The Wedge. It's all about spotting, very little about equipment. And it's really cool to drive up. Some kid driving my truck back in 2002.

Hmmm, I wonder who we know that has been known to write things, play off-road in the desert, and camp out with all manner of vehicles? Get out the pencil Keith, maybe you can write your next camping trip off your taxes.

Running V8-swapped Samurai, $1500.

Think I might rather have the four, though...

In reply to ransom:

I'd rather have the 4 also. The Samurai only has a 10 gallon tank. I'm thinking a 350 would drain it in a hurry. I bought a 5 gallon jerry can to mount on mine. A long day leaves it rather low on gas and sometimes the nearest fuel is a long way off.

You should buy it, slam it to the ground and take it to the challenge. A set of sticky tires ought to make the drag races kind of interesting. Assuming the transfer case and axles survive.

Powar wrote:

One of my favorite underdogs, don't get to see 900s on stage much anymore! Was there at NEFR this year when they caved in the right rear, happy to see they finished the weekend.

Toyman01 wrote: Rally cross would be a lot of fun, but not many people want to play locally. There aren't any events in our region. Read that as a 5 hr haul to the closest one.

You put two hours too much on that time. It is almost 3 hours at the motor speedway in Fayatteville, NC, straight up I-95.

Toyman01 wrote: Autocross, and road racing both. I spent the day beating around the National Forest in the Samurai with my middle son. We had a blast. We went about 100 miles and burned 5 gallons of gas. Most of it was on rock roads, some of it was pretty sloppy. What a hoot. Cheap and fun. What more can you ask for. Not to mention that dirt is a lot easier to find than asphalt.

Right window smile says it all

Since reading this thread, I've researched and searched for Samurais, RAV4 and 4Runners. That pic is addictive. Nicely done sir.

Grassroots 2014 off-road challenge anyone...

Bringing this one back from the dead.

Colin's thread, Spring is coming is your fun car ready to drive, made me think of this one again. 

I took 3-4 years off from racing and autocross when I created this thread. I got sucked back into it with a group of friends that wanted to race Lemons. We did 3 Lemons races, built a couple of cars, did a lot of autocross, and several Time Trials. I bought a G35 and worked on it a fair amount. Honestly, it was a lot of fun. But the fun was the people, not the cars.

Now I'm right back where I was 7 years ago. Tired of the car scene. Tired of the expense of racing. The people are great, the cars, not so much. I think I've figured it out. Spending countless hours preparing for a few hours of track time just isn't for me. I bet I have 100 hours in building the Lemons cars. I have less than 10 driving them.

The G35 has been ignored so long the battery is dead again. The last person to drive it in anger was my wife. She took it to a ProSolo a few months ago. Before that, she took it to a TT. I didn't really want to go to either event. I don't think I've driven it in 3-4 months. I have a lot of hours in the G35 and the time behind the wheel using it as intended could be counted in minutes. The Abomination is still languishing in the garage, where it has sat for 2 years. Last I looked at it, all 4 tires were flat. I'm sure the battery is dead and I'd be willing to bet the carb needs to be torn down and cleaned. It would cost $1000+ to get it back on track and I have no interest in touching it. The return on the investment in money and time just sucks. 

The first test and tune/autocross for 2021 was last weekend. I went and played in the dirt with my eldest sons instead. We had a great time. 10 hours of exploring the Manchester State Forest. Zero tires destroyed though I did tear up a $12 u-joint. The hours spent working on the Jeep and Samurai over the years have turned into 100s of hours of driving and exploring. 

I'm pretty sure 2021 is going to be the year of the dirt. I've completed about 40% of the 900 mile long South Carolina Adventure Route so far. I'll finish it up this spring and head to the mountains this summer and run the Smokey Mountain 1000. 

I think it's going to be a great year. 

I'll leave you with this. The Samurai doing what it does best, climbing a sloppy, clay-covered track.  

I hear you on the cost of racing.  This is why I frequently get upset with how FAST everything has gotten.  There really isn't a cheap way to play racing anymore (was there ever?  Like when FV was new what was the % of median family income required to campaign one?)

What size tires and lift are on your Samurai? Did you do any gearing changes?

I'm aquireing one tomorrow for RV toad and off road duty and it needs tires.  

It's been 9 years since I did a motorsports event- last summer we took the Alfa out to just drive around.  No regrets- enjoy driving so much and exploring that we had a great time.

After so much time, we do need to do some work on the car- like new tires and complete fluid change.  But I also plan on converting the suspension back to stock.   The next performance "mod" will be to replace the 4.56 rear with a 4.10.  The car has more than enough power to deal with that.

Basically, the same thing but on road.

Can't say that racing dreams and thought and challenge ideas don't pop into my head.  They certainly last a lot less time than they ever did.

In reply to nocones :

The Samurai started out with a 6" lift and 33" tires. While extremely capable off-road, it sucked to drive on the street. Currently, it is sitting on YJ Jeep springs, a 1" body lift, and 30" Falken Wildpeak AT3 tires. The gears are stock. It is still very capable off-road but will run 65-70 without any issues. It's still slow as molasses though. 

Tell me more about the South Carolina Adventure route? I have more things I want to do away from tracks as well.