FACT: Rally as a sport worldwide is dying
Posted by MattJohnston
Matt Johnston Professional Moderator Location: Grand Rapids Michigan Join Date: 01/31/2008 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 30 Rally Car: Honda Product |
Jon Burke Mega Moderator Location: San Francisco, CA Join Date: 01/03/2008 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,402 Rally Car: Subaru w/<1000 crashes |
Grant Hughes Professional Moderator Location: Whitefish, MT Join Date: 01/11/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 6,818 Rally Car: BMW |
Flights can be had all day long from Denver to PDX for $200. Add in $1200 for the rental unit cost and it's still cheaper than the gas to tow that distance. Subtract out the extra income you get from extra days at work and it's way, way cheaper. The only downside is that you don't get the ladies coming over to check out your ride on a daily basis. Oh wait, that only happens in my dreams. And usually they're hot Swedish girls that like to ...
But to your point, the death of rally is closed spectating. Let a few spectators die every year in my opinion, at least they were smiling right before they died. Just like that guy on the Waverunner that ran into the pier. I've always found rallyforum boring. Specialstage has been boring everywhere but the Colorado forum for quite a while, and even that's dieing down. Car construction has a few good threads here and there, but there's only so many topics that can be covered, combine that with the fact that this is a sport filled with megalomaniacs who generally don't give a fuck what someone else is doing. I personally get stoked to hear about my friends and competitors getting some new cool parts, or better yet, making some crazy engine setup that spits flames or anything else that's not off the shelf. But not even the Merkur fags seem to get stoked about the fact that my brake system is almost exactly identical to the Ford Sierra WRC setup and I'd put it up against just about any other car out there and guarantee on the same tires and surface it's stop better. Fuck, the JVAB/Tim Taylor collaboration on Volvo suspension setup should be a front page article on Specialstage and is probably hands down the coolest thing in US rally this year. But no one cares because most just want to buy off the shelf parts for their Subarus. Just the plethora of build vs. buy threads is a disservice to US rally. Stay with me on this one. I'm going for a new paragraph for this. So, everyone agrees that it's better to buy than it is to build. I strongly disagree the more I think of it. First off, many don't have the money to buy a car prebuilt and by the time they could save it up, they'll likely have found something else they'd rather spend that money on. Secondly, you can get really downtrodden by buying a built car. No offense to anyone, but out of every car for sale I see about 1 in 5 that I would even consider buying knowing what I do now. Trust me, I bought my first car, then proceeded to have to cut out the old cage and have a new one welded in, then replace suspension parts, then replace brake parts, then rebuild the engine. I didn't build the car myself so all of this was difficult because I didn't know the car well, was still learning the mechanical aspects of doing things, and wasn't setup to do alot of it. A few DNFs and poor results later I sold the car for less than I paid for it and way less than I had into it. Thanks to people like John V and Mark Malsom I decided I was for sure going to build my own car and it was going to be bad ass and proper. Sure it took me three years, I thought of quitting multiple times and even sold some stuff after my first shell was stolen, and I could have bought a pre-built PGT WRX for what I've spent, but I've learned a ton, have become a resource to my friends and fellow rallyists, and have a passion and investment in both time and money in this sport. But you know what, I've had no problems that weren't minor with the car, won money by taking 2nd place, and have an absolute blast at every event because I know the mechanic that pieced all this shit together. I know what will likely fail if anything does at Rally Colorado next weekend and I know what spares I need to bring to try to make sure I make it to the finish. Hopefully I won't need any of them though.  Grant Hughes |
Anders Green Ultra Moderator Location: Raleigh, NC Join Date: 03/30/2006 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,478 Rally Car: Parked |
Jens Senior Moderator Join Date: 01/25/2006 Posts: 544 |
Brian Driggs Elite Moderator Location: Glendale Join Date: 06/08/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 832 Rally Car: Keyboard. Deal with it. |
Colin Bombara Senior Moderator Location: Northern VA Join Date: 01/26/2006 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 75 Rally Car: 00 Impreza RSTI |
John Vanlandingham Godlike Moderator Location: Ford Asylum, Sleezattle, WA Join Date: 12/20/2005 Age: Fossilized Posts: 14,152 Rally Car: Saab 96 V4 |
Colin Bombara Senior Moderator Location: Northern VA Join Date: 01/26/2006 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 75 Rally Car: 00 Impreza RSTI |
Grant Hughes Professional Moderator Location: Whitefish, MT Join Date: 01/11/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 6,818 Rally Car: BMW |
Grant Hughes Professional Moderator Location: Whitefish, MT Join Date: 01/11/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 6,818 Rally Car: BMW |
Matt Johnston Professional Moderator Location: Grand Rapids Michigan Join Date: 01/31/2008 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 30 Rally Car: Honda Product |
Anders Green Ultra Moderator Location: Raleigh, NC Join Date: 03/30/2006 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,478 Rally Car: Parked |
Eddie Fiorelli Infallible Moderator Location: Long Beach, CA Join Date: 11/20/2007 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 243 Rally Car: mk2 VW GTI |
DR1665 Wrote:
> but I don't want > to spend 20% of my salary on the sport either. Heh, 20% for an annual rally budget is probably on par (and likely less) with what many are spending so you probably wont get much sympathy on that front  .
The solution to getting into the car sooner when you are low on cash is to co-drive. Only the helmet will expire, you're suit and other equipment should last you until you reach your goal of acquiring your car. Keep in mind though, the initial investment in the car is usually the least. The trick with rally is staying in the game for the long term. All of your planning budget-wise should focus on that endeavor, think long term. Often people spend too much initially and then find they can't sustain the costs. Its not glamorous but the secret to rallying long term when you don't have free use of a machine shop and material is to buy/build a car you can easily find in a salvage yard. Not to take a shot at the guys building Sube's but I often wonder if they realize how much sh1t breaks when rallying...heh, I bet if you look at the regional guys that have been in the sport the longest you'll find that they are not the regional guys driving the late model cars... Lastly, as long as there are organizers there will be rallies. Look at Ivan, he's running events without the explicit support of either NASA or Rally America, right? So you don't even need sanctioning bodies! And if things don't work out, we can always blame Anders. Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/05/2008 03:51AM by Eddie Fiorelli. |
Tom B Godlike Moderator Location: Douche Canoe, WA Join Date: 02/27/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 780 Rally Car: VW Golf |
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