What is the biggest obstacle keeping you from rallying ?

entry fees and events that seem to be bleeding into the work week.
give me a 450 dollar entry and i'm going to need more than one hour of stage driving.

ask me to show up late friday for registration, and a long day saturday, or two days racing.
RECCE is for RICH people. and less fun than racing. more racing. less dicking around.
ps. 15mile stages are the sickness.

---

"I put the hurt on dirt" - adam crane
http://CraneRallyCrew.com
corolla gt-s "Patches"
Op: S.S.

OCD

I could have just caged it, installed safety equipment and added a skidplate...






(I still think I'm having more fun)

Next year, I drive.

how many people on RallyAnarcy actually just bought a prepped car, spent minimal time/money on updating/repairing, and got on stage with it within...say....2-3 months of date of purchase?

I know the argument is that its always cheaper/faster/easier to buy vs build, but it seems most of the people on rallyanarchy really like the build factor.

just curious.

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Jon Burke - KI6LSW
Blog: http://psgrallywrx.blogspot.com/

I bought and was on stage within a few months on my first car. Did 100AW, then a hill climb. Was entered for Rally Colorado. Hill climb weekend before the event and the engine goes. Rebuilt the engine a few months later.
I sold it around 18 months into ownership so that I could build. So many benefits to building your own car and really by spreading the cost over time it isn't as bad and you can end up with a better car that you know every piece of the car.

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Grant Hughes

jon,

The converse of your question is how many on Rally Anarchy have been building and building and building their first car and have never gotten to the point of running it on a stage.

I have seen it happen where people spend an inordinate amount of time and money on a car and wind up finding out that they either don't enjoy rally once they actually drive an event or like their cars too much and are afraid to bend them.

The 'buy first' concept is to get into a cheap first car to make sure that rally lives up to what you expect of it and then learn from that car's issues when you build your first 'real' car.

I've seen people go through a build, enter a couple of events and come to the comclusion that rally isn't for them. That's a costly mistake.

---

First Rally: 2001
Driver (7), Co-Driver (44)
Drivers (16)
Clerk (10), Official (7), Volunteer (4)
Cars Built (1), Engines Built (0) Cages Built (0)
Last Updated, January 4, 2015

Quote
john vanlandingham
Blame is for idiots. losers.

a shortage of:
1-Loonies
2-Time

---

Ted Mendham
www.rensport.net

Why do I care about people's costly mistakes but my own?
Those people would find out one way or another.
Though I do think those people drive down the used rally car market. That's the biggest shame in the US is that a used rally car gets no where near it's real worth most of the time.

---

Grant Hughes

Morison Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> jon,
>
> The converse of your question is how many on Rally
> Anarchy have been building and building and
> building their first car and have never gotten to
> the point of running it on a stage.
>
> I have seen it happen where people spend an
> inordinate amount of time and money on a car and
> wind up finding out that they either don't enjoy
> rally once they actually drive an event or like
> their cars too much and are afraid to bend them.
>
> The 'buy first' concept is to get into a cheap
> first car to make sure that rally lives up to what
> you expect of it and then learn from that car's
> issues when you build your first 'real' car.
>
> I've seen people go through a build, enter a
> couple of events and come to the comclusion that
> rally isn't for them. That's a costly mistake.


well, yes and no...I certainly wasn't trying to make a point about people in the 'forever build' scenario, I'm not one to judge.

I just don't know everyone on here and some folks that are building today might have started out 5yrs ago with a bought car....rallied it for 3 yrs...crashed/sold it...and started a build.

like Grant for example, I didn't know he had another car before his Merkur.

Lets see....Eli bought his Galant and rallied it pretty quick (and crashed it pretty quick ) before he bought his Subaru...who else?

---

Jon Burke - KI6LSW
Blog: http://psgrallywrx.blogspot.com/

Jon Burke Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> like Grant for example, I didn't know he had
> another car before his Merkur.

I even had two magazine appearances in the old car.
Head on into a tree 3 miles into first event. A CRS guy, think his name was Sean Otto in an Eclipse was in front of me on stage and had headed a tree and was blocking road around a right 3 or so. By time I saw him only option was hard on brakes and into the tree. It was a red cross incident that required a chopper to St Louis, but it could have turned out way worse. Worked all night fixing car and started day two and limped the car to a finish. The event story made it into SportCar or whatever the SCCA mag is called. Then a rallycross photo a month later made it into Grassroots.
http://www.rally-america.com/Archives/2004/100_Acre_Wood/day/data/p1p2200025.jpg
http://www.rally-america.com/Archives/2004/100_Acre_Wood/day/data/p1dsc00969.jpg

---

Grant Hughes



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2009 02:59PM by NoCoast.

Wow. One really interesting observation I just made from that first event, 100 AW 2004, is that out of the 34 entrants, only 7 are really still active in rallying. Eight if you count Tanner Foust I suppose. But I think he's to the point where he won't pay out of pocket to do any rallying.

---

Grant Hughes

Jon Burke Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> how many people on RallyAnarcy actually just
> bought a prepped car, spent minimal time/money on
> updating/repairing, and got on stage with it
> within...say....2-3 months of date of purchase?
>
> I know the argument is that its always
> cheaper/faster/easier to buy vs build, but it
> seems most of the people on rallyanarchy really
> like the build factor.
>
> just curious.
>

I built my first rally car and was on stage within a month of starting the build. The next two I bought already prepared and rebuilt them over and over again. Crashing tends to have that effect.

Jon Burke Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> how many people on RallyAnarcy actually just
> bought a prepped car, spent minimal time/money on
> updating/repairing, and got on stage with it
> within...say....2-3 months of date of purchase?
>
> I know the argument is that its always
> cheaper/faster/easier to buy vs build, but it
> seems most of the people on rallyanarchy really
> like the build factor.
>
> just curious.
>
> Jon Burke - KI6LSW
> Blog:
> 'Holy Shit!' @ 4:10

Jon, obviously this place isn't the heart of the consumer/capitalist society.
The unstated thing in the BUY EVERYTHING NOW is a presumption that folks are so burning with ardor to be on a stage that they don't care if they a) buy a piece of shit b) then they have to buy suspension, re-wire the whole car, buy final drive, LSD, upgrade brakes and on and on..
Whatever it takes just to drive a stage.

Nothing should ever stand in the way of instant gratification of any whim an American boy should have!!

But see this forum was hatched in my parking lot by 7-9 non-consumeroid Pacific Northwesterners none of whom were dying to be in the woods with a pile of junk.

Some, like Derek Bottles who suggested the name in honor of the really loonie forum "Sailing Anarchy" had bought two already built cars, a Maz-dog Gee Teee Ex POS, and a Golf POS Both were piles and need EVERY SYSTEM in the WHOLE fucking car rebuilt, refurbed, or replaced.
"Seattle Scott" Koch had killed to death a Nissan so called 510 on stages already (and I mean to DEATH---inner fender wells and strut towers were ripping out of the car) and that car was a near dead and although he got out in the woods, it was always a thrash and blodging stuff just to hold for the next few miles.

Most, in light of all the fixed costs of just getting to a club event, want to be able to know EVERYTHING is good and strong and FUN enough to be competitive and not spend the weekend patching things up and limping along.

EVERY second hand car I have seen in the last 6-7 years were sorely needing very expensive re-workings.
So if instant gratification is somebodys overarching need, and just puttering along in a low hp, wrongly geared, sparks erupting from the dash like the bridge on Star Trek gets their rocks off, fine.

But that's all the advantage of buying a pile is, and if somebody is selling a car it means it ain't getting the owners rocks off---why else would they be selling the car?

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

NoCoast Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Jon Burke Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > like Grant for example, I didn't know he had
> > another car before his Merkur.
>
> I even had two magazine appearances in the old
> car.
> Head on into a tree 3 miles into first event. A
> CRS guy, think his name was Sean Otto in an
> Eclipse was in front of me on stage and had headed
> a tree and was blocking road around a right 3 or
> so. By time I saw him only option was hard on
> brakes and into the tree. It was a red cross
> incident that required a chopper to St Louis, but
> it could have turned out way worse. Worked all
> night fixing car and started day two and limped
> the car to a finish. The event story made it into
> SportCar or whatever the SCCA mag is called. Then
> a rallycross photo a month later made it into
> Grassroots.
>
>
>
>
> Grant Hughes
> www.nocoastmotorsports.net
> Denver, CO
>
>
>
> Edited 2 times. Last edit at Nov 17, 2009 by
> NoCoast.


Your fucking wheels were black, that's why you kissed the tree.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

I'm pretty sure one could make a decent profit building Open Light cars. Buy a cheap GC8 Impreza, throw a cage in it, list for sale. Let the new owner deal with the rest. One here in CO sold for $6000 with stock suspension and brakes and a basic motor.

---

Grant Hughes

>RECCE is for RICH people. and less fun than racing. more racing. less dicking >around.

What Adam said!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I borrowed a friend's rally car (SAAB 99) to drive my first event (Sabattus, in Maine). I had codriven, previously. I bought that car and ran it for several years after the IRS shook down my friend.

My second rally car was my wife's daily driver Sentra that I threw an Autopower cage kit, stiffer springs, skid pan, etc into in 3 weeks. We had a blast in it and no one died. It was reliable and cheap to run. Back then there was some competition in production class.

My third rally car was a WRX. By then we had to order in a fancy cage kit (from people who talk like on Monty Python), wait forever, get ripped off, pissed off,
expensive shocks from the the land of Mad Max, and so on. SCCA cans Spitzner and the Pro-Rally program in the middle of the build. I totally gave up for a year and tried doing track day stuff. It took forever to build. Then I had to try and figure out this notes and recce stuff AND try to listen to a codriver speaking in tongues. Never really figured it out. Then everyone started telling my codriver that she was gonna break her neck, next time I punched a tree and we better spend some more money FAST. Still was fun, but a lot more expensive and the average event went from 1 day to 3 days (with recce), plus 2 days towing.

The first car cost me $1,800 with a trailer, free garage space and literally tons of spares. Of course there were plenty of free SAABs dead along the roadside and behind gas stations (in New England) then.

The WRX must of cost over $20,000 to build and I started with a crashed shell, scrounged a lot of used bits and most of the (minimal) prep was done with free labor. Thanks everyone!

Over 20 years, I ran 60-70 events. Never won. Had plenty of adventures. Now, I stink up the interweb, for kicks. Pretty sad. I wish I was going up to Tall Pines this weekend!

---

Ted Mendham
www.rensport.net