Rally America thinks what now?

I am not sure who was talking about Subaru here. I was talking about RA. Or if that is basically a same then you already got your answers... Lol

Back to the title, "Rally America thinks what now". Unless you don't mean the organization RA, I don't get the tie in to RA (other than the fact that they are one of the 2 primary rally sanctioning bodies in the United States)?

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Don Kennedy

Either way, this press (good or bad) is still good, no?

Maybe the next write up will improve, cuz there's always room for improvement.

Cheers!

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john vanlandingham

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MConte05
cannot deny that Subaru marketing has swayed the general perception of rally in the US.

Yes, you can. It has swayed maybe in the narrow target that is "into" all this childish X-games pre-packaged made for TV 30 minutes production of things that take 3 seconds to do type "consumers".
But those kids, just like the Blogger and the Foggies, actually don't know anything about rally, they just believe they know...

Did you know that Subaru was the first turbocharged AWD car ever in the Whirled Rally Champignonskit?
I read it in a sidebar in European Car, that ol magazine for ur-flat-billers.

Somebody there, presumably not some bum that wandered in when the back alley door was left open, presumably on the pay-roll wrote that...

One person in a million entered an event last year...sure there's more "awareness" but when you are starting at nearly zero and move 1/100 of 1% that is MORE, but its still pretty much nearly zero..

On a related note, please explain to me how I staffed one crew that worked four stages, the majority of that stage crew, all from, and organized by kcsubaru.com? Because all of those guys are flat billers? There might a couple, sure, but I know for sure, not the majority of them.

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It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favour of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains of a different opinion.
William Ralph Inge

TANSTAAFL

If Rally America was in VW's back pocket, you would have got that crew from a VW club.

What's your point?

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Dave Grenwis - DG Rally - www.dgrally.com

I had the Nicolet Car Club train-in at a Control on Beacon Hill or Camp 2 one year. They must have been a V8 car club. The first time they heard a car start popping on Anti Lag at the start line, a girl grabbed a fire extinguisher. After the car left I asked why. She said "it sounded like shit, and I though a rod was coming through the block."

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Owner, Driver, Head Mechanic, and Janitor at Tower City Race Team, headquartered near L'Anse. Michigan.
Driver / CoDriver in Rally America, NASARallySport, ARA, AMS, UPMDA, Champ Off Road

https://www.facebook.com/TowerCityRaceTeam/
https://www.instagram.com/towercityraceteam/

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DG_Rally
If Rally America was in VW's back pocket, you would have got that crew from a VW club.

What's your point?

They're wanting to pick apart that I said something in response to this:

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MConte05
cannot deny that Subaru marketing has swayed the general perception of rally in the US.

OK they kick back hundreds of dollars to Subie guys in subsidised entries and cargo and swag and shit but Dave you're a VW guy so you'll love this:

HOW has the Subaru marketing has swayed the general perception of rally in the US?

A few years ago 3 of us loser guys were heading down to spectate Doo-Wops rally, our season openener and the best example of what a clubbie event should strive for in the West...

The 2 20 sumpin Volvo boys arrived same time---an hour and 3/4 late so by time we drove to Hoquiam and then north 50 miles to the speccie pen area we had missed the chance top drive in until the cars did the first loop thru..
So Kevvie and Freja and I are hangin with the udder flakes and smokin ciggies and BSing..

I get to talking with a young pup about his slightly pimped Audi, but he wants to talk about his waaaaay wicked Golf that he'd spent bazziliions on..

No hold in the forefront of your mind that we're out at some t junction in the woods 55 miles North of the last thing you can call civilisation---I think Hoquiam rates that, maybe----and this kid with his bros have been sufficiently "aware" of rally that they drove 140 miles and navigated to this spot in the wood to spectate.....that's more than many do....

So as inevitable when
I talk to people I ask "Doooood, you spend a lotta dough on 2 street cars all max boulevard pimp-ular-n-stuff, and you like "rally-racing"..

Why haven't you put a cage in the Golf and come out here and enter an event?


"Well shit mang I can't go rally-racing with a Golf, its NOT ALLOWED"

Me, Kevin Hawkinson, Freja in unison "Say what?"

Kid "Not allowed. It's not turbo and its not 4wd"....


At that exact point Tom Buress in his ol Rabbiit was arroaching followed by von Ahlefeld Golf---1st and 2nd at that point and Tom Went on to be 6-7miles from winning OVERALL--when the single fuel pump puked.

So yeah Subaru marketing has swayed the general perception of rally in the US...

But not necessarily in a good way if a kid can go to all the trouble of getting all the way into the woods to spectate and believe the rule MANDATE he have a turbo 4wd car.

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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.

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john vanlandingham
So yeah Subaru marketing has swayed the general perception of rally in the US...

But not necessarily in a good way if a kid can go to all the trouble of getting all the way into the woods to spectate and believe the rule MANDATE he have a turbo 4wd car.

I actually have a hypothesis that this sort of thing (PR of fast expensive cars ending being propaganda espousing a belief that you can't run with red bull or monster or subaru backing you) has been part of the continual decline in rally participation by "real people". The decline is measurable and actual. My hypothesis as to this being part of the cause is conjecture, but the above example is an anecdote that lines up with it.

One way to look at it is this: If you WANTED to plan a propaganda campaign that essentially taught "the masses" that rally cars needed to be turbo AWD, what would that look like? Would it look like 90% coverage of AWD and then just 10% coverage of 2WD to keep the natives from realizing something is up?

I don't think it's "tinfoil hat" as much as it is "unintended consequences".

Anders

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Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.

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Anders Green

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john vanlandingham
So yeah Subaru marketing has swayed the general perception of rally in the US...

But not necessarily in a good way if a kid can go to all the trouble of getting all the way into the woods to spectate and believe the rule MANDATE he have a turbo 4wd car.

I actually have a hypothesis that this sort of thing (PR of fast expensive cars ending being propaganda espousing a belief that you can't run with red bull or monster or subaru backing you) has been part of the continual decline in rally participation by "real people". The decline is measurable and actual. My hypothesis as to this being part of the cause is conjecture, but the above example is an anecdote that lines up with it.

One way to look at it is this: If you WANTED to plan a propaganda campaign that essentially taught "the masses" that rally cars needed to be turbo AWD, what would that look like? Would it look like 90% coverage of AWD and then just 10% coverage of 2WD to keep the natives from realizing something is up?

I don't think it's "tinfoil hat" as much as it is "unintended consequences".

Anders

OMG OBAMA'S GOING TO TAKE MY 2WD AWAY!!!!!111

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KF7RWG
http://www.utahrallygroup.com

"You can keep your cell phone or your 2WD rally car, pick one."

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Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.

I will agree with this mostly from experience of talking rally to various car folk over the years, over several states. Generally I hear the following phrases:

1."id like to rally but it is too expensive"
2."I don't have a subaru (or evo, i have heard both)
3. "is that Rx-7 awd, how can it be a rally car when its not awd???!?"

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Anders Green

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john vanlandingham
So yeah Subaru marketing has swayed the general perception of rally in the US...

But not necessarily in a good way if a kid can go to all the trouble of getting all the way into the woods to spectate and believe the rule MANDATE he have a turbo 4wd car.

I actually have a hypothesis that this sort of thing (PR of fast expensive cars ending being propaganda espousing a belief that you can't run with red bull or monster or subaru backing you) has been part of the continual decline in rally participation by "real people". The decline is measurable and actual. My hypothesis as to this being part of the cause is conjecture, but the above example is an anecdote that lines up with it.

One way to look at it is this: If you WANTED to plan a propaganda campaign that essentially taught "the masses" that rally cars needed to be turbo AWD, what would that look like? Would it look like 90% coverage of AWD and then just 10% coverage of 2WD to keep the natives from realizing something is up?

I don't think it's "tinfoil hat" as much as it is "unintended consequences".

Anders

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First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
Cars Built (2.5), Engines Blown (2) Cages Built (0) # of rotations (3.5)
Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023

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Anders Green
"You can keep your cell phone or your 2WD rally car, pick one."

If I get a choice between an Obama-phone or an Obama-car, I'll take the Obama-car