Auto-x and rally-x fun

[sodikartracer]

A while back i ran a rallycross in the festiva and man did i have a BLAST!!! The short wheelbase really lets the car rotate in the dirt. I finished fourth in stock 2wd behind a neon(i don't really think it was stock legal though), focus, and sentra se-r. So i would say i did pretty well. Then last sunday i ran my second autocross ever (first one in the festiva though) and i had such a great time i cant wait to do it again! I arrived late so i had to do x-runs instead of compete directly with the class but i think i would have been competitive. My good friend and long time auto-x racer gave me some pointers and instruction, then to his surprise i ran a time 2 seconds quicker than he ran in my car! I was stoked to say the least. Anyways i could have gone even faster but the car BADLY needs shocks and bushings all around. So check out some of the pics from these events and get out there and have fun in your festivas!!!!







Here is one of a friend driving: He had a great time too!

[Biglay5150]

Cool pics thanks for sharing.

[festymick]

Fantastic pictures! I really enjoyed them! thnx!

[sodikartracer]

glad you liked them, i may have a few more to put up in the next day or two also

[eurotiva]

nice, wider tires annd you will be 3-wheelin'

[sodikartracer]

Yea i really tore these tires up, i'm missing chucks in the left front and the r/f is worn pretty bad. that was mostly from the runs before i increased tire pressures though. Tomorrow im going to have the fronts flip-flopped and put on the back.

[graywolf_14]

So the festiva does pretty good in rally than? I am really into rally and I was thinking of getting a festiva or a 1st gen talon since it is awd. Isnt that rally x like really short tight courses?

[sodikartracer]

yea it does pretty good in rally-x the short wheelbase lets it rotate well. The only problem i had is that because of the small tires, and loose gravel surface you have very minimal steering feel so sometime you may over-correct for a drift and not realize it until it catches. rally-x courses and auto-x courses vary greatly from tight to wide open, it just depends on who designs it. in this case the course was pretty fast, but the next time they ran the event they tightened it up so speeds were lower and the course did not get as torn up. there was a person who built a festiva for stage rally a while back. I believe it had a bp engine it it as well. the guy ran it and did pretty well as far as i know, but then i heard he sold it and the next owner rolled it twice in his first rally with the car : ( My advise would be if your looking to do rallyx a festiva would do ok, but if you are going to do stage rally i would say to find a type of car that is very common so when you crash or break something parts are cheap and readily available.

[Festiva_Fred]

Looks like fun! Cool pics!

[graywolf_14]

Yeah that is a good idea you have any suggestions for a car?

[sodikartracer]

i guess it would depend on what your looking for fwd, rwd, awd, and then i would look at cars that already have a foundation in rally not wrc necessarily but i just mean cars that companies make aftermarket parts for such as suspension systems etc. then look for something that you can afford. thats the way i would do it if i were to build a car from scratch. But i don't think i would do that, if i wanted to get into rally, i would buy somebodys car, trailer, spares, everything needed to get started from somebody getting out of the sport all together. that way you don't have to do all of the development and many of the problems will have already been worked out for you

[graywolf_14]

Well I have thought about that but I cant decide what car. I know it will be 2wd because I have read alot of stuff that that is were you should start. But I cant decide fwd or rwd. If it is rwd I though about a chevette,rx7,300z,240,fiero,mr2. For fwd I was thinking festiva,na talon, focus, civic,golf,corolla. Or shoot I have an 04 cavalier I thought about turning that into one. The only real downside to it is the chassic is not very stiff from the factory.

[graywolf_14]

Or maybe a shadow that would be cool I have seen a couple of those. I was trying to find some common fwd rally cars but golfs are the most abundant.

[sodikartracer]

true, i would probably say golf or focus for fwd, rx-7 for rwd but thats just me. i wish you luck in your search of a rally car.

[FestYboy]

go tire roll go!!! swap on some 15s and you'll really see your times impove.