As the title states, I am looking for any advice one can give regarding rally cross.
This will be my first time ever attending such an invite. No prior track experience. My car is also bone stock, apart form winter tires.

So, please give me advise on how I should prepare myself and more importantly how I should prepare my car?
I want to have some fun out there, and I am not looking for a highly competitive time, I just want to have fun and make sure the car is drivable back home!

Thanks for the help!
Cheers!

 

I'm sure the racing sanction hosting the event have some rules, regulations, and tips on how to prepare yourself and your car. First things first I would electrical tape the entire thing to protect the paint. I would get a snell rated helmet, and a harness at the very least. Will you be driving in dirt and rock (similar to the stuff in Europe) along with Tarmac? And no offense I would attend a event as a spectator before jumping in as a driver.

 

Yes they did have some tips. The "Stock" class, which my car would fit they said, will work for basically any car including family sedans, and aold beater etc.

The event will be on grass, which will probably have snow on it as well.
And yes, I do plan on getting a helmet, they do offer ones that can be rented at the event.

None offense taken, I was debating to do the same as well. They have no cancelling fee, i.e i can register and then only pay at the event, so I feel unsure I can still go there and just spectate and not participate. The event is a month away, so I still have time to decide I suppose.

Thanks for the advise!

 

Good advice!

 

If this is going to be a hobby you may want to invest in an clear bra wrap so you don't have to tape it all the time.

 

I know nasa and scca events usually offer instructors for first timers you may want to ask if they offer that while your on course to help out. Also... may god help your paint... that is all

 

I had a friend that rallied his STi and said only rally a car if you give no ****s about the paint and body. All it takes is one bad turn or to much brakes at the right time to send you into a tree.

 

you need some mud flaps and heavier underbody protection, like stronger skid plate.

For rallyX you don't need to build up the car as you do for rally. I did one rally X in 2014 and I loved it, I think its my third favorite behind rally and hill climb. Def. front of track and the autoX is not even a comparison.

Beside mud flaps and underbody protection , I would do smaller brakes on the front to able to run smaller let say 16-17 inch wheels with thicker tires. But if you cant do that, buy a used extreme snow tires in size 18 probably 235- 45 's and some very cheap wheels. Brand wont matter you never will see 4th gear.

Turn everything Off in the S-AWC , that is important. And don't get sway bars etc. run stock. You do not need coilovers for this.

And just enjoy it!!! Good luck and hope see some pictures soon!

Here is my videos of that one event I did run:

spectator:

inside:

 

Just out of curiosity, why do you shut off all the AWD gizmos? Seems like they really help in getting the car rotated in corners.

 

because theory doesn't really work on these conditions. The AYC and the ACD is more then enough to START rotating the car. The rest just will delay or make you turn wider and less predictable on really slippery condition, like grass dirt snow etc.

S-AWC is great on public road, sudden situations where you can caught off guard. Other then that I think its not useful. Specially what the throttle cut does. Slippery conditions you don't want your throttle cut off, when you racing

You are cursed with the ABS already you don't need more obstacles.

One of my Rally driver friend (great driver) back in 2008 test drove a new X GSR. And he also did run into a trouble with the S-AWC the first time he drove it , when its working make turns wider and you cant rotate the car enough, during race like driving. So the car runs wider. He did that and the rear end got caught flipped the car over several times during test driving, even flew over some small trees . So we talk about it after and I find the same limits with the system in RACING like conditions.

 

^ Thank you for being apart of our community Rob.


Lots of good info here.

 

thank you. love to be here.
i try to help as much as i can

 

Wait so when I got the the track I just turn off the traction control, Do you guys do the thing where you hold the button down for like 3 or so seconds so everything is off?

 

Found this link in another thread might be helpful to learn more about the different settings:

Keep in mind that you can't turn the AYC off (at least, not by simply pushing and/or holding buttons). Plain off (one tap of the button) turns off the Type 1 and Type 2 traction control (i.e., it turns off throttle-cut and it turns off single-wheel braking under acceleration) and it also turns off the ASC (i.e., the single-wheel braking based on actual yaw vs steering angle). What people call "off-off" (press and hold the button for 2 seconds) also disables the single-wheel braking that is designed to help the AYC. No setting turns off the AYC, just as no setting turns off the ACD. This is true for both GSRs and MRs, as the S-AWC for the two is the same.

I understand why people run in plain off for things like autocrossing and rallycrossing, since Type 1 throttle-cut is really annoying and can upset the car, making things worse, not better. The bummer is that you lose the Type 2 traction control and ASC (i.e., the single-wheel braking) which is really helpful at corner exit, especially when you have a helical front diff, as we do. But, all in all, I agree that plain off is better than on for low-speed racing.

In contrast, I do not understand why people autocross in off-off. Not only does theory say that you should leave the AYC helpers on, but I tried it both ways on a course with some WOT sweepers and off-off was nowhere near as fast. Now, maybe that's because my suspension is bone-stock and others have heavier springs and/or a larger rear sway-bar, but for a car with an OE suspension and 245 R-S3s, leaving the AYC helpers on was much better.

 

Thanks for the tips. Yeah I heard about that happening to the paint. I am going to see if I can get the clear bra wrap as mentioned above.
Also, considering this first event is going to be in a mix of snow/grass, I am considering being a spectator and then attend the next one as a participant.
But I just feel like I should go for it and put in a few runs to have some fun!

I was reading online, and there was a bit of talk about increasing the tire pressure to prevent de-beading of your tires. I have snow tires, blizaaks currently installed. If i run with those, should I increase the air pressure in them? Some of the folk said they just used normal air pressure, others were saying around 35 psi?

Any thoughts?