409industries

Hello! My name is Aaron and I have been building a Production GT class rally car out of a 2001 RS for about a year and a half now at the time of this post. Its taken me this long because I don't have a lot of money, but do have some patience and am willing to work hard to make the transition from weekend rallycross guy to stage rally driver!

If you get a chance be sure to drop by my website http://www.dirtyimpreza.com.

The ENTIRE build history prior to today can be found here.
http://www.dirtyimpreza.com/forums/showthread.php?t=739

Here's just some highlights to bring you up to speed.

Totally Stock RS:


Stripped:




Motor pulled for donor for another working stock motor / transmission.


cage building begins:


Seam welding:


Cage completed:


Interior painted:


Roof Reskinned:


Other motor swapped in:


Repairs:


Group N Motor / Tranny Mounts:


Roof vent installed:


Vinyl graphics applied:


Rally it!


Well that's about it for now. There is still plenty to do to the car to get it completely stage ready, but ill try to keep this thread updated. You can always see the latest on the DirtyImpreza.com Project Rally RS here.

Thanks!

medicSTi

iTrader: (22)

Nice, can't wait to see more!

409industries

Went to a rallycross this weekend (took 3rd in R4 and 3rd overall), pics and video coming soon!

stupidchicken03

iTrader: (38)

nice man.. just a question, why did you pick white for the engine bay?

wrxisthebest

iTrader: (15)

Hey Aaron

409industries

Well for one, its easy to tell the paint shop to just paint everything white all at once (trunk / cabin / engine bay). Another reason is it makes finding dropped screws or bolts in the engine bay easier. Also i had a CV burst and from where the grease spattered it was very easy to tell where that burning smell was coming from, the grease spattered on the white was easy to spot.

Above all though, it looks WRC baller status

Whats up gangsta!?

stupidchicken03

iTrader: (38)

hahaha gotcha

wrxisthebest

iTrader: (15)

just trying to buy myself a new DD.

Spun a bearing in the WRX motor.

im probably picking up a Subaru Justy next week.

how is the RS treating you. heard you did well at the RallyX. before my motor blew i took 2nd in R4 with the wrx without rally tires. lol.

409industries

The RS is doing well, i've romped on it pretty hard on 3 separate occasions and each time it has come back for more. I have a small exhaust leak that needs to be fixed with some new gaskets probably, but other than that things are going very well.

Did very good at the rallyx this weekend. 3rd in R4 and 3rd overall. Could have snagged 2nd if i didn't hit those last two cones, but that's the way it goes (coulda / woulda / shoulda). The car was fun to drive, kind of frustrating to deal with 180 degree turnaround with little power and not very much speed to flick the car. I just need more practice... im finding that this car is going to be much more fun to drive on open stage roads than the tight confines of the rallyx course...

409industries

Here is some video from a recent rallycross event!



Try not to pay to much attention to my non-stop sawing of the wheel. I was kind of all over the place for a while. I never broke into the sub 2:00 times, but was pretty consistent all day. Only a couple of cones here and there, those few cones was enough to keep me from snagging second... D'oh!

Enjoy the video! Its been a while since i've released anything. I have to thank my buddy Jeff that was riding shotgun with me all day for bringing his GOPRO camera. They're pretty cool deals for $200. The files are somewhat hard to edit with in Premiere Pro, but thats another discussion all together...

sigma pi

iTrader: (6)

holy crap nice cage!! nice welds!!


want to install my roof vent?? haha

409industries

Roof vent is pretty tricky but not impossible. It gets even tougher when you decide to put the scoop on...

I finally got some free time over the weekend to pay some attention to the RS. Car got a bath among other things, it actually looks pretty good clean. Its been covered in a layer of desert dust for so long, it almost looks like a brand new car (well not really...)



A few weeks ago, I randomly came across a guy on Nastysock selling what looked like a Rallispec roof scoop (that was painted black already!) for $80 shipped. The ad was over 5 months old, but I PM'd the guy anyway to see if he still had it, and he did! This just goes to show a few people actually rally on the biggest Subaru site in North America..wtf! Anyway, this was a great find so i happily paid the guy his asking price for the scoop and he mailed it out. Brand new these things are around $200.

Install was a pain in the ***. This is another reason to not roll the car. I don't want to have to put another roof scoop on. The scoop didn't fit exactly with the RA roof vent because the vent door was slightly too large to fit under the "feet" on the inside of the scoop. I spent some time using the dremel to get everything cut out ok, but still leave enough material to drill the holes that the bolts will go through to hold the scoop on. Blue tape was used on the roof of the car so i could trace the outline of the scoop. Next the scoop was traced on a piece of cardboard where i marked the holes that were drilled in the fiberglass. The cardboard template was then matched onto the roof of the car so that the holes could be marked on the roof. This method worked out pretty well and i was able to get the holes drilled into the roof pretty accurately on the first try. I used some metric hardware from the local hardware store (bolts, locknuts, washers) to fasten everything down, snug but not too tight. Getting my hand into the scoop to hold a 10mm wrench and reaching into the car to ratchet from the inside was not easy. Im sure to anyone walking by it must have been a funny sight. So here it is, the RS with the roof scoop installed!







Gooped on some clear caulking on the bolts inside the car to hopefully keep the water out. We'll see how this goes next time i wash the car...

409industries

So i've received quite a few comments about what mudflaps are being run on the Project Rally RS. The car is sponsored by our long time supporter RallyArmor Mudflaps.






(Yes the front bumper is off for some custom shennagins, more on that in the future)

They provided us many months ago with the same material that they send the Canadian teams that they sponsor. Referred to as the "mspec" mudflaps (short for Motorsport Specification) these flaps are made of Urethane I believe 7 times thicker than their standard UR mudflaps. I have seen many rally cars with broken / tattered mudflaps and I am more than confident that it is not going to happen to these bad boys. Even in freezing temperatures, frozen rocks hitting these will not cause any damage. If their standard UR mudflaps have lasted me 2 full rallycross seasons plus several DirtyMeets (and they still look brand new!!!) then these can take everything just short of a nuclear blast. ;-)

The flaps showed up on my doorstep has 4 large rectangles, so it was up to me to decide how and where to mount them up.



The rears were relatively simple to put on, although i did modify the inside edge to be more of an angle to clear some underbody components. They were attached to the bumper and and using one of RallyArmor's proprietary brackets from their GC line of flaps, i was able to secure the inside edge of the rear flap a bit better. Now, when (not if... but when) the rear bumper gets ripped off, these flaps are probably going go with it but i can hope that it wont... .......got bumper?





The fronts, I used the factory tabs that are normally used to hold in the OEM fender liners to mount the outside edge of the flaps.



Also, on the inside edge I drilled some holes into the body of the car and tightened down a screw and washer in two spots. These front mudflaps aren't going anywhere. The whole front fender is going to have to get ripped off before these fall off. I figure its most beneficial to have the front flaps on real good, since they are going to help reduce how quickly things on the underside of the car get destroyed by gravel. The rears merely keep rocks from flying up in the air out the back of the car. :tongue:



So there you have it, the custom mudflaps on the Project Rally RS. I highly doubt these will ever go into full scale production due to the cost associated with getting the heavy-duty Urethane, but I never did get an official no from Costas. It is a very niche item since many people choose to build their own mudflaps out of things like cutting boards. Ikea flaps are cheap yes, but they will be destroyed after one stage rally. It just becomes a game of how valuable is your time when it comes to replacing shattered mudflaps after every event?

sigma pi

iTrader: (6)

i ralley crossed my car good fun

409industries

Rocks being hurled at your wiring harnesses at 100mph is not a comforting thought. So, since the front bumper is off the RS for another side project, i figured it would be a good time to protect some of the exposed vital electrical wiring on the car. In lieu of full fender liners, i am wrapping wiring in the wheel well area in some thick plastic tubing that is reinforced with fiberglass webbing. I think this is really for washing machines, it seems really tough though. I was able to buy this at my local hardware store.



Measure out a length of tubing that will cover as much wiring as possible. Cut it lengthwise so that it can be wrapped around the wires to be protected.



The front of the car is to the left, this is in front of the driver's side front tire. Wrap the wires with the gap in the tubing facing the front of the car. This will ensure that the rocks and debris by the tire being flung forward will hit the solid side of the tube, and not the "seam" side. Use zipties to pull the tubing around the wires tightly.



Then ziptie up the whole solid tube with wires to the inside of the wheel well, to keep it from moving around.



I also made sure to leave the tubing a bit long so that the bottom part extends past the inside of the wheel well out of harms way.



Periodically it would be a good idea to cut the zipties and clean out any dirt or rocks that accumulate inside the tubing. Also inspect for any frayed / worn wiring (hopefully there will be none, because of the protective tube!) The process was repeated on the passenger side to protect the wires over there too. I'll need to go back and take off the fender on the driver's side and get some of the other wires that run up along the top too, but the concept is exactly the same as this bundle. Maybe sometime down the road i will make some fender liners out of UHMW urethane for an extra level of protection but for now i need the money for other important components.