DirtyImpreza.com Project Rally RS (2001 2.5RS)
05-28-2009, 10:12 AM
#16
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Work, CA
Posts: 156
Car Info: Black 2001 2.5RS
Day Stages Bumper
The concept is simple. Have two bumpers for the rally car, one that has some beautiful HID lights in it for the night stages, and one that does not. Simply swap the bumpers out at service so if I stuff the front end on a day stage i won't kill two of my Solteks. In addition to this, i figured it would be cool to cut out some more of the bumper for better airflow, and also install a screen to keep rocks from damaging the radiator fins too.
Backside of the stock RS bumper:
Dremel everything out you don't need:
Wire mesh material. I found this in the contractor's supply section of my local hardware store. It cost $5 for this huge sheet.
Cut the mesh to a rectangle roughly the size of the opening, cut the ends so that they can be folded neatly near the corners. Drill about 40-50 small holes all around the edge of the opening that was cut. Fold the metal mesh around the opening neatly then loop tiny 4" black zipties through the holes and then back through the mesh. The more zipties the better as i think this would spread the load more when a rock or stick hits the wire.
Cut off all the loose ends on the zipties.
From the front:
Closer look:
Install on the car and see how it looks:
Closer installed:
Super close up:
If you get really close to the bumper you can see all the zipties that look kind of like stitches. There is kind of a frankenstein look to the whole thing, but only if you really scrutinize the mesh. I think it turned out really well, and looks pretty hot. We will see how well it holds up to a direct rock hit.
Now I will need to throw together some kind of a quick release system to swap bumpers out at service when switching between day and night stages. Right now it can easily be done in 5 minutes, just pop the grill out and remove the snaps. There's only 1 on each side near the wheel wells too (5 total) surprisingly its on really sung.
Backside of the stock RS bumper:
Dremel everything out you don't need:
Wire mesh material. I found this in the contractor's supply section of my local hardware store. It cost $5 for this huge sheet.
Cut the mesh to a rectangle roughly the size of the opening, cut the ends so that they can be folded neatly near the corners. Drill about 40-50 small holes all around the edge of the opening that was cut. Fold the metal mesh around the opening neatly then loop tiny 4" black zipties through the holes and then back through the mesh. The more zipties the better as i think this would spread the load more when a rock or stick hits the wire.
Cut off all the loose ends on the zipties.
From the front:
Closer look:
Install on the car and see how it looks:
Closer installed:
Super close up:
If you get really close to the bumper you can see all the zipties that look kind of like stitches. There is kind of a frankenstein look to the whole thing, but only if you really scrutinize the mesh. I think it turned out really well, and looks pretty hot. We will see how well it holds up to a direct rock hit.
Now I will need to throw together some kind of a quick release system to swap bumpers out at service when switching between day and night stages. Right now it can easily be done in 5 minutes, just pop the grill out and remove the snaps. There's only 1 on each side near the wheel wells too (5 total) surprisingly its on really sung.
05-28-2009, 01:58 PM
#18
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Work, CA
Posts: 156
Car Info: Black 2001 2.5RS
There is a high probability that the front end of this car is going to get stuffed at one point. I may get around to painting it. Thanks for the suggestion!... i know it would look even better.
06-03-2009, 09:18 PM
#19
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Work, CA
Posts: 156
Car Info: Black 2001 2.5RS
First Car Show for the Project RS
Entry into The Monkey's Trunk car show at Chino Valley Subaru was free so it was a no brainer to enter. As soon as i heard that Ken Block was going to be there with the new Gymkhana car of his I definitely wanted to check it out. The turnout was pretty huge actually. Pre-registrations for the show were capped at 100 subies, and then another 50 or so were allowed to register the day of the event. On top of that there were a ton of cars out parked on the street, many of which could have easily been a part of the "show" too. Id estimate that there were probably 200 Subarus of all makes and models there that day.
The RS was pretty clean already, i wiped down some of the dust from the inside of the car and on the cage, and threw on the black BBS's from the STi. I figured it would look more like a tarmac rally car or something (except it sat way too high!). I was able to squat on Rally Innovation's vendor booth, so that was super cool of them. Having two rally cars next to each other in a sea of slammed / body kitted / polish lipped subies was good stuff.
Ken Block was signing autographs for hours. I heard he was only supposed to be there for 2 hours, but stuck around for over 4 to make sure that everyone got their posters, intakes, gauge pods, (pretty much anything that could be ripped of a car) signed. I waited until the line died down and got a poster and chatted with Ken for just a few moments. I was stoked that he asked how the site was doing... no idea if it was because he remembered me from interviews or X Games last year but it was cool regardless. I wished him good luck at X Games this year and mentioned that i'd be sure to catch up with him there. Hopefully he and Alex will do even better this year. Oh and the Gymkhana car is sick. I still like the old GD one better though, it has a full interior and no cage. sweet.
The show went extremely well. I was able to chat with lots of spectators who had questions about the lights, roll cage, and graphics. That's one thing that people really dig about rally cars... the lights.
Its super cool thought to see people poking their heads in the car, etc. I have a feeling i am really going to like the Parc Expose part of rallying
Throughout the day i walked around the entire show and put a DI spotted card on just about EVERY single Subaru there. This was also a great opportunity to show of the sponsor decals on the car at a publicized event.
More to come soon!
The RS was pretty clean already, i wiped down some of the dust from the inside of the car and on the cage, and threw on the black BBS's from the STi. I figured it would look more like a tarmac rally car or something (except it sat way too high!). I was able to squat on Rally Innovation's vendor booth, so that was super cool of them. Having two rally cars next to each other in a sea of slammed / body kitted / polish lipped subies was good stuff.
Ken Block was signing autographs for hours. I heard he was only supposed to be there for 2 hours, but stuck around for over 4 to make sure that everyone got their posters, intakes, gauge pods, (pretty much anything that could be ripped of a car) signed. I waited until the line died down and got a poster and chatted with Ken for just a few moments. I was stoked that he asked how the site was doing... no idea if it was because he remembered me from interviews or X Games last year but it was cool regardless. I wished him good luck at X Games this year and mentioned that i'd be sure to catch up with him there. Hopefully he and Alex will do even better this year. Oh and the Gymkhana car is sick. I still like the old GD one better though, it has a full interior and no cage. sweet.
The show went extremely well. I was able to chat with lots of spectators who had questions about the lights, roll cage, and graphics. That's one thing that people really dig about rally cars... the lights.
Its super cool thought to see people poking their heads in the car, etc. I have a feeling i am really going to like the Parc Expose part of rallying
Throughout the day i walked around the entire show and put a DI spotted card on just about EVERY single Subaru there. This was also a great opportunity to show of the sponsor decals on the car at a publicized event.More to come soon!
06-04-2009, 10:30 AM
#24
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Work, CA
Posts: 156
Car Info: Black 2001 2.5RS
06-05-2009, 11:01 AM
#27
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Work, CA
Posts: 156
Car Info: Black 2001 2.5RS
Getting Everything Lined Up
If there is anyone who knows precise alignment specs, its drift guys. My buddy Phi agreed to get me hooked up with a full alignment if I cruised down to Drift Speed in Los Alamitos one evening. The positive camber in the rear and generally totally fubar'd alignment on the rally car was getting somewhat annoying to deal with (crooked steering wheel, uneven tire wear on the street) so I got my butt down there to get it straightnened out.
While there, we had to install the camber bolts in the rear to get the zero or slightly negative rear camber that I wanted. We got the car onto the alignment rack / lift and pulled off the stock 6 spokes and put the rally wheels and tires on front first.
Once all the gravel wheels were on, the reflectors for the laser alignment could be attached. These things kick so much ***.
The machine is very sensitive, it measures down to the tenth of a degree for everything like toe, camber, etc. Even bumping the car while tightening bolts down could throw everything out of whack. The wife called me wondering why it was taking a couple of hours to do an alignment when Pepboys will do one in 30 minutes. I had to try to explain how getting your car to track straight and actually having even toe and camber settings is the difference between Pepboys and doing it right. So for those of you wondering, I am basically running zero camber and zero toe in the rear, and about -1.5 camber in the front with zero toe. My goal is to make the car track as neutral as possible for now. It is really nice to have a steering wheel that actually sits in the center when going straight down the highway too. We will see how long that lasts though... ;-)
A big thanks goes out to my friend Phi who set this all up. I know i'm like the black sheep bringing a rallied out Impreza into a drift shop full of huge turbo swapped S14's and S15's but as promised I left very little dirt on the floor! (I even pressure washed the underside of the RS before taking it down there) LOL. I'd also like to thank Quoc for sticking around all night making sure that everything got dialed in perfectly. These guys are the alignment pros!
While there, we had to install the camber bolts in the rear to get the zero or slightly negative rear camber that I wanted. We got the car onto the alignment rack / lift and pulled off the stock 6 spokes and put the rally wheels and tires on front first.
Once all the gravel wheels were on, the reflectors for the laser alignment could be attached. These things kick so much ***.
The machine is very sensitive, it measures down to the tenth of a degree for everything like toe, camber, etc. Even bumping the car while tightening bolts down could throw everything out of whack. The wife called me wondering why it was taking a couple of hours to do an alignment when Pepboys will do one in 30 minutes. I had to try to explain how getting your car to track straight and actually having even toe and camber settings is the difference between Pepboys and doing it right. So for those of you wondering, I am basically running zero camber and zero toe in the rear, and about -1.5 camber in the front with zero toe. My goal is to make the car track as neutral as possible for now. It is really nice to have a steering wheel that actually sits in the center when going straight down the highway too. We will see how long that lasts though... ;-)
A big thanks goes out to my friend Phi who set this all up. I know i'm like the black sheep bringing a rallied out Impreza into a drift shop full of huge turbo swapped S14's and S15's but as promised I left very little dirt on the floor! (I even pressure washed the underside of the RS before taking it down there) LOL. I'd also like to thank Quoc for sticking around all night making sure that everything got dialed in perfectly. These guys are the alignment pros!
07-07-2009, 11:44 AM
#29
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Work, CA
Posts: 156
Car Info: Black 2001 2.5RS
There were several suggestions that the RS would look better with the grill mesh pastidipped, and the metal behind the bumper painted black. I thought so too. Even though it will probably eventually get jacked up its nice to know it looks good now
The mesh has about 6 coats of plastidip sprayed on.
old:
New:
Thanks for all the feedback guys!
The mesh has about 6 coats of plastidip sprayed on.
old:
New:
Thanks for all the feedback guys!