Author Topic: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car  (Read 19487 times)

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Offline HiTempguy

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Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« on: September 11, 2012, 11:17:39 pm »
While I sit here 2 hours north of Fort McMurray in camp, my mind is elsewhere... I spy with my little eye something that has changed around the "car corral" (as it has been dubbed by Jeff's wife):



*warning: terrible iphone pics inbound, better ones this coming Thursday*
First things first, this isn't going to be so much of a BUILD thread as it will be a "OH I RIPPED THE CORNER OFF THE CAR AND REPLACED IT THREAD"  ::)

So, it's insanely loud. A friend of ours stood on the driveway while Jeff and I went for it's first spin to shake it down/check it out. He said he heard us the whole time (3.0kms away). B)  Wasn't even giviner' hell or nothin'!

But before we went for that rip, I had to replace the dead (frozen over the winter) Deka itty-bitty battery in it. Canadian Tire is a block away. A OEM style battery (2 year free replacement no questions asked warranty!) was $79.99 with 550cca. Like I had to think twice about that!

Sidenote, why in gods name would you run a rinky-dink battery in rally? The 30 pounds you save (especially with the new open class weight minimum of 2900 pounds) is WAY offset by halving the RCM. Yes, the deka could output some crazy CCA, but why I'd need it to turn over a small stock compression motor is confusing to my teenie brain. Now, the possibility of the alternator dieing or a belt being tossed? Much higher. I remember Sylvain Erickson in 2008(?) and his battery dieing due to electrical issues IIRC and costing him a good placing at Baie.

Car currently runs VP MS109E race fuel, but will PROBABLY be running 91 octane pump gas next year.

The car didn't come with light pods (it is wired for them) and Paul Eklund @ Primitive Racing (www.get-primitive.com) has a killer deal on right now ($299.99 for BOTH dual light pods, half as much as the next cheapest pair I could find)! For now, I am going to run the 8" Bosch rallye lights that I still have from the Talon. They have a ridiculous bulb in them (ridiculous in not a good way, the H2 design, which is obsolete and difficult to change, so there is no ebay HID upgrade available). So I'll run 100W hella bulbs in all 4, plus HID's in the OEM headlights ($30/pair off egay, why not right?) and HID's in the stock fog location. Should be enough light for now and hopefully not too taxing on the electrical system. Expect HID's all around for 2013.

(Lightpods are the big white box)


The free GMC 1500 towed the trailer in an awesome manner. 15L/100kms (15USMPG) cruising at a sedate 65mph. Rarely unlocked the torque converter in 4th. Rides like a dream. Now if I just wasn't an idiot and would properly load a trailer didn't help I figured I needed a 2" drop hitch, but the truck actually isn't that high. Proper loading on my new trailer should make a huge difference.



I've done up a spreadsheet for the 2013 CRC national season. 32,500kms of towing (65 tanks of gas at 85L each at an average of $1.15/L = $6300ish in fuel :eyepop: ). This has prompted me to buy a new 18' open deck trailer, as used ones are too expensive for the risks you take (namely, bent axles). $3k for a new trailer won't be so bad, in the past 5 years I bet I've spent $1k on trailers.

Edit- Scratch that. I just bought a used (only 2000kms towing an old BMW) 16' Rainbow Trailers car hauler built last year. Was $2200. I can live with that. This might be a temporary solution, as the only way to really find out how much trailer you need is to use them. A 20' is waaaaaay too much, but a 16' might be too little. Probably will sell this one before we go to Perce and buy a brand new 18 footer...

Now why is the car an oldie but a goodie? Well, let me explain! First, Keith Morison owned this car since I met him when I was 16. In fact, I did two roadtrips down to the US with him in 2007 for Oregon (where I crewed for him and Norm LeBlanc) and Olympus, my first ever event where I co-drove. I've saw the car rack up the miles, blow up/been ran out of oil at least once, and in general been pounded away at. Keith then sold the car (I think? Or traded it with Azam? Who knows how it all went down) to Hardy, who had Swapshop out in Quebec build it up. V8/9 JDM STi Spec C drivetrain (2.0L, not the 2.5L like North America, s00per retarded close ratio 6 speed box which is hilarious to drive in downtown Edmonton). All of the goodies you'd expect, neetronics diff controller, ALS, launch control, the works. Retarded amounts of tq, very little top end. Dunno if it has a diff in the front or not, doesn't really feel like it, I asked but I forget atm...



So yea. Car weighs 3200 pounds ready to rally without driver/co-driver. Standard DMS 50mms. I believe the car still runs 5x100 (aka weaker) hubs on it because of the crapton of parts Hardy accumulated for that, including around 50 billion rally rims. Overall, the car only has 5 rallies on it as Hardy had a pretty rough 2011. He did Rocky, PFR, (Olympus?), Kananaskis and Big White. So the car is practically brand new! ;)

Tires for PFR will be whatever Pirelli's [redacted] gave me off of [redacted's] car... they are "used" (not really, look practically new to me, thanks [redacted]!) and the DMacks off the Tal[hoon]. The DMack's will be on the chopping block for massive grooving at the slightest sign of rain, as they are only 195 and soft compound. I still need 4 more rims, I wasn't prepared to buy another 12 off of Hardy as I really dislike the old-skool OZ rally rim style on anything besides Celicas (and he pawned 6 of them off on me already on the rally car as it is lol). Probably do another 4 Evo Corse rims as a local rallyist (Tibor Kertes) can get them in for $180/rim in any color you want... the astardbay told me he refused to bring in pink even though he can get it. :( So lime green will be the accenting color. Have a different logo for the hood of the car for PFR, I liked the death proof one, but this will be more hilarious and current.



Beyond that, I still have to go through the car itself and make sure everything is bolted down tightly/not falling off. Going to need belts by the end of the year, probably purchase them down in the US while around Olympus. The car also has some slightly irritating tuning issues... it is done such that you must either be accelerating aggressively in the car or coasting. I think this is done due to anti-lag and the drivebycable setup. With a new throttle body gasket (don't ask, SwapShop said so) and an update from VIPEC for the standalone, I should be able to get rid of the around town roughness of the car.

Offline Hilux

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #1 on: September 12, 2012, 01:28:01 am »
If I'm not mistaken, that's Hardy's old car. If so it is indeed loud!

*Just read more thoroughly, yes it is*

Offline bugeyesubie

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2012, 01:02:58 pm »
That car has the best designed door bars! Definitely using that design for mine.
Fully Built 2.5L 1.5 Scroll EWG'd Dominator 3!


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Offline HiTempguy

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #3 on: September 18, 2012, 09:12:13 pm »
Yes, the door bars are the bees knees aren't they? More pictures because pictures!













Offline seat safety switch

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #4 on: September 18, 2012, 09:20:31 pm »
More of the Volvo, please.

Offline HiTempguy

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #5 on: September 18, 2012, 10:02:08 pm »
More of the Volvo, please.

Volvo was sold on Sunday for the sum of $400. Awesome car, loved driving it, miss it :(

Offline HiTempguy

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #6 on: September 27, 2012, 09:35:17 am »
This is how you get 2000L of MS109E VP race fuel across the border kids!  O0


Offline Lìam

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #7 on: September 27, 2012, 09:42:28 am »
nice! Full CRC for you this year? shoot me a pm about the wheels too, working solid this weekend but we could set something up next week.

Offline RS 99

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #8 on: September 27, 2012, 06:24:17 pm »
Nice toy will be looking at this closely maybe built my car similar parts see what works what doesnt good luck for rally
ALL GO NO SHOW

Offline HiTempguy

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #9 on: September 28, 2012, 12:13:49 pm »
nice! Full CRC for you this year? shoot me a pm about the wheels too, working solid this weekend but we could set something up next week.

Pm sent, I've been flat out as well with life lol.

Full CRC next year is still a go. Might have to miss Kananaskis in order to assure funding, but that is the way it goes sometimes. PFR and Big White are definitely in.

Also, in case anyone is ever looking for a trailer and happens to be in BC, www.fraservalleyequipment.com sells trailers insanely cheap. I bought a 20' trailer all in for $2650. They are located in Chilliwack. They even have prices on their website, and Doug/Brad are super awesome dudes  ^-^

Offline dub c

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #10 on: September 29, 2012, 11:16:22 pm »
You could have fit twice as many barrels on there!
How much cheaper is it in the states?

Offline HiTempguy

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #11 on: October 01, 2012, 12:12:33 pm »
You could have fit twice as many barrels on there!
How much cheaper is it in the states?

Unfortunately, the truck is only rated to tow 7000 pounds. We were practically at max GCVW with Jeff, myself, and the couple hundred pounds worth of parts we bought. Each barrel weighed 350 pounds and there were 10 of them already! 3500lb fuel, 2000lb trailer, 1000 pounds for Jeff, myself, tools, and equipment gets us to 6500 already  :o Towing through hills/mountains at sea level was fine, but at 5500feet through Montana/Idaho there were quite a few 2nd gear 60km/h hills  :'(

If you call the Alberta VP distributor, he'll tell you $825. Down there, it was $435 plus getting it across the border was 10C per litre plus 5% GST (basically, 15c per litre tax all in). So on 205L barrel, $30.75, so $465/barrel.

It was well worth it, unfortunately, the barrels weren't all for me :( If I was running the 2013 CRC on race fuel, I'd have had more of it for myself (at least 6 barrels, if not all 10). So on ten barrels, about a $3k savings  :o

Offline HiTempguy

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #12 on: October 04, 2012, 10:44:31 am »
What do you mean you need projectors for use with HID's? I don't see a problem...



Work is slowly progressing on the light situation. Unfortunately, PIAA 80 racing lenses are hard to come by in Canada, so I had to order them from where I bought the pods from (Paul Eklund @ Primitive Racing). His pricing is wicked awesome, I just need to ship them to someone close to Merritt in BC...

I'll be converting the pencil/driving lamps to Ebay HIDs as well once I have time, but the fogs will be staying halogen so as to promote good visibility during fog or (as is more often the case) dusty night conditions. I might even tint the bumper pod fogs with 3m yellow lens protector film to further help the light produce a higher clarity of vision in low visibility situations.

Offline HiTempguy

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #13 on: October 06, 2012, 08:18:11 am »
More lighting goodness. Last night I built the harnesses for the pod lamps. Not to toot my own horn, but this is some really well thought out wiring, and for once, rather than half-assing it, I had everything required to make the harnesses properly  ;D

We start with lots of wires, 6 H4 bulb sockets, some butt connectors (I would solder, but no soldering iron, plus butt connectors are an acceptable substitute), and heat shrink tube.


From there, we assemble the harness such that each high beam filament is powered by running 3 foot leads off the red wire of the H4 harness. Because the car itself is already wired/relayed for light pods, things are a lot simpler. On the car mounted to the underside of the hood are weatherpack connectors, two of them, each the three prong variety, with two of the prongs power and one ground. This allows me to tie the harnesses together, with a seperate power lead for each bulb, and a common ground because I'm lazy and it works  :P



Finally, the leads are wrapped in loom, sealed with electrical tape, and a weatherpack connector added on the end. Unfortunately, my kit only had 3 of the little green rubber grommets, and I need 3 more. Crossing fingers NAPA has them or else I am hooped until Tuesday, which is bad as I want this done asap so its off the list.



The bulbs being used are NAPA H4 offroad only bulbs, $18 each for 100w low beam 135w high beam. They aren't the "xenon" white style, as the natural light color of halogen bulbs helps with definition of the road at night (or in dust), which is kind of critical in a rally car. Hopefully 135w in 6 lights, plus HID's in the headlights will provide enough light.

Offline Hilux

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #14 on: October 06, 2012, 08:48:00 pm »
Those are my old HID lights! They sure were good

Offline HiTempguy

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #15 on: October 16, 2012, 10:51:50 am »
PFR 2012

All was well, car was ready to go, team was ready to go, feeling good!










And then clutch went boom  :'(



Not a good year so far!

Offline RS 99

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #16 on: October 16, 2012, 06:31:14 pm »
Thats sucks
ALL GO NO SHOW

Offline seat safety switch

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #17 on: October 16, 2012, 07:23:54 pm »
I like the towing. You should install a winch on the trailer, they are cheap at PA and much safer. ;)

Offline HiTempguy

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #18 on: October 16, 2012, 09:50:59 pm »
I like the towing. You should install a winch on the trailer, they are cheap at PA and much safer. ;)

By all means, if you'd like to buy me one and mount/install it with a battery on the trailer, I'll gladly take it.  :P

If not, while not exactly the best way to go about it, this was surprisingly easy and not NEARLY as sketchy as I thought it'd be. I don't plan on doing it anymore often than I have to, but it was actually reasonably safe. With the truck in 4x4 low and creeeeeeping along, the car simply goes up the ramps, front of the trailer lifts, car gets onto the trailer, front of the trailer drops nice and slow. I was super surprised, by far the easiest way to load a non-driveable car. We blocked all wheels (back and forth) as well as had a jack under the front frame... not my first rodeo  ;)

Offline Roadwarrior

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #19 on: October 17, 2012, 09:00:19 am »
Definately an interesting way to get it on the trailer. But hey, if it works it works. Sucks about the clutch.
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Offline bigdl

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #20 on: October 17, 2012, 09:08:58 am »
not my first rodeo  ;)

And probably not the last ;)

Offline HiTempguy

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #21 on: February 22, 2014, 01:03:14 pm »
Well... this thread is a bit stale isn't it?

After the clutch-splosion at PFR, work got underway to replace said clutch

(my humble garage abode on the north end)


Then we went and did BigWhite at the end of 2012... which was a disaster:

You wouldn't think so with a big case of beer like this at the beginning of the trip!


We had a hell of a time starting the car as it was -25*C out, had to let it sit in the garage overnight, super stressful and tiring.

Right before leaving for the first stage, the car managed to roll across the slight downhill of the service area and crash into a trailer, leaving me starting the rally like this:





And finishing the event only three stages later like this:



Needless to say, my plans for 2013 were pretty screwed at that point, no money to race if it was all going into fixing the car! 4 events in 2012, 3 dnf's was NOT the way I wanted to start rallying.  :'(

Offline HiTempguy

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #22 on: February 22, 2014, 01:26:43 pm »
Soooo... dropped the car off with Azam Deen for some work (end of Dec 2011)! The finished product around Feb 2013:









Car is a little more sedate looking with the smaller non-jdm scoop and no wing. I have a wing, but am looking at putting a WRC STi wing on it... because why the hell not!




Offline HiTempguy

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #23 on: February 22, 2014, 01:48:46 pm »
2013 is a year that can be summed up for me in one word: batshitf*&kingcrazy

At the end of the day, I only managed to do ONE race in the WRX, which was Big White 2013. And since I have nothing to fill in the rest of the year from racing with the car... I'll fill it in with other racing/life stuff! I'll also point out I worked 3 months straight (April May June) and then (July and September). Combine that with buying an out of province wrx that needed work, racing the Mexican 1000, towing across Canada for Hardy Schmidtke for the Rallye Baie Des Chaleurs, and meeting the woman of my dreams (she takes up a bit of my time) 2013 was a crazy year!

Said wrx:


With the car fixed and me working 3 months straight, I received a message from a racing friend asking if I'd fill in for her at a race in Mexico. With only a week to get my crap together, I hammered out a deal with the driver. I proceeded to fly from Fort Mac down to Edmonton, and then headed out the following morning to the airport and caught my flight to Palm Springs. Our tow vehicle and the rally car we flat towed behind it!





We had a BIG crash on the first day, hit a big dip/whoop at 60mph. We pancaked it pretty good into a big endo that almost saw the car go end over end. The front of the car was bent down at a 45* angle.

Got to see some pretty sights (and lest you think otherwise, sleeping on a beach sucks lol)


And after only 4 hours of sleep a night for the whole week, coming in well after midnight, destroying the car and working tirelessly on it, we made it to the end:



I then flew to Portland where Jeff met up with me and we spectated the Oregon Trail Rally!



Voodoo donuts and their mandatory oosterray and balls donuts with creme filling :p


Once we got back:


The rallycar came to the shop in Red Deer (which was now finished)!


But there was more important things to do besides finish rally cars, there were rallies to attend!


Hauled across the country myself... but it wouldnt be an adventure without surprises...

(exploded wheel bearing in Kenora)

So, uhaul rental time!


Evo tranny swap in 45 minutes!


Beer!


Expensive diesel!


On the homestretch in Regina:


As an added bonus, when I got back the final evening, I went on my first date with my then to be girlfriend. Fortuitous circumstance and all that jazz  O0

Offline HiTempguy

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Re: Oldie but a goodie... 2002 Open Class WRX Rally Car
« Reply #24 on: February 22, 2014, 01:54:47 pm »
Nothing very special happened at that point. Work was super busy through September/October/November and BigWhite was coming up. I had a score to settle, so into the shop the WRX went!

But before that, I bought this monstrosity which was the worst car purchase I've ever made! Bussed 10 hours to BC and drove it back, all while sick from some disease or some such that made my neck stiffen and unable to move and my whole body hurt!



Its gone now, as my father ran into it over Christmas :( But now I have Jeff's jdm wrx wagoon, so life is good!

Onto the shop:


Received close to 2 feet of snow the week I decided to do the work. *Sigh* Now actually in the shop and ready to be fixed up!


And the car was ready to go, lights installed, everything remounted/refitted, car cleaned. Jeff and I were ready to do battle with BigWhite once again!