Setting up for rallyx

[camopaint0707]

Any tips to setup the car for a rallyx event. My local scca is offering a rallyx championship which I think I'll run the aveo and then my other car in the parking lot events. Any advice on things I could do but still keep it in the street class?

[RicochetRandy]

Coil overs, strut bars, sway bars + links.

[camopaint0707]

Still keeping it in the street class.

[serega12]

Lowering springs. Sway bars.

[camopaint0707]

springs and sway bars up it to the modified class. I was thinking more so whees/tires, weight modifications, or modifying the current suspension.

[exodus0784]

I know this is old, but the advice was so bad that I had to bring it back from the dead.

If you want to stay in stock, then you have next to no options other than snow tires. When it comes right down to it, a snowtire will be A) Easier to find in a 14", and B) be nowhere near as heavy as a rally tire. You're probably better off with one. Finding a good street tire is also an option, you want NO circumfrential sipes, and BIG LARGE OPEN horizontal sipes.

Coil overs/springs/lower are all unnessesary and WILL make the car WORSE for your average rallyX course. So much so that full fledged stage rally cars have problems on rallyX courses because even their suspensions are too still (and they usually aren't stiff). You need soft spings so that you can shift the weight forward easily for the tight sections, of which there are usually plenty.

Sway bar upgrades are absolutely unnessesary and I would even recommend disconnecting the front sway bar. You want the suspension to operate independent of the opposite side. You want the tires to remain in full contact with the ground. Take the following example: You're going around a long sweeping left hand corner, you hit a bump, some exposed bedrock on the inside. With a sway bar, the left hand suspension is compressed, and this action is transfered over to the right hand via the sway bar, which slightly unloads the tire. This is usually something that you don't encounter on a road course, which is why they run big beefy bars. It was night and day when I disconnected the bar in my '04. It was scary on the road, but felt so planted in rallyX.

Any removal of the interior will bump you into the modified 2wd class.

A strut tower bar... meh. I guess it's supposed to keep your camber in check when the turrets flex, but you aren't going to notice the difference. 0 toe, 1d max of camber. You're not going to get going fast enough for goofing with any of this to make a difference. We had maybe 1 40mph corner at summit point which toe would make a difference. Even for stage rally, most folks say anything more than 1d of camber is useless.

This has been my experience:

The lack of low end torque is a KILLER in low speed corners. First gear is JUST too short for the courses I've run. In the low speed technical stuff it's difficult to get the car to turn. You're better off pegging on the rev limiter and being able to dig into the surface than putting around in 2nd and understeering.

The 1st gen will pull out of 2nd and 4th over very bumpy stuff. I believe this is because the torque mount is made out of marshmallow. I'm hesistant to stiffen it, due to the experience of that OG aveoclub.net subie guy breaking his transmission case where it mounts. Strengthening this would help out A LOT. Several times I've come off the brake, hit the go pedal, and not gone, because it has pulled into N.

I run 185/65/14, (one size taller than stock), which rubs on a metal part in the fenderwell at full lock and full compression on that corner.

Left foot braking wins the day in this car. The vacuum will run out, though. When this happens the brake pedal goes rock hard (no more power assist). To resolve this, close the throttle for a moment (take your foot all the way off the go pedal). This is EXTREMELY ANNOYING.

The rear brakes are absolutely useless. Don't touch the handbrake for anything but a haripin, at which your entry speed is greater than 30mph.

All that left foot braking will cook the front brakes. Find spot in the paddock where you can sit without rolling, without the brakes on.

In short, these are the areas I would like to tackle:

1) TIRES. Find awesome tires. Blizzacks are cheap and work.

2) Fix the movement of the engine/transmission assembly. Stiffening up the torque mount would likely be sufficient. Stiffening up a seemingly "weak" area, always runs the risk of breaking something else, though.

3) MOAR TORQUE for low speed cornering. A short final drive for the open diff would be great. I'm not sure I would want to run a LSD, even if you could find one. This would probably just make low speed cornering worse.

Some nice to haves: A good comfy helmet. A CG-Lock, or a harness (nothing sucks more than floating around in you seat mid corner).

[camopaint0707]

sadly, I haven't been able to get to a single rally event this year. I did take the car autox and drag racing though.

[Thud Slamrod]

When it comes to rallycross, those who care the least about the car win. Fix what you break and carry on.

If you REALLY want to not give a crap about what you hit find a set of used rally tires. However they're so heavy that they'll rob alot of performance from a low powered car. In my experience Firestone Winterforce tires worked best - durable, cheap, and provided excellent grip on loose surfaces.