UCSBgeek

Anybody ever try it out? Looks like fun.... maybe the protege isn't the right car ... according to my little SCCA book (just got it, free membership cause my dad bought a WRX), it's basically dirt autocrossing...

I've taken the protege on a closed road before, damn, it was fun... love seeing the water splash by the windows, love the feel of the slipping tires... I turned back though after a few minutes because I didn't want to hit a rock and pop a tire, or, worse yet, go flying off the cliff . (How would I explain that to AAA .... "hey, drive 5 miles out back from the city up a windy mountain road, go around the road closed sign... ")

Sooo....besides the technical aspects of how my car needs to be set up....anybody do this? How was it? (Search engine returns no results as of right now)

-charles

p.s. Yes I'm going in for an alignment soon

kcbhiw

Just a hint, go for the alignment AFTER the event . I'd really like to do one myself and plan to do it in the near future. However, If you want to keep your car in one peice, I'd recommend against it. A guy I auto-x with took his VW golf to a rallycross event and was hammering parts of his floor pan and jack rail back into position when he was done. From what I understand, rentals are available from the local region to take onto the course, your's may do the same.

HTH

UCSBgeek

Well, what do you expect? It was a VW! j/k. Maybe I'll look for a beater

Lurch

Rallycrosses vary from region to region and from site to site. The weather also plays a big part in how rough it gets. I would not hesitate to take my daily driver to most rallycross venues in good weather. You will just get the car dusty and maybe suffer a couple paint chips from roost. If you want, I have many (40-50) used 15" rally tires you can buy cheap and you will be able to get traction much better than with street tires.

A good setup would be to buy some cheap (under $30ea) 15" steel rims from someplace like Tire Rack or better yet, raid the junkyard. Then buy some used rally tires for $10-50 ea from a rallyist and go have fun. you may want to install front mudflaps to help keep the paint chips from appearing on your rocker panels from some roost. Beyond that, your street car will work fine.

Lurch

Yeah, I'm sure JB has some take-offs as well as Mark Utecht and a half dozen others in your neck of the woods. JB can find someone with tires if he doesn't have them personally.

UCSBgeek

Well hey I'm in CA so the weather ain't **that** bad. I didn't know Tire Rack sold steelies. lol. Yeah I seriously need mudflaps

carguycw

I actually think that a Protege would make a good rallycross car because they're pretty tough. However, I would NOT try doing this in my daily driver because there's a very good chance that you will tear your car up. This is the sort of thing that demands a cheap-*** beater.

Two other things...
1) You want 13" or 14" wheels, not 15". On dirt, you want a narrow tire with a tall sidewall to absorb the bumps. Aluminum wheels are actually stiffer and harder to bend than steelies, but steelies can be bent back with a BFH. The only good use for seriously bent aluminum wheels is being melted down and turned into Coke cans.
2) Alignment is almost irrelevant on dirt. Here are the specs for a good rally alignment: wheels pointed within 5-10 degrees of straight ahead. Almost everything else is unimportant.

UCSBgeek

Well I still do have my 13" steelies lying around, no tires though .

Maybe I could borrow the friends trailer....

rowan

I think carguycw's missing the fact that almost every rally car in existance uses 15" wheels. Which goes to Lurch's point of being able to get used tires (and probably used wheels as well).

Some used Compomotive's should do nicely.

In Ontario, I've heard of people using cheap-*** Snow tires as a less expensive alternative to proper gravel rally tires.

Lurch

Correct. I don't even know if 13s will clear the brakes on a 3rd gen Protege. At any rate, we've used 15" rally wheels and tires since starting with the MAZDASPEED Rally Team Protege. In fact, "good" wheels (Speedline rally wheels, Comps, etc.) are readily available for the 5 lug Proteges as they are the same size as a Mitsu. EVO 4-5-6.

Hardly anyone uses nor imports 13s in rally tires anymore. 14s would probably be okay if you can find them and check the brake clearance first. You will have your greatest choice of take offs in 15".

And narrow tires are not always faster. I don't care to go into rally tire theory here, but sometimes you want wide, and sometimes you want narrow. The biggest concern as a rallycrosser should be finding something that fits your car, not tuning handling with tire widths, compounds, and cuts. Yes snow tires will work...and work well in certain conditions. They will not have the flat resistance of a rally tire, nor the grip potential on many surfaces.

Again, for a onceinawhile rallycrosser, I would get some cheap junkyard wheels.

UCSBgeek

Just a note: 13ins will fit no problem. That's what came on my car! lol

rowan

14's yes. 13's no.
15's even better becuase there's a lot more choice and used parts out there.