Subiesport Magazine

Building New Engines

It has been a busy few weeks for us at Subiesport. As we put another issue to bed we decided to take a day and take our project cars out to our testing facility. We had all done a fair amount of modifications to our cars so it was time to see how they measured up. My wagon had a new suspension setup and a new clutch, Ryan’s Legacy GT was sporting a new set of coilovers and of course we had the new 2008 WRX project car with to test. It was looking like it would be a full day.

2008 Olympus Rally Wrap-up

April 19-20 2008, Pomeroy, Wash.

We’re only three events into the 2008 Rally America series, with six events yet to run, but I’ll go out on a limb and predict that this is the year Ken Block and co-driver Alessandro Gelsomino win the Rally America national championship. After two years in the shadow of teammates Travis Pastrana and co-driver Christian Edstrom, Block and Gelsomino have won two of the first three events in dominating fashion.

“I’m definitely going to try for the championship. This year, we’ve got a plan,” remarked Block at the Olympus podium ceremony.

Whatever that plan is, it’s working very nicely. Block won 7 of the 16 Olympus stages outright and finished second on 4 more. On the 5 remaining stages, a quirk in the Rally America championship rules created a tie with up to 17 other competitors.

Driving the 2008 WRX and 2008 STI on course

Today we put another issue in the can, well more or less in the can. As I write this MediaSpigot Publisher, Ryan Douthit, is slaving over the “technical aspects” of formatting the files that will become the next issue of Subiesport.

While he does that, I am reflecting on my recent driving experiences, most notably a bone-stock 2008 WRX and a very-modified 2008 STI. While the two are very similar in behavior, one is more akin to Bud light, easy to drink and keep in your stomach, even after you drink a whole sixer; while the other is more like Barley Wine, much harder to stomach, especially after you have had a few.

Now I am not saying that one is more enjoyable than the other, but it shows where tuning can get out of hand. Or rather, how a performance-driving setting can bring out the less-than-stellar qualities in a car.

Dyno Tuning Preparation

You’ve read every forum and visited every on-line store and in the process spent your rent money, the college fund, and your future retirement on bolt-on Subaru goodies. The point of all this madness is to produce a more powerful platform for whatever your personal performance niche might be: drag racing, autocross, track days, or simply bragging rights. However, with few exceptions, your new parts will produce little power and, in the worst of cases, might actually damage the car without proper tuning.

Subaru WRC drivetrain: by the numbers

Where far more than expected meets the eye, we look at the complexities of the gearboxes and differentials used in the Impreza WRC2007, and what goes into making them work:

The Subaru World Rally Team has produced over 100 WRC gearboxes since 1999. Almost 50 WRC differentials have been built since 2004. Each gearbox takes 85 hours to build and costs £75,000. Coupled with the rear differential the transmission system contains over 700 individual components.

Each differential takes 16 hours to build, and costs £20,000. The front and rear differentials share components to reduce costs, whereas the centre differential is unique. Once a gearbox has been built, it takes three hours for the team’s dedicated dyno to run through the complete test procedure before it is used on a rally.

Block & Gelsomino Threepeat 100AW

The plan in the Rally America season is to hold just one true snow rally. Sno*Drift in January leads off the season, and some competitors skip the event in favor of the much more temperate Rally in the 100 Acre Wood held in Missouri a month later. But this year, Mother Nature caught many teams with their long johns down as winter weather again dominated the results at the second round of the 2008 rally racing championship series.

Shock of the new: 2008 STI

If you were expecting the all-new 2008 WRX STI to be merely a warmed-over upgrade to the already released WRX, you’re in for quite a shock.

Martyn Harding, product planning manager at Subaru of America, explains. “The actual body shell of an STI is significantly different than a WRX. The metal thicknesses, the types of  steel and additional bracing; so it’s significantly stronger. We know we’re going to put big sticky tires on it and make a lot of horsepower. You have to have a body shell to back that up.”