Project Rally RS Episode 3 – Rollcage / Motor Swap

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxZsYJkmzJI&fmt=18"][/ame]

Be sure to click "Watch in High Quality" on the youtube page to get the best quality video possible (You should be linked directly to the high quality version).

In this episode of the DirtyImpreza.com Project Rally RS (PRRS) build we cover the events from much of 2008. The 2001 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS was stripped down, seam welded, caged, painted, and re-assembled with a donor motor and transmission from another 2001 2.5RS.

The roll cage was constructed by Jackson Rally and is Rally America and NASA compliant (built to FIA Article 253 specs). It has been overbuilt in some areas for extra safety and rigidity. The shell has been seam welded around the struts, transmission tunnel, cabin floor, and wheel wells. The roof skin was replaced with a JDM roof to completely delete the USDM sunroof option.

It’s been a long year, but finally we have a running rally car! There are still numerous smaller projects that need to be tackled before this car is stage rally ready, but some of the biggest milestones have already been reached. Thanks goes out to Kyle at Jackson Rally for his amazing fabrication work, Scott at California Auto Collision for painting the inside of the car, and the dedicated DirtyImpreza.com members who tirelessly helped to get this car where it is today.

Note: For those of you who may have been following the build this episode might be a bit confusing, and you may ask “Where did this other RS come from?” Basically, the original 2.5RS was s****ped because it had extensive rust, and a severely damaged frame (which was revealed during its initial tear down). The decision was made to buy another identical 2001 2.5RS with a blown motor but no frame damage or rust, and transplant the vitals from the other car into this one.

Runtime: 4:16
Produced / Directed: 409industries
Copyright: 2009 DirtyImpreza Enterprises

The DirtyImpreza.com Production GT Rally car is supported by:

America’s / Discount Tire Company
RallyArmor Mudflaps
Jackson Rally
Soltek Light Systems
Team Illuminata Motorsport
All Wheels Driven
RalliTEK
Grimmspeed Performance
Braille Battery
Redline Rally
Safe Drives
Millennium Motorsports
Team O’Neil Rally School

So where's the previous episodes on youtube? well, they got pulled. Ill try to get them re-uploaded as soon as possible.

-A

Any rally fans out in Ireland?

Originally Posted by 409industries

Any rally fans out in Ireland?

Hi That's a bit of an understatement about the Irish and the Northern Irish.. There rally mad to be honest!! There's an event on nearly every weekend..

Having worked for Prodrive for three years looking after all the WR Cars and Group N Machines in Ireland I think I went to nearly 70 odd events in that time... With more WR Cars than any other country in the world and more rally cars per head of population you could say there mad for it!!

Check some of the sites below (I'm sure theres more)

http://www.nirally.com/

http://www.rally.ie/

http://www.rallynews.net/

http://www.irishtarmac.com/

Originally Posted by Prodrive Ireland

Hi That's a bit of an understatement about the Irish and the Northern Irish.. There rally mad to be honest!!

I knew that would invoke a response...

I was wondering why there was no responses (whether positive or negative) towards the build video, since you guys are the rally gurus!

Thanks for all the great links. I hope to hear some more from everyone real soon.

Haven't watched your videos as yet... Will do as soon as I'm finished typing! Looks like an impressive spec on this car?

What event's you planning on doing this year?

I guess you through that last post out as a bit of bait to see if anyone would bite!! Ha!

Originally Posted by Prodrive Ireland

I guess you through that last post out as a bit of bait to see if anyone would bite!! Ha!

oh exactly. It was just to drum up some interest. Let me know what you think of the vids. Unfortunately YouTube as pulled many of our videos lately, I need to get them re-uploaded.

http://www.youtube.com/dirtyimprezadotcom

Fantastic video, great being video documented!!

Looking forward now to watching the rest, cheers for posting guys

There should be some video of the car ripping around in some dirt in a few weeks. I'm going to take it out to a local event just to get some seat time in the new car. It won't be done all the way, but im super excited...

Car is insured! However, it isn't registered just yet, and this is for a good reason. I have to take the car out of PNO (planned non-operation). If i did this right now, i'd be able to drive around, but would have to pay for another FULL year of registration in March. So rather than pay twice, i followed the suggestion the nice lady at the AAA gave me and am going to wait until i can renew for all of 2009 into 2010. But that means no driving which is a bummer because i want to drive the car over to my parents house to start desigining some front wheel well protection with this sheet of UHMW.

The weekend was productive in that I was able to spend a few hours here and there chipping away at the massive to-do list that i've created in order to get this car stage ready. Also, i forgot that when i shot the closing scenes of the Project Rally RS Episode 3, i didn't have my still camera with me to take any pictures, so i snapped just a couple of the car with those nice white ProRally1's.



First order of business was to fix those damn windshield wipers. If you read in my other thread here then you might know that my wipers were working backwards. Resetting at the top of my windshield, and then sweeping down then back up. I pulled the linkage apart where it connects to the wiper motor, and figured out that it was on backwards and needed to be rotated around and re-attached. This fixed my pesky wiper problem, and now i know a little bit more windshield wiper motors. sweet.

I slapped on some Redline Rally bling... name decals and flags just for good measure. Also, the Womack name is going to be changing real soon here. Definitely looking good on there for the time being! If you want some of these kick *** decals (and i believe they have an assortment of flags) be sure to hit up Jeremy or Joe at Redline Rally. Thanks for making these guys!:waving:





If there's one thing that I always worry about in the rally car, its the air filter. I had a gift certificate to the local Kragen, so i dropped down there to get a brand new drop in K&N air filter. They're super easy to clean too, so i will typically clean my air filter after every couple of rally crosses, etc.

Turns out that the whining from the power steering was just because the fluid in the reservoir was very low, filled that bad boy up and the wheels turn lock to lock with easy. Glad that wasn't an expensive fix.

Our buddy over at Central Coast Clear Bra hooked me up with some s****s that were left over from many of his installations. The 3M clear film that he gave me is amazing, and I'm pretty sure its the same stuff that you can but in those somewhat expensive Lamin-x cage protection kits. I took some measurements of the bars on the roll cage that i know will come into contact with things like shoes getting in and out of the car. With some brand new x-acto blades and a pair of scissors i made my own custom pieces. 8)



Can you see the applied clear film? Neither can I, but its definitely there, and its about 3-5 times thicker than plain vinyl.


The 3M film was very easy to work with too, it was pretty forgiving in that if it stuck to the painted surface where you didn't want, it could be peeled off and re-applied.

No rally car is complete without a set of rally pigs on the mirrors!



Up next...

I have a couple of bucks from my birthday that just passed so I am going to get my steering wheel and quick release! If all goes well i should have that this weekend. Also, i noticed there was a small amount of coolant seeping out from one of the hoses. I'll have to figure out if thats going to be a problem or not, it looks pretty minor at this point. Lastly, just driving the car around in the parking garage, i noticed how bad the exhaust leak is from the block to the header. Its pretty awful if the car is not moving very fast, as exhaust just comes up all the holes in the bottom of the floor into the cabin. Another reason to get that roof vent installed ASAP.

What steering wheel have you in there at the minute?

You need one of these...

http://www.sidc.co.uk/index.php?opti...d=213&Itemid=1

loving this thread

and the pigs lol

Gotta love the classics! Keep us posted.

Looking really good, youve made great vids and class right ups.

Keep us updated pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeee
The car is a real credit to you, keep up the great work

Thanks for requesting to know updates... here's the latest!

OEM Subaru wheel with no airbag just isn't going to cut it rallying.



I picked up some NRG Innovations goodies from our friends over at 247motoring. (They actually have a lot of this stuff on sale now too!)





Here's the NRG innovations short hub, quick release, and 350mm Sport 3 Steering wheel (leather). It was recommended to me to get the leather one and not the suede as it holds up better to abuse. I weighed the option of going with something like a Sparco or Momo setup, but this setup was very nice for the price. I still have some much to learn about car control, the price difference between the two just doesn't make sense right now. I'd rather put the dinero towards a real seat!

Install was a piece of cake, since the airbag was already out of the steering wheel, just pull the 17mm nut, install the hub, then fasten down the male side of the quick release to the hub with the supplied allen screws. I didn't bother hooking up the horn yet, but there are wires in the hub and quick release to do so.





Screw the female side of the quick release to the steering wheel and you're pretty much done. If im not lazy maybe ill actually get the NRG center cap straight.





I locked the wheel in position and the front wheels are almost dead on straight with the yellow stripe at the top of the wheel. I thought somehow i would mess this up, but it worked out alright. One thing I definitely learned at Team Oneil is that I really benefit from having a steering wheel with a stripe at 12 o'clock. Id get lost sometimes on really twisty sections and would forget how much to unwind the steering wheel to get it back to straight. This can really come back to kick your *** if you're coming over crests with the wheels still pointed towards the trees! :shock:

One thing I immediately noticed is how much easier it is to get in and out of the car. SO much easier. Can't wait to get out in the dirt and try it out!

Today, I also temporarily installed my Schroth Profi-II ASM bolt in harness from the STi into the RS so that i have some seat belts. I was a fool to think i could use OEM seat belts in the RS still, because there is a huge bar right in front of the B-pillar where the seat belt mounts! Duh! The Schroth's just bolt right in so these should do the trick for the shakedown rallycross event on March 7th.

Now to get a real seat, so i can use my damn harnesses before they expire!

Quick update!

Got the majority of the vinyl on the car. There is more, but i haven't taken pictures yet:



Installed the RA roof vent:





Group N Tranny mount:



Group N motor mounts:



More to come!

She is coming together nicely, top work