Rally Halloween!

Wishing everyone a Rally Halloween!  Or "Happy" Halloween, for those without All-Wheel Drive.  Time to give those Trick-or-Treaters the right-of-way to their local sugar-high suppliers.  Tonight, watch out on the road for little ones.  Or, if you're home, pass the time waiting for that doorbell to ring by catching up on Launch Control (which just concluded yesterday).

Have any of you dressed your car up for the occasion?  Tangerine Orange Pearl owners of the XV Crosstrek might have an easy costume this year.

Launch Control: Season Finale!

Get your popcorn and sit back for this one.  You're not only in for the longest episode of Launch Control, but in for one heckofuh season finale for the first year of this series.  Not only that, but one rollercoaster of a ride for Subaru's Rally and Rallycross teams.  I won't spoil any of it.  Well... it's sort of already been spoiled on paper if you've been following these teams, which are about two weeks ahead of the Launch Control series.  Check it out for yourself below!

Functionality Fun

Most car enthusiasts I know would call a car with a non-functional hoodscoop (meaning it's probably just cosmetic) a "ricer" or something close to that effect.  In the United States, since we didn't have the WRX here with it's turbocharger until 2002, we got things like the Impreza 2.5 RS, Legacy GT, and Outback Sport with a nice looking hood scoop.  All naturally-aspirated engines with no need for that scoop.  However, in Japan, if it had a hood scoop, there was an intercooler in there tied to a turbocharger.  At this stage in the game with the RS, there's no funds for what most owners commonly do: a swap.  Take a turbocharged engine and, like Legos, drop it into the new car.  So, instead of using that hood scoop for a turbocharged setup with an intercooler, I decided to do some research for other solutions.

What I found was what I was hoping for: a top-mounted cold-air intake.  Instead of the common box-type air filter that most naturally aspirated engines have, the plan was to open up the hood scoop and relocate the air box to sit right underneath it, drinking in plenty of cool air for the EJ25 Boxer engine to feed off of.

The guys on RS25.com had been using a coupler to connect the upside-down turned air box receiver to the exhaust manifold and re-route the air lines off of the air box to complete the setup.  However, the star of this mod is a 2.75" to 3.0" pipe with a 45­° bend... not exactly something you can find at a local hardware store.  So I took what parts I had and attempted to build my own solution to it.  

While it's not perfect (and I'll probably end up ordering that darned part anyways) the setup works!  I opened the hood scoop cover, mounted the panel air filter (which desperately needs cleaning) and took it for a spin.  Almost instantly, I noticed a change in response.  The EJ25 was breathing much easier and, as a result, had some nice high-end torque response.  So far so good!

Higgins/Drew take Championship!

Spoiler Alert for folks who have been on the edge of their seat for the last episode of Launch Control, but David Higgins and Craig Drew along with the Vermont Sportscar team for SRT USA have done it again!  

This is their third straight victory for the Rally America series with this team, but 2013 was no walk in the park.  Rival Ken Block returned this year and had a season-long dogfight with the Subaru team, but the wins were inconsistent.  At first, the Hoonigan team for Ford struggled with mechanical issues.  They came back strong in the tail end of the season, placing 1st on the podium time and time again.  Higgins and Drew kept things consistent while battling adverse conditions. From making up time with a mechanical issue at Susquehannock Trail Rally to getting run over by a medical team trying to assist him at Ojibwe, the season was far from easy.  A toe-to-toe battle in the last event of the season would decide everything.  In the end, Higgins found a familiar place at the podium to take the Championship.  Subaru Rally Team USA has won this event 3 times in a row... and to add to the Holy Trinity, all 3 of the winning vehicles for the Rally America series were WRX STi Vermont Sportscar machines.  October 20th wasn't just a good day for David Higgins, but for Subaru across the board.  It's all we'll drive ...and for good reason!

Bye, Tribeca!

Subaru of America, Inc. has confirmed that production of the Tribeca model will cease in January 2014 with last deliveries to retailers in February 2014.

The Tribeca debuted as Subaru’s mid-size SUV in 2005 and has sold approximately 78,000 vehicles to date.  It was only released in North America (no JDM version) and later to a few other countries, including Australia.

Subaru has announced that it plans to return to the mid-size SUV segment with a three-row vehicle in the future.  It won't be a "Tribeca" as far as I know, though Japan does currently have a vehicle called the "Exiga" that is also a 7-passenger vehicle.  It could be carried over to the US Market, but we could also see a whole new vehicle.

There's a lot of "new" going on for the company in the coming years.  This spring, the all-new 2015 WRX will debut.  Later in the Summer of 2014, the new 6th Generation of the Legacy and Outback will hit dealerships.  Subaru's production facilities in Lafayette Indiana will also see the inclusion of the Impreza in 2016, which will likely be for the new model of that as well.  Since the Tribeca was built out of Lafayette, it's likely the new model will also be built there.  That will mean Outbacks, Legacies, Imprezas, and the new 3-Row Subaru will have domestic construction to help meet rising demand for this growing brand.

RS Revival - One Month Later

Change is in the air, and it's not just the colors of the leaves on trees.  There's been quite the transformation inside and out with this project car.  The list of fixes grows by the week, as does the list of folks who have pitched in to help bring this car back to where it should be.  While the list of needs is still long, it's great to see how far it's come in such a short time.

You can see some of the obvious work in these two pictures.  Matching wheels & tires, new windshield, JDM STi seats & Version 6 Grille, Duracon STi shift knob, new shift boot, replaced the drivers door with one that has a working window, even the spots of primer have been covered with a silver Rustoleum that matches the paint a little better.  Inside, there's a new clutch slave, KYB struts, new fuel filter, STi exhaust, new rear wheel bearings, new fog light bulbs, and we cleaned about 10 years off the interior panels.  There's a bunch of homeless spiders now, too.

The future is still unclear on this one, but one thing is for sure: it's making it's march back to being a great little RS.  There's adjustments, repairs, and more TLC in store for it.  Aluminium Control Arms, Fog Light Covers, a new back seat, just to name a few of the things lined up that haven't gone into the car yet.  It's been fun to work on with everyone and to share this experience with them.

Launch Control - In the End: Part 1

The story that has been unfolding during the first season of Launch Control almost seems scripted with all the drama and suspense it has entailed.  Subaru Rally Team USA and the Subaru/Puma Global RallyCross Team have been battling all throughout Formula Photographic's first series covering these two motorsports with rivals, mechanical issues, and adverse conditions.

In the latest episode, part of a 2-part Finale that will close out 14 Episodes of Launch Control's First Season, SRT USA is battling at the Ojibwe Forests Rally through extremely dusty conditions.  On top of that, their driver has injured his hand... and it only gets worse from there.  With a Championship on the line and Ken Block closing in to dash their hopes of a 5th consecutive win overall, you'd think this series had some great writers.  But this isn't acting, there might not be a big win at the end to close things out on a high note.  The battles fought in GRC and the Rally America series are very real, as are the people involved with them.  

This weekend (October 18th-20th), SRT USA will fight one last time for the 2013 season, so we'll technically know how this story pans out (at least the results) long before Episode #14 airs on October 30th.  On the one hand, it'd be a great way to close out 14 Episodes of Season 1 of Launch Control.  On the other, it's much more important to this team to pull off another win during one of the closest matchups in the Rally America series.

If you've missed any of it, I've got a full listing of this whirlwind of a season's episodes in the "Launch Control" tab up above.  Below is Episode #13, a piece of the 2-part finale.