Thread: SCCA RallyCross National Championship report

There were 4 B13 SE-Rs there this year! The defending MF champion, Bobby Jasan was not there in his car, but there were several others who did the brand proud!

Jim Rowland took 2nd in PF in his SE-R, with Jon Olchewski taking a trophy in MF in Jim's car. Jon's car broke the bellhousing, but more on that later. Jacob Perkins drove from NH/CT area in his daily driver and took a trophy in Stock Front. There was one other PF car that was local to OK area, Kevin Murphy I believe, but I'll update the post with that once I get my notebook of names out.

All the cars but Jon's were SR powered.

Jon managed to swap a complete 2006 Spec V drivetrain into his B13. Not a stock QR though, one with cams, high compression and a host of other goodies, including mods to the chassis such as Z32 brakes front and rear, 40mm HotBits rally suspension and some gigantic 205/65/15 rally tires. The car was incredibly fast, but unfortunately broke. Jon thought maybe the pressure plate came loose and broke the bellhousing on the 6 speed trans. Something was wedged in there as the car choked to a halt and wouldn't refire after his first timed run on Saturday morning. The bellhousing was cracked around the clutch slave and starter bosses. It was pretty bad!

I rode in Jon's car on Friday evening and I have to say it is stupid fast! I know people don't like the QR for a host of reasons, but as a rally engine, it makes a ton of sense! Loads of torque from way down low!! Jon could punch the car at 2000 rpm in 2nd gear and it felt like you were riding a VE at the cam switch point and suddenly going full throttle. In a 2100 lb car, it had more than enough torque to really pin you back! Like it or not, once all the bugs are worked out, the car will be ridiculously fast as a rally car!

I have a ton of pictures loading on my site, but I'm going to post some smaller ones of all the B13's in this post, just to give you guys some eye candy--dirty rally style!

Jon's car

Jim's car

The QR swap will garner nothing but hate on this board, but I will say that I have long though that a properly put together QR would make a great rally motor in a nice light chassis... I have wanted to do one for a while but I think I'll continue exploring VQ shenanigans first.

Oh, I know the QR hate, but I also know that those motors are nice and torquey and that makes a great rally car! I know that 2JRacing put one in their ChumpCar B13 and that thing flew around Road Atlanta!

Nice to see SERs in rally-cross! Thanks for the updates.
Would you happen to have any more pics of Qr swapped car? Looking to see the fender flares in particular...

I do have a bunch. I'll be posting up some more this evening and through the week. I've got to finish the engine swap on my P10 today!

Five B13 SE-Rs showed up, two broke, and we ultimately won trophies in each of the three categories: Stock, Prepared, and Modified.

Jacob Perkins took fourth in Stock FWD, and I had a close second in Prepared FWD. Very fun battle. Jon-O hopped in my car to take third in Modified FWD.

If you are a SCCA member, the December issue of SportsCar will have a RallyCross Nationals writeup. I wrote the Modified category report, and MF was a wild class. Jon's "B13 Spec-V" broke several gates before the finish line, and he still set the third fastest time in class for the first set of runs. Wonder how fast it was? He only manged to coast 20 feet past the timing line before needing a push, and all but two cars (working drivetrains and all) went slower.

I'm looking forward to the pics.

JimR is my Hero. Thank you again for lending me your car. I saw Rupert got a pic of why I got called out by the Safety guy... I can't believe it pitched that hard!!! Rupert Berrington Action Photography | 2013 RallyCross National Championship | 131006RUP_3943
Glad they fixed that corner...

Well, I still haven't pulled anything apart to see what happened inside the belly of the beast. But RallySER is right, it was stupid fast and conditions weren't in my tires favor... I can't even imagine the hurt it would have put on when the course dried out...

I do hope people on here can learn to love my car. The QR has it's place in the dirt. I have driven both SR and QR powered cars in Rallycross... The QR just has the power where it is needed in my sport... So please love. And I am looking forward to more picture posts.

For those interested here is a link to my Build album on Facebook, do enjoy. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.432215671560.204209.558556560&type=1&l=45289a3741

Man that shot is insane! Silly thing is I was watching that corner from the other side and didn't see that happening from my angles. Very wierd! I gotta say Rupert has some amazing shots from the event. Crazy equipment to get those shots, but I guess that's what it takes!

I removed the front swaybar, and it drastically improved exit traction and drivability. You can see the side effect is the, err, generous body roll on the odd days when the surface is really starting to tack up.

I put in a deposit for a MFactory LSD, and I may play with the hollow 1.6L front swaybar once that goes in. We'll see.

I have not driven in the mud/dirt with a B13 but when I disconnected my B14 front sway bar, I noticed my braking and acceleration was negatively affected because each wheel was now allowed to contact the road in its own way. I had to reconnect the link for my purposes of daily driving but it was a fun and informational demonstration.