Over the weekend, Chris Adams and I traveled to Atlanta for the last Subaru Challenge event of the year. This special autocross, hosted by Subaru of America, is one of the many exclusive events offered towards Subaru owners. A total of 99 racers made it to Turner Field on Saturday morning for some beautiful fall weather, albeit a bit cold.

A look at just a portion of the competing field on Saturday morning. The vast majority of Subarus present were 02-07 Imprezas.

The Turner Field parking lot is massive, and plays host to over a dozen autocrosses every year. That little blue wall in the background is actually about 25 feet tall!

Chris Adams' Street Modified WRX, getting ready for battle as the sun rises. Rather than taking by D-stock WRX as well, we decided it would be easier and cheaper to consolidate with one car.

Hundreds of spectators made their way to watch the event. Participants were representing Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and of course - Kentucky.

At the end of the event, the top 16 finishers in the PAX index moved on to the Subaru "Super Star Challenge" to determine bragging rights for the best driver of the day. I considered each of these cars to be nearly fully prepared for their respective classes. Many of them had raced at SCCA Nationals just a few months prior.

In retrospect, Chris and I would have stood a better chance at placing well in PAX by bringing my DS WRX. However, we still managed to run some of the faster times of the day. Chris had one cone on his fastest run, but that run's scratch time would have been the 15th quickest Raw time. Despite having an under-prepared SM car, I feel that we were able to post some pretty impressive times.

The FTD (Fastest Time of the Day) was posted by this heavily modified SM WRX. It finished a solid five seconds ahead of my best time. Dozens of other cars were equally well prepared for their particular classes. It goes to show that it is hard to really prove your skills without being fully prepared for whatever class you choose. Next year, I will place a strong emphasis on class preparation, no matter where I end up.

In the end, this was an extremely fun weekend that I hope to repeat next year. Subaru of America definitely puts on a great show for their Subaru Challenges, and I won't think twice about traveling even further next year.

As always, check the video section for my quickest run.

zoops
Final results - 6th of 24 (SM)
Raw results - 26 of 99
PAX results - 34 of 99

Chris Adams
Final results - 8th of 24 (SM)
Raw results - 31 of 99
PAX results - 41 of 99

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend the SEMA convention in Las Vegas for a few business-related tasks. Since this was my first time attending, I had quite a bit to see and experience. Despite all of that, I still managed to snap a few pictures of some things that stood out to me.

This was the wheel section of Mackin's booth. We spent awhile here talking about some of the new wheel offerings from Rays and what we can expect to be getting over the next year or so. Having to wait three or more months for wheels definitely sucks, but these guys are really awesome to deal with.

This was Greddy's new 07 350Z, showcasing their new twin turbo kit for the VQ35HR, as well as some cool new Gracer/Grex bits. It was also sporting some prototype Gram Lights wheels that will debut next year.

This is the second Subaru 22B STi that has been officially imported and registered in the US. Considered among many to be the "holy grail" of Subarus, it was very nice of Subaru to bring this gem out.

The famous RS*R drift S2000. It's always nice to see such publicized cars like this in person. It was amazing to see that it can look so clean in person, despite being abused in every video of it you'll ever see.

Here is Tanner Foust's Forumla D drifting 350Z. Another awesome car to see in person, and looking good as always. AEM was another booth that we spent a significant time at discussing new products.

The all-new 08 S2000 Club Racer. This was my first time seeing one of these in person, and the look of it has really grown on me. I'm anxious to see how all of the aero and suspension tuning effects its' already awesome track and autocross capabilities.

That's all for now. As I mentioned, I spent most of the time running around to see as much as I could, which left little time for pictures. I would recommend that all car enthusiasts try their best to go at least once. There is something for everybody!

Last weekend I traveled to the Cincinnati region for their final points event of the year, as well as the last autocross in any of the local regions. With the race tires in the back of the wagon, I was determined to make a strong showing in a legitimate points event. Despite my decent performance at the previous weekend's fun event, I knew that fun events can never be relied on for true results.

Overall, I did about as well as I could have hoped for. Out of 72 entries, I was aiming for the top 15 in PAX. I ended up with 22nd, but I can't complain too much with having so many new things being thrown at me at once. The car performed extremely well, despite giving it hell through seven runs on a very long and bumpy course. Subarus really are as tough as people claim for them to be.

But more importantly, I would like to share a little bit about fitting a 245/45-16 tire on stock 16x6.5" wheels and stock wagon suspension.

A profile shot of the wagon in all of it's "ready for autocross" glory.

The first thing to notice would be the aggressive look of such a wide tire on an otherwise stock car. These fenders are deceptively big; they can hold a lot more tire than most people expect.

Here is a better look at the fitment inside the fender wells from behind. The absolute best solution would be a set of 5mm spacers on all four corners. This would not only give more clearance between the inside of the tire and the suspension, but also allow more negative camber in the front.

I really tried to get an appropriate picture to show the clearance (or lack thereof) between the inner sidewall and the suspension, but I just couldn't get anything worth posting. Feel free to leave a comment if you'd like to hear and see more about it anyways.

More results and the video of my fastest run are available in the "Results" and "Videos" sections.

zoops
Final results - 1st of 2 (DS)
Raw results - 36 of 72
PAX results - 22 of 72

This past Sunday I had a great opportunity to test out the new Hankook race tires on the WRX at Central Kentucky's last event of the season. Despite being a "fun run", plenty of competitors still showed up bright and early to change over to their race tires. For once, I was part of that group.

To my expectations, the wheels and tires went on without any problems. The inner sidewalls are about 5mm away from the suspension, but the rubbing turned out to be very minor and harmless. Since this will not be a street setup, I'm not worried about it at all. In D Stock, there is an allowance for the wheel offset to be 1/4" out of the stock spec. This will allow me to run 5mm spacers on all four corners and give my tires a bit of extra breathing room on the inner sidewalls.

The event itself went really well. Not only was I fighting to learn the ultra-sticky race tires, the AWD turbo platform is still a long term battle that has just begun. At this point, I am just hoping for as much seat time as possible. In the end, I placed first, out of two, in DS. Overall, I ended up in 15th out of 62 competitors for PAX ranking - which I was happy with.

Chris Law drove Ryan Dussex's 86 Prelude Si while Alex Ortiz brought out his supercharged 95 Integra LS for one last run for the season. Both of them were able to do well with their FWD cars on a tight and slick course. Full results are available in the 'Solo Results' section, and my side-view video can be viewed in the 'Videos' section.

Next weekend I travel to River Downs in Cincinnati to stretch the WRX's legs a bit and get a better impression of the race tires. In the meantime, I will aim to have my alignment checked out, and possibly modified to be a bit more aggressive.

I know I said I would wait awhile.. but I couldn't pass up this kind of offer. My official first mods to the WRX Wagon include some Hankook race tires and some roof de-railing. First of all, here are some pictures of the new autocross setup for DS:

The tires are Hankook Z214's with the C70 tread, specifically for autocross. The tire size is a ridiculous 245/45R16 on the stock 16x6.5" wheels. Huge props to Scott Bourne at Ken Towery's in Lexington for the killer mounting job.

Usually, one can only mount a tire so wide on a wheel. There is a certain point where one - the tire is simply too wide to be placed on the wheel width. And secondly, there is a point where the tire ends up too close to suspension components. Thus, mass rubbing follows.

Luckily for my case, the "pinch" of the tire, a term describing the fitment of a large tire on a small wheel, is not that bad on these wheels - as the picture decribes. However, I am running into a bit of issues with the inner sidewalls rubbing along the spring perch under hard cornering. Since Subaru parts are so over-engineered, I have no concern about any damage or wearing on either the suspension or tires.

To my knowledge, this is the widest tire being mounted on stock wheels. Even further, this is the widest tire being mounted on the wagons period. All suspension is stock. In the future, I hope to make a few modifications to allow 255 series tires without any huge rubbing issues. The wider, the better! *grin*

The second mod, somewhat minor to the first, was derailing the cross-bars of the roof rack. This was a fairly painless process that only requires the use of a T-30 Torx screwdriver on four different bolts. Un-installation time was under two minutes. I'm very pleased with the resulting look of the roof! Eventually, I plan on removing the main side rails as well.

Stay tuned on an autocross update with the new race rubber!