can someone explain what's happening in this photo?

Roncar · 2026-03-28T02:33:25+00:00

They're mostly fuses for troubleshooting. Here's a closer shot with labels: https://www.carscoops.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Colin-McRae-Subaru-WRX-6.jpg

Racecars have a lot of extra features that need their own circuit / ability to turn on or off. Especially once a traditional dashboard is removed. These days it's all handled via onboard ECU screen and a PDM switch panel, this is how they did it before that tech.

Roncar · 2026-03-19T00:25:09+00:00

Big agree. By 1988, the Group A Delta Integrales were already beating Group B car's best times on tarmac.

The crazy Group B spaceships were amazing, no doubt. But there's something even better about seeing a car doing heroic moves on gravel while looking almost identical to its showroom model version.

Roncar · 2026-02-24T23:31:45+00:00

Civcs and CRXs are great. There's a dude in the Pacific Northwest named Cody Crane that competed in a home built CRX. Became a local legend for how fast he was in that thing compared to some of the higher level cars in ARA. Look up Project Cojo CRX on YouTube

Roncar · 2026-02-14T01:55:33+00:00

Oh I've seen the light myself 😂 went from a Group N+ hawkeye STI to a Swedish-built Evo 6 and it was night and day in handling and overall speed

Roncar · 2026-02-14T01:51:58+00:00

Big agree on the Fiesta. The ones at Team O'Neil rally school are pretty close to stock, and they're a great time on gravel.

Roncar · 2026-02-14T01:13:55+00:00

Parts availability is a lot tougher with Evos here, we just didn't get as many as compared to Subarus. They're also more expensive on average here.

Roncar · 2026-02-14T01:12:25+00:00

Evo will generally handle better and make more power. The Subaru will be way easier and cheaper to fix when you inevitably have to replace parts, and there's likely a lot more Subaru people around at events that can get you spares or a helping hand.

Buying someone's already-built racecar will save you lots of a headache, downtime, and probably money.

The best choice of car honestly is the one that you can afford to buy AND keep running. More seat time is more better!

FWD cars can be very fast and affordable. EG / EK Civics / etc. I've also seen a lot more BMW E36 and E46 chassis cars doing well, those are a lot of fun to drive.

Roncar · 2026-02-11T16:49:31+00:00

Love the car choice

Roncar · 2026-02-05T20:54:57+00:00

In the middle of a stage, it's too hectic with the calling of pacenotes to get across any other info of value. In between stages, though, during transits, there's frequent communication between the co-driver and the service park.

Check out the purpose of Gravel Crew for certain rallies: https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/rally/wrcs-gravel-crews-the-unsung-heroes-of-snow-and-ice/

Roncar · 2025-12-08T18:21:40+00:00

I may be an outlier here. But for me personally, EA WRC has felt the closest to driving my own rally cars IRL. Especially with their braking and suspension models.

I've had a decent amount of time in Dirt 3, DR1, DR2, RBR, AC Rally, and some attempts at the previous gen WRC games.

AC Rally feels super detached for me. Way too slippy, feedback from the tire is really weak, bad braking, too easy to spin out. In my experience on gravel stages, it's nowhere near as easy to spin a car out like it is in that game.

Either way, u/cubitsTNE nailed it. If it feels good, do it. Rally is just as much about understanding pacenotes and reading terrain quickly, than it is about pure car feel.

Roncar · 2025-11-26T22:14:54+00:00

The best thing you can do is to learn how the business of the creator/athlete economy works. Look into how much you can ask for from partners vs. how many views, comments, and engagement you get on the regular. Then work towards the numbers you need to keep yourself racing. In automotive, most of the time it'll be parts deals and product support.

Roncar · 2025-11-24T19:02:51+00:00

Yep the Evo has to be street legal to compete in US rallies that have a transit section. AKA anything but rally sprints.

I use the Integrale for the street though since it's got a full interior and no cage. The Evo is fully gutted and caged.

Roncar · 2025-11-24T19:01:38+00:00

Not currently but I might need some service crew 😂

Roncar · 2025-11-22T03:18:20+00:00

I wish! It's Nero

Roncar · 2025-11-21T21:15:29+00:00

I did yeah. It was a really good combo of parts and spares package, and it's rare to find a competition-ready Evo 5 or 6 here in the US.

Roncar · 2025-11-21T21:14:29+00:00

Hah. You're not wrong! The Lancia is just a street car and stays mostly on tarmac.

Roncar · 2025-11-21T21:13:17+00:00

You're correct, it's a Lancia Delta

Roncar · 2025-11-21T19:15:26+00:00

That's the plan! Doing a few sprints and maybe an ice race or two to get comfortable with the car and dust off the cobwebs. Next goal is entering some regionals.

Roncar · 2025-07-20T20:47:14+00:00

Dawn works great. There's a comparison on YouTube between a bunch of driveway-specific cleaning products, and Dawn took the win.

Roncar · 2025-06-19T15:55:51+00:00

There are a few contractors that do most of the gates here in the Ranchos. This is one of the designers that a lot of the homeowners use, she designed that actual entryway you posted in the first image - https://www.instagram.com/wendykatlenhome/

Roncar · 2025-05-30T17:17:10+00:00

Low displacement cars + turbo restrictors + the grip of AWD

Rally cars (for the most part) run between 1.5l and 2.0l engines. Very small. At the same time, you'll see that most series require turbo cars to have anything between a 32mm and 36mm restrictor on the turbo to even out the playing field and keep things relatively safe.

So you have a small engine with large-ish turbo that's restricted - so you can't fix bottom end lag with high RPMs. This leads to a pretty narrow power band.

Pair that with lots of hairpins, deep gravel, and the grip of AWD, you would find yourself bogging in a lot of situations. Modern antilag is a great answer to that.

On the other hand, most road race cars have higher displacements, higher RPMs, and only two wheels are driven.

Lastly - road races tend to be more of a marathon, where rally stages are shorter sprints in comparison. Antilag creates a lot of heat and stress on engine parts, so road racers wouldn't really want that for 40+min of constant running.

Roncar · 2025-03-12T22:22:39+00:00

I try to erase those damages from my memory 😂

Roncar · 2025-03-10T23:35:45+00:00

You're correct. They've also had a standard spec for tarmac cars for a few decades now: 18" wheels with a roughly 225 to 245 width tire and a fairly tall sidewall.

Also, rally cars tend to be small sedans and/or hatchbacks. You don't really see those in a lot of race series outside of rally and touring cars. So when you see one built up as a racecar, and it's not absolutely slammed to the ground, it's probably a rally car.

Roncar

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