Scrappy-the Subaru

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sachilles
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Scrappy-the Subaru

Post by sachilles »

First you start off with a 99 Subaru 2.5rs.
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You take it to Mount Philo, and toss it over the bank before check 2 where the road splits.

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You have Don and Walter pull it out of it's resting spot.


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You stare at it in your driveway for about 5 months
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Then you find that James P is building a new car.....and acquire is his old shell(2002 impreza).
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You get Joey and James to swap any of the good parts left from the old car to the new car. You also get them to add a little DOM for additional support of the A-pillars based upon a recently acquired fear of going on your roof and sliding down a hill.
You spend countless hours in your driveway making electronic luxuries functional.....like window, mirrors, horn, wipers and lights.
You then take it for a shakedown run at a local autocross.
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You find that you really lucked out and things are working pretty well, and there are no major issues you can notice.
You address a few minor issues and throw some stickers on it, and toss it on the trailer ready for Burke.
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No idea what will happen this weekend, but I'm pretty damn excited to be on the hill again. Just wanted to say thanks to all the folks along the way that helped me get to this point. Given how long it took me to get a car ready for Philo, I didn't think I'd have a prayer of having a car ready this summer. I'll do my best to keep it on the hill this time around.
Last edited by sachilles on Thu Jun 09, 2011 10:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
Sachilles
02 Subaru impreza (Donut) #66
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KevinGale
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Re: Scrappy-the Subaru

Post by KevinGale »

Good luck on staying on the pavement.
I've been over that same bank at Philo upside down. It made an impression on me also! That moment when you leave the road and the car goes airborne while simultaneously flipping over is hard to forget. :o
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Re: Scrappy-the Subaru

Post by Rabbit Farmer »

I like stories with happy endings.
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walterclark
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Re: Scrappy-the Subaru

Post by walterclark »

Its GREAT to see you will be back at Burke!

Thanks again. Bottoms Up! to you too (with your favorite beverage, not your wheels).
The older I get the better I was.
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sachilles
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Re: Scrappy-the Subaru

Post by sachilles »

Overall, very happy with my return to the hill with Scrappy. Only raised the hood for tech and one other time to show some of my handy work. Car went back on the trailer after a full weekend without any damage so it was a victory.
I was happy with the way it handled. The power on the other hand was a little anemic for my tastes. I'm hoping it wasn't at full power, though I can't honestly say that I thought it was running poorly. I had the skinny pedal to the floor most of the time, and it had no obvious issues other than accelerating slower than I'd like. Certainly there was time to be gained...there always is.
I know it is missing it's barometric pressure sensor, I'm unsure if that might be causing a little loss in power. Five timed runs and two fam runs, consumed about half a tank of gas, that seems a touch excessive to me. My run times on Sunday only varied by 0.3 seconds, and varied by less than 2 seconds all weekend. That is incredibly consistent (and unlike me), so I'm hopeful that I was near maxing the car out. 3:06.76 was my fastest, and I feel the car in full health should be a bit quicker. A car with a similar drivetrain, but older(and lighter body) was a good 30 seconds faster. Accounting for the weight difference, and my lack of driving skill, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the car to be 15-20 seconds quicker there(10-15 seconds slower than the similar car).
Sachilles
02 Subaru impreza (Donut) #66
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sachilles
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Re: Scrappy-the Subaru

Post by sachilles »

At Mount Philo I noticed that Scrappy didn't seem to be at full power. At previous autocrosses I hadn't noticed an issue, and I assumed :oops: adding the barometric sensor after Burke had solved my lack of power issue. Several folks at the hill noticed it was down on power, and my course times weren't inline with previous times at the hill. While I did take it easy on saturday, by the end of Sunday I was putting a solid effort into getting better times, so I felt my times should have been fairly close to previous times....given that it's the exact same car, just with a different body. However my times were well off my previous pace.
Sometimes it's the simple things. If the check engine light is on.....read the damn code. I assumed I knew why the check engine light was on....and I was wrong. Turns out the knock sensor was bad and the computer knew it. I put a new one it, and took the car to the rallyx at Okemo this weekend. Seemed to make a noticeable difference. Of course I'll have to wait until Burke to truly know if it makes any difference to the time sheet.
Last edited by sachilles on Mon Nov 07, 2011 1:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Scrappy-the Subaru

Post by Rabbit Farmer »

I have had many instances in my racing builds where the simpliest thing is often the solution.

One time, the car wouldn't stay running (after I finished installing the cage)... turns out it was a tiny plug that went to the chipped ignition key switch... didn't know I even had that on the car.

:geek:
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Re: Scrappy-the Subaru

Post by dsldubn »

Good to hear, Seth. Looking forward to seeing how it runs next year.
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sachilles
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Re: Scrappy-the Subaru

Post by sachilles »

a few more updates.
With a good knock sensor, Scrappy livened up quite a bit.
I ran ascutney for the first time, getting my times down to 3:22, consistently improving with each run. Left the hill happy, but know I can find a lot more time there.
I return to Burke and have another fun weekend managing a 2:35.87, which is a 30 second improvement....so I think it's safe to say the knock sensor made a big difference. However in full disclosure I did adjust my rear sway bar one notch softer. Aside from replacing the drivers seat, everything else was exactly the same as the previous right down to the same tires. Anyone else amazed how long RA1's last and stay sticky?
Both events didn't really require any work on the car. It's been problem free and I'm quite happy with it.

As some of you know I have an 02 wrx wagon. It's seen a hard life on Vermont roads as well as being autocrossed and tracked prior to having a dedicated race car. Sadly, rust got the better of it. As luck would have it, I picked up another 02 TS wagon with a bad motor that I thought would make a good parts car. Once I got it home, I realized it was far to clean to be a part out. So I had a rusted out car with a good strong turbo motor, I had a clean car with a bad n/a motor, and a race car with a good N/A motor. I need a daily driver and I hate car payments.
One would think that you'd just combine the two wagons and be done with it, but the problem there is the hood would need to be changed and painted, and a new subframe would have to be installed. I had secretly hoped my wife would come to the same conclusion I did....and she did. Take the motor out of Scrappy and put it the wagon. No subframe needed, no wiring change needed, no additional hood needed. Then put the 2.0 turbo motor into Scrappy, which was originally equipped with the same motor.
Joey and James at Kale's custom will be putting the motor into Scrappy. Charlie at Six Star removed the motor from Scrappy to put in the new to me wagon. They'll be doing all the hard work. I'll do some minor stuff in an attempt to feel useful in the process.
The goal is to have Scrappy ready for the September Ascutney.
This will mean moving the car into sp3.
I don't really feel like I need to go faster, the sp5 setup was just fine for me. I was eager to give philo a try in sp5 trim, but the timing to do this made sense now.
I always felt like adding a turbo motor was a slippery slope. Hoping my transmission doesn't hate my choice.
Anxious to see how the 2.0 turbo likes hillclimb duty, it always seemed a little light on power in the lower rpm range but quite fun in the higher range.....just the opposite of the 2.5 non turbo. The big difference will be that the motor will be mated with the 4.11 transmission rather than the 3.9.
Sachilles
02 Subaru impreza (Donut) #66
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Re: Scrappy-the Subaru

Post by 1450Racing »

sachilles wrote:Anxious to see how the 2.0 turbo likes hillclimb duty, it always seemed a little light on power in the lower rpm range but quite fun in the higher range.....just the opposite of the 2.5 non turbo. The big difference will be that the motor will be mated with the 4.11 transmission rather than the 3.9.
I think it will be plenty fast. I ran my stock '02 WRX wagon up Ascutney in fall of '02. Ran a 3.20 flat on my first run up the hill ever. Only mods were a cat-back 2.5" exhaust and Yoko AVS tires. I just left- foot braked a lot to keep the boost up.
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