Culture|Garage

McRae is a legend among rally and motorsports fans alike.  His iconic grin is well documented and his personality was untarnished.  He was a man you could proudly call a role model.  On Sept. 15th, 2007, Colin and his son died in a helicopter crash.  The rally community still mourns the loss of one of their greatest namesakes.

For the upcoming Colin McRae Forest Stages Rally, in Perthshire, Subaru of America and their agency, Carmichael Lynch have created a tribute ad that will run in the program guide.  The headline poignantly states, “There will be other champions. There will not be another Colin McRae.” The copy of the ad goes on: “There will be more races and there will be more drivers but there will never be anyone as passionate about rallying as Colin McRae. Love. It’s what makes a Subaru, a Subaru.”

R.I.P. Colin

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Well, we are doing it again.  About seven or eight of us are making another trip to a Rally America event.  We are headed up to the deep forests of northern Minnesota to watch the Ojibwe Forest Rally.  This is just three short weeks after the X Games event…that left a lot of carnage on the cars.  Including ACP’s crazy end over end roll.

The rally starts with a superspecial at Bemidji Speedway, this is one of the rare instances where fans can actually see the entire stage, before trekking out in the woods to plant themselves at a turn.  We’ll watch as Pastrana, ACP and Block battle it out.

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What a gruelling event.  You start in Moscow.  Go through Syberia.  Head along to the capital of Mongolia…which is some city I can’t pronounce, let alone spell.  The “course” is 4,349 miles long.  And course is a relative word, watching some of the recap videos saw people lost multiple times and then just hauling across a river or marsh or desert.

But Porsche pulled off quite a feat with their special edition Cayenne S.  Of the top ten finishers, Porsche held NINE of the positions.  Regardless of what you think of SUVs you can’t deny Porsche’s prowess regardless of the surface or environment.

Check out more pictures here.  So this year I get to cross 24 Hours of Lemons off of my list of things to do… maybe next year I can knock this one off of my list.  Porsche, are you listening?

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Ok, being a rally driver in its own, is pretty freaking cool, right?  But I guess there are other perks.  Like going to Willow Springs and beating the crap out of some Subarus for a test session.  Awesome.

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I love the look of the hatch. Especially in rally livery. But I am missing the front hood scoop. The hood scoop is a Subie calling card and is sadly missed in the new Impreza WRC 2008. Anyways, let’s get to the specs. In motorsports there are most certainly restrictions, on weight, on intake, on hp, etc. So this car makes a meek 300hp. But, it also makes 479 lb-ft tq at 3,000 rpm. Holy crap. Check out the full specs after the jump.

via Autoblog

Read the rest of this entry »

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And no one died of Dysentery.  But a lot of people crashed their cars, among them, Sarasin, Block and Mirra.  Apparently, the road was crowned (higher in the center and sloping down towards the ditch) and if you came in off the race line you were probably going to be visiting a ditch.  While Pastrana took first place overall, Andrew Comrie-Picard, in his Evo 9, placed second.  ACP’s finish took him to first place in the lead for the championship.  Full race results can be found on Rally America’s site.

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Photo credit: Quinn Morley, for the rest of his set visit his flickr stream

We are really starting to get a lot of user submissions and we are always blessed when we have someone with writing or photography talent on-hand at events.  Thanks for the pictures, Quinn.

Anyways, the Olympus Rally this past weekend was a fast event; competitors were reporting 130mph speeds on some of the long straights. Crazy. Ken Block turned a first place overall finish, which is his second in a row.  Travis Pastrana came in second overall, and Tanner Foust rounded up third.  Evo driver Andrew Comrie-Picard brought in a fourth place finish.

After three events, the standings in Rally America are:

1. Ken Block

2. Andrew Comrie-Picard

3. Matthew Johnson

4. Travis Pastrana

5. Kyle Sarasin

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