Friday, September 5, 2008

2008: A Tough Start

September 5^th, 2008

For Immediate Release:

Team Up TwoMountains had a rocky start in the first half of 2008. The year began with a blown turbo and engine due to a broken air filter (cold air intake) allowing dirt to be sucked up at an event (another good reason to not use a CAI) and destroying the turbo and wrecking havoc on the engine and heads.

Time for upgrades!! Including…

Blouch 20g Turbo

FLI Stage 2 WRX heads w/Jun 256 cams

STI 2.5L block

COBB Intake and Cold Air Box

Custom Cusco catch can

Act flywheel and 6-puck race clutch

GrimmSpeed ported/coated headers and uppipe

GrimmSpeed 3mm phenolic spacers and coated intake manifold

APS TMIC (coated by GrimmSpeed) w/recirc BOV

APS Turbo Intake

Two months later and a lot of rides into work with Krista (thanks, honey!), Fine Line Imports delivered a tuned 2004 WRX that pumped out 320wtq/325whp. The power came on early and pulled all the way to redline! The best part was, during this time, COBB TUNING and BLOUCH TURBO stepped up as sponsors and helped with Cobb’s new intake/cold air box and the 20g respectively. Thank you Trey Cobb and Mike Malin!

Miles Hetchman (FLI) even came to NorCal’s first FRX rally event at Prairie City OHV Park in March and helped tune a few extra maps for running high revs on slick/dirt surfaces.

However, at about 4K miles in, disaster struck again as a faulty stock ECU caused over boosting at high rpms during a rallyX event and cylinder 4 had a catastrophic failure… pieces of the STI stock piston broke off and went through the turbo…umm, more upgrades!? And to make a long story short (too late!) FLI stepped up to the plate (again) and rebuilt the engine with Supertech forged pistons and a 100mm bored out STI block w/race main and rod bearings. Blouch Turbo stepped up again and rebuilt the practically brand new turbo that still needed a once-over to make sure this engine would still be in top shape. The results came out the same on the dyno, with some key differences.

1) More area under the graph from 3400 to 6100rpms (see dyno)

2) Temp. was 10degrees hotter on the 2^nd engine’s dyno pull, so peak WHP should be higher

3) This engine also includes a Link G3 ECU to replace the wrecked stock WRX ECU.

Click on image for larger dyno graph

Red/Purple: 1^st engine torque/hp

Blue/Green: 2^nd engine torque/hp

On top of advanced data logging controls and gear base boost maps, the G3 includes launch control, flat foot shifting and anti-lag…we’re sure at least two out of three will be utilized in the future!

This of course is all a precursor to the tuning necessary for stage rally next year, but in the meantime, it’s a great daily driver and rallyX vehicle with way too much power! A huge thanks to the team at Fine Line Imports, without them, this project would have ran out of steam a long time ago!

Despite a rough beginning, the 2^nd half of the year is looking good…a ‘new to me’ set of DMS 50mm suspension has just gone on and is being dialed in. The car will also make an appearance at SubieFest with the DirtyImpreza crew in September.

Lastly, Jon Burke made his Stage Rally debut at Gorman Ride Rally co-driving for Keith Jackson in his open class 2006 STI. Keith and Jon came in 3^rd in their class and 5^th overall! The two will also be competing at Prescott Rally October 2^nd and 3^rd. This experience is critical to next year’s entry into rally driving!

Upcoming events/schedule:

September:

Glenn Helen 3 RallyX

SubieFest

Antioch 1 RallyX

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

2007 Team Up TwoMountains Promo Video!

Team Up TwoMountains Finishes the 2007 Season Strong!

Press Release: December 4, 2007

Its official, the 2007 Formula RallyX and California Rally Series results are in for Rally Cross, and the Up TwoMountains Teams picked up two podium finishes!

http://formularallyx.com/standings.html

http://californiarallyseries.com/results/total_points_X.htm

Driver Jon Burke and co-driver Krista Canfield finished 2^nd place overall in FRX and 3^rd place overall in CRS, both in the SM4 class.

The season came right down to the wire in SM4 and other classes, with the first place FRX position open until the final Laughlin, NV event. Jon and Krista fought back from a third place tie at mid season. From there, a second place and third place at Antioch 2 and Johnson Valley 5 broke the tie, but the points in FRX were so close at Laughlin that any position was still up for grabs. In CRS, first place was a ‘walk away’ for competitor Phil ‘Rollo’ Stewart-Jones, but second place was still within reach.

The final two-day Laughlin event was held in conjunction with the Laughlin International Rally and Motorsports Festival (http://www.rallyusa.com/). For the Rally Cross competition, it was two days of fun in the dirt, driving around a few hundred cones, on a more than two minute course with drivers running on opposite sides against each other.

For the CRS series, the best result from both days was taken as a single score, but for the FRX competition, both days counted for a ‘double points event’ that could sway the final results dramatically.

Jon and Krista started out strong on Day 1, taking the first place lead…but not by much as second place was only a half second behind. True to rally fashion, to win you must be consistent…and on day two, the competition caught up and Team Up TwoMountains finished fourth overall, however the overall performance solidified their second and third place finishes for the entire FRX and CRS points season.

On top of this great rookie season finish, Up TwoMountains is proud to also announce a new sponsor! Erik Schmidt at L&E Fabrication (www.landefabrication.com) has decided to sponsor the rookie team in their upcoming second season. L&E’s own quality, rally proven parts, and aftermarket selection will help fine-tune the 2004 WRX as they compete again for a top Rally Cross finish in 2008. And with 2009 Stage Rally aspirations, their mechanical help, along with experienced stage rally advice will definitely help to get the team started on the right track.

Team Up TwoMounts would like to thank everyone that helped with this past year: Fine Line Imports, ProjectSoloGear, Metropolitan Motors, GrimmSpeed, and L&E Fabrication!!

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Team Up TwoMountains Busy over the Mid Season Break!

September 25, 2007
New sponsors, upgrades, and Stage Rally events…

The last three months have been ‘summer break’ for the 2007 FRX/CRS rallycross season, but the Up TwoMountains Team has continued to be busy. First is FOUR new sponsors for the rookie team! Local sponsors Fine Line Imports (Santa Rosa, CA) and Metropolitan Motors (San Francisco, CA) have offered their services for pro-tuning, upgrades, tire mount/balancing and alignments. Subaru specialty vendors GrimmSpeed and ProjectSoloGear have offered skid plates, ceramic coated headers and intercoolers and other high performance parts.

“Any little bit helps, free labor and parts, or even at a significant discount means we can go faster cheaper and, even better, attend more racing events with the money saved on parts.”

Driver and team captain, Jon Burke, also designs some of his own specialty parts. This summer’s main project was full underbody protection. Without a lot of affordable options in the market place, Jon utilized .25 inch bulk sheets of UHMW polyethylene plastic to plate the WRX’s underbelly, gas tanks, and rear suspension for ultimate protection. Custom Swift springs were also swapped out on the Bilstein PSS9 suspension, the custom spring rates and lengths should help with the bumps on the dirt, while maintaining aggressive cornering abilities. This weekend at the Thunderhill RallyCross will be the test event for both custom modifications.

Jon also had the opportunity to attend and support the Gorman Ridge Stage Rally held this past August in Hungry Valley, CA. Jon was part of the service crew for driver Eli Gilbert and co-driver Mindy Delodder in car 334, a full rally prepped 2002 WRX. Eli’s team finished 13^th overall, a great start for another rookie stage rally team.

The rest of the 2007 season consists of two main race weekends, JohnsonValley RallyCross on October 22^nd, and Laughlin Rally Cross on November 10^th and 11^th. In the meantime Thunderhill RallyCross (Septeber 22^nd) and Antioch 2 (September 30^th) will be good refreshers after a long time out of the saddle.

Jon getting some practice seat time at Thunderhill Raceway RallyCross (Willows, CA) this past weekend.

Saturday, August 4, 2007

PSG Skid Plate is ON!!

The PSG skidplate is pretty sweet. 3/16 thickness is definitely the way to go. Everything bolted up 100% with no issues. The mounting hardware is pretty burly and I"m sure can withstand a beating too. I'm pretty sure my oilpan/filter and engine block are pretty safe behind this tough piece of aluminum!

ALSO, I finally put on my PSG decals....these look pretty tight on my car, right next to another (non-competing!!) sponsor! :)