TBT In 2009 Gordon Ting ask us if we could build a Scion Rally car for him to be displayed at SEMA. The next year this “show” rally car would end up starting a Rally America program for 2010 as well as a second rally car to be build but this time a full functioning race car. Keep in mind, other than doing some fab work on other people’s rally cars my only on-hands experience with stage rally was sitting on the couch watching WRC. I’ve always had an appreciation for rally and on top of that it presented the most technology that related to what I was into, high horsepower four cylinders. Our first year, had us on a very tight schedule but regardless we ended up with the 2010 two-wheel drive champion, Chris Duplessis, piloting the Scion Xd into victory lane at the season finals at the New England Forest Rally. Having both Chris and his brother, Forest, helping us that year was a great learning experience with ended in podium finishes that year, this opened up the doors to yet another Scion racecar build the next year. As much as I can say the builds were a fun experience I would have to say that the whole stage rally experience was something I will always remember from the awesome people I got to work with to friendly staff, it was just something every racecar builder needs to experience. If there is one thing I can always remember it’s the hustle of having only 20-to 45 minutes to repair everything that hasn’t held up after a few stages of abuse. From swapping out transmissions, suspension components and quick rigs just to get through to the next day were things you don’t enjoy going through at the time but can now look back at how fun it was to get on the podium knowing what we had to do to get a victory. I could tell you a million stories of “I can’t believe we won and that blah blah blah rig held up!” I’ll keep it short and go to one story from Michigan’s Sno Drift Rally. At the time Andre Comrie Picard, AKA ACP, was piloting the freshly built Scion and this time it was in turbo trim. (Continued in comments)

What most people don’t know is Rally America doesn’t allow studded tires on ice so low horsepower cars are very much favored for two-wheel drive class at this event. Since the xD was turbocharged Philip Chase and I attempted to stage the boost using the engine computer’s boost-by-gear feature to help lower the power in the lower gears. This usually requires using a speed sensor within the transmission which was not present in the xD. To make a long story short, I ended up taking a spare cam sensor (it basically works in the same fashion as a transmission speed sensor) welding a bracket to the rear knuckle of the car and tack welding a small piece of metal to the hub so the sensor can read how many times the piece of metal goes by for every 360 degrees of wheel revolution. Going off of engine rpm and my ghetto wheel speed sensor we could now calculate how much boot we needed for each gear. Sure enough it worked and once again as luck would have it we ended up on the podium. If there is one thing I miss about stage rally it’s the quick thinking required in the little time you have to problem solve. It’s probably where Philip gave me the nickname McGary. #designcraftfabrication #designcraft #designcraftfab #rally #rallyamerica #Scion