Day at Dirtfish Rally School

[Legacy777]

Well I decided to take the 1-Day Rally Fundamentals course at DirtFish Rally School. I took the course on the 6th of January, and it was a blast! If I lived up there, I'd totally turn the Impreza into a rally car

I had looked at taking something at DirtFish a while back, but never really did it. They had a promo deal going on I couldn't turn down. I think they may still even have discounted prices. It was good getting educated on the proper techniques. The way you drive for rally is completely different than on-road, but it's a lot of fun. By the end of the day I was getting the hang of the techniques, but just needed some more practice to work on my consistency. I'd like to go back, so we'll see how long I can stay away

Here are pictures. The first set was taken by their photographer, Sean McDonough, and the second set by me. I've got video from my gopro that was attached to my helmet. I need to do some editing of that video and will post that as well.

Enjoy

http://main.experiencetherave.com/subar ... s/dirtfish
http://main.experiencetherave.com/subar ... /dirtfish2

[SUBYLUV871]

that look like a blast. was the car fast? or was it tamed down for the rookies?

[Legacy777]

It's a full blown STi. They're prepped rally cars for the most part. No abs or other electronics. Almost all the idiot/warning lights were on in the dash. I had heard they had to reprogram the ECU's so they would run without all the emissions and other BS removed.

As for fast, we really didn't get going super fast. We stayed in 2nd gear the entire time. You just are working the corners and practicing the techniques. On the 2-day course they start getting higher speeds since there are longer stretches of straight away.

[Apex3]

It's so much fun! I did the 2 hour class, which wasn't nearly long enough, but it starts getting expensive for anything longer.

I was really surprised at some of the techniques, some of it seemed a little counter intuitive compared to on road driving but it makes perfect sense.

[Legacy777]

Yeah, I agree the techniques they teach you seem counter intuitive, but they work, and in most cases, you need some more speed for them to work properly. It's surprising that coming into a corner faster makes the car rotate better than if you go slower.

You can schedule private training, and I may try and do that to practice some more and maybe expand a little bit on the techniques I was already taught.

[e1_griego]

I did the 4 hour class in Oct. -- so freakin' awesome.

I mostly autox/track day and this was a definite departure from that.

Highly recommended!

[SUBYLUV871]

Dang you made the treck from tx to mighty NW. i was checking out there site. looks like a pretty rad set up.

[Apex3]

Oh wow, didn't even notice that, they're not too far from me, probably wouldn't have done it otherwise

[Legacy777]

Yup....I came up from Houston to go to the class and visit family.

[Florin1]

So you were in town and we didn't have a meet?

[AWD_addict]

Looks like fun. I didn't know they had a WRC GC there, what a cool display area!

[Legacy777]

So you were in town and we didn't have a meet?

Yes

Unfortunately I only usually get up there once a year and catching up with family usually takes up most of my time. I may be up there again some time during the summer....which is a much better time to get together....so I'll try and keep some time open for a get together.