Rally
Forum Member
Probably the most important bit. I'm not sure if I have mentioned this on ORS, so if I have please forgive me. A couple of months ago a good mate of mine and myself were flag marshals at Ferrari Racings Days at Sydney Motorsport Park- a racing circuit in western Sydney. Amongst the insane collection of earlier F1 Ferrarri's lapping the circuit, there were laps of the circuit by Ferrari road cars and there was also an international Ferrari challenge race. The driving by all the non F1 cars ranged from average to extremely poor to terrible. Hardly anyone ever got the apex and if they did they only did it once. Incredibly, one of the cars- an automatic (sad, I know) and the driver only accelerated 100m after corner exit. You could hear the car kick down. Anyway, the point is that you can have all the gear but have no idea.
Another mate of mine was at the same circuit at another time. It was not a race as such, but a supersprint where you had to get the quickest lap in whatever car you had- as long as the car was not on slicks. There were some fairly modified cars out there. But in an old dunger of a car which needed a fair bit of work, he set the second quickest time. And the guy only has one eye.
On a WRX forum recently a bloke advised that he had some mods to his STI and wanted to know what he should do next to go faster. Considering the car and the mods he was probably a good 4 seconds off what he should be doing. I suggested driver training and thankfully he took it the right way. The point being again you can have all the bits and still the car won't do what it could, while someone in a lesser car can blitz them.
I have been to some great places in my Forrie when the car was standard, with open front and rear diffs. It was actually more challenging to drive the car back then, because you needed more skill than you do with a modified car in the same conditions. Interestingly, when I asked my mate with the one eye why he doesn't modify his car further, he said that he gets a thrill of beating people in faster cars, and I felt the same way about going places in my standard Forrie that modified Forries had problems with.
I modified my car as a bit of an experiment, because at the time I was not at all sure if diffs designed for rallying and circuit use would work off road. Since then, there has been a lot more discussion about putting better diffs and low ranges in these cars, while forgetting just how good the standard car is anyway. The Outback has more limitations than a Forester, but but that does not mean you cannot go out and enjoy your off roading. There have been a number of times when I wished I had an Outback instead of a Forester (when I am not off roading, and of course there were other times when The Outback would not have safely gone where the Forrie had been.
As with any car, drive the car within it's limits and you should be able to enjoy yourself in either one. Way up the %age of the time you want to go off road, how hard core you want to go when you are off road, how much space you want and how much refinement and make your decision.
