I’m back from the Mid-Atlantic Subaru Challenge at Ripken Field. I drove the Outback Sport (on stock tires and suspension) and had a good time. I didn’t bother taking out the spare, and I left the roof rack on as well. While my times were not great, they are pretty respectable considering the lifted Outback suspension and awful RE-92 tires. Overall I finished 68 of 120 in the class-adjusted (PAX) results. An STS-prepared ’05 Outback sport with springs, swaybars and decent tires finished .024 seconds behind me (raw time), so I’m pretty happy. It looks like I beat at least 17 WRX / STIs in raw time as well.

Anyway, here are a couple of photos from the event:

Check out the body roll. (Obviously, I didn’t take this photo.)

Run 1: 58.499
Run 2: 58.170
Run 3: 58.418
Run 4: 57.002

PAX Time: 44.461 (68/120)

Official Results:
2007 Mid-Atlantic Subaru Challenge Overall PAX
2007 Mid-Atlantic Subaru Challenge Class Results

In-car video: (Made with a new and improved camera mount with a higher camera position)

After the RallyCross it was pretty obvious I needed to redesign the camera mount. The new mount should be much more rigid and reduce camera vibrations:

The Shop Smith made the building process much easier than the construction of Camera Mount 1.0, which utlized a hand drill and a hacksaw.

The mount is made from a 36″ section of 3/4″ aluminum box extrusion, some 1/4-20 nuts and bolts, eye-hooks and a few u-bolts. The total cost was around $18-$20. I drilled four holes for the camera mount so it can be moved side to side depending on the camera angle I want. The tilt/swivel camera mount “head” was salvaged from Camera Mount 1.0.

The new mount uses the outer two headrest posts (instead of just one) and uses the same straps and tie downs as the original mount. If you look closely, the new mount uses fancy 25¢ plastic end caps in the main aluminum box section to avoid that “If you touch me I’m going to leave a 3″ gash in your arm” look that the last mount had.

Update:

I raised the camera mount about 4″ to improve the angle.

Last Saturday I installed a rear differential skid plate on the Impreza:

Why? Good question. I also modified my old autocross in-car camera mount (from the GTI) for use in the Impreza…

Here is why: I competed in the SCCA DC Region RallyCross event four on Sunday. This was my first RallyCross and it was a lot of fun. The Impreza did well and the extra ground clearance from the stock Outback Sport suspension was very useful. Other than the quarter inch of dust covering every surface in and on the car, there were no ill effects. When it stops raining I’ll crawl under the car and see if that skid plate was worth the investment.

I got up at 5:00 AM, arrived at Summit Point MotorSports Park at 8:00 AM, and finally got home around 7:30 PM. It was a long day, but well worth it. I won’t bore you with the details (that is what the 10 minute video is for), but I will update this entry when the results are posted. Until then, here are some more photos.

I attempted to edit the video using iMovie ’08. After about a half hour of trying to edit one clip I gave up and imported the raw video into iMovie HD (the old version of iMovie). iMovie ’08 is the worst piece of software I’ve seen come from Apple in a long time. It is now obvious why they leave iMovie HD installed when you upgrade to iLife ’08. Anyway, here is the video. You get to see all four runs. I hope you have a broadband connection.

And, after seeing the video, I’m sure you’ll agree that I have some work to do. Aside from improving my driving skills I need to better stabilize the camera so all 10 people who see this video on YouTube won’t get sick…