Anyone Rallycrossed a R1S?

[Phoenix864]

How did it go?

It was fun - I've been meaning to make a full post about it but things have been busy. It rained steadily the night before and the morning of, so conditions were very wet. The course ended up being slow due to the amount of mud. The all-season tires got saturated pretty quick, so traction was pretty much non-existent. Sliding around in the mud was still fun, though the electronics were doing a lot to minimize wheel spin. Other attendees commented on how much slower the R1S' wheels were compared to the other (much more analog) vehicles.

I only got stuck once, and was able to wiggle my way out with some effort. When the car initially got stuck, it was weird being able to floor the accelerator and see the wheels do nothing. I guess stability control decided there was too much slip and that going nowhere was better than just spinning the wheels. Getting really stuck was my main worry, as I don't think there was anything there with enough torque and grip to pull the R1S.

Driving on-course was a fun and unique experience - not fast, mind you, but more of a game of modulating the throttle and controlling the steering to slide in the direction you want to go. I tagged along for a lap in a few of the other vehicles, and it really struck me how much rougher the ride was compared to the R1S. I see it as both a good and bad thing - you get more feedback about what the car's doing (the R1S sometimes felt vague due to the smoothness), but you're also getting thrown around way more. The R1S ended being being decently compeditive. Even though this was my first time rallycrossing, I was posting similar times to a few guys in STIs (though the mud likely was an equalizing factor).

Drift ended being the mode of choice - the extra tolerance for wheelspin and more aggressive throttle mapping helped considerably. With conditions being so muddy, I think rally was being too conservative with controlling wheelspin and wasn't sending enough power to the wheels. Sometimes digging is what you need to get some traction.

Overall, was fun, would recommend, still haven't really cleaned the car (mud suits it anyways). I'd definitly consider taking it on a dry track, though organizers are still wary of the 7k lb weight (and with good reason). I put together a video from the onboard cameras. A photographer also grabed some shots of the event as well.

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