Dirty Rallysport

03/03/2025

Once considered our home event, Sandblast Rally was this weekend. It's been 7 years now (wow!) since we were last there.

We took 1st place and celebrated appropriately as a team. We won what was probably the most awesome award ever.

In retrospect, it would be the last time that "the team" was really a team:

In June, we went up to the UP in Michigan to race at CUPR where we basically trashed the car and decided to build a new car. Gino didn't want to make trek up to Michigan and I can't blame him. So Steve was our head honcho for the event.

This picture is the last one I have of Gino working on the car at an event. It's going to be incredibly eerie once we get the new car done and ready for shakedown as Gino won't be a part of it. I think he realized how much he was like glue (and an abrasive!) for the team.

We miss ya Gino Malinoski... ya jerk.

04/25/2024

Don't stare at it too long - you'll go cross-eyed!

Still quite a bit to tweak and optimize, but this is a good stopping point for now.

TODO:
- Inside CAN bus harness (to connect to ECU directly)
- Body Harness including all of the misc power connections for extra rally stuff (intercom, ham radio, interior lights)
- Engine harness
- Engine bay body harness
- Mating harness to connect to the secondary fuse-based power module for windows and things like that.

04/20/2024

Hello my old friend,
I've come to wrench with you again...

12/21/2023

What a good little end-of-the-year present coming to us from Japan! The folks at L'aunsport do some pretty incredible custom work!

12/09/2023

One thing we've learned over the years is how much our rally family matters to us. For those of you that know Jesse (and maybe his lovely bride, Sara!) you know how incredible they are to the world.

Jesse's wife Sara has stage 5 kidney disease, but has amazingly been given the opportunity for a transplant. Unfortunately, like everything in life nowadays, it's a question of money.

If you have a few bucks to spare, we'd be honored if you'd consider donating to Sara's transplant effort.

Thank you!!

Hello my name is Sara, I’m 33 years old mother of a 15 year old boy and I’m married to my best friend. We have 2 dogs that are the bestest boys if I do say so myself. For the most part I would say my life is as close to perfect as one could get, I’m just not financially where I need to handle ...

11/26/2023

Lots of new shiny bits are in order for the new car! It's a long road, but we're approaching a great point: rolling the car out for exterior paint!

09/23/2023

This will be such a huge emotional lift. Just keep an eye here in another hour or two...

09/17/2023

Post up if you know this iconic spot.

06/25/2023

We're at US rally mecca today!

04/19/2023

Giggidy.

Redundant fuel pumps! I still need to do up all of the wiring and whatnot, but this will allow for easy switching of A/B pumps. We're looking at using PDM-type logic controllers, so this, coupled with a CANbus fuel pressure sensor will allow for automatic switching of pumps if a pressure issue arises while on stage. Sexy!

04/17/2023

It's been a while, so a quick update:

Car is progressing well - probably not as fast as we'd hope, but it's the reality of things. We're nearing the point where the major interior prep will be done (pedal boxes, line routing, handbrake mounting, shifter relocation, etc). Once that's finished, sanding and painting!

The amount of engineering going into this car is easily 10x what we did previously. A lot of it is due to how we've reconfigured the interior to gain more room. Example: This car, the driver's seating position is nearly 5-6" further back. This sounds good for weight balance, but it means:
* Custom steering
* Custom pedal assembly
* Custom shifter relocation
* Custom handbrake

etc.

All good problems to have!

03/15/2023

We're really excited to see what Sam Albert is doing with his car. As a former competitor of ours, it's always great to see really creative solutions at the "pointy end" of the stick!