Posted Sunday, August 21, 2022 at 10:00pm
Semenuk/Williams Soo Pass Stage, Ojibwe Forests Rally 2022
Photo by Peter Lapinski Read More →
Posted Sunday, August 21, 2022 at 10:00pm
Photo by Peter Lapinski Read More →
Posted Tuesday, August 16, 2022 at 10:40pm
Crossroads is Ojibwe Forests Rally’s first stage and is most well known for its jump. At 10.5 miles long, the stage is of medium length with three distinct sections. This year’s race start is at Gladen Construction, with a 16-mile transit heading south to the stage. A leisurely cruise out, the tension will build a bit as you approach the left turn from Hwy 64 into the stage. You descend to the initial time control… Read More →
Posted Monday, August 15, 2022 at 10:36pm
In 2004 I traveled with Doug Havir to Helsinki, Finland, for advanced rally training. Upon traveling halfway across the planet and arriving at Jakke Honkanen’s Rally School, we discovered, “Hey, this is just like northern Minnesota with different road signs!” I guess that explains the large Finnish population in northern Minnesota. The state of Minnesota boasts the biggest percentage of people with Finnish ancestry in the country. The terrain is similar. There are sandy roads… Read More →
Posted Sunday, August 7, 2022 at 8:48pm
Some time ago, I was told that the design life span on a Subaru powertrain was 500,000 miles, and that’s what Subaru advertised in Japan. Are you going to see that in the State of Minnesota? Heck no. However, we have a vehicle that is trying to come close. I purchased this 2002 Forester with 271,000 miles a decade or so ago, intending to use it to haul stuff as my other vehicle at the… Read More →
Posted Thursday, August 4, 2022 at 9:57pm
Notes: The Subaru Outback is the only midsize car to earn a good rating.. In the test, the new barrier weighs 4,200 pounds — close to the weight of today’s midsize SUVs — and strikes the test vehicle at 37 mph, compared with a 3,300-pound barrier traveling at 31 mph in the original evaluation. Only three of seven midsize cars tested earn good or acceptable ratings in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s updated side… Read More →
Posted Tuesday, August 2, 2022 at 9:19pm
One of the fiercest areas of competition in the automotive industry today is the field of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving, both of which have the potential to significantly improve safety. Building on these technologies, a completely autonomous, Level 5 car could provide game-changing economic or productivity benefits, such as a fleet of robotic taxis that would remove the need to pay wages to drivers, or by allowing employees to work or… Read More →
Posted Monday, April 18, 2022 at 10:02pm
The Subaru Forester has changed quite a bit since its earliest days when the idea of a special variant meant offering the sport-tuned XT or, in other markets, the Forester STi. Times have obviously changed as the 2022 Subaru Forester Wilderness shows. It’s all about getting muddier and going further off-road than other Foresters rather than carving canyons quicker. While such a pivot over time may be painful for high-octane car enthusiasts, there are very… Read More →
Posted Thursday, March 17, 2022 at 9:47pm
Quick 100 Acre Wood Preview The Rally in the 100 Acre Wood. Open and flowing with a few tight, twisty stages thrown in. This year’s event features some of the fastest stages in the American Rally Association (ARA) series. Conditions can vary widely during this event, the range being from clear, sunny and 70 degrees, to the solid sheets of ice and snow of a true winter event. Coming into the rally this year,… Read More →
Posted Monday, February 21, 2022 at 8:32pm
The question every year at Snodrift is, “What will the road surface be like?” The surface may range from melting snow with mixed gravel and mud to a solid sheet of ice. This year was of the “solid sheet of ice” variety. I have been competing in this event off and on since 2002. There have been numerous years where the roads have been icy, but the year that sticks out in my mind is… Read More →
Posted Wednesday, February 16, 2022 at 8:55pm
We are in the winter rally season and have two rallies coming up. Here in the United States, it’s Snodrift based in Atlanta…Michigan. For the WRC, it’s Rally Sweden. Both are classic winter events, but there’s one difference between the two. In the US, we must use off-the-shelf snow tires. The WRC event will use a true rally snow/ice tire with studs. The difference between the two tires is immense. Lately, we generally have been… Read More →