By Tim Odell
Reader EscortsForever has been so kinda as to grace us with a pile of shots from the pre-race parc expose from the Lake Superior Performance Rally. Quoth the photographer:
Today is the beginning of the awesome. Between classes, I managed to get out to the parc expose (where the rally drivers show off their cars). I snapped a bunch of pics before my camera’s batteries died. However, I came prepared and popped in another set of batteries…. which died after a half dozen pics. The weather was drizzle, and my camera isn’t a crazy awesome DSLR that can take amazing pics. However, the cars more than make up for my limited photography talent. If all goes well I should have some more pictures and videos for you soon from Saturday.
All better have gone well, because we’d kill for some sweet, sweet rally action shots. Check out the gallery below, which is a subset of EscortsForever’s gallery on photobukkitt. We’re off to search for a Quattro to call our own…
Ross Ballot 
Kamil Kaluski
Mudflaps!
Can’t wait to see more pics! There is a rally event coming up this winter called the Sno-Drift in Atlanta, MI, which happens to be about 10 minutes from where I live. I just found out about the event last year, but couldn’t go to it. I have already marked the event on the calendar for 2010, and nothing is stopping me from going this year. I love rally races, and to find out that there is one practically in my back yard is awesome. I will be sure to get plenty-o-pics to share with everyone.
Whats the date on that? I really want to go up there this year.
January 29th & 30th
See you there.
The front light bar fixture on car number 548 makes me happy in my pants. Hoon on oh engineers of the Jerry-rigging persuasion!
Incidentally, unless something has changed since I talked to its owners at the 100 Acre Wood rally in February, the ProDrive STi in these pics is for sale. As far as I know it’s the only ProDrive-prepped rally car in the United States — not sure how they managed to import it, but hey, I can’t argue with the awesome!
I wish the Ur-quattros had been down here at that time. I love those cars to death and it would be awesome to see them in their element.
That Focus SVT makes me happy.
Hey, a Datsun 510. That’s pretty cool. Never been to a rally, this has got to be a blast. I don’t think they do this in the southwest. There’s plenty of room here for all kinds of automotive heroics, so you’d think there would be an event like this.
Check out the California Rally Series:
http://www.californiarallyseries.com/schedule/index.aspx
Despite the name, they run events all over the western US, most in the southwest.
Those ür-Quattros…oh man. I need some alone time now.
Man, I wish I could have been there. I have to take a summer road trip to get to try to get more racing events like these. Wait a sec, I just saw a Suzuki “Aveo” badge-engineered rally car in those pics. Please tell me that was a joke and not an actual rally car. That’s almost as bad as having a Prius rally car.
not a joke – I believe it was the only car in the 2wd class and it was slooooow. Well, at least it was towards the back of the pack for overall time and it was still in great condition by the end, so the only explanation I can think of is slow-ocity.
BTW, everyone should check out the photobucket, for no other reason than to see pics of the Ford Capri that was racing.
A couple of years ago, I went to the Gorman Ridge Rally and saw a Festiva:
I thought nothing could be more awesome than the rally-prepped 510 in these pictures.
Then I clicked on the Photobucket link and found the Capri. Damn, dude…
Yeah, that 510 looks pretty mean with those rally tires equipped.
Mmmmmmm. Mud and Dirt. Very nice.
I’ts rather nice to see some purpose built car in all their used, damaged glory. Who needs prissy little primped rides? This stuff is the shizznit.
Not sure which Mitsu to which you refer…
…but I don’t know of any transparent PVC.
Most window replacement for rally cars is done with acrylic, clear Lexan (a polycarbonate), or Perspex, usually formed over a, uh, form under pressure and heat.