In advance of this weekend’s X Games 17 Rally Cross and Rally Racing events, BFGoodrich invited some select journalists to Fontana’s Auto Club Speedway (formerly known as California Speedway) for some excellent rally instruction.
And when BFGoodrich offers you a Group N Subaru STI rally car and a wet infield parking lot, you say yes. With Forest Duplessis doing the instructing and Ross Bentley telling us the best way to approach driving (including the mental aspect of getting your driving game in gear), it’s immediately clear that this is no ordinary tire show-off event.
The DirtFish Rally School cars were rolling on BFGoodrich g-Force Super Sport A/S (for all season) street tires, and honestly, I didn’t think they would hold up very well in our abusive activities. But they did, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much grip they had on the mixed wet and dry surface of our parking lot course.
These BFG tires have aramid fibers precisely and consistently placed within the ply of the tire, which allows the tread surface to maintain its shape no matter the load. They also have abundant siping and grooves to help keep the contact patch dry.
In an educational environment such as this, it’s good to have tires that give consistent feedback and performance. This is especially true in the world of rallying, in which the balance of the car is frequently upset via constant weight transfer!
As this year’s Rally events are on a primarily street-focused surface, BFG brought out a new tire for the event. Called the RC01, the tire is nearly a slick that features less puncture resistance than a traditional rally tire, but a stiffer overall construction. Amateur rallycrossers, take note: BFG has made the tire available to the general public.
For the record, the Rally Cross events feature four cars competing on the track at the same time; Rally Racing events involve two cars at a time.
Lead photo by Lars Gange (subaru.com/rally).
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