The WRC trick replicated at DirtFish Rally School – DirtFish - DirtFish

Uncomfortable temperatures inside rally cars isn’t a new problem, but it’s an issue that’s been thrust into the limelight this season.

Thanks to the new Rally1 regulations in the World Rally Championship which no longer mandate centralized exhaust systems, both drivers and particularly co-drivers have been experiencing dangerously hot conditions while competing.

But it’s a problem that affects rallying at all levels, not least at DirtFish Rally School – particularly in the summer where cockpit temperatures in the Pacific Northwest rise well above 100F.

“With our livery design, the car is mostly black with very little other colors on it, and it just turns into this sponge of heat and sunlight,” explained DirtFish marketing manager Brian Dallas.

“It can make things super, super uncomfortable as you can’t run air-conditioning during class because it’s so taxing on the motor already, as the motors are already trying to stay cool.”

It’s not only unpleasant for students and instructors to be sat in a sweltering environment, but it can pose health risks as well. That’s why the team in Snoqualmie have been hard at work trialing different solutions to combat the problem.

And anything the WRC teams can do, we can do better. So while Hyundai and M-Sport have fitted gold and silver reflective roofs to their cars, we’ve gone for a white vinyl roof on our fleet of Subaru BRZs and WRX STIs – debuted at the recent SummerFest event a few weeks ago after first being tested last year.

“We noticed a significant reduction in temperatures,” explained Dallas, “to the point where it was better than any of the solutions we’d tried in the past, combined.

“And when I say significant, last year a BRZ would be around 140/145F on the roof surface, so you can imagine the heat that would radiate down into the car. But with the white roof, it reduced that to around 105F so there was a massive shift.

“When I started this job this year one of my first tasks was to make sure the cars looked aesthetically pleasing but yet safe,” Dallas added. “And we’ve managed to do that as we left all the graphics, stripes and the fish but we just took the black out.

“Initially I think we all thought this was just going to be a temporary thing for the summer, but aesthetically it’s not horrible-looking on the car so we may end up leaving it.

“I left the original graphics there so there is the option to pull off this new white look and go back to the old, but I think we’ll probably end up keeping them.”

It’s a win-win. DirtFish’s fleet still looks cool and is now keeping occupants safer and more relaxed when sliding around the various courses.

But above all else it proves the spirit of rallying truly exists within DirtFish. The team has been faced with a problem and dealt with it head-on and resourceful – just like all good rally drivers and teams.

“We did think unconventionally because we were so locked into it being a uniform-looking thing, and we felt that we needed to look at the inside of the car instead of developing something that works outside of the car,” said Dallas.

“Overall it’s massively successful, it will help keep our students healthy, our instructors healthy and that’s the goal at the end of the day.

“It shows that DirtFish isn’t just about putting butts on seats, we’re about making sure the customer experience is as high as possible. With the intensity of our learning curriculum and the intensity of students trying to learn, it’s better if they don’t have to think about being overheated all the time.

“I’ve definitely watched my share of students get out of the car and be very overheated, and in their sessions they’re only in the car for maybe 10 or 15 minutes at a time. The instructors are in there for every single run so it’ll be a huge relief for them too.”

We won’t stand still though, and in the pursuit of further optimizing the experience at DirtFish Rally School the roofs of each car will be insulated in the coming weeks and cool suits available for occupants to make sure they can concentrate on simply sliding a rally car.

“At the beginning, middle and end of the day, the health of our students and staff is top priority. Working as a team and taking every measure possible is what we do here at DirtFish Rally School.”

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