Heli-Flick Rally is Building a New Rally Open Lights Car!

In the quest to build a better, faster, Rally car, Jeff from Heli-Flick Rally is taking everything that he has learned from running his current Subaru GC Rally car in the Open Lights class, and building a new Rally car for the ARA Naturally Aspirated AWD class. Because the NA AWD class has a much lower minimum weight limit compared the other open classes, being able to hit that minimum weight is a critical step to being competitive in your class.

Heli-Flick Build Start

So Jeff found a 2-door Impreza Coupe as a shell to start his build. We are definitely looking forward to following his build progress!

Heli-Flick Build 1

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Day 1 is the fun day aka tearing everything out of the car and making it skinny for now. Found out today that the ol girl is a 2 wheel drive soooo that’s more work for me here soon to convert her back to what she should be a Subie. But not to bad coming in at 2457 lbs before I started gutting it. Getting a new weight scale and gonna weigh everything that comes out of the car, I’m guessing it’s easily over 200+ lbs out so far. Working on stripping out the wiring and airbags now. Stay tuned it’s about to get real here very soon.

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Thanks again to Flatironstuning for all the support and advice!!! #heliflickrally #rallycar474 #thenewrallycar474 #messyyoubettergetready #rallycarbuild #rallybuild #feellikedaysofthunderbuildingaracecarinabarn

A glimpse of what’s to come haha.

HF Rally 1-12-20 1

Put the RS hood on to make sure it was still straight and to have a little glimpse of the future. Pulled off both fenders due to the fact they were pretty dented up also the front fender just because it’s ugly haha the RS fender is going on this car. Pulled all the a/c components as well.

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Ahhhh mucho better for sure. Just have to pull the motor and trans and spend about a day going through the wiring harness to cut away unnecessary wires.

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The before and after of the dash removal. The passenger airbag is nice to get rid of, but not the speed sensor. Thanks Robert Hueser for the help and not letting have a mini melt down lol. Definitely going to be losing lots of weight with the removal of the dash. The dash it’s self weighs in at 10lbs plus all the wires we will be removing and of course all the airbag equipment.

Stay tuned as there is more coming out of the car.

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All of the sound deading is out and cleaned up looking oh so pretty. Now I have to cut out the seat rails and anything else that is not being used.

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Just taking out the sound deading shaved off 27 lbs.

HF Build Delta Cams

Super excited to have received my Delta 3000 cams from Delta Camshafts today. Things with the engine are coming together and can’t say thanks to everyone that has giving me advice and wisdom as this thing comes together. Thanks Flatirons Tuning, ATR Autosports, Ecotech Import Automotive and all the others.

Stay tuned more parts coming real soon.

HF Build 2-7-20

It was good to come back to MO and see this beauty!

Tried to get as much done to the car w Robert Hueser in a very short time, now off to work again! Timing has been horrible and is looking like the car is going to the 100 Acre Wood Rally the same as last year...womp womp no upgrades.

Being positive and going to see what happens but if the build waits then we will not have to hurry and can make everything perfect also break in the new engine and do some testing before the next rally.

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Here at the Heli-flick factory we are making some good progress with the build. The bender was the wrong one so we had to figure out what to do and keep on moving forward. We had a baby calf last night at 3:30am so that was a surprise also @brucelee_theasskickingfrenchie was the cow magnet. Robert Hueser killed it taking off the roof just like normal.

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Every once in a while you just gotta go for a ride. Making progress now after figuring out the right bender and how to use it again and not mess up a bunch of pipe, not saying that’s what happened lol. #heliflickrally

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So excited for the other phase of this new build. Have to thank Ryan Mckay, Ecotech, Flatirons Tuning and ATR automotive for the help, parts, receipt and guidance. Can not wait to get this new car done and go rip some roads again.

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Huge shout out to ATR Automotive and Flatirons tuning for the parts and Ryan Mckay for being the baddest man alive and doing an amazing job building this work of art. Your the best amigo.

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Took a few attempts but we got it nice and tight! Also thought it was a good idea to just make another cage at the same time, just thinking of saving time in the future lol. #heliflickrally #rallycar474

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Following the rules closely and getting after it, almost there, I only have one more day left to play before going back to work. Let’s see how much we can get done !!

HF Build 5-2-20 1

Public Safety Announcement!! For all the boys and girls out there building their cages, because if you get the wrong metal you WILL have to do this.

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Well back at it for round 2 but with the right metal this time!! Good thing about doing this cage so close to the last one is that it is going quick. We should have this all wrapped up after this weekend.

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Seems like I’ve seen this before ohhhhh yeah this is version 2.0 Yes it is the right tubing this time and so far it only took 4 days to get back to where I cut out the other cage. Getting faster I guess. Doesn't hurt that I saved some of my custom made templates either :-). Should be done on Monday and ready for paint I hope.

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New things for the new car and can’t wait to test it all out at Ojibwe Forests Rally!

HF Build 6-21-20 Paint Can

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Seeing double today!! Here is the latest update from the Heliflick fab shop haha. Stopping point is the car is caged, painted, stripped and ready for the big swap of all the goodies coming off the main car.

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About sums it up... I’m super scared but committed. Probably should of just had iWire do it for me but gotta learn some how. Weight saving here we come.

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Well I’ve done what’s done and now fingers crossed it works and don’t have to replace too many wires. I do have a back up just in case. -15 lbs of wires and tape trimmed out, I’m sure there is more I can remove but I’m scared I cut some wrong ones but Robert Hueser and Eco Tech Automotive can help me fix it no problem. Thanks guys!

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In the process of swapping parts over from the old car to the new one, we have 2 shells! It is coming together pretty well now!

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Some of the bigger parts I needed to get more done but didn’t arrive in time, so did a lot of the little specialty work in the car. And that isn't a bad thing at all. Can’t wait till this thing is done and ready to rip.

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She’s so much cleaner than the old shell! Can’t wait to get her on the scales and see how much weight savings we have lost.

Almost swapped everything over to the new car and it’s sad to see all the old rally stickers on the old car go. Thanks to Robert Hueser for always being the best pit crew / builder always couldn’t do it without you.

Hopefully we will have it running this weekend.