SAS Rally car

June 19, 2019

Specialised Auto Services are a Link ECU Dealer based in Canterbury, New Zealand; the same area Link Engine Management originates. Jason and the team at SAS are well-known for working on a wide array of vehicles, everything from performance street cars to jet sprint boats.

The Rally portion of the business has escalated this year, with the crew running this 2008 EJ20 Subaru WRX STI in the NZRC category 1 class.

The car is driven by the young, talented pairing of Dylan Thomson and Co-driver Amy Hudson. The team is certainly showing huge potential, currently sitting fourth Overall in the New Zealand Rally Championship (NZRC).

Six weeks out from Round 1 of the Championship the car was just a freshly painted shell, so its fair to say things have come a long way with this project over the past six months! At the Rally of Otago, despite the car being totally untested and barely driven prior to the rally, it ran flawlessly all weekend. The team finished the event in a respectable 11th overall out of 130 starters.

The results have simply been getting better and better since then. Just two weeks ago, the outfit managed to finish sixth in the North Canterbury Rally; pictured below during a quick stop at the service zone in Loburn.

Jason and the SAS team use a Link G4+ Thunder ECU to control the EJ20 engine. Complimented with accessories such as a PMU16 and a CD7 dash, a 11” tablet also displays Link software PClink directly into the cockpit.

AIC Controls provided the wiring for the build. Each harness has been concentric twisted, dr25 wrapped and sealed with rt125 to remain reliable for the rally conditions. The team maxed out the G4+ Thunder with 46 sensors available to data log. Thousands of terminations were completed and best of all, no electrical issues thus far.

Jason keeps a close eye on all vital parameters which are logged and displayed every outing. No information escapes his watchful eye, keeping the car consistent all season long.