[nycbug-talk] making rar play nice with pipes?

[Tim A.]

I pipe tar | gpg | ssh in some remote backup scripts like this:
tar -cvf - $target \
| gpg -ear "$key_id" -o - \
| ssh -i $key $remote_account "cat > $remote_path/$archive"

Using gzip -9 gives practically no additional compression.
The archives are nearly 2x the size rar gives me, but I can't figure out 
how to make rar play nice with pipes.
rar a -- - $target
creates the file -.rar (!)

To use rar, I have to rar it locally and then gpg | ssh it.

I like rar, but this sucks. Anyone know any hacks to get this to play nice?