Grassroots Motorsports: The Hardcore Sports Car Magazine

The puppies were well behaved during our little road trip. Here they are during a gas and potty stop near Savannah.

Even though the Turkey Rod Run mostly attracts traditional hot rods, it’s pretty much an unwritten rule that Minis are allowed anywhere. These photos were taken at the Bellair Plaza. Most of the cars parked there, like this one, wore for sale signs.

Lots and lots of air-cooled VWs were also present.

Another cool rat rod Beetle. Ironically, I passed this car tonight.

Low enough? Another one of the many cool VeeDubs on display.

You can write your own caption for this one.

So, did everyone get what they wanted for Thanksgiving? Oh yeah, wrong holiday. My wife and I took the grandpuppies up to see my parents for Thanksgiving. We drove up on Thanksgiving day, and there was no traffic. It was smooth sailing the entire way. I guess the reports about the increased police presence did something, because traffic seemed to be moving within 10 mph of the speed limit.

The seven-hour drive was worth it, because my mom made an excellent meal. It was yummy. That night, we went out to CompUSA. Their ad said that stores were opening at 9 p.m. for some special sales. We figured it would be fun.

We got there only to find a bunch of other people waiting for the doors to open. We left at 9:15. Who knows what happened.

The next day, my parents bought a new TV. It only took three trips back and forth to complete the sale.

We drove back home on Saturday and took mostly back roads. It added a little bit of time to the trip, but it was more enjoyable that way. We stopped at a park and took puppies for a walk.

We got home in time to check out the hot rods. The Turkey Rod Run takes place in Daytona during Thanksgiving weekend. The official/unofficial cruise spot is Bellair Plaza. We checked out cars, saw Joe, took some photos, and then came home and crashed.

I went for about a four mile run last night with my trusty iPod and long-legged wife. My favorite song from Tool’s 10,000 Days album came on and I found myself hitting the repeat button a few times. “Right in Two” is a cool song and it might even trump Aenima.

Here are the lyrics:

Angels on the sideline,
Puzzled and amused.
Why did Father give these humans free will?
Now they’re all confused.

Don’t these talking monkeys know that
Eden has enough to go around?
Plenty in this holy garden, silly monkeys,
Where there’s one you’re bound to divide it.
Right in two.

Angels on the sideline,
Baffled and confused.
Father blessed them all with reason.
And this is what they choose.
And this is what they choose…

Monkey killing monkey killing monkey
Over pieces of the ground.
Silly monkeys give them thumbs,
They forge a blade,
And where there’s one
they’re bound to divide it,
Right in two.
Right in two.

Monkey killing monkey killing monkey.
Over pieces of the ground.
Silly monkeys give them thumbs.
They make a club.
And beat their brother, down.
How they survive so misguided is a mystery.

Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here.

Cut it all right in two
Cut it all right in two
Cut it all right in two
Cut it all right in two

Fight over the clouds, over wind, over sky
Fight over life, over blood, over prayer,
over air and light
Fight over love, over sun,
over another, fight till they die,
over nothing, over a lie.

Angels on the sideline again.
Been so long with patience and reason.
Angels on the sideline again
Wondering when this tug of war will end.

Cut it all right in two
Cut it all right in two
Cut it all right in two

Classic Motorsports / Grassroots Motorsports Publisher Tim Suddard has a thing for Berkeleys.

He also has a thing for GRM’s signature event; the annual low-budget, go-fast GRM Challenges.

So he decided that he wanted chocolate with his peanut butter, and enlisted GRM Challenge engineer extraordinaire Denny Crabill to turn his dream into reality for the next Challenge in October of $2006: a wicked little Berkeley that will continue the Challenge tradition of low-budget Classics that run with the fastest modern cars.

So, can we turn a tiny 46 year old FWD British sports car chassis into a fire breathing rocket? Stay tuned for further installments, and find out.
-Bill Cuttitta

Now that we have the Berzerkeley back at Denny Crabill’s garage, it’s time to assess exactly what we’ve got, and what we can do with it.

What we’ve got is a car that would weigh around 800 lb. if it were complete with it’s 30 HP 492cc Excelsior aircooled engine. It’s a rather small 10’ 3” of fiberglass bodywork reinforced with aluminum bulkheads, and steel subframes for the drivetrain, front and rear suspensions. The wheelbase is a short 70”, with the front and rear tracks at 42”.

We want a fast little car, even with these tiny dimensions, so Denny located a slightly used but Challenge budget-friendly 140 HP 750 cc Suzuki GSX-R drivetrain that was only a few minutes from his house.

Publisher Tim Suddard stopped in to work on the Berzerkeley for a couple of days on his way to the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix, and together we tried out a few engine locations to see what would work best. After a lot of deliberations, discussion, measuring, cutting, and test fitting, we arrived at a front-mid engine drivetrain location and a monoposto seating arrangement.

Cool? Yes, but arranging the driveline and front suspension is going to take some thoughtful engineering.

More drivetrain and suspension fun next time.

I drove by McDonald’s today, and saw that the marquee was once again trumpeting the news that McRib is back. What I wanna know is, where does McRib go? I mean, it’s a sandwich, right? And a scary fake-pork sandwich, at that… so how many options can it have? It’s not like McRib takes off for the South of France every winter, and then reappears here all tanned and full of stories about its George Clooney sightings. They simply choose not to cook McRib all the time, probably due to its aforementioned status as a scary fake-pork sandwich. IT DOESN’T ACTUALLY GO ANYWHERE. If it did, it would be followed by hippies wearing McRib tour shirts or something. Really, some people.

I just got an email from an old friend from Alabama, who found me via the internet and read my blog. That’s kind of trippy. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised, we’ve had readers and advertisers mention stuff that we’ve posted here.

My what lovely teeth you have!

Yummy Bird Guts!

Really cool, almost CVT looking chain for T-case

Well, for quite a while now the Mighty Eagle has been “resting” as other real life-type obligations have been higher on the priority scale. Before we dig deeper into the big bird’s entrails, we thought these pictures may amuse. This is what happens when you drive a 4 wheel drive vehicle with different diameter tires on the front, and rear axles. This problem was compounded by the T-Case not being fully disengaged. The previous owner had removed AMC’s vacuum assisted 4wd switching system to simplify things. Unfortunately, we hadn’t manually moved the tab on the case as far as it need to go to disengage the 4wd, and bad, bad crunching noises ensued once under way! Ahhh, and then the transfer case housing split, and guts spewed out all over the ground. As you can see in the images, the Eagle’s all wheel drive system uses an interlocking chain design which is lubricated by a honey like oil. It is really a fascinating design, and really cool to check out, although it works better when actually connected to the car. Soon these problems will be rectified as there is a new (used) T-Case waiting in the wings. Before long, the glorious raptor will once again be searching for prey!

This mean-looking man is actually the very friendly Larry Taylor, our salesman on both the 2005 and our incoming 2007.

We traded in our 2005 MINI Cooper last night to Downtown MINI in Orlando. The dealership gave us a good enough trade value (MINI = high resale!) that, when combined with the trade-in tax credit, came very close to what we were asking. The kicker is that we got to keep our multiple sets of Rota wheels, sticky tires and even the exhaust system. The latter will be good trade bait when we start prepping our newest project…

A 2007 MINI Cooper S

We’ve started the ordering process for a 2007 MINI Cooper S. MINI has launched their new configurator at MINIUSA.com and we’ve already spent way too much time adding and subtracting options.

Here’s a look at what we’re thinking:

MINI USA Configurator Screen Shot

The Antee Web Wax works very well, almost like a cross between a polish and a clay bar.

We used Production Car Care’s Weekend Warrior wax pack to shine up the Saab yesterday afternoon. The kit includes a wash/wax concentrate, a wool wash mit, the Antee Web Wax pad, a Rejuvenator spray and a microfiber towel. After the car is washed, you wipe the still-wet car down in overlapping strokes with the Antee Web Wax pad, using the Rejuvanator spray as additional lubrication. Then you simply dry the car off with the microfiber towel.

The results are pretty darn amazing, the wax pad functions as a clay bar and polishing agent, all in one, removing contaminants and swirl marks. We were impressed. For $29.95, you get the advantages of both a wax and a clay bar, all in one. We’re starting to sound like a late-night infomercial, but we were amazed at the results.