one week to go before the first event. In the last week I've been trying to help (physically and over the phone) out with a couple of the other team guys trying to get their cars ready. In the meantime, I'm pretty pleased with my work pace, as I pretty much have everything done I wanted to get done this winter, and am ready to go. Now it's just little project things.

Since it was nice today I decided to pretty much pack up the trailer and save the later effort. My "good" tools will be in a box in the car, but everything else is going in the trailer box. This is going to be so much less hassle than trying to cram everything in the car, and also allows me to bring more spares, tools, and stuff that is worthwhile to have.

One other little thing is I wanted to add another hanger to the front exhaust, where the OEM hanger was, attached to the transmission. Without the OEM hanger piece, I just found a piece of steel (taken from our old broken dryer when I took all the "useful" parts off of it), drilled a couple holes to line up with the stock hanger bracket, and put some rubber grommets between the to. Then I welded the other side that I had cut to match the exhaust pipe. On my back undre he car, could hardly move to manipulate the welder or turn my head, so the welds are AWFUL. But they should hold since there's not much load on this. Whatever. Wanted to get SOMETHING there before the underside of the car is coated with mud and dirt for the next 6 months!

a couple shots of the car outside, for no apparent reason other than "digitial photos are free" :)

hehe, for the stance|werks crew

entry list is full for our first event (first time ever, I believe).

All these BMWs, time to get it on!

should be most excellent...

47 - Give me RallyCross or give me death!

The_Jed wrote: #47 - Give me RallyCross or give me death!

The funny part is that he's actually related to the original, apparently. Pat is actually ":the 6th"

So really nothing to report. With the first event 2 days away, I'm pretty satisfied that the car is fully ready to go. Spent about half an hour tonight in the garage going around and checking nuts, bolts, hose clamps, etc to make sure everything is tight. Adjusted the alternator belt since it was a bit looser than I'd like, otherwise......I'm at a loss.

Over the last few days I've also spent a good amount of time on the phone and IM with Pat and Jason (trying to get their "i" swap up and running correctly) and Nick (finally got his swap running correctly) trying to help out with some issues they're having. With any luck both of their cars will be ready to go, since that's about 1/3 of our class between the four drivers in those two cars, haha.

On a related note, there are 62 cars signed up for Sunday's first event (adn 57 for the test&Tune/driver's school). There was a 60-car cap but the site didn't stop registration when it should have so a couple extras snuck in. Pretty sure this is a record turnout for WDCR Rallycross (we had around 50 a couple times last year, IIRC), and there are some interesting cars in the mix...including a Lexus SC430 in MR, a 3.0-swapped Benz 190, a couple of (pro?) rally drivers in a stock-class Protege5, a 1984 Supra, a few Audis, and the usual crapload of Subies of course.

Anyhow, it's a bit torturous waiting at this point. And with all this time to prepare,I'm sure I'll forget to bring something important like my impact gun or my helmet, haha...

Ah come on!!! Can't even include the 2 people in SF? Jesus im so ready to finally do some rallycross!!!!!!

Hope to see you all there!

EDIT: Pro? wow thanks for the complement!!!

JtspellS wrote: Ah come on!!! Can't even include the 2 people in SF? Jesus im so ready to finally do some rallycross!!!!!! Hope to see you all there! EDIT: Pro? wow thanks for the complement!!!

lol....well, I just threw the term out there in referencing your co-driver since i recognize her name from someplace; and I just have to assume it is from seeing her doing something rally-related on the internet. Ipso facto she must be a pro on the level of Patrana and Block, right? Because I sure as hell can't name any amateur rally drivers except the ones I know personally!

And since she's co-driving with the likes of you, you must be from WRC, right?

My intellect is truly dizzying, I know....

Though I am a bit confused that one of you is in a black car and the other in a blue one, but with numbers that indicate co-drivers. Or does it have that cool color-changing chameleon paint?

EDIT: just realized why I recognize her name....facebook keeps suggesting her to me as a friend, since I know some people she knows. hahaha....

IT's a shame that Carl won't be there to give you some competition in the burple probe.....looks like Jim Kelly is bumping up from stock to modified this year. He must have taken out the floormats :)

We are just that awe-inspiring that when we change drivers the color changes as well, you will see Sunday!!

Now not saying ahead of but you will see!!!

hahaha.....

but why not bring the RX8, and you can run IN our class :)

You guys have an awesome region. We're hosting a rallycross national challenge event here in Texas this weekend and our entry list is sitting at 25.

In reply to irish44j:

She is a bit too pritty to take out to a rallycross, mabye in 3-4 years :-p

mazdeuce wrote: You guys have an awesome region. We're hosting a rallycross national challenge event here in Texas this weekend and our entry list is sitting at 25.

And the funny part is SCCA doesn't seem even remotely interested in giving us a national challenge event here (though I could be wrong). Since we're in Northeast region (but we are really NOT "in the northeast") we kind of get no love. Never understood why there isn't a "mid atlantic" region considering SCCA events in general in the Delaware-MD-DC-Virginia area have strong attendance and we don't really fit into the NE or SE regions or participate in most of their events, since they're so damn far away.

Forget the fact that we run 60 cars on ONE course. Summit could easily handle 100-150 cars if we had timing gear and ran all three courses.........

I'm not sure if we got the event because they want to build the program in the area or if it's just the work of one really dedicated guy. I suspect it's a little of both. We're doing the one course in the morning one in the afternoon format for two days. It seems like Summit is the perfect place for that.

yeah....in theory at Summit you could run all 3 courses at once if you had enough timing gear.

I "hear" that us not getting big events has something to do with certain national board members having a vendetta or something like that. IDK, just a rumor I heard last year sometime. But in light of things I've heard/seen with SCCA over the years I don't necessarily doubt it , haha. I hear a lot of what you can get done with SCCA is about "who you know and who you are"

BTW do you know what course we are running? (I know the course by the main circuit and the one by the house, but do you run the rally sprint course as well?)

JtspellS wrote: BTW do you know what course we are running? (I know the course by the main circuit and the one by the house, but do you run the rally sprint course as well?)

I don't know. Last year the had the driver's school on the "big" course (closest to the paddock) and the T&T on the "gravel" course which is the one straight back that you drive through to get to "barn" course (by the house). This year with so many people signed up I'm thinking they may use "big" or "barn" course for the T&T, since "gravel" is pretty tight on staging space for more than about 15-20 cars at once.

For the sunday event, I would imagine we'll run the "big" course in the "full" configuration to get as many cars on course as possible. But really I'm just guessing. I have no idea.

I'm quite certain we won't run "gravel" course on Sunday....that's usually only used when there are 35 or less car signed up.

We don't use the rallysprint course for SCCA, as the tree/obstacle setback doesn't even come close to being within SCCA regs.

Amazingly, after spending the morning removing some granite kitchen countertops from another house and hauling them to mine.....I had plenty of time to get fully packed before dinner. Usually I'm doing this stuff at 11pm the night before an event, lol.

ready to roll! 530am tomorrow!

I gotta say, that setup looks pretty badass!

Yeah man your doing it right and are an inspiration for my build.

here's some inspiration about tightening your hose clamps sufficiently. Today's test&tune wrapup:

So today's test and tune was more like a "RWD war of attrition." Trip there was uneventful and the trailer worked well. Cold morning, but the day shaped up into the high 40s but windy. We ran the "barn" course, which is my favorite because it flows well and is hardpack....almost like a tarmac rally with some dirt on it.

But then all the drama started. And I'll preface it by saying that I don't recall seeing any of the subie guys with any "issues" all day. Today was "RWD attrition day" and virtually all the RWD cars in attendance had problems...none of which were the fault of the course which was actually very smooth compared to normal.

So....will start at the top.

We ran first in the morning. I was the first to have issues. On my 2nd run, the coolant hose popped off the head and dumped all my coolant all over the engine bay (and some got through into the driver's footwell as well). It happened right at the end of the run, and I shut the car down within 10 seconds, so no real problem there.

ok....this is just water from a puddle. But you get the idea

I noted above that I nut&bolted the engine the other night (made sure everythign was tight to spec) but I will admit I didn't do the coolant hoses at the back of the head, since they're hard to get to and I put them on before putting the engine in, so they SHOULD be tight, right? Nope.

Don't know why it came off today (after putting 300+ miles on the car since the swap) but luckily I had a co-driver (Ana Broyles, thanks!) who has both small, dextrous hands and is a BMW tech. She was able to get in there and get the hose back on with a new clamp....would have been much harder for me to get my mitts in there I think. Bled the system with some borrowed coolant (mine was back in the paddock), and off we went again.

Other than that the car drove great and it is CONSIDERABLY quicker than with the M10. Now I can really exit turns much better staying in 2nd. I think as long as the car runs well I should be very fast this season. We'll see.

Pat&Jason towed their car up to get some work done and help with a bunch of e30'ers around, but got nowhere really. So both of them took turns running my car, nick's car, and spencer's car and still probably got about 10 runs in. I got 2 in the morning and about 10 in the afternoon with no coolant drama.

Ana and Jason

running again..

THEN....last year's PR class champ (Roberto) who is now in MR had some drama with a broken wheel stud or somethign like that, where he almost lost a wheel on course. They got it back on and he ran the rest of the day, but was DIW on course for a while

THEN.....the ETA boys broke a rear spring. Yeah. Luckily, Ana (again) lives about 15 minutes away and ran home to her e30 parts stash, returning with a spring. They were back running within half an hour. They're LeMons/Chumpcar guys, so they're quick at fixing problems and always have all their gear and spares in a pickup with them at the course, not back in the paddock where all my stuff always is.

THEN.....Shawn (last year's MR champ) had some overheating issue with the RX7, which after consultations by at least 20 people over his engine bay, was somehow resolved.

back on course:

THEN.....Chris Nonack's V6-swapped MR2, which he had just added an LSD and new rally tires to in the off-season.....blew the engine. That was E36 M3ty to say the least. Chris may run some events driving Shawn's car or I offered mine as well....sucky way to start the season, and his car would have been up near the top in the class I think (he was 4th last year on snow tires with an open diff).

THEN.....Nick's e28 was spurting coolant from its overflow tank and a coolant hose almost also got sliced by the alternator. So some quick repairs over lunch.

THEN.....the ETA guys later in the day broke a CV axle on-course. Of course, this being them they tried to reassemble it out in the field, lol. Spencer is bringing a new one for them tomorrow morning, and they'll install at the crack of dawn and run the car. nothing stops their ETA....

Oh, and this subie guy ripped his rear clip off. Somehow Spencer and Jesse escaped without any major issues today, which is amazing since they both drive super-hard and were doing a bit of hooning today it looked like, lol.

Jesse:

Spencer:

Tomorrow's the main event, so we'll see who will jump out of the gate in first to start this season!

Also, I tossed a banana about 20 feet and it landed squarely on the hood of Julian's car in the paddock as he drove by. He took it and taped it to the roof. This is why rally-x is excellent..

Hull-defilade...

a few other randoms:

teh dirties

So being FWD I should be ok???? lol Super hyped to see you guys tomorrow!!!!!

Today's wrap:

Big turnout today (60+ cars) and we got a bit of a late start. THe morning course was long (70-80 seconds) and had a few tight sections that gave a lot of the cars fits. We ran on the "big" course with a few grass cut-throughs that were frozen/thawing grass/clay...)

Due to the big turnout, a few issues, and late start we only got 3 runs in the morning. All of mine were clean and I was 6 seconds back from the leader (Roberto in the RX-7 that won PR last year). Not bad, since the tight sections were really slow for me as well. I was clean with no cone hits though.

Afternoon started with the course reversed and the tight sections modified much more to my personal liking. After the first run I had pulled back almost 2 seconds off of Roberto's lead.

Second runs started, and the whole field ran except me and Roberto. THEN a subie blew out an axle on course and the action stopped. IN the wait, the Summit Point water truck decided to come to TWO full runs of the course with water on full. So once the car was clearead, we had most of the class had already run 2 dry runs, with me and Roberto only 1. I was the first runner after the truck. I spun out three times. It was terrible. No traction anywhere (though I did manage to stay on course after using reverse more than once). On the last corner I was so pissed I just decided to pummel a half dozen cones protecting a mud pit, since the day was going to be shot for me one day or the other.

I'm pretty sure, however, that everyone in our class will have their 2nd runs dropped since the two of us (the class leaders) had to run in conditions that made the course 20-30 seconds slows. Final results aren't out, but in the past that's how it's worked.

EDIT the cars that had already run in the dry just re-ran in the wet. Roberto and I did not get our "after water truck" wet runs tossed. Tactical mistake to expect that on my part......

Rest of the PM runs went fine. It dried out a bit and I knew I was out of it so just tried out some different lines, hooned a bit, etc... I had some concern with the run order getting out of whack (since Roberto ended up with 2 make-up runs after everyone else had finished and the course had dried out further), but I can't do anything about that and don't know what happened. Whatever.

An e30 took the PR win as well, I think. Which is impressive if true, since both Shawn (last year's MR champ) was running in PR today (with his interior re-installed) and Gorka (last year's MR #2) was running Roberto's RX7 in that class as well.

Anyhow, was a fun event either way. We had alot of new drivers there (probably 20 or so) and the water truck hiccup...and it was the first event of the season. All in all a good day, though I want to kick myself for that one run when I had been running so well before that.

Also met Tom (JtspellS), who parked next to me in the paddock and we shot the breeze most of the day as he quietly rocked his MP5 through the mud :)

some epic video of my run directly at the water truck. It doesn't LOOK that slick, but frozen clay+water = it was. You can see by how slow I'm going and still manage to spin it out three times (two which you can see in the vid)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyLVl1FeyZs&feature=youtu.be