Knurled wrote: If you want interesting handling, you should see the video I just posted... Evan's Miata drives more different than my car. It's like the throttle pedal is attached to a rear suspension toe-out jack. And what is with MR and super close finishes anyway?
Well, clearly all of us MR guys are virtually equal in our awesomeness, lol....Hey, toe-out is just 4-wheels steering, right? 
Are you driving Evan's Miata at nationals??
Ok, here's a full recap of last weekend's WDCR Northeast Divisional Challenge event (one of six in NEDiv that determine the NEDiv Champion). This was a 2-day event with day/twilight and morning/afternoon sessions, with 40ish cars there and everyone getting about 20 runs.
Mod RWD crew
RWD lunch tent. We did let Mike Golden in, even though he has a Subie..
For once, weather was really nice, but very calm (it's usually very windy there), which made things tough due to dust hanging on the course in some places.
Adam got dusty building the course...
And we clowned a bit
Big e30 turnout, with about a dozen total drivers in e30s between MR and PR, as well as Nick in his e28, Brandon's new MR2, Shawn and Katie in the Miata, and a pair of e36s (one MR down from New York and one PR). Sadly for the e36s neiter made it far into the event, with one putting his fan into the radiator somehow, and the other breaking his diff launching at start. The e30s fared better with all cars completing the event without major issue.
Mike Palcynski
e36 in the dust
First day Nick started out fast and I was about the same until I ran though a cloud of hanging dust and lost the course for a moment (and a few seconds slowing down to try to see the next gates). The courses were laid out for speed and Nick was pretty happy about them, so he said :/ The day was relatively uneventful with me hitting 1 cone and him hitting none over 10 or 11 runs, and he ended the day almost 6 seconds ahead due to some small errors on my part and general inconsistency. As usual, I still had the fastest individual runs in the class, but this ain't autocross so that means nothing!
The other e30s were running variable times. A few were close behind us, and others a ways back (see previous post).
Spencer and Miller
Car was running well and continued to be happy with my setup if not my driving.
Running into the twilight
Chris managed to rip a fuel line off and went dead on course. I think he still ended up 3rd overall though, even with the penalty.
Day 2 started off badly as my right rear tire was flat when I arrived in the morning. I knew it had a slow lead so threw some air in and a bit later drove to grid, only to find it was totally flat again. I had to grab one of my emergency spares, which were at best 20% tread (if that) and put it on. This turned out to suck, since the course was counterclockwise and the right rear is really where I needed traction. But didn't have time to flip to the other side (and the original tires were only arond 40% anyhow, so not too much better). Pretty annoyed at myself since I have some almost-new DMacks sitting in the garage and just didn't get around to mounting the. That would turn out to be a major mistake as Day 2 I had serious traction issues on the loose gravel with the rear end, and had to adjust my driving style to compensate.
Meanwhile, the 5-0 showed up to make sure we weren't setting any brush fires. They coudln't be convinced to make a run, sadly.
Nonetheless, I kept running times similar to Nick, and he finally made a mistake on one of his first couple runs, taking down 3 cones (never seen him do that before), which opened the door. For the rest of the morning I ran slightly faster than him and he got 2 more cones, but I also got 2 more (the same cone, a stupid one, on back-to-back runs...that was really dumb). By the lunch break I had pulled back ahead by about 0.8 seconds.
For Sunday afternoon, the course was really open and I overcooked the slalom on my first run and lost a ton of time (2 seconds slower than Nick). After that, we both ran clean and fast for the rest of the session. On a course that figured to suit his car better, I actually ran faster and with one run left I was 0.4 back of him. He ran a 46.4, which was faster than any of my runs so far. So I went all-out and for the first 3/4 of the course I was extremely fast and clean. Then on the backside in a short, easy slalom I slid out of a rut into the loose gravel and had to fight to keep it on course, losing tons of time. Finished strong coming sideways through the finish gate. I saw Nick's reaction in the paddock and didn't even go check the time....
My run was 2/10ths faster than his. Which left me 2/10ths slower in overall time. So after 1,100 seconds of runs, I lost by 2/10ths of a second. Probably Karma from last year at the GLDIvs when I passed him on the very last run to take 2nd there (only a few tenths off the win as well). Apparently, I'm destined to constantly finish 2nd by tiny margins.... :(
To put that in perspective, the 3rd place car (another e30) was 46 seconds behind us, with a few behind him. The last-place e30 was about 200 seconds behind us!
Meanwhile, Stephen coned himself to death and handed the PR title to Shawn Roberts, whose rallycross Miata was broken so he drove his R-spec daily driver...that's how good Shawn is ;)
All in all, a fun weekend, great weather, good competition. But for someone who makes damn sure that my car is always in top condition and prepared, I consider myself an idiot for not having the appropriate tires ready - and figures since this was the first time in 4 seasons that I've had to use one of my emergency spares. You never know what will happen, but I have to think having 80% tread tires on the rear vs. ~20% tires would have been worth at least 2/10ths.....
A couple local events coming up in the next 6 weeks, and then we'll all head up to New York for the next NEDiv Challenge event. Currently I believe Nick and I are tied for the Divisional lead, but I haven't checked the guys up in New England this week.
Best tow rig award went to Mike Julian, who dolly-towed his rallycross Justy there with his Legacy GT Wagon...
I towed a bit heavier...
So that's it for now. We'll see what to do on this car other than tires in the near future.
irish44j wrote: Are you driving Evan's Miata at nationals??
Maaaaaaaaaybe.
-OR-
You know the Answer already.
Regarding dust. Holy crud I think I would rather have the dust than a water truck. Water truck came out many times at the Challenge that Detroit held. A strategic necessity as when the wind blows a certain way, dust is absolutely verboten. But it made competition (nay, course navigation) very difficult. I don't think any runs were thrown out, but they were declared to be "course packing" runs in the middle of the run group. One heat had three "packing" runs before their timed runs. I think one of my heats had two packing runs minimum in addition to the parade laps. (One National legal parade lap and one "run whatcha brung" parade lap that you can take at any speed you want).
lol. Who's your top competition in MR this year?
btw, you noted closeness of MR.....well in the NEDiv challenge PR (with 10 cars) top two finished 1.6 apart (Shawn winning it, but he's running PR at Nats).
irish44j wrote: lol. Who's your top competition in MR this year?
ME.
Actually it is probably Bee Thao. He was in 3rd place at Nationals until he hit a cone late on the second day, allowing me to bump up into 3rd place. (MR = close?) The dude can seriously motor his Miata around. He drove out from Oklahoma to Michigan last weekend, and I did beat him by something like 3 seconds but it was entirely due to a run he did where he missed a couple gates (it was scored as a max time, so his 61 seconds + missed gates was turned into a 72 as that group's max time). This is a very strange thing to say but I won strictly based on running cleanly because his times were faster but had more cones. This is opposite of the natural order of things 
And then I got to drive his car when Evan's Miata decided to redistribute its engine oil to the grid. The monster is not the car, it's the driver...
Oh, I thought he and Theresa drove an RX-7? Or are they not related and I'm mixed up? She showed up to our first event this year with an RX7, but she was over 100 seconds behind the class leader back in 8th or 9th place.
You Ohio guys really need to come out to one of our events while we're still out there in Frostburg. It's almost as close to you as it is to us, lol.
I'm 99% sure that Theresa is his wife. They have several cars, Miata and RX-7 and various other. We talked a lot over the weekend, real awesome guy. Must remember to bring his trophy to Indianola, he had to leave before awards were presented. (Western Michigan to Oklahoma: ya think???)
Really do want to hit some of your events down there. Logistics is a problem tho. I don't know about the Columbus guys but I'm over 2 hours north-northeast of them. Detroit events are often closer than my "home" events 
But home is home, you know? And I have to pay $5.25 in tolls each way every time I go into Michigan.
Knurled wrote: I'm 99% sure that Theresa is his wife.
She is.
I hope to make some WDCR events this year, maybe after nationals when I don't care so much if I chew up the snow tires.
Autocross runs on the same (E36 M3ty) tires the Miata ran this weekend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2JGcH0tC-c
The R-Package miata suspension stood for Rally Package right?
I talked with Theresa and Bee at the PA snow cross (NEDIV challenge event) early this year. They might own more mazda's than I do.
Let me know if you want to come over and use the tire machine in my basement to swap around some tires.
Is the tire machine offer open to other locals? 
Yes it is open to other people I know.
moxnix wrote: Yes it is open to other people I know.
sweet! probably easiest for you if Josh and I coordinate a visit at the same time so you only have one visit to schedule.
awesome writeup....wish i could make it up to your venue, looks like a very fun site.
bluej wrote:moxnix wrote: Yes it is open to other people I know.sweet! probably easiest for you if Josh and I coordinate a visit at the same time so you only have one visit to schedule.
Definitely. Though sadly I only have two unmounted ones. Hope I can finish this season with what I have. Think next year 15s will be in order....
15's you say
yeah yeah....I saw your FB post lol. What are those, fn01r-c's?
I may have to get a set of Braids if I don't have to spend any money on the car the rest of this season ;)
My street wheels are 15s (euroweaves), so I could always use those too.
D-force 15x7 et35. Same as is on Slapdash car and few others I have seen. 110$ each new. or score all 5 for 230$ used like me!
super light like 12 pounds.
Euroweaves would work same i believe
non "rally specific" aftermarket wheels make me nervous.
In reply to bluej:
Apparently there was a rallycross at the other field at NTR where someone broke two Team Dynamics wheels. They weren't the TD rally wheels.
One of the few events I didn't make.
They were the lightweight road race TD wheels, which still qualified for Team Dynamics contingency money. Which would be nice for replacing broken wheels.
A couple nice action shots of me by Ed Palazynski
And a couple cool ones by Steven Philips
Me and Adam Kimmett
Not much going on, so decided to do a little project I've been meaning to do for a while. The inside of the car has always been flat black and pretty gloomy and dull. Plus the flat finish tends to "pick up" dirt and dust easily and it doesn't rinse off well with the hose. So decided to go with a gloss finish in something a bit more "fun." So we have "Sunrise Red" rust-oleum Professional. Also made it possible to touch up a number of places that were chipped to bare metal, etc. Anyhow, it's bright lol..
Things done today! Finally some productivity.
Nick and Bobby came over yesterday so I could cut out the e28's rotted floor under his gas pedal and weld in a new metal patch and re-mount the pedal. I don't know why I keep helping this guys when he keeps beating me, lol
Then I painted it safety blue when he wasn't looking, just to piss him off :)
Coincidentally, the other day while cleaning the driver's floor for painting, I found that there was more rust under MY gas pedal in the area where I had fiberglassed 4 years ago, and the fibreglass was starting to come up. Admittedly I half-assed it back then.
So time to do it right. Cut out two floor areas, including the gas pedal base. Made some patches, did some semi-shoddy welds to put it all in, and used some 3M seam sealer to leakproof it. It's not beautiful, but it's strong (I tested by jacking up the car under the panel a bit, lol).
I won't show you my ugly welds....so here's the finished (unpainted) product...
With that done I was able to paint that section of the floor and put the seats back in (pics, later, it's a bit dark out now).
Also today Ozgur and Alp came to pick up the white 318 (sans drivetrain) for their own rally car project. We hit a snag when they showed up with a tow dolly instead of a trailer (Uhaul local was out of trailers, apparently)....which meant we had to re-install the diff (which I had removed to keep) so as not to have the CV axles just hanging there spinning during the tow. In any case, after much sweating doing that install with the car up on the dolly (lol) they took it away and I have my garage bay back :)
Then got to my main project: Lighting. I ordered an ebay $50 LED lightbar (made in China!) for better illumination during night events. I had seen the same one on Jesse's stage car (which he's used for four stage rallies so far) so figured it was worth a try. For $50 shipped, I expected some cheap plastic POS. Nope.....fully milled aluminum and this thing feels (dare I say) high-quality. It uses CREE LEDs and the optics look pretty decent, with 18 spots in the middle and 12 floods on each side.
To install, I mounted it on the bumper (diving boards have their uses, so I didn't need to make a mount platform or bar like the plastic-bumper guys do), and I moved my Hella 500FFs down and to the outside to clear the bar and the headlights. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, honestly.
Hellas are now mounted on some cut-up Thule roof rack aluminum bar, bolted to the underside of the bumper. Solid mounting.
So the wiring isn't all done yet, but I did a quick jump to one of my Hella wires and ran down the street to the church parking lot at twilight.
Here's with the OEM low-beams and yellow Bosch fogs
Here's the LED bar
I know it doesn't have the distance that I'll need for stage rally alone, but shoudl be great for night rallycrosses. For $50, I consider it well above expectations. And I still have the Hellas too (which I need to re-wire), for longer-distance lighting.
I wonder if that can be mounted IN the bumper so it doesn't steal radiator airflow.
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