Looks fun! The Ranger crashed only 1 mile in?! Major bummer.
Looks fun! The Ranger crashed only 1 mile in?! Major bummer.
Yeah, Gary goes full-bore all the time. They just slid off a fast sweeper and had the bad luck to hit the tree directly. They may have been able to continue, but Gary was worried that the water pump had pushed into the timing case and didn't want to risk his built engine if the pump was stuck. The damage to the truck wasn't all that terrible.
Lots of odd cars there! Rally 914 with ginormous wing?! :D
The 914 was a build from some Porsche shop...it had a 3.0 6er, stroked to 300hp in it. Lots and lots of carbon fiber. Probably the highest dollar car ther eother than the two Mk2 Escorts, I'd bet, and it was surely beautiful, though the wing (supposedly an actual F1 wing) was a bit overkill in basically everyone's opinion. They were doing their first rally and driver was overheard saying he was "going for the overall win" .....(rolling eyes a bit).
In any case, the car looked pretty quick but it melted a throttle cable or something like that about 4 miles into the first stage and did not continue. Will be fun to see it at a rally that isn't all deep sand....it will be fast and a handful, I'd think.
In boring stuff....DC rallycross starts soon. We'll be running at Summit Point this year, as well as some events at Panthera, a training facility in West Virginia that has dirt courses, road courses, gun ranges, tactical buildings, etc....they train cops and feds and miltary there. The course is huge and has elevation changes so should be a lot of fun. The car is ready, just hanging out, waiting to get dirty again.
Unfortunately, just had to replace my water heater in the house (along with a lot of piping and stuff to get it up to code), so my racing budget is pretty shot for the moment....so probably will not do a rally this summer and will shoot for Black River in the fall again. We'll see what I can work out.
The Porsche is running great and a blast to drive. Only real issues: The steering wheel sucks. I need to either get it re-wrapped (or DIY) or get something else. TBD.
Also embarrasingly it left a big oil spot on the in-laws' driveway. Damn...I knew there was a little bit of a leak. Finally narrowed it down to the inconveniently-located oil pressure sender on the block (what a pain to get to, requires removing the PS pump and tiny hands). It wasn't the threaded part, but the sender housing itself leaking (the "seal" was shot). Unfortunately, the one I ordered a few days ago was backordered (what luck) and I want to drive the car this weekend up to Jim's (for reasons I will talk about later). So my solution was to take it out and weld up the little hole where the oil goes into the housing, grind it flat, and reinstall until the one I ordered to day arrives next week. So I wont' have a functional pressure gauge for a couple days, but at least I won't have a leak. Figures that this is the only one of my 5 cars that leaks....not my 160k WRX, not my 12-year old Sequoia, and the e30 has the tiniest leak but it gets sopped up by all the dirt on the block lol....
Once again nothing to report on the rally car, and with everyone I know out at 100 Acre Wood Rally, needed to do something non-rally related, so let's do some other stuff. Today was the "long(ish) distance test drive" for the 924. Wanted to stretch it out further and further until I know I can drive it any distance, so heading up to Jim's place in Frederick is a good test, since it's about 60 miles or so on a combination of country roads, city streets, and some good high-speed highways. We planned to do some work on Jim and Amanda's recently-acquired rallycross car (formerly Jason's so you may recognize it), so I took loaded up some "supplies" for the job that needed to be done. "Sport-Utility Vehicle" indeed...
Great day for a drive, not much traffic, and got to open the car up much more than I had previously, taking it up to uh.....well speeds that I will not mention online.....on the wide-open Greenway toll road and Rt.15 (both with 65mph segments). I did find out that the speedo reads siginifcantly high...(verified using my GPS on the phone), which makes it kind of fun when you're going a reasonable speed but the speedo is showing 100mph. In any case, I did some "suprcruise" within a reasonable stretch of the speed limit and boy....this car is a great high-speed cruiser. Even at high speeds with the half-assed alignment I have on it, the car is rock-solid at high speeds. It's so slippery the gusty wind doesn't affect it at all. tracks straight, not buzzy like the WRX or e30 at these speeds. And it pulls strong in any gear. This is why I bought this car, and I'm super-pleased with what a great highway cruiser it is. It was also fun on some of the high-speed traffic circles on the way up Rt.15. I surprised an M3 by taking him around the outside of the turn (not that he was probably trying) after which he put the pedal down and promptly annihilated me as we hit the straight section hah.
Anyhow, the car is really good other than the meh steering wheel and some wind noise due to old window seals. Windows down, sunroof open all day. And the gasoline smell is gone, which is very nice.
On to Jim's....there were some other German cars there too, so had to park with them
Then around back. Since the pieces we needed to weld hadn't arrived, we worked on sanding and spray-bombing the Miata. You may recall I sanded and painted this Miata 2 yeas ago when it was Jason's. that was some roll-on rustoleum that didn't hold up at all.....cracked and peeled. So we primed and used some actual automotive rattle-can this time. It is rallycross-car-quality (i.e will look good in pictures, just don't look at it from closer than 10 feet!), but turned out pretty good I think.
[Porsche] So one thing I'd like to improve is the lean of the rear end of this car. The 924S of this year came stock with a 21.5mm front swaybar and an OPTIONAL 18mm rear sway, from what I can tell. This car does not have a rear sway and it doesn't look like one was ever installed (though it does have the mount bases on the rear subframe, unlike early 924's). The curious part is that this car has a 23mm FRONT sway, which came with the M030 (sport) package on the 944S from the same year. So apparently someone upgraded the front swaybar at some point but didn't bother even adding a rear. This, combined with the wider tires out back, makes this car difficult to rotate. Not an issue with distance cruising, but it definitely feels sluggish in quick stuff, as the soft rear with no sway just hunkers down and grips.
So currently on the hunt for a rear sway, which I need to find with the factory eccentric bolts where it attaches to the trailing arms (which double as rear camber adjusters, so pretty important!). My inclination is not to go with the big 20mm M030 rears (also, they are hard to find cheap), but will probably add a 16mm or 18mm rear from the 968. I'll pretty much go with whatevre I can find cheap on ebay with free shipping.
Some other Porsche stuff. Getting down to details, which is what I like because it means most of the big stuff is done :)
Snow day yesterday so I spent the day in the garage doing mostly electrical stuff. First order of business was getting the power mirrors working again. When I first took them off I couldn't figure out where the plug was for the wiring and I got frustrated and just cut the wires. That was dumb, because now I had to go re-splice them all back together
Well, that was annoying, but it's done now so the power mirror adjusters work again. Which is nice since the passenger side one is a bitch to reach from the driver's seat to get adjusted right.
Next, finally got a new oil pressure sender in and installed. If you've never done this on this car, it requires removing the PS pump from its mount bracket (which is needlessly complicated in its own right), and even then it's a pain to get to. Never did figure out how to get a wrench in there to tighten the bolt-edge part of the sender....I had to use a plumber's wrench on the body itself, which wasn't ideal, to tighten it
Also took apart the speedometer and added a tiny washer to one of the gear posts to reposition it back to contact with the worm gear, thus making my odometer functional again. No pics of that, but it took some trial an error to get it aligned perfectly.
Then some ebay stuff came in. One issue with an old car is the lack of power for phones, other electronics, etc. The original cigarette lighter works, but it's not a good place to plug into as the cord constantly gets in the way of the shifter. Time for a more elegant solution. A twin USB plug port, which I put in the hole that originally had the radio fader dial, which is no longer functional with a modern deck in the car
This is just hardwired to the battery with an inline fuse, so it has constant power
And yes, my Porsche keys are on a BMW keychain, lol..
So one other thing I've been thinking about is the dumb center speaker "grille" in the middle of the dash. I dont' want a center speaker channel, so that thing is just empty. Let's do something with it, shall we?
First, got a power inverter to give me a standalone USB power plug in the cavity
Then took some measurements of the opening. It's just about 7 inches wide. Time to scour ebay. And for $20 shipped, I picked up a 5-year old Kindle Fire 6 (the original) that is in perfect shape. I figure I can use this for GPS and other stuff (via bluetooth or my phone's mobile hotspot). So This is just holding it in the position I eventually want it to sit in (more or less). I am working on a few ideas about the best way to actually mount it (fabricate something, buy something, and tested out the RamMount that we hold our tablet in the rally car with (it didn't work well in this application).
My plan is to try to make some kind of piece that will both fill in the cavity without looking dumb AND hold the Kindle in place, but making it removable. I have some ideas, we'll see....It actually sit perfectly in the cavity against the speaker mount holes, but at that angle it will probably be hard to see due to sunlight glare (and will reflect off the windshield at night), so I want it tilted pretty much vertical like such.
Very nice, the tablet will be slick. Maybe add a HUD to the backside? I have wanted to play with those and they are getting cheap....
Yeah, very cheap! I think I've figured out my plan for mounting it and making it look decent. Will post up the finished solution this weekend once the mount piece I need shows up (and once I confirm that my plan will work, lol). The HUD is an interesting idea, though not sure what I'd use it for since I won't be doing any car data on it. If this car was only OBDII, then there would be all kinds of neat things I could do with Torque Pro app that I use in the WRX and Sequoia :)
That is a great idea!
I also have an unused Kindle hanging around and wondered if it could be used for this sort of thing.
Staying tuned for the finished product :-)
I actually did something on the e30 today. Nothing big, but at WMWR we got gigged during tech for the reverse lights not working. They let it slide (I mean, if you're in reverse you're already in trouble), but since this is also a street-driven car it's something I want working. First check was to see if the wires had gotten pulled out from the sensor on the tranny, as I suspected, since even with our skidplates there is stuff that can get up there during rally. But no, both wires were still attached. So I tested the notoriously sketchy e30 taillight assemblies and the lights themselves work fine. Then moved on to the plug at the shifter where the sensor wires plug to the power/signal wires. Everything fine there. WTF.
Back under the car and noticed that one of the wires appeared to be kinked and partially broken. Yay, problem solved after splicing in some new wire. Right? NOPE. So at this point i figure it must be a bad sensor. Then i got to thinking about what at least two other experienced drivers said to me at WMWR tech: they have their reverse lights on a rocker switch that they just flip when reversing. So, not wanting to order a new sensor I just added one of those. And now they work fine.
In retrospect, IDK what I was thinking, seeing as I have two spare G240 transmissions just sitting here under a workbench. And of course....both of them have reverse sensors on them. Didn't even think about that until just this moment, so now I feel kind of dumb for not just doing that. However, in rally it's best not to have wires under the car, even semi-protected as the reverse wires are, so who knows. When it warms up maybe I'll re-re-do this the right way.
Also ordered a dirt-cheap rear 14mm swaybar and all bolts/links/bushings from a guy parting out a 944. It's the optional stock size for my car, so not as big as I'd eventually like (18mm would be best), but it was literally $15 and will be a good upgrade over my current setup, which is lacking any rear sway at all.
So finished up my little screen project on the Porsche today, and I'm pretty excited about how it came out. Again, this is using the center speaker cavity. First order of business was to build a mount. Conveniently, the center dash mount bolt is right there, so I just cut some 16ga and bent it a few times until it was in the right place
Then I added a magnetic mount that I got on ebay or Amazon or something for a few bucks
Cut the speaker grille to the right opening
Attached the metal contacts to the back of the Kindle, and boom...it sits in place securely
Also pretty excited that it (accidentally) is perfectly positioned for the internal camera to shoot forward-looking video over the low dash of the car, so that's a cool bonus
I am going to get a right-angle plug for the mini-USB for charging and to receive GPS signal from a remote GPS receiver (to come).
That turned out nice!
Rallycross season starts up in about 2 weeks, so I've done a few minor things to the car not worth mentioning. Also thinking about pulling the dash from my parts car and designing something for the rally car that is a bit less "pieced-together" than what's in it right now. More on that this summer I think, but I'm starting to sketch ideas and look at e30 race car dashes all over the internet for ideas.....
Another Porsche thing today. I happened to stumble upon a guy on CL selling a few random 944 parts for dirt cheap, and wouldn't you know he lives 20 minutes from me and had awesome prices on the stuff (needed it out of his parents' basement). He had a 944 rear hatch with a turbo spoiler on it, which I prefer to the little 924 spoiler, and for cheap. Also hoping against hope that this hatch somehow didn't have the frame/glass separation up near the hinges like most of them (and mine) do.
So headed out there with the tow pig and picked it up. His nice 944 Turbo was out in the driveway, and his Dad had a nice little couple inside the garage on a stacker lift...
The Alfa was about as mint as I've ever seen....
In luck...frame and glass are perfect, no separation. It did have some dark tint on it thought..
So of course I installed immediately (with a bit of help from the wife). Damn, love that big tail :)
But the tint annoyed me so got out the heat gun to take it off. Turns out it was TWO layers of tint on top of each other....fun.
But after much lying on my back and singing the hairs on my fingers with the heat gun, it's all off (and any adhesive residue). gotta say, I'm pretty excited about the bigger tail, and looks much better without the ricer tint..
FYI, the bigger spoiler creates an issue on the 924S at speed, it should be paired with a front spoiler/splitter.
im planning on putting a Raspberry Pi in the dash of my 924 running a 7” LCD screen to monitor the MegaSquirt EFI. That AM speaker hole should work well for that, though I haven’t found anyone who has made a tablet or gauge panel for that, that actually looks good. I think the key is to get it mounted inside the dash and fill in around it rather than build up and out of it.
Stefan said:FYI, the bigger spoiler creates an issue on the 924S at speed, it should be paired with a front spoiler/splitter.
im planning on putting a Raspberry Pi in the dash of my 924 running a 7” LCD screen to monitor the MegaSquirt EFI. That AM speaker hole should work well for that, though I haven’t found anyone who has made a tablet or gauge panel for that, that actually looks good. I think the key is to get it mounted inside the dash and fill in around it rather than build up and out of it.
at track speed, I assume? If so, not really a concern here since this one will not likely see speeds (too far) over the legal limit. This car is really for cruising and backroads and not for track work. I drive this car on nice days, so more often than not my aero is botched due to the sunroof being open (or off) anyhow :)
Perhaps I'll do the "garage door seal" mod that we've used on several track cars. Since this guy has an identical 924 to mine and it doesn't look too bad...
Yeah, i know there are nicer ways to do the dash display, and I did consider insetting it, but in the end I needed to be able to take it out easily, and also able to get to the charge/USB port, on/off button, and volume. For a track car, I'd definitely do it differently.
So, it looks like our DC RallyCross modified RWD class is going to be absolutely insane this year.....Our first event just hit the registration cap of 70 cars (still 2 weeks out), and 18 of them are MR....
Also note the Z3. This is the car you may have seen in my pics from Sandblast Rally.....so i won't be the only stage car this year in the class :)
Man did you luck the hell out with that tint. My 944S came with the limo tint there and had sat for a few years in an insurance yard in teh florida sun. I could only get dime sized chips out at a time... I spent three weekends on my back trying to remove it. Only broke one defrost line. Dad would not let me drive the car until it was removed.
Thinking about it more, my S was missing a few ponies. but had 195 or so per factory.
My thunderbird weighs what, 1k lbs more[edit yup 2880 vs ~3800) and had 205hp in it's big fancy 1996 v8...
A few more torques though.
irish44j said:So, it looks like our DC RallyCross modified RWD class is going to be absolutely insane this year.....Our first event just hit the registration cap of 70 cars (still 2 weeks out), and 18 of them are MR....
Also note the Z3. This is the car you may have seen in my pics from Sandblast Rally.....so i won't be the only stage car this year in the class :)
And that's with Shawn choosing to stay in PR, too. Going to be an interesting season.
bluej said:irish44j said:So, it looks like our DC RallyCross modified RWD class is going to be absolutely insane this year.....Our first event just hit the registration cap of 70 cars (still 2 weeks out), and 18 of them are MR....
Also note the Z3. This is the car you may have seen in my pics from Sandblast Rally.....so i won't be the only stage car this year in the class :)
And that's with Shawn choosing to stay in PR, too. Going to be an interesting season.
Yeah, part of me is sad he didn't bump back up, and part of me is relieved lol. Of the 18 drivers/cars in our class right now, not sure many of them can be as consistently fast as Shawn - especially if he prepped his Miata for MR.....
Hey, he reads this! STFU already. We can discuss on Sunday 
So there are now 75 sign-ups for the first event.....that's awesome in one regard, and not so awesome in the fact that it will reduce the number of runs we get. Hopefully we will run extra-fast at Summit Point without all the delays for course changes that we used to get at the Rally Farm and Frostburg. We'll see....
With it over 70 degrees today I swapped the summer wheels/tires onto the e30, cleaned the suspension (still gunky from WMWR), did some other maintenance, a quick alignment, and a few other little things not worth taking photos of. Car should be good to go for next weekend if the weather holds up. Hope it does, because if they postpone it to either of the two weeks after, I will miss it as I'll be on work travel in Vietnam :)
My uncle gave me this bluetooth all-weather speaker for Christmas. Whatdya know...it fits right in my bottle cage between the seats. So no more headphones on drives to rallycross, I have tunes again :)
Other Porsche stuff now, since the detail stuff is a bee in my bonnet at the moment.
This car didn't have a rear swaybar on it, so I found a stock one (14mm) on ebay for practically nothing. He shipped it to me with all the bushings, brackets, and endlinks so I didn't have to look for anything or buy anything else. It was a little bit rusty, but nothing that some sanding and paint couldn't fix easily. The bushings are like new and the endlinks are a bit grubby but solid and in good shape overall
The attachment point for the endlinks is interesting. They attach to the trailing arms via an offset bolt that also serves as a camber adjustment. On cars that didn't come with a rear bar (like mine, apparently), there is just an offset bolt there. For cars with the bar the bolt has a threaded stud on both sides (one to attach to the car, one for the endlink). You basically just swap them out for each other.
The bushing brackets even on non-swaybar cars is still on the rear subframe, so I chased the threads for 30 years of rust (surprsingly in good shape) and bolted it all up...
It's a small bar, of course, but does make a substantial difference in keeping the rear end planted on hard corners and helping it rotate a bit. Car feels much better balanced now. Good time to note that this car is quickly becoming more fun to drive than the e30 - not only because it has an interior and is nice and quiet (other than some wind noise from old window seals), but it really feels like it holds on to the road so well in every situation - like it could be going 100mph on a curvy road and feel smooth and easy. The e30 with the M42 and no interior gets awfully buzzy all the time, and driving both today the e30 steering feels comparitively heavier, which is kind of surprising.
I have a few other little things coming on Amazon tomorrow that should more or less finish up the interior of the car for the time being. I'm getting pretty excited to take a real road trip in this thing...
Oh...also had to add some stickarz, of course
Oooooo a JBL Flip 4! I have one and I love it. Got it this past Christmas and it has been my audio source from my Dell Inspiron 15 Touch laptop thanks to it having Bluetooth. They really pack a punch for their size!
Bill Mesker said:Oooooo a JBL Flip 4! I have one and I love it. Got it this past Christmas and it has been my audio source from my Dell Inspiron 15 Touch laptop thanks to it having Bluetooth. They really pack a punch for their size!
yeah for sure...a lot of bass for how small it is! Pure luck it fits right in that water bottle cage :)
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