Creator of awesome stuff/owner of an actual legal "BERK IT" license plate/crew chief/all around great dude Paranoid_Android (Brian) has designed a shirt with the XR4Ti on it:
You can get it here on teespring if you want a cool representation of our ugly car and its' many ups and downs that you can wear on your torso.
I've been driving the Merkur every couple of weeks to keep it functioning, and we're planning on trying to register for SOFR if it happens in mid-July as (tentatively) planned or STPR in September. Hopefully it continues to behave itself but we all know how that goes.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:
Creator of awesome stuff/owner of an actual legal "BERK IT" license plate/crew chief/all around great dude Paranoid_Android (Brian) has designed a shirt with the XR4Ti on it:
You can get it here on teespring if you want a cool representation of our ugly car and its' many ups and downs that you can wear on your torso.
I've been driving the Merkur every couple of weeks to keep it functioning, and we're planning on trying to register for SOFR if it happens in mid-July as (tentatively) planned or STPR in September. Hopefully it continues to behave itself but we all know how that goes.
I don't need any more t-Shirts, but I need this.
Like it muchly ...
but with my last order from Blipshift stuck in the DHL system somewhere in New York since 27 April I think I'll wait for a bit more normality to return. Out of idle curiosity I checked the availability of BERK IT as a licence plate in NZ - it's there but at $999 (usd620) it can stay there 
Just submitted our entry for Southern Ohio Forest Rally- we find out tomorrow morning whether we made it in or not. Looks like a pretty unique event this year, starting at 7pm and ending at 3am with only two service stops and no other "gathering points" before or after. And the weekend before it is the first rallycross for the BRZ, so if we get in July is shaping up to be very busy!
If there were a spirit animal for "constant adventure, " its name would be Nonack.
In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :
That's extremely flattering!
When we were discussing whether to enter SOFR, Sara asked if I had run it by the GRM guys, and I said "their favorite thing is when we get in over our heads! I don't think they're ever going to tell us not to do something...."
Looks like I never officially updated, but we got in to Southern Ohio Forest Rally 2020 social distancing all night marathon edition. Since we'll be racing from 7pm-3am, the first thing I did was drive the car in the dark for about an hour and a half.
Our light setup has great range, and plenty of fill light close up, but the long range lights are way, way brighter making for some difficult contrast. I stuck some yellow tint on the lenses of the pencil beams to see if that helps:
I also changed the fuel strainer in the tank- it was pretty clean but given the injector debacle last year I figured it wouldn't hurt. We cleaned the interior a bit, put some worn out rally tires on, and will go for a late night tour of the local gravel roads some time soon to make sure everything seems to be in order.
Also from today, as I was reattaching the fuel lines to the pump hanger thing, I said to Sara:
"You know it's really easy to get convinced with all these Subarus and Suzukis and Toyotas that I've gotten better at working on stuff... when in fact I've just been working on stuff that isn't a Merkur."
Awesome! Seems like there are a lot of mixed feelings about the mostly-nighttime format, I'm really interested to see how it goes. I, for one, really enjoyed the limited nighttime stage rally experience I had.
In reply to artur1808 :
I think, given good weather and no major organizational hiccups, the night format will be awesome- but I could see delays, flooding, etc. turning it into sort of a nightmare. One way or another, it will probably be one of very few events with that sort of schedule that we get an opportunity to compete in, and that "when are you gonna get to do this again?" is what made me plunk down the money to enter.
Ah, there it is- the pre event failure that I have come to expect. This isn't a catalyst, why the berkeley is the flex pipe glowing?
News at whenever the exhaust and my annoyance both cool down.
this car seems to know the brz is going to replace it
Internal flex section failure:
Welded in another from the parts stash, installed, drove... and the berkeleying alternator tensioner bolts fell out. This thing hates me.
It runs again, but I want to point out that repairing the alternator bracket on this thing took longer than an engine swap on the BRZ.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:
This thing hates me.
It knows its days are numbered in your stable.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:
It runs again, but I want to point out that repairing the alternator bracket on this thing took longer than an engine swap on the BRZ.
you're being facetious right ? and who would take this mess of your efforts off your hands eh?
In reply to 759NRNG (Forum Partidario) :
I'm actually serious- but it's because I reengineered the alternator mounting because it was terrible, then threw the entire thing away and just improved the original terrible mount instead.
That image gave me a flashback to the days of the RX7 at Magnum Opus.
Here's to pre-event failures I guess?
In reply to paranoid_android (Forum Enabler) :
Certainly better than in-event failures! I miss the RX7, I swear it had some sort of reactor in it that would bend the laws of physics to prevent a DNF.
Went to drive the car in the rain tonight since SOFR tends to have serious weather. Pulled out of the garage and... no wipers. Pulled back in, jiggled the wires near the wiper switch and.. the headlights went out. I thought I had fixed all of the PO's hidden dashboard splices but I guess there was one that evaded me.
Fixed it with a good heashrink butt connector, drove for a while, did a big obnoxious handbrake turn and some sliding around and nothing else broke. Yet.
In other news, STPR has been cancelled so for all I know SOFR may be our only stage rally this year. That's sort of a bummer, although I'm surprised SOFR is even happening- it's not particularly difficult to do social distancing at events spread out over hundreds of miles of woods, but organizing them is a whole different matter.
Put another 50 miles on it today, no issues- it's on the lift for a nut and bolt check, then we'll take it out for another shakedown run before swapping to the tires we plan to run SOFR on and packing everything:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:
In reply to paranoid_android (Forum Enabler) :
Certainly better than in-event failures! I miss the RX7, I swear it had some sort of reactor in it that would bend the laws of physics to prevent a DNF.
Kinda like the infinite improbability drive, eh?
In reply to Recon1342 :
What is a rotary engine if not a more basic, mechanical improbability drive? 
Your rally car list is basically a list of "what cars am i most likely to have problems with?"
Admit it - you just like working on them and fixing them constantly :)
