Andy's Challenge Builds - Good Times Racing

Before I have always done a year specific Challenge build thread. Personally I'd like to just do a continuation thread forever at this point in time. As life gets busier and I get less sure if I can make it to the actual event.  

First off I'd like to do a quick reflection on previous Challenge builds.  

$2011 Challenger B18 swapped civic hatch, the sanded off paint looked much better before it rained on the way home. Don't recall my finishing position but I finished dead last in concourse even though this strategy of losing weight through paint paid off in later years for another team.  

$2012 Challenge 1.6 miata with a salvage title running koni and 275 hoosiers, very open course that year, improved to second to last in concourse.   

$2013 Challenge 1999 Miata purchased for $2000 used the free kuhmo tire rule and drove it down to the event. Finsihed 10th overal, 11th in the magazined due to math errors.  

$2014 Challenge Fiero, still the best decision I've made coming to the event. Many friends were made this year. Somehow still friends as Jeremy took on the burden of the Fiero after the event.   

$2015 was the year of the Aristocrats and I brought the supposed to be winning the class LS400, my lack of vision left me spinning one wheel all day and all night.  

$2016 Challenge was my best purchased Challenge car. Still upset they used the worst picture of it for the magazine.  

$2017 and 18 were the years of the Q"Ute"

To Infiniti and beyond  

and the "Good Times Racing" themed car 

That is all for post #1, soon I will update with the future build direction. 

I just want to say that your plastic flare and Cobra wheel game is on point. That LS400 was a favorite of mine that year.

Those fiero wheels found there way back to the challenge this year on the black Toyota Matrix my buddies son ran.

The next challenge build will be me attempting to shove a 6.0 LS based truck engine with 330k miles into a 1987 Mazda RX7. If you know my skill level this will be a little above my current level. The goal will be to drive the car to the event and back home. This year I spent almost $600 in fuel driving to the event and back home.  Another goal is to be as transparent about the build process as possible. 

If the event is before the second week of October next year or I don't finish most of this build by May 1, I'll just be contacting Jeremy to by me some sort of car that I can fly and drive.  

Purchase of RX7 $600 later

Knowing I needed an engine I reached out to Patrick who had this 330k mile Express that he sold me for $1000. I'm still debating on weather or not to use this since my starting point is half the budget.  

Van story time: Story note, there was around 5" of snow on the ground. 

1. Pat had me park at the neighbors house because his driveway is nicer for trailering. He forgot to inform the neighbor of this, so the police were called. After thinking it over the neighbor called Pat, Pat confirmed it was one of his friends and the neighbor called the police off. 

2. Had to unload Pat's storage shed, the van, mainly into the S10 from Jacksonville. I keep trying to sell different people of the idea of using the van body as a storage shed now. 

3.  Put the battery in the van and jump started it. Drove it over around the neighbors driveway. 

4. Tilted my trailer down, if you have never seen a tilt trailer tilt you are missing out. 

5. Took about ten tries with the van spinning its tires and me to line the van up perfectly to get the van the whole way onto the trailer. The rear passenger side tire ended up hanging off the side about 2".  The whole van overhung by about 2.5'. 

6. Pat and I strapped down the front of the van.

7. Now comes the tricky part tilting the trailer back up to its original position. Normally I use wheel chocks to hold the wheels of the trailer still as I pull the bed of the trailer back up. With the snow on the ground this didn't work very well. That and my work truck that we use as our plow truck kind of sucks in the snow. Pat was amazed our 2007 Ford has manual locking hubs in the front. At this point we started to question if I was going to get the van tilted back up onto the trailer to take it home with me. 

8. Pat comes up with the brilliant idea to hook one of my extra tie down straps to the bottom the the trailer to his truck. He would pull the part that is supposed to stay still while I pulled the trailer forward to tilt the trailer up. At this point we both hop into our respective trucks and have a tug of way with the trailer, spinning tires in the snow in the neighbors driveway. This actually worked, my truck and trailer wasn't straight because of the spinning but the bed of the trailer was now pulled into position to toe. 

9. Tied down the back of the van. Made an exchange of money and paperwork.  We came to the conclusion we should have had someone video tape the raising of the trailer to put onto youtube. 

10. Had a tough time pulling out of Pat's neighbors driveway through the snow, had to get a little running start when no cars were coming. 

11. Made it onto the highway where I realized the weight balance of the trailer didn't like going more than 62mph. I set the cruise at 60mph and had a relaxing ride home. I didn't have to pass anyone on the 70mph roads. Took me 1.5 hours longer to get home. 

Picked up a grannies swap mount kit and a bunch of other parts  

At some point sitting in my basement at work someone did this to it.  

Dropped the RX7 off at Theoretical house so he could remove the engine and transmission for his own project and helped me recoup some cost. Need to go pick it up soon. Chris said I needed more flying cars in my build threads so I added a photo of the car flying onto the trailer.  

Current budget outlook  

Purchased a roll bar at the challenge for $100 and picked up my Turbo2 rear on the way back from the Challenge. 

Need to decide which set of wheels to actual use, find a way to mount the transmission and a radiator solution that fits the budget and goal. 

I'm working on an LS into an E36.  I'm in to see what problems you run into and what solutions you come up with.  Looks like a great start!

the only way to get new skills, is to go out and try something you haven't done before.  looking forward to updates.

Andy, who was it who was telling us at the Challenge how good you are at wiring nitrous? You got this. Easy peasy. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Nothing will run unless I hold the horn button. 

311k.  And i ran over a full bottle through my 428k mile 5.3 at 150 shots and it’s still alive.  

If i have time we can do the harness together if you bring it out.  I still have all my notes on the 07 van harness.  I’m just going to start building them as i find them cheap so I always have one around.  

For challenge duty, the stock rear end will probably hold up to at least a handful of launches if you get too close to maxed out on budget.

It will NOT hold up to constant abuse, but a few launches is probably okay.

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

Yeah, but he's actually going to test and practice with this one... right?  

I’m going to miss the Q45s but looking forward to the RX7. While I may have been able to wiring your nitrous in the hotel parking lot I don’t think I can wiring an LS swap there. 

The Q”Ute” May have sharp edges, but the van has ragged rusty edges. It does mean I don’t need to unbolt the harness to frame connectors, they pull right off.  

In reply to Patrick :

I may need to take you up on that offer. 

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Extensive testing will not be done. I thought the challenge was the test and tune  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Why do you always buy the rustiest vehicle you can find?

Stampie said:

Why do you always buy the rustiest vehicle you can find?

Because it’s also the cleanest one he can find within Challenge budget in Ohio?

In reply to Stampie :

I blame Pat this time. He said “rust free!” I think he meant the rusty part was free. 

Removed the dash of the van. 

Just need to take off a few more engine wires and remove the driveshaft before pulling the engine. 

Andy Neuman said:

In reply to Stampie :

I blame Pat this time. He said “rust free!” I think he meant the rusty part was free. 

Pretty sure i said the rust was what was keeping the floor from falling free of the back of the van.

UIn reply to Patrick :

I’m still amazed that the hood hinges are fused to the hood. I tried a pry bar and just slamming the hood when the latch was gone, still attached. My maintenance guy was giving me a hard time... until he failed miserably. 

Also so we are going to need another rusted out truck that can tow the car down. Take the engine out of the tow vehicle for the challenge car in the best western parking lot. 

Stampie said:

I’m going to miss the Q45s but looking forward to the RX7. While I may have been able to wiring your nitrous in the hotel parking lot I don’t think I can wiring an LS swap there. 

We can. I'm pretty confident I can do a better job on my next parking lot harness.

In reply to Robbie :

We have the correct harness. 

In reply to Robbie :

Lol I think you should set the bar a little higher. 

Maybe I missed it, what trans are you planning on running?

In reply to Somebeach :

Currently the 4l80e behind the engine in the van. I may be trading it for a TH350/400 and some other parts. 

In reply to Andy Neuman :

You’ll get bonus points if you light switch mod the 4l80e.