The times you triumph over adversity are the times you are going to fondly remember and tell stories about years later, more than the times you sailed easily to a win.
The times you triumph over adversity are the times you are going to fondly remember and tell stories about years later, more than the times you sailed easily to a win.
Sounds like one heck of an event - well done for persevering and getting a result out of it too (just finishing would have been a good result by the sound of it)
Some awesome photos from Derek Palmer:
So, reprep is going but a little slower than usual since I'm still fighting with Lyme right now and trying not to overdo it.
Cleaning!
More cleaning!
Dry the tools that got rained on at the event:
Those rear tires sure did get a workout on Waste Management:
Time to service the struts:
Clean the old grease out with a rag-on-a-stick:
And spread a thin layer of fresh grease in with my new favorite nonmarring, flexible, cheap tool for this, a wiper blade:
And with that done, how about other stuff? Well, the exhaust was leaking at the flanges and it melted this steering boot pretty thoroughly:
The original exhaust flanges had a good run but time to replace them with something a little more robust. Lots of zapping later, we have v-bands:
The one on the header is snug but it fits in there nicely:
I did consider getting some sort of aftermarket header but I don't really think the cost is worth it right now. I patched up the OEM one again and tacked the heat shields together where needed, maybe I'll replace it when it inevitably cracks more somewhere.
Love the wiper method. Going to steal that. What do you use for grease? I should probably service mine before problems happen.
Every time I use a V band clamp, I tell myself that I will notch one part and add a blob of weld to the other, so that they can self align without having to play the game of rotating things this way and that with the clamps slightly loose. Every time, I don't do this...
Impressive. All of it. You manage more in a week fighting Lyme than I do in a year. Your thread makes it look so easy, and every year it seems I barely manage to get the car ready for the single rally I didn't finish the year before:) It does genuinely make me try harder.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:Love the wiper method. Going to steal that. What do you use for grease? I should probably service mine before problems happen.
This was the last of the weird yellow grease that came with the Bilsteins, I usually use Mobil red synthetic grease for just about everything.
Every time I use a V band clamp, I tell myself that I will notch one part and add a blob of weld to the other, so that they can self align without having to play the game of rotating things this way and that with the clamps slightly loose.
I actually like that they allow some rotation- the exhaust gets hit with rocks and stuff, the ability to be re-clocked without leaking isn't necessarily a bad thing. I've considered using slip joints for the same reason but I really like how well a tightened v-band clamp seals.
Berck said:Impressive. All of it. You manage more in a week fighting Lyme than I do in a year. Your thread makes it look so easy, and every year it seems I barely manage to get the car ready for the single rally I didn't finish the year before:) It does genuinely make me try harder.
Thank you, seriously- I work very hard at this and it means a lot to me that my documenting it here is a positive influence in some way. Everything looks easy when it's just a few words and some photos!
Something that I think applies to most people's home built rally efforts is the concept of "the snowball" which is a term I picked up from reading about Dakar malle moto competitors- they have to do everything themselves in that class, so every little thing adds up in terms of time and schedule. If they get behind on their daily bike prep, or their tire mounting, or their tent setup, or even eating, the cumulative effect is a snowball of things to do, all on the clock, which will eventually cut into their ability to compete or to rest enough to ride the next day. Our timelines may be a little longer, but staying ahead of the snowball and keeping it from growing beyond a manageable size is still the single most important thing in being able to show up at the next rally ready to go fast, have fun, or just finish, whatever your goal may be.
Underbody touched up- honestly I'm more and more impressed with the resiliency of heat-gunned gorilla tape, it generally only lasts one event but for the cost and speed of install, great way to keep crap out from between the plastic and the floor.
I tried something a little different on the rear flaps and left them oversized so they rubbed the tires- the ancient Coopers I have back there right now are sacrificial anyway:
Drove it for an hour, seems happy:
And those rear flaps self-clearanced beautifully:
And you took the photo on Pecktor Hill, probably the most scenic view in Williams Twp.
I too have been impressed with heated gorilla tape! I patched a bike inner tube with it and hit it with a lighter and forgot about it for a year.... It was still holding fine!
Dang, yeah they're even using that gorilla glue on commercial jets now, need to slap some on my highlander trim.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:Berck said:Impressive. All of it. You manage more in a week fighting Lyme than I do in a year. Your thread makes it look so easy, and every year it seems I barely manage to get the car ready for the single rally I didn't finish the year before:) It does genuinely make me try harder.
Thank you, seriously- I work very hard at this and it means a lot to me that my documenting it here is a positive influence in some way. Everything looks easy when it's just a few words and some photos!
Something that I think applies to most people's home built rally efforts is the concept of "the snowball" which is a term I picked up from reading about Dakar malle moto competitors- they have to do everything themselves in that class, so every little thing adds up in terms of time and schedule. If they get behind on their daily bike prep, or their tire mounting, or their tent setup, or even eating, the cumulative effect is a snowball of things to do, all on the clock, which will eventually cut into their ability to compete or to rest enough to ride the next day. Our timelines may be a little longer, but staying ahead of the snowball and keeping it from growing beyond a manageable size is still the single most important thing in being able to show up at the next rally ready to go fast, have fun, or just finish, whatever your goal may be.
and here the only thing I've done to my rally car since the rallycross 10 weeks ago is change the oil and pile stuff on top of it lol..
In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :
Cars do make convenient shelves 
In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :
So you're saying it's ready for a last minute entry to Boone? You know you want to...
Tiny things before Boone- the cage padding was starting to visibly age/crack so replaced that stuff:
Also, I have several of these ziptie stashes throughout the car- I have basically zero recollection of pulling zipties from them, but they always run down over time. Restocked and ready to go:
Boone? Boone nc?
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
Kentucky, https://thebooneforestrally.org/
It was stupid-rough last year but they've chosen all new roads which look much more fun. We'll see!
Ready to leave tomorrow:
I'm still fighting some mystery illness (probably not just lyme at this point) but as long as I keep plenty of electrolytes in me I'm doing alright, so, onward!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :
So you're saying it's ready for a last minute entry to Boone? You know you want to...
I do. sadly my bank account does not. Also my helmet is expired lol...
Best of luck at Boone!
Hopefully the illness subsides or at least lets you drive more comfortably.
It was cool to see this car in person at Boone!
In reply to wae :
It was cool to be there! Some great roads and some of the friendliest locals I've encountered in our rally travels.
Boone Forest Rally
Towing and Recce
The tow out was long but uneventful- I was just happy to be able to drive the whole thing, and feel pretty ok doing it, after I was so sick at STPR. We were on the fence about going to this event since I'm still not 100%, but decided to anyway. Once we got to registration, we all enjoyed being out of the truck for a moment before heading to our airbnb with Bukky (Honda Fit), Adam Brock (Volvo 240/9HIO), Bit by Bit (Impreza/rustbucketlegacy on the forum), and some volunteer friends.
The next day on recce, we found the stages to be of two flavors- either very technical with gravel/tarmac mix and frequent surface changes, or less interesting and all-gravel. We also found some fun things like an old mine and a neat tunnel, the former of which we would explore later and the latter being actually part of the finish time control area on SS4/6.
We also ran into Mark Williams just before shakedown- we keep his book in the truck for crew to read during long service park waits if they want, and he signed it for us!
Back to the airbnb for note cleanup and some sleep.
Day 1 (Friday)
We did some video review first thing, then got out to one of the stages for another recce pass- the notes were fine but I really wanted to commit as much of the mixed surface stuff to memory as possible. By Parc Expose in McKee, I wasn't feeling awesome and the completely windless, humid air wasn't helping- I hid out in the shade, drank electrolytes, and tried to feel better:
Soon enough it was off to SS1, Turkey Foot, which was mostly uphill and all gravel. I'm beginning to realize that running uphill is a weak point for me, and this was no exception- between the incline and my rather poor choice to run some pretty worn out tires, I felt like I couldn't trust the car to rotate, and had trouble trusting it to do so predictably when it finally did. We ran a relatively crappy time for both this and the second pass (SS2) and I generally just wasn't enjoying myself- I had expected to be off the pace of the frontrunners but not by this much.
Back to service where Stirling had the tools laid out and the pups comfortable (even if they kept spilling their water everywhere)- we checked everything, no issues, and decided to leave the crappy tires on since there was a bunch of tarmac coming up and we'd cook them anyway.
The next stage was better- SS3, Hale Ridge, was the one we'd done another recce pass of that morning and it was really fun with constant tarmac/gravel switches and lots of neat features including a tarmac to gravel hairpin that we could really attack with our crappy, who-cares tires (Nick Sexton video clip):
Still not an amazing stage time but at least I wasn't quite so unhappy any more, and was feeling like I could actually drive the car again. SS4, White Ash, was another all gravel one and had some rough stuff at the beginning but was otherwise a perfectly decent stage- we again didn't go fast but it wasn't as bad as SS1/2.
Another loop of those same two stages and SS5 was quite fun, again. Tons of spectators too, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. (Just Jessica Photography)
By SS6 though, our rear tires were completely roasted and we went pretty slow as the car had basically zero traction at the back. We ended the day well out of contention for the podium, and I was pretty much completely wiped out by the end. Stirling drove the truck and the dogs back to the airbnb and we did our reprep for the next day there, installing some better tires up front and rotating the still-decent front tires to the rear.
Boone Forest Rally Day 2
We did the same routine, with video review early and then a quick recce pass after- the days start late at Boone, possibly because the woods are filled with dense fog until about 11am. This time Stirling came along since Parc was pretty remote and we needed the truck for recce. We got our recce passes in and then explored that big mine we'd seen near the SS7 start:
I was feeling a bit better, the day was breezier and I'd had a red bull so I felt pretty ready. This baby goat eating the collected foliage out of our bumper at Parc Expose was really the icing on the "this is a better day" cake.
Andrew and Julia had moved WAY up the order- they're fast and this is their first rally on decent tires, super cool to watch them improve at such a stellar rate. Adam and Elena were behind us, Adam having suffered some serious heat exhaustion the day before. Bukky and Kyle were ahead of us on the road but popped an axle backing into Parc- a member of somebody else's service crew ran a spare from an hour away, and they had it installed just barely in time to avoid a late start penalty. Rally is a silly sport.
I'm extraordinarily bad at just relaxing and driving the damn car, but to paraphrase and butcher my favorite Dave Coleman quote, "being so far off pace early had effectively removed the heat of competition, letting us focus on the true meaning of rally: driving like total assh0les without getting arrested." SS7 Poplar Gap was an awesomely technical tarmac/gravel mix again, even included some fast double yellow line road, and lined with spectators all over the place. We ran the 4th fastest L2wd time here and things were feeling a lot better. (Just Jessica Photo)
SS8 New Hope Tower was more of the same and probably my favorite of the rally- we really did well here, and getting 3rd fastest L2wd was no small feat given the competition at this event. Afterwards, having noted a cut on a square right which bought us some time but could be taken allllll the way in to a "road closed" sign, I double checked with Sara whether there was a penalty for clipping signage (there isn't)- a silly small goal, but I don't usually take big cuts like that and it sounded fun.
For SS9, we were supposed to run Poplar Gap again, but the first car encountered non-rally traffic on the road and the stage was scrubbed. A bummer since I wanted another shot at it, but very glad nobody was hurt, nothing was damaged, and everything went as smoothly as possible given that scenario. We lined up for SS10 in one of the greatest ATC waiting spots in the history of rally, an active junkyard:
Adam actually repaired his Volvo in the junkyard, although he was carrying the hardware he needed so it didn't come from here. We also found Alan a replacement Neon control arm but nobody seemed to be around to sell it to him.
SS10 was awesome yet again, and although we ran about the same time I felt like I drove better, used more of the road (and off the road), and perhaps most importantly, we accomplished our goal of taking out the sign at that square right. At service I was greeted by Jamie Lambert and handed my prize- he'd collected the sign after the cars were through to give it to us.
The car seemed alright again, but the coolant level was mysteriously high- we noted this and figured there wasn't much to do about it at the time. Waiting in line for refuel, Sara got stung by a nasty wasp at random- they were all around service but definitely annoying to finally get tagged by one.
SS11 was S Tree Tower, and other than a couple tighter spectator corners, it was mostly 4s and 5s with varying camber and looseness, and plenty of dust despite the 2 minute intervals we were now running on. This stuff is not my strong suit, and we put in a pretty weak time again although we at least hopefully made a good show at the spectator areas.
SS12 Mill Creek was sort of more of the same, and before the start I thought I'd traced our extra coolant to the fans not switching on- this turned out to be incorrect, and I just caught them at the wrong time, but it messed with me a bit and we put in a pretty lame time here too but hey, finished the rally!
We transited back into McKee, got some food, and got to see Andrew and Julia on the NA4wd podium after battling all day, and Adam and Elena on the O2wd podium after persevering in the Volvo. It was cool to see Richo and Michelle take the L2wd win too, since this rally ended with me (as crew) towing them back with a busted radiator last year. At service we got a picture with our "trophy" and packed it all up:
And then hung out with all the friends back at the airbnb, which was a nice finish to the event. The tow home was also uneventful and included a puppy hike at the Red River Gorge Natural Bridge trail, which was enjoyable if tiring.
Thanks again to everyone, congrats to all our friends, and hope to see you all at the next one. The Boone Forest Rally itself was excellent and I hope to see it continue to build on these awesome roads in the future.
You'll need to log in to post.
