In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) :
Thanks for the info. I had thought of terrain tires. How about 100 TW tires? I have Nitto NT01s on front right now and R888s on back right now. ...not that I'm trying to be competitive, but it never hurts to have the right tires.
I hope to see you there. I'm planning to get there Saturday afternoon and spend the night in the area, then do the track on Sunday.
I ended up buying K-Seal Ultimate Head Gasket Repair. It included tips for using with an over pressurizing cooling system and that's what I've got. I'm going to give it a try this evening.
AAZCD (Forum Supporter) said:
In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) :
Thanks for the info. I had thought of terrain tires. How about 100 TW tires? I have Nitto NT01s on front right now and R888s on back right now. ...not that I'm trying to be competitive, but it never hurts to have the right tires.
I hope to see you there. I'm planning to get there Saturday afternoon and spend the night in the area, then do the track on Sunday.
I ended up buying K-Seal Ultimate Head Gasket Repair. It included tips for using with an over pressurizing cooling system and that's what I've got. I'm going to give it a try this evening.
I think 100 TW would be okay if that is what you have to run. I'd run them. Any summer tire will be pretty good too. One guy in a cayenne GTS kicks butt on Michelin Super sports.
The head gasket sealer seems to be working. I got it mostly street legal (Oklahoma is easy) on Friday afternoon. The cooling system pressure seems a bit high, but it's not purging coolant. I put some fresh gas in since it was about empty of the 2019 gas that was left in it.
I'll drive it minimally over the next two weeks, but enough to sort it out and have it ready. Hopefully it holds together and waits to die a proper death at the event.
My local Gambler 500 group has a very different perspective on the HooptieX than the RallyCross guys. I'm still deciding which way I want to go with this car.
HooptieX changes a lot depending on the venue from what I've heard from guys that have done it. I've competed at this venue 6 times now.
AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:
HooptieX changes a lot depending on the venue from what I've heard from guys that have done it. I've competed at this venue 6 times now.
How about ground clearance? Does the track get rutted? This sits a little higher than my other Boxsters probably due to being stripped out, but the suspension is stock. Should I look at lifting it slightly with heavier springs?
AAZCD (Forum Supporter) said:
AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:
HooptieX changes a lot depending on the venue from what I've heard from guys that have done it. I've competed at this venue 6 times now.
How about ground clearance? Does the track get rutted? This sits a little higher than my other Boxsters probably due to being stripped out, but the suspension is stock. Should I look at lifting it slightly with heavier springs?
It gets rutted in very few corners where the dirt is super soft and fluffy. Lately they have been avoiding those corners. They may come back for this event.
I run my Subie on a stock suspension.... stick with new struts and fresh rubber.
A year ago a lifted Subie went over on its side. Austin has run his lowered Miata quite a few times. I think stock ride height would be about right.
I have a set of wide 18s that I want to try on it with some 20 mm spacers. The Reproduction Fuchs 15s were closer at hand than the 18s, so... They fit the back, but need another 5 mm or so to work in front. I kind of would love to have 15" mud terrains and throw chunks of dirt around the track rather than go for speed with stickies. 
Fun thought, but probably going with 17s and 18s with 20 mm on the rear. Save the 15s with mud tires for 914 shenanigans another time.
You better knock it off or I may just show up with my helmet.
Potentially bad news. It seems that the K-Seal Ultimate Head Gasket Repair didn't work. It is good at 2000 RPM, but when I open up the throttle the cooling system over pressurizes quickly. It's probably too late for an engine swap to my back-up engine and now I'm working 12 hour shifts EVERY DAY until the event. I AM going and I will have an awesome time. Keeping under 2K rpms or killing the engine on my first time around the track is NOT awesome.
May I now introduce to you the $500 'Penalty Box':
"all it needs is a little TLC". I look at it tonight with an eye to see if it will pass Tech. No time for major repairs or modifications. I may just get it and still keep driving ahead with the Boxster until I need to pick which one to load on the trailer to head to Ardmore.
Bummer on the coolant leak but it's better to know now than at the event. Your fund does look very hooptie X though. Gut it and run it.
I went to look at the Suzuki on my way home from work. The seller waved at me from his pot greenhouses as I rode in and I pulled up to the car. He didn't walk over. Approaching, I saw that the car was filthy inside and out. I got to the front of the car and saw the windshield had a huge spiderweb crack in front of the driver, top to bottom. Didn't even get off my motorcycle. Texted him, "Thanks, but that's not going to work." and rode off into the sunset.
At home I took the Boxster out for a three mile drive. It runs smooth, has decent acceleration, and feels great on the street with the TW 100 tires. It was purging some coolant out of the expansion tank when I got back home, but wasn't low yet. This will work. I'm only driving on Sunday. I will plan to do a couple easy runs at first, then push it hard 'till it gets to overheating or seizing. I passed on my chance to blow up this engine with nitrous in 2019. Hopefully I will kill it permanently on Sept 19th revving at 7.2K in the dirt. This car needs a good engine.
Oh, and this happened after I got back from the drive:
Note: Those 15" wheels and tires are not what I'm bringing to HooptieX. I'll have a set of grippy 17s for time and slippy 17s for fun.
Here's my car next to the 'Rally Fighter'. One of about 100 made. Cool car, seats 4 (only the driver will actually be comfortable) and street legal.
I finally met a long-time online friend from the 986 Forum. His rally Boxster seized the engine today after a couple laps. Like mine, it was 'on the way out' and not a total surprise.
Kiddo had soccer today and has another game tomorrow. She took a hard kicked ball to the head and face too. I'm glad I was there. I'd love to hear how your runs went. As cool as rally fighter is, please tell me you went faster. That car is way too high centered and overpowered for that surface.
I got here at about 2 pm, so just got pics and video today. I plan to drive tomorrow 'till the engine is dead. Hopefully it lasts to the afternoon.
Sorry I didn't get to see you, but kids (in my case grandkids) take priority. This looks like a Lot of fun and I expect I join in with NTX RallyCross next season.
In reply to AAZCD (Forum Supporter) :
I will be there in 10/3 and 10/30. My son and father may drive on 10/30 too so the Subaru will get lots of runs that day.
In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) :
I might be able to make it on 10/30. Not sure what car I'll drive, but probably not the Challenge Boxster. The engine is seized, the front struts are blown, and I cut part of the bent exhaust off with a Sawzall. It was awesome!
Much fun was had! I have have to go search for your results :p.
I found the results. And the usual fast peeps were still fast. I think you did well since that was your first time there! My nemesis is Igor in the hater class Cayenne GTS. Nothing that big and heavy has any business being so fast on dirt.
It has over 250 hp over my Impreza, weighs almost a ton more has way more tire, and an awesome driver. It is interesting to see how similar our times are though. I'm tempted to get a WRX and see if the extra 65 hp makes a difference.
In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) :
That GTS is impressive and so was the MR2 in that they are both also 'daily drivers'. I'm totally new to this, but I think that having the best line and not making Any mistakes trumps HP - Although having 65 more HP and an 'built' suspension can help make up for a lot of deficiencies.
Here's my list of excuses: My tire pressure was too high for much of it. I went from about 28/30 PSI down to 21/23 over the day and it made a big difference. On the laps that I was over 2 minutes I had two spins each. On my next highest lap time I had one spin and just kept it floored 'till the car was pointing in what I thought was the right direction and came out of the dust cloud - someone brought me my rear bumper after that lap before I even knew it was missing. The front struts were completely shot at the end and the track got rough. I bottomed out a lot on the last few laps. I really wanted to run again to break into the 1:40s, but the engine seized as I pulled into parking after the 8th run. It is locked hard now. 1:51.9 was my best and I think I could take about 5 seconds off that with no mistakes.
