I'm Bringing Guacamole to the Challenge in 2024

In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :

I can't thank you enough for the aero help! Wish you were going to be there. 

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

Thank you. Also - I think I'll have parts to hand off to you(?).

Last night was frustrating. I got all ready to push new fluid through the braking system and realized that my big can of DOT 4 was almost empty. I ran out to the parts store and got some more and was only able to break one of the bleeders free... I let them soak and moved on to an unnecessary task to feel some sort of accomplishment. 

First shot at the wing end plates are now a false floor for the pedal box. 

No pic but before I started work this morning I covered up one of the two firewall holes that need to be dealt with. Not a ton left on the list but it seems like a lot when I'm leaving in 24 hours. 

In reply to AxeHealey :

Do you have grip tape?  If not, those false floors get crazy slippery.  I can bring some if you don't have any.

I second the motion I'm putting grip tape on those false floors as they are super slippery. And yes you will have parts for me I do believe at least a pair of headers

In reply to wvumtnbkr & Duster :

I did think about that... pretty sure I'm out of grip tape but I'll check. 

I bring grip tape.

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

I had enough left to do this. What do we think, enough? I could arrange them differently and have enough left over for three more strips the same width and about half the length. 

If not, I bring knife.

Edit:

Completo. 

Recon1342 said:

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

If he's not careful, he'll scrape the end of it...

Just the tip

i have seen guac in the flesh and it is absolutely 100% OG spirit of the event stuff, built by someone who has only read about the event and experienced stories. some veteran competitors have a lot to relearn from people like Andrew. excited for the infusion of new blood to the event, slightly sad I won't be there this weekend

In reply to Patrick :

I'm full sad you're not coming.

Made it halfway yesterday evening, should be getting to Gainesville mid-afternoon.

In reply to AxeHealey :

Looking forward to seeing you again. 

I hope that everyone gets an opportunity to enjoy this gem in person, Axe it was a pleasure spending my weekend with you guys. 

Somehow there is a cooler with ice, Modelo and either Pico de Gallo or vomit in the bed of Terry Crews Cab with Free Guac written on it. 

Free Guac indeed!

In reply to QuasiMofo (John Brown) :

I would say get a room but you're already shacked up with AC

Dude.  This car is badass.

Only car to do a burnout halfway down the strip about 6 runs in a row!  It was a riot!

I actually voted for this car for challengers choice.

Great people!  Great fun!  Thanks for bringing it!

Patrick said:

In reply to QuasiMofo (John Brown) :

I would say get a room but you're already shacked up with AC

Bowchickabowwow

Well, I finally made it to the Challenge and it did NOT disappoint. Putting faces and real names to screen names was really great. I have yet to meet someone in the GRM crew that I wouldn't want to hang with. 

I think first I'll detail the painting process and then debrief how Guac performed.

One day my son was playing with an old scale model hot rod that was mine as a kid. It's green and has a funky 70's paint job on it and I decided that's the style I should go with for Guac. My daughter and I also decided that there should be splatter paint on the car and this would be her job. She picked colors that you might find in guacamole - pink (red onion), red (tomato), dark green (jalapeno) and then light green for the avocado background. 

First, I laid down the light green on the hood and splitter.

When my daughter got off the bus, the green was dry and the splatter was splatted.

Once that dried, the hood was re-masked and the darker green went on. This is the same color as the tow hook/wing mounts.

Then it was, essentially, rinse and repeat for the stripes.

I actually ended up having to sand down and re-spray the light green after masking for the dark. The magazine-type pages I used stuck to the (seemingly) already cured paint. Everyone has now seen the car and I actually like it better with the stickers on it but I was pumped with how it came out.

The final touch after painting the cage was getting the number, class and Small Axe stickers on.

OK - to the Challenge.

The ride south from Cleveland until the end of Virginia was on and off rain and snow. It was gross and Guac was totally filthy but rolling into the AirBnb in Charlotte that was unexpectedly very nice and peaceful was a great end to the day. 

Friday morning started off a bit rough. Maybe I was still sleeping but when pulling Guac back up on the trailer I, uh, introduced the passenger side of the splitter and the trailer fender.

I actually didn't even feel it happen and was able to more-or-less straighten it out but I was not happy with me. Other than that, the ride down to Gainesville was uneventful and rolling into the hotel was great with an Angry Corvair greeting and the PLB well underway.

After dinner we had a few beers, hung around giving dumb suggestions to the PLB crew and just generally had a time.

The sunrise at the track Saturday morning was beautiful.

Guac got a nice glass cleaner bath, some aluminum tape was added to close gaps in the air dam and it was time for the autocross portion.

Autocross

Through the first three runs, Guac and I were on the podium. In the second round, more teams started using the pro drivers and the MR2 kart emerged but I ended with a fastest time of 45.1 which I was pleased with. 

Guac is just ridiculous fun. I'm sure it's a combination of the Hoosiers and the splitter/air dam but the one and only time it pushed on me was totally driver error. The car settles in great to a corner, is super sharp and feels very stable even over the yumps in that lot. 

I offered my friend to sign up separately with Guac. During his first run of the second session he looped it. It's hard to say what failed first but the momentum in the wing once he came to a stop either twisted and bent my wing uprights or popped a drop-link-hinge out of it's socket but by the time he was done with the run it was all dragging on the ground. 

I did something like 5 fun runs in the afternoon without the wing and didn't see all of the times and did not see a faster time but the ones I saw were comparable. If I'm being picky, I think, it was a bit more tail happy without the wing but it still felt good. 

10/10 would autocross Guac again. If the wing were to go back on, I think I would make an "X" between the two wing uprights for more lateral strength.

Drag Race

As of 6PM Saturday night, I had never been down a drag strip. 

I learned a number of things. Guac will do a nice burn out. Launching on a prepped drag strip is more slippery than I ever expected. I should probably bring drag slicks to the next Challenge I attend. Drag racing doesn't really do it for me. I'd bet that if I were driving a 9 second car I would feel differently. Guac's best pass of the night was my first run at a 16.125 at like 83 mph. 

EDIT: My best reaction time was 0.55X. Not sure if that's any good but I wanted to mark it down before I forgot so I have something to compare to next time around. 

I did make a few passes at night just to experience it and that was cool and much more slippery than before!

It sort of felt like Guac was rapidly approaching terminal velocity by the end of the strip.

Concours

Guac received another glass cleaner bath and was delivered to the pavilion. The wing was reinstalled for show, hood removed and the free guac, chips and beer was placed. 

I make presentations pretty regularly for work so I generally feel like I have a good understanding of how time is flowing while I'm talking but that three minutes with the judges was over before I knew it. Unreal.

Next time I'm going to make a point to listen to the presentations of other teams. I was hanging with my family for most of it but honestly it never occurred to me to do that and it would have been very interesting to hear everyone's process. 

It surprised me how many people were surprised that this car started out as a hard top. Most people I chatted with (who hadn't seen this thread of course) assumed it started life as a convertible.

The live results Google Doc tells me that Guac and I finished in 9th overall and, in my book, that's a huge win. I really don't have a use for Guac other than the Challenge and I definitely don't have space for it but man was it a great time playing with it this weekend. To top it all off, I made it home in time today to catch the eclipse with my family and so I'll leave you with this piece that I call "Guac: In Totality".

I'm exhausted. Good night.

It was great meeting you in person! Loved the car... I hope you keep it around.

This is sneaky one of my favorite builds on here.  Just no-nonsense hackery but in perfectly meaningful and well-done-ish ways.  Bravo!  

And the drag pass isn't anything a little nitrous can't fix...?  One more year, whaddayasay?!

In reply to AxeHealey :

thanks for the recap!  excellent job, driving yourself on your first attempt!

you don't happen to have a picture of the wing when it collapsed?  I assume the rear uprights failed somewhere?  there might be an alternative to x-bracing to increase lateral stiffness.

a wacky little car, well executed.  glad i got to meet the madman behind it and see it in action!

It is definitely a cool car. Looked good, sounded good, ran good. That's a perfect Challenge experience!

golfduke said:

This is sneaky one of my favorite builds on here.  Just no-nonsense hackery but in perfectly meaningful and well-done-ish ways.  Bravo!  

And the drag pass isn't anything a little nitrous can't fix...?  One more year, whaddayasay?!

Thanks! A lot of me wants to keep it and run it again but unless I force myself to do a few autocrosses this season it will literally just be sitting around. I much prefer racing to autocross and only have so much time to spread around. We'll see. 

In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo: 

All four mounting points on my 1x1 mounts were twisted and torn. I'm somewhat proud to say that 7 of the 8 welds I made on that thin metal held. The actual metal tore around the weld. The first thing I noticed while he was on course was that the wing seemed to be laid back - I thought maybe the adjuster had slid down. That makes me think that those uprights are what failed first and then once they were no longer sound, the drop link hinge was able to pop out of its socket. 

One thing I forgot to mention. I found after the autocross that the exhaust melted the plastic sheathing around the e-brake cables and also the plastic mounts that hold them to the... you guessed it... gas tank. 

This means two things. Most importantly, I'd bet Guac shoots flames. Second most important is that if it's going to be run much more, that situation needs to be changed.

Also, my wife told me that my daughter had been working on a surprise for me on their flight home.

She nailed it. 

That was such a cool car to see dart around out there!  I know that we all know exhaust is "hot", but it's easy to forget exactly how much damage it can do.  I left the oil drain pan underneath the RV when I was breaking in the new lifters and the heat of the exhaust melted a semi-circle out of the middle of it! 

In reply to AxeHealey :

It used to be a real problem on cars like Celebritys/Centurys if an aftermarket exhaust didn't extend past the bumper.  Exhaust heat would melt the bumper, even if it was pointed down.  No fire needed.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to AxeHealey :

It used to be a real problem on cars like Celebritys/Centurys if an aftermarket exhaust didn't extend past the bumper.  Exhaust heat would melt the bumper, even if it was pointed down.  No fire needed.

I had to add an exhaust extension on the rx8 right before I drove to the challenge because I was melting the bumper!  The heat alone still melted it a bit!

So, you mentioned your reaction time above.

I just wanted to clarify that reaction time doesn't matter at the challenge.  

I think my best reaction time was 1 or 2 seconds.  Only ET matters.

Basically, if you sit stationary for 5 minutes and then do a 13 second pass, your time is 13 seconds.  

You probably knew that, I just wanted to clarify.