So who's watching the Challenge updates?

midknight wrote: I'm here and it was a blast!! Incredible cars and driving from the hot shoes, including some fantastic sideways saves down at the far end of the autocross. What can be said about the fantastic Hong Norr Hondas. Super clean, and super fast. Turbos ruled the day. My favorite was David Brown's sleeper Mitsu Mirage sedan. Fifth in the autocross. So stock looking, so dangerous. If it hooks up well at the drags we will be in for a treat!! If it beats the Hongs, there will be weeping and wailing and knashing of teeth. Better leave quickly David, before vengeance is theirs!! :-) Get them drunk enough tonight on some Red Stripe and ease their coming pain. This is just a bag of fun!!!

midnight- look me up. I'm in room 202, here with the family and 3 little kids. I'll get you those tickets.

Cool, glad you guys are enjoying them. I just banged out some more updates, and they're now online.

i had an awesome time, i wish i could have stayed tonight, dad was sick, i have work tomorrow, and a paper to finish.

Seriously impressed by some of these cars. I'm going to help my dad use the rest of the budget for the civic for next year and build my own as well. My dad did most of the work on the madmax civic, i just had the idea and the chitty autox skillz

Sure wish I was there...

I've been looking for a microcar to be the basis tube frame 13b bridgeport or PP. It's tough finding a cheap one, since most were either built in short numbers or haven't survived.

For the last week or so I have been testing my engineering skillz by building a sway bar instead of shelling out $200. The steel has cost $70 (I had to buy 12' sections of cold rolled rod), which is enough for 3 sway bar center sections. Assuming it's not a spectacular failure (theoretically it works perfectly...), I'll post a howto guide with the necessary calculations and the Solidworks models. It could cut a few dollars off a challenge budget.

Congratulations to the Hongers on a one-two finish! Of course, that's only because I wasn't there.

The live updates for the event were are almost as awesome as a huge group of ninjas wailing on guitars, HARD.

Thanks GRM Dorktards.

P71 wrote: Wha? You mean that custom one-off piece 99.9% could never replicate? You guys should seriously try a more grassroots alternative. Maybe look into a snowmobile diff? Those things make insane power. Point is that diff was too over the top.

I hated to concede to the clown, but we're suffering from development issues with the car like so many other Challengers.

The handmade aluminum differential is as grassroots as it comes, but hard to maintain or repair, so we may rethink the need for a reverse gear. A simplified drive arrangement (read: big sprocket, solid differential) might find it's way on the car. Eliminating the differential and aluminum would free up a little money in our budget, too.

I'm catching up with the updates now, but I completely loved my first Challenge weekend. It was meet everybody, (seriously, everybody. Even the clown.) and to see all the cars. Too cool!

I'm in the airport now, and just discovered David sent a few more updates to me in the middle of the night. So watch for those soon, and a full recap within the next couple of days.

I don't think David sleeps.

By the way, I'm still posting updates as I find more videos and stuff.

Still reading them :D