Awesomeness. I miss my Talon now.
Good for you saving the kid with driving the time bomb, btw. Seems like taking a trailer anywhere results in rescuing somebody!
Awesomeness. I miss my Talon now.
Good for you saving the kid with driving the time bomb, btw. Seems like taking a trailer anywhere results in rescuing somebody!
Very very cool.
Its amazing how rally seems to breed these unbeliveable stories eh?
And, Rallying to get out of debt... My god, if you figure that one out, Let us all know, eh?
As I mighta mentioned at rallyanarchy, you done stole that car and it's lucky for you I already have a moneypit. Otherwise I'da grabbed it. On that deal like white on a polar bear eating snow in a blizzard on a dining table spraypainted white with a.... nevermind 
Jay_W wrote: As I mighta mentioned at rallyanarchy, you done *stole* that car and it's lucky for you I already have a moneypit. Otherwise I'da grabbed it. On that deal like white on a polar bear eating snow in a blizzard on a dining table spraypainted white with a.... nevermind
I can't even really understand why it didn't sell. The car makes pretty crazy power at 18psi with the 34mm restrictor ("feels" faster than a 200whp max spec PGT WRX w/32mm restrictor), the DMS are NOT beat to E36 M3 and rusty (plus the recent rebuild, they felt oh-so-good when I took it for a spin), the spare JDyaM tranny, brand new rotor blanks, good spare cv axles, 40 rally tires, team dynamic rims, terrortrip 303+ and intercom... even the cage is awesome, which is good because my co-driver is over 6 feet (but he fits without banging his head)!
It's mind boggling, and I can't wait to be out on stage boggling minds in it :D
As a small update, the car has passed its Out of Province/entry into Canada inspection, Needed front pads (going to try out Hawk HT-10's to start), two cv axle boots on the front, and nothing was securing the rear brake line hoses so had to fab up a mounting solution. I go to pick the car up Saturday, and we'll proceed to the chief scrutineer's shop to see what he says needs to be done to the car to get it to fit Canuckian rules (mainly cage, I can handle everything else). The cage may NOT need any updating since the car will be running on a grandfathered scca logbook... but I would really like to add some more side impact protection, much to my co-driver's chagrin 
I took a ride in the passenger seat of a former Pikes Peak Class Winning Talon and it still gives me Goosebumps 20 years later.
I know why it didn't sell. It didn't sell because the only people with money don't rally and are too busy berkelying over the rest of us...
40 spare tires, of which you only took 20?! 40 used tires around here would cost the entire Challenge budget, let alone coming with a well-built and functioning race car! Incredible. Congratulations on a head-shaking deal.
Jay_W wrote: I know why it didn't sell. It didn't sell because the only people with money don't rally and are too busy berkelying over the rest of us...
Hey now, I don't know how it works for you guys down south, but I think my life is pretty peachy-keen at the moment. Had a rough go the past 1.5 years, but that's life after college and paying off debts. Hell, in reality I COULD do WRC mexico next year if I so desired... but I'm thinking the whole regional championship is a better idea instead
Part 3 of the story is coming soon, I've just been crazy busy!
Hey, as some of those crappier of the 20 tires start to wear out drop me a line, the RX car needs some shoes.
BobOfTheFuture wrote: Hey, as some of those crappier of the 20 tires start to wear out drop me a line, the RX car needs some shoes.
If you are in the PNW area, I can ask a certain gentleman if you can have all of the tires I didn't take? He'd probably be glad for someone to get them the hell out of his garage if he hasn't thrown them out.
I'm just really picky as well, because I've drove on hundreds of rally tires. Brand new michelin rally tires are like sex on wheels (get it 
).
HiTempguy wrote: Brand new michelin rally tires are like sex on wheels (get it
We've been using the "BFG" Michelins and have been really happy with them. We usually source them from John Buffum.
modernbeat wrote: We've been using the "BFG" Michelins and have been really happy with them. We usually source them from John Buffum.
In canuckland I can pay $170 canuck bucks for Yokohamas (good enough for the top two teams to run on, good enough for me). Monsieur Buffum wants over $200 a tire last time I checked, and that isn't shipped to Canada 
HiTempguy wrote: ... even the cage is awesome, which is good because my co-driver is over 6 feet (but he fits without banging his head)!
I would love to see some pics of the cage, especially around the head area... I'm only 6'1" and am trying to figure out how to fit a proper cage around my helmeted head in my 1G...
tb wrote: I would love to see some pics of the cage, especially around the head area... I'm only 6'1" and am trying to figure out how to fit a proper cage around my helmeted head in my 1G...
Probably won't be able to get away with it according to any "new" rules for any racing series. Since the car was built in the early millennium, it can be "grandfathered" in on the rules it was built to. Hence, the cage tube diameter is only something silly like 1.25" tube with .120" tube wall thickness (new cages for rally are built with 1.5" and 1.75" tube with .90" tube wall thickness). You are also screwed if you are long in the torso vs legs. Jeff will barely fit as is with the seat practically on the floor and the cross bar for the roof ran to favour his head space.
That extra 1/4 to 1/2" goes a long way to making the cage fit very snugly around the car. I'll put some pics up anyways though I would suggest cutting out and completely redoing the transmission tunnel, as there is plenty of room between the tranny and unibody. This allows the seats to move closer to the center of the car vastly improving the ease of which bigger gentlemen can fit in Talon's. Also, once you remove the center console trim, a lot of foot room opens up so you don't constantly bang the centre console with your right foot.
Still working on cage pics, tonight I promise
Anyways, currently the car is imported illegally. It's not even a long story, simply the previous owner wrote 788 instead of the correct 778 as the final three digits of the VIN. This means I have to take the car to the Edmonton International Airport at their customs office and get a "form 1" importation sheet redone. Luckily, I only work/live about 15 minutes of highway driving from the airport
So tonight and tomorrow I am DD'ing the rally car, as I can still have insurance on it and "in transit" registration
Also, I had the car on the dyno: 170whp and 230ftpnds of torque at 18psi. The car runs so rich under boost that it maxes the lower range of the wideband... realistically, it's probably 9:1 A/F at 18psi
So yea, we'll try to get that up to 11:1 or so with some tuning.
In reply to HiTempguy:
No rush on my account; thanks for the explanation about the specifics of your cage. If I decide to proceed with this build I will probably try to leave most of the interior intact but I appreciate the advice. I'm hoping to make some more room by lowering and relocation the seat a little without too dramatic a change in position... we shall see...
good luck with the car, and thanks again for the info
I've pulled this from our local car blog as an update to the Rally Tal[hoon] saga:
How time flies when you are having fun! The first round of the Western Canada Rally Championship (WCRC) is fast approaching, and there is still plenty of work left to do on the Tal[hoon]. Time and money have conspired to slow the pace of getting the car prepped for it's first outing, but our perseverance has almost paid off:[ATTACH=CONFIG]6059[/ATTACH] Uh, wait, what? Apparently the car is being taken further and further apart the closer we get to our first event! Jeff and I are by no means rocket surgeons, and we've been thrashing away diligently at the car, trying to make sure everything fits the rules and is done properly/safely. A lot of time has been spent mounting seats. Most people would think that would be easy, and typically it is. In the case of the Tal[hoon] though, we are dealing with an already cramped car and stuffing a roll cage and seats that wrap around you in it. Combine that with Jeff having a 6' 1" height, and it takes a lot of work to make sure your head isn't banging off the roll cage.
An acquisition along the way was a set of studded winter tires, General Altimax's. Since (in Canada) we are only allowed to run street legal studs (regionally, nationally you can't run studs at all!), we typically run some sort of good ice/snow street winter tire. Rather than mount them on the gnarly Compomotive rims (snow rallies tend to be easier on tires/rims) I went on the hunt for a used alloy that wouldn't break the bank. A 1990 Mazda MPV delivered, for only $60. Score!
Now what color to paint them?
Duh, what other color would I paint them? Now, we needed to liven the car up a bit more, as we currently don't have any sponsors and aren't corporate shills who like to give free advertising to companies just so we can look cool. Enter some decals we had made up:
Well, I guess the [HOON] is Ken Block's thing, but I digress. And the Death Proof decal is corporate Hollywood... ok, I give up. But it's a lot cooler than a bare car! So now where does this leave us? We really only have a couple of things left to do on the car, mainly: 1. Put the underbody/skidplate protection back on 2. Mount the tool bag/first aid kit/jack tightly, while being able to utilize all of that equipment in a timely fashion. 3. Find another 1989-1991 Mazda MPV rim for our spare. 4. Modify the shifter so my short arms can get the car into 3rd and 5th (that is how low and far back the seat had to be mounted!) 5. Make a foot rest for Jeff so he can brace himself as I crash into things 6. Check and make sure the car meets all legalities of the rule book 7. Order high performance brake pads that'll take 3 weeks to get here...
We have a test day coming up on March 4th, which will be perfect to iron out any kinks with the car. The first event, the Cochrane Image Auto Body Winter Rally (www.cochranerally.ca) happens March 11th. So, about three weeks to sort the car out, plenty of time! Stay tuned for more updates (and maybe some video) the closer we get to the test day.
I dub thee, the monstrosity!
In pieces:
What it will look like after welding:
What I am trying to do is make sure the shifter does not break, as it seems to be an extremely common occurrence in rally. The reason why the bar stock used is so huge is that it will give me that chance to modify it/thin it however I want once everything is put together. Needless to say, I am not foreseeing breakage!
Well, the big day finally arrived!
After more running around for bits and pieces/odds and ends, and getting everything bolted together, the Tal[hoon] emerged from the garage ready to do battle on stage.
Things are looking really good, and I am quite happy with the way everything has turned out on the car. The whole car was worked over quite meticoulously to ensure NOTHING WHATSOEVER VIBRATED/RATTLED. I mean, it's expected for a rallycar to make noise on stage, but having random crap (jack, spare, fire extinguisher, triangles, etc) rattle for no reason drives me nuts, so a lot of attention was paid to rattles today.
All that is really left is getting a first-aid kit from St. John's Ambulance which meets CARS rules, welding the shifter, finding one last MPV rim, and giving the car a thorough once over to make sure it is ready for the test day and Cochrane. Entry fee for both will be going in this week!
Some gratuitous pictures from an undisclosed location in Edmonton, donuts are fun!
Artsy fartsy light/rim shot in the garage. That is a 17x9 BMW rim on Jeff's 63 Chevy which rides about 1" off the ground :D
Jealous - car looks like a blast in the snow!!! I really miss winter weather... As much as Atlanta gets lots of sweet CL deals, we don't get much of the white stuff.
Great stuff, so jealous! Keep it coming!
The white stuff is mandatory for rallying. You really haven't lived until you've gone into a corner at over 100km/h with 2 feet of snow on the road :D
So, the car is getting very close to being done. Test day is this Sunday, I have a photographer/graphics buddy coming along to take video and photos plus a couple of friends to help him out.
Got the car aligned today... sort of. I wasn't happy I had to pay for it, but something is up with the driver's side front corner of the car. Even with a camber bolt, we were only able to get 0* camber on it 
That's better than positive like it was. The car was in desperate need of an alignment, so I paid Kal-Tire to do the alignment (pricey, don't ask!) even though it will need to be re-done. I don't know whether to go with new strut mounts in the front (with a better fixed caster/camber position if they are available) or just to slot the strut towers as they are. One of the outer tie rods is also JUST on the verge of being an issue, so that will get replaced after Cochrane (1st regional in the WCRC) next weekend.
I took half a day off to get the alignment done (long story, but being a gov employee I get to do things like that with no notice ), so since it was pay day (thank god, raman noodles were getting old!), I bought the last of supplies I needed, a first aid kit, trailer tie-downs, got my fire extinguishers inspected, and bought Wilwood 600*F brake fluid ($20 for 0.5L isn't too bad). The brakes haven't been bled in probably 6 years, time to get that old crap out of there!
Speaking of brakes, guess what came in on Wednesday? My Raybestos ST43 front pads 
Nobody in the rally community runs these, but I have heard awesome stories about them from the track community. They apparently wear super long compared to your typical Hawk's or Carbotech's. I might have to work on them for sponsorship if their brakes are any good, as $200 for a pair of fronts is CHEAP compared to Ferodo's or Endless ($300+) and this could be a great pad for the budget conscious team.
Edit- I also have to take a moment to thank my co-driver Jeff (he'll probably lurk this thread), without him, I don't think I'd be doing my first event so soon. Jeff and I have known each other for over 7 years now, with one of the first things I ever said to him (me being 16 and him 20 at the time) was "you poor bastard" (he was dating my sister). We've been friends and also racing buddies ever since, and it's great he's stepped up to sit in the silly seat!
Huge things that can't be discounted that he has brought to the table:
And in return, I've promised that I'd only crash "softly" into his side of the car
Boom! 5th overall! If you add up my stage times, it's actually 2nd overall, but apparently ever so slightly tapping a chicane with your co-driver's sideview mirror counts as a penalty (did it three times, it was the fastest line)! Full writeup with pictures and videos coming soon :D
A very short video that has electronic beats over top of it (not mine). If your into electronic beatz, it adds to the video, but I'd still like a pure version. Oh well...
http://youtu.be/GCkro7waU5E
HiTempguy wrote: Plus, shaking a car down at its first event? Bad form
You sir, have obviously never been to the challenge!
Congrats on the car BTW!
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