THSCC Forums

I know I'll never beat Kevin, so I have to try and beat everybody else!

With the skid plate I'm not as afraid of messing something up.

I'm ready for another one with out the rally tires and see how I do!

Christine

* - in the Forester

I will always have an excuse.

Good driving!

- brian

There was no skidplate on the car.

See? She doesn't know anything about the "race setup" or what else is on the car, or even think about asking. She just shows up, gets in the car (which she's driven maybe twice??? in the past couple of months) and, well, you know what happened next.

To Vincent - Christine was probably riding the clutch out a little, thus getting the car going smoother. I was just revving it to 5500 rpm & letting it rip. It may not be faster, but it feels better...

She only beat me because of some imaginary cone that someone thought I knocked down. For the life of me I can't even figure out where that third cone was that I knocked down. The first 2 I know where I hit them . All I know is that my last run was definitely what brought me back into the game as I was begining to lose the love for driving that car in the dirt.

Till next time Christine, when you don't have the "advantage" of Rally tires.

Yep that's what she was doing. The exact same way I used to launch the Talon. No wheel spin, just go baby go!

_________________
Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

good time indeed. relaxed pace around lunch was much appreciated. did not think i would like switching course for afternoon runs but i dug it (no pun intended) i actually was driving around today and noticed a mid 70's VW bug and wondered what kind of rally beater that might make. relatively good ground clearance, all the weight on the rear wheels and i seem to remember they were the dune buggy of choice back in the day. thanks to Vincent , Stephen and Mitch for the ride, and everyone else too.

my wife would not appreciate it much if i brought home a beetle, so i guess i'll bum rides in the General Lei for a while.

"Sounds like you guys had fun and no reports of the Dirtmaster's demise. "
That ain't 'zaktly true.
A hearty thanks to the Generally Lei team for their loan of a wheel and tire to allow the Dirtmaster to make it to the parking area. During Fun Runs, the Dirtmaster was flagged to a halt at the finish line for a "wheel issue." Turns out that the center of the rim was cracked 2/3 of the way around. I take responsibility since it looks like the lug nuts had loosened allowing the wheel to flex and fatigue. I didn't bring a torque wrench along to the event and was too busy correcting electrical issues to be thorough enough. Let that be a warning to the rest of you. Loose nuts are BAD.

Another bad thing is buying a battery based on the fittment application guide without the old battery with you. I got to the farm to find that the replacement battery I brought was almost 1" shorter than stock. Mitch Moor provided scrap wood blocks which seemed to fill the gap well and made the mounting very stiff. Unfortunately not stiff enough. (another lesson here) Following one run where the car seemed to sputter a bit, we checked under the hood to find tha battery lying beside the engine with the positive lead pulled off the battery and the battery resting against the distributor cap. We re-installed the old battery and used the new battery to jump start the car. We also discovered that the old battery had died because the brake light switch was stuck "on." Now it's disconnected so our competition can't see our braking (breaking points)


To compound the issue, the Dirtmaster quit when I still had 2 paid fun runs remaining. I jumped into my street BMW and took two runs. At the end there was steam and we found that the motor mount had broken and allowed the power steering pump to saw through the lower radiator hose. Thanks to Bret Luter for the loan of a hose, but I had to come home for the mount. (Early model E30 drivers always keep a spare motor mount and lower radiator hose since this is a common problem, especially with old, oil soaked mounts)
In the end everyone came home happy. Some vehicles spent the night in the field, prefering to travel on Sunday.
A great event,
Charlie Guthrie

_________________
1998 BMW Z3
1987 BMW 325is
2000 BMW
1996 F250 Turbo Diesel

Sure sounds like everyone had a great day, wish I could have been there.

I think Cosby is about to get the hang of this sliding in the dirt.

My stock ECU came in and my car is running again, although be it sluggish. It is quite a change going back to a stock ECU after running Stage 2 for a while. Oh well, it is still learning too so I hope it is in a better mode for the autocross this Saturday in Columbia. I still have 91 octane gas in the tank too which is probably not helping any.

Taking Tuesday off of work, may go for a drive up in the mountains to get the thing running a bit smoother.

Cobb is buying another ECU for me under warranty and is going to flash it there with my AccessPort to make sure everything goes ok. They still have no idea what happened. The AP was reprogrammed perfectly so it wasn't anything I did.

Should get the AP and new ECU back in a few days.

See ya'll in August.

_________________
Common sense is NOT so common. ...Voltaire.

Regardless of that, I heartily thank Joe for letting us finish out the day in his car. I wasn't sure that he really wanted 3 additional drivers in his car, but he cheerfully invited us in. Thanks Joe!


The "Saab-splosion" was pretty dramatic, eh? I think that it is out of action for awhile since the busted CV joint is part of the tranny and I'm not feeling inspired for another tranny swap. I'll just find a different car. Mmmm, maybe some tasty SE-R action!

Thanks to everybody who put on the event. How about ordering some shade next time? I got toasted!

Eric Adams wrote:


You just needed a tiny bit of sun block and the right worker station. We were on the downwind side of the two dustiest sections of track. Absolutely no sun got through the layer of dirt we were wearing. Next time I'm bringing SCUBA gear, hack, cough, wheeze.
Charlie G

_________________
1998 BMW Z3
1987 BMW 325is
2000 BMW
1996 F250 Turbo Diesel

I don't know if the club can afford it but you can get those 9 ft. market umbrellas at Big Lots or somewhere pretty cheap. We would just have to make or buy some kind of base to stand them up in.

It sure would make standing out in the sun at the worker's stations much more enjoyable. I would be willing to buy one and donate it to the club myself. Anyone else?

_________________
Common sense is NOT so common. ...Voltaire.

Why dont we just get one of those pull out shade things for the side of the trailer? That way spectators and, most importantly, those working registration/announcing have somewhere sun/rain free to announce from?

I know that Patrice has one.

As for shade, I know as an autoX person, I usually bring my own canopy to relax under. I would highly suggest getting one of your own or going in with people for it. RallyX MIGHT be a good area to consider this as a club expense, though, as we DO stop to eat lunch.

- brian

You are too young to remember similar discussions not that long ago...

I'm sure that there are a bunch of people laughing right now

Scott

So, what else is new when I talk?

- brian

More like

Cant we just get the free one from Randy?


WAIT!!! I just read the H&T and it seems that I am president now.

SHADE FOR EVERYONE!!!

_________________
02 Focus SVT
STF 9