Update & other info

Kevin Allen · **Joined:** Thu Aug 28, 2003 6:42 pm **Posts:** 3479

All the birds are gone, and I've been given the go-ahead to start mowing the field tomorrow!!!

Should be able to get a lot of it done tomorrow and Sunday. If anybody wants to come over and take turns with me on the tractor, give me a call at 919 963 6951. There will be plenty of small trees to remove, too, so the one not riding the tractor will be busy, too.

I'll be playing around - I mean "testing the surface"

- once I get it mowed... so if you want some seat time on dirt/grass, here's your chance!

Also having a cookout for my mom's birthday on Sunday afternoon, so if you're here at the time, you'll get some grilled dead animal (and/or other stuff).

Later.

Kevin Allen · **Joined:** Thu Aug 28, 2003 6:42 pm **Posts:** 3479

Peter Baio came out today and helped; I worked for about 4 hours, he got here a little later and worked for 3 hours or so. I mowed while he chopped trees - got the parking/spectating area mowed to a nice low depth and ended up with two big piles of trees. Estimate about 1/4 of the field is done, but the rest is going to be mowed a little quicker, since I'm not going to cut it as low. Still lots of trees out there, though.

Tried to post pics, but my web pages file upload isn't working right now. Got some action pics of Peter's car throwing some chunks of dirt & grass. Also have a panorama of the area of the field that's "finished."

Carl - I just discovered your message, and didn't want to call back since it's late, but I'm planning to start tomorrow morning around 9 or 10. I'll call in the morning, if you don't call me first. Thanks!

Kevin

Kevin Allen · **Joined:** Thu Aug 28, 2003 6:42 pm **Posts:** 3479

Carl came out and cut lots of trees while I mowed yesterday; we got a bunch more of the field done. Carl - I went back out after taking a nap and got about 1/2 of what was left in the middle when you headed home. Should be about another hour of mowing, which I can do this week in the afternoons (or on Saturday morning before I head to Rockingham).

So I'm getting kindof worried about my suspension... I don't know how rough this stuff is on the struts and other pieces, and I don't want to break anything right before we go to Laurinburg. So I'm thinking I should reinstall the stock strut/spring assemblies and the stock sway bars and endlinks for the rallycross, then put the upgraded stuff back on for autox. Is this necessary, or should I be okay just putting the stock sway bars & endlinks on and leaving the KYB adjustable struts and Subaru STi Version 5 springs on there? And... should I just take off the sway bars for the rallyx? Not out to win, just want to have fun/not break anything.

Kevin

edit: forgot to relate this funny stuff...

my sister (the one who hates anything related to fast cars, and who is fully opposed to us having the rallyx out there) was driving by while Peter was having some fun on Saturday. So Sunday, while I'm grilling stuff, she walks up and says, "Who was that fella out there in that white car? He looked like he was about to "lose it" several times. Has he ever "lost it" before? I sure thought he was gonna plow through the trees and hit mama's house a couple of times. I noticed the sides of his car were banged up..."

Bwahahahaha!!!

Carl Fisher · **Posted:** Mon Sep 08, 2003 2:52 pm

I realized when I got out to my car after leaving lunch that I hadn't actually tried out the surface at all. I hope you and your mom didn't mind, I just took a few quick turns around out there. I know your brother saw me out there, don't know who else.

It's kinda rough, actually, rougher than I would have thought. I hope with the passage of cars over the course it'll smooth out some, but I think I'm going to design the course to keep the speeds down a little just so it doesn't get too punishing...

Carl Fisher · **Posted:** Mon Sep 08, 2003 3:01 pm

I would put the stock struts and springs back on- if anything's going to get damaged on the rough surface, it's going to be the shocks...

Peter Baio · **Posted:** Mon Sep 08, 2003 4:53 pm

HAHA!

Thats great, Kevin did you get the pictures up?

Kevin Allen · **Joined:** Thu Aug 28, 2003 6:42 pm **Posts:** 3479

here are a couple of photos... the first one is big, but it's worth it (imo).

http://home.att.net/~kevinmallen/rallyx ... orama2.jpg

http://home.att.net/~kevinmallen/peterp ... nfield.jpg

Kevin

AndersGreen · **Posted:** Tue Sep 09, 2003 10:08 am

Kevin, excellent photos. What software did you use to make the panorama???

Kevin Allen · **Joined:** Thu Aug 28, 2003 6:42 pm **Posts:** 3479

I just shot 4 photos with my Canon G2, at medium zoom setting (around a 50mm view in 35mm film cameras). Then I took them into Photoshop and cut and pasted into a new canvas, lining up the different layers as I went.

You can get them to line up pretty well if you just remember to shoot at a medium setting or higher (NOT wide-angle) and then use only the middle 2/3 or so of each photo. Another thing that helps a lot is instead of rotating the camera around YOU when you're taking the photos, you have to rotate yourself around the camera, leaving it in the same place for each shot (if you have a tripod, that would work better, but I wasn't using one).

Ain't digital great?

Kevin

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2003 1:03 pm

AndersGreen wrote:

Kevin, excellent photos. What software did you use to make the panorama???

Not to hijack this tread, but....

Like Kevin said you need to rotate around the camera not yourself. I can't remember off the top of my head but I think they call it the "nodal point"?? and it is a point inside the camera betweent he len and the focal plane that is the sweet spot (varies between diff cameras). It is also easier to manually stitch photos together if the objects are in the distance as any errors on your rotation are not as obvious. It gets tricky when you do panoramas with objects just feet away from the lens.

Anyhow, panoramas rock!!

Rob Keehner · **Posted:** Tue Sep 16, 2003 6:06 pm

Hey Get a shot of the other side of the white "WRX" next time. Did he get that fixed up yet.

Peter Baio · **Posted:** Wed Sep 17, 2003 12:12 am

The white 2.5RS has gotten one side fixed. The bad side is still messed up and will be for a little while.

Kevin do you plan on doing anymore work on the field?

Kevin Allen · **Joined:** Thu Aug 28, 2003 6:42 pm **Posts:** 3479

I think we're going to be working on it this weekend. I still haven't gotten the piles of trees out yet, so feel free to come over and help.

The grid, spectating, and course areas have been mowed and are awaiting the "course mower." Still a few trees standing, too, but not many.

Carl Fisher · **Posted:** Sun Sep 21, 2003 10:46 am

Thanks to Mike Winn, Anders Green, Peter Baio, and Kevin, we got the course cut yesterday. Anders lent me his van and trailer, and I took it up to get Mike's tractor with super-bush-hog attachment. Peter was there to help (as he has been every weekend), and of course Kevin.

I laid out a course which is fairly tight and twisty, and about 1/2 mile long. I hope it's not too tight, but I was worried as I said before about the field being too bumpy, so I thought it'd be better to keep the speeds down a bit, at least for now.

Then Mike hopped on his tractor and cut the course out, mowing it down to a nice low and even height. He must've put at least 10 miles on the tractor, just making passes back and forth on the course, but it really looks great- I'm getting pumped!

Finally, Peter, Kevin and I took some dark green paint and marked where the cones are going to go. I may decide to switch to a more "contrasty" color, though, 'cuz it's already a little hard to spot the painted boxes from more than a few feet away...

Oh, Mike also mowed out the pit and grid area, so I think we're just about ready to go! Thanks again to Mike for all his hard work, and special thanks to Mike's dad, who actually owns the tractor!

Kevin, anything to add? Any pictures? :wink:

Kevin Allen · **Joined:** Thu Aug 28, 2003 6:42 pm **Posts:** 3479

Yeah, thanks to everybody who came and set up the course; it's going to be a great event!

A few pics, first...

http://home.att.net/~kevinmallen/cleaninguptrees.jpg

http://home.att.net/~kevinmallen/mikeontractor.jpg

http://home.att.net/~kevinmallen/mowingthecourse.jpg

http://home.att.net/~kevinmallen/mikecones.jpg

http://home.att.net/~kevinmallen/peterwithrake.jpg

http://home.att.net/~kevinmallen/pullingstumps.jpg

http://home.att.net/~kevinmallen/conetoss.jpg

http://home.att.net/~kevinmallen/loadingup.jpg

http://home.att.net/~kevinmallen/safetyruns_lol.jpg

And now, since I suppose you all guessed by that last pic what we did last night, I officially enter Kevin Allen, Peter Baio, and Christine Allen in "exhibition class."

We did about 5 or 6 runs each, to sweep the course and see how the ground will hold up (okay, that's not the whole truth, but it was part of the plan). Yeah, it's perty tight in some places, but I don't think anybody's going to mind as far as driving it is concerned. But... it's gonna get ugly. On the tighter turns, the ruts got about 6 inches deep. And that was after less than 20 runs. After 300 runs... :eek:

But it's definitely going to make for some great action pictures!!!

I'll get some pics of the ruttage today, before I smooth it back out...

Later.

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