There's a few more pictures (all are also in the slideshow above) at our Wild West Rally Picasa album.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Wild West Rally 2009 Video and Pictures
There's a few more pictures (all are also in the slideshow above) at our Wild West Rally Picasa album.
Wild West Rally 2009 Recap
Wild West Fun in a 1975 99 EMS
The Wild West Rally started off rough for us. First we lost the muffler which damaged the rear brake line, had a tire puncture from a cantaloupe size rock, and went off the course twice, rolling onto the drivers side once. Despite all that (and due to some service heroics) we managed to finish, and for Saturday that seemed to be saying a lot with all the DNF's. Most of the teams were back for Sunday though, which turned into an awesome day.
The rally car went into Sunday in near 100% condition, we just had one tire that was a lot more worn than the others (the spare we installed Sat.) The first stage got my confidence up again and the understeer problem seemed to disappear. We revised the routebook notes as we went through the first 3 stages, putting down times we were happy with, and then nailed the next 3 stages after service. We didn't have any real problems all day, although we did crack the transmission on Breakdown 1.
Rally Stages 1, 2, 4 and 5 were super fast with lots of loose gravel and some silt. It was really nerve racking because of how squirrely my car is in the back. There were a couple times when the ruts were pushing us around, but for the most part my only complaint was a complete lack of torque in 3rd gear. If things started to get hairy I had to downshift to 2nd to pull out of it. Stages 3 and 6, otherwise known as Breakdown, were really fun stages for us. I felt so at home on this piece of crap narrow road, and had a great time beating my car to peices on this fun stage. 4 other drivers with more experience than me posted slower times on stage 6 than our time.
Results for day 1 put us 4th in our class out of 6 that started, 17th overall out of 24 that started, but put us dead last among the finishers.
Sundays results put us again 4th in class, and 18th overall out of 21 that started. The cool thing about Sunday is that we actually finished in front of people, 2:31 faster than Phil Meyers, and because of his penalty, 18 seconds faster than Brian Gottlieb. It was funny when he pulled into control late, I thought he might hit me to get to the ATC as fast as he could! Anyways sunday was awesome, the car felt good just underpowered and a bit squirrely at high speeds.
Pomeroy is an awesome town to rally in, and we really appreciated all the free food. This is the best news you can get when your unemployed and out of money. Also thanks to the HAM Radio guy who gave us 2 quarts of synthetic oil to top up with after our roll, thanks to Mike Goodwin for letting us park next to him and bug him to borrow stuff all weekend (!) and an even bigger thanks to the fire department for digging up our toxic waste and delivering it to us at service. It would have been really difficult to get up there Sunday and do that.
Results for us (Car # 178) and all competitors can be found on the Wild West Rally results page.
The Wild West Rally started off rough for us. First we lost the muffler which damaged the rear brake line, had a tire puncture from a cantaloupe size rock, and went off the course twice, rolling onto the drivers side once. Despite all that (and due to some service heroics) we managed to finish, and for Saturday that seemed to be saying a lot with all the DNF's. Most of the teams were back for Sunday though, which turned into an awesome day.
The rally car went into Sunday in near 100% condition, we just had one tire that was a lot more worn than the others (the spare we installed Sat.) The first stage got my confidence up again and the understeer problem seemed to disappear. We revised the routebook notes as we went through the first 3 stages, putting down times we were happy with, and then nailed the next 3 stages after service. We didn't have any real problems all day, although we did crack the transmission on Breakdown 1.
Rally Stages 1, 2, 4 and 5 were super fast with lots of loose gravel and some silt. It was really nerve racking because of how squirrely my car is in the back. There were a couple times when the ruts were pushing us around, but for the most part my only complaint was a complete lack of torque in 3rd gear. If things started to get hairy I had to downshift to 2nd to pull out of it. Stages 3 and 6, otherwise known as Breakdown, were really fun stages for us. I felt so at home on this piece of crap narrow road, and had a great time beating my car to peices on this fun stage. 4 other drivers with more experience than me posted slower times on stage 6 than our time.
Results for day 1 put us 4th in our class out of 6 that started, 17th overall out of 24 that started, but put us dead last among the finishers.
Sundays results put us again 4th in class, and 18th overall out of 21 that started. The cool thing about Sunday is that we actually finished in front of people, 2:31 faster than Phil Meyers, and because of his penalty, 18 seconds faster than Brian Gottlieb. It was funny when he pulled into control late, I thought he might hit me to get to the ATC as fast as he could! Anyways sunday was awesome, the car felt good just underpowered and a bit squirrely at high speeds.
Pomeroy is an awesome town to rally in, and we really appreciated all the free food. This is the best news you can get when your unemployed and out of money. Also thanks to the HAM Radio guy who gave us 2 quarts of synthetic oil to top up with after our roll, thanks to Mike Goodwin for letting us park next to him and bug him to borrow stuff all weekend (!) and an even bigger thanks to the fire department for digging up our toxic waste and delivering it to us at service. It would have been really difficult to get up there Sunday and do that.
Results for us (Car # 178) and all competitors can be found on the Wild West Rally results page.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Wild West Rally 2009: Alive after day 1
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Wild West Rally 2009 Preperation Update / Pictures
Just about ready for Wild West Rally 2009. James got some more work done this weekend on the rally car. Alignment has been done (so he says), he installed a cardboard barrier between the truck and the cockpit to keep dust out, removed and modified/fixed the skid plate, and changed the fluids. James was surprised at all the metal shavings that came out of the transmission, but I assured him this is normal. This transmission has been a miracle for us so far, but it is whinning pretty bad and has endured a lot of abuse and not always had enough fluid.
Watch for our live twitter updates both here and with the rest of the competitors on the Results page of the Wild West Rally 2009 homepage. Just click "live updates through twitter" on the results page.http://www.wildwestrally.org/results.html for live scoring and twitter updates during the rally, or visit the Wild West Rally Homepage for more information about the event.
From NORTHWIND Racing
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Wild West Rally 2009 Final Touches!
James came and picked up the Rally car the other day, taking it to his house near Moses Lake, which is much closer to Pomeroy. James is installing the Brantz Rally Computer, painting the cage with a rattle can, adjusting toe and camber on the front wheels, and tidying up other odds and ends to get us all set for Wild West Rally 2009.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Car Is Shaping Up, Almost Ready For Wild West Rally 2009
Today I replaced the supply pump with one that actually works, and the fuel system appears to be operating great. There is one hose (3 inches or so in length) in the fuel tank that may be natural rubber. We will have to keep an eye on it to make sure the ethanol doesn't dissolve it.
I also soldered a diode onto the Alternator Exciter circuit, to solve the ignition run-on problem we were having. The car shuts down much more predictably now and its much safer. A lot of cars with aftermarket wiring or ignition systems can have issues with this. Electricity can backflow through the Alternator Exciter wire and feed the whole fuse box with power even after the Ignition Switch, or Emergency Cut-off switch, is turned off. A diode prevents the current from flowing backwards, but still allows it to excite the Alternator.
The list is getting very small, even though I added a few things:
I also soldered a diode onto the Alternator Exciter circuit, to solve the ignition run-on problem we were having. The car shuts down much more predictably now and its much safer. A lot of cars with aftermarket wiring or ignition systems can have issues with this. Electricity can backflow through the Alternator Exciter wire and feed the whole fuse box with power even after the Ignition Switch, or Emergency Cut-off switch, is turned off. A diode prevents the current from flowing backwards, but still allows it to excite the Alternator.
The list is getting very small, even though I added a few things:
- Alignment
- Pick up my used tires from another race team, mount on wheels
- Sand paint smooth where stickers go
- Re-adjust drivers side harness
- Clean up some rusty metal on drivers side front wheel well
- General cleaning (Incl. Rain-X)
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
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