While I sit here 2 hours north of Fort McMurray in camp, my mind is elsewhere... I spy with my little eye something that has changed around the "car corral" (as it has been dubbed by Jeff's wife):
*warning: terrible iphone pics inbound, better ones this coming Thursday*
First things first, this isn't going to be so much of a BUILD thread as it will be a "OH I RIPPED THE CORNER OFF THE CAR AND REPLACED IT THREAD"
So, it's insanely loud. A friend of ours stood on the driveway while Jeff and I went for it's first spin to shake it down/check it out. He said he heard us the whole time (3.0kms away). B) Wasn't even giviner' hell or nothin'!
But before we went for that rip, I had to replace the dead (frozen over the winter) Deka itty-bitty battery in it. Canadian Tire is a block away. A OEM style battery (2 year free replacement no questions asked warranty!) was $79.99 with 550cca. Like I had to think twice about that!
Sidenote, why in gods name would you run a rinky-dink battery in rally? The 30 pounds you save (especially with the new open class weight minimum of 2900 pounds) is WAY offset by halving the RCM. Yes, the deka could output some crazy CCA, but why I'd need it to turn over a small stock compression motor is confusing to my teenie brain. Now, the possibility of the alternator dieing or a belt being tossed? Much higher. I remember Sylvain Erickson in 2008(?) and his battery dieing due to electrical issues IIRC and costing him a good placing at Baie.
Car currently runs VP MS109E race fuel, but will PROBABLY be running 91 octane pump gas next year.
The car didn't come with light pods (it is wired for them) and Paul Eklund @ Primitive Racing (
www.get-primitive.com) has a killer deal on right now ($299.99 for BOTH dual light pods, half as much as the next cheapest pair I could find)! For now, I am going to run the 8" Bosch rallye lights that I still have from the Talon. They have a ridiculous bulb in them (ridiculous in not a good way, the H2 design, which is obsolete and difficult to change, so there is no ebay HID upgrade available). So I'll run 100W hella bulbs in all 4, plus HID's in the OEM headlights ($30/pair off egay, why not right?) and HID's in the stock fog location. Should be enough light for now and hopefully not too taxing on the electrical system. Expect HID's all around for 2013.
(Lightpods are the big white box)
The free GMC 1500 towed the trailer in an awesome manner. 15L/100kms (15USMPG) cruising at a sedate 65mph. Rarely unlocked the torque converter in 4th. Rides like a dream. Now if I just wasn't an idiot and would properly load a trailer didn't help I figured I needed a 2" drop hitch, but the truck actually isn't that high. Proper loading on my new trailer should make a huge difference.
I've done up a spreadsheet for the 2013 CRC national season. 32,500kms of towing (65 tanks of gas at 85L each at an average of $1.15/L = $6300ish in fuel :eyepop: ). This has prompted me to buy a new 18' open deck trailer, as used ones are too expensive for the risks you take (namely, bent axles). $3k for a new trailer won't be so bad, in the past 5 years I bet I've spent $1k on trailers.
Edit- Scratch that. I just bought a used (only 2000kms towing an old BMW) 16' Rainbow Trailers car hauler built last year. Was $2200. I can live with that. This might be a temporary solution, as the only way to really find out how much trailer you need is to use them. A 20' is waaaaaay too much, but a 16' might be too little. Probably will sell this one before we go to Perce and buy a brand new 18 footer...
Now why is the car an oldie but a goodie? Well, let me explain! First, Keith Morison owned this car since I met him when I was 16. In fact, I did two roadtrips down to the US with him in 2007 for Oregon (where I crewed for him and Norm LeBlanc) and Olympus, my first ever event where I co-drove. I've saw the car rack up the miles, blow up/been ran out of oil at least once, and in general been pounded away at. Keith then sold the car (I think? Or traded it with Azam? Who knows how it all went down) to Hardy, who had Swapshop out in Quebec build it up. V8/9 JDM STi Spec C drivetrain (2.0L, not the 2.5L like North America, s00per retarded close ratio 6 speed box which is hilarious to drive in downtown Edmonton). All of the goodies you'd expect, neetronics diff controller, ALS, launch control, the works. Retarded amounts of tq, very little top end. Dunno if it has a diff in the front or not, doesn't really feel like it, I asked but I forget atm...
So yea. Car weighs 3200 pounds ready to rally without driver/co-driver. Standard DMS 50mms. I believe the car still runs 5x100 (aka weaker) hubs on it because of the crapton of parts Hardy accumulated for that, including around 50 billion rally rims. Overall, the car only has 5 rallies on it as Hardy had a pretty rough 2011. He did Rocky, PFR, (Olympus?), Kananaskis and Big White. So the car is practically brand new!
Tires for PFR will be whatever Pirelli's [redacted] gave me off of [redacted's] car... they are "used" (not really, look practically new to me, thanks [redacted]!) and the DMacks off the Tal[hoon]. The DMack's will be on the chopping block for massive grooving at the slightest sign of rain, as they are only 195 and soft compound. I still need 4 more rims, I wasn't prepared to buy another 12 off of Hardy as I really dislike the old-skool OZ rally rim style on anything besides Celicas (and he pawned 6 of them off on me already on the rally car as it is lol). Probably do another 4 Evo Corse rims as a local rallyist (Tibor Kertes) can get them in for $180/rim in any color you want... the astardbay told me he refused to bring in pink even though he can get it.
So lime green will be the accenting color. Have a different logo for the hood of the car for PFR, I liked the death proof one, but this will be more hilarious and current.
Beyond that, I still have to go through the car itself and make sure everything is bolted down tightly/not falling off. Going to need belts by the end of the year, probably purchase them down in the US while around Olympus. The car also has some slightly irritating tuning issues... it is done such that you must either be accelerating aggressively in the car or coasting. I think this is done due to anti-lag and the drivebycable setup. With a new throttle body gasket (don't ask, SwapShop said so) and an update from VIPEC for the standalone, I should be able to get rid of the around town roughness of the car.