north nevada rally report

NN was a real blast. Hoche and Pete Soper worked super hard to put on a great rally, lots of fun was had, and only one Subie was balled up.

We had the typical rally experience: DNF'd with 2 stages to go on Friday by a mysterious engine problem that fixed itself while we slept, Were charging hard on Saturday until we got high centered on a berm and were time barred, then ran the whole last stage on a front flat, then changed to the flat spare and rode the rim for 20 miles to control.

Good times.

What manner of mysterious engine problem Al?

---

JohnLane

Overkill is consistently more fun

Probably electrical, as we rebuilt the chassis harness 2 months ago, and did not touch the engine harness. Al, do we need another weekend session?

We worked MTC on Saturday and got to learn the other side of the timecards. Al made a dramatic (and loud) approach driving on the rim coming in to final MTC. Alex and Jeana put up the fastest times on most stages until they did a little bushwhacking on Stage 4, putting them out of contention.

Now to get my junk de-junked before mendocino on 8/4

Quote
alkun
NN was a real blast. Hoche and Pete Soper worked super hard to put on a great rally, lots of fun was had, and only one Subie was balled up.

We had the typical rally experience: DNF'd with 2 stages to go on Friday by a mysterious engine problem that fixed itself while we slept, Were charging hard on Saturday until we got high centered on a berm and were time barred, then ran the whole last stage on a front flat, then changed to the flat spare and rode the rim for 20 miles to control.

Good times.

Tut tut tut Al, such modesty. Your SS times were like 4th 4th 3rd 4th and then whoops, Sunday was better...
Dayum.

Congrats to Alex "Wheelmaker" Rademacher on Saturday.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Quote
JohnLane
What manner of mysterious engine problem Al?

Lost spark. Everything under the hood was HOT. I'm still running the funky volvo Chrysler ignition module. Many have warned me that these get flakey. I have the later bosch box and wiring to splice in on the shelf, but am now seriously considering a standalone set up thats been floating around in the realm of possibilities. I'm still just seeing how much rally I can get out of how little effort, but the fun of being a dirtbag is wearing off...

Hm. Are MSD's any good?

I keep wondering if I can sweet-talk Al into letting me borrow the car for an event. That Volvo looks fun.

He's not mentioning that he nearly lost it coming over a crest on Friday night, right in front of where I was sitting running the radio net. He came over the top, got light, lifted, and the back end started coming around. Then I heard "WAAAAAAAHHHH" and he caught it and took off like a bat out of hell.

And then the huge cloud of dirt he'd kicked up floated over and landed on me.

*shakes fist*

Damn hooligans.

---

Self-righteous douche canoe

Quote
alkun
snip:
but am now seriously considering a standalone set up thats been floating around in the realm of possibilities. I'm still just seeing how much rally I can get out of how little effort, but the fun of being a dirtbag is wearing off...

You just have to say the word. I have the TBI rack, the demo PE3 ECU sitting on my desk, a couple of aluminum blocks to machine the intake manifold from, and free tuning all lined up for you. Didn't you already buy the coils?

Quote
Tim Taylor

Quote
alkun
snip:
but am now seriously considering a standalone set up thats been floating around in the realm of possibilities. I'm still just seeing how much rally I can get out of how little effort, but the fun of being a dirtbag is wearing off...

You just have to say the word. I have the TBI rack, the demo PE3 ECU sitting on my desk, a couple of aluminum blocks to machine the intake manifold from, and free tuning all lined up for you. Didn't you already buy the coils?

ah, with friend like this, who needs a drug dealer?

8V Volvo head to Hayabusa TBI rack coming right up...

so my stupid Van broke right after Idaho... didn't have the eneregy / time / money to get it fixed so drop out right? nah i'll just drive it there...

Well literally 1 day before the rally i heard an odd noise from the front left, but it went away... I serviced my JVABs (and a lil past over due) no grease left on any of them, and a lil dirt in one. lock colars were working well on the rears. fighting me a little on the front right, and the front left spun down and got stuck.

I was able to get it spinning again. (brake clean +soap+ vibrations + heat + elbow grease) I did the same method to get my spring perch free on my spare coilover. now able to set my ride height i raised the front up enough to not have any unsprung droop. and leveled out the back to match... Woohoo!! Wow the suspension feels soo good when its greased.. like its working 100% (imagine that)

well that noise? it got much worse on the long drive out to the rally HQ friday... It was my liquid filled A-arm bushing... it cracked and all the liquid came out. my crew chief and an other crew chielf said it shouldn't fail, but may lead to slightly off steering feel, and the noise will be super annoying, but not really affecting things.

LOL, John, i think you mean congrats for Friday, where my dumbass stayed on the road... hehehe


We did recee in the rally car (not the best idea with a noise that disturbs you) but it seemed fine.


So Friday went great. I was on some brand new Dmacks, no idea what kind of tire pressure they like. first stage they felt like SHIT.. complete crap, flush it down before it stinks crap. My times were alright, but there was no feed back from the tires.

am i'm about to lose grip? way in the traction envolope ... no idea... It felt like I was driving super slow , and i was convinced half the field was about to be reseeded in front of me... But my times were a little faster than last year, and faster than the rest of the field.

Stage 3 i nailed a fist sized rock on the front right. It shold have not have done ANYTHING to my car... but the alignment shop i went to, only torqued my strut bolts down to about 100 ft pounds. so the front right slid to max neg camber (like -4)

On the older silverstones that would have made my car turn left really really good. Oddly on the Dmacks my car was turning Right better than left. YES with -4 camber on the front right, the car was fighting me from turning left (a little) honestly it wasn't much different from before i hit the rock, but my car was turning Right better than left... (so fricken odd) I think the Dmacks are just more sensitive to being held flat on the road.... anywho i did my best on stage 4, but I was not pushing at all. gave up 10 seconds of my lead.

Stage 5 i went back to my normal pace and tried to feel out the Dmacks more. not sure if the road was swept a little bit , Or my tires just needed some scrub / heat cycle. but they felt noticably better.

start of stage 7 i was told that leelyn went off but they are both okay. glad they are okay, but bummed i lost my closest competitor. Not knowing the extent of the damage I offered any of the spares at my house to get them back in the the game. (their car is totaled)

Finished day 1, 1st OA on JVAB super bitching boingers...

On saturday i started stage 1, 1st on the road and very excited. I drove normal, I did slow down a LOT for the big jump (but still got off the ground) Jeana wanted me to jump higher, but that damn A-arm bushing was in my head. and i was too chicken to risk it. I wanted to win, not just jump big.

seemed the plan was good, i put 30 seconds on the 2nd on the road car. Stage 2 went great as well , again i was a bit of a pussy on the 1 embedded rock section but drove fairly normal. beat my last years time on that stage. we back to service, added ice to the cool suit coole r(thanks sean L for letting me borrow that again btw) added gas. and went back out.

Now i was really worried about that stupid A-arm bushing , so i slowed way down for the big jump. (jeana rightfully called me a wuss) and we beat our stage 1 time and our lead grew again. now at 87 seconds for the day, and 3 minutes ish for the combined.

We were both very excited and even foolishly started talking about the event T-shirts "how cool will it be that next years will have my car on it?" well that ain't gonna happen...

with 2 miles to go, i was LFB to get a little roation for a 5L short into 4R+ ... only .. my fucking foot slid off the pedal. yep , slid off the pedal and hit the floor, and my hear rate doubled. (this is after the 5L- exposure navi side)

the rubber pads fell off my pedals about a year ago... AND i left my driving shoes at home. first rally on naked steel pedals + worn out sneakers...

anywho so ya... It felt like i was going a little too fast and my car wasn't rotating , i started to give it some gas for a fraction of a second (no rotation, and less turning) so i realized i was going off.

FUCK as we went off i steered hard right to prevent he car from rolling over.. and then i tried to stop.. which doesn't work very well while doing down hill over sage brush... car stalled we got high centered on some dirt+bush and we were stuck. car would not restart so we hopped out and deployed triangles.

i ran back to the car and tried to use a hood pin to jump the starter (not knowing exactly what the problem was, car was in nuetral for this) the start just Spun, but not the motor... or at least it made a spinny noise. i went back up to jeana. waited for the next car to pass and ran back down. now it started. okay reverse! ah shit i'm stuck.. jack up the front left and i stuffed some random bits of wood (branches, and rocks) under the tire. set it down and the tire still spun but now smelled kinda woody... i tried pushing while jeana drove. i sat on the trunk and got the rear left to get traction but my other 3 tires spun (viscous center + viscous rear)

Do viscous diffs work in reverse, btw??

I had already tried extending my tow strap to the road hoping for some help, but it wouldn't even reach... we kept trying various things until i realized we were time barred. then i changed into some shorts i had in the car and waited for sweep.

Sweep was guy light.. my extraction was more exciting than my off....


And that's how i threw away a win on my home town rally.. but i'm not mad

FUCK FUCK FUCK... I'm way pissed off / depressed. but oh you know, I was trying to do my best, and that's racing... (or something)

feel free to call me an idoit for either slipping off my pedal, or for Not addressing a bare metal slippery pedal.

But please wait a week or two for me to get over this.. i really Really wanted to win this rally, esp admist fears it will be the last reno rally.. ARG!!!

but my JVAB coilovers worked awesome! even ending up 10+ below the road the ride was fine, and everything perfomed for the next 2 stages.. (i was just sunday driving for those, pushing a bit seeing dust and backing down, blah) my Gorilla air intake is still A-okay, mud flaps and coilvoer covers are still hanging in there..

i opened the trunk to grab triangles (we keep 3 in there + 1 by the navi) and to get the tow strap, which is fully extended and just in front of a sage brush in this pic.

Alex...
Lesson 1: If you have 20 feet of tow rope, you'll go off 25 feet and so on. This was explained to me about 30 years ago by a very wise Mark Qvale.

Lesson 2: Get some stick on grip tape , available at fine hardware stores and marine stores. Put it on your steel pedals, don't replace the rubber pads. http://www.amazon.com/Intertape-1727-Non-Slip-2-Inches-8-Feet/dp/B001E535VG

Lesson 3: The further up in the start order you are the less likely help (sweep) will arrive in time to save yer butt from time bar.

Keep up the effort, we need more guys like you!

Or, drill some holes and then ZOOOOOT! some kinda cold pointy welds here and there on the pedal..
Think of bike foot pegs. Holes for the eventual mud muck cow poor to have somewhere to squish thru, tooofies of weld to engage your sole.

Then it won't ever happen again.

And if you don't, I will speak harshly to you and spoil your mellow.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

One nice thing about going of at NN is the lovely sagey smell of the sagebrush, plus the chance to work on your tan, as there isn't a scrap of shade out there.

last NNV?!??!

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First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
Cars Built (2.5), Engines Blown (2) Cages Built (0) # of rotations (3.5)
Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023