Not like almost being pregnant, but almost as in if the event was South of the border we would have been second O/A. Instead we were Excluded for getting towed on the final transit, dispite un-hooking and pushing the car through the final MTC, and getting a time. According to CARS rules you must complete the entire route under you own power. We're listed in the official results as DNF, which is not accurate as we did finish, we were excluded for breaking a rule in the process.


The above notwithstanding (can you tell I work with lawyers a lot!), we had a great event! Several top teams had problems, which allowed us to run in the top 3 for the remainder event after stage 2 and teh first re-seed... Chris Martin was running car #1, and was my favourite for the win, until he rolled on stage 2... he'll have to fill us in on what happened, as I can only speculate.

My plan of attack going into the event was to make the 40mm JVAB front struts last, be very concious of what I was doing to them and try to avoid bending/breaking them like the last time we ran these stages because we have no spares left. That's what I did, avoided hard braking when it was really rough, avoided the rough stuff or slowed instead of blasting right through it flat out, reduced my cornering speeds, especially when it was rough to avoid high side loads... Oddly enough this didn't affect our stage times much, if at all, as we were running our "normal" times compared to others.

The event was extremely dusty, as there had been no rain in weeks.The organisers planned ahead for this and the field was run with 2 minute windows which was awesome... we didn't have a problem with dust all day, in fact we only saw dust hanging in the still air a few times in the thickest woods.

We had our first problem on recce, which we had special permission from the organisers to do in the rally car, when the car started overheating on stage 1... This was eventually diagnosed and fixed the following morning. The fan wiring had burnt out and was re-wired prior to the event, but the fan was running backwards. This was the first thing I checked when the over heating started, but apparently when there's a big fan running, and lots of air moving, it's difficult to tell which way the air is going. The next morning when I checkd and couldn't tell for sure a piece of paper held to the fan quickly showed it was blowing instead of sucking :-) A quick re-wire and that problem was fixed.

This stage,


Stage 3 was the beginning of the end for us when we hit a big rock with the diff - I saw it and avoided it with the right front wheel! It turns out that this impact cracked the rear cover on the diff... we didn't discover that it was the diff that was leaking until it was too late to do anything about it at service (2 minutes to go). I didn't discover where it was leaking until last night when I pulled the diff, the cover, and cleaned it... it's only a small crack!

In hind sight we should have grabbed gear oil, plug removal tool, and some tubing to enable topping up the oil between stages... as it was I just decided to drive it until it broke... after all it was only dripping slowly... until it warmed up, then it was pissing out! Yikes! The end of stage 5 is a fast wide road, but for some reason I was having trouble getting the car over 110km/h... The diff was siezing me thinks... on stage 6 it just got louder and louder to the point where I was having trouble hearing the notes. When it gave it's first really big "bang" I started to ease off to try and make it to the finish of this the last stage. I think this big bang was the first chunk of teeth departing company with the pinion and being forced between the teeh that were left and the ring gear. I also strted worring what might happen if it suddenly seized.. 80km/h seemed like a reasonable pace, and kepeing the diff loaded seemd like the right plan to make it last as long as possible.

We made it to the end, and about 12/ way through the transit when we lost the rest of the pinion teeh and had no drive. Special thanks to our friends Jeremy and Logan who stopped and towe dus back to HQ, dispite an overheating motor and some other "cosmetic" problems of their own.

Kudos to all the event workers and organisers, I'm sure the 2 minute windows didn't stop the dust for you! And man was it ever hot.. so hot I'd say it's the hottest I've ever been in my life!

Sure we were disapointed, but we finished 2nd on stage times!

The entire sagais slowly unfolding in all it's gorey detaisl as toild by Ferd and his cameras Here


BTW... JVAB 40's survived and performed flawlessly. I haven't checked to see if we tweaked them or not yet.

-Martin.

drat! If it was easy, it wouldn't be fun. Way to POR.

Tough break, Martin. I hate that no towing rule in Canada. Hell, that's what got Pat excluded at Defi last year, if I remember correctly. Nice job anyway though.

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-Brian

It was funny we determined our overheating issue at bear this year was because the fan was wired backwards. After sweep towed us in we were covered in dust. Pulled in to service and flipped the fan on and covered our crew in dust.

I think we died within 3km of the finish of A6 because our fuel pump is going.


Martin you had a good run to bad. Same as Paul who blew the CV on the last transit as well. He tempted fate though by announcing to Chuck after A6 that he broke the Bancroft curse.

D.

---

RallySputnik
www.rallysputnik.com

Quote
derekvincent
It was funny we determined our overheating issue at bear this year was because the fan was wired backwards. After sweep towed us in we were covered in dust. Pulled in to service and flipped the fan on and covered our crew in dust.

ALWAYS test the fan. Ciggie smoke, something, always.

Quote

I think we died within 3km of the finish of A6 because our fuel pump is going.

Why didn't you flip the switch and run on Pump 2?
You do have 2 pumps, of course.
Dontcha?

Quote

Martin you had a good run to bad. Same as Paul who blew the CV on the last transit as well. He tempted fate though by announcing to Chuck after A6 that he broke the Bancroft curse.

D.

CV joint? What kind of car (jus curious)?

---

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.

John in the Lada we are lucky to have one fuel pump. We will sort something out for the talon.

Hartl's car is a golf.

D.

---

RallySputnik
www.rallysputnik.com

In communist Lada, fuel pumps you!

Quote
derekvincent
John in the Lada we are lucky to have one fuel pump.

Should I cue "The 4 Yorkshiremen"?

Quote


Hartl's car is a golf.

D.

A GOLF CV JOINT FAILED!!!! OH MY FAWKING GAWD!!!!!!

Say it hain't true!

---

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.

lololol

---

-Tom
DemonRallyTeam | Fine Tuning | CTS Turbo & RP Turbos | RalleyTuned | JRM | Meister Autowerks
Spitfire EFI | Product Apparel | JVAB Imports | NLS | AP Tuning | USRT

Add us on Facebook | Next Event: 2013 Olympus Rally June 22-23 Olympia, WA

nice video, love the angles, looks nice n fast

Good job Martin, well, almost Yeah that's a tough break. It seems we're a bit more strict up here in the towing, glass, etc. Maybe for good reason, but it certainly doesn't make things easier.

At least you made it past SS1 though

Edit: Stupid question, can you not fab up a diff protector ala the Subies? Or is the diff too big/low for it?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/2012 09:07AM by AlexeiS.

There certainly was a lot of attrition! 8 finishers out of 18 starters.

Alexei.. I know you broke suspension, did you by chance run over Warrens strut that was laying inb the road? I heard someone did.

Pete, yes some of it is pretty fast, but I find the go-pro make it look faster, and more open than it is, the chase cam is more "real" but not as exciting looking :-)

Derek, It sucks that you couldn't get the Lada to the finish... since you are production I presume you are restricted to "stock" fuel pump? Quite the coincidence that we had the same fan problems!

Yes Paul had the same problem, broke on the final transit.. he was just glad to finish all the stages!

-Martin.

I think that was Ryan. It was gone by the time we got there. The right rear suspension failure is a result of previous owners modifying the knuckle to accommodate a bigger shock to stop shocks from breaking. I have to try and see if I can get the replacement knuckle reinforced to stop it from breaking again. Or something crazy like getting a knuckle machined up. For GCFR, it's no problem, I can run it with the same machining. For the front left failure, I have no clue why it failed other than I'm too rough.

It looked to me like your LF, the piston came unscrewed form the rod... nothing to do with you being rough, it just fell apart inside.

-Martin.

Yeah, Peter called and said exactly that. The top bearings need to be replaced evidently, they may have siezed and caused that. Chalk that one up to my inexperience probably, it'll go on the PM checklist now.