Olympus Review
Posted by Tom B
Tom B Professional Moderator Location: Douche Canoe, WA Join Date: 02/27/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 780 Rally Car: VW Golf |
Wow, lots of carnage out there this weekend and tons of 2wd guys. How'd your rally go?
I was relatively annoyed with how the rally schedule got screwed over, but we were at the event, so it was go time! We helped out a couple folks on Recce with flat tires. We are still getting used to the power of the car combined with a new transmission, and we were pushing pretty hard on stage two when we decided to take some corners way too fast. We went into a couple different ditches at about 30-40 mph each time, we slid in appropriately ass first, smacking the left rear corner hard. When we got done with the stage I hopped out expecting to see the left side of the car battered and bruised, to my surprise, no body damage! Unfortunately the left front wheel picked up a lot of positive camber. I let Edward McNelly by us because I didn't want the camber issue to slow us and cause a dust issue for him. We made it about 3 miles in at a comfortable pace, when I thought we had a flat and I pulled over to change it, I hopped out and saw that the wheel had taken a vacation and we no longer had the end of our stub axle. 
So that was the end of day one, day "two" we started by screwing around on the pavement. Got into the gravel and we were pretty tenative because of the off and good god the amount of dust hanging at night was rediculous. Set up some decent times and we went off to play on Nahwatzel. We were solid on this stage, but picked up a left front puncture with three miles left, chose to drive it out and ended up burning up and flattening the right front too, we pulled over right after stage finish before finish control to swap on the spare, not knowing the other tire was flat too. We tossed out a triangle (it was a safe spot) and worked on changing the tire, a Subaru stopped and asked if we needed anything I said not unless you have a spare wheel/tire, they were 5 lug we were 4x100. A little bit later I see a civic come around the corner, I move out partially into the road and put up my hand to ask them to stop, they ignore me and drive by.... We get a tire from the Watsons about 30 minutes later and roll into finish on their spare 34 minutes late and get a five minute time penalty. Rough rally for us, but we have a working transmission, an AWESOME suspension, a few small things to button up but we are finally getting back to the land of reliability. -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 |
Jay Woodward Junior Moderator Location: Snohomish, WA Join Date: 12/21/2005 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 893 Rally Car: '90 Mazdog Frankenprotege |
Robert Gobright Professional Moderator Location: White Center Seattle Join Date: 04/27/2008 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,292 Rally Car: 91 VW GTI 8V |
"oh! you're the one!" Elite Moderator Location: Hazel Dell, WA Join Date: 02/22/2008 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,390 Rally Car: 1974 Dodge Colt, under construction |
Banned Professional Moderator Location: John and Skyes Magic Love liar Join Date: 08/24/2007 Posts: 2,154 |
Banned Ultra Moderator Location: Red Deer, Alberta Join Date: 09/13/2011 Posts: 717 Rally Car: 2002 Subaru WRX STi |
Tom, out of all the cars that ran The Ridge, your car was by far the most awesome to watch. I've worked around later gen Audis/VWs for years, and wow... The sheer amount of hp/tq your car puts out is phenomenal, and you are a crazy driver. I hope you do decide to come play in Canada, as you were extremely entertaining to watch 
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Robert Gobright Professional Moderator Location: White Center Seattle Join Date: 04/27/2008 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,292 Rally Car: 91 VW GTI 8V |
Sean Medcroft Professional Moderator Location: Edmonds, Washington Join Date: 02/12/2009 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,802 Rally Car: Building a Merkur |
What a weekend! Decided to go all old school and drive the car to the event, and have Jenne drive her Mercedes down for recce. Everything was going smoothly until we punched a hole in the oil pan on recce. Found a nice remote unused quarry to park the car and hitched a ride with Josh and Dixie Drift for the rest of recce. Decided to not worry about the car till Sunday.
Had a good first event in the new car, until the gearbox decided to let go on the final stage. The car works well, especially in straight linbe acceleration. It is down right scary how fast in gains momentum out of 4's and 5's. I need to do some testing with the rear alignment and spring rate/height to get a bit more lateral grip. the car feels very loose in the rear on turn in, and it is really messing with my mental ability to push. My brake pedal feel is a bit inconsistent also, I think one of the rear calipers is in need of replacement. I drove very conservative, still trying to wrap my head around the whole process again. Sweep flat towed us out in the rally car, then they took me back in, we located the recce car, and they flat towed me out in that as well! I had them drop me at the ridge, which was closed, so I patched the oil pan on the side of the road. Epoxied a 6" square of sheet steel to cover the hole, then epoxied the edges, and applied duct tape when it tacked up. Waited 1 hour, filled with oil, and drove it home. It is still leak free, and should be good till the new pan arrives. 
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John Vanlandingham Ultra Moderator Location: Ford Asylum, Sleezattle, WA Join Date: 12/20/2005 Age: Fossilized Posts: 14,152 Rally Car: Saab 96 V4 |
Tom has put a lot of work and money into that poor ol thang..when it works, it works... But I think you boys should ask to to describe what his impression was after driving this car
And then ask him his reactions when he was told Stock engine, stock clutch, stock trans, stock management system, just 2 1/2' exhaust and a Toyota Supra diff with 4.3 ratio---nothing else. Oh and some ol intercooler, whoopiee. Of course for more giggles ask the guy who was passenger---who ain't used to being on that side... 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. |
Professional Moderator Location: Arlington WA Join Date: 11/17/2010 Posts: 82 Rally Car: Celica |
I spectated this year at the ridge and had as good of a time one can have watching rally cars drive on tarmac, I was fairly bummed Forrest spectating was cancelled but we made the most of it. It was nice to meet you Sean Medcroft & John Reed, you both had very nice cars. I have been stalking both of your build threads on here so to finally see them in all there detail was great.
Highlights: Chris Duplesiss* at the ridge. That guy can drive, wow! I have never seen a driver kick up dust and make the tires smoke all on the same corner. I was thuroughly impressed with what I saw at the ridge. I wish I could have seen some forest stages. Derek's m3, sure it had some very expensive parts on it, but the build quality & fit n' finish was staggering. I must have walked back and checked out the car 6 times. The car actually made a convert out of the buddy I brought with me. He's already began planning his winter build converting his m3 streetcar for stage rally duties. I wish I could have seen Hintz's car, but it was gone by the time I arrived on Saturday. 80+ entries and 13 in open light...that is awesome, we can only hope for even more entries next year and maybe an earlier/later date on the schedule to combat the summer dust. But the top highlight for me had to be meeting John Buffum, living legend. 
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Jay Woodward Junior Moderator Location: Snohomish, WA Join Date: 12/21/2005 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 893 Rally Car: '90 Mazdog Frankenprotege |
adam crane Junior Moderator Location: Seattle, WA Join Date: 01/28/2006 Posts: 382 Rally Car: corolla GT-yes |
"oh! you're the one!" Elite Moderator Location: Hazel Dell, WA Join Date: 02/22/2008 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,390 Rally Car: 1974 Dodge Colt, under construction |
Tom B Professional Moderator Location: Douche Canoe, WA Join Date: 02/27/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 780 Rally Car: VW Golf |
"oh! you're the one!" Elite Moderator Location: Hazel Dell, WA Join Date: 02/22/2008 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,390 Rally Car: 1974 Dodge Colt, under construction |
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