Mendicino Rally 2013....what happened?

What a bunch of self-interested twits. What a crappy looking cage. Wouldn't of passed muster in the East, but we're all uptight here. Fuck 'em.

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"Talk about drugs. Driving a car like that, going that fast, it’s like all the drugs at once." - Tommy Byrne

"Now, Pinky, if by any chance you are captured during this mission, remember you are Gunther Heindriksen from Appenzell. You moved to Grindelwald to drive the cog train to Murren. Can you repeat that?" - The Brain

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SeanP

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ofensus


On stage 4 Sunday, I messed up and slid sideways in to a soft berm, two wheels over a cliff, and was pulled out by sweep.

Did it look like this, Chris?

Haha, no Sean, our wheels were maybe 6 inches over the edge, and the car still roughly level. Pretty tame.

I really thought I could drive it out, but when I tried the car started going sideways downhill, so I gave that up quick.

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Eddie Fiorelli
Man what a tough way to potentially lose a car with just 4 rallies on it. Indeed the passenger side rear stub axle tip sheared off in a fast right hander snapping the car hard to the right pretty much instantly into a berm. From what I can tell we spun in backwards hitting with the drivers side C-pillar/quarter panel and then continued the spin until the front drivers side front door/front quarter panel hit the berm. The roof is dented in at the drivers side rear so I'm guessing we hit on an angle? Afterwards we ended up 50 meters down the road. As usual before we knew it we were stopped, none of the hits were hard on us (the berms must have been soft enough) and we were perfectly fine. Things would have been worse had that stub axle failed near the exposures, some of them seemed pretty steep. Those stub axles had 2 rallies on them and I inspected and cleaned the bearings before the rally. Losing a car sucks, potentially losing one after 4 rallies by force majure is really tough.

Here are some vids I took, I apologize for the goofy narration:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111435268196229464954/RallyCarJuly2013Damage?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Not sure where to go with this, not sure if it's worth trying to fix this with donor parts or just starting all over again with a clean shell. What I really want is to drop off the car somewhere and it get it back relatively clean. Cutting a shell in half is more than I am willing to do myself, I'd rather get some on it who can do it relatively cleanly.

Those guys with that blog have f'd up expectations and really need an attitude adjustment. Good riddance.

Sound scary! You have seen our very own Robert Culbertson's rendering of little adaptor thangs to use the big fat stubbie thangs off the rear of the fat pig MkIVs haven't you? He came up here and spent a day schmoozing and I was showing him the rear disc things I have pushed forever and the later fat stub and since he has a VW and is a machinist I suggested he put some time into it and he came up with a very simple easy set up....

If your cage isn't tacoed it sounds like a lotta work but hackin off outer skin is much less work than a full re-shell/recage....It's not hard work, just boring and annoying. Lotsa drilling and some chiseling and lots of little spot welds..Be real nice if one could buy new panels--maybe you can...Have you thought of checking?

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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.

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ofensus
John,

First, I wish I had the beautiful shocks you made up for us in the car, Sunday would have turned out a lot better for us. I lost access to fabrication equipment, so I haven't been able to get the front strut mounts sorted.

Saturday went well for us, even though it was crazy hot and rough.

On stage 2 Sunday, the front strut nut ripped the threads off the strut. I limped it back to the service with the strut flopping around after I wasted about 10 minutes figuring out what was going on. Our crew and the Marciniacks helped us heroically replace and rally-repair the damaged mount bearing so we could continue.

On stage 4 Sunday, I messed up and slid sideways in to a soft berm, two wheels over a cliff, and was pulled out by sweep.

Yikes! What happened? Threads cleaned off the top pin? You say you haven't got those thing you sent up mounted in yet? What more needs to be done to get them installed?

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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.

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wvonkessler
What a bunch of self-interested twits. What a crappy looking cage. Wouldn't of passed muster in the East, but we're all uptight here. Fuck 'em.

Oh yeah!? Do you put in the Supps that people should wear shoes.

Maybe Wawwy Amewicar could write rules mandating what is required leisure footwear? You're a lawyer, you think they should litigate? He did say he got a thorn in his toe or some such catastrophe...sound to me like they have a claim.

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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.

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john vanlandingham
...could write rules mandating what is required leisure footwear?

You think they haven't already? Ask Jeremy Wimpey.

Anders

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Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.

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john vanlandingham
Yikes! What happened? Threads cleaned off the top pin? You say you haven't got those thing you sent up mounted in yet? What more needs to be done to get them installed?

Yeah, there was some thread left, but most of it was sheared. I think the nut got loose or the rubber in the mount got squished and the nut got hammered off once there was some play. I am reviewing all of the suspension hardware for locking hardware, which is something that I should have done after I lost the lower mount at Prescott.

I'm going to enlarge the center hole in some stock upper mounts and use some thrust bearings from McMaster since I don't have the ability to chop and weld the towers without paying people lots of dollars.

Should have it together by Prescott time and hope to test at some rallyx before that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/2013 12:47AM by ofensus.

RA 5.2 E. All competitors must wear shoes and socks while on stage. The shoes
must cover the entire foot. The driving suit and sock must fully cover the
competitor’s skin from leg to foot.

Not a new rule and not RA only. Guess a case could be made for wearing those 'skeletonized' bike helmets on hot days also to match the sandals.

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ofensus

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john vanlandingham
Yikes! What happened? Threads cleaned off the top pin? You say you haven't got those thing you sent up mounted in yet? What more needs to be done to get them installed?

Yeah, there was some thread left, but most of it was sheared. I think the nut got loose or the rubber in the mount got squished and the nut got hammered off once there was some play. I am reviewing all of the suspension hardware for locking hardware, which is something that I should have done after I lost the lower mount at Prescott.

I'm going to enlarge the center hole in some stock upper mounts and use some thrust bearings from McMaster since I don't have the ability to chop and weld the towers without paying people lots of dollars.

Should have it together by Prescott time and hope to test at some rallyx before that.

The top mounts have no bearing in them, its in the stock upper spring seat..
look at this: Toyota 1985 Corolla


Smaller bolt circle---$16.85 at Rockauto

They even have offset versions--drill you holes right and get some castor increase:


I will search and see if we find the diameter of the bearing.

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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.

I've got the bearing sorted out. 15mm inner diameter. Go between the upper mount and the spring seat.

I'll look in to those mounts. Subaru ones required a much larger center hole.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#6681k13/=nqq1vb

Finally found something worthwhile to put in my sig.

I'd like to point out that that pic was of their gussets, which were presumably done after "they'd gotten better".

Eddie: sorry about your car. If it was because of the jinx, I'd like to point out that a) I had mechanix gloves on when I teched your car, and b) it's now got one of my stub axles on it, which means it's likely to implode at any moment.

Seriously, I think your car is salvageable. It'll just require a new roof and quarter panel.

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Self-righteous douche canoe

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john vanlandingham
Seriously, Michael, convince people not to follow the idiotic "Standings" bullshit of a single page with cumulative times added up.
2 columns like every where in the entire world...

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john vanlandingham
Personally I have since I was a child been dismayed and disgusted at the push by some people--usually uncreative, uneducated, conservative and stupid people to push for and praise--AND DEMAND uniformity....

In all seriousness, the virtually universal presentation of stage time on the left and total time on the right makes it easy to compare and see how the event is unfolding, but that really is a secondary concern of any scoring team.

Scoring systems at a regional level are more often than not the product of people who volunteer their time to make the programs, or spreadsheets in some cases, happen. If you've ever organized an event you'll know how difficult it is to find these people in the first place. If you've ever scored an event, you'd know how tough it actually is. If you've ever written a spreadsheet to score an event, you'd know how complicated it can get and how what seems to be working can shit the bed with no notice.

Yes, there are a couple of 'turn key' scoring systems out there but I have yet to see one that doesn't need some sort of massaging at the code level during the event. (If you aren't THE programmer or at least understand how the programmer that wrote the program things, good luck)

One of the best bugs I saw in a scoring program was when the final results would change each time the results were printed. (apparently saving wasn't an issue, only when printing) So, print a copy for the stewards to review, then print a copy to be posted - results changed. Make one change in response to an inquiry, print the new results, many more changes made.

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First Rally: 2001
Driver (7), Co-Driver (44)
Drivers (16)
Clerk (10), Official (7), Volunteer (4)
Cars Built (1), Engines Built (0) Cages Built (0)
Last Updated, January 4, 2015

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john vanlandingham
Blame is for idiots. losers.

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Morison (snip..BLah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah)

Fuck Morison paragraphs of droning obviousness, you dimwit. I've been doing this shit since 1984 Einstein you DO NOT NEEED TO LECTURE ANYBODY ON THE OBVIOUS

SHUT UP!!!!!!!

You are an idiot and an insulting one, every word you wrote insults people's intelligence and I have only had 1/3 a cup of fucking tea so I am not even 1/2 awake, so therefore not in any way intelligent and your droning lecture on what everybody knows is insulting.
Shut UP!

But---the format has been around since the first car event I entered.

THE problem is that organisers have to rely on people who VOLUNTEER and some of them are IDIOTS LIKE YOU who lecture everybody instead of shutting up their dumb mouths.

And organuisors can't legally kill computer nerd types who claim they can do anything--except shut the fuck up and do what they're told.
So they GIVE UP, since legally they cannot do the world a favor and kill these idiots and they probably don't even bother to ask for any format because the nerd types will argue and explain for YEARS shit that doesn't need explaining so, just let the idiots make up something, call anything whatever, invent bullshit "Because it would be confusing to casual viewer'.in the nerds minds

Shut up Morison, no response is needed or wanted.

Just in general SHUT UP,

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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.

now back to our regularly scheduled topic...

Mendocino - A couple observations:
Turnarounds didn't appear necessary**. The roads didn't end in a pile of un-passable rocks - I believe you could drive all the way around on a big loop Saturday and Sunday. 16 mile stage on Sat / 10 mile stage on Sun. Jim probably should have sent all the workers out hours sooner (or a time where they wouldn't interfere with recce`) My fb quote was: "A 1 day rally with a 2 day schedule." The heat is not Jim's fault - but the preparation for the heat was under his control. Mandatory recce` makes up for about 40% of the problem as some sort of recce` was held on Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday.

**I was informed that Sunday required a turnaround: 2 more miles of stage road and to avoid a very long transit. It's also in this nice shady picnic area.

It's evident that in a few years without any top level RA guidance, that NRS rallies are now holding the line on some of these tech issues. Where as - maybe 5 years ago a NW RA tech was a bit excruciating - it now seems that sponsorship sticker checking is top priority. As we've found a bad ball joint, a bad wheel bearing, and various other issues by jacking up, shaking wheels and looking under rally cars - We have found our competitors appreciative that we "didn't let them start the stage like that..." when you all know these last minute walk around car checks are easy to overlook when you're in a rush prepping for the event.

I understand why some of the Northwest competitors don't stray far from home. They usually have 3 or 4 awesome rallies really close to them. They get caught up in the "National Flair" of a big rally, and they are usually unprepared for the rougher roads in other parts of the country. This results in them trying a "rougher" Californian event once - the weather doesn't work out - they already are in a bad mindset - they shit all over it, and never return.

They should probably consider the following:
* These challenges can make you stronger - Rally is difficult and that's why we do it.
* Even though RA makes you think otherwise there are only 600 competitors doing this.
* 1/3 of those people read your shitty blog post.
* Take a look at your belts. See that part sewn in about "serious injury or death". That's what the Douche Canoe is trying to prevent.

- Kris





*edit - almost forgot about 16 hours of recce`
*edit - turnarounds and picnics



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/2013 11:27AM by webkris.

Why so whiney John? I guess you take your meds with the second half of the cup of tea.

Thing is you say these things are obvious yet you constantly, continuously rail on about the need for organizers to present their results in a uniform fashion that matches ' every where in the entire world.' (while insulting people in search of uniformity elsewhere, which is really funny actually)

Great, you've been around forever and you've seen and know everything... we all get that. But, you keep on asking every event why they don't step in line with convention and display the results everyone else does so you can sit at home on your computer and easily see what's happening with the least possible amount of effort.

For what its worth, I agree with you that it would be great to see results in the commonly accepted format from all events. It really does tell the story better.

But, your constant calling for this suggested that you needed to be reminded that these efforts are not 'pay for service' things but often are done as a personal challenge or as something for 'fun' by people who give their time so we can have results at the end of the day.

So, when you're reminded that the sport in North America relies on volunteers to get things done, you respond with:

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john vanlandingham
THE problem is that organisers have to rely on people who VOLUNTEER and some of them are IDIOTS...
And organuisors can't legally kill computer nerd types...
So they GIVE UP, since legally they cannot do the world a favor and kill these idiots and they probably don't even bother to ask for any format because the nerd types will argue and explain for YEARS shit that doesn't need explaining so, just let the idiots make up something, call anything whatever, invent bullshit "Because it would be confusing to casual viewer'.in the nerds minds

Classy John. Calling volunteers idiots and accusing organizers of 'giving up' just because they won't focus on creating a results display that YOU, someone who can't bebothered to travel just over an hour to support an event, think is a priority.
(Or did you make it out to Nameless on Sunday?)

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john vanlandingham
Shut up Morison, no response is needed or wanted.

Funny thing about that. I don't recall asking for a response from you. Great thing about this internet thing (created by a bunch of computer nerds you can't kill) is it is an open forum. This place in particular is proud about it's lack of rules.

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First Rally: 2001
Driver (7), Co-Driver (44)
Drivers (16)
Clerk (10), Official (7), Volunteer (4)
Cars Built (1), Engines Built (0) Cages Built (0)
Last Updated, January 4, 2015

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john vanlandingham
Blame is for idiots. losers.