Newb from San Francisco

Hi,

just registered here and wanted to say hello. I have been on Specialstage for a little bit now, but spending an evening here made Specialstage seem a little dry and not as lively.

Either way, me and my friend are building an 1991 Audi 90Q for rally. We are probably the least well equipped rally team out there: both are grad students (so, no mullah), both live in small apartments in a very expensive city(no space for spare parts), have no garage(did a timing belt change on the side of the road), my other car is a saab 9000(ie not a huge diesel truck which can tow a trailer to the events), etc, etc.

What we do have is a strong desire to go fast down dirt roads, strong desire to learn, membership to TechShop and a red toolbox which at this point I can't lift.

The car is basically stock other than 2Bennet Coilovers (I was ignorant and not aware of the green things John Vanlandingham makes). The car is caged, seats, harnesses, etc are in. Safety wise I think we have checked off most things off the list (as on pages 17-29 of the NASA General Regulation booklet), now the big thing is to get the car log booked and prep her mechanically so that we will finish the first race (I got to say, the frame construction in the front of the audi (as say compared to the saab) makes it in no way intuitive of how to make a good skid plate). At some point I will make a build post, took a number of pictures as we were building it. As soon as the car is log booked we will register for the Gorman rally, which hopefully will be our first event. Don't want to register until we have the car checked out and know that it is legit.

So, that's a little info about our set up. I will most likely be posting all kinds of questions here and would very much appreciate all the wisdom shared on the forum.

Klim

Welcome to the site. It does get 'lively' here once in a great while....don't take anything too personal and you'll learn a lot about the sport from all aspects.

Got any pics of the cage?

SF eh? ill be in santa rosa in about two weeks. We should pow-wow. Are you going to SF state? or UCSF?

I also have a spare 7A flywheel if your interested. I got out of Audis. AJ is a good guy to talk with on here about his 90 turbo project.

---

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

Going to UCSF. Cool, we should definitely meet, the audi world is all new to me, I have been working on saabs for the past 7 years, and this car seems to be quite different.

I am still learning how to give external links to the google plus photos, but I will try. Still lots to do, need to clean her up and tidy things. But main things are there. Here are pics of the cage:

audi, eh?

paging Todd

The more I think about the more I realize that I should have gotten a dodge neon, or a civic, or at least a subaru. For practicality sake. But no, my heart lies with a car where every piece is complicated and over engineered, where parts are expensive and hard to get, where the stupid radiator is way to the side and not getting the airflow, where 4x108 wheels with the right centerbore are not existent...but 7000rpm straight 5 makes it all worth it!

Klim

seems like your missing the required gussets.

UCSF eh?. what field?

---

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

I am doing biophysics, structural biology to be more specific. Spend most of my time looking at tiny proteins in a dark room with the green glow of electron microscope.

The gussets confuse me a bit. We were going off the NASA booklet(http://www.nasarallysport.com/rules-forms/2012-NASA-Rally-Sport-GRR-Appendix-B.pdf), and the only place where it explicitly said to require the gussets is section 2.4, for the X in the main roll bar. Those gussets we have. Other than that I couldn't find any info as per NASA rules about the gussets in any other places. Looking at the RA diagram, they require the gussets both, in the main roll bar X and in the A-pillar reinforcement bar/door bar intersection. So, for RA we are missing these gussets and the plan was to try to log book the car based on NASA rules. But again, we would like to meet with a scrutineer and have it looked at. If we need the RA gussets even for the NASA cage, we will weld them in. The roof X might be a bit trickier now, but we could open the sunroof I guess

Klim

Quote
mulik52
The more I think about the more I realize that I should have gotten a dodge neon, or a civic, or at least a subaru. For practicality sake. But no, my heart lies with a car where every piece is complicated and over engineered, where parts are expensive and hard to get, where the stupid radiator is way to the side and not getting the airflow, where 4x108 wheels with the right centerbore are not existent...but 7000rpm straight 5 makes it all worth it!

Klim

Good.

Gawd.

Take a few basic classes in design and engineering, there, Doc.
Neon
Civic
A FAWKIN BLUE FAWKING SUBARU???!!

You're right about the complicated and over-engineered in the sense, the gawddam Kraut engineering class could lean a bit to step down off their THRONES and try and work on the stuff they draw...


And, you only get a eye-roll similie for those horrible choices of cars because there is not "slapping forehead like my tante Ludimilla did" with eyes bulging similie.


I have three words to say to that analysis: Oi oi oi.

---

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
mulik52
I am doing biophysics, structural biology to be more specific. Spend most of my time looking at tiny proteins in a dark room with the green glow of electron microscope.
Klim

Im going to finish a Biochem degree at Sonoma, then i want to apply to UCSF for a doctorate program in Virology. I also have a side interest in Nuclear Biophysics

---

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

Quote
Gravity Fed
Im going to finish a Biochem degree at Sonoma, then i want to apply to UCSF for a doctorate program in Virology. I also have a side interest in Nuclear Biophysics

I wish I had pursued virology or parasitology. Stupid career planners. Turns out I hate working behind a computer and have little ability to focus on computer tasks during daylight hours.

---

Grant Hughes

I think Ill be the limiting reagent in the sport, not the car, so, from engineering stand point anything with 4 wheels and an engine will be great! Seriously though, those cars can be found on every pick an pull, so, the only reason I would consider getting a civic/neon/subaru over audi90/saab900/volvo240/bmw325 is the availability and cheapness of the parts.

What is nuclear biophysics? Never heard of it, sounds intense. PhD in these kind of sciences is a major commitment. Be ready to commit to scientific slavery for 6 years. Its lots of fun though, a lot of really smart people surround you and point to your errors, so, you learn a lot. If PhD is what you want to do, try to start doing research as an undergrad, really helps.

Yeah, we all make choices. If I would re-do it I would probably do engineering (to satisfy John Vanlandingham's request of course). I think I enjoy making things more than studying how existing things work.

Klim

Nice work!

Im down at Mission Bay a few day a week, maybe we can have coffee an talk rallycars. - Al

Quote
mulik52
I think Ill be the limiting reagent in the sport, not the car,

That's the case with all of use who are not getting a salary to drive.
And that includes everybody in NorthAmerica, Australia, and all but maybe 4 people in Europe

Quote

so, from engineering stand point anything with 4 wheels and an engine will be great!

yeah pounding anything is fun...

Quote

Seriously though, those cars can be found on every pick an pull, so, the only reason I would consider getting a civic/neon/subaru over audi90/saab900/volvo240/bmw325 is the availability and cheapness of the parts.

But the parts in the junkyard for all those mentioned are junk..And I didn't reccomend an Audi 90 and would never suggest a Saab 900 (25 years ago yes, not now) and I personally don't recommend BMWs except one model which is too rare and expensive : E30 M3---

which in the hands of ordinary humus beans, really hold no advantages that are decisive, and is an expensive proposition.

Civic has really dumb, and weak suspension (the crappy so called "double A arm" junk with the truly bizarre front uprights that are cast iron and which do break) until the went back to simple McPherson struts--- so despite nice engines--NICE, and OK gearboxes, they have a "built in dead end". Neons, meh, no alternate gearbox parts and so no way to afford-ably build a hotter n.a. motor because it won't be happy with a "MPG" gear set with super wide ratios, a MPG final drive and no LSD, and a turbo version which could pull the gaps in the box, is stuck with a weal gearbox, so meh.

BMWs take them as they are, stockish, stock gearbox, stock motors, stock clutch--or be prepared for huge expense.

Quote

Yeah, we all make choices. If I would re-do it I would probably do engineering (to satisfy John Vanlandingham's request of course). I think I enjoy making things more than studying how existing things work.

Klim

Ah but engineers don't make things, they dream up designs if they are lucky or fiddle around obsessing on obscure shit if they are unlucky, and go insane.. A gang of people I used to play mixed free-form soccer with nearly all came from Michigan, and all their dads worked as "injur-nears' in the Big 3.. We were having dinner once and they one guy said the reason he didn't go that path was one day at dinner with some colleagues of his dad over, his dad was saying "Ran into good ol Fred Finkelbaum.. Man that guy is a great injur-near! Best man in Detroit on door latches. 27 years doing door latches and there's nobody better!!"

The guy probably became a mass murderer or founded a perverse pseudo-religious cult.
That is how 99.978% of all "injur-nearing" is done in America..
A fate worse than death.

We need good scientists, and good teachers... injur-nears, we have plenty..

(maybe a few more feet on the ground engineers but no more of they kind that 'the system" has vomited forth for the last 35 years, please!)

---

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.

---

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