Fastest run from Lands End. Quite some time left out there. Goals for next year. 5th place yet only ten seconds back from 1st place in a 5.15 mile long race. Great fun and competition! And the new tire brand we are exploring worked exceptionally!
This was 30 seconds faster than our times from last year thanks to brakes, tires, and consistent shifting!
This was the first real test of Maxxis tires for us on two customer cars (Tasso Koch and Mark Malsom) and another new tire brand that we are looking at importing on my BMW. The new tire is essential a BFG pattern and I ran it in the soft compound and the tire did great! Bent one wheel bad enough to have it hitting the trailing arm. Beat it with a hammer and did three more runs like that and the bead held, slightly leaking 3 lbs loss overnight. Mark and Dave Kern both had debeads on Maxxis tires on very big rocks, though Mark's also had a broken wheel so it is hard to say if it was the debead or broken wheel. Mark bulged two Maxxis tires, Tasso bulged one. It was possible that there was some very large and sharp rock (there were many) on an inside line that these two were hitting with their Makinen levels of commitment and search for speed. All in all though, it was a very good, fun and successful weekend.
The E36 booster delete kit we put together worked amazing in my BMW. I need more testing of the master cylinder sizing, especially in downhill or flat settings but it was excellent on this race. I have a feeling that I chose the setup with too much rear bias for flat or downhill stages.
And now the video. Still quite some time out there. Pretty stoked to end up only 10 seconds behind Dave Kern's S54 powered BMW Compact. Two seconds per mile with way less horsepower! I got out of the car after this run and said to a friend, "If I'm going to go much faster I really need proper rally suspension and some real rally wheels." Luckily wheels will be here next month. Suspension I am still pondering and saving for. Amazed a bit at the abuse I've thrown at the cheapest Bilstein Touring struts though.
Grant Hughes