Let me intruduce myself

Hey everyone! I'm new to this sight and from poking around it looks like a great one!

My name is Dave Baker and I'm from RI. I probably have met a few of you throught the years at any number of events around the NE area. I've autox'ed, rallyx'ed, hillclimbed, ice raced, TSD'ed and made myself a bother at a lot of other events.

I'm a big fan of VW's. I fell in love with them when I was very little. A friend of the family had a beetle then a black mk1 gti... couldn’t get them of the brain after that. 20 years and 30 odd vw's later and here I am. Growing up on a defunct 100 acre farm and being allowed cars since I was 13... Driving in the loose stuff is what I love best!

My current collection of autos consists of:
mk5 gti daily
scion xa wife’s daily (and really good on the dirt roads for a stocker)
81 vanagon with inline 4 2.0 conversion (rally camper van! BGF AT KO's WTF!)
84 GTI Rally Car (Scott Williams of USRT's old WarPig) headed for the great scrap heap in the sky (can you say fatigue failure?)
83 GTI (dare i say it) Showish car (who can say no to a lowered mk1 with a race motor in it)
and the one your all waiting for
95 Golf Sport
Low mileage aba with 268 cam
Eurosport exhaust
VR6 Clutch
O2J trans with Kaaz diff
Shine Racing Spring set on Bilstien HDs
Raise shifter
skid plates.... built heavy and strong
If I get my way it will be a caged log booked car by this time next year!! Till then its off to chase the fast guys in M2 NER Rallyx, Buffums winter rally and maybe some hillclimbin for a little diversity.

I have to thank my great friend Jesse Whitsell who’s currently employed at Yarrowsport (who also deserves a thanks) For all his hard work putting my car together while I take care of family stuffs (new baby with major eating location issues)

I'll be hanging round here a bit.. looks like there’s soo much to read through. I'm an engineer and over think things, and make snap decisions/comments. Excuse this... oh and I also ask a lot of seeming dumb questions... its my way of getting more info out.. don't worry I have a tough skin

Pics of my cars can be found at www.bakersdozenracing.com

Welcome aboard.
Goood to see another enthusiast.
Sorry to hear about the engineer thing, we spell that "Injur-near" round these parts.

Hey I've been around motorsports on a near daily basis for like FORTY YEARS and in that time regarding that "overanalyze" and then make snap decisions is a typical engineer's trait. and I've learned by decades of observation this:
The possibility of a conclusion being dead wrong, indeed possible 180 degrees wrong is seldom considered during the over analysis stage.
Then as you say a snap decision is made based on the extremely limited resources or available budget anyway making all the analysis a pointless waste of time.

Conclusion: skip the over=-analysis particularly when there is available the conclusions of people (in your case VW Motorsport and their engine development people) who admittedley have a fuck of a lot more resources, money, time for testing and time already spent being typical Krautskies over-analyzing things..

In other words: COPY proven design elements and mods.

If you want to be decent DRIVER eventually you CANNOT possibly be a plodding over=analyzer making snap decisions.

In other other words, it ain't about zeroing in on each part of the car's build with a microscope, just as you don't look at each pebble and puddle when driving, you gotta get comfortable with the idea of doing a broader, quick decision that is "Pretty damn good" and not obsess.

---

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.

subie hood scoop on the rabbit, huh? craziness....

john vanlandingham Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In other other words, it ain't about zeroing in on
> each part of the car's build with a microscope,
> just as you don't look at each pebble and puddle
> when driving, you gotta get comfortable with the
> idea of doing a broader, quick decision that is
> "Pretty damn good" and not obsess.

This is good wisdom from John. He's got lots of nuggets like this.

One rally car out on stage is worth 10 in the garage being perfected.

Or in yours or anyones case, actually being out and racing is not only more fun, but making you a better driver.

I guess at some point you have to ask yourself are you a builder or a driver

I think I'm a builder.. but I lack the funds to do even that

cheers

---

Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

You’re absolutely right. My rabbit was my first compete build. While it wasn't terrible I did some small things that I should have either put back to stock (engine mounts) or thought out a lot more before cutting the hole (fuel cell). The car has been (hard to admit) unreliable as a race car and of the 22 races I've taken it too its just about broken every time.

This is what led me (with a little prodding and a few test drives in newer cars) to sell my other mk1 rabbit and buy a newer, already running, plentiful parts 95 Golf. We had decided to make some in family upgrades to it during the build. The build started slow and with the addition of my second daughter came to a screeching halt. My buddy took over the build for me and has been very attentive to using the "right" parts. Instead of making the tubular mk4 exhaust mani fit by hacking the down pipe (like I would have) he put the old cast mk3 piece back on and on and on through the build. The car is now running and for the most part I can rebuild it from any other mk3 I might come across in the rare case something might go wrong or I inflict hurt on it. No thinking of what year did that come from, what supplier was that part... its going to be heaven.

So it'll be 10% heavier and 10% less powerful than if I had built it... it'll last 400% longer.

I have started another project of taking all the fun stuff out of the old rally rabbit and putting it into a less haggard shell. And turning it into a fun show/sunday driver car where it doesnt really matter if it breaks all the time.

hudson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> john vanlandingham Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > In other other words, it ain't about zeroing
> in on
> > each part of the car's build with a
> microscope,
> > just as you don't look at each pebble and
> puddle
> > when driving, you gotta get comfortable with
> the
> > idea of doing a broader, quick decision that
> is
> > "Pretty damn good" and not obsess.
>
> This is good wisdom from John. He's got lots of
> nuggets like this.

He's like a taller, thinner Buddha. Like a Kerouacian, Dharma Bum Budha like:


“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!”
>
> I guess at some point you have to ask yourself are
> you a builder or a driver

It seems to take a long time to know. I can't seperate the two.




> I think I'm a builder.. but I lack the funds to do
> even that



Hey come by. Come play on my car. Come to an event with me. Service. Co-drive. My Co-driver has had 3 big offs and he doesn't feel he can compete anymore. I'm trying hard to be able to do most of the Ontario regionals next year.



> Andrew McNally
> Hamilton ON
> 28

---

Gone fishing



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2008 07:20AM by david amor.

Builder if I could feel like i could spend the time to do it right... Driver because thats when i get to turn my brain off and just fly.

Ya have to feed the dual carbs fresh air somehow!