Towona Tony P Mod Moderator Location: Alberta, Canada Join Date: 08/21/2010 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 149 Rally Car: MK2 Golf |
|
Slowwpoke Dave Clark "The Lesser" Infallible Moderator Location: Yakima WA Join Date: 12/17/2007 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 257 Rally Car: Merkur XR4Ti |
|
Morison Banned Super Moderator Location: Calgary, AB Join Date: 03/27/2009 Age: Ancient Posts: 1,798 Rally Car: (ex)86 RX-7(built), (ex)2.5RS (bought) |
IIRC
600 cad Nov 27, but earlier is better Hotel deals to be had, booking code is in the sups Sups should be online today 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
|
Slowwpoke Dave Clark "The Lesser" Infallible Moderator Location: Yakima WA Join Date: 12/17/2007 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 257 Rally Car: Merkur XR4Ti |
|
Racinkid13 Max Infallible Moderator Location: Durham, NC Join Date: 02/04/2009 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 611 Rally Car: 1983 MKI GTI |
|
Rallymech Robert Gobright Ultra Moderator Location: White Center Seattle Join Date: 04/27/2008 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,292 Rally Car: 91 VW GTI 8V |
|
Towona Tony P Mod Moderator Location: Alberta, Canada Join Date: 08/21/2010 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 149 Rally Car: MK2 Golf |
|
hoche Michel Hoche-Mong Professional Moderator Location: Campbell, CA Join Date: 02/28/2006 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,156 Rally Car: Golf, Golf, RX-3 |
Well, I haven't posted here in awhile but I figured I'd give a follow-up on some of my earlier questions in case it helps others.
1) The block warmer wasn't necessary. If you register at the host hotel they have an indoor garage that's heated to about 60F. The only problem I had was backing the car off the trailer just after I got there; after hours of towing through subfreezing temperatures, the shift linkage in the Golf froze up. I just had to start the car and let the exhaust temps thaw things for about 15 minutes and then everything was good after that. Since the car was stored in the garage overnight, I had no troubles for the rest of the weekend. I did leave my van out in the parking lot though. That was no problem either except that I found that something in my hydraulic jack didn't like the cold; it was mostly unusable. I thought perhaps it just needed a bleeding but it worked fine when I got back home. 2) I got General Altimax Arctics from TireRack with whatever they deemed were the right studs (I think they stuck out about 2mm) and they worked ok. Frankly, I wouldn't've known the difference between good tires/good studs or bad ones. For seating the studs, I just drove the car around before I went. I found that in California the stud rules are on a county-by-county basis and since my county never gets snow they have no law about it. I seated four tires with about 60 miles of slow driving, and two with 30 miles. 3) I didn't put tubes in the tires. As it turned out there was enough snow/ice that it was unlikely we'd have a debead so it was probably a good decision. 4) No gas available as mentioned previously. I went across the border with empty cans just in case and filled up in Kelowna. I kinda wish I'd filled up on the US side as gas is much cheaper here and the border people didn't even look. 5) I got two lightweight aluminum snowshovels from Amazon and strapped them to the rear stays of the cage. We didn't use them and now they're hanging on the wall of my garage. I'm not sure what to do with them. I didn't bring traction mats in the rallycar at all. 6) I crossed the border at Sumas and then drove up to Merritt and over. The road was clear going up, but returning was a little sketchy. I had chains but didn't use them for that. I did have to use chains for the last few miles up Big White Road (and back down). As a side note, the front tires on my van are M&S tires that've seen some miles. They're nowhere near being worn out, but don't have the tread depth they used to. There are steep hairpins on Big White Road. At one point coming down the van just plowed and refused to turn and I damn near stuffed it. This was at about 10mph with chains on the back of the van and on the trailer. So, make sure you have good tires on both ends of your tow vehicle. 7) The Optimas were just fine, in both the van and the rallycar. As mentioned before, the van was left outside. Other random notes: The crossing into Canada was easy and the wait was nonexistent. I did it at around 8am. Crossing back was kind of a pain. I got there around 5pm and there was a 30 minute jam just getting to the station, and then they went over everything with a fine-toothed comb. All my paperwork was in order and I got through ok, but I was sort of surprised at the difference. It may have just been a time-of-day thing though. Tech at the event was cake, and I needn't've worried that I couldn't find triangle bandages for my medkit. I did have an amusing moment when someone took notice of my hood vents and started lecturing me on how that was all wrong and I should lift the back end of the hood instead. In all fairness whoever that was probably didn't know I usually race in the southwest in summer where it gets bloody hot and after ten years of running Golfs I'm quite familiar with their cooling. Snow is tricky-assed shit to drive on properly, and I kept making dumb mistakes. I kept going into turns way too fast and would slide out, lose all my momentum, and then lose all kinds of time building it up again. Entry speeds were way slower than I expected and it took awhile to recalibrate the ol' noodle. Jimmy has a lot of experience with snow and ice and yelled at me a lot for entering turns too fast. Taisto gave me a few tips on one of the turnarounds that helped quite a bit. I'm pretty glad I took the "slow" Golf. I'd've just spent more time spinning tires on the quicker one. Also, having the full glass and stock doorcards probably helped retain heat in the car. And glass doesn't fog up as easily. In Canada I'm considered a Novice, which I found amusing but was quite all right considering I'd never run there before. I had to go to the novice meeting, but I would probably have gone anyway just to make sure I understood the procedures. Different group, different rules. We ended up winning Open 2WD, which was kind of a shock considering I'm a noob at the whole snow thing. We got beat by Taisto Heinonen in a Production Yaris by 50 seconds or so, but the way I figure it there ain't no shame in getting beat by Taisto in the snow. The next 2WD car was a minute and a half back so I figure we musta done pretty OK. Self-righteous douche canoe Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2014 03:57AM by hoche. |
Slowwpoke Dave Clark "The Lesser" Infallible Moderator Location: Yakima WA Join Date: 12/17/2007 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 257 Rally Car: Merkur XR4Ti |
|
Towona Tony P Mod Moderator Location: Alberta, Canada Join Date: 08/21/2010 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 149 Rally Car: MK2 Golf |
|
hoche Michel Hoche-Mong Professional Moderator Location: Campbell, CA Join Date: 02/28/2006 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,156 Rally Car: Golf, Golf, RX-3 |
Probably not. For one thing, I've been competing in 4-5 rallies a year for the last several years and I need a break, so I'm probably going to sit out most of this year. For another, it's a really long tow for me and being entirely self-funded I limit myself to the number of long tows I do a year. You may see me up at PFR, Rocky, or Cochrane at some point because I like to different stuff though.
Also, I have a couple other project cars that I really need to get done. I'd really like to get the RX-3 rebuilt and then come up and run it on its home turf (sorta) at Olympus next year. I'll definitely recommend this event to other people though, and will put in on my list of events-to-go-back-to. There were a bunch of people from the southwest who have been pretty interested in my adventures at Big White and I've been telling them all it's worth making the tow at least once. Self-righteous douche canoe |
Towona Tony P Mod Moderator Location: Alberta, Canada Join Date: 08/21/2010 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 149 Rally Car: MK2 Golf |
|
Snidewhips Jeremy Livingston Super Moderator Location: Edmonton Alberta Canuckistan Join Date: 05/23/2013 Posts: 277 Rally Car: 1990 acura integra, 2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe |
|
tipo158 Alan Perry Super Moderator Location: Bainbridge Island, WA Join Date: 02/20/2008 Age: Ancient Posts: 430 |
Are you talking about Hwy 5 (Hope to Merritt), then 97C (Merritt to Kelowna)? Where was the sketchy bit? There is an alternate route from Merritt to Hope that takes about an hour longer, but doesn't go as high as the Coquihalla Pass on Hwy 5. In 2012, I went home straight south from Kelowna, crossing at Osoyoos, and encounter no snow on the road. I was steward at BWWR from 2010-2012. Had family visiting so couldn't do it in 2013. Too bad. It would have been nice to see you. alan |
hoche Michel Hoche-Mong Professional Moderator Location: Campbell, CA Join Date: 02/28/2006 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,156 Rally Car: Golf, Golf, RX-3 |
The sketchy bit was along 97C. The road is two lanes and one was plowed enough that the tarmac was clear, but it was snowing a bit and there was a gusting crosswind that was blowing the van around, and of course I was worried about black ice. Nothing impassable; just an hour or so of white-knuckle driving. Once I got to 5A and headed down to Merritt everything was fine, and 5 over to Hope was not a problem.
I considered going home down 97 to Osoyoos, but that seemed longer and there wasn't any clear way to cut back across to 5 except by going all the way to The Dalles and then over to Portland. Self-righteous douche canoe |