First JVAB Soooper Bitchin 50mm Struts ready to ship

yes... but it has put a damper on the 'drivex' events held off in the backwoods late at night. My excuse for being on those roads... my cottage is in the area. And not once have I ever been hassled for the big lights on the tsd car... including the one night at -35°C when I stopped to pick up the guy with a stalled Jetta (gel'ed diesel I think)... who turned out to be an off-duty police officer. Turned onto his backroad, turned on the BIG lights, and all he said was "hmm, bet those come in handy at night".

Quietly awaiting the return of the drivex series. Atleast I can say that I placed 2nd overall at Lanark Highlands... the last drivex event to be held in Ontario.

> Not so fast! Cleaning the shell and cutting out
> the offending parts of the cage is also work that
> costs only work and swearing!
> Get in there!! Saw-cut grind!!!

When I finish with the offending parts of the cage, there will be...well maybe a main hoop, front strut stays and the rear bars, the halo hoop is "bad, bad" now with the FIA regs, and after hearing about what it took to get Mike White's new shell's cage legal, it will be much easier to just get out the cutoff saws and start over.


> > I do have everything together to get my black
> XR4
> > street car back together, so that will happen
> soon
> > since it's 100% labor.
>
> The shiney one that was supposedly sold???

No, I sold off the Toiletta 4Runner a few months back. The black XR4 street car is my Charlton Heston car, they'll pry the steering wheel from my cold, dead hands. Before that, I sold off the wife's old Saturn, and the 900 ice racer (technically Brett's) is gone, too. I'm down to:

03 Legassy wagon 97k mi. (my driver)
04 Outback Legassy wagon 38k mi. (Kara's driver)
88 XR4Ti (shiny black car)
86 XR4Ti shell (maroon one bought off that guy in Cambridge 9 years ago)
87 XR4Ti shell (rescued from a barn a few years ago, my "backup" shell, stored at parents' house, much to their joy)

They're all paid off, too.

Here's where JV says unload the 03 Subrat and the 88 XR4Ti and use the proceeds to build a rally car. Problem is, I like having a daily driver I get in, turn the key and know I can drive it 1500 miles without thinking about what is about to blow up.

But I will attack that mess sometime, or sell it to a circle track guy and start over. =)

---

Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

Ah yes... the Ontario TSD's... they were fun while they lasted! I somehow doubt we'll see them return.

I got pulled over the second time I drove the 240SX in rally trim. I was on the way to get mn e-test.. second try, after re-configuring the exhaust to bring the cat up front where it would heat up and work. It was held up with stove wire :-)
I'd just done a little blast to get it warmed up, but lifteed and crested a small hill just above the limit... cop going the other way. I thougt 2 minutes and he'll have me pulled over. Sure enough... "is this thing road worthy" were his first words... Yep, here's my safety, there's my trip permit, here's my insurance, ownership, and I'm on my way to my e-test appointment"... "Oh... what is this car for?" "It's a rally car that I've built to compete in the Canadian National Rally Championship, my first event is this weekend at Bancroft".. "Oh".. 2 minutes later he's back from the crusier.. "Sorry for any inconvenience Sir. you'd be surprised how many people have none of this stuff. Good luck with your race!". The nicest I'd ever been treated by a cop! Butr then again I wasn't doing anything wrong exceptr driving a car with 6 big lights on the front and a roll cage.

-Martin.

John... sent you an email... no answer yet.

What spring-rates did you give Vittorio in this setup?

dtompsett Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> John... sent you an email... no answer yet.
>
> What spring-rates did you give Vittorio in this
> setup?
325 front 300 rear ( I think!)

---

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.

Well, I was gonna say that we'll see what he thinks from running NEFR... but looks like he never made it there. He's on the entry list, but not on the stage results list... guessing a DNS.

We did some testing at O'Neils - snapped another strut shaft (35 ft/lbs). The boys at O'Neils did a nice job welding new solid shafts to the top of the struts - however, we still had at least 3-4 degree's positive camber.

Trying to fix that by elongating the upper bolt hole, we ran into a limiting factor of the CV shaft jambing into the transfer case. Based on that, and the fact that when throwing the car into a turn the tire was more or less riding on the side wall, we decided to go spectating. We didn't want to create a bigger problem than what we already had - on top of the lost entry fee's.

At the end of the day, I think the lower a-arm needs to be modified to push the ball joint out, and the stock rubber upper mounts need to be replaced w/hard mounts and spherical bearings, which I believe John is working on.

It was not a very fulfilling weekend, its tough doing custom suspension at 3000 miles apart. I'm sure John will do whatever it takes to make this right.

There were several spectators donning Audi emblems waiting for the 4000 to come by - their day will come...

Thanks to Brendon and Chris Morand in helping out while we were trying to get the car to tech on Friday morning.

Although there were some wicked wash-out's on Wed night - the roads were fine during recce.

Congratulations to the Mendhams, I believe 3rd in regional !! And of course, the super fast 2wd Mr. Duplessis.

Good to see the under-funded out there - well done!

"Congratulations to the Mendhams, I believe 3rd in regional !! And of course, the super fast 2wd Mr. Duplessis."

Hmmm, I didn't know we entered the regionals or where to find the regional results. I was told we were not allowed to enter regionals by our primary sponsor. I know we were last in cless in the national, and I was more than a little depressed, but it had to be better than watching from the sidelines. Better luck Vittorio! You deserve it.

Chris Duplessis had an absolutely smokin' stage time on Concord Pond. Kudos to him!
Ted Mendham

---

Ted Mendham
www.rensport.net

My bad - I thought I had seen you with a dual entry (Nat & Regional).

A bad day on stage is better than a good day spectating, and a bad day spectating is better than a good day at work

We'll see you soon on the stages - I'll send you some footage of the TedNeck car..

tedm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hmmm, I didn't know we entered the regionals or
> where to find the regional results.

The secret way to find regional results on the Rally-America web site.

Go to http://www.rally-america.com
Choose "Old Site" from the menu on the right.
Choose "Archives" from the menu on the top.
Select the year of the event.
Select the National event.
Select "Results" from the menu on the top.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and there you will find the links to the regional results.

River Valley Rally: http://www.rally-america.com/Archives/2007/NEFR/scores/RVR.html
Bethel Rally: http://www.rally-america.com/Archives/2007/NEFR/scores/BR.html

Maybe someone else will have better luck getting them to simplify this process. I've stopped trying.


Peter

Thanks Peter.
Vittorio, you weren't the only one who saw us listed on some regional results.
Lise did too.
I don't see us there now or what happened.

V, get that that Audi straightened out and get back out theyah!
Ted

---

Ted Mendham
www.rensport.net

So VB... any impressions with the spring rates John provided? Too stiff?

Damn well wish I had enough seat time to tell you for sure.

From the few miles I did at O'Neils - I can say that at speed its pliable enough to handle jumps and bumps in a way that you can tell the car is not overweighting the shocks and springs.


I was actually very happy with the feel for the little I drove it at speed on a gravel road.

Now I'm studying the best way to get positive camber out and a degree or so of negative. While, allowing me to use a semi-stock setup for winter events.

Copy the following into your browser address and hit enter:

http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/34046/two_side.jpg

You need a set of custom control arms to get rid of your positive camber. The one photographed is from a set that were developed on my car. The design is now with some friends at 034 Motorsport, who will be selling an improved version at some point in the future.

www.034motorsport.com

-Dave

---

---
I'm not scared of commitment...I'm scared of you.

Dave... can't direct hot-link to an AW pic in your picposter...

guys, go here:

http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/users/34046.phtml

and find the picture 3 from the bottom... custom control arms that Dave was working on, that have since been passed to 034motorsports.