TeamD Adventures

If you only saw the results from NOBM 2009, you might have jumped to a reasonable conclusion: The overall winners ran a clean, consistent, just-a-shade-better rally than the rest.  Ho-hum, just another textbook exercise by Russ & Katy K.

Well, it wasn’t quite that way…

Russ & Katy were running Satch Carlson’s “Bad Dog”.  The Bad Dog, like all 325iXs, has four-wheel drive. Like most iXs, it has two doors. Like many iXs, it’s black.  That’s where comparisons stop, and contrasts begin.

Roll cage.  Two short words that say a lot.

Turbo by Dinan. Those three words explain the previous two.

Irresponsible Speculation fueled by Credible Rumor has it that the ‘Dog puts a bit more than double the OEM power to the wheels. Personal Observation confirms it’s got real gravel tires, but all that torque must be hard on the rubber — just a mile or so into one of the last sections, we rounded a turn and saw the black car pulled off, trunk up.  440 watts of halogen lighting let us see Russ positioning the floor jack with one hand while waving us on with the other.

We were the next car in line. We motored by, as did the next and next and next and … next cars, all the way to #22. The team in car #22 saw Russ running the jack back to the trunk as they passed.  Now, the Bad Dog was car #12. The maximum time declaration was 9:30 minutes. I’ll give you a second to do the arithmetic.

Ooo, let’s fill in a couple more details. The driver in #22 was a novice in his first rally. The navigator in #22 couldn’t be expected to know the max-time-dec vs. car-number implications; if either of them are reading this, I’ll make the bottom line clear:

The Bad Dog needed to be 30 seconds in front of your car. Otherwise, the Bad Dog would take points at the next control. The Bad Dog doesn’t like taking points.

So imagine yourself in car #22, cruising along at CAST, enjoying the road… and you start to sense that there’s a dark noisy beast following you. You see a glimpse of its lights, hear a hint of its pop-off valve. And then, …

Oh, hell, instead of spinning this tale out, I’ll just relate what they said:

We’d run wide in a right-hander. In fact, we might have gone off, except for a banked cuve of earth hugging the outside of the turn. Since we’d been driving on these roads for hours, it seemed natural to just drive on the banking around the turn. It worked great.

And then the black car streaked past us on the inside line; it was a good twenty feet away, given our position on the outside, so it was a clean pass. But then it was gone.

That was the hurtling Bad Dog, catching up to the safety of the 21 & 1/2 minute time slot. The ‘Dog took only 1′s at the last two controls.

If you’d been eavesdropping in the red iX at roughly 9:43.50 a.m. on Sunday morning, you’d have heard:

“Okay, we got here as Car #2, and we would have left 34 minutes later, but the car on a time dec was running almost 16 minutes late, so we’re gonna be, uhhmm, Car #50. No, wait, that’s Car #52, right. Gotta set the 547 clock <sound of switches being toggled>, mutter mutter back it off 16.  Mmm, don’t have to correct the other 547 clock, good, good.   Do have to set the clock in the software, that’s on another page, ah… oh, yeah, click this to unlock the adjustment.  <sound of mouse clicks>  Now mutter mutter back it off …   50, okay, and lock, and go to the section page, and recalc everything, and now Run…    that’s it: we’re ready to go.”

Here’s a shot of the rat’s nest of wires and boxes on the dash: 

That’s two 547Bs with driver displays, a radio, and a laptop on a stand running a custom application. It was kind of a lot to keep track of, for both of us. But sterling precision and endless patience on the part of my driver, Larry Lefebvre, let us get fewer points than the other Limited teams.

It’s humbling to think it took all this stuff to run better than Steve Richards and Gary Reid and their Curta.

(this is part 2 of the sacrificial skid plate story)

With ripped out mounting holes in the sub frame and a rally on the horizon, I knew I needed to get this problem addressed soon.  Dave at Davesport had some time on his schedule so we agreed to get the work done.

Davesport is up in/near North Bend, WA.  It is not too tricky to find if you follow the map on his website but don’t be thrown if you find yourself in a residential area.  His shop is behind his house but it is fully equipped with a lift, welding equipment, air tools, and a bending machine that looks like it has had much use in the building of cages.

After removing a couple of vehicles to clear some space (including a Porche 914 with a suspicious turbo intercooler – screened with a pink STI – peeking out from the rear engine compartment – yes, he’s shoehorned an STI engine into this little thing) I rolled my WRX into the shop.  We popped it up on the lift and Dave pulled (unscrewed) the sub frame off.

With the sub frame now on the ground, Dave started the repair.  First he cut out three plates that would be going over the existing ripped out holes.  He cut them to size, drilled out a hole, and then welded on 8×1.25 nuts on the back side.  While those were cooling, he pounded flat the ripped metal and then pounded / drilled / filed down the area around the hole to take the replacement plates.  Then, with much bzzzing and sparking he welded the new plates over the old holes.

That covered the front mounting of the skid pate.  The back part bolts into a connecting plate over the transmission.  A solid rock strike had mangled one of the mounting bolts / holes a few years ago and the second one was pulled out during the water crossing.  Again, the same techniques came into play.  He drilled out the old mangled nuts, pounded the bent metal back into shape, welded on new nuts, and then finally remounted the connecting plate to the frame.

While all this was happening, I was fielding calls from work, getting things done on the computer (thank you AT&T wireless for once giving me some signal strength when I needed it – although I would have preferred 3G instead of EDGE), and taking the opportunity to inspect the car.  It’s not up on a lift often so I gave the underside a once-over.

Good thing I did, too.  I located a small problem related to the rear sensor.  I already knew we were working with only one magnet back there (the factor in back was twice the factor up front).  What I didn’t know was that the rear magnet was no longer in the grip of epoxy.  It was hanging on to the back hub with magnetism and nothing else.  It’s a wonder I was getting any pulses at all.

Note:  Deal with this before the next rally.

Now that everything was cool and attached, it was time to bolt in the new skid plate.  The front holes lined up nicely but the rear holes on the skid plate were not perfectly aligned with the newly repaired connecting plate.  Never fear, some grinding / pounding / wiggling and everything lined up nicely.  Tighten all around and the new skid plate is in business and ready to ward off any wayward rocks.

Next up:  Oregon, new ultimate brake pads, and a Cobb Accessport.

Last time the WRX was over at Smart Service, they mentioned (again) that my airbox was broken.  My brain took that comment and translated it into “It’s time to install a cold air intake”.

There’s been much debate over the eons about whether a cold air intake is a useful upgrade.  Some say that there is no way that this upgrade will add HP.  Some say that the stock airbox is ideal on the WRX and that any upgrade is a waste of money.  Some say that a cold air intake will cause turbulence over the MAF and make the engine run lean.  Some say that the only way to get benefit out of a cold air intake is to modify the ECU map.  Some say that cold air intakes are only for lowered Honda Civics with red Type R badges and ridiculous rear wings.  Some say that Dumbledore is still alive.

As all these “some people” are just figments of the internet, I decided to make up my own mind.  My mind told me that the larger intake would give me that all-important whoosh noise under power and that’s exactly what I need.  Then I started researching the many and different options in the WRX intake aftermarket market.  The bigger names seemed to be Perrin, SPT, and K&N.  The nice thing about the SPT and K&N is you can get a heat shield (standard with K&N, optional with SPT) to keep the air away from the heat of the engine compartment.  Both K&N and Perrin have a product that drops the filter out into the wheel well to keep things cool but since I tend to be in high dust/water areas, I want to keep the filter safe from these things and the wheel well mount is not ideal.  I’ve had some good experiences with my K&N stock air filter, I took the plunge (and extra $) and went for their Typhoon Air Intake System.

Now that I had decided on the correct cold air intake, I came to the most important question:  What Color?  I had the choice of either silver or red.  Taking a cue from my friends with the street-rocking Hondas, I chose red.

The install was pretty easy and took about an hour.  The stock intake grabs air from a scoop in the front of the engine compartment (not the intercooler scoop, this one pulls air near but above the radiator), routes it through the front right wheel well and then back into the engine compartment, through the airbox and air filter, and then into the engine.  Why the wheel well passthrough?  I don’t know.  I think the theory is it calms the turbulent air.  Whatever.

So yanked the power off the battery, I disconnected the MAF, removed it from the tubing, pulled all that old stock plastic out, built the new intake and heat shield, mounted the MAF back in the new intake tube, bolted the new intake in place, rerouted the hoses, reconnected the battery, and tested everything.

Hurrah!  I now have a easy to inspect fancy air filter (that will need lots of cleaning) and a great whoosh noise under power.  K&N says it will give you 16hp to the wheels and they include a nice dyno chart showing that happening on an ‘04 WRX.  But… whoosh… who cares?

The last photo shows the new intake with the air scoop back installed.  Yes, I put the scoop back in.  Air from the front still shoots through the stock piping (and wheel well) and gets to the filter via a hole in the side.  Ambient air would be enough to feed the engine but why remove a fun shaped plastic dingus?

It’s been a week of changes in the driveway.

Cooper, that charming delinquent, went to live with new people, who we hope will get as few tickets in him as did we.  Also departing, last flight out, the 95 wagon. It is now the nicest old Saab in a squadron of old Saabs, and Onnie, her new owner, is already trying out names for her.

The double departures might have made things lonely for Marilyn, since the white ‘Stang doesn’t venture out much, preferring to nap in the garage.  But nature abhors a vacuum in the driveway, and no fambly is complete without a wagon. We found a used 325xiT with a stick(!), and bought it.

It’ll get a TimeWise mount (and likely a skidplate, if budget allows) in due time.

Marilyn is not intimidated.