We’ve talked about the different types of rally before. TSD is Time-Speed-Distance rally which is a precision event. Teams try to match their car to the theoretical perfect Car 0 time and get points off for every second either fast or slow. Stage rally is a bit different. In sailing, TSD would be predictive log racing while Stage would be traditional racing. There’s the same/simialr route book and notes but in Stage Rally there are no proscribed speeds and no theoretical Car 0. Roads are closed to traffic and the fastest car wins. In TSD, as the speeds are at or below the legal limit, no extra safety equipment is needed. Anyone with a daily driver can enter and be competitive in their class with minimum modifications and risk. In Stage rally, with high speeds and more risk, more safety equipment is required. Full roll cage, helmets and head/neck restraints, 5 point harnesses, etc.

So with that in mind, well not really in front mind but there nonetheless, I started looking around for a car that might be suitable for TSD and legal for Stage Rally.

And after flailing around, I decided to buy Ron Sorem’s venerable 1987 Subaru RX. At 25 years old, the car is getting up in years but it has a history. Back in the early 1990’s Ron campaigned the RX in the SCCA Pro Rally series. This means that the car had a cage and seats and harnesses and all that already in place. But, it hadn’t been run in many years and a number of updates were necessary. Still, undeterred, I bought the car and eased it (rusty brake rotors, sticky clutch, old tires, dead battery) back home. My wife immediately christened the car “The General Lee” and threatened to put a giant Confederate Flag on the roof. She’s from New Zealand and has no real direct experience with the deep south as depicted in The Dukes of Hazzard but the name choice was partially a joke and partially a comment on the “rust bucket” state of the car.

Undeterred, I’ve slowly worked on the car, getting it back to a state that is serviceable. First a trip to TeamD sponsor Smart Service for a complete fluid replacement and some brake caliper service. Next a visit to new TeamD sponsor Speedware Motorsports for a new front driver’s seat (replacing the old one that is still acceptable but the seat angle was not where I wanted it – so the stock mounts were removed and Speedware welded in new mounting points).

With the car back in shape, Marvin and I took it up to the 2011 Totem Rally. We made it through the weekend but the results were not as high as we have come to expect with the WRX. Much of that was due to getting familiar with the new car. And I guess I was unhappy with the exhaust system. So much so that I removed it with a snow bank.

After Totem the car took a trip back to the original cage builder, Dave Clark, to update the cage to current regulations. This required the addition of sill bars and Dave suggested some A Pillar supports as well which he added. While there, I had Dave redo the exhaust and chop up the stock steering wheel to make a mount for the new Sparco wheel.

Also somewhere in here I installed a Peltor headphone amplifier and a Terratrip 2 rally computer. Both components were added not for TSD rally but for stage rally. And I focused the car toward the 2012 stage season.

With all that done, we took the car back out to the 2012 Thunderbird Rally. And we did better. I was getting more comfortable with the car and Marvin was getting more comfortable with his uncomfortable navigator seat. But still there was more to do.

The main mechanical problem at Tbird was the front suspension. “Stiff” was how Ron had described it. But the coilovers felt more like steel bars than springs/struts. So the car went up on jack stands and I started the process of learning how all that suspension stuff was put together. I’m not very mechanically inclinded, focusing more on electronics than steel and fasteners, but eventually I was able to remove the coilovers and bring them over to JVAB Imports to be rebuilt. John of JVAB has built the system for the car back in 1992 and took on the job of rebuilding them. He sent the struts out to Bilstein to be revalved and tore apart the cylinders, welding on new fronts and doing all sorts of other magic. Now they are back on the car and the front actually moves around. It’s like night and day.

So now the car is ready. And none too soon. The Oregon Trail Rally is this coming weekend. The decals are on the car. The wiring is complete. The suspension works. And Thursday morning we head down to Portland. More on that soon.

Overall:

1 – Webb/Goldfarb 38.7 pts

2 – McKinnon/Putnam 58.8

3 – Vaysburd/Beverley 61.7

Class 1: Flores/Flores 120.7

Class 2: Putnam/McKinnon

Class1E: Vaysburd/Beverley

Class 2WD: Webb/Goldfarb

Class SOP: Townsend/Scheel 235.1 pts

Team (not awarded): Team Atlantic 2.0157

Ice Race 2WD Getty/Fokkens 2:37.16

4WD no studs Simpson/Jorgenson 2:34.98

4WD studs Eklund/Kraushaar 2:25.88

Cars 2 & 21 blew up at ice race yesterday. PE engine, Dolmage clutch. Cars 14, 15, 16 went to Tuk & missed rest of event. 19, too?

• Car #2 (Eklund) set fastest lap time at the Valdez slalom, then retired with a blown engine. We assume a DNF (Did not finish) for them but the rules are unclear and it may be that they take max penalty points for any remaining TSDs. If there are more TSD sections on the last day, this means they lose their lead position.
• Car #12 (Vaysburd) set 2nd fastest slalom time, only a couple of seconds off Eklund’s pace.
• Car #9 (Stenhouse) had a roll on the slalom. Driver is ok, and the Audi appears to be sound enough to finish the event.
• Car #14 hit a tree on the Blackwater on day 2. They picked up a rental in Kelowna and made it to Inuvik and Tuk.
• Car #13, 15, and 16 waited out the road closure on the Dempster to make the Inuvik trip. The last we heard (Annete’s Blog) car 13 was headed for Valdez to catch up with the rally while 15 and 16 stayed at Tok last night and will join the event at the finish. They will max out points on missed TSDs, but completed the ultimate drive north.

We have not been able to get an official score update, but unofficial reports have car #2 (Eklund/Kraushaar) less than two points behind the leading #1 Mini of Webb/Goldfarb. I’m hoping for some detailed updates from Inuvik this evening.

It’s not clear whether the slalom in Whitehorse was run or not.

Dolmage (car 21) continues to provide some of the best coverage/photos via his blog (see below). He and Brian Cary (#18) crossed off a milestone by downing a “toe shot” — you’ll have to read his description of that life-changing event.

The north Dempster was closed at Eagle Plains yesterday due to snow conditions. At the moment the highway appears to be open. Spot track of one of the sweep trucks indicates they are on the way to Eagle Plains as of this moment.

A few cars have elected to not attempt the Dempster and are either waiting behind for the rally or wedging themselves into other cars to make the ultimate journey north.

For those who are not using Facebook, or find the Facebook update scheme too scattered (as do I), here are some team links that have been seeing updates.

• Car 21, David and Cindy Dolmage – has been providing updates and photos.
• Sweep #2, Joe and Shirley Gardner – updates via the SPOT tracker gives info as to where the rally is right now.
• Simpson/Jorgenson in car 17 – blog and updates. Looks like they are having some cooling system problems.
• Merkins/Smiley, car 20 are documenting progress on their Got Organs? blog
• Paul & Barbara Dubinsky in car 4 are blogging at “Adventures of a Rally Roadie”.

Good luck to all the cars and crews.

Word from Paul Elklund on the Yahoo event email list is that the slalom at the Gold Pan Speedway in Quesnel was cancelled this morning.

Here’s what we know (this is with dropped highest CP score):

“… so if kinetic energy goes as the square of velocity, it does matter what the thing weighs! Because to gain velocity, you’ve got to deliver enough power to add that much kinetic energy, right? Before the motor blows up… and before you run out of salt”

Well, really, that last concern’s not realistic. If you’re fast enough to put your wheels on the long course, you have five miles to accelerate. It only took three for the Poteet & Main streamliner to get to 408 m.p.h. There’s plenty of runway.

Pressure, temperature, friction. I tell ya, it’s just like science class.

“What was the record in K-BGCC again?”

Starting in Hope B.C. at 9:30 P.M., HoD is an overnight event going up to (and around) Merritt and finishing back at Hope, at 6:30 A.M. The CASTs were brisk but doable and the dust was relatively light (especially in car# 1). The roads were rough at times, reminded me of Coast to Coast on occasion, indeed much like C2C not all cars finished (lost one worker and one competitor car) although there weren’t any flat tires. At times the route book would drop out of focus or I would split the computer and have no idea what to do next, but that is all part of the challenge of an all night event.

It was a fun little event, definitely a great first rally from Jeremy Baxter and I am looking forward to the next time it gets run.

Max and I teamed up for the first time, with decent results. First in class (unlimited) and second overall, one second behind the Damms (first in historic).

Here are the results:

3 Marinus Damm/Renee Damm  1st historic, 1st overall  – 7 points

1 Max Vaysburd/Marvin Crippen 1st unlimited, 2nd overall – 8 points

2 Steve Perret/Kathryn Hansen 2nd unlimited, 3rd overall -29 points

5 Gary Webb/Jim Breazeale  2nd Historic, 4th overall -  58 points

7 Norman Hayton/Kristin Holmes 1st Novice, 5th overall – 114 points

6 Alex Kouzmin/Stan Kouzmine 1st Calculator, 6th overall – 176 points

8 Adam Clees/Darsi Sullivan 2nd Novice, 7th overall -  303 points

4 Jason Ross/Genevieve Fox  3rd Historic, 8th overall – 925 points

10 Scott Mason/Jon Bowman 3rd Novice, 9th overall – 1212 points

9 Lada Gorlenko/Oleg Ryabukha Novice DNF