TeamD Adventures

The 25th non-annual running of Chuckanut Sports Car Club’s Armageddon Rally was held on November 3rd out of Concrete, WA.  This venerable rally covered approximately 200 miles of roads in the North Cascades and ran from 3pm until 11pm.

Two TeamD cars took the jaunt up north for this event.  Greg and Uncle Bill rode the event in Greg’s Audi 90 while Marvin, fresh off a summer sabbatical, once again joined me in the Subaru WRX as navigator.

But we almost did not make it to the event.  Wednesday I noticed a strange rubber burning smell from the front of the car.  It was subtle but it was there.  I popped the hood and gave the engine a cursory look but was unable to find anything wrong.  Friday night it was worse.  This time I grabbed a flashlight (it was getting dark) and poked around some more.  I was not enamored with the idea of something unknown giving way up in the mountains.  I saw some moisture on the firewall and the exhaust manifold on the passenger’s side of the engine compartment, traced the source, and found the problem; a ripped CV boot on the onboard side of the half-shaft leading to the front right wheel.  Parts of the boot had flown off and stuck to the hot exhaust manifold and there was the cause of my odor.

The CV boot covers the constant velocity joint which allows the axle to provide power to the wheels while being flexible.  Without an intact CV boot, the axle grease can escape and dirt and other particles can get in the joint which will eventually require replacement.  The big question was: do I get it replaced now or later?  After talking to my local Subaru dealer (who’s service department happened to be open Friday evening and then again early Saturday) I was again presented with a choice; replace the boots or replace the entire axle with a remanufactured one with both boots and joints attached.  The cost difference was approximately $50 so I decided to go with the new(ish) axle replacement.

Have you read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"?  Of course you have.  Who do you align yourself with?  The narrator or the couple on the BMW?  Although I like to picture myself as being able to use an aluminum can as a shim, I tend toward replacing the part.  I am not subscribing to the rest of their ethos, what could be called a romantic view of technology.  Indeed I do my own fair share of modifications to the car, but they tend to be on the electronics side of things.  I have no aptitude for the internal combustion engine and I feel it best to keep the mechanical in the hands of those that do.

Could it have survived the weekend (of dust and mud and rocks and such) without this work?  Most likely.  And not having a rally this weekend I would have left it at home and then dropped it off at my favorite independent Subaru shop for the service there but they aren’t open on the weekend and I’ll take the "better safe than sorry" route when available.

The car picked up at 11:30, tire swap, gas, etc. and I pick up Marvin at 12:45pm.  No sweat.  Car 0 is out at 3:30pm and the drive should be 1 1/2 hours.  No sweat.  Except for the accident in Everett that delays us.  Still, no worries.  We get to the start location at 2:40pm and walk into the driver’s meeting.  I guess car 0 is out at 3:00pm.  But we get there in time to get the route book corrections and our car number and turn around and are out on time.

We transit out south on the Concrete-Sauk Valley Road and turn off onto gravel for our first regularity, which goes well and without incident.  But at the end, the rally runs smack into two excavators blocking the road 1/4 mile past the end of the first regularity and blocking the route.  Ken and Sue (the rallymasters) arrive and asses the situation.  The difficulty here is not only is our first path this way but the rally ends reversing this route so both the beginning and the end are now out the window.  After some consultation with the workers, Ken announces a new plan.  We run the last leg of the rally which brings us back down the way we came and then at the bottom of the hill we reroute toward Darrington.  From there we spend the rest of the evening running a 18 mile loop (old reliable NFD2420, and that your humble narrator and Marvin came in first overall with 19.

I will be very interested to see the detailed scores when they are available.  I was convinced that our BIG MISTAKE(tm) above would put us in at most third place.  Either they threw that one checkpoint or we did a lot better on the rest of the rally than we thought.  Whatever the explanation, a first place overall is a great way to start the "Road to Alcan" for TeamD.

Introducing a new feature this week:  GPS Rally View.  Courtesy of the GPS in my vehicle,