Just got done buttoning up the car so it’s ready for next weekend’s Coast to Coast event. I doubt we’ll have any updates during the event — look for something here Sunday evening.
I received the results details from Armageddon XXV today. It seems our 19 is indeed valid so we did officially win this event. Our BIG MISTAKE(tm) was at the end of section 7 but it looks like that checkpoint was dropped. It’s hard to tell as there are no mileages attached to the results sheet (note to rally masters, we really like this so we can determine where we failed and what checkpoints we did not see). If they did drop that checkpoint it looks like they dropped it both times through the section.
A detailed review of our scores shows we got 0-2 on all checkpoints except 1,
There was one entrant in this class. They won. Congratulations to the Sjodins for bringing their Hybrid Ford Escape out into the wilderness.
In fact, congratulations to all participants and workers. Well done. Lots of fun.
Next up,
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,
Day two of the 2007 No Alibi Rally started bright and shiny and car 0 was scheduled to make it’s way onto the road at 8:00am. Luckily Eric, the rallymaster, took pity on us and did not place our first checkpoint in the first regularity of the day which meant we did not have to get on the road until the leisurely time of 8:15am. The morning was spent waking up, falling asleep, cursing the sun, waking up again, showering, repacking the car, checking out, checking our clock with the rally clock, checking to make sure we were still awake, and then heading onto the road.
Lacking any previous evening’s preparation for breakfast, we headed off in search of coffee (for Pete) and food (for both of us). We knew that a local Java stand to the left of the hotel had agreed to open early on Sunday for us but food was foremost in my mind. Now, I’m not one to frequent McDonalds but I do have a soft spot in my heart for their sausage biscuit. In fact, that is exactly what I was craving to kill my hunger so we gassed up and headed right into town to see if we could find the golden arches. And, as luck would have it, we found one in a Wall-Mart at the far edge of Colville. .
We’re back from our trip to Eastern Washington for the 2007 running of the No Alibi rally. 28 teams braved 100 degree plus heat on the backroads of the inland empire to complete in the annual touring rally put on by the Rainier Auto Sports Club. Although the temperature kept rising, the rally was moving out of the farmland and into the forests in the northeast part of Washington state. Our checkpoint here gave us a chance to sit idly in the shade of a stand of fir trees which was a nice change from the burning dirt of the previous locations. We got to our checkpoint 30 minutes before the cars would pass by so we spent some time with the newly purchased Frisbee. Pete proved to be much better flinging the disc. I proved that I could, almost on command, make him wander through the woods to find my errant throw.
After the cars made their way by our checkpoint, we followed them through the end of the course, acting as the sweep car so Marvin and Jessica (who had been sweeping the course) could get to our dinner location and get things ready for a bunch of hungry rallyists.
Day one ended in Colville at Benny’s Colville Inn with a nice catered dinner at Park Place Family Dining and entertainment in a DVD of classic rallies that Dan in Car 10 compiled for us.
