A racecar Noob, a Sube and the Mexican 1000 Rally

Deja Vu all over again. Didn't this discussion happen 12 or 15 pages ago?

Not going there again. Really. Please review earlier comments on this topic. The photo of our spacers and the link were provided because Tripi Nikki wanted info on what we are using. That is all.

Yep!!! :huh

** Edited for sarcasm **


Next up: Side number decals ordered from Baja Dad!

nevermind. have fun.

Wimminz never know what real menz want!

I thought I'd missed some comment somewhere, but I must've missed several pages. Reading fail on my part. Thank you, OregonCoast, sorry for the derail.

Yup, found it: http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=845950&page=11

Fail on my part. I'm REALLY curious how those spacers hold up. I've got my fenders rolled due to rolling ~1.5-1.75" lower (I didn't pre-/post-measure, so I'm not sure). I've been knocking around spacers for the same reasons you've done it. If they can hold up to rally, I think daily driving should be fine. For me swapping sedan A-arms and lateral links won't work because I'm invested in Whiteline wagon-specific parts front and back now. Knowing what I know now, 10-years ago, I would have swapped to sedan parts.

*If* the parts give you hassle, consider researching swappin 02-07 sedan A-arms and lateral links. Super Rupair has done well by me for good used parts (www.[B]superrupair[/B].com/ ). You'd need swaybars, axles, etc., as well. But if you want a wider stance and smaller spacers, that'd be the path I'd follow.

And... GREAT THREAD!!!

Alright...some new stuff to actually talk about.

Since starting this Subie build I have been on several subaru specific forums including DirtyImpreza.com, UltimateSubaru.org and to a much lesser extent, NASIOC.com.

These three seem to be the most active and they are great resources for information and ideas. Well, a few weeks ago, I saw that a member from Oregon on DI had a running 2.2 L Subie motor for sale. Now the 2.2 is legendary for its reliability and it is a sought after motor. I wanted to pick up some spare parts to throw in a box to bring to Mexico just as I had with the Honda and this motor was being sold with all of the goodies (Power steering pump, alternator, coil pack, wires, intake, basically everything but the AC compressor. The first guy fell through and I was able to pick it up for $200 bucks! This motor will either end up being a spare for the race car to throw in whenever David wants to pull the race motor for whatever reason...

or David can rebuild it and sell it and make some money, and it becomes trading stock for our little racing relationship.. Either way, it was a great deal! And even better was that the young man selling this motor was Brian, and he is a great guy with a Subaru addiction. We ended up bench racing for about two hours as I showed him my race car and he showed me his Subaru projects....he has three :eek1

I ended up letting him drive the race car because I wanted his opinion on the motor. He loved it and said he was impressed with the power for a normally aspirated Subaru motor. He took us to a nice loose gravel road where he turned the keys over to me as he didn't want to crash the car...and we went for a quick but fun run! Of course, I took no photos or videos of this...but here is a picture of me driving home with my spare motor strapped in the back



I purposely drove the Subaru in order to get some needed miles on it. It was very comfortable and I'm glad I kept the door cards and other interior bits in that I did. Considering the miles I will be putting on this car over a two week period...comfort is a higher priority than lightening it like a stage-rally car. I got 22 MPG for the day of mixed driving. I have about 1500 miles on it since the motor was built.


Then on Saturday, I drove the car up to Davids to work on some things and drop off the new/old motor. David and his new helper Eric were on hand and stripped the motor of some spare parts. I am actually going to bring the whole intake because of all of the injectors and sensors and such...things like a cam and crank sensor are nice to have in Mexico just in case...and with Mexican gas...having spare injectors can't be a bad idea...and of course, if I have them...I'll never need any of it. Right?



We then piled into Eric's 1997 Subaru Legacy Outback to check out the Pick n Pull for some goodies. It was strange being in the same exact model as my race car but to be sitting in the back and have it be all civilized and shit..



We ended up pulling a couple of things off of this 1998 Legacy....nothing special though...and we couldn't get the control arms off with the tools we had..I really need spare control arms...I may try to buy some new ones if I can find the money.



I really wish I could just find a whole car and strip it clean..but that won't happen before this year's race.
The great news is the car is running great and handles great on and off road. The motor is fantastic and flawless. The only really issue is that with the limited travel, the car tends to bottom out when cooking down a gravel road and hitting a decent pothole. Not much to do on this budget...but Cory and I are going to be adding some stiffer springs and longer struts off or a forester just to give us a little extra.



David tested a bunch of things on the car and we got the AC working ice cold....oh yeah...Ice Ice AC Baby

Then I went to the Burgerville for a burger and fries and a Drop Top Amber The Burgerville down the street from David's is the only one in the chain that sells beer and wine...good beer and wine. Its surreal. For those from outside the Pac Northwest, Burgerville is a like a better Wendy's...




Today I finished up the hood pins. Nothing says race car like hood pins... But in this case, they really are function over form. I had mounted up some pins...but they started to rust in just a week...thank you ebay! Found some stainless ones yesterday at autozone near David's house for $11 bucks. Done (as the SL350 watched intently in the background).














Oh, and then Laura and I went for a little shake down on the dunes

Didn't take any photos...did take a little video. No music this time...someone wanted more engine noise...so here ya go!

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-gq7FsHK_lE?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Cool thing was, two 20-something kids came up on quads after watching us climb some dunes and asked "what the hell I had in that thing." And they were drooling over the cage too...it was pretty fun.


There's probably some more...but that's all for now!

Great progress!!! Oh man, does she sound good!

Speaking of Forester struts, I just so happen to have a complete set of '03 Foz struts sitting in my garage, nestled comfortably between the '71 CB175 and Sunbeam Tiger 260 hardtop



I think we can figure out what to do with these...

Awesome video!

We've had a lot going on with the car over the past few days...and over the next couple of days.

I'll get a full update up soon.



Here's a little teaser of some of what's going on...it is good to have Lonnie doing his thing again

Ray had a fire in him this past week and he got a ton of stuff done!

He re-did the passenger seat mounts and it looks great..of course I didn't grab a photo but I will. Now both the driver and passenger seats are completely mounted and his design uses the four stock seat mounting points and bolts. And the Harnesses use the stock seat belt mounting points so they are all super strong and good to go for tech inspection in Mexicali



Ray also got the door bars done. For the NASA Rallisport specs, one more bar is required, but for NORRA we are just fine. In fact, installing the NASA required element bar would hinder the ingress and egress out of the vehicle for occupants...which goes against the rules as well. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.




Check out these beautiful TIG welds (excuse the gray paint scrapes)



.....the whole cage is like this. Ray does some amazing work...a true artist.

Ray also installed the bulkhead he and I had spoke about. We were going to cut hole in it so I could see out the back. After driving it a bit like this, I'm going to keep it as is. It will protect us from any tools or parts that break free in the back. It also makes the cabin easier to cool and most importantly looks badass and it reminds me of a proper Rally Raid vehicle.








Then I brought the car over to Lonnie's and he started his graphic work. We decided on some racing stripes and covering the rear windows with paint-matching vinyl. This will serve as the canvas, or base coat for the rest of the graphics which we are still working on. I really like the way it came out. I will get better photos of it all when its done...but this gives you an idea of where I'm heading.









Sorry for the blur, but it shows you the blue side windows...




It was nice to be back in Lonnie's shop, working with him on a project...sure, it wasn't a motorcycle...but we were surrounded by artifacts of our last two years' efforts:

The SL350 head from our first Mexican 1000



And my helmet signed by Malcolm Smith during last years M1K and Dick Mann from this year's, and the last ever, Chehalis AHRMA National at the farm



This is a photo of the last rally car that Lonnie and Ray worked on together, our friend Joe's Jetta.





and here is where we are at now in the graphic process...







...much more to come....trust me




I mounted up my Ram Mounts on the roll bar for my gps and Laura's Ipad. I have used the Ram products extensively over the past 3 years of racing motorcycles and they just work. They are a great piece of kit and these were no different.





I didn't want to drill a bunch of holes in the dash, and these mounts provided a clean and sano installation that is truly functional. I like that the interior of the car still looks pretty damn stock...its the look I wanted to achieve.



And fellow ADV FF simestd offered up his Dual GPS puck for us to use during the race with the Ipad and the Motion X HD app. Next thing I know, he priority shipped it to my house from Alaska!! Just to explain again, our Ipad is wifi only and the bluetooth Dual works great and turns our new Ipad into a huge, high definition screened GPS! Thanks simestd for the loaner!!






On Sunday I drove up to David's in Vancouver and Cory came down from Tacoma and we mounted up the 03 Forester front struts he had picked up for us. My only complaint with the car had been some bottoming issues in the front. The Forester Struts are about an inch longer and the springs seem to be a little stiffer. We removed one of the 1/2 inch strut spacers we had on there, in order to keep the car's stance/geometry the same. My initial thoughts are the off road handling is better, but the on road is a little soft, but still very, very good. I now feel the car is dialed in pretty damn close to what I want for the race. Don't get me wrong...if I had more money and time.....things would be different...but this is about a budget build with a strict timeline....and in that respect, we are going to hit the mark in my opinion. Of course...I took no photos of anything at Davids

But we upgraded the thermostat, and did some other maintenance to the car as well as picked up some spares. It was a very productive day and the car performed flawlessly again driving up and back....although it was just a few hundred miles of slab. However, I have about 2,000 trouble free hard-miles on David's race motor so far...and it impresses me every time I drive it



Then it was back to Ray's to mount up the Primitive Racing skidplate and rear diff cover. Of course Ray had to modify the skidplate a bit to add some strength to it!

Rear diff guard









I will now apologize for the crappy quality of the photos..they are just cell phone shots as I am usually too busy to be thinking of grabbing the good camera. I will be taking a some nice shots of all of the elements I mention in these updates and will post them up at the end. Thanks for your patience.



David wanted me to make sure I added some more protection from rocks for the oil cooler and ac condenser....so a trip to the hardware store and some snipping and voila: more protection.



I actually think it came out pretty cool looking!






Alright...more soon.

Wondering if you are concerned about getting a ticket while driving on street/highway with obstructed view due to the bulkhead?

My girlfriend picked up ballons for a birthday a couple years ago, placed them in the back seat and the local revenue collectors immediately tagged her for obstructed view.

That ticket sounds like BS, and should have been argued. Complacency and ignorance costs money. State dependent perhaps, but there are vehicles that are factory designed without rear view mirror visibility.

I agree completely, I have no idea why, but she seems to atttract that sort of thing. Get's pulled over 2-3 times a year for BS crap.

With side mirrors both left and right sides it's a non-issue.

fixed




ps: looking good Paul. I've been saving up my pennies to cover dinner. Should be good to go... depending how hungry you are.

I'd be more worried about how thirsty I am!!

And yeah, having two side mirrors negates the obstructive view argument or legal issues. No different than my sprinter van or any panel truck or van.

I'm more proned to getting pulled over in Oregon when I remove the front plate for air flow

...which is why I will wait until tech inspection to remove it

That Subbie is looking GOOD!!! Damn, I was wondering what an Outback would be like, but I think it's badass- Keep the pics and mods coming!