Roshambo Racing

Monday, December 21, 2009

The Dash is in, windshield, and off to RalliTek!


Last week was another good week.  We got the dash installed, and all the bodywork put together.  Also, the windshield was installed.  It actually looks like a car now instead of a shell.


Here's the dash.



Here's proof that Doug does more than just take photos.  Soldering together a battery cable using a torch...



The taillights got left at home... But they're in now.


That engine bay looks empty.... but not for long.


Today, the car was delivered to RalliTek for the motor installation.  The shot above is from their shop webcam

You can just see the car on the right side of the photo.  RalliTek and IPD use the same shop- That's why. there are a bunch of Volvos in the photo.  RalliTek will soon have the motor in, and then we'll have a stout rally exhaust installed before returning the car to RalliTek for tuning.  Hopefully, all of that will be done by Mid January so we'll have time to add skidplates, rally lights, and rally gear.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Big day of work

Today, we had a huge crew come by to help.  Bill, Bryce, Dave, Pat,  and Joe all stopped in for the better part of the day to toil away on the rally car.  We're lucky to have some really good-natured and skilled friends.

We got some major things done:
- Bumper cores lightened & installed
- Heater installed
- Front wiring harness simplified
- Battery box mounted
- Door, hood, and trunk seals installed

- Horns installed

We're  very close to installing all the body work and lights.  One more work night and that could be done.

Here are some pictures from today:






Pat lightened the front bumper core with the plasma torch.



While Joe took care of the rear bumper.  This may be the first time that Joe has used his plasma torch in 5 years.  Dan and I have used it a whole bunch, though.  Thanks, Joe!

Also note Dan's air compressor in the background "26 gallons".  He searched and searched for that model, since mine is only 25 gallons....



 
 
Bryce took on the task of mounting the aftermarket heater.  Doug had already done most of the ducting, but the real challenge was mounting the heater so it wouldn't move.  Bryce did a great job.



 
Bill helped mount the battery box and even got to weld some more.




Dave took care of all the seals, and then mounted the rear bumper.



Bryce ate a maple bar.



Hazel supervised.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Car is painted!

Car is back from Maaco.  For $250, they did an awesome job.  It's not showroom quality, but it is rally quality.  Here are some photos. More and better photos to follow once assembly is complete.


Turbo Restrictor is done





I have mixed feelings on this one.  The photo above is of 34mm turbo inlet restrictor.  This part is required by rule to rally, and reduced the amount of air that the turbo can suck in, thus reducing horsepower.

I'm happy to have the part, because I designed it, and our friend Morris machined it.  It's a good fit.


But, I'm not too happy about the reduced horsepower part.  :(  Oh well.


Photo of turbo without restrictor.

 
Photo of turbo with restrictor.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Paint Prep, and.... it's gone!

Bill and Geoff came over to help get the car ready for a trip to the paint shop.

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Here, Geoff removes the inserts that held the radio antenna in place



Here, Geoff seriously prepares to yield the front bumper core like a sword.  Incidentally, Conan The Barbarian is Geoff's favorite movie.  Geoff mentioned that the bumper core is heavy, so it must be turned into swiss cheese...


Here, Bill uses the spot weld cutter to remove the stock battery platform.



Bill sheds a tear when he realizes that the spot-weld cutter can also cut a hole through the car and into China.



Success!  But, Bill was pissed when he realized that 60 minutes of work yielded a weight reduction equal to 12 minutes on a treadmill for Dan...  This anger was remedied with a cold beer...





... and by the chance to weld the washer-bottle bracket back into place.

Here's the car, ready for a good cleaning, and for a nice coat of paint.






Here's the car on the trailer, ready for the trip to Maaco.  It looks disgustingly similar to when it rolled off the trailer 6 months ago, but it is in fact much closer to being a real rally car.  The next photos will be of beautifully painted panels and assembly of those.  Soon, this will look like the bad-ass rally car that it will be.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Rally Car Update

It's been a while since the last rally car update, but a lot has been done.

First, the front end has been converted to the 2007 model.  This took a lot of cutting and welding- a lot more than we expected- but it's done.  Dan did a masterful job.

Here are some photos.

Before:


After:









Also, a lot has been done with wiring.  Doug  went through the factory service manual and identified every connector on the car.  Some unnecessary wiring has been removed (like ABS brakes, airbags, and speakers).  The ECU has been mounted.  All the needed switches, gauges, connectors, and wire have arrived and are just waiting to be installed in the car.

In addition to the front end work, a lot of bodywork is finished.  A paintless dent removal guy came out and went over the whole car.  Our friend Bill helped smooth some of the bondo work...







The aftermarket heater is nearly mounted, along with some custom duct work to connect it to the stock dash.

Soon, the car will be in the paint shop.  Shortly after that, the motor will go in and be tuned.

There's a lot to be done before our first race-  That will be March 6-7 in Aberdeen, Washington (The Doo Wops Rally).  We will be hosting some work parties in the coming months to get everything done.

ChumpCar Results


The Chumpcar Race went great.  The race ran on Halloween, and the weather mostly cooperated (in that it was wet and the track was slippery- just want we wanted for our All Wheel Drive car).  The race ran for 24 hours starting at 12:30 on Saturday.  There was a short two hour break for trick-or-treating.

Our team started off strong.  We ran one hour stints to ensure that everyone got some seat-time before darkness set in.  This plan almost worked-  Doug ran his first stint after the trick-or-treating break, but since he was familiar with the track, this worked out OK.

Dan ran the first stint, followed by Patrick, Bryce, Morris, and Paul.  Doug pulled the last spot.  Everyone did a fantastic job of staying on course and out of trouble.  At the 6pm break, we were around 17th place (out of 39).  We felt pretty good about that, because the car was very slow relative to the others.



Most of the team: Ian (crew), Bryce, Dan, Patrick, Paul, Doug, Morris.  We also had help from Bill B., Aaron, Jessica (you can see her shadow, taking a photo), Bill K., and Andy.



Here, the car leans through the Festival Curve chicane.  This was a fun place to sit and watch people spin out.



 The crew makes a driver change.


During the last couple of stints before the trick-or-treating break, we decided that the transmission wouldn't make it through the whole race.  Luckily, Paul had brought a car nearly identical to the race car.  So, we pulled the transmission out of his car and installed it into the Chumpcar.  The team got this done with time to spare!



Here's the car on jackstands, with the "new" transmission ready to go in.

Through the night, we steadily moved up in the results.  The car remained reliable, and every driver pulled long stints (up to 2 hours) and kept the car on the track.

Around 4:30am, the weather got very bad.  Fog rolled in, and visibility was nearly zero.  The organizers reluctantly called a stop to the action, but extended the end time, so we'd still be close to the full 24 hours.

When the action restarted at 8am, we were pleased to find ourselves in 7th place.  Our fastest lap was among the slowest of all cars, so our success was strictly due to strategy.

As the day raced on, we moved up into 6th, and then 5th place.  Were were in a close battle with an old Toyota MR2, a Hyundai Tiburon, and an old, but very fast, Volvo Wagon.  The MR2 had transmission problems, and one of the Volvo drivers ended up in a tire wall.  The Hyundai was turning fast laps, and with over an hour to go, they were only two laps behind us.  It looked like they'd probably catch up.

In the end, our pit strategy beat the Hyundai, and we finished in 4th place!!  We were very happy with this result.  We brought a car that was worth well less than the $500 limit - A car with 300,000 miles on the odo, stock suspension (with only 100,000 miles on it!), and a worn out transmission.  We ran the whole race on one very used set of brakes, and two sets of tires (although we easily could have done it on one set).

The winner was a Mazda Miata. Second place went to an old Nissan Sentra SE-R, and third place to a 1st generation Mazda RX-7.  We were 6 laps behind the RX-7.  I don't think anything there was anything we could have done through the race to gain 6 more laps.

In addition to finishing in 4th place, we won the "Timex" award - "For the team that just kept on ticking."  Given that our car had the 6th slowest fast-lap time, the only way to do well was to keep on ticking.  Our fast lap was a 1:48, while the fastest cars were turning 1:35's.

In addition to having a blast, the team (and many other teams) donated school supplies to the Portland Transition School.  In total, it was estimated that the event raised almost $12,000 in cash and supplies.

Here's a picture of our donation:



Now, it's time to get back to building that rally car...

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Faster Than Maaco

Chumpcar is coming up on Halloween. Chumpcar is a race for crappy cars. And, we've entered. Our friend Bryce has an old Subaru Impreza that has been raced in similar races twice. This will be the first 24 hour outing for this car, though.

Today, some of the team (of 6 drivers and 3 crew) got together to paint the car to match our "World Rally Chumps" theme. We started today by laying down a base coat of faux World Rally Blue.

Here's what the car looked like at 10:45:




Here's what it looked like at 12:10. Note the awesome Chump style paint booth.
Eager painters ready to go. Bryce, Jessica, Pat, Dan, Doug.

Here, Jessica highlights the Krylon True Blue paint can. It's not REALLY Subaru World Rally Blue. Almost impossible to tell, though. Perfect (Chump) match.

This dog wanted to help, too. I told him no, because he had no balls.

Here's the car at 12:15.


Here it is at 12:22. Dang near finished. Only took 9 cans of paint.
And here it is with painted wheels and rally lights. We just need to add a few decals and it will look EXACTLY like one of Petter Solberg's winning cars.