Roshambo Racing

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Getting Ready for 2011

2011 is going to be a fun year.

First, the car is getting some upgrades:
- A 6 speed transmission
- A programmable center differential
- Some real competition differentials for the front and rear
- A nice twin-disc clutch, for faster shifting
- A SUPER NICE VIO Sport HD in-car camera
- A roof vent!

In April, Dan and I are going to the Dirtfish Rally School. Here, we hope to improve our driving a bit, and also shake down the new transmission.

Right now, the 2011 season is:
Olympus Rally, April 30-May 1st, in Aberdeen, WA
Oregon Trail Rally, May 13-15, in Portland, OR
Mt. Hood Rally, October, Near Hood River, OR

Plus, we will do 1-2 more rallies, but we haven't decided which ones yet.  There are 2-3 possible rallies in Canada, and rallies in Idaho, Nevada, and California that are possibles.  Much depends on other schedules.

Here are a few pictures from our recent work night:
Dan drills the first hole for the roof scoop...




Here's what it will look like.  It will be nice to have some fresh air in the car!  Plus, the positive pressure in the car will help keep dust out.

Here's the cool new camera.  We can actually mount it in a variety of places, so look forward to some new and interesting camera angles in 2011!

Here's the new Exedy twin-disc clutch, and the DCCDPro differential controller. The diff controller is something we can really geek out on!  We can adjust the diff based on whether we are accelerating, braking, or turning.  And, we can tell it to open the diff when pulling on the e-brake.  Should be fun!


Here's Michael - helping in the garage by hammering nails into a couple of boards.  He's been working on these for close to a year, and finally got all the nails in.  His reward:  He got to paint the wood Subaru World Rally Blue.  Lucky guy!

Motion Sickness!

This post is about barfing.  Or, really about trying not to barf.

We rallied for 7 years in the RX-7, and as long as I used the TransDerm Scop patch, I didn't get motion-sick.  Without the patch, I get violently motion sick... sometimes even in a street car.  And even once with the patch, I barfed in the car!  Laughlin, 2005 - It was dark and very very dusty and I lost it.

I barfed in my helmet once before- But that was in the baja car, before I realized how motion-sick I could get, and without anything except Dramamine to help.

Of course, I never get sick when driving!

But in 2010, I had a lot of trouble in the new Subaru rally car.  Some possibly causes:

- This car is MUCH faster than the RX-7
- The seating position is different from the RX-7
- The new car rotates about a different axis from the RX-7
- I may be developing a resistance to the scopolamine in the patch
- We've done recce events this year...

At a recce event, we drive the roads in advance of the rally.  That means that I have been putting the patch on a day earlier than usual.  So, I'd put the patch on on Thursday night for a Friday recce, and then leave it on for Saturday racing.  It's supposed to last for three days, but maybe it's wearing off too quickly?

I'm not sure what the cause, but I'm going to try again this year.  I may try using a fresh patch each night. 

Or maybe I'll just build a funnel and hose into my helmet!  :)

2010 Mt. Hood Rally

The Mt. Hood Rally was in October.

Dan got to drive!  He drove two stages, and was doing great!

But the, I got very, very carsick (again!).  I never barfed, but nearly fell asleep waiting for stage 3 to begin (while laying on a gravel road).  We made the decision that I would have to drive the 3rd and 4th stages - which is allowed by the rules.

Then we got to service, and were lucky to find a very good navigator, Kathryn Hansen, ready to sit in the car with Dan.  There were three stages to go.

I was listening on the radio, very eager to hear how things went.  Stage 5 went great!  But on Stage 6, I heard that they'd started, but never finished the stage.  Uh oh!


It turned out that they'd just barely slid off the road.... just enough to get stuck. Here's what it looked like:



Dan said that they were on a twisty downhill section, and the car just over-rotated a bit.  We're going to get the alignment checked out to see if that contributed a bit to the poor handling.


Here's a much cooler photo!



In the end, we did finish the rally, and we posted some competitive stage times.  Looking forward to 2011!