The 20th Annual Prescott Rally, held in beautiful Arizona will be the location where the rallynotes team will start its 11th rally and celebrate their engagement anniversary. This event is by far the team favorite. Great flowing roads and a wonderful southwest backdrop make for a fantastic weekend in the woods. They will be looking for their second USRC Production 2WD win and will be gunning for a top spot in the regional class.

Hopefully getting some of the drama out of the way early, Driver Kristopher Marciniak discovered a much worn center differential pin in the transmission. “This is our backup transmission, and I pulled it out after Prescott in 2005. It wasn’t until yesterday that I discovered the differential pin had been half chewed through by the planet gears. Had I not discovered it – well, lets say the rally would have ended very badly.” Check out pictures of the completely worn pin.

A new name on the rally car! Co-Driver Christine Wittish and Driver Kristopher Marciniak were married on August 11th. The two celebrated with family and friends in New Jersey, a honeymoon in Tahiti, and a second celebration with rally friends in California. The vinyl C. Wittish has been changed over to a C. Marciniak. The two are officially a rally couple.

First off - a new word for your vocabulary.

screwvenir (skrew-von-eer) ; 1. A collectible item or souvenir that, by obtaining it, screwed you over in some way or another. 2. A trophy for “dead last but finished.” 3. Any simple bolt, fastener or clamp that takes longer then 1 hour to remove and required an air chisel, hack saw, AND torch.

Some how, some way - this differential pin did not explode and render my transmission useless at the Prescott Rally in 2005. Think about this pin while you casually watch Perkinsville fly by. This single item could have totally screwed up a lot of stuff. Think about the term: ‘transmission grenade’ when you imagine that this little baby was moments away from a royal cluster of transmission ending, rally over, try not to spin it into the woods when your front end seizes, cluster fudge of screw. I don’t even think sheer will power and determination are keeping this thing together right now.

This is the differential pin from the Dodge Rally Neon’s first transmission. No - It normally does not have ‘lobes’ in it like some weird camshaft. This tranny has been sitting in a plastic box since April of 2006. I replaced the transmission shortly before Rim of the World 2006 for performance reasons ONLY! My second gear in the 3.94 trans is having syncro issues. So, I decided to swap over to the old 3.55 while repairs could be done. In the process I swapped the differentials (my 3.94 has a friction locker) and I noticed the unbelievable. The planet gears inside the diff had chewed through half of a hardened steel pin! Wow…

I think this might become a key chain…
or some sort of rally talisman. Creepy!

If you asked anyone in the United States to name a rally driver, chances are they would know the name Colin McRae. Having used his name on various (rally) video game titles and having been the star of the last two X-Games rally competitions, I would say that Colin is 90% the reason why anyone here knows what rally is. I have many a desktop picture with Colin at the wheel going sideways or upside-down. He helped to inspire me to rally as I AM one of those people that grew up with rally video games.

Colin McRae died in a helicopter crash on Saturday. McRae was piloting the helicopter when it crashed, killing all four people on board, including McRae’s five year old son. The news of this tragic accident is deeply distressing to us here at rallynotes.com. We send out our condolences to Colin’s wife, daughter, and the friends and families of those who passed in this unbelievable accident.

Rally on Colin! Rally on…
- Kris & Christine

more from Google News - more from the BBC - more from Colin McRae.com

One of the main things that makes a car a “rally car” is its suspension. One of the struggles we’ve had to endure is working with a car that has an already scary low ground clearance and make it take the abuse of rally.

Most of the parts on the Dodge Neon are built surprisingly well for endurance. Cast control arms, heavy knuckles, and five bolt hubs. The brakes are a great match for this car and the drive train takes a wicked amount of abuse. The front radiator support is showing it’s life of rally now. Bowed up almost 2″, it’s a not too subtle reminder of how many times I’ve put the nose into the ground.

We have been getting away with Bilstein inserts in ‘rebuilt’ strut housings. When I say ‘rebuilt,’ I mean used KYB struts that have been hollowed out and welded. They survive the rally, but not without destroying the inside of the housing in the process. It’s kind of like trying to mount a piston inside an empty Coke can. It goes up and down a couple of times until the can folds in on itself and the piston crushes the remaining metal. With my struts I end up with a tube filled with pieces of metal bearings, grease, wiper seals, and dirt. I am so amazed at what I put the Bilstein inserts through (and they survive it) that I will probably use these inserts forever.

So, what’s the new plan? Well, Bilstein has been pushing me in the direction of custom strut tubes since the beginning and I’ve finally listened. My motorsport company - RumbleSoft Racing has ordered 4 prototype units from a CNC machine shop, hopefully in time for Prescott. They are one solid piece (almost 10mm thick at the bottom) and will accept the Bilstein Motorsports Inserts with 0.2mm of clearance. We will then weld a bottom and 1/4″ thick tabs on them, press in two bearings and a wiper seal and field test the crap out of them. If successful we will have the best struts that we can possibly afford and still have money left over to rebuild them ourselves after 3 or 4 rallies. Look for an update on these during or after Prescott.

I’m sure that some of you long time fans have noticed that the stylized Neon at the top of the page changes from time to time. Illustrated in Macromedia Flash by tracing a transparent picture of the car by hand, changes to the car, the stickers, and the design have happened over eight times. Sometimes subtle, sometimes major - see how the Rally Neon progressed through the years.

(more…)

Please,
please,
please,
please,
PLEASE bring the 1.8L Yaris TS 5 door to the USA.
I would buy it tomorrow.
I will use it to drive to San Diego.
I will get 36MPG for 3 years.
I would then turn it into a rally car and jump it.
Yes I am totally serious.

Thanks,
Kris
- rally driver

No, we didn’t fall off the planet. I mean, around the world to Tahiti is close, but we’re back and gearing up for our next adventure! If you’re wondering what happened - check out the new banner! See you soon!

This is the first special edition banner! (I’ll have more on 5 years of banner history in a future post.)