Pretty much the reason I got into APRS and my ham license is because of what happened last year at this event. Just in-case you missed it, you can re-live Black Canyon SS7. So there we were in the middle of nowhere trying to get a hold of service. Now I’ve been to the middle of nowhere NH and the northern (welcome to Canada) middle of nowhere Maine, but this rally is 100 miles from nowhere, no cell towers, no coverage, middle of NOWHERE, I hope you brought spares.

On top of that, the organizers use a mix of amateur radio and GMRS service to communicate. That means your high power 2 meter rig can’t transmit on the frequencies of the repeater and your hand held TalkAbout is about 49.75 watts short of ‘making it.’ As for APRS, take a look at the APRS map for the area from our pals at aprs.fi. We’re well over 50 miles from a digipeater in rough terrain, I doubt that this rally will be able to be followed via the net. Even if our service crew picks up our packets there is little chance that any number of them will be relayed to the internet.

What I expect you’ll see is our tow out to Peach Springs, a few misc packets throughout the day, and our tow back. Far from the clarity of Prescott where you could tell where we were on stage by the minute. Although I’m disappointed in this, it will be a weekend of testing. So, if you have the time to take a look at our rally car tracking page over the weekend – we’d be interested in feedback.

Itinerary for the Laughlin International Rally 2007 Times are all PST
Tuesday – November 6th: Drive out from California to Laughlin, NV (12:00PM – 6:00PM)
Wednesday – November 7th: Reconnaissance (7:00AM – 6:00PM)
Thursday – November 8th : Reconnaissance (7:00AM – 6:00PM)
Friday – November 9th: Rally day one (9:00AM – 8:00PM)
Saturday – November 10th: Rally day two (8:00AM – 7:00PM)
Sunday – November 11th: Rally day three (superstage & rallycross) (10:00AM – 3:00PM)
Monday – November 12th: Drive home from Laughlin, NV to California (10:00AM – 5:00PM)

For our first uploaded video (in a while I might add) I chose Witty Tom North SS9. We set 10th fastest and I must say I was sliding the car more then usual. By this time in the rally – the car, driver, and co-driver were all working as a unit.

I also have a handful of pictures up in the 2007 Prescott Gallery.

Prescott Rally – Witty Tom – SS9 65.1MB WMV
Low-res preview

UPDATE: I had some fun with SS6 and I turned it into a time lapse video of a rally stage. It’s actually cool to see it as one small unit like that. Perkinsville is an 11 mile stage and we take you down it in 1:26. Now if I could only go that fast on the straights… hrm

Prescott Rally – Perkinsville Time-Lapse SS6

We are really excited to have our APRS tracker up and running for the Prescott Rally. What this means simply is: Friends, fans, and family can now watch our progress in real time on the internet! Updates should be around every 5 minutes. The map interface is now Google Maps, so it’s very easy to use and navigate. If you click on the dots on the tracked route you will be able to see the following:

KI6IUC-9 – Is my Amateur Radio call sign.
(The -9 is to indicate the rally car.)
Date and time in 24 hour UTC
speed in MPH, direction, altitude in feet
/Short message that will indicate our status.
[how that packet got to you]

Itinerary for the Prescott Rally 2007 Times are all PST
Wednesday – October 3rd: Drive out from California to Phoenix, AZ (12:00PM – 7:00PM)
Thursday – October 4th: Drive to Prescott, AZ – Reconnaissance (10:00AM – 6:00PM)
Friday – October 5th: Rally day one (4:00PM – 10:00PM)
Saturday – October 6th: Rally day two (1:00PM – 9:00PM)
Sunday – October 7th: Drive back to California (10:00AM – 7:00PM)

** Don’t miss Friday and Saturday, these are the days to watch. We will be in the rally car racing at speed on the roads around Prescott!
Times are LOCAL – Pacific Standard Time or GMT -7:00
This may help…

Live scores and results of the Prescott Rally will be available here!

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.

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