Pictures are up in the gallery!

Is that a bit of an upgrade over stock or what? That’s a piece of 2″ box tube that’s 1/4″ thick. I spent about an hour getting both of them to sit perfectly on the bend and angle of the chassis. The subframe is tight to all four mounts and is square to the frame. No more play in the rear ‘C-clipped in’ frame bolts. No more cracked front mounts. Todd came over and welded everything up on Tuesday night. Harry ‘got bored’ and got the engine back in the car on Wednesday afternoon. It still took a whole night of finishing to get the car on the ground. New bumper, fluids, shifter cables, axles, brake bleed, etc.

I had some mad butterflies in my stomach before starting the car last night. “OMG there are 1000 things that I didn’t connect, tighten, or fix.” Once I had her on the highway I knew it was going to be all right. The car tracks straight – imagine that?!

I still have some stuff to finish up before the rally and I’m not sure how much of it I want to do before going to the X Games Super Special this Saturday. On the short list: New hood, hood pins, brakes & rotors, clean & vac, and groove tires. The car needs to be dunked at the local car wash and I need to get the muffler back on.

Without Harry’s awesome work and his garage to do it in – this would have been a chore. Todd and Mike did an awesome job with the front clip – seam welding and fabrication of the new mounts. I also want to thank the City of Costa Mesa: Your ‘code enforcement guy’ caught my car on jackstands only after 2 days! I personally aspire to drive around a CNG powered white Ford Taurus making sure nobody’s having fun. Seriously? How can I get THAT Job? No jackstands were harmed during the making of this post.

I hope that today is marked down in your history books. We are finally writing some fresh pages into the history of rally in the United States. Right now some of the fastest drivers in our sport are taking to the dirt 60 miles North of L.A. Included in the list – one Mr. Colin McRae. In one week, a hell of a lot more people will know why I spend thousands of dollars for five weekends a year.

I only occasionally post on the status of the sport here at rallynotes, so you know it’s special. I am a little scared that it won’t be a 100% representation of what rally is – but what on TV is REAL? I’m a little miffed that they included a paltry three 2WD entries – but when was the last time a 2WD won a national rally? I hope that some kids will realize that you don’t just walk out and plunk yourself down in a 300HP Scooby and call it good. I really hope that they will take their talent and start with a slower car and win a few regional classes before ordering the turbo. Get Mom’s beater out to a rallycross!

The news: (or the “Dude, I live under a rock…” update.)
EXPN – X Games info and updates
Live updates from stages on Rally America
Live stage times from Rally America
Watch ABC Saturday, August 5th – 3 p.m. – BMX Freestyle Park and Rally Car Racing

On Saturday, Christine and I are heading up to the Home Depot Center in the Dodge Rally Neon. I was able to score some free tickets from Irvine Subaru. If you’re heading up and you want to hang out – get a hold of me.

Last Wednesday I realized that Ze’Neon wouldn’t be on the ground anytime soon. I called up John Black (my buddy and mentor) and roped him into dual driving his DOHC Neon ExpressO at the rallycross. On Saturday, Christine and I showed up with the helmets, intercom, tent, chairs, and two rally tires. After John’s runs, we scraped off the mud and slapped the rally tires on the front of his Neon.

I really forgot just how much you bounce around in a stock car at a rallycross. My knee has a nice egg on it from the power window switches and I could barely hang onto the steering wheel half the time. We took 2nd in 2WD Rally and collected some needed CRS Rallycross points for the season. John was smacked with a super muddy course and got 3rd in 2WD Modified.

Check out a handfull of pictures here.

This is a classic restoration story. It goes like this: The kitchen in your house is original and you want to reface the cabinets and replace the vinyl floor. You rip up the floor only to find water damage from a leaky dishwasher. The cabinets are held onto about 2 of the 20 studs they should be and they used 1/2″ plywood in the floor instead of 3/4″. Now your $300 renovation project just added $2000 of stuff and 4 more weeks of work.

After taking the motor out and getting a good long look at the damage. I can honestly say: I don’t know how we got it back from Washington on the tow dolly… The solid bobble strut, 1 loose control arm bolt, and half of a welded mount were all that was holding the wheels on that car. Need I mention that the bobble strut is there to hold the engine UP? Good stuff.

After an over-extended week of prep Todd and Mike came over last night to start welding. The seam welding is done and the new subframe mounts should be fabricated and on tonight. While we had the motor out we took advantage of that fact and cleaned up a lot of little things. The brake lines will now be routed through a hole in the inner fender rather then around (or – up under) the frame. The AC, airbag, foglight wiring, and connectors were removed. We cut out the front broken radiator support. A new set of shifter cables have been installed. What you see to the left is the inside of the left fender right before welding. Notice I just chopped off what was left of the existing mounts.

Tonight I’ll have camera in hand to take some more detailed shots. I also will take some finished pictures once it’s all painted and back on 4 wheels. I’m excited because I can finally see the end of this ‘current’ project.

Update: Pictures of the welding and mount fab are in the gallery.

I finished going over the damage and soon it will be time to get working on fixing it. My goal is a rallycross at the end of the month. A quick summary includes a new exhaust, new skidplate parts, new subframe, and a new power steering rack. While that’s apart I need to replace the shifter cables and the clutch cable. I also need a bunch of consumable items like new pads and rotors and a fresh set of tires. I’m on the lookout for a workshop space / garage I can rent in the OC Area.

I enjoyed the summer break, but now it’s time to get back to work. On Saturday I was able to get a complete subframe and power steering rack for the car. John and I found a decent looking new front bumper skin as well. At the SoCal-Neon Meet, Harry and I talked about pulling the motor at his place and welding the front frame and new subframe up properly. I’m not 100% cool with pulling out the motor, but it will let me get to all of the pieces and parts that are broken. Subframe mounts, engine mounts, etc. I’m also going to seam weld the front frame rails. They are made up of 3 or 4 pieces of metal shaped and overlapped into a metal… um… metal taco. – and I certainly don’t want beans and cheese going everywhere.

More: Check out our new section – Upcoming Events

Is that awesome? I came up with that last night and I’ve already got a couple on order. If you’ve ever done something with a car that you probably shouldn’t have been able to ‘save’ – you know what I’m talking about. Get one for yourself or a friend. Support rallynotes.com and buy one now!

Jan Gerber runs his Neon at a rallycross in Nebraska.
He regularly beats the AWD’s with a stock Neon and a set of snow tires!

Check it out in our new feature – “Rallycross Your Neon!“
Need to find a rallycross in your area? Click here for the SCCA listings. Click here for CRS events.

Nahwatzel was the stage everyone was talking about at Olympus. Nahwatzel this year was a 19 mile stage. It’s usually 22-25 miles long… This is twice as long as some of the longest stages we’ve ever done. We did the stage twice and each time I took a deep breath before we started and a deep sigh when we finished. It covers every type of surface that Washington has to offer. I picked this particular 7 minute segment in the middle of the stage as it shows all that Nahwatzel is famous for. First, the wide open dirt highway that takes a hairpin left onto some tight twisty sections. The narrow sections become faster as we’re hitting 70+MPH down the straights. These tighten into hairpins and the surface changes and becomes loose in a lot of areas. Nahwatzel also likes to eat cars. Pay particular attention to 04:00 in – as I missed a downshift and couldn’t stop the car in time.

Video of SS13 – Nahwatzel – 53.6MB WMV

It’s taken me a couple of weeks to decompress. We popped Ze’Neon off the tow dolly and parked it when we got home from Washington. I’ve only started it once after that, and still have a load of spares sloshing around the back of the Blazer. We have some time to do repairs and testing before Gorman Ridge in August. A little bit of a summer break before we continue the USRC season with Prescott and Laughlin.

Just before Olympus everything came together smoothly. A complete departure from the frantic last minute ‘oh crap we’re out of it’ Rim of the World in April. Struts were back on the car and tested. The subframe mounts got welded. The oil pressure sender failed in the parking lot and not on stage. Blazer packed up with the Neon on the tow dolly ready to go for the morning. We packed our clothes, got about 3 hours of sleep, and took off Wednesday morning at 4:00AM.
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