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Did I mention I race rally cars? Red Rocket Rally

Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Almost ready for Olympia
by brian @ 15:17:09 - [perma-link]
We leave for the Olympus Rally on Friday (I think). Josh and I spent tonight finishing up the roll cage and a few other required items. The Corolla now has a working horn, a license plate light, sill bars, a main-hoop V, and stronger seat brackets located to fit me, rather than the 6'2" previous driver.
Tomorrow I'll figure out the gas tank skid plate and bleed the brakes and clutch. And about a dozen other things.
It looks like we're going to make it!

Tuesday, May 8, 2007
My First Rallycross!
by brian @ 09:03:46 - [perma-link]
A few weeks ago I found a rally car for sale on craigslist. I had
searched for "go cart" and the description for the rally car said,
"handles like a go cart". Good job on the marketing!
On Sunday I raced it in my first Rallycross (ever!) at the Washington
County Fairgrounds in Hillsboro. It was so much fun! And the car
totally kicks ass. So many people kept coming up and asking, "is
that the one that was on craigslist?"
Its a 1988 Toyota Corolla FX-16 GTS. It has the good motor. Its
front wheel drive. Cold air intake, free-flowing exhaust, fully
caged (well, mostly caged... about 3 bars short of Rally-America
stage rally standards), racing seats (welded into place for the 6'2"
previous driver... gotta move it forward 2", hence the foam pads in
the seat), and 3 sets of wheels with one good set of rally tires. I
don't know much about Corollas, yet, but I'm learning more each time
someone comes up and asks me what it is. Lots of them know way more
about it than I do.
It turned out to be a great find. I was only 1 second off the 3rd
place time on my last run. I have to attribute most of that to the
car, since it was my first time racing on dirt. I'm totally hooked
now, so I should be competitive once I get more experience.

Sunday, June 15, 2003
BMW Rally
by brian @ 21:52:13 - [perma-link]
This weekend we went to the BMW Riders of Oregon rally in John Day,
Oregon. I brilliantly forgot my "real" sunglasses, but these seemed
somehow appropriate at the place we had breakfast on saturday.
We brought Daisy with us, and she slept most of the way. She also met
another dog at the rally and got dirty rolling around in the gravel.
Camping was fun. We saw some cool BMW bikes. The best one was clearly
the black 1958-or-something that had just been restored. And we
learned that BMW bike luggage makes a great cooler.
This morning we saw the city version of Nikki's country bike. My
defender crossed 33,000 miles (not bad for, uh, 6 years ;). We had
some great Oregon scenery on the 300 mile drive home (not even CLOSE to
3 hours, but better than the 350 mile route we took to get there ;),
and we caught a nice bug collection.
Tomorrow I'll clean the car (uh, maybe.. i'm pretty tired) then we head
on another 300 mile journey to Connie's sister's. If we come back
Tuesday, we'll have 4 300+ mile days in a row!
I vote we stay in Crescent City an extra day.

Saturday, June 14, 2003
Nick's "dorky" luggage...
by brian @ 21:03:27 - [perma-link]
...makes a great cooler.
We're at the BMW bike rally (I drove my Defender following Nikki on her
bike). We're camping tonight with our HUGE tent and air mattress. The
mattress had a leak, but hopefully the duct tape patch will hold.

XML

Tuesday, May 15, 2007
	Almost ready for Olympia by brian @ 15:17:09 - [perma-link] We leave for the Olympus Rally on Friday (I think). Josh and I spent tonight finishing up the roll cage and a few other required items. The Corolla now has a working horn, a license plate light, sill bars, a main-hoop V, and stronger seat brackets located to fit me, rather than the 6'2" previous driver. Tomorrow I'll figure out the gas tank skid plate and bleed the brakes and clutch. And about a dozen other things. It looks like we're going to make it!


Tuesday, May 8, 2007
	My First Rallycross! by brian @ 09:03:46 - [perma-link] A few weeks ago I found a rally car for sale on craigslist. I had searched for "go cart" and the description for the rally car said, "handles like a go cart". Good job on the marketing! On Sunday I raced it in my first Rallycross (ever!) at the Washington County Fairgrounds in Hillsboro. It was so much fun! And the car totally kicks ass. So many people kept coming up and asking, "is that the one that was on craigslist?" Its a 1988 Toyota Corolla FX-16 GTS. It has the good motor. Its front wheel drive. Cold air intake, free-flowing exhaust, fully caged (well, mostly caged... about 3 bars short of Rally-America stage rally standards), racing seats (welded into place for the 6'2" previous driver... gotta move it forward 2", hence the foam pads in the seat), and 3 sets of wheels with one good set of rally tires. I don't know much about Corollas, yet, but I'm learning more each time someone comes up and asks me what it is. Lots of them know way more about it than I do. It turned out to be a great find. I was only 1 second off the 3rd place time on my last run. I have to attribute most of that to the car, since it was my first time racing on dirt. I'm totally hooked now, so I should be competitive once I get more experience.


Sunday, June 15, 2003
	BMW Rally by brian @ 21:52:13 - [perma-link] This weekend we went to the BMW Riders of Oregon rally in John Day, Oregon. I brilliantly forgot my "real" sunglasses, but these seemed somehow appropriate at the place we had breakfast on saturday. We brought Daisy with us, and she slept most of the way. She also met another dog at the rally and got dirty rolling around in the gravel. Camping was fun. We saw some cool BMW bikes. The best one was clearly the black 1958-or-something that had just been restored. And we learned that BMW bike luggage makes a great cooler. This morning we saw the city version of Nikki's country bike. My defender crossed 33,000 miles (not bad for, uh, 6 years ;). We had some great Oregon scenery on the 300 mile drive home (not even CLOSE to 3 hours, but better than the 350 mile route we took to get there ;), and we caught a nice bug collection. Tomorrow I'll clean the car (uh, maybe.. i'm pretty tired) then we head on another 300 mile journey to Connie's sister's. If we come back Tuesday, we'll have 4 300+ mile days in a row! I vote we stay in Crescent City an extra day.


Saturday, June 14, 2003
	Nick's "dorky" luggage... by brian @ 21:03:27 - [perma-link] ...makes a great cooler. We're at the BMW bike rally (I drove my Defender following Nikki on her bike). We're camping tonight with our HUGE tent and air mattress. The mattress had a leak, but hopefully the duct tape patch will hold.