The Wishbone Alley Gazette
August, 2001
Club
News
Woody's Grill and Bar.
14450 Woodinville-Redmond Rd, Woodinville WA, 98072; phone: 425-483-6633. It is
located at the corner of Woodinville-Redmond Rd and SR 202, just east of the
Red Hook brewery. Kids are allowed.
Rally
News
RASC volunteered
to "do" a crew for this "All NWRC" rally, rallymastered by
John and Derris Humphrey. I arranged for Kirk Simons, Mike and Gretchen Jones,
and Steve Willey to work CP, with me. I gathered up all the CP paperwork while
my group held a little meeting.
By time I got back to our corner of
the Eastgate Park'N'Ride, they concluded their meeting. Kirk wasn't feeling well, so he was leaving
for home. Steve Willey was going to run the rally with someone. Which left
Mike, Gretchen and me.
We went our separate ways to arrive
at the CP outside of Maple Valley, and were having a heated discussion about
who would get to write, where we would sit, which way the car would face, which
car to use, where the outcone was- you know, the usual stuff.
The debate and wild gesticulating
was interrupted by Bob and Debbie Sjodin, who inquired whether we had a spare
set of traffic cones. (Harumph-
newcomers!) Since the road we were on was freshly paved, there were traffic
cones just around the corner.
I whipped out my new "Pat
Biggar Signature Model CP Timing Line Light", put a cone next to the paint
mark and we were in business.
And not too soon. Having a jolly ride in a gorgeous XKE, a
couple showed up roughly 15 minutes ahead of time. At the time, this didn't appear too odd. While waiting for the
rest of "the pack" to appear, I called Derris on the cell phone and
told her to get the next CP crew to "hold" the Jag for 10 minutes.
There wasn't any good going to come of having the rally spread out.
We hustled on to our second CP,
maybe 8 miles away. Remember the
Pipeline Road? With it teeny railroad overpass? Well the neighborhood has grown
up, and we damn near missed it in the midst of a housing development. As Mike said, "It used to be easy to
find- it was the only road!"
The Humphreys' were very specific
about the location of our CP- one mile from the previous CP. We waved as we
went past the other crew. Then…one mile from what? The in or out cone? In the dark, the discrete paint was
invisible. Another phone call put them
a few minutes away, so we parked and Gretchen led the discussion about how to
park the cars, who should sit where, and which direction the cars would face.
Mike wanted to check the clock.
The second CP was much too much
like the first. In only a mile, the
cars should arrive in neat order, precisely one minute apart. Due to some situation prior, they were all over
the place. Yeah, frustration from
another leg hurt their score on this one.
I didn't stick around for scoring.
It was yet another fun rally. -MN
- Rally into the Sunset by
Chuckanut Sports Car Club (July 21)
Unfortunately scheduled opposite the "Heart of Darkness" rally
in Vancouver, the Bellingham club still drew 23 cars for their little 4 hour
rally.
Ken and Sue Lingbloom restricted
the rally to all-pavement. It went mostly around Lynden, getting far enough
north to view the same scenery on the other side of the border.
Steve Richards tweaked the Timewise
as we passed 8 manned checkpoints. There were also 9 Do It Yourself (DIY)
checkpoints. Unlike the usual DIY's,
there wasn't a Pause. Steve and I
fudged the DIY's a bit, which is interesting, come to think of it.
I was easily distracted, maybe
"out of practice". We built up some large early errors without any
CP's to catch me until the last one- a solid 7. Steve mumbled something about
if we lost the rally by that much he'd have to hurt me.
Fortunately, it didn't. We won with
18 pts. Biggar/Sjodin had a problem with their box and took a 6, at a DIY (!),
for 20 total pts. Mike Daily/Steve Pfau
are doing very well with their Alfa (24 pts). And Bob Chandler talked Phyllis
(or visa versa) into running a rally (the brood is at summer camp). They
totaled 45 pts. After that, the scores get large.
The rally was a well written, with
the usual "I wish I could arrange an SOP'er to Win" aspects that Ken
keeps adding. Didn't work this time.
- Olympus Wild West National
ProRally. Sept 7-8
Murmurs of
"we're going to do this right" are coming out of Olympia as the
National Tour visits the NW in a month.
John Nispel tells me he has long
stages lined up, all in Simpson Forest Land.
He has handed RASC a stage with 12 Road Guard positions. I pleaded hardship- no food, horrific
traffic, early (?) setup time on Saturday, and escaped any Friday
responsibilities.
If you want to actually see a rally
car when it isn't idling or sideways, you have the Tech on Thursday from 4
until 8, and again from 10 until 2 on Friday.
There's also something called the Auto Glaspro Press Stage from 8 until 10am, on Stinky Road, in Shelton.
The Olympus National is combined
with the Wild West and Sou'Wester Clubrallys. The road sections start at 5:30
PM on Friday, and 9:30 am on Saturday.
Nothing on Sunday.
Workers get T-shirts.
Call me if you want to be involved-
Mark Nolte, 425-652-3578
By Ron Sorem ©2001
First, be
sure you can handle it…mentally.
Properly
installed, the roll cage is connected to the best structural points in the
car. Coincidentally this is where most
carmakers concentrate the greatest strength in the least amount of space and,
of course, the most inaccessible locations.
My decision to remove the car from the cage was
brought on by excessive sheet metal fatigue and "distortion due to a
sudden stop” (front clip needed, both
rocker panels 6” closer to the center of the car, floor buckled and separated
from firewall, roof buckled, both rear corners squeezed toward each other, rear
floor and left wheel-well buckled, hood, both doors and rear hatch beyond
repair). Other than that, it just
looked easier than removing the cage from the car. Your situation may be different.
I had made
inquiries as to the best way to remove the sheet metal without damaging the
roll cage tubing. An air chisel, a
reciprocating blade saw, a cut-off saw (think rescue crews plus chainsaw motor)
and cutting torch all had their merits.
I decided on the reciprocating saw and went to work on removing the
roof. Most of the glass was gone but I
had to pull the windshield and stuff it into a garbage can.
The first
cuts were the most difficult, emotionally.
The “A” pillar was connected to the cage in three spots so I made cuts
at the top and bottom of the windshield and trimmed the welds later. The “B” pillar was next, and again a section
was left attached to the cage to be trimmed later. By now the “C” pillar was easy.
Off came the roof.
Now the
real work began. I cut around all the
cage-to-body support plates and soon realized I couldn’t cut the bottom out of
the plates. The unibody “frame” is
boxes within other boxes, all spot-welded.
As soon as I cut through one layer the blade bounced off an inner layer
of metal and broke. (Probably more time
was spent replacing blades than actually cutting.) Several blades later the “B” pillar and “C” pillar and all the
side metal had been cut to the floor for better access (and smaller pieces to
throw away) but I still couldn’t cut where I thought I wanted to cut. So out came the cutting torch…
Subaru
uses several layers of metal for strength in each corner of the floor plan
(probably all others do as well) and different grades including some really
hard and some zinc coated. The torch
burned through sheet metal and frame supports quickly until it came to
something different, spewing out 4th of July-like fireballs, sparks,
and some pretty noxious smoke. Which
led to small paint and undercoating fires.
Armed with
fresh knowledge of what not to do, I attacked the cage-to-rear-suspension
supports. There I joyfully found only
two layers of metal; soon the rear tubes were free. The trunk sagged an inch lower.
The center
supports at the main hoop were securely attached to something even though I
thought I’d cut completely around them.
Time for exploratory surgery. A
cut made two inches further away; with metal completely removed gave access to
yet another box beam and the torch sliced the box away.
Now the rear was free, the main hoop was
free, and the front hoop wiggled a little… that’s all, just a little. The same box-in-box situation found for the
front hoop. This, I had learned to deal with: more sheet metal cut away and the
front hoop pops free, only to wedge itself between the doorposts.
By now the oxygen tank is empty, the torch is
of no use. I’m down to one blade for the saw…and the cage is still rattling
around inside what’s left of the car.
One blade, one doorpost later, the cage is on the ground.
After several more hours, and several grinding
wheel discs, the excess body metal is trimmed away from the tubing and floor
plates. It looks good.
I’m left wondering how to haul the complete
cage back to Dave Clark to install in the next car…Let’s see, upside down on
the roof rack of the Sportwagon? Yeah
that’ll work!!
Subaru RX Rally Team 10835
SE 170th Street,
Renton, WA 98055 ronsorem@hotmail.com
Trivia
- Sarah Cohen camped out at Jerry's place a few years ago, then
went home to England. She's visiting, with her husband (John Harmer) in early
September. Jerry is thinking of hosting a bar-b-que. Call him or Colleen if you
want to join the party.
- Fire at Thirty Mile Creek- in the 1992 ES 1000, we climbed Toats
Coulee road to reach the 39 road, then started a 37 mile Transit through the
top of the ridges to end up in Winthrop.
.8 miles south we crossed Thirty Mile Creek. It had a shelter, if you
remember.
FOR SALE / Wanted
- 1992 Audi S4 Quattro Red/Blk leather, 90k miles, Hoppen/MTM Stage
2+ engine enhancement, RS2 manifold (290+ hp), CD changer, all else stock. $14,900.
Call Steve at (425) 337-0232 or email smrdcatman@juno.com for pics and
details.
- Ed Millman got a '97 Taurus, wants to sell the '91 white Taurus
wagon. 150K mi. $2000 (206) 361-7389
- Mike Jones still has the collection of parts in his garage that
could make somebody a dandy Fire Arrow. Make an offer. (425) 823-8329
- '87 Audi 4000 Quattro
needs a home. It's gold, with 4 new
tires and 140,000 miles. Needs either a new timing belt, or a new motor = PRICE
REDUCED to $400. Call Jerry at (206) 227-6343 or
(425) 823-6343.
- Colleen wants a
convertible. The pearl white (with
white 17" wheels and new tires)
'89 Corvette is offered at $9900. Call Jerry or Colleen at (206) 227-6343 or
(425) 823-6343.
- '94 white Plymouth
Grand Voyager LE, AWD, 3.8 motor, new transmission, seats 7, dual A/C, custom
wheels, 140K miles. $5900. Call Jerry at (206) 227-6343 or
(425) 823-6343.
- Three (3) Checkpoint
Timing lights. These are "Pat Biggar Special" timing line tubes with
the "delay" module so you don't get 4 flashes for 4 tires. I purchased
them thinking RASC would upgrade timing techniques. I'll keep one. $80 each
- Subaru Impreza Wheels
and tires: 15" rims don't fit over WRX brakes. Hakka H1 studs on 4 (gold) American Racing wheels. $650
- Four 15" Legacy wheels. No tires. Just
one weekend of TSD on them. $440 for
all 4. mnolte@qwest.net
- '88 Cavalier 4 dr, 4
cylinder, auto. $750. Ran out of parking space. …But wants a Audi/Passat wagon
(Amy is tired of trying to parallel park the Suburban. Pete /Amy Shelton
206-783-5681
RASC Calendar
Call the NWRC Hotline (206) 256-9627 for latest info on Puget Sound TSD
events.
- 8/10 – Friday Niter by ORCA, Bellevue, WA
- 8/18, (SCCA
Nat’l TSD)Dawn To Dust, (Tour),
Silverthorn, CO
- 8/18, (SCCA
Nat’l TSD) TBA, (tour) Silverthorn, CO
- 9/7-8 - Olympus Performance Rally weekend - 2 Club rallys and Wild
West National.
- 9/14- Friday Niter by RASC
- 9/15-16
– Pacific Forest stage, B.C.
- 9/22-23 Mountains to Waikiki TSD by Cascade
Sports Car Club. Portland to Ocean Park, WA. http://www.cascadescc.com/m2c or (503) 844-6664
- 10/6 – Nite on Bald Mountain (TSD) by ORCA
- 10/5-6 -
Prescott Forest (PRORally)
- 10/12 –
Friday Niter by ORCA, Bellevue, WA
- 10/27 – Ghoul’s Gambol (TSD)
- 10/28 -
Litter Clean-up (MP 99-101)
- 11/ 24-25 – Totem TSD (B.C.)
Rainier Auto Sports Club will meet this coming Monday, August 13, 2001, at 7:30 PM. New location,
tested by Roy Ward: Woody's Bar and Grill, 14450 Woodinville-Redmond Rd,
Woodinville. Ph (425) 483-6633. Monthly meetings are the second Monday of each
month. Past Members, visitors, and spectators are welcomed.
2001 Board Members:
President:
Kirk Simons- 425-806-1741; Vice-President: Gretchen Jones (425) 823-8329
Secretary: Pete Shelton- 206-783-5681;
Treasurer: Ed Millman (206)361-7389
Members at Large: Terry Simons (425)806-1741, Eric
Horst (206)363-9752
The Wishbone Alley Gazette is published for the members and friends of
Rainier Auto Sports Club. Subscription price is $10 per year.
The editor
is Mark Nolte, ph. 425-226-3155. Contributions and paid/unpaid ad eagerly
received at
2108 NE
12Th. St., Renton, WA 98056 or e-mail: mnolte@qwest.net
Rainier Auto Sports Club, P.O. Box 852,
Kirkland, WA 98134
|
|
