The Wishbone Alley Gazette
November, 2001
Rally News
- Night on Bald Mountain, October 6. The
first thing you need to know is that Eric Horst/Steve Willey won the thing with
31 pts. Second place was Rebecca Rocks/Russ Kraushaar with 32 points. Not bad
for 16 checkpoints!
Rallymaster
Greg Hightower picked out some swoopy gravel roads, mostly south of Cle
Elum. Although the views of our lovely
Cascades were distracting, the slow pre-hunting season traffic added an element
usually reserved for Canadian rallys. Much safer at night.
Also
like the Canadian TSD's, a car got totaled. A WRX took an off-road excursion in
a very rare spot where there was something to land on within sight of the road.
The car rode a stump for its length, and the chassis bent.
Kirk
Simons mentioned that his big Dodge Ram filled up the road pretty good, a good
way to get the attention of the other pickups on the road. Tom Palidar volunteered to learn how to use
Nolte's Timewise, and may be pretty good at it after 5-6 more rallys. The WRX's headlight conversion kit jiggled
loose on the washboard, such that the rally was completed on either fog lights
or Hella 2000's!. Tom remained cool during the intermittent dark spells.
Good
event, well planned, and scenic. ORCA tried their version of the "No
reason needed" Time Declaration system- with a convenient little form for
checking off how many minutes are declared.
21 entrants. Good length- at 6 hours.
- Armageddon- Originally
conceived as a challenging romp through the more exciting roads of the far NW
corner of Washington, the
rally has become a tame little tour.
This, probably the result of
heavy economic pressure, when it is more profitable to have 100% finishers than
leave various bits of bodywork about the countryside. For a while, the tow truck people made vastly
more profit than the organizers.
With heavy drizzle, the rally
started in Arlington, did
the LakeCavanaugh
hillclimb, then wandered north to ClearLake and
the farmlands. Cross I-5 at Conway. Once
on FirIsland,
rallyists shared the byways with SUV's. Most notable is how the wandering SUV's
regard the speed limits, resulting in the rally cars leading a parade of the
SUV's, at one-minute intervals.
The rally ended at a quite
civilized 3pm. 23 cars
Club
News
- The 2002 Election process
climaxes at the November meeting. The ballots are easy to complete.
- RASC will take possession of
the Alcan Rally's Alfa Checkpoint clocks.
- "Any news from the
Webmaster?" "Nuthin'"
- He lied! Go to
http://www.rainierautosports.com/meeting-location.htm and view the map.
Trivia
- The November issue of Sports Compact Car magazine had an
interesting column (you can read it on-line:
http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/archives/technobabble/techno_1101.jsp) Called the "Second Gear Conspiracy" Dave Coleman points
out why cars have some gearing that is awkward for rallying. In order to get good "stats", the
engineers must get second gear to reach 62 mph!
A shift will slow the critical 0-60 time. As he points out in the last paragraph, a car can be a joy to
drive with other gearing. When someone gets a "special" gearbox for their rally
car, it may not be reinforced, stronger, or better engineered- it'll just have
ratios appropriate to sport.
FOR SALE
- 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
- Colleen wants a
convertible. The pearl white (with white
17" wheels and new tires) '89
Corvette is offered at $9900
'94
white Plymouth Grand Voyager LE, AWD, 3.8 motor, new transmission, seats 7,
dual A/C, custom wheels, 140K miles. $4900
Call Jerry or Colleen at (206) 227-6343 or
(425) 823-6343.
- Two
(2) 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- Mark Nolte,
425-652-3578
- '94 Suburban for sale. New rear
differential, alternator, tires, A/C compressor, updated wheels, pw, ps, pdl,
rear ac, 3rd seat, recent brakes. Well kept truck and tow vehicle.
$12,500 Contact Pete Shelton @206-783-5681
RASC Calendar
• Call the NWRC Hotline (206)
256-9627 for latest info on Puget Sound TSD events..
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