Any E30 rallyists here?

[SlapDash]

I'm tentatively heading to NEFR as well and would love to caravan, but I need to make a few things line up first (money and time off). I was going to offer to help crew, but was wishy-washy on whether I was able to make it, so I didn't make any commitments. Maybe I'll be the pinch crew person.

Post NEFR, I have the whole week off and hopefully by the end, my car will be mostly ready to start.

How far into the swap are you?

[psyber_0ptix]

Let me know if you EVER need help. I'm off to NEFR this weekend to volunteer (are you going? want to caravan?) but after I finish swap, i'll be happy to dedicate any extra time you may need for having helped me on several occasions.

[SlapDash]

I'm so close, I can almost taste the dirt.

[kamotors]

^awesome
here is some motivation to play in the dirt

[SlapDash]

Three more...

A few more pics...

[SlapDash]

Some build pics...

Car is back in the Slapdash stable, awaiting re-assembly...

[SlapDash]

It will help though if you actually are a nice guy! Acting like a dick and p*ssing them off only gives them more incentive to find something wrong with your car.

I wish we could come and watch you in action. Martin and I are unlikely to be coming down again this year. We're saving up for an assault on Targa Newfoundland this September. But, to give you a taste of what to look forward to, here are all our stories and in-car video from last year's New England Forest Rally in Martin's RWD Nissan 240SX.

I would probably kill somebody with FredK's ax to be able to do Targa Newfoundland! I am definitely going to check out those links once I get back to work (my home computer is almost as old as my E30).

And, if I do say so myself, I am a nice guy. I'm in this rally thing to have fun and meet a lot of crazy people along the way (so far, so good). So hopefully that will help with the scrutineer.

If I hit Targa Newfoundland and died the next day, I will have lived a full life.

[SlapDash]

Build Thread?

No build thread yet, I have to wait until after my first rally. Spending all my free time sourcing parts, gaining knowledge, selling parts and scamming people for money...I mean looking for sponsors.

I do have a partial build page on my site, www.slapdashracing.com if you want to check it out.

[Ferdinand]

If they spot something wrong, they're not going to look aside just because you're a nice guy.

It will help though if you actually are a nice guy! Acting like a dick and p*ssing them off only gives them more incentive to find something wrong with your car.

I wish we could come and watch you in action. Martin and I are unlikely to be coming down again this year. We're saving up for an assault on Targa Newfoundland this September. But, to give you a taste of what to look forward to, here are all our stories and in-car video from last year's New England Forest Rally in Martin's RWD Nissan 240SX.

[fryerfighter94]

Build Thread?

[SlapDash]

I guess the Rally America log bookist is in Vermont somewhere. The name escapes me at the moment. I do have to get that taken care of before anything else. But the good news is my builder has had a few cages pass through his hands/eyes/mind before with no problems.

I like your trick idea. I'll do a few things, especially with my new car/new driver status. No pins in the extinguisher, brake light out, unsecured beer cooler in the trunk. Ha!

Tech is going to be an anxiety-laden process for sure. The good news is my seats and harnesses will be new, but I'll double check the helmet/HANS/suit, as I hope to rent or borrow those on my first time out.

[Ferdinand]

The scrutineer won.

The scrutineer ALWAYS wins.

I am going to try and get my car 'pre-scrutineered' just to give me an idea if anything's amiss before I get stopped at the border so to speak.

Absolutely!

I'm not sure how it works down there, but up here in Canada you need to get the car logbooked BEFORE showing up at an event. They go over everything during that process before issuing you with a logbook. After that, once you have the logbook, they pretty much assume everything is still good, unless you've been in a wreck.

I would hate to spend thousands of dollars and many hours driving to get to the rally only to be booted out of the event for something small.

It happens -- quite often.

Safety is never something to be taken lightly. Obvious things, like extinguishers missing the correct tags to show they've been serviced within the required time period, or seat belts with expired tags, or helmets without the required rating stickers, etc. All those are quickly and easily (and always) checked by the scrutineers. Any failures mean you don't pass Go.

There are insurance policies at stake, and nobody wants any issues there. If they spot something wrong, they're not going to look aside just because you're a nice guy. If someone ends up hurt, and they later find out your safety gear was not up to spec, or much worse find out that the scrutineers already knew about it and didn't force you to fix it, there will be a MAJOR sh*tstorm of legal fallout.

One team got busted because their fire extinguishers were mounted in plastic brackets, not metal brackets. Our Cdn regs still only say the extinguisher must be "securely mounted", but the Rally America regs specifically say it must be a metal-to-metal mount.

The scrutineers tend to look especially closely at new cars they haven't seen before. One trick, that I'm sure every scrutineer already knows about, is to leave something really obvious for them to find. Something that can be cheaply and quickly rectified, like a missing safety pin in the fire extinguisher. The idea is that the scrutineer is never happy unless he finds something wrong. That way he can say, Aha! Caught you, and send you off to get it fixed before they can issue you with a tech sticker.

But if they find something terminal, like your rollcage isn't up to spec, then you're screwed.

[SlapDash]

I forgot an update. Due to scheduling conflicts, I had to change cage builders. I went with Bill Doyle, of cagethis.com, who, coincidentally, also rallies an E30.

[SlapDash]

I'm an Ax Vigilante.

I like it.

FredK, AV

Will look good on a business card...

[SlapDash]

Dammit! Now I have to spend more money. I was at the Team O'Neil Rally a few weekends ago and they stopped some guy for not have a cotter pin something. From the colorful language eminating from the driver's mouth, he didn't think it was that important. The scrutineer won.

I am going to try and get my car 'pre-scrutineered' just to give me an idea if anything's amiss before I get stopped at the border so to speak. I would hate to spend thousands of dollars and many hours driving to get to the rally only to be booted out of the event for something small.