I am impressed by that drone pilot and sorry to miss the event last weekend.
The CFCC is intriguing. I might join you. Maybe grm could carve out a class at the challenge next year.
I am impressed by that drone pilot and sorry to miss the event last weekend.
The CFCC is intriguing. I might join you. Maybe grm could carve out a class at the challenge next year.
ojannen said:The CFCC is intriguing. I might join you. Maybe grm could carve out a class at the challenge next year.
I am too. I'm REALLY interested in trying rallycross!
Come on fellas! Anyone's welcome! The Corolla is a decent rallyx tool. Britt (the lemons car owner) won an SCCA rallyx at the Firm overall with his! And his is an automatic.
I think I need to buy a Corolla now!! 
Lof8 - Andy said:Come on fellas! Anyone's welcome! The Corolla is a decent rallyx tool. Britt (the lemons car owner) won an SCCA rallyx at the Firm overall with his! And his is an automatic.
What about those of us who are bad drivers? Supercharger allowance?
In all seriousness, which Corolla is the right one? Wikipedia suggests the 1993-1997 E100 generation.
ojannen said:Lof8 - Andy said:Come on fellas! Anyone's welcome! The Corolla is a decent rallyx tool. Britt (the lemons car owner) won an SCCA rallyx at the Firm overall with his! And his is an automatic.
What about those of us who are bad drivers? Supercharger allowance?
In all seriousness, which Corolla is the right one? Wikipedia suggests the 1993-1997 E100 generation.
We're not too strict on the rules in Corolla Cup, but I think forced induction is out, lol.. The group currently has (2) 'Rollas from the 1993-1997 generation and (2) from the 1998-2002 generation. The chassis is the same, but the later cars got the 1zz engine with a few more horseponies. I opted for an '01 with the extra hp.
-1993-2002 Rollas
-normally aspirated (engine must be from 93-02 'rolla)
-suspension, intake, exhaust are open to modification (no internal mods)
-gutting the car is fine
-must remain street legal
-possible 14" wheel and 200tw rule
In reply to Lof8 - Andy :
You got a slamming deal on that 01! 5spds are hard to find in that year range.
This is such a cool idea... You know... You may need to start a separate thread just for the CFCC
Ya, honestly, I looked for several months to find this one at a steal. The manuals are a bit scarce. "Prizm" is a good search term. Seems they don't receive the Toyota tax as much. Corolla Cup probably should have its own thread.
Corolla Cup! thread, if anyone hasn't seen it yet.
The YXZ engine was diagnosed to need only some new valves and rings, so my bill wasn't as terrible as it could have been. Got it put back together and it feels as good as new, and seems to perform that way as well. Both of my competitors in UTV class are turbocharged and I'm not :)
I've got the Corolla cockpit squared away. The seat is one I picked up from Marketplace a few years ago because it was so cheap and "I could use that for something eventually." Its missing the lower back padding section, so I'll need to makeshift something from Hobby Lobby padding and fabric. and I've found its got a fairly significant oil leak I'll need to fix. Hopefully its just the timing chain tensioner that seems to be a common/cheap/easy fix.
In-car footage from last Firm/Crown Vic rallyx. I believe this is the same run as the previously posted drone footage.
landed in Portland Oregon last night to meet up with some Florida and Oregon friends to do the OG Gambler 500. Our ride is a $1200 lifted Lincoln on 31" (nearly bald) A/Ts, Over 400k miles, drinks a quart of oil per tank of gas, but pretty clean and cold a/c!
Awesome. Safe travels. I'll be back in your neck of the woods this weekend.
*457,000 miles on this yacht!
Looks just like my buddies Lincoln. He should give it the same tire/lift treatment. He calls it his couch on wheels.
No racing lately but the Spyder got some magazine coverage! Credit to Nonack on the smaller wheels suggestion. They def contributed to the autox win.
Corolla had a significant oil leak from the front of the engine. I thought it was the timing chain cover and was not excited to tackle that. So I dropped it off with my Corolla-guru friend, Britt. He found a bad front main seal and had it fixed in no time. All four of the coil pack bolt holes had been stripped out on the valve cover, so I grabbed a junkyard unit and gave it a spray bomb. I'm down to an oil change and a brake job and the Rolla will be ready to rip!
Music City Grand Prix pics (Nashville). And rally tires on the Yamaha.
Digging the Baby Seals Racing Team shirt. I assume that's a LeMons Team?
Scotty Con Queso said:Digging the Baby Seals Racing Team shirt. I assume that's a LeMons Team?
Lol. Baby Seals is a Facebook group of sick minded automotive enthusiasts. Most of them are in central FL and many of them are GRM members. Sent you an invite.
Rolla is ready to party!
Spotted my twin! Had to stop for a photo opp.
Big thanks to my wife! $80 worth of rustoleum applied with rollers and brushes (more like $20 if I prorate the amount of paint used).
Crappy news, my Corolla burns a fair bit of oil. Great news, SXSs are allowed back at the Firm rallyx events!!
I had to miss the first Firm rallyx event with SXS's being allowed back, which was a bummer. But I missed it to attend a Lemons race at NCM, Kentucky. Our team grew a bit since the last race and added another car - an NB miata with some kind of circle track Chevy small block. The judges threw the miata in A class (top tier) with 20 penalty laps. Thats about what we expected.
I was the 2nd driver into the miata and during some caution laps, it let out a big cloud of smoke and shut off. There was no warnings or loud noises - it just shut off. Back in the pits, an oil pan full of water and glitter determined the motor was done. The car owner/builder hopped on marketplace and found a replacement an hour away. most of the afternoon we spent getting it swapped. By Saturday evening, we were ready to crank it. It fired up immediately and the initial quiet knocking sound became louder real quick. :( We were sold a dud. Such a disappointment after all the work.
But the Corolla kept ripping all weekend. We shortened our stints a bit more than usual to spread the seat time among everyone. We had a blast! The Corolla kept chugging for a 3rd place finish in class and we got the "I got screwed award" for our efforts in the Miata. We were pitted next to Team Turtle, who we had previously helped out a bit at a race at Barber. They offered me a stint in their Tercel, which I accepted. Its even slower than our Corolla, but its a manual and still a ton of fun. My best lap in that car was 11 seconds slower than my best lap in the 'Rolla. Getting to run racing laps in 3 different cars in the same day was a really fun experience!
Our Air BnB accomodations were the nicest ones so far.
I haven't done any racing since Kentucky, but I've got a couple of things in the works. The "off the shelf" roll cage I've been using on my YXZ is designed for use with the stock seats and driver positioning. I've got about 6" or so of space above my helmet to the roll cage. This extra height has bothered me ever since I added an aluminum race seat in a lower position. So I've ordered a custom cage that sits about 3-1/2" lower than my current one. I've also swapped from utv wheels to some adapters that let me fit 15" miata wheels. This opens up a lot of options for rally and other tires that aren't readily available in 14". The machine should have a lower, sleeker, meaner look next season.
My wife and I met up with some friends for a University of Florida football game a couple of weeks ago. We saw several people cruising around in golf carts. That's nothing new, but something clicked, and we started talking about all of the places we could make use of one - football games, Ginnie Springs trips, neighborhood cruising, etc. So we decided to take the plunge. The rabbit hole is endless! So far, I've got a 2019 EZGO TXT with lithium 48v battery. I've added a 6" lift and sweet wheels. The wife really wants some fancy seat covers and I intend to add a sound bar. Hopefully that's as deep as I have to go.
Hoping to take the Crown Vic to Eastbay, the local dirt circle track this weekend. It's scheduled to be closed for good after this season :(
welp, my first attempt at dirt circle track racing was not as successful as my first attempt on the asphalt. I went out on track a total of 3 times - practice, heat race, and feature. The track's surface was totally different every time. During practice, it was so wet that there was near zero traction on the walmart special tires that are required by the class. The practice session did nothing for me but cake the car and my helmet in mud. The car nearly pushed into the outer wall several times.
For the heat race, I was not comfortable enough to take my starting position - outside of row 2. I opted to put myself in the back and try to get the hang of things some more. The track had a fair bit more grip, but I was attempting to drive like asphalt and just "let" the rear end step out in the corner. It didn't work well and I finished where I started, albeit a 1/2 lap behind the next slowest guy.
I got some tips from some friends in attendance (a couple of dirt track guys who also race on my Lemons team) before the feature. They told me I need to yank the wheel left before the corner to initiate the slide and then modulate the angle with the throttle pedal. I put myself at the back of the pack once more. The track had the most grip of the night, as it had dried a bit and a groove was forming. In the 15 lap race, I felt like I had 5 or 6 successful corners that could have kept me at pace with the pack. Every other time I was over rotating or overcorrecting and pushing back up to the wall.
I think if I had an hour on the track to myself, I could likely improve significantly and maybe even get comfortable piloting the car around track near its limit. But that sure didn't happen during this evening. Out of 7 cars, I finished 5th. I beat 2 cars who retired early to the infield, lol. It was fun, but I was a bit disappointed in myself for not being able to pick it up quickly. I thought my rallyx experience would naturally transfer to the dirt oval, but that was not the case at all. Its a way different animal, a very slippery animal. I did get paid $50 for racing in the feature (after paying $35 to enter, so a net positive there). And the air conditioned race trailer worked great for escaping the humidity between races.
I likely won't be rushing out to try it again soon. All of my safety gear was covered in mud and the car had about 200 lbs of clay caked everywhere. There is another dirt track in Florida - down south in Hendry county. In my quest to race every track in Florida, I will need to do it again at some point. I know they offer practice nights down there at Hendry.
also had a lil Corolla Cup gathering the following Sunday :)
In reply to Lof8 - Andy :
That sounds both terrible and a blast all at the same time...
I'm sure with more time you'd get the hang of it. Always challenging to do things completely against the way you have been doing them forever.
You'll need to log in to post.
