Rally New York this weekend!

[Luke]

The team is all set to depart for the 2007 Rally New York. The rally is set in the catskill area of New York State, less than 80 miles from NYC. This convienant location makes it a great opportunity to come out and see the action and get a first hand look at the SaabRally.com rally car.
We spent serious time preparing for the rough stages with a redesigned front skid plate and modified rear suspension settings.
We had an engine failure due to water ingestion during some testing just a few days ago, but the team worked some late nights to ensure that we would have a running car in time for this event.
Come out and cheer us on!

More information can be found at www.rallynewyork.com

[matt]

Luke is no longer allowed to test water crossings.

[DeLorean]

so Luke, saw you go by on the 3rd to the last stage, obviously things were not right with the trans... the grinding and the gear oil stink coming off of the car were clues to that though did the case go out on you? otherwise things were looking good on the first stages! nice work.

[Crazyswede]

The transmission was fine, it was the engine that was no good. not sure what they had go bad but I am sure there will be a tear down soon enough.

[DeLorean]

aah, It sure sounded / smelled like trans failure, but I guess not! should be interesting to see what went bad.

[Crazyswede]

It sounded like a rod bearing spun or a rod failed in some way. its possible that a rod could have punched a hole in the top of the transmission causing a mixing of the engine and transmission oil. but this is all speculation.

[Luke]

Yeah we lost a rod. We were able to transit for a while like this but eventually something gave out and there is a hole in the side of the engine block where it punched through. The transmission seems fine and there is no mixing of the oils so hopefully it was not damaged.
The engine was very old and tired and this is at least the 3rd car its been in so its not entirely suprising that it gave out after a day of sustained high rpm. its been run dry of oil twice before due to cracked sumps and was only pulled out of retirement due to a last minute problem with the normal engine.
We set 2nd fastest time for 2wd on the tarmac blind pond stage and gravel is our forte so its unfortunate that we couldnt finish the gravel stages.

[max]

So, you guys DNF'd for the day?

[Luke]

We finished the Tarmac rally in the morning so we got points for that but did not finish the gravel one in the evening.

[paulh]

well, sucks about the engine, but considering the schedule you were working on, i'd say you did pretty well even getting to the event! car looked great on the tarmac stages, shame you couldnt finish out the day. sure you'll get em next time.

Paul

[Luke]

Ok the good news is I checked the results and we were a solid 2nd place (out of 21 entries!) in 2wd in the morning regional rally.

[DeLorean]

very nice results! I guess it was a good way to retire the tired old engine?

[Crazyswede]

So I had an interesting drive home with a couple of more interesting then usual events. I took I87 North almost the entire trip so it wasn't to difficult other then dealing with a lot of annoying and just stupid drivers. I had some jackass in a new Monte Carlo (the superbly ugly ones) cut me off and nearly took the front of the car off. He dove from the fast lane through the 1.5 car gap ahead of me in the middle lane through the slow lane onto an exit. I was going 75 I figure he was doing 100. I never saw him coming and it was about 3 to 6 inches short of a 20 car pile up.
The second bit of excitement came from a strange object bounding down the road. I was either just south of or just north of Albany when I saw something bouncing 30 to 40 feet in the air. I couldn't tell if it was coming towards or going away from me. I saw the cars ahead swerving and slowing rapidly and realized it was a rather large wheel coming at use from the other side of the interstate. The wheel was probably going about 75 mph and making some amazing bounces. It had cleared the center divider which had a guardrail divider, it bounced down the road several times and managed to not hit any vehicles, and then it bounced over the right side of the overpass. Now I don't know what was below the overpass but I am hoping it was a river. If not it could have easily killed someone, totaled a car/truck, or put and impressive hole in someones roof.
On the good side I managed 30.6 mpg on the tank of gas I used for the trip. I had filled up in Rutland on Friday and driven from there to Bruce's house then to the rally, then back to Bruce's house and made it all of the way back to Lake George on one tank. When I pulled into the gas station the information display indicated I had 50 miles left on the tank...so I might have been able to make it back to Rutvegas....no need to gamble. So I had 475 miles on that tank and I filled up with 93 octane which took 15.5 gallons and cost $48...ouch. Glad I don't drive a SUV.

[Jordan]

Maybe the tire came from the Escort :lol:

When I clocked all highway miles on the computer I think I barely broke 30mpg. I'm a cheap bastard and only put 89 in, unless it is really cheap gas some where and I know I'm going to be tooling around town. I've had the display tell me I can drive over 500 miles with a full tank of gas. I'm not sure if the 9-3 tank is bigger than a 900s, 17 or 18 gallons I think.

[Crazyswede]

i haven't noticed a big improvement from 89 to 93 octane so future tanks will likely by 89. might see a difference in the summer heat.