Black River Stages 2012

[Luke]

Sitting in car waiting to check into a control , 3 stages completed, car feels great! I am liking the Motor and gearbox

[nutcase]

Go for it

[Crazyswede]

Pulled out of race after stage 14 due to a bad headgasket or head crack issue. Car performed great.

[Crazyswede]

Stage 10 in car footage. This was a fast stage for us and we were only 7 seconds off the pace of the 2 cars that beat our time. Not bad for an over heating car with a failing head gasket and on its first outing

http://crazyswede.smugmug.com/Cars/Blac ... &k=CW5mBjj



Roof cam view from Goose Pond in. look for the painful jump about 3/4 of the way in....not so bad from the roof vantage.

http://crazyswede.smugmug.com/Cars/Blac ... &k=SHPp7g3

[DrewP]

Thanks for posting those! Looks like a ton of fun.

Was it that difficult looking into the sun, or is it just how the camera picked it up?

[Crazyswede]

Thanks for posting those! Looks like a ton of fun.

Was it that difficult looking into the sun, or is it just how the camera picked it up?

Thats mostly how the camera picked it up. I don't remember having much issue with the sun but not sure about Luke. The roof cam did well until the head gasket caused the excessive overheating at which point the camera case started to get coated in coolant.

[Crazyswede]

Roof Cam Jayville In:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnHkKdUTONA&feature=plcp

Roof Cam Jayville Out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMbK0ErdWMg&feature=plcp

Note how the picture quality degrades as the stages tick by...more and more coolant loss made a mess of the go pro case.

[Luke]

Yep, so as Seth mentioned the weekend was a mixed bag. We were very nervous going into the event as the car had just been finished being put back together and there were a lot of difference to the other rally car and we werent sure how much adjusting it would take to get used to it. We had different: Engine, transmission, steering ratio, suspension, tires, brakes, shifter, seating postition, etc. I was actually pretty nervous at the start of the event, I just didnt feel comfortable with the amount of testing we had done on the car and there were so many unknowns. Also the last time I had a freshly built rally car didn't go so well (2008 STPR roll)
We started out slow, I was getting accustomed to the dogbox and the feel of the more basic suspension. By the end of Saturdays stages Seth and I were getting very comfortable with the new layout and our times were improving a lot.
The most amazing thing is that the car was holding together great and there were no little issues for the crew to fix or anything. In fact the crew seemed pretty bored at service as each time we just told them to fill fuel and check fluids.
The Sunday stages started out well. "Jayville" is a very tight and technical stage and I've set the fastest 2WD time several times in before on it. We really had a great run on Jayville, we were getting very comfortable with the car and the balance of the suspension was perfect for the terrain. We set the 3rd fastest time of all cars on the stage, which is pretty good considering that the fastest car was an STI and the 2nd fastest a 320 HP ford focus turbo. Our 37 year old SAAB was only 5 seconds slower through the stage with about ~ 100 whp :)
We noticed during the next transit that the car was starting to get a little hot so we checked the coolant level and found that we were extremely low on coolant. We found a nearby creek and filled the system up. There was oil in the remaining coolant and we realized that the head gasket was one the way out. We continued to run stages, but as each stage progressed, the overheating was getting worse and worse. We started begging other teams for empty water bottles and stopping at every creek to fill up a few gallons worth of bottles and tossing them in the trunk for reserve. Alas, soon it got to the point where we couldn't fill the coolant fast enough. We finished one 5 mile stage completely pinned on the temperature gauge and decided that with only 3 stages left in the rally we had plenty of seat time and were happy overall. The decision was made to bag the remaining stages before serious damaged had occurred.

Overall we were tremendously happy with how the car performed and it reminded us that sometimes the simplest setup can be the most fun.

A few pictures from the event:

[DrewP]

.... We set the 3rd fastest time of all cars on the stage, which is pretty good considering that the fastest car was an STI and the 2nd fastest a 320 HP ford focus turbo. Our 37 year old SAAB was only 5 seconds slower through the stage with about ~ 100 whp :)

This is awesome. Really shows just how much skill matters compared to equipment. (That's what she said.)


But really, this is awesome. Killer photos too, I totally dig the silver w/ green, you did a really good thing there.

[Geoff]

This is awesome. Really shows just how much skill matters compared to equipment. (That's what she said.)

x2. Power can only go so far. In fact, all the fast AWD cars retired early and the event was won by a non-turbo FWD Subaru.

I got a video of you guys pulling away from the start on the first stage. I haven't looked at it yet but I know the camera wouldn't focus and follow you so it's mostly a video for the audio.

Being first car on the road we didn't get many pictures taken of us

[rsp57]

Fantastic effort guys and that paint job looks familiar and cool!