63 Bullnose Rally Project

[gmreider]

The car looks great in the photo. You should be proud for what you accomplished.
I miss all the 2 strokes I had owned way back. They weren't the fastest, but they always seemed well balanced in handling. And I always loved handbrake turns.
Keep up the good work and post more photos.

[modernbeat]

Here's a Neil McDaid photo.

[Jordan]

[Geoff]

Here's a Neil McDaid photo.

Awesome! Is that right before you got stuck?

Sounds good too. This video is funny: Top three cars, and the SAAB
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PvaXnn4YL8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oejlq1V0l2s (at 5:00)

What were you running for tires?

[modernbeat]

No, the one where we got stuck was similar but at 9:30 at night and everything had refrozen.

We're running Mickey Thompson Mini Mag tires. Fairly tall and stiff with a zig-zag rib pattern. OK for gravel, but I couldn't think of a worse treaded tire for the 100AW conditions this time. Had I know Brianne Corn (service crew) had brought my tire groover we would have made some cross cuts to the tread.

[Crazyswede]

No, the one where we got stuck was similar but at 9:30 at night and everything had refrozen.

We're running Mickey Thompson Mini Mag tires. Fairly tall and stiff with a zig-zag rib pattern. OK for gravel, but I couldn't think of a worse treaded tire for the 100AW conditions this time. Had I know Brianne Corn (service crew) had brought my tire groover we would have made some cross cuts to the tread.

you should be able to get some rally tires that will fit well. Look into Dmack or bfg rally tires.

[modernbeat]

...you should be able to get some rally tires that will fit well. Look into Dmack or bfg rally tires.

At the time of the build we though about running modern tires, but they just don't fit a Historic class car in spirit, or in this case, at all. The rear fender is very tight and except for snow or ice tires, most rally tires will not fit the stock wheels or under the fender. We did find some. In Europe. But decided to go with period tires. From a period where there weren't specialty rally tires. The most aggressive tire we could find and still fit under the fender was the Mini Mag front tire. They have some of the characteristics of a rally tire like the stiff sidewall, heavy duty cap and deep, open tread. But the tread pattern needs some grooving to really work, and we should have both grooved and siped the tires for 100AW.

We do run the BFG rally tires on the Subaru. And love them. In fact, the tire that took the most punishment on the car we took to WRC Mexico last year and was bent up into a pretzel and had half the sidewall scraped off is still going strong on a beater rallycross car. But they are a bear to mount, as Frank at Park Street Tire in Salem (100AW home) can attest. They hosted us a few years ago and we introduced his kids to the joys of mounting rally tires!

Balljoint seperated and strut pulled apart after the Subaru had a hard roll at WRC Mexico. This BFG rally tire is still going fine on a rallycross car.

[modernbeat]

We're headed back to the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood in a couple weeks. Come see us and pray for bad weather!

[Geoff]

I wish Missouri wasn't so far away...

[Crazyswede]

I wish Missouri wasn't so far away...

Where else can you get your porn and go to church in the same building.

[modernbeat]

Had a fairly good weekend at 100AW this year.

We were able to recce most of the stages in the truck, unescorted, which is an improvement over last year where we only got to recce about four stages behind an escort before it got too dark and icy for us to continue.

Friday we completed all the stages. We were seeded 36 out of 53, which is higher than we should have been and we ended up being passed twice on stages and let another competitor start ahead of us after we came in on the same minute. The stages were fairly warm and dry, but not too dusty even way back in the pack. The car was great! We hand grooved the tires this year, fine tuned the carb and installed a new expansion chamber which gave us even more grunt. The downside was that it was even louder! We could not hear ourselves even using a Peltor noise canceling intercom set. We resorted to using very distinct words and hand signals.

Saturday started well. The Parc Expose was a funny sight. The fast rock stars were at one end with huge crowds around them. The fast independents were next with smaller crowds, followed by the slower guys and newbs with the occasional spectator. At the very end, with the slowest cars, was our 96 with another huge crowd. During the transit to the first Saturday special stage there was a not-rally-related highway accident that blocked the road. It prevented about a third of the competitors from getting to the stage. By the time an alternate plan was formed we missed three stages. We did start the fourth stage and it was very tight and fast, but we lost the engine right before the end of the stage. Piston #2 melted down. No firm diagnosis yet, but we run three EGT gauges and a water temp gauge. The #2 gauge was not working right and we suspect that the center carb got plugged with debris and it went lean and melted the piston.

We already had replacement pistons and a fresh Monte Carlo head. The engine will get rebuilt and I suspect that Jeff will sell the car after this. He's had a couple kids since we started this and doesn't want to push it and risk injury.

[modernbeat]

[Geoff]

This car is 100% awesome. My '64 with it's 38hp is fun but a bullnose with more power is a serious smile factory. Any idea how much power it's putting out?

As I remember the engine is a longnose engine with full web crank, monte carlo 3 carb intake with a Porsche tripple carb. What other goodies does it have for power & power transmission?

I feel your pain on the noise. They get even louder when the exhaust runs up over the roof. I have to wear an ear plug in my right ear when I co-drive in Bruce's car and that car has a factory Sport and Rally expansion chamber/muffler, not a highly tuned (and louder) one like I'm sure you have.

Too bad about the melted piston.

[modernbeat]

Geoff, power varies with the air temp, but it's putting out about 95hp on a good cold day with the standard head. We're putting on a Monte Carlo head with this round of refurbishment. You've got the high points on the engine build. Bud Clark did the Stage-3 porting and the assembly. Externally, we used an early GM alternator and a VW bus clutch. We did use a Pertronix, I think from a V6 Pontiac, in the distributor. And have two spares in the parts box in the trunk. The transmission is a mix and match of parts. IIRC, it's got an early, low geared final drive, late two-stroke 4-speed gears and a later V4 ribbed case. It's still running the early style CV joints, Sonett front disc brakes and we adapted a Sonett dual circuit master cylinder the the floor mounted pedals.

[321go]

Love that night pic.