It was a beautiful day today so I decided to give the GTI a bath. First step in prepping for new graphics for the Challenge. This is just one round of compound. I'm pretty happy with it so far. Amazing how many scratches will come out when it's a car you don't care a lot about and really put the speed, pressure and passes into the buffer. Good learning for the daily cars that I can be more aggressive with the buffer.
Tire day
Got home from work travel to find my wife contracted the crud while I was gone. Oh no, there is absolutely no time right now to get sick......
I hate that every time I polish headlights I forget to take the before picture...
Had a funny realization last night. In all the times of driving this around the lot, I've never used the seat belt. I held my breath until I heard that click and release to confirm it would latch. Visions of having to add one more thing to the list that luckily didn't come to fruition.
House packed, on the way to the shop to get the car. Can't believe it's That Day already....
Best Western parking lot or bust
Well, it wasn't without drama but I finished. I did it. I almost cried on the drive home. I wanted to do this for so long. I finally forced myself into the opportunity to make it happen June 2023. I made the painful decision to not thrash and skipped 2024. I averted disaster thanks to kind GRM'ers (more on that in another post). I decided to present at the concours and those extra three points really helped in the end. But who cares, I did it....
Before the story, a word on the graphics
I left the two roof stripes as a tribute to MrJoshua's first challenge build in the car. For the main graphics, I chose the four Harlequin Golf colors. The pattern mimicked Alan McCrispin's late 80's E-Stock Wolfsburg Jetta coupe. We were in different classes but he was a good autocross buddy at that time as we chased SEDIV all over the place all summers long. His were on magnets so every week the car had a different look to it as he would shuffle around it tossing magnets.
A little pre-story. Before I removed the engine, I found the positive battery cable was fussy. Sometimes I would turn the key and the dash would go dead. I would tighten the positive cable and all was well. It did it again - once - in December while teaching the son's girlfriend how to drive a manual. She stalled it and it wouldn't restart. Another tighten.
Got to the challenge, unloaded, went to tech, no issues. Time to go to grid, no start. Hopped out, grabbed the 10mm, gave it a turn, heard the solenoids buzz and the key dinging. Hopped in, made it to grid.
The first set of runs were, um, suboptimal. I took the first run during Group A while we were still cleaning gravel, and it was my first autox run in, oh, six years. I then turned it over to Alan for two pro runs. Unfortunately he coned both.
Parked the car (it started just fine 4-6 times during these runs), then got ready to go out for the second set of runs and it wouldn't start again. I went after the battery and this time I saw the clamp move in a funny way. I realized the clamp around the battery terminal was cracked in half. Tried to vice grip it and nothing (there was a reason for this that would appear later on). I went into town. Took three parts stores to find the right style clamp. Came back and unscrewed the two power cables (one to the starter, one to the power junction box) and then realized that the VW part had the mounting stud integrated with the now broken clamp, so the universal wouldn't work. I went back out into town to the only salvage yard listed to hunt for VW's to grab one from, only to find that it is permanently closed and just does recycling during the week now. At this point I felt defeated and basically gave up. As I was driving back, I was making plans for how to maneuver the trailer in front of the car once everyone cleared out for the drag race and winch it onto the trailer. I was so disappointed that I decided I was going back to the hotel to grab my things and just hit the road and head home Saturday. The disappointment was immense.
I got back to the car and a friend/competitor noticed the hood up and asked about it. I told the story and he devised a way to modify the new part and the car to make it all work. I'll cover that part of the story in a separate post because it needs a second post. https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/2000-challenge/the-award-for-spirit-of-the-event-goes-to/277613/page1/
Next thing I know, I've got five people thrashing to refusing to consider defeat an option. I love this village. Got the battery cable done and still no start. Went through the electrical troubleshooting and all seemed well. We tried to push start in and it started fine. They urged me to go get a couple of runs in during the fun runs while the autocross was still open. First run was lousy, second was much better and almost matched Alan's cone time. I was poised for the third run to go a little faster and pick up a little more. I was in line for a third they shut the course down for the day. I lost concentration and killed the car, so it needed another push start. Drove it back to the paddock to continue chasing the problem with the commitment from a dedicated group that they would push start the car however many times were needed to get the drag passes in to complete the day.
At some point I disconnected and jumpered the clutch pedal switch. In the heat of battle I forgot there were two switches, and I jumpered the one that cuts off the cruise when you depress the pedal, not the one that cuts the starter. Tod B had the hunch it was the clutch bypass, quietly went under the dash, found the right switch, pulled my jumper and put it in the proper switch, and presto, car started.
So in the post-mortem, I think the battery cable was cracked but holding on for dear life. I think the clutch switch failed during Alan's third run, we did the handoff and never turned it off after until I parked it. I think that when I went to start it for the second set of runs, I didn't realize that it was a "no start with all the dash lights on" versus the battery "no start and the dash goes blank." I think I panicked in the heat of battle and went to the first failure and that time realized the clamp was cracked. I believe that if I would've gone straight to the clutch switch, the battery clamp likely would've held together to fail fully another day.
This meant that I was able to make it to the drag portion. Made four passes, all within 0.3 as the car needs a shift into fourth before the lights and the rev limiter doesn't just bounce but bogs the car down so extending the rpm wasn't an option for improvement. 16.1@86 is all she got in this configuration.
Did the concourse and enjoyed the time to really look at the cars and talk to the folks there. A lot of screen names became real Sunday morning, and that was special.
Now, time to prepare it for local autocrossing, and keep an eye on the budget for a return next year.
This is an awesome story, and I'm excited for your refinement and return to the grid next year!!
It was great meeting you and seeing the car.
In reply to Stampie :
I "met" you during the Covid Zoom calls but it was very nice to meet you in person.
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