at least the eating injectors seems to be fixed
at least the eating injectors seems to be fixed
Saab sure did a nice job designing Merkur wheels 
In reply to paranoid_android :
They sure did! Some day I'll probably have sn SPG just for E36 M3s and giggles, but until then that's all they made them for- wheel donors.
Put the car on the lift:
Nothing is broken other than the power steering hose- not even any bolts loose. Amazing. Check out the fix that got me through day 2 of the rallycross on about 1 qt of power steering fluid:
And the batteries, from left to right- old faithful, new and weak, and newer and hopefully just as faithful as the old Optima: 
Since the car isn't really broken, we signed up for NEFR. Which is in 2 weeks. Oh boy this is going to be something...
Anybody available to crew?
In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
Damnit. I'll be returning from a visit to see my ailing aunt in WNC (and to finally drive on the Dragon) that weekend and probably heading back to NH on the 20th.
Drove the car a little more and it seems happy. I may replace the catalytic converter before NEFR since it seems like the current one might be a little plugged up after all of the injector stupidity- the exhaust seems to throw more heat into the car than it used to.
759NRNG said:Chris .....has the XR4TI tired you and Sarah out, or are you two in for the long haul(wheels fall off)???
I forgot to respond to this- we want to build something that is really ours, no more "well this is fine because it's what the last person ran with." That may still mean tearing the XR4Ti to pieces and replacing everything we don't like, but it may also mean getting an entirely different vehicle to start with. Not sure yet, but I bet NEFR will help make that decision.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:Since the car isn't really broken, we signed up for NEFR. Which is in 2 weeks. Oh boy this is going to be something...
See ya there! Working on my own XR at home, but I'll be Co-driving in one of the ODD Fiestas. Will be great to see it back out there.
In reply to TXratti :
Very cool, come say hi when you see us! Or maybe I'll ask all the fiesta teams who has a merkur at home 
Replaced cat:
Car is louder now so I'm going to say this one is less restrictive, I can see some plugged up cells in the old one. Just a few little things to button up then it's time to pack!
Is there a reason you have a cat? With it being so far from the engine, does it actually heat up enough to function?
In reply to Ian F :
Rules say we need one. The core glows after a few WOT pulls so it definitely does something, although how much it actually helps is anyone's guess.
Ian F said:Is there a reason you have a cat? With it being so far from the engine, does it actually heat up enough to function?
Rally cars have to be street legal. Which means "if it was made with a cat, it has to have a cat." I guess the really old cars that didn't have cats don't have to have them....
ARA graphics applied, and did a test run to breakfast. It's as good as it's gonna be!
Sweet!! Good luck
Send it.
(as if anyone needs to tell YOU that)
It looks like ARA will offer live updates via their app (I hope).
paranoid_android said:It looks like ARA will offer live updates via their app (I hope).
They do, but I'd give it 50-50 they actually work lol. Even ARA's entry list for NEFR on its site is freaking 2 weeks old. One of these days a rally organization will get its live/multimedia E36 M3 together.........(I mean, NASA Rally pretty much did, but it seems to be on the way out....)
Packing...
We're here, registered, and hopefully ready for recce tomorrow.
We've already been warned about "interesting" conditions on one of the stages, this should be fun!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:We're here, registered, and hopefully ready for recce tomorrow.
We've already been warned about "interesting" conditions on one of the stages, this should be fun!
bring a lot of caffeine with you tomorrow. seriously. The transits are really, really long.
Between the ARA app and Facebork I’ll be keeping an eye out for updates
I'm sad I'm missing NEFR this year. Are you going to run ESPR? I'll be there
Are you able to view the stages google map style berforehand ?
In reply to 759NRNG :
In the ARA app? I believe so, but don’t remember exactly.
Driving through Pleasant valley a week ago I saw a loaded trailer and rig parked out front. Everyone should be prepared and loaded up in advance like that, very good beginning. So now the event is over, how did you finish????
New England Forest Rally 2019
Arrival/Recce
We signed up for NEFR with only 2 weeks to go- this meant that none of our friends could make it to act as crew, and we were basically on our own. Some of the New England e30 guys (specifically Downey/Peplinski and Brolin/Dennis) volunteered their own team members, but we really didn't know what to expect. So we loaded everything up, drove 10 hours (stopping in Cape Porpoise for a lobster roll), and arrived at the service park at Sunday River as the sun set. Tarps were deployed, spots were set up, and introductions were made. We needed to unload Chief anyway since we had no other vehicle to use for recce the next day:
Bright and early the next morning, we set off for recce, struggling to keep up with Downey and Brolin in their WRXs. Once we went off the pavement, though, the odds seemed to favor our tall, high clearance vehicle choice a bit more:
For those who are unfamiliar, recce is a prerun of all of the rally stages, and you're generally not allowed to use your rally car. It's actually more tiring than the race itself, since there is two way traffic to watch out for and you're constantly passing notes and feedback between driver and codriver. While we were out, Dan Boudria got the car through tech, including adding roll cage padding where needed for us and running the e30s through tech as well.
NEFR is known for having big rocks sticking out of the road, a fact which was really driven home when Costa/Symancek annihilated their VW's oil pan on a rock only a couple miles in. Since we had our tow rig anyway, we flat towed them the rest of the way out of that stage before continuing on:
The rest of recce was largely uneventful, but extremely long and somewhat uncomfortable since Chief's air conditioning gave up the ghost about a week ago. We did cross paths with both Solberg and Higgins a few times, but left them alone since we're all in this together and they don't need people getting all starstruck while they're trying to race. Towards the end, we also missed a route change and did some pretty gnarly offroading through a collapsed culvert and some washouts- Chief was a champ and had no issues though. Then it was back to the service park to prep the car for the next day:
Also in the e30/Merkur service area was Jesse's glorious school bus/camper/service vehicle:
And the rest of the service park had some pretty cool stuff too:
And the official e30 group service vehicle? A freaking JDM Kei truck:
We got the car ready, and left to get some food and some sleep. As usual, Sara was ready and I was a little preoccupied with all the stuff that might be about to go wrong:
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