Monday track day. Far superior to a Monday work day.
Monday track day. Far superior to a Monday work day.
So the SCCA adopted the UTV class about halfway through last year. I hopped aboard right away with the purchase of my YXZ, but only one other UTV guy has joined since then, and he's only attended one event. As a result, I won the season points championship without much struggle. The awards banquet was pretty fun socializing with rally people, and Sunday was a non-points event to prepare for the season.
However, the lack of seat time at these SCCA events is starting to make me question if its worth my effort to attend anymore. There is so. much. time. wasted. at these events, its very frustrating. Show up at the requested 9am, but nobody's on course until 11. Get your cars staged in the grid area, and then watch for 1/2 hour as the designers make adjustments to course and do multiple test runs. dust in the air sets off the timing lights, everything comes to a halt, 4 people get re-runs. I love rally, but I don't love inefficiency. The Firm is hosting a 4 event points series this year and their courses are better and they are way more efficient. I'll be at all 4 Firm events, but I will definitely be missing some of the SCCA events :(
I've never been thrilled with the Chase Bays abs/booster delete kit since day 1. The heavy pedal force needed just takes away some of the confidence in the brakes. Then I realized it's single port master cylinder is pretty dangerous, as a single breach in the brake system renders the entire system useless and no brakes.
I've been putting off this booster project a while because I knew it would be a pain in the ass. And it is. The Mercedes booster is not a perfect fit as the 2010 internet thread lead me to believe. I've had to cut off the Merc plunger/fork and weld on the bmw one. Then I had to dremel out the hole for the master cylinder a bit to get the MC to slide in. But the pieces are slowly coming together.
I invested in a $200 summit brake line flaring tool and it works fantastic! I'm really hoping the boosted brakes will feel nice.
A couple pics from the Firm rallyx last weekend. Took the overall win. Woohoo! They're hosting a 4-event series this year. Winner of each class gets $500 cash! So I'll be shooting for that prize.
A few more racin' pics
A few pics from the last track day. The RS3s were feeling aged out and the brakes developed a shimmy. So new rubber, disks and Hawk dtc60 pads have been added for next time. The hawks are super dusty. Last pic is just after bedding them in.
I've been asked by a few rallycross friends to join their 24 hrs Lemons team for the upcoming Sebring race. Pretty pumped about that! I've never done Lemons and their more casual approach is more appealing to me than what champcar has become in the last few years. The arms race is out of my budget. The team is running a k-powered civic. Looks fun!
Rainy Sunday shop project.
In reply to Lof8 - Andy :
Steal that from your neighbour? Have some spaghetti while you were over there? 
adam525i said:In reply to Lof8 - Andy :
Steal that from your neighbour? Have some spaghetti while you were over there?
Lol. Is this a reference to something? I don't get it, but I did chuckle at the thought of it.
edit: maybe you're referencing a Cooper Bogetti post? My wife said she saw it there but I saw it on one of the garage Facebook groups.
In reply to Lof8 - Andy :
Yeah, that's what I was referencing, he fully admitted to stealing it from somewhere as well (likely that same post). Your execution is better though, I like that it is solid mounted to the shop out of the way with bucket on the floor underneath for easy draining.
That's a great idea!
Love it! Just found out I can rallyX the YXZ, which is what brought me here, to the build. Rules I'm reading say, as wide as tall, so gonna drop her down and maybe change tire size
In reply to thashane :
Nice! The yxz is a rallyx animal! Low and wide are the keys! The Eibach sway bar kit got rid of a lot of body roll. You'll have a blast. I'd suggest a real roll cage too, but if you've been anywhere on the internet, you've already heard that advice.
The Gambler 500 was this weekend. The HooptieX group joined the festivities this year to share their brand of rallyx. The course was pretty brutal and lots of tight technical areas. But there was a 3rd gear/60 mph area. FTD for the Yamaha! A buddy of mine came for his first Gambler and we used his Land Cruiser for the standard trail riding/trash collecting activities. The trails were all too far from home base to try my luck with the Yamaha on the street this year. Great times! Glad to get home for a shower!
ABG! Congrats on the FTD!
How did the brake booster work out? It looks like a nice install
Shavarsh said:How did the brake booster work out? It looks like a nice install
The install was a little more involved than I thought, but I'm very pleased with the result. I no longer have to stand on the pedal to stop and it is a big boost in braking confidence. I've only got one track day since the install, but everything worked great with no issues.
That's great to hear, I'll be adding a booster soon hoping for similar results
Shavarsh said:That's great to hear, I'll be adding a booster soon hoping for similar results
Is your car also an e36?
Flipping through the latest GRM, I see a pic of a good looking e36. Hey wait, it's got bright teal wheels. Hey wait, it's me!! Lol. This pic is close to 2 years old. It's from a Track Night in America at Daytona, this car's first track outing. Very cool to see it in the magazine!
Lof8 - Andy said:In reply to thashane :
Nice! The yxz is a rallyx animal! Low and wide are the keys! The Eibach sway bar kit got rid of a lot of body roll. You'll have a blast. I'd suggest a real roll cage too, but if you've been anywhere on the internet, you've already heard that advice.
I'll have to look into the swaybar. I have most of the roll soaked up with the low speed compression adjustment, but it's not lowered yet.
I know what you mean on the real cage. Problem is I'm 6'8 so the mail order options are limited. I tell myself that Yamaha engineered the frame to flex symbiotically with the stock cage, and when you get a stiff cage, you need to gusset the frame to avoid problems. And I'm also not a big air guy, but I go plenty fast enough to where I need to get a real cage.
In reply to Lof8 - Andy :
No, its a pinto. Hopefully the same boost in braking confidence applies though!
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