No....not another lame attempt at verbose fiction. (Was that a collective sigh of relief I heard?
) Just wanted to share my impressions at my first time Challenge. And maybe pass along my experience to encourage thos sitting on the fence thinking about entering.
First, a big thank you to the GRM staff for putting on this unique and thoroughly enjoyable event. You guys really busted you hump and it showed.
Second, a big thanks and nod of appreciation to all the participants. In my ^^cougn cough** 50 years as a motorsports spectator and participant, I have never met a more fun, eclectic, welcoming and creative group of gearheads. I can honestly say I only met one shiny happy person. And if you're wondering if it was you, it definitely was not. The shiny happy person does not have the insight to realize how shiny and happy he truly is.
And thanks to those of you who signed my roof panel. If we chop up the car in the future it will have a special place on my shop wall.
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In particular I'd like to thank JohnWelsh, SVREX and pimpim3 for answering all my questions by phone prior to the event. Hey guys, why did you all change your phone numbers??? And for those of you considering the event, rest assured virtually any build is welcomed not matter how basic as long as you're having fun, Provided it has no more than 17% plywood and PVC content.
I'd be remiss if I didn't thank my co-builder and partner in crime, Larry Taylor (Flem 3), for his tireless efforts at reconstructing an old car drug out of a pond and helping an old, stroke addled lawyer bring it back to life. I also need to thank Greg Smith, a poster on the corvetteforum.com, who took the time providing us with countless hours of online advice and volumes of PDF wiring diagrams to help us resurrect the ancient fuel injection system from the ravages of a 27 year journey at the hands of god know how many peckerwood backyard mechanics. He is a veteran C4 autocrosser and we will be meeting him face to face for the first time when comes down from Virginia to join us at an event in Columbus AFB, Mississippi.
I'll try to keep future posts short to offer those sitting on the fence encouragement and advice from a first timer.
To paraphrase that famous mercenary: WE'LL .BE BACK
This just made my day. Can't wait to see you both again in a year. 
I miss the people every bit as much as the competition. I'm going to try to make it happen in '17.
First and foremost I have no delusions that I am an expert on the challenge...just wanting to share my experience as a novice and encourage others to give it a go.
First suggestion....if you can swing it go to the event just to spectate. The event is plenty of fun and if you're willing and offer nicely many teams will let you join in helping with the event. Case in point, Pete Gossett posted on here he was willing to help out at his first event as a non-entrant. Since he was from our home state we invited him to join our team even though we had never met him in person. Pete jumped right in and helped us on the morning of the event get the car ready for tech. And he did a few stints at driving our car and set the best non-pro time in our car. Thanks, Pete!
If you do want to give a go with your own build, John Welsh gave us probably the best advice: KEEP YOUR FIRST BUILD SIMPLE...DON'T TRY TO GO OVER THE TOP RADICAL. To that end I would suggest build something you're familiar with. More on that later. But if you do decide to enter a car, get it done in time to do a little autocross and drag race testing. We made this mistake. Didn't get the car done in time to test. And transmission woes that we might have discovered ahead of time reared their head and kept us from finishing better although we were pleased we finished in the top half and were tickled.
Most cars look better in the photos in the magazine than in person. Don't be intimidated how nice the cars look in the magazine. Although the magazine pictures don't reveal all the "patina" some cars actually look better in real life than the photos show...to wit, Andrew Nelsons yellow VW Bug and Aussie Steve's MGB hot rod...stunning in real life. And Jeremy's (pimpim3) parking lot build ghettocet looks much better in person...what they did with rattle can olive drab paint was pretty amazing. Don't let Jerremy fool you ha built this car in 24 hours....it was moe like 15 1/2 hours!
In reply to Ovid_and_Flem:
Thank you for instilling in me an appreciation for Honeysuckle flavored Vodka.
Lets do it again next year!
JohnRW1621 wrote:
In reply to Ovid_and_Flem:
Thank you for instilling in me an appreciation for Honeysuckle flavored Vodka.
Lets do it again next year!
Definitely....only this time I won't drop and break a bottle poolside
patgizz
UltimaDork
10/10/16 12:52 p.m.
AngryCorvair wrote:
I miss the people every bit as much as the competition. I'm going to try to make it happen in '17.
you're welcome to join us if you don't have a ride. we're trying to figure out how to get multiple cars there next year.
In reply to patgizz:
I see myself as attending next year but not campaigning my own. Keep me in the loop.
I may be speaking out of turn here, but one possibility for prospective entrants is to enter the Exhibition class. Say you have a build that's a little bit over the budget. I'm sure if its in the spirit of the event for low buck builds such as a lemons car or perhaps your vintage autocrosser/bracket car, think about entering it. My guess is that it would be welcome provided its not some $25,000.00 National champ ASP car or a $50,000.00 dragster. Especially if you've made some interesting mods/home fabrication. And let's face it....winning's not everything. In fact at the end of the day it's really about the people you meet and the overall experience lest you think John Force signing you to drive his funny car or Carl Haas is looking for drivers for his F1 program at the Challenge.
Also consider picking up that CL mostly stock $1000 find, clean it up and do a little tuning and come have some low bucks fun. One team entered a $250 CL car and were having a ball with their low bucks entry. It was pretty natty with grandma's sofa fabric as a hood wrap.
JohnRW1621 wrote:
In reply to patgizz:
I see myself as attending next year but not campaigning my own. Keep me in the loop.
B & S still owes you some seat time if we can get the damn thing sorted!!!
Like I suggested earlier, largely based on advice of veterans, keep it simple and build something you're familiar with. For me that eliminated front wheel drive as I haven't a clue how to make a FWD work. And RX7's since rotaries escape my extremely basic automotive lack of knowledge. I've built 4 Datsun 240z IT road ace cars. But one that not totally trashed was difficult to find in challenge budget territory. Esoteric engine swaps are far beyond my skill set. Since I had some basic knowledge of 'murican V8s and since I live in rural southeast I figured maybe an abandoned S10 with a v8 swap project that someone else has done the heavy lifting might be a good place to start. Still no joy....everything I looked at was either trash or pricey o both. Usually both.
that's when I stumbled across the piece of e36 M3 vette. As you may know I've spun a yarn about the IHOP sinkhole find. In reality the real story is probably better than my fictitious one.
FROM OUR BUILD BOOK:
Many folks are wondering who or what the heck is going on with the Bolus & Snopes entry. Well we’ve certainly had fun on the forum and hope that you enjoyed our shenanigans at least a little. Bolus and Snopes was a very real race team in the late 60’s that was established by William Jeannes and Samuel Scott while attending Milsaps college in Jackson Mississippi over martinis one sultry afternoon. Jeannes would go on to rise to the position of editor and publisher for Car and Driver magazine. Scott became an attorney in Mississippi who practiced until his death last year. I won’t belabor the point but their attitude was somewhat raucous. Though the were very serious about racing, they were more serious about enjoying life. I personally am acquainted with both men as they are/were my neighbors in Mississippi. To get a feel for the whole philosophy of Bolus and Snopes, take time to read the 1973 Spots Illustrated article at the end of this build book. Suffice to say in their day both men would fit right in with the GRM crowd.
Our Build
I came across this old Corvette in Louisville, Mississippi behind a fellow attorney’s office. It had sat dormant for over two years. It was a mechanical victim of a tornado that struck this east-central town that took 10 human victims. It was in a repair shop when then tornado hit blowing the roof of the shop off. A large roof mount a/c unit land on the tail end of the car which was found over a quarter of a mile from the repair shop half submerged in a pond... Litigation ensued over who’s insurance company would pay for the obviously totaled car: The car owner or the shop. Ultimately the insurance carriers settle the matter and nobody wanted the forlorn old plastic gal. So she sat behind this lawyer’s office. Ulmately the owner traded it to a lay minister of a non-denominational church in exchange for house painting Sister Versie was owed by the owner. She thought it would be an easy car to flip but not even the junkyards wanted it.
Foolishly I purchased the car not running for $500 with the thought of building a vette kart or other such nonsense. I figured I could at least part it out. But diver’s window and rear hatch were shattered and passenger side of windshield was cracked but still useable. And 27 years of peckerwood mechanic has cobbled it into an electrical mess. So my buddy and I threw caution to the wind and dove in. Then I told him about the challenge and we figured we had nothing better to do. We’re both old geezers and knew nothing about “modern” 27 y.o. auto electronics. And the car fought us hard all the way like she was mad to be awakened from he slumber. Rather try to build a car specifically for the challenge, we built this old girl with an eye to be legal in some autocross class where we could have fun even if we weren’t competitive. So with that in mind the car can run in CAM S after we were through with the challenge. Competitive? No. Fun? Oh yeah. And true to the CAM classes, the car is titled, registered, insured and pretty legal for street use in Mississippi.
Looks like you had some kind of cut/paste error. This should be what you intend...
Ovid_and_Flem wrote:
FROM OUR BUILD BOOK:
Many folks are wondering who or what the heck is going on with the Bolus & Snopes entry. Well we’ve certainly had fun on the forum and hope that you enjoyed our shenanigans at least a little. Bolus and Snopes was a very real race team in the late 60’s that was established by William Jeannes and Samuel Scott while attending Milsaps college in Jackson Mississippi over martinis one sultry afternoon. Jeannes would go on to rise to the position of editor and publisher for Car and Driver magazine. Scott became an attorney in Mississippi who practiced until his death last year. I won’t belabor the point but their attitude was somewhat raucous. Though the were very serious about racing, they were more serious about enjoying life. I personally am acquainted with both men as they are/were my neighbors in Mississippi. To get a feel for the whole philosophy of Bolus and Snopes, take time to read the 1973 Spots Illustrated article at the end of this build book. Suffice to say in their day both men would fit right in with the GRM crowd.
Our Build
I came across this old Corvette in Louisville, Mississippi behind a fellow attorney’s office. It had sat dormant for over two years. It was a mechanical victim of a tornado that struck this east-central town that took 10 human victims. It was in a repair shop when then tornado hit blowing the roof of the shop off. A large roof mount a/c unit land on the tail end of the car which was found over a quarter of a mile from the repair shop half submerged in a pond... Litigation ensued over who’s insurance company would pay for the obviously totaled car: The car owner or the shop. Ultimately the insurance carriers settle the matter and nobody wanted the forlorn old plastic gal. So she sat behind this lawyer’s office. Ulmately the owner traded it to a lay minister of a non-denominational church in exchange for house painting Sister Versie was owed by the owner. She thought it would be an easy car to flip but not even the junkyards wanted it.
Foolishly I purchased the car not running for $500 with the thought of building a vette kart or other such nonsense. I figured I could at least part it out. But diver’s window and rear hatch were shattered and passenger side of windshield was cracked but still useable. And 27 years of peckerwood mechanic has cobbled it into an electrical mess. So my buddy and I threw caution to the wind and dove in. Then I told him about the challenge and we figured we had nothing better to do. We’re both old geezers and knew nothing about “modern” 27 y.o. auto electronics. And the car fought us hard all the way like she was mad to be awakened from he slumber. Rather try to build a car specifically for the challenge, we built this old girl with an eye to be legal in some autocross class where we could have fun even if we weren’t competitive. So with that in mind the car can run in CAM S after we were through with the challenge. Competitive? No. Fun? Oh yeah. And true to the CAM classes, the car is titled, registered, insured and pretty legal for street use in Mississippi.
