I present to you two terrible iphone videos, lots of dust, and my typical style of commentary (I don't think I dropped an f-bomb though)!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7HWIgnc62U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DY4JI8Djms
So, a bit of backstory behind this perhaps?
For the past FIVE years (roughly) a gentleman that does all sorts of racing (and does a lot with the Edmonton Rally Club) has been trying to get european style rallycross going at Castrol Raceway. He pitched it to the owners as more entertainment for thier not-so-serious race nights (tonight was kind of the mess around night, with ambulance races, bus races, lighting a car on fire with a jet car, etc etc).
A previous exhibition round had been run last year, but there was still some uncertainty about it. So, this year, another exhibition round was ran to see if the crowd (of 5000 people) liked it... and like it they did! Expect three races to happen (one a month) starting in July, ALL in conjunction with other major racing events (big time stock car races or drag races).
Did I race? Nope, cause it was an exhibition and they had some rules stipulated (no bumping, everybody keep together to make it look like tight racing, no running people off the road) so I let Jeff take the wheel for the evening. He needs the practice anyways, so it was win-win.
The car? A 1990-ish Suzuki Swift GTi. Completely stripped on GAB adjustable struts, even has a fibreglass rear hatch, the thing weighs around 1400 pounds with all of the fluids in it! The motor runs crazy strong, shift it at about 8500rpm :D Now, if most of you don't know, I kinda have a thing for Swifts/Fireflys/Sprints/Forsas/Metros, so now you know! We bought this car about a month ago off of the guy previously mentioned who races everything, and it sat in Jeff's backyard until Wednesday.
On Wednesday, I went to the monthly club meeting to check up on everyone and let them know what all of the cool kids were doing down in Calgary. I knew some prior info about the eurostyle rallycross, but I got all the info there.
Jeff was working out of town until Friday evening, so nothing could get done until then. The car (before the race) had broken the strut mounting ear on the cast knuckle completely off. The prior owner (in the knuckles place) put a regular sprint knuckle/hub assembly in (this is important to the story) without a cv axle. I bought a brake line to replace the cut one, a rebuilt caliper, and front brake pads Friday during the day. Got everything setup to work on the car in the driveway.
Jeff gets into town at 7 with his brother John, and we proceed to go get the car. We were originally planning on towing the car to the front of his house as his house is situated like this:
Green box is the Swift, red arrow intended path of travel. Once we got it rolling on the street, we realized the car weighed nothing and we could just push it... until the front driver's wheel started to wobble when the bearing seperated in half and the hub/wheel fell off, turning our crushed in fender into a widebody, with a uninsured/unregistered car sitting in the middle of a busy street. I proceed to grab a jack, affectionately named Jack Bauer... but not really. He can save America in 24 hours, but he sure as f(*k can't lift a car worth E36 M3!
So, I get the car lifted up on the front rad support (love lightweight E36 M3boxes!) and we proceed to move the car via the jack on the front and the rear wheels rolling down the street, dodging all over the place so the itty bitty jack wheels don't get caught in cracks in the old-ass pavement. We dropped the car twice (nicked the oil pan, broke the 02 sensor, and popped the rad off it's mount) but made it to the concrete apron in front of Jeff's house after about 20 odd minutes.
From there, Jeff fashioned a "hold hub assembly together pin" with the ones used to hold the old Tal[hoon]s rear a-arm underbody in place (a hitch pin with a big steel washer on each end) and then we rolled the car up onto his driveway.
You think that is where the fun ends? HELLLLLLLL NO!
We start thrashing on the car, only to discover the previously mentioned hub/knuckle assembly is the dinky one off a non-gti Swift. This stalls us, as we have a non-moveable, non-raceable car in the driveway at midnight with a race at 7pm Saturday evening. We make a desperate email to a friend who is the swift god in Alberta (slightly higher level than me). He actually messages me back at midnight that he has what I need.
I call him in the morning, and Jeff and I head out at 9:30am to drive almost 1 hour from Edmonton to Ponoka (rinse and repeat going back). Get back to Jeff's around 1:30 and proceed to realize the pads, caliper, and brake hose are all in my Sprint back at home. Jeff goes to get the stuff (30 minutes each way through the city) while I continue wrenching. Get a charged battery, the whole knuckle assembly swapped and ready to go, oil change, tranny fluid change, coolant, etc. Jeff finally gets back and we slap the caliper, pads, and brake hose on and then proceed to bleed the brake lines which have no fliud in them at all.
Moment of truth; fire the car up at ~5:15 (have to be at the track before 7 which is 45 minutes away PLUS we need to get gas in the tow truck lol). Runs like a top, even with the missing o2 sensor. Load it up, throw some tools/safety gear into the truck and haul ass.
And the rest is history. Pretty sure this will be going ahead for eurostyle rallycross. Sounds like we are going to get a big preformed engineered concrete culvert (like they use to put tunnels through small ridges) to make a crossover/under jump/tunnel. Racing is open to all road racing/rally/ice racing legal cars/cages. It's not stage rally, but damn if it isn't a good time :D
