Dirtydog (Forum Supporter) said:Very happy for you. Glad to see you had such fun with a fairly limited outlay of $$ and labor. This might have been the recipe to renew your inspiration on the other Volvo. Good luck.
The 1800ES? Yeah, that was just put on hold for a bit while I hurried to get this 122 ready to rallycross. I was out in the garage last night back welding at the ES...
This past Saturday, July 10th, the Susquehanna Region SCCA held its "Cone-mas in July" Rally-X event. Since that day also happened to be my birthday, I was easily able to convince Mrs. VCH that running the rallycross would be a "perfect" birthday present. I'd been using the little blue Volvo 122 for occasional recreational transportation since the event last August, and it seemed to be running well. I'd rebuilt the carburetors and replaced the leaking fuel tank, running brand new line in the process. The Firestones still had lots of tread. Really, all I had to do was pay my entry fee and show up with a helmet. Couldn't be simpler!
To add to the fun, I'd convinced our new LeMons team member (who lives about an hour away) to run the rallycross with me. He'd never run one before, and to add to excitement, he'd never driven a Volvo 122 before. It's possible he'd never even seen an Amazon in person until meeting me. Or even heard of it.
Since the Volvo was going to be getting twice as much of a workout being dual-driven, and I'd already done the "drive-rally-drive home" bit with it last year, I decided to trailer it to the event. Hey, I'm turning a year older, wiser, and more conservative.
The non-rally tires are still on it, and it's not yet numbered. This was Friday, and there had been some trailer-related hassles. I loaded up the Volvo, tossed the rally tires and a roll of painter's tape into the truck, and decided to call all that Saturday's problem.
After a hearty breakfast at the Peachtree Restaurant in Harrisburg (seriously, corned beef hash 'n eggs with toast for under $7? How can you go wrong? The chicken n' waffles were apparently pretty good, too.) we headed for the Elmerton lot 5 minutes away. We got regg'd and situated, and I proceeded to swap on the "rally tires" (Firestone Winterforce on 14" wagon wheels) while my co-driver numbered the car. Or, at least, tried to.
Numburz r hurd.
Next up was tech inspection. The scrutineer didn't have too much heartburn with anything, except that the passenger steering rod link seemed to have a "concerning" amount of play in it. He agreed to let us run it, provided we let him check it after each run to ensure it wasn't getting significantly worse. He was sympathetic to the fact that getting a replacement part in short order would be a difficult feat...
Nevertheless, immediately after tech I was on the horn to Mrs. VCH, directing her through my private horde of Volvo parts, to the blue plastic bin where I remembered the spare new tie rods to be. Since she's a car girl, she knew what to look for (the long skinny things under the boxes of shock absorbers!) and she grabbed all of them and tossed them in her Suburban (along with the kids, and a cooler full of food) and headed off on the hour and change ride to the course.
This event was set up a bit differently from others; they split all the drivers up into 2 run groups. One group ran in the morning, and the other after lunch. We were in the afternoon group. My personal tie rod courier arrived shortly before the lunch break, so we swapped in the new part while chowing down some sandwiches. The tech scrutineer was blown away and gave serious kudos to the hero of the weekend, Mrs. VCH, for bringing us the part.
The cool thing about rallycross is, the course is never the same from event to event (and even from one run to the next). This feature can be somewhat maddening to both drivers and course workers. Last August's races were marked by heat and dust- dust so bad that a mask was required when out on the field. The race last weekend, by juxtaposition, was held right after some pretty monsoonal rains. There was standing water at a couple of places- one of which, at Corner 4, we named "The Upper Pond" (or "Elmerton Lake and Palmer, for fans of 70's bands...). This was my work assignment for the morning, and fortunately I wore water-proof boots, as I was fishing cones out of the muck the entire time.
A few cars came to a complete stop at the gate before motoring through. Others crashed right into the gate, wiping out 5 or 6 cones at one swoop. Complaints were coming in from drivers about the cone setup- which was frustrating to us working the corner, rushing to replace cones in the 30 or 40 seconds in between drivers blasting through and knocking them over again. Finally, we made some course adjustments, and the drivers found a sort-of-okay line through, and the cone carnage subsided.
Around 12:30 the first run group was done, so we headed back to the pits to swap out the tie rod end and have some grub. Around 1 we queued up- it was time for the Amazon to hit the dirt...
I know y'all just want to see pictures of the Amazon in action. Here's a link to the excellent photography of Christopher Cross:
I was number 43; my co-driver was #143, so you can critique our driving separately. 
This is so awesome. You are inspiring me to get out to another rallyx. It's been a coupla years.
In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :
Thanks. Yeah, I'd been out of rally crossing for a few years, and got motivated to get back into it last fall. I'm going to try to get the 122 fixed up and do one more this year. My co-driver is pretty enthusiastic about heading back out to sling some dirt around, too. He's offered to come help work on the car, too. 
This thing looks killer out on the RallyX course. But changing your avatar is really gonna throw me off.
In reply to buzzboy :
Its the same car, just 7 years later!
This is great!
Way to go Mrs. VCH!
I was running the Green & White Impreza hanging out next to you in the parking lot - It was great to see that old Swede out getting run hard for Rallycross! I also feel bad for you running to grab all the cones in the lake section of the course, I was down stream by the finish where everyone nailed one of the corner markers almost every run but at least it wasn't muddy.
In reply to Nitroracer (Forum Supporter) :
Hey man! Yes, great meeting and talking with you. I could see the finish gate from the lake at Corner 4, and a lot of cars did hit cones there. I didn't mind chasing cones too much; it beats sitting around doing nothing for 2 hours.
Looking forward to seeing the results and how we fared.
Realize I forgot to update this with a post-rally-x recap. First, good news: I won my class! And, my co-driver took second! Pretty easy to place 1-2 when you have the only car in your class. 
The old Volvo, by Colin Chapman's theory, turned out to be a "perfect racecar". Which is to say, it pretty much broke at the checkered. After the last of the 8 or 10 total runs, my co-driver was idling it over to the trailer and noted the shifter was in a weird position, and the steering pulled hard to one side.
Both motor mounts had sheared clean off; the engine was sitting cocked sideways in the engine compartment. As for the second picture, the driver's side upper control arm had pulled out of one of its mounts, giving some severe caster on that side. While the Pit Crew looked on, I loaded up the banged up Amazon and we headed home to change and head out for a post-race celebratory dinner at my favorite brewery.
The next day, some post-race damage assessment...
We'd broken a few exhaust hangers about halfway through our runs, and the field-improvised repair was holding up, but barely.
The engine dislocation had tugged on the lower radiator hose, bending the radiator outlet. Seeing as how this radiator had never been touched in the decade or so I've owned this car, I'm planning on just replacing it.
I tried tightening the UCA bolts on the driver's side, but they wouldn't go- I guess the bolts stripped out the holes. So, the engine's gotta come out so I can repair the stripped out holes in the crossmember. Just as well, since the engine mounts all need replacing.
The "To-Do Before The Next Rally-X List", in its current, ambitious state:
I have never tried rally cross that looks like a ton of fun!!!
Love that photo of it sitting on the trailer. Such a photogenic car.
My 122 was prepped in the UK for vintage rallies and has safety-wire loops between upper and lower engine mounts that should prevent the engine flying around problem.
I can post pix if helpful and legal for your rallies.
In reply to paddygarcia :
Yes, would absolutely appreciate said pix. I checked the rules book and I don't see anything such a modification would conflict with. Generally speaking, anything that makes the car safer and does not improve performance is fine. That being said, I did some research and found that the right side engine mount from a Volvo 240 is nearly identical to the 122's left and right mounts. And the Diesel 240's used a heavier-duty version. So I ordered two of those, will post pictures when I get them in.
There was also a modification that I've seen that adds a piece of steel mounted to the top of the engine, going over to the inner fender, and attaching to the inner fender with another engine mount. The OEM engine mounts are attached to the very bottom of the engine, this added mount limits movement to the top of the engine, reducing the forces imparted to the lower mounts.
Here's a pic. You can see the wire, and also the 164 mounts which are available from Tasca. They're not invincible, the driver's side was broken when I got the car. I've seen the 3rd mount somewhere (maybe turbobricks?) and it makes sense. I do wonder if it could be considered to improve performance by getting power to the wheels sooner, like a torque strap.
The final rally-x of the 2021 season for our region is October 23rd, and so a couple of weeks ago I started making preparations to breathe life back into the beleagured blue Amazon.
Step 1: Remove Engine.
I think that picture ought to be the GRM version of the "well, that escalated quickly" meme.
All right, engine out, let's see what we've got:
Rust, grease, broken parts, and broken dreams. And an ever-growing pile of Volvo B-series engines.
If you want more non-running B series I've got some hot parts for that cheaty rallyX car.
buzzboy said:If you want more non-running B series I've got some hot parts for that cheaty rallyX car.
I didn't realize you hadn't liquidated all that yet. We'll have to work out some logistics.
The first thing to get fixed, once the B18 was benched, was the driver's side UCA mount that had stripped. I windowed the cross member and welded two nuts on the backside of the UCA mounting plate. Only one hole was stripped, but it was sort of trivial to do 2 nuts as opposed to 1 while I was in there already. So I went in for both nuts.
And then welded the cross member back up, and shot it with my universal can of light gray paint. The arrow indicates the hole that was stripped, for future reference.
Now we can add new bushings and put the whole suspension back together again!
i know an exhaust guy nearby... :p
malibuguy said:i know an exhaust guy nearby... :p
I do have some exhaust repairs to do, but seeing as how we're 2 weeks from the race and I'm trying to get a bunch of other stuff fixed, I think this may end up being another quick and dirty homebrew pipe job. I don't want to put you in the position of dropping it off and needing it done that day.
*cough* LS *cough*
In reply to SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) :
This is a Volvo, you only remove the engine when it is in the way of some other repair, like the upper control arm mounts that failed 40 years ago the first time
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