Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build

[owdlvr]

Well that was an interesting weekend! To date I've done about 100km worth of testing up on the local forest roads here in Squamish. Switching from an Audi quattro (All-wheel-drive, massive amounts of front end weight ahead of the front axle), to the bug is quite the challenge. I've been getting used to it up on the mountains, though I have to be honest it occasionally catches me out...let it get away from you and it will just spin regardless of what you try :P

Sunday was a local RallyX event though, so it was up at 4:30am and the three hour drive to Hope BC. Unfortunately I didn't wake up to my alarm, and woke up at 6am. Whoops! Lets just say the bug gets real light up front at speed, and I will be starting to look at front spoiler options :P Made it in time for registration, and even early enough to end up tech'ing the other cars. The course we've got out in Hope is pretty tight. Depending on the configuration you can get up into second gear, but it's down to first for most corners. Considering I have the 901 gear box with dog-leg first, and a pretty heavy lockout, dropping down into first gear isn't the easiest proposition. I made the attempt for the gear change on a couple of runs, sacrificing some syncros along the way. After a couple of laps I decided the time lost hunting for first wasn't worth the gain made in second gear along a short section. This, of course, was mostly irrelevant seeing as I was mowing down cones with almost every run. With low momentum I just couldn't get the car to transfer weight under braking, resulting in understeer into corners. When it would transfer it would grab so hard I'd end up taking out the inside cone. Mostly humorous, but frustrating as I wasn't correcting my errors for future runs. Definitely need more play time in the tight stuff if I'm going to do well in RallyX in this car. Oops, isn't that one of the things I built it for? :P





For the afternoon the course was reversed, increasing the overall speeds significantly. For RallyX, however, the 901 as I've got it set just isn't precise enough for the 2-1 shift. Second gear really would have helped coming across the mid section, but I ended up just wailing off the rev-limiter in first. The back section was my arch-nemesis, a missed gate in run one...the same cone mowed down in the next 3 or 4 runs. For the last couple of runs I stopped caring about the back half and just focused on enjoying the first half where the speeds were higher. Figures that on the final run I finally cleaned the afternoon course with no penalties :P

While I wasn't able to link up a single run to my satisfaction, I did have some great "segments" where I was able to pitch and flick the car exactly the way I had planned. Essentially the stuff I had practiced on the forest roads was dialed...now I just need to back it down to some tight stuff and get re-learning for the Rear-Engine 2wd setup. Either that, or I need to find a larger venue so the courses can be faster! I'd love to try the car out on some rally-sprints, where the gear box wouldn't be an issue and you could really work the car over a longer, quicker, section.







As you can see, the course was pretty wet...and the mud accumulation was incredible. After the morning runs...





...end of the day was a bit worse...





Rob was commenting on some different Tin he has to seal up the engine bay better. I think I'm going to take him up on the offer.


Pretty sure this is the first DVKK badge to be treated this way...




So, last night I figured I should start taking care of the cleaning process. I posted this photo up on Facebook with the question "this is normal, right?". #1 comment was the fact that "No Handwashing" definitely means no removing the tires and putting the car on Axle-stands!









...40min of pressure washing later, and I have *most* of the mud off the car. Seriously, the stuff was like concrete. Thankfully a buddy works at Sea to Sky carwash, so I had a semi-sponsorship last night!



I'm not sure how I'm going to get it out of all the fender lips, but I won't leave it in there as it will just hold moisture and cause the fenders to rust. I guess you could say "stage one" of cleaning is complete? I anticipate an other 3 or 4 evenings to get the car clean. One to wash the body with soap and water as per normal, one to work on cleaning out all the fender lips and any missed areas on the underside, one to clean the engine bay and a fourth to clean out the interior. Racin' is hard work! haha

I did have two casualties this weekend while racing. The car performed absolutely flawlessly, and was only hindered by my driving talent and the gear selection. There is something satisfying about tearing the car on the rev-limit knowing you're just running it for exactly what it was built for. Back off? heck no! I may consider trailering the car to the next event, only because there is such limited space for carrying the four gravel tires. The bakelight heater outlet was casualty #1 from loading tires in the back. As we all know, the body needs to be removed if I'm going to replace this. For now I think I'll epoxy the parts back together! (and shhhhh...don't look at those welds)



The second casualty was on the Accusump. Kind of hard to tell, but the tire slipped back and crushed the pressure gauge. The gauge is bent back, and the face is broken. Accusump seems to be working fine still, but I'll need to swap out the gauge for piece of mind.



At the end of the event I was second in 2wd class, and 5th overall. The field was small, however, and based on my driving I have work to do before I would be "happy" with my performance. But honestly, who cares? I built the car to race it, and I was out racing it. That in the end is the important part. I was having a blast, and will look upon all of it's new stone chips with satisfaction. I've now got 6,300km on the build and will be busy scouring the Pacific Northwest for other events. Maybe a track day next so I can avoid the week of cleaning?

-Dave