On thursday at about 7:30am. Well, it felt like a weekend for me at least. The first order of the day was to take the Race Car up to Pemberton for its inspection. The car is still registered in Ontario, and has to go through two inspections before I can license and insure it here. No big deal, this car is probably in better shape then most street cars!

The drive to Pemberton is about 90km of twisty mountain road…but first to have to fight the traffic through to Whistler. Once you’ve hit Whistler it’s smooth sailing for the next 25min to Pemberton. I was heading to Pemby so early because I had to have the inspection done and get back to Whistler in time to have a meeting at work. Why jam my schedule so tight? Well, I figured it would be fun to take the car out to Silverstar with us this weekend. A good 1500+ km shakedown trip. I was thinking that, until I actually drove the car.

There are no problems with it, besides the brakes needing to be bled again. Nope, no problems. Just a big change in how the car behaves.

For starters, it’s loud. With the factory tubular header, a muffler and resonator the exhaust is still loud enough that Warwick can hear me from a street or two away…and that’s me just cruising. Step on it, and the car is so loud I was sure the cops were going to come looking for me in their helicopter. I need to get it sound-tested for sure.

Next up was the way it rattles. The door panels have been lightened, the windows stripped, every brace/nut/bolt that isn’t needed removed…and what you’re left with is a car that shakes and rattles over every bump. They aren’t structural “it’s going to fall apart” rattles…it’s the type of squeak or vibration noise you’d be taking your regular car to the dealer and saying “FIX THIS!!”. The fact that the engine is mounted on super-stiff mounts means these rattles are constant…the engine basically rumbles the entire car, all the time.

It’s hot. There is no air-flow in the car, at all. I should be used to this one, it’s always been hot. But it always had windows that went down…a little 6″ square doesn’t do much for air-flow!!

I hadn’t even hit Whistler before I was sending a text to Warwick that said the car is no longer ’streetable’ as a driver. Nope, it’s definitely a race car now. And, can I really complain?

HECK NO!

The new engine is bloody amazing! It pulls about the same as the old engine from idle to 3500rpm. Somewhere between 3500 and 4200rpm it decides it REALLY wants to go somewhere and keeps pulling HARD until the rev-limiter kicks in. This car HAULS now. It’s an absolute blast to play with, if you aren’t worried about going deaf inside it

The scoops I popped in the rear quarters actually do work. Starting at about 40kph you get a nice cool breeze blowing down on the back of your neck or head. It does a tonne for keeping you cool. Not completely comfortable, but much better then you’d think!

Lastly, in comparison to the street car, this thing is pretty dialed. You can’t take a hand off the steering wheel unless you’re _really_ paying attention to whats going on. Twitch just a bit, and it twitches with you. With the new mounts, throttle response is instant. There is no delay while the engine twists into its mounts, and no delay before compression braking kicks in when you lift. Shifts are super precise as well.

I cannot WAIT to get this car out on a track. It’s going to be an absolute riot.

-Dave

I’ve been a little busy/pre-occupied this past month…

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So I completed the ‘Scoooooooooooooooooops!!’ (official name) on the side of the car. I actually got these from a friend Nate. They’ll be used to get a little fresh air and cooling to the driver and co-driver because it’s bloody hot riding in a car with no windows or insulation!

At the very least, they’ll help keep me cooler on the way to and from events.

First up was the new Lexan quarter windows. These will have two 3″ holes cut into them, now that I’ve been to Princess Auto and bought the 3″ hole-saw I needed!

The side Scooooooops!, now in place…from a few angles.

The real exciting part, though, is that I finally got the engine parts I need to build up a new 20v engine. Yeah, looks rough but they always do before you start assembling them…

-Dave

This is the trim piece I need. It sits at the front of the quarter window. The trick to removing them (assuming some bonehead didn’t glue them on like mine) is to slide a flat-bladed screwdriver in from the back and slowly work and pry the trim piece off.

It pushes straight into a metal slot, so basically sliding a screwdriver in and slowly working it out from the car is the trick. D-side on my car was glued on, and shattered when I pulled it. The P-side came off reusable, but half of the mounting strip broke off in the car.

If you could pull a left and right for me, you’d be saving me $24.95 a piece!

-Dave

(Just for the record - You’re looking at full lexan windows and interior door panels…done tonight)

About 18 months ago I stopped referring to my ‘89 90q as ‘the rally car’ and instead started using ‘the rally project’. A small change in title, but a big change in perception…at least for me. I had gotten to the point where I realized the car wasn’t what I had hoped it would be. At that point it was tired. Mechanically tired, everything that had been modified was rushed and it was in need of a lot of work. Realizing where the car was at, and where it should be at, I took it off the road in December. I rented shop space with a lift and proceeded to only get about 1/4 of the work I wanted to get done, done. But I had done a great deal of work getting the mechanicals up to a reliably race-able standard. I can still feel the pride I had when Alon commented that I “the car looks great” the first night I brought it back out to our Starbucks meets. I had a blast this past summer doing Autocrosses with Doug, a track day with my close Toronto car friends and of course driving across the country in it without a single problem. I always wanted to drive my ‘rally’ Audi across the country, and it was a heck of a lot of fun to do so. But the rally project was still just a project…lots of work was needed.

When I parked the car in the garage three weeks ago, I had it in my mind to do a few things that would ‘touch up’ the car to make it a little better. I was going to fix the cage, paint the inside and touch up some wiring that no-one ever sees (but bugs the crap out of me). Things sort of snowballed a little, and I dug in deeper. Then Warwick stepped in.

This weekend, saturday I think it was, we were standing over the car. I had finally got the plumbing sorted for the brakes so I could pull the ABS unit (a good 5-10lbs easy) and was rhetorically asking Warwick if I should plumb all the lines inside the car. I knew the answer was yes, but a yes answer requires buying brake lines…which means the car has to sit longer while I figure out how to pay for said brake lines We then had a deep philisophical talk about the Audi.

The conclusion of our conversation was that I have the garage space, and I have the time, why not finally get the car to where it _should_ be. I think Warwick’s exact comment was why not take the time to turn the car into something that I’m proud of? I knew he was right, but I think it took the last two days to fully sink in. The thing is, I’m way too attached to that car (just ask my dad), so why not make it something that I can be proud of.

It’s not that I really care what any of you think of it, it’s just that it should be something that refects who I am…and a half finished ‘project’ is not me. Well, okay, it probably is me…but it’s not who I aspire to be

To this end, we went over the car and addressed the major issues of the car that I hadn’t already covered or made plans to cover. The car needs more power, enough to make going out on the track fun again. The car needs better suspension and the car needs better rally protection underneath. There is a perfectly valid argument for better brakes too, but I haven’t solved this problem or the suspension yet.

For now, we solved the problem of the power thanks to my other car, the black stallion. The stallion needs a motor desperately…and the rally car needs to lose one. So, we’re making a switch. This leaves the rally car without a power-plant…and you’re not going fast without one! After a few hours of debate back and forth I decided on replacing the non-turbo 10-valve engine, with a non-turbo 20-valve engine. 160hp instead of 130, but the engine I bought has been cammed giving it (we estimate) about 170hp. This engine is the backbone needed to head upwards of 600 horsepower too, if I ever find a winning lottery ticket

For the skid plates, I’ll get Rocket Rally to build an all-new front skid plate for the car, one that actually protects the full rad and doesn’t suck up into the oil-pan. I’ll move the front skidplate to the rear of the car, to protect the rear diff. Still to figure out is the brakes and the suspension, but I’ve been working up some ideas.

At this point the whole front end has been torn off the car, and the engine is only connected by a couple of tranny bolts. 10min and an engine lift and it will be free from the car.

The real fun, however, is that everything that’s being done to the car is being done right. I’m taking the time to do it as well as we would for ACP’s championship-winning Evo. Once this car finally leaves the driveway it will no longer be the 90q rally project. Finally I’ll be able to refer to it as the rally car and have a good reason for doing so.

-Dave

Back in October I wrote this piece on the trouble with race cars. I highlighted the difficulty of not having enough power or enough braking, and some solutions for fixing it. The solutions involve two costs (which is the trouble); time and money. I wrote quite a bit about the money, but didn’t really highlight the time involved.

One of the beauties of having the house in Squamish is the garage. Have I blogged enough about the garage? I could live in there if I had to…though cooking with a propane torch would lose it’s appeal quickly. The second beauty of living in Squamish is I’ve been able to slow life down enough that I have a fair bit of time on my hands. Of course, I have no money to spend on the car, but I have lots of time.

What’s a car guy to do?

Oh, I dunno…pull the car into the garage and maybe do a tiny bit of work on it? What happens when a tiny bit of work snowballs? Hmmm…you get this:
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I definitely don’t think I’ve got enough. For the record, four of these are Warwick’s.

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One of the reasons I thought this was a good place to move was the garage out back. It’s about 2.5 cars small, and wired. What else could I ask for?

When I got here, it was a little tight… With four of us and all our gear, plus the prep for a few road trips and a rally it got even tighter. Last week, just before leaving for california I had trouble figuring out where I was going to put my bike box. It got that tight.

Now, I’ll admit I’m not the most organized of individuals usually. Most of the time I feel like I’ve got too much gear for the space involved…and this garage was feeling like it was bursting at the seams. Knowing that I had to do some work to the cars I was determined to make enough space to pull a car in.

I started yesterday, and moved stuff around until I got the red car in and did the repairs needed. But, after getting wickedly frustrated with the car (long story…maybe another blog post) I got to thinking…my grandfather could do it, why can’t I?

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My brain has officially made the switch to Squamish. When someone asks me about “home”, I’m thinking here…not Toronto. Apparently, however, that might not be appreciated by everyone! This past weekend in Toronto my mom asked me when my flight out was. I learned two things following the question…

1) When your mom asks you the above, the correct answer is not to say “My flight home [to Squamish] is at nine am tomorrow.”

2) Apparently, home is not where you live. Home “is where your mommy lives”. Well, at least according to mom

Ah well. It appears I’m not the only one who’s made the mental switch to where I live. When I woke up on Tuesday morning, I discovered the rally car has also decided to make the switch as well. Tuesday morning the rally car shed it’s Ontario Rallysport decals. Is it going to ditch the plates next??

-Dave