So we are 3 weeks away from the running of the 2013 Rally of the Tall Pines up in Bancroft, Ontario. Entry has been sent in, licences sorted and the car is 75% ready to go :)
Since the test day last month we have done quite a bit of work on the car to make it rally ready.
The car was taken to O'Brien Motorsports (who incidentally also built our roll cage) for certain improvements before heading to Planet Motorsport for final prep.
Improvement #1:
Heat shield for the turbo. Ronnie was able to design & insert a plate beside the turbo to help protect the neighboring components from the heat. Reaching temperatures over 1000'C especially running the ALS (anti-lag system), its easy to see how the surrounding area can be affected.
He was also able to increase the air flow through the hood scoop to direct cooler air into the turbo compartment.
Improvement #2:
Airflow ducting to improve cooling.
An issue that we have encountered in the past is overheating. The work done at O'Brien Motorsports will hopefully increase the amount of air going directly into the radiator. The good thing about the Tall Pines Rally is that the air we are pulling in is usually pretty cold at that time of year!!
Improvement #3:
Skid plate extension & raising of exhaust.
When we returned home from the 2012 Tall Pines & started taking a look a what damage we had done -if you haven't seen nick drive, he likes to cut a lot ;) - and found that the exhaust pipe was almost completely flattened. Taking a closer look, it seemed that if we went over any large rocks....on a rally? Never......that the skid plate would protect the majority of the impact but the exhaust beyond the plate was taking a beating. It was decided to raise the exhaust & extend the plate to protect it further.
Improvement #4:
Shifter & handbrake.
Slight alterations to the shifter & handbrake positioning now make it a more efficient movement.
This change allows the shifter to be moved back further in the car but giving the same precise movement and geometry of a stock shift. Compared to the original extension it gives much reduced shifter travel per gear change.
Other prep work:
So those are the major improvements to the car. Now it heads over to Planet Motorsport in Guelph for the remaining prep.
The usual suspects will be checked: brakes & scrapers, fluids, suspension, bolt check, mudflaps & vinyls.
Along with those items, we still need to double check the e-brake interface with the diff controller, and double check the speedometer is working correctly having melted one speed sensor at the test day!
The next big job after all that is getting tires mounted. In an ideal world we would have unlimited tires & rims and therefore would not have to switch them on and off all the time.....in an ideal world......
As it is we need to remove our gravel tires & mount snow tires, ice tires and possibly even tractionized tires for the Pines. We will keep a certain number of gravels mounted but with a limited number of rims we need to pick & choose.
More on tire selection to follow.
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