'86 RX7 Rally Car

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: Home, tired- videos from day 2 are unfortunately no good, super blurry due to broken lens on GoPro... Recap coming tomorrow!

Great job man!! Get some rest and tell all.

Broken go pro lens... I have seen them take a hell of a tumble and the worst has been a broken latch. Good job on the damage!

Congrats on the post-race events too!!

Wish I knew there was not one, but two other GRM regulars at WMWR!

Magnum Opus 2016
Thursday

The tow to Magnum Opus was 16 hours punctuated by a couple of torrential downpours and one accidental on-ramp drift. Chief tows well but I am really not impressed with the new BFG A/T KO2s stability. We made it to the U.P. before dark, which we soon learned was totally unimpressive since it doesn't get dark there until like 11PM anyway.

When we arrived, we found that tech was actually open that night, so I rolled the car off the trailer and got it checked over- it passed easily, with the sole suggestion that we put our second extinguisher in the car rather than leave it with the service rig. Then we went straight to the motel ($50/night racer special! Evening Star Motel, you get a pass) for some much-needed sleep.

Friday

The schedule for Friday had the actual rally starting at 5pm and running into the night, and with tech taken care of already I didn't have much to do, but Sara had the Novice Competitor Orientation to attend at Zellar's Restaurant across the street from where we were staying so we went over there for breakfast. Part way into the NCO I left to meet Brian (Paranoid_Android) at the service park since he was driving up to crew for us.

Brian rolled into the service area in an early 90s Saab 900 with a GRM sticker and a license plate that said "BERK IT" and wearing a Hond Norr shirt- oh yes, I believe we have found our crew chief. We then took the Saab into town so I could show him the lay of the land, where we'd stashed our trailer, etc. On the way into town, the Saab suddenly got a LOT louder, thanks to a broken exhaust pipe just after the header- this, in literature, is referred to as "foreshadowing".

We got lunch with Sara since she had just finished up the NCO, and Brian took the Saab to a local mechanic to have the exhaust welded back together. $20 later, he was back in business and we went and got Chief set up in our service spot. Then, it was off to Parc Expose with the rally car- we were seeded second to last, behind a Mustang and in front of the CRX shown here:

The 2wd competition was heavy, and a "Historic" class was being scored at this event as well- tons and tons of cars in the field either way:

Also a 2wd bike, which I have heard of but hadn't seen before. Cool!

As we were milling around looking at cars and bikes, the rest of our crew arrived- Seth (mazdeuce) and the deucelings stepped out of a minivan which packed more power than half the combined vehicles in Parc Expose and made a beeline for the RX7. We talked strategy, it was serious business:

Then it was time to get in the car... take a good look, because it will never be this straight again:

"this straight" being relative in the first place, lol.

Friday Continued, Start of the Rally

[Apologies for a lack of action shots, nobody has posted any yet!]

The first transit was easy- the "Tulip" system NASA uses in their roadbook is fantastic, far better than any other mapping system I've used. We got to the first time control, checked in on time, strapped on our helmets, and did our best to stop E36 M3ting bricks despite the fact that the starter informed us that one of the other cars had crashed only one mile in.

SS1 was Skyline in the "In" direction, a fast, flowing hardpacked stage with tons of 4, 5, and 6s and only one 3 to catch you out in the middle of all of that. Sara was perfect with the notes, the car was 100%, and I was a little slower than I'd like as I felt out the the sand/gravel combination that made up the road. We ran a midpack time, and the car didn't miss a beat.

SS2 was Skyline Out, and we had an hour to kill in the turnaround area- we fought off bird-sized mosquitoes while the sweep guys made good use of the time with some RC jeeps.

When we ran Skyline Out, it was obvious that the surface in the U.P. was prone to dust once enough cars had been through it- visibility was down, but so was our time since I was more confident with the surface and Sara's notes. The car had zero issues again too, and our time had us closing slightly on some of our 2wd competitors.

Another transit brought us to SS3, Two Hearted. This stage, we had been warned, was a car killer- over 10 miles of rough, narrow ATV trail which had had logging activity as recently as that afternoon, the surface was expected to be rutted, whooped out, and rocky in places. After only a few cars, there were some impressive trenches at the start line:

The RX7 had zero issues, so I felt that this was a place we could make up time on some of our competitors. The start was slow since it was difficult to get moving in the deep sand, but once underway we were really moving- for the most part, the RX7 handled the choppy terrain well, but my rhythm was off on one of the whoop sections, causing the car to nose down HARD into the sand, breaking two of the four welds on our light bar and firing a stream of sand out through the hood vents.

After about 8 miles of this punishment, we came around a corner to find warning triangles and a traffic jam- a Civic had hit a tree and rotated into the road in such a way as to block the entire stage, then the cars attempting to tow it out of the way got stuck, and I think the Mustang just got stuck by digging themselves a pit with the rear tires trying to find a parking spot. While we were sitting there, I noticed the car was a bit louder than I remembered- sure enough, we had lost our exhaust behind the cat, but luckily it wasn't unbearable and seemed to be staying off the ground for the most part.

Once sweep arrived and yanked out the various stuck vehicles, we transited the rest of SS3 and were given a "bogey time" of 15:50 for the stage- I felt we were on track to do better, but then again we may have been on track to do a front flip the way I was driving. We then transited to the local Fairgrounds for the Super Special, and Sara texted Brian along the way to let him know we had a broken exhaust and a small suspension noise from the right rear.

SS4, the Super Special, was a short 1 mile loop that was intended to allow spectators to see all of the action while enjoying a corn dog- which probably would have worked, except the sun was going down and the dust was getting bad, so this is what the cars looked like:

The Super Special also had no Stage notes, so I was truly running blind in the dust rather than having some indication of where I was going. We still ran a midpack time and held our position, so I wasn't complaining.

We pulled into service and Brian, Seth, and the Deucelings immediately sprang into action- it was amazing having a service crew for once, with the adults working on the car while the kids cleaned the windows/lights, things got done at a rapid pace. We tightened the clunking right rear coilover mount, said "meh" to the exhaust, and ratchet strapped the light bar roughly into position.

When it was time to leave, the car didn't want to start- I had run the lights briefly without the engine on to aim them, and I guess that was a mistake. After 30 seconds of cranking and playing with the fuel cutoff and throttle, it fired to life and we got out of service on time. We ran the transit with only the low beams to allow the battery to recharge, but the car didn't seem quite right- it was definitely down on power below 5k rpm, but I chalked it up to the 10.5 volts we were seeing on the charge meter.

SS5 was Skyline In again, this time with 2 minute intervals to allow the dust to clear. Visibility was still poor, but having practiced this one before, we ran another decent time and held our position in class. Anticipating a 60 minute turnaround time, I shut all the lights off and revved the engine to charge the battery, shutting the car off when the gauge indicated 13 volts.

About 30 seconds after I shut the car off, we were informed that we would be transiting back out rather than racing SS6 due to visibility.

Now I have to hot start a rotary, with a weak battery, at night. Motherberkeleyer.

Naturally, the car didn't want to start, and we gathered a bit of a crowd as I cranked the engine. The Mustang guys lent us their jumper pack, and I continued to crank the thing over as more people came to see what was going on- eventually we had a whole bunch of guys standing around the open hood chanting "DO-RI-TOS! DO-RI-TOS!", a dude patting the roof of the car, and another guy gently caressing the intake manifold, and finally after about 2 minutes of that it sputtered to life. YES!!!

But wait, what's this? The Mustang won't start because we've depleted their jumper pack. They wave us around them, but that won't do- that thing is the only reason we're making it out of here tonight, no way in hell are we leaving them with a dead car. So we pulled around them, hooked up the tow strap, and pull started their 400hp beast with our wheezy little triangle motor. Doritos to the rescue!

We then transited the stage in a massive dust cloud, the cars all running based on the taillights of those in front of them- it was scary, I probably would have preferred to race the stage just for some space. We then transited to the finish for day 1, which happened to be the service park. I explained to Brian that I would fix the car in the morning and that I would drive it back to the motel- as far as I could tell, we just had a flat battery. Brian went to Seth's, we took Chief and the RX7 back to the motel, and everyone got some much needed sleep.

Great man! Awesome write up!!

Ah, I heard about the pile-up. That was Amanda Skelly and Matt Peterson, yes? They were apologizing to those who had stopped to help and got stuck too, lol.

Saturday, Day 2 of the Rally
I woke up early and immediately pulled to battery out of the RX7 and swapped it into Chief's auxiliary battery spot to charge, letting the truck idle to bring the battery back to life. I had tried to check the voltage but of course my multimeter was dead.

I then swapped the spark plugs and gave everything a once over while Sara cleaned the dust out of the air filter- the plugs didn't look fouled, so I wrote off the possibility of any major fuel or ignition problems. None of the electrical connections, sensors, etc. looked bad either, so my hope was that the low battery voltage had cause all of our issues from the night before. Just in case, I bought some jumper cables at the local parts store as well.

We put the battery back in the RX7 and cranked it... and cranked it... and, dammit, what is wrong with this thing, I know this battery is charged fully now! It finally fired up and I turned the idle up to ensure that it couldn't stall- this was not appreciated by the motels non-rally guests, one of whom was yelling at me as I packed the car, which drew my attention away from the task at hand enough that I accidentally slammed the hatch shut on my GoPro, breaking the lens (although I didn't know it was broken at the time). Oops. We cleared the hell out of there before people started throwing things and got to the Parc Expose, which for day 2 was in Seney about 20 miles up the road.

The car ran well on the way there, although we noticed that our diff was leaking upon arrival. Why? Oh, maybe it's the exhaust superheating the fluid in the thing:

Luckily it was overfull to begin with and the gas tank was staying cold, so I wasn't too worried. We decided that, thanks to the mysterious starting annoyance, we would only shut the car off in the service park, and keep Chief oriented in such a way as to facilitate use of the jumper cables. I checked tire pressures and Seth crafted an exhaust sling from some wire to prevent the remainder of the pipe escaping.

We then left our crew, with Chief in prime jump start position, and headed out to SS7.

SS7 was a stage called Danaher, and we were told it was the other car killer of this rally, with 9 miles of the same sort of nasty garbage as Two Hearted but with less trees so that you'd be lured into driving too fast for the terrain. It was all of that and more.

We launched off the start line and settled into a fast pace, slightly less conservative than our run at Two Hearted the day before. The exhaust is already broken, right? How bad can it really be?

Maybe 6 miles in, it got bad. The car began sputtering, the gauges were going nuts, and we were slowing down all too fast in a section with no room to pull off. Then the car fully died, shutting down so quickly that I only got it half way off the road- I tried the starter, the fuel switch, everything, and not a single thing had power.

We were stuck, around a blind corner, blocking half the road, and there was another car coming. I shouted "Traingles triangles TRIANGLES!" as we dove out of the car, and Sara took off running with one while I dug another out of the back. We got them set up just as the first car arrived, and they squeezed their way around us. Sara got the third triangle set up and I went back to the car. A couple cars went by, but they had fragile looking light bars that I didn't want to risk- then the Celica showed up.

I flagged the Celica down, slapped the RX7's rear bumper, and hopped in- getting the message, they shoved me the rest of the way off the road. Now I was clear of the race line and could work on things.

When I opened the hood, I was greeted by a geyser of coolant (did you know rotaries overheat when you shut them off at race pace? Surprise!) and saw the problem immediately. The battery had ripped free of its' mounts and the power steering pulley had sawed through the positive cable- it threw sparks all over the place as I yanked it away from the engine, leaving little bits of cable welded to the pulley. How the hell do I fix this?

JUMPER CABLES! I grabbed the brand new jumper cables we had bought that morning and a ratchet strap and got to work; jumpers connecting what was left of the positive battery cable together, ratchet strap holding the battery and mess of cable in position, perfect. I got back in the car and it had power! Then followed the longest starting procedure of my entire life- the car was flooded, hot, and didn't have the best battery connection, but we apparently have the most resilient starter motor in all of history because seriously, 10 minutes straight is not an exaggeration.

I was still cranking the engine when sweep showed up; the first sweep vehicle saw that we were OK and drove on, and the second asked if we needed a tow as Sara packed the triangles back into the car. "I will work on this until you tell me you need to pull me out of here" was my response, and after another 2 or 3 minutes, the car fired again- YES! Sara strapped in as I closed the hood by smashing it with my knee, as it now had to clear an extra 4 inches of ratchet strap and jumper cable.

This picture is from later, jumper cables not included:

We took off- I wanted to catch the lead sweep vehicle so we could exit the stage before it officially closed, and catch him we did- only a mile or so from the finish. He let us by and we posted over a 32 minute time for the 9 mile stage- but not a DNF! We were still in it!

I wanted desperately to check my repairs but we didn't even stop other than to get our time- we had to transit SS8 to get to SS9, and had very little time to do it. Technically SS8 was now an open public road but I'll admit, I pushed it a bit... for the purposes of statutes of limitations and such, lets leave it at this: we made it to SS9 with no time penalties, showing up ON OUR MINUTE somehow. I still don't fully understand how that was possible.

It was becoming painfully obvious at this point that the car was losing power- anything below 5k rpm wasn't really an option for acceleration, and it was not particularly strong from 5-8k either.

SS9 was a road called Carlson Camp, and was VERY fast with the odd "caution" and "don't cut" thrown in for good measure. When I jumped out of the car on Danaher I had broken my intercom wire, forgetting to unplug it before sprinting up the road, so we had no intercom- the car was quiet enough for Sara to yell over the exhaust, so we still had notes, although I really had to strain to hear her at times.

I ran somewhat conservatively for this stage- I wasn't sure of my repair or what was happening to the car. We were slow but didn't lose a ton of time, and the jumper cables amazingly held on the entire time. The added stress of the oddly bent hood also broke the passenger side hood hinge as we came over a jump. We transited back to service to hopefully make our fix a little more permanent.

Service was 20 minutes, and I nearly passed out (did I mention it was like 90 degrees?) as I tried to fix the battery, drink a bottle of water, and eat an energy bar at the same time. The conversation was as follows:

Me (mouth full and staring at the battery): "Hey Brian you're an electrical engineer or something right?"
Brian (while fueling the car): "Electrician actually"
Me: "That's even better- do you think rivets are a suitable replacement for battery cable?"
Brian (not missing a beat): "Steel or aluminum rivets?"

And so, we had a positive battery cable spliced together with two hose clamps holding the ends of a cluster of 6 steel rivets, and wrapped in electrical tape. Sara duct taped the broken hood hinge back together with some zipties for extra reinforcement, and I got back in the car to start it with one minute before our service time was up.

Even with the jumper cables hooked up to Chief, it took forever, and by the time the car came back to life we were 3 minutes late to leave service. In my haste to get out, I ran over one of our jackstands and my wiring box, which Brian then had to yank out from under the car before we could leave. This is why we can't have nice things.

Guess what SS10 was? Yeah, we were transiting back to Danaher. We still had no intercom, and Sara was saving her voice, but still made sure to stress that we need to survive, not go fast on this next one. Boy was she right.

It was Baja 1000 rough, Safari Rally rough, "why would anyone do this to a car?" rough. Sara is yelling notes and we're hauling ass, because I know damn well if we slow down we'll get stuck. In some of the slow corners I have to slip the clutch in first to keep the engine in the powerband. We pass a broken car, then a crashed car, then come upon a bit of comic relief.

The Subaru Legacy team suffered a mechanical, and they were out of their car displaying the "OK" sign like everyone else we passed, but they were basically doing this:

Except the guy with the sign had it above his head, with his pants down, and his back to us. Rally people are, by definition, nuts, but it comes in all flavors.

Then we came upon the CRX, stuck in a huge sandy corner- we tried to pass and got stuck as well, but as soon as they saw us bogged down the CRX guys ran to us and pushed the RX7 out while I bounced it off the rev limiter to avoid bogging down and stalling.

Free again with a couple miles of stage to go, we kept moving as fast as possible while a banging noise under the floor got louder and louder- what was left of the exhaust was finally giving out. By the finish of Danaher, we had a noticeable exhaust leak but the car was still somewhat muffled, and Sara could still yell over it somewhat (remember, intercom is broken!).

We transit SS11 to get back to Carlson Camp again, and I take a look at the intercom issue- we're not fixing it without a soldering iron, that's for sure. Sara and I work out a system of hand signals in case it gets too loud to communicate- number of fingers for the severity of the corner, a wrist flick for the direction, and a closed fist for a caution.

I haul as much ass as this car is still capable of hauling on SS12- the power issue is getting worse, it's incredibly hot in the car, the exhaust fumes are coming into the cabin, we know this stage, and we have one more service to get to. Maybe 5 miles in the exhaust finally breaks fully at the header.

IF YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD A ROTARY WITH OPEN HEADERS AT WIDE OPEN THROTTLE LET ME PAINT A PICTURE FOR YOU. THERE ARE WARRING FACTIONS OF MECHANIZED BEES, ARMED WITH CHAINSAWS, IN YOUR EAR CANAL, AND THEY ARE REALLY GOING AT IT, RICOCHETING OFF THE WALLS AND E36 M3. THAT IS WHAT WE LISTEN TO FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE STAGE, AND SOMEHOW SARA STAYS ON THE NOTES AND I KNOW WHAT THE HELL SHE'S TRYING TO SAY USING THE HAND SIGNALS WE CAME UP WITH A MINUTE BEFORE.

WE TRANSIT BACK TO SERVICE AND DEAFEN EVERY RESIDENT OF THE UPPER PENINSULA OF MICHIGAN AND SOME OF CANADA.

Saturday Part 2, The Last Stage
We have a 60 minute service, and we spend the whole thing trying to figure out a way to quiet the exhaust, or at least get it to dump further back, but it's no use- the cat is still loosely attached to about 2 feet of pipe behind the header, and still held by Seth's wire cradle, but the studs in the header have pulled partway out, the threads are mangled, any nuts we try to install immediately become equally mangled, and everything is too hot to work on. It was time to make a decision.

Sara: "The carbon monoxide isn't that bad, the hand signals worked, right?" Me: "Here's the deal- windows down on transit, and when they have to be up on stage, your sign for me that you're passing out is to roll yours down again, or at least try- then we'll pull over and get out."

So it was settled. We're running in "mechanized bees with chainsaws" mode for the last stage. All 17 miles of it.

We transit down to SS13, Carlson Wolf, which is a combo of two previous stages linked together and run backwards, barely able to communicate and with Sara holding the roadbook up so that I can see the turns. Even on the transit with the windows open, it's getting hot and smelly in the car, and the transmission is getting so hot that gear oil is boiling out of the shift boot. When we get to the control we both get out for some fresh air- time card still in on time though, no penalties here.

We go over the hand signals once more time and I check over the notes for the early part of the stage- a long straight with some crests but nothing scary.

Get back in the car, pull up to the line, roll the windows up at the last second, being VERY generous with the 1" allowed opening at the top. 3.2.1...BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP.

With everything the poor 13b has left we charge the first straight, and about a quarter mile in we come over a crest to find that the road DROPS straight down what feels like 6 feet- this wasn't in the notes! Where did it come from? The car slams into the bump stops, breaking the latches on the hatch and the one remaining hood hinge- the front is still held by pins, but the back of the hood is now flying half way up the windshield, and the hatch is letting the car fill with dust. This is Sara's view from the passenger seat:

And we run like that, as fast as possible, for the next 16 miles- Sara is giving hand signals based on nothing but the odometer, the gearshift is getting too hot to touch and gear oil is spewing onto my hand, my shoes are melting to the floor, we're both deaf, the hatch slams over every bump and we're waiting for a shower of broken glass, dust is everywhere, I'm alternating between pressing my head against the cage to see over the hood and hunching to look through the left hood vent, trying to remember what this stage looked like going the other way, trying to keep the car alive, trying to finish the rally but not thinking for one second that backing off is the answer.

21 minutes of that and WE MADE IT! I don't care how loud the car was, I bet the finish control workers could hear us celebrating. One more transit, windows open, now completely desensitized to the noise. We rolled into the service park to finish the rally, high-fived Anders, and pulled the car onto the trailer. YES!!!

So that's it, right? Just off to the awards party now and then the long tow home?

You guys are like the Keystone Cops of rally....but as always, huge props for the creativity factor of your repairs. I think there are a couple times there that I would have just said "berkeley it, where's my trailer" lol....

(now, let me go out to the garage and continue to reinforce things on my own rally car....)

And also, of course, Congratulations on both finishing and what you're going to post next.

THIS IS EPIC!

One More Thing

If you've followed this thread from the beginning, you might remember this:

java230 wrote: If you can drive/Co drive together marry her! LOL seriously though, that's great.

Well, somewhere between the finish and the awards party, when we were finally alone, this happened:

I've been sure for a while, but I was waiting for the right moment- I carried the ring in the pocket of my driving suit for the entirety of day 2. Go re-read that- rolling on the ground, getting doused in boiling coolant and oil, belting in before every stage, I was trying to make sure that something important stayed in the tiny driving suit pocket without making it obvious to Sara. I guess it worked, because she was still surprised, and she still said yes!

So, maybe we can have one nice thing.

Wrap Up

We went to the awards party and hung out with all of our rally friends, ate delicious food, and applauded until our hands hurt for the winners- no, we weren't one of them, but this was the most incredible, impossible, terrifying, amazing, Mad Max thing I've ever done, and it was perfect. Wouldn't have had it any other way.

Thanks to Anders and Bill for making this rally possible, and to Brian and Seth for making our experience within it possible- I typically have a terrible memory but I'll never forget this past weekend. GRM too, without this magazine and forum I wouldn't have known I could do something like this, or found the crew to pull it off with.

And to Sara, for not only being crazy enough to put up with me, but crazy enough to enjoy it- let's do this again some time

Wow and Wow! Awesome! Epic! and congrats on the engagement !

POR Spirit is alive and well!!!

Congrats on the finish and the accepted proposal!

Chris taught me something about rally cars. You need to like it enough to put in the work to make it a good car, but not so much that you ever stop because of what you're doing to the car on stage. It's a delicate balance, one that the RX7 is apparently perfect for.

And quite honestly, had you seen Sarah hop out of that post apocalyptic/Mad Max RX7 covered in dust with the biggest smile you've ever seen on a face clutching the finishers plaque, you would have proposed too. I almost did and I'm very happily married!

This car is amazing- it backed off the trailer and climbed the hill into my garage last night using nothing but the starter, which has probably spent at least 1.5 hours spinning the motor since last Thursday. Currently on a battery charger to get enough juice for a decent compression test.

Congratulations on the engagement and the finish, but man the description and the after pictures made me cringe! Rally may not be for me, not sure i could abuse a car i had that kind of time in, so ill just keep following the rally and rallycross builds here for my fill of dirt cars.

In reply to dropstep:

Here's the thing about that- I've had two cars totaled due to the actions of others. Every day you drive your beloved vehicle, or even leave it parked in public, you're risking a complete loss of all the time and money you have into it. Yes, every stage we race is killing this thing that much more, and all the hours I put in are being spent in seconds of race time, but at least it's on my own terms, and I get to enjoy every second of it- I'll take that over getting T-boned by some careless idiot every time.

Sara in particular gets attached to vehicles, and treats them like a living thing, but (from that perspective) we both know that this is what the RX7 lives for, and if it dies during a rally, it dies happy. It's proud of its' battle scars

Great write up!!! Glad to see the beast made it though, I cant imagine driving like you two did and doing it so well.

Cangrats on the finish and the proposal! Im really stoked for you.

Now to go search CL for cheap rally cars....

Not one word of that was exaggerated! This was by far the craziest, funnest, awsome-est motorsports thing I've ever done.

I'm not afraid to admit I was very nervous about the event. Chris and I had spoken on the phone a couple times (which was a huge help), but I was way out of my comfort zone. Seeing this when I got to the event didn't help:

Pro? Chris didn't mention anything about Pro...

And yes, as we were riding in the Saab talking about it and it's issues, I mentioned I had an exhaust leak. And then it got really loud. This was why:

But the local place we found was willing to piece it back together for us. They were awesome. Even though I had to show the mechanic where the ignition was (tee hee!).

So toward the end of day one with the first service approaching, I was getting more nervous with each car that passed that wasn't Chris and Sara. Then I got a text, " Exhaust broken, sweep is bringing it. Suspension noise right rear. All else OK. 20 miles away or so". Uh oh, we have a car to fix!

By the time they came by, it was pretty much dark and the dust was terrible. This was what we saw:

Seth quickly deduced the exhaust hadn't completely fallen off, because we could all still hear after they went by. Chris and Sara pulled in, and with huge help from the deuce crew we got them back out again. And then I wasn't as nervous as I was. And then I felt the adrenaline that had kicked in for me. Oh yeah, this is fun!

Day one was a long one. I finally got to Seth's place around 2:30 am. I set the alarm for 5:30am to get up and go at it again.

Day two began with Seth's voice calling my name while I was sound asleep. "What time did you want to leave?" I looked at my phone- oh E36 M3, twenty minutes ago! I wolfed down the most delicious french toast and bacon I'd ever eaten and ran out the door.

But this day I felt confident that if Chris and Sara could get the car in to service, we could get it back out. And by golly we did!

As day two went on, the RX-7 started to achieve somewhat hero status. As cars and crew came by, a few stopped and said "are you here with the RX-7? Man, that thing can't be killed!" The neighboring crew in service and I worked out a deal, as we didn't have radios and had no idea what what going on on the stages. We agreed the car that came in first we would both help on until we knew what happened to the other car. One time the neighboring co-driver reported to me Chris and Sara were stopped on stage. But not to worry, they would get going again. There's no way they would make it this far not to finish!

It did, and what a feat it was. When the car was on the trailer, I thought nothing else exciting could happen now. But when we met back at the fair grounds for the banquet, I was walking up to Chris and Sara, and the sun was in my eyes. I was shielding it with my hand, and Sara made the same gesture. I said "yeah, I know, I should have put my hat on." And she shook her hand and said "no, look!". Holy cheebus, how awesome! It was hard not to let the cat out of the bag before Chris posted here

It took my six hour drive home to really process everything that happened. I saw this guy while driving over the bridge and thought "Yup, that's exactly how I feel right now!"

Needless to say, I would do this again. And again. And again! If anyone reading this is hesitant to get into the stage rally scene, just go do it. It will be worth it!

Go over to the main forum and play guess the compression!

Holy mother of God this was the most fantastic thing I have read in a long time. Thank you for this. And congratulations on getting engaged. Marriage and fatherhood is even scarier than dirt road hillclimb in a rusted out subaru just with no cage. But even more fun.