911 Carrera RallyCross Project

As the opening salvo in our "All Show and All Go" program for 2016 we entered the car in it's forst proper show of 2016, the Motorstadt show put on by the Michigan Volkswagen Enthusiasts and held on the beautiful grounds of the Austrian Society. We also entered our other 911 and our RALIVAN in the show and took along the entire dog and pony show too! It was a long day resulting in 2nd place for the RallyCross 911.

The next event on the calendar is the Eyes On Design show ( ) . That's a BIGGIE. We might have to get some practicing in.

We were honored to be invited to the Eyes On Design show this year and surprised to win a Designer's Choice Award. We guess all that lack of preparation paid off.

Early bird gets the designated spot they would have had even if it were late.

This was an unexpected surprise. No mention of Michelle Mouton though.

Our "class"!

and some competition. Uh oh.

Breakfast with a view.

More surprises

We got to keep this. Now we'll never forget what kind of car is under all that vinyl.

More pleasant surprises. Designers Choice Award

Next big event is the Concours Of America. All Show and All Go!! (no Q-tips either)

Is that the car that was at M1 Concourse cars n coffee a couple days ago? I was there with Sadie the budget-friendly E36 M3, parked pretty much right next to you.

AngryCorvair wrote: Is that the car that was at M1 Concourse cars n coffee a couple days ago? I was there with Sadie the budget-friendly E36 M3, parked pretty much right next to you.

Yes, that's it. Your M3 looks a bit like a Corvette:

LOL, the red 'vette wasn't there when I parked.

As the car is red hot now we thought we'd be sensible and install a fire extinguisher before we need one. We went with a 2.5lb dry powder with a quick release mounting bracket.

There were a few options for mounting: on the cage behind us, on the cage leg in co-drivers foot well, on the transmission tunnel in front of the shift lever. Finally we decided to mount it to the floor in front of the co-driver's seat as it would be most accessible for both driver and co-driver.

We took the "All Show and All Go" 911 to the Concours d'Elegance of America over the weekend to hang out with some other rally cars. There were two groups invited to this concours: real works rally cars with provenance and the rest of us "pretenders". We all participated in the peripheral cars and coffee type events but only the provenance-full cars were allowed on the concours field. The rest of us were allocated a club parking spot on the grounds. Still, it was good to meet people from the Historic Rally Cars Group in person and see cars we haven't seen live for thirty years or more.

Here we are with Colin McRae's Ford Focus.

This is Richard Burns' Impreza.

MK2 Escort

Quattro

Always use your mirrors. You never know what you might see.

Rally cars thrive in these conditions, even at a concours. Opel Manta (red)

Great taste

What a nice spread.

Safari 911

Lancia 037

Fiat 131/Brava

All business inside

Videos:

https://www.facebook.com/TeamIlluminataMotorsport/videos/10153846215895773/

https://www.facebook.com/TeamIlluminataMotorsport/videos/10153845945415773/

https://www.facebook.com/TeamIlluminataMotorsport/videos/10153843806250773/

https://www.facebook.com/TeamIlluminataMotorsport/videos/10153843141135773/

https://www.facebook.com/TeamIlluminataMotorsport/videos/10153841997045773/

https://www.facebook.com/TeamIlluminataMotorsport/videos/10153841988305773/

https://www.facebook.com/TeamIlluminataMotorsport/videos/10153841602675773/

https://www.facebook.com/TeamIlluminataMotorsport/videos/10153845945415773/

More non-action action for our All Show and All Go Carrera RX this weekend as we took the car along with the dog and pony show to the Northernworthersee (NOWO) show in Frankenmuth. An apt setting as it is a German themed town and home to one of the largest Christmas stores in the world.

On the way up we had some fun racing our RALIVAN.

Drag race video!

Here we are setup.

The event was well attended, mostly by lowered Golf's Jettas and Audis but we did manage third in the Porsche class. Unfortunately festivities were cut short by the weather so we had our Flint Water Crises on the way home while going through Flint.

Enthused by our jaunt to pseudo Germany we are inspired to take the car to Canada next weekend, the real Canada though.

Another outing for the 911 Carrera RX, this time with a bit of speed involved; only a bit mind. We were happy to sponsor the 3rd iteration of the Empire Hill Climb Revival in Empire, Michigan again this year and as a bonus they let us use the car as course opening vehicle. This meant our duties were to lead the convoy of race cars from the village center to the bottom of the hill, run ahead of them on the hill (at a moderate pace), lead them back down then around the block to the start again for two more climbs then back to the village. Despite our "moderate pace" on the hill we still had a lot of fun and would not have been last if we were entered.

You can watch some in car video of one of our faster runs here: https://www.facebook.com/TeamIlluminataMotorsport/videos/10153998737330773/

The weekend began early on Friday morning loading up the van and the car but by just after noon we were on the road.

It's only a little over four hours to Empire so we pulled up to our hotel for the weekend a little after 4pm.

After checking in and getting our key it was off to registration where we encountered this beauty

No, it's not a real one; well not quite. It is an actual rally car, just done up in period Rothmans livery. Looked and sounded great.

The Empire Hill Climb attracts quite a bit of vintage kit as indicated by this Mercedes 190 E 2.3-16 Cosworth in the hotel. Yes, those are BRAID wheels too.

and this 72 911 with 3.2 engine. An actual rally car.

There were plenty of other interesting vehicles running including a vintage Lola and a Toyota Starlet with a Sadev transmission! Yes, the Starlet won overall!

We are taking the car to the Lake Superior Performance Rally next weekend. It's not in the rally nor is it a course car but it has been invited my members of the Historic Rally Group to display the car with theirs and also to perform a few parade stages for the benefit of the spectators and maybe some lucky passengers. We will be spending three days in the company of two Audi qauutros, A Rothmans Escort and possibly a Lancia Delta Integrale.

So of course that meant "UPGRADES". Well, some little tweaks anyway.

First we added a small decal to the rear. The car is officially the "Carrera RX" now.

Then we fixed the door opener strap that fell off a few weeks ago when a small circlip let go. We went with a small screw and nylock nut this time.

We changed the transaxle fluid. We have been hearing stories of GL5 oils disloving the brass synchros of older cars so wanted to address that. Miller's assures us this stuff won't and we have been very impressed with their engine oil so far so thought we'd try it out. The old (not so old) oil will be sent away for anaysis.

Finally we bolted back on our modified front skid plate we received from Thompson Racing Fabrication. We were never fully satisfied with the original iteration though it worked fine. We tested it out on our trailer once. We just thought it need dressing up a bit. Looking over pictures of factory cars from back in the day it soon became clear what was needed: reinforcing ribs running the entire length.

The welds are pure art!

We are also hoping to get these door pockets on as we don;t have anywhere to keep our knick-Knacks in the car.

Finally, we thought you might be interested to see our next project. It's a UR Quattro Rally Build. A bit like this only we are doing a full restoration and rally shell to base the project on. You can find out more here.

This past weekend, along with a few friends we were invited up to show off our historic rally cars at the Lake Superior Performance Rally (previously Press On Regardless) on the beautiful Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.That's Peninsula Squared! From the display in the spectator guide it looks like the were expecting us.

It's quite a long tow for us from all the way down state so we broke the trip into two sections which allowed us to meet up with the two quattros in Newberry on Wednesday evening and trundle the rest of the way to Houghton Thursday morning.

Plenty of rest stops and email checking on the way up. Work never stops.

Obligatory photo crossing the Mackinac Bridge. Windy and wet.

Here we are pulling out of Newberry. Even colder and wetter now. (33F)

From the road it appeared we were going to hit peak leaf peeping season.

All arrived safely at race HQ hotel.

As it was only around noon we had lunch and went for a drive up the Keweenaw Peninsula. But first an obligatory stop at a parts store for some running repairs. Apparently a quattro tradition this time of year.

Once we fixed the 84's errant turn signal we found some winding roads to open up the cars a bit.

https://youtu.be/FTCKpmfBEXw

https://www.youtube.com/embed/FTCKpmfBEXw

Then a rest by Lake Superior.

before heading up Brockway Mountain where the other quattro promptly overheated due to a melted fuse holder. After lunch we headed back to Houghton as we'd been asked to park the cars outside the SAE Rally Forum at Michigan Technology University where they caused quite a scene.

Photo by Tim Maskus

The next day was the start of the rally so we were up bright and early to stage the cars at the entrance to Parc Expose, basically a car show before the event. Our number was swelled by the addition of a MK2 Ford Escort and Saab 96.

Photo by Tim Maskus

Spotted this in Parc Expose.

Once the event was underway we packed up and moved Historic Rally Cars HQ an hour south to Baraga to be closer to the action. Once back in our trusty (or not) cars we shot over to the first service in Sidnaw where a few spots had been set aside for us to pose. Fortunately thre weather had improved tremendously by this time.

We were thankful to get an early night after all the driving the last few days. Even more thankful when the bar bill arrived as our hotel was owned by the local tribe so, seemingly no federal alcohol tax! It was just a short jaunt over to L'Anse in the morning to exhibit the cars once again at the parc expose and hang out with rally people once more. It was a great venue being right on the water and the cars were as popular as ever.

Our next engagement was to run the spectator stage in downtown Houghton but before we could get there we needed lunch, and to visit another parts store. This time the Escort needed a new battery.

Here's a video of our exhibition runs through Houghton by Ben Newburn. The stage was a great way to end the rally and very popular with the spectators.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BLmRaLrjkSy/

A video posted by Ben Newburn (@gizzmowrx) on Oct 15, 2016 at 2:04pm PDT

and here's one very happy future rally rally driver.

On the way to dinner the Escorts transmission decided to end it's relationship with its engine so we had to stop again. Fortunately there were enough tools and bolts to effect repairs and, as a bonus, were were in a great spot to experience the sunset.

Another cheap night in the bar capped of a great few days hanging out with car friends and showing off the cars. The CarreraRX never missed a beat and only required the attentions of a gas station while the, oh, never mind..........

If you get chance you really should attend this event; it possibly the best rally in the country. Thanks to Tim Maskus for making this all possible.

My first "real" experience with rally was sitting in my dorm room at Michigan Tech watching the cars transit past. I only went and watched cars on stage one year that I was up there. About the only thing about college that I regret.

"Hi, I need a battery for an Escort"

"Year make and model?"

"1976 Ford Escort. RS2000."

"(mental breakdown)"

You made Speedhunters. Super famous.

Speedhunters POR Coverage.

mazdeuce wrote: You made Speedhunters. Super famous. Speedhunters POR Coverage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSZLJDqGZPg

cool video about them, and the Porsche.

Haha, you beat me to it.

lnlogauge wrote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSZLJDqGZPg cool video about them, and the Porsche.

In reply to teamilluminata:

Beat me too...

Our car has been sidelined by our 85 UR quattro that recently came back to life after a 2 year engine refurbishment. With winter looming we have been driving that every chance we have gotten, as you can imagine. However we did register for the Detroit SCCA RallyCross on December 3rd which, by happy coincidence is where Ryan Symancek of /DRIVE filmed most of this last year. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSZLJDqGZPg

https://www.youtube.com/embed/wSZLJDqGZPg

We put the winter tires on a couple of weeks ago:

Not because it was snowing but because we entered a local Rallycross.

and the conditions were cold and wet. Not great for proper rally tires.

We still slid about quite a bit

by Scott Banes

by Scott Banes

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/isgkskSCt-M

In car video:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/CErVHkBJyNQ

We didn't hit any cones all day and finished a respectable fifth in class. Not bad considering we haven't driven in anger for six months. When we finished the car was very dirty:

Last weekend was our annual pilgrimage up north to the Sno*Drift Rally. As usual we had a vendor booth and used the Carrera RX in our display and to go spectate. However, before we set off we had some winter prep to take care of. Our 911 does not get very warm in the winter, the inside does but the oil does not. We rarely see it rise above 160F so we took Tuthill's advice and replaced the Miller's 10W50 race oil with their 5W40 race oil. Tuthill runs an ice driving school in Scandinavia during the winter and swears by this stuff.

We also shielded the engine oil cooler with cardboard to retain some heat. We have found this to give us around 10-20 degress more oil temperature.

Then we were off.

No snow on the ground and temperatures in the 40s but we were assured that 4 hours north of us it would be below freezing and snowing. Good, as conditions up there had been quite warm and melted the snow pack they had built up already on the stage road turning them into ice rinks. A good snow covering would help all the competitors out. We were not too disappointed but even more snow would have been welcome.

We unloaded the car and retired to how rental house to catch up with friends. We spent the next two days camped out in our display and driving between stages enjoying the rear wheel drive traction from the Nokian R2 winter tires. At one stage we thought we would need help after parking on an ice covered steep hill but the care just pushed its self out to the amazement of all around. We even manage to recruit a new fan and future rally champion.

by EVAN SANDERS

When we returned home we were happy to find a magazine from Norway in our mail box with a story about our car in it. Thanks BIL. Anyone speak Norwegian?

We were honored to have our 911 Carrera RX invited to the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn last week. It was displayed in the atrium outside a meeting hall in some very distinguished company. First we had to bring it home

Some Porsche/Audi love

Next day we took the winter tires off and mounted the summer BFG Rivals in readiness for our next adventure in New Jersey. Stay tuned.

Followed your original build thread over on Pelican interweb.....can't remember....did you lower the front spindles?

No, all stock.

Ovid_and_Flem wrote: Followed your original build thread over on Pelican interweb.....can't remember....did you lower the front spindles?

teamilluminata wrote: We were honored to have our 911 Carrera RX invited to the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn last week. It was displayed in the atrium outside a meeting hall in some very distinguished company. First we had to bring it home Some Porsche/Audi love Next day we took the winter tires off and mounted the summer BFG Rivals in readiness for our next adventure in New Jersey. Stay tuned.

Are you actually going to run it on the full course in NJ? If so, not sure if the Rivals will be the best choice lol....it could be pretty soft in the motocross section ;)