Getting gas and McDonald's off I40 in Texas. ...correction, Diesel.
I thoroughly enjoyed Rallycross, but only got one run before the 'rigged 3 different ways' left rear strut contacted the axle boot.
Trailer and Frog are with my Gambler buddy Billy in OKC.
Somehow I won second place in Modified Rear for 2023 season and got a certificate at the driver's meeting. I'm proud of me and my beat up Porsches. (Were there more than 2 cars in class?)
The drive to Phoenix was getting tiresome on I-40, so I detoured through El Malpais National Monument. Well worth the added time.
I walked about a mile on the Lava Falls loop trail. It was a good break from driving.
TowPig has been good. I got my first speeding ticket in a couple decades as I was leaving a small town. I thought that I was out of town already and back to highway, but the police disagreed. I'll accept their expertise rather than return for a court date. No check engine light and gas mileage showed 29.7 mpg average when I arrived in Phoenix.
My grandkids here are finishing their last day of school (half day). We are deciding between the Desert Botanical Garden or the Musical Instrument Museum for the afternoon.
I'm starting to think that we'll enjoy the MIM more. The afternoon sun can be pretty brutal in late May.
MIM was cool. All kinds of instruments from around the world and through history. A room of stuff you could get hands on with. Guitar collections were my favorite.
The drive from Phoenix back to Oklahoma was good. I stayed off the interstate well into New Mexico; Phoenix - Payson - Show Low - Quemado - El Malpais National Monument. Some construction, but not bad.
My whole trip with TowPig was about 2,500 miles with roughly 500 of it towing. The best average fuel mileage I got was 34 mpg from Phoenix to Tucumcari, NM. Towing the trailer from OKC back home was about 25 mpg. No problems with TowPig at all after the work I did before the trip. I love the TDI, but wonder if I might like a newer Chevy Colorado with the 2.7L as an eventual replacement.
About 200 pics from the 5/19 North Texas Rallycross uploaded to Flickr. ...Since I could only get one run in, I had time for some photography: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBsbAd
GoPro of the one run I had. Taking it easy getting a feel for the car and course. It was an awesome course, over a mile:
When I gave away the Terrible '99 Boxster I told my friend, "My name is not on any of the paperwork or history of this car and I want it to stay that way. It was never mine and I don't know anything about it."
Today I received a call from a number I don't know. I didn't answer. Then a text: {I'm buying some Porsche motors from a guy and he gave me your number. He said you might be able to sell me the rest of the parts.} After I replied, he sent me a picture of his car. It's Terrible. It turns out that my friend sold him the car and another guy that I've bought a car from told him I'm a good 'parts guy'. I'm probably going to sell him some of the parts I took from the car. I think it's going to need a lot more than he thinks it needs and I hate to be the guy to break it to him.
Today I realized that I am not going to have enough time to fix the Frog before the next rallycross on June 9th (working 7am to 7pm every day from tomorrow through the 8th). I dragged the 'Parts Car Porsche' from the woods and chased away the snakes that were keeping the mice out of it. It runs great and even has working AC. I'll put some tires and a spoiler on the back and give it one more race day.
Random update...
The June 9th Rallycross was canceled because rain had washed out much of the area where the course gets laid out. It was a big disappointment, but I enjoyed some good family time that weekend instead.
The next rallycross is July 6th night. I picked up a pair of off-road lights to mount on either the Frog or the Parts-Car. It's probably going to be the Parts-Car in July. One of my co-worker pilots is medically grounded for at least a few months and I'm not sure that I'll have free time to work on cars for a while covering extra shifts.
This weekend I missed some great local events. Red River Rollout, Rally in the Valley, and SCCA Rallycross at Billings, Ok. It's times like this that I think of retiring, but then I'd still have to choose which one of the events to attend.
It's good that I've been at work. We kept very busy. I'm on night shift and was flying at sunset, sunrise, and a few in between. As the clock turned from Saturday night to Father's Day morning, there was a sad one. Some people shouldn't have kids. Funny how most of the other recent calls blend together in memory. Funny what becomes 'routine' in the EMS business.
I've driven my Gambler cars to work lately. I think that the Xbox is a local favorite. People hang out of passenger windows and wave giving it thumbs-up. At stop lights people roll down windows and ask questions. To me it's a fun piece of 'outsider art'. There are no great performance modifications and the work is all done pretty rough. It's that seeing it and hearing it makes people smile and feel emotions. The Not-a-Tesla Prius gets a lot of fun reactions too, but not so much as the Xbox.
Tonight I drove the ACTY to work. It's stock, but there aren't any others driven in the area. When I'm driving in town, everyone waves to me. Do I know them or do they think I'm some other guy they know with a KEI truck? I always smile and wave back. It makes me laugh when I see Matt's GMC truck parked next to it.
Night Rallycross in a week. I put lights on the PartsCar today.
The Frog is on stock rear suspension now. I didn't realize until I was well into the job that the modified rear wheel carriers that were on it came from an S model. I made a lot of extra work for myself by pulling the (base model) rear hubs and suspension off of the parts car to use on the Frog when I already had a pair of S model hubs on the shelf. It was when I installed the brake rotors back onto the Frog that I realized there was a problem. The rotors that had been on it no longer fit. They rubbed on the calipers. Once I compared the parts that I had taken off with the parts I installed, I realized the problem and base model rotors made it good. It's dirty and a bit scrappy underneath, but as a dedicated rallycross car it's good to go now.
The '04 parts car is still sort-of driveable. I put the extra S model rear suspension on it. The base model calipers are hanging uninstalled with a hockey puck jammed in them. With the pucks, I can stop it with the front brakes and not blow out the pistons on the rears.
The parts car is a little weird. The axles were bolted to the transmission with M10 bolts. The '97 - '04 Boxster 5-speeds use M8 bolts. I don't know this history of this car, but it has a factory replacement engine in it. Maybe they put a 987 5-speed transmission in as well? That may explain the high gearing compared to my other 5-speeds. First gear ran too long for it to be good for rallycross and second was awkward on tight turns. When I have time to part the car further, I'll figure out exactly which transmission it is.
I haven't had much time to work/play with cars. ...so I bought another gen2 Prius. A Gambler 500 friend owns a towing company near Tulsa and he's going to deliver it Monday. Primary Damage is listed as "Mechanical" but it's "Run and Drive". I'm curious to see how much of a mistake I've made. Now I'm going to go outside in the 99 degree heat and stare at the driveway full of cars.
The Prius arrived today.
It's not bad at all for a $575 bid (about $1000 after fees and delivery). The rear bumper cover is inside and still very useable. 12V battery is weak from sitting at Copart, but a 2 year old AGM - recharging right now. It shows HV battery block one giving a code, but runs and drives well. It needs to have the clockspring replaced.
I'm stripping the '04 Parts Car now and figuring out what to use/keep/sell/scrap. I can still drive it, but not for much longer as the parts come off.
I decided to take the red '01 to the Gambler 500 Key Swap in December. It will be fun to give away, but I hope I don't get another Grand Prix in exchange.
In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :
Good luck on the Prius. I too have not played Prius for a while now but just this morning I put a modest bid in on this one.
Will need two headlamps, a bumper cover, a fender and a hood. All that, in correct colors, should be less than $700.
I pulled the battery out and replaced a couple cells with some from the battery that came out of the '05 six(?) months ago.
I probably should have done balancing on the ones I put in since they showed a lower voltage than the good ones already in the battery. I've had a battery fault again since putting it back in the car. Hopefully a few long drives will re-balance it. I don't know any more about these things than what I've read on Forums and seen in a couple YouTubes.
Not sure, but i think the battery is making progress. I monitor 'Dr Prius' to see the state of the blocks. I replaced cells in block 8 and 13 because they both showed 7.2V when all the others were 7.7V. Blocks 9 and 14 have my attention now, but the tested good with a multimeter when I had the battery on the table. The thing that has improved since my recent 20 minute long drive is the internal resistance has leveled out and gone down. Looking at the pic, the left side shows all blocks at 21 milli-ohm. The right (from a day earlier) shows a range from 24 to 27. As I understand, Lower is better and equal is good.
I'll keep watching to see where it goes. I'm also considering buying a salvage car with a gen3 battery and swap all the cells. With a little patience I can get a whole car for less than the cost of a 'rebuilt' battery.
In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :
Did you balance charge them on the bench?
Like this?
All positive sides connected, all negative sides connected. Then let it "rest" for 24 hours while the cells all equilibriate volts?
Indy - Guy said:In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :
Did you balance charge them on the bench?
Like this? All positive sides connected, all negative sides connected. Then let it "rest" for 24 hours while the cells all equilibriate volts?
That would be the part that I didn't do. One of those "Don't know what you don't know." things. I saw some vague reference to it in some forum posts, but didn't get into the details. When I got a battery fault *again*, I started wondering. Fortunately I left all the trim out of the back and it isn't that much work to pull the battery out again. Thanks 
Most of my time at work involves being ready to do something rather than actually doing something. I can't do dirty work or major repairs, but today I took some time to clean up and do a leather treatment on the '04 Special Edition.
The mirror covers on the visors broke off when I flipped them up. A common problem with these cars. I have replacements/spares, but will keep them in a box out of the sun for now.
My next Gambler event is the Missourah Endurah Gambloro. I'm probably going to trailer the Xbox there. It's a long drive to get there and if I trailer it there I can send it a bit harder with no worry about driving it home.
A month-ish ago there was a fairly sad looking 2000 Boxster on FB Market asking $5k. About a week ago I noticed it was reduced to $3.5k. I messaged the seller a cash and haul it away with my trailer offer of $2.5k saying that I hoped someone would do the full price, but I'm here with a no haggle offer if he needs to get rid of it.
Today he messaged me that I could pick it up this afternoon. His other buyers got 'flakey', didn't show or hoped they could drive it a hundred miles home. He is moving and needs it gone.
Why? Well, I have a couple parts cars without titles. I figure that this can be a Title Car that needs parts.
Its a mess, but clear title and runs, drives, starts, stops. I just handed over the cash, took the title and drove it onto the trailer. No inspection or detailed conversation. I'll figure out what I bought over the next few days. The seller is moving to Poland on Sunday.
I unloaded the 'new' project car from the trailer today and had my first look at it. It looks pretty bad in person, but it may be in better shape than I expected. Once I'm done assessing it, I plan to make it safe for a local drive to the Tag Agency later this week.
Edit: Note, video was in selfie mode on my phone, so it's mirror image. Someone asked if it was RHD.
Then I realized that the Missourah Endurah Gambloro is Tomorrow. Time to take a quick look at the Xbox. Have you ever gone to look at one little thing, then three hours later your whole car is disassembled in the driveway? I have never liked the arrangement I had for carrying the spare tire. There's a radiator in the frunk, so I put the spare on a rack in the back. A big tire back there is not optimal.
I decided to go back to using the factory spare and mount it centrally, bolted to the the engine compartment lid. If I get a flat rear tire, I'll put the spare on a front wheel and move one of the fronts to the back - that should make it somewhat driveable while having one tire with a much smaller diameter.
Then I found a few other things to address.
Note: Remember Hasbro? Barry Hayes. The brake rotors and pads I put on the car today were a gift from him a few years ago. He had bought them and decided to use something different, so he just sent them to me knowing that I'd use them eventually. Never met him in person, but miss him.
AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) said:...... I'm probably going to trailer the Xbox there. It's a long drive to get there and if I trailer it there I can send it a bit harder with no worry about driving it home.
Yep, Xbox got sent.
There was a circle track at the venue and I let people play on the 'Porsche Merry-Go-Round'. I was riding along with someone who over-corrected on the inside and took us out through the tire wall. It rolled and ended up on it's side until bystanders pushed it back to wheels-down. Nobody hurt. It was Awesome.
I'm planning to post more pics and video from the Missourah Endurah tomorrow night.
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