Patrick
Patrick GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/29/17 1:59 p.m.

This year, we picked up a car for the challenge at some point.  I can't remember when but it's somewhere in the March-May window.  Those of you who have built for the event know it's downright insane to try and start your build 4-5 months out.  In the back of my mind was the Datsun, knowing it would be the backup plan should I not have time to complete the extremely ambitious build.  Come June, I knew it was time to push the other car to $2018 and get the Datsun ready for this year.  Torque converter was changed out twice, once because I was in a pinch to run the Roadkill ZipTie Drags event at Norwalk, which ended badly, and a second time for budget reasons because I scored a $$$ FTI converter for $135 on clearance with a coupon at Summit Racing.  Once the driveline was buttoned back up, I turned my attention to the appearance.  Black and white is boring, and I was bored with it.  However, I loved my black hood and nose.  So I waffled.  I was going to go full on different paint scheme, bought paint, realized it was not happening under budget because I literally was repurchasing items and swapping them out with identical new parts because the price had fallen significantly on 2 major fuel system components in 2 years.

We had a wind storm, which deposited some new sheets of coroplast in the ditch in front of the house, and all over the grass.  nobody picked them up, so i grabbed them.  Couple those with a salvaged 2x4 and me being a carpenter, and we've got the makings of a spoiler.

 

I had fiberglass mat and resin left of the $12 clearance fiberglass kit I purchased in 2015 to repair the warped hood

 

 

Now, the spoiler was all well and good, but the car needed something else to get the look I was going for.  Enter ebay, and some flexible flares.  Problem:  14x5.5 wheels and tucked 205/55 tires don't need flares.  Enter the list of craig.  I found a guy about an hour and a half away who had advertised new M&H racemaster drag slicks in the size that is right for the car for super cheap on wheels from his SRT4 neon.  Like so cheap that they were either stolen or they had a hell of a story behind them.  It was the latter.  Seller goes on for 10 minutes about how he built this awesome SRT4 and got the slicks and wheels brand new to go to the strip.  Being not so smart, he was getting pulled over and decided to lead the police on a high speed multi county chase, resulting in impound of the car and fees that he could not afford.  So the wheels and tires sat in his house for a few years before he decided he needed cash, and why nobody jumped them quicker is beyond me.  They had been up for over 2 weeks when I saw them, for $100 all in.  This still doesnt help me need flares.  A couple days later I find an ad for 15x8 american racing 4 lug multi bolt pattern wheels.  $200 or offer/trade.  I stop on way home from work.  Wheels are corroded and dinged up, but solid and I take a chance on bolt pattern being right.  I offer the wheels from the SRT4 slicks deal straight across because he has a car they fit.  I gather 2 wheels you can use is better than 4 in the backyard, so we shake and i come back and swap wheels.  unfortunately he makes me take the junk tires that go with the wheels even though i offer to dismount and bring back.  So now we have 15x8 wheels with stretched 185 tires.  These require flares.  And proper tires.

 

 

Patrick
Patrick GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/29/17 1:59 p.m.

So back to that paint.  The white still cleans up nice.  Black touches up fine.  But, the boring part.  BRE is so played out on Datsuns and Nissans that my dead grandma is sick of it.  Cue Stampie.  Bob Sharp he says.  I can't do the whole thing, there's just zero cash for the supplies.  But, I score $2.99 red and blue rustoleum at Ollie's Bargain Outlet and decide to give Bob a nod by doing the tail stripes resembling sort of what you'd see on his cars.  

 

 

Seen here are my too tall 26" slicks

 

 

RED!

 

SPOILER!  

 

 

Rest of prep time was spent cleaning the stickers of challenges past off the car, all the goo and dirt from towing to Norwalk in the rain on the open trailer, and installing what would be that one key element to success turning left and right.  One little pair of free bump stops to limit front downward suspension travel.  Oh yeah, I mounted some used S80 compound 245/580/15 Hoosier road race tires that I got for around $300 shipped.  I pull out of the garage the Sunday before the challenge and stand back and look, I'm in love all over again.

 

 

My new trailer is too big for the driveway, so we had to run it across the street to load at the neighbor's house.  Have I mentioned how awesome the people across the street are?  Because they're awesome.   Load uneventfully, the E track and corresponding straps and stuff have made loading a snap.  

 

 

1000+ miles later and I'm greeted with this

Patrick
Patrick GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/29/17 1:59 p.m.

Oddly enough, at the challenge, I took very few pictures.  I think my wife might have some but we have zero pictures of the car on course, so if anyone has some feel free to throw them up here.  I think the first picture I took was after pulling into pavilion for Concours.  Racing results were 7th in autocross with a 37.xxx and 4th in drags with a 12.01@114.  Strip was oiled immediately before my first pass (thanks Kurt) and I backed out somewhere before 1/8 mile, and I got on the bottle before I went WOT and hurt something.  Stupid me, should have just bailed on the run entirely.  That run was 1.7 60' and 12.5 after backing out for what felt like an eternity.  Next pass changed lanes and was the 12.01 pass, but on a 1.88 60'. Next pass was 1.98 60' and 12.1 popping back through the intake while slowing down after run, suspecting burned valve(s) on the super high mile 5.3.  Will do compression/leakdown tests on it and stick the boroscope in the holes to see what's up.  

This is tail tucked between legs in the pavilion, sitting 3rd in dynamic scoring behind Ed Malle and just a tick off GA tech.

 

Colin and Abby enjoyed themselves at the Concours saturday

 

 

and finally I took a couple pictures out by the Tech shed after judging.

 

 

 

Thus concludes my $2017 experience.  The Team Alavanche Datsun is retired and will, provided the pistons are OK, get LS6 heads/cam swap in the spring and go in search of the elusive 10 second pass, while staying able to autocross if I feel like waking up really early on any given Sunday.

 

Oh yeah, there's this little guy.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to everyone that made this possible! 

 

Andrew Nelson for his attention to detail with the initial build 10+ years ago.

Stampie for creative input

Ranger50 for not blabbing about the flares and spoiler prior to the event.

Mazdeuce for helping me apply the spoiler lettering

Tod & Ted for being Datsun fanboys and keeping me positive and in the correct state of mind and being my pit crew

John Welsh for general assistance and driving the GT challenge so i could prep for dragstrip

John Thomas for piloting the autocross for me, i was too stressed to even attempt to drive myself with a hangry wife being pissed at me for not rectifying her food situation at the track

 

Next year we're coming for the overall.

dropstep
dropstep SuperDork
10/29/17 2:26 p.m.

Im pretty much an old american(ford mostly) guy but this just looks so right. 

Stampie
Stampie GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
10/29/17 3:00 p.m.

Congrats again and thanks for letting me be just a tiny little bit of it. 

Andy Neuman
Andy Neuman Dork
10/29/17 3:28 p.m.

I need to continue to work on my photography skills. I have more I’ll post later. 

underpowered
underpowered GRM+ Memberand New Reader
10/29/17 5:57 p.m.

westsidetalon
westsidetalon Reader
10/29/17 6:48 p.m.

Great job on this years challenge!  

Patrick
Patrick GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/29/17 7:58 p.m.
westsidetalon said:

Great job on this years challenge!  

Thanks! I find it lame on both our parts that we've not met yet.  

DeadSkunk
DeadSkunk UberDork
10/29/17 9:48 p.m.

Pat, what's in the Datsun for a rearend?

Patrick
Patrick GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/30/17 7:46 a.m.

R180 and stock half shafts surprise

John Welsh
John Welsh MegaDork
10/30/17 8:59 a.m.

How will you top this next year? devil  Que the maniacal laugh of the evil genius!    

Ovid_and_Flem
Ovid_and_Flem Dork
10/30/17 9:30 a.m.

Car really has undergone substantial development upgrades from two years ago.  Nice job, Pat!

Andy Neuman
Andy Neuman Dork
10/30/17 2:13 p.m.

I also have drag pictures. 

bigben
bigben Reader
10/31/17 9:34 a.m.

Okay. So which cheapy eBay flares did you buy and do you recommend them?

 

Andy Neuman
Andy Neuman Dork
10/31/17 5:19 p.m.

This is all I could find. 

Ovid_and_Flem
Ovid_and_Flem Dork
10/31/17 6:11 p.m.

Ironic that JT used #23 for years on his ax Z car.

Patrick
Patrick GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/31/17 7:49 p.m.
Ovid_and_Flem said:

Ironic that JT used #23 for years on his ax Z car.

Purely coincidental.  We had a smile about it during the course worker shift change.  The story is this:  as a starving Cleveland sports fanatic, when LeBron came back in 2015 I said that if he brought me a championship parade, the Datsun would be number 23 for the rest of my ownership.  That happened in 2016, so the car is number 23 and will stay that way.  Probably all future Team Alavanche builds will be, because I made the number panels magnets this year after being through peeling previous years stickers off one too many times.  It was cheaper to get magnets for the panels than to but orange solvent to remove the glue.

Patrick
Patrick GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/31/17 7:51 p.m.
bigben said:

Okay. So which cheapy eBay flares did you buy and do you recommend them?

 

I'll try and get a link.  They were $43+ $10 for shipping direct from china, and oddly enough showed up in 5 days.  They're flexible and conformed well to the car.  

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