The baton has been passed...

I've done the $20XX Challenge for ten years, mostly as a solo.

I've worked with my kids, home schooled students, and Boy Scouts, but been mostly unsuccessful at getting other team mates involved locally.

I've know for a long time I could do a better job with a team, just never had the opportunity.

Last year I formed a team together with some of the Gainesville guys (Mr Joshua, spinout007, and dyintorace) which is working out pretty well. We've divided up the work, and are trailering the car back and forth between us (3 hrs).

So, the last month I've been feverishly working on the car, as if it was Sept and the Challenge was right around the corner. But the rush wasn't the Challenge, it was my hand-off date. May 24.

I met the Gainesville guys at a mid point, and we autocrossed the car all day. It won its class (with Mr Joshua at the wheel, who beat me by 0.03 seconds), but more importantly, we started a nice list of improvements we can be working on.

Then I disconnected the trailer, and the Gainesville guys hooked up and took the car South.

Maybe we are Team Vagabond, or something like that.

Yeah, we are already test and tuning (we must be crazy in the head). We've got 2 more joint autocrosses scheduled, 2 more solo autocrosses, and a couple of drag events.

It's kind of weird- my garage is now empty. I woke up this morning not sure what to do with myself.

But the car is now in the able hands of the Gainesville gang, for the next wave of improvements. We will meet again in 2 months and swap again.

In some way I actually feel a sense of relief. It's nice not having the thing in my garage calling my name, and trusting someone else to tackle the next few things. I get a break for a bit- they get the heat. ;-)

We'll start a build thread soon, but I thought some of you might be interested in our unique approach.

And I thought I'd say goodbye to The Mumpkin for a little while.

Good luck, Gainesville!

that sounds cool.

i'm a team of one this year, my car is coming home sunday and i really can not wait. it'll go right alongside the chevelle and get the broken bits fixed ASAP as i've got a pile of parts that i'm tripping over to get it together, and my goal is to get both cars painted at the same time so i can build a temporary paint booth and tear it down quickly.

see you in gainesville.

I'm a team of one ,also. I'll be lucky to get it done for this year, but I keep plugging away between other things around the homestead.

I need a team.

Appleseed wrote: I need a team.

Maybe you need a more creative solution.

I'm keeping my eyes open for a car still... might turn into a last-minute-build.

I'm thrilled to have it back nearby. The autocross was very fun and extremely informative. We are headed exactly in the right direction and have some BIG, moderately easy improvements we can make in the next few months.
This car has so much GRM history and has been a terrible victim of repeated almost great last minute builds. It has been great fun to thrash on it last minute with wonderful friends year after year, but I am massively excited about the crew that has come together and the potential of an actual year long build.

Awesome sauce

Pretty cool idea guys. Hard to believe we're 5 months away.

I always get a warm fuzzy when Andrew gives me a pat on the back!

You're doing it wrong. Everyone knows you aren't supposed to start working on a challenge car until a month before and it should arrive completely untested. All that testing takes the sport out of it

Testing is our intimidation factor.

Our sport will be going Duck hunting in Oct.

In reply to evildky:

We are very experienced with the one month builds. This car got 8th overall twice with that approach. We're tired of 8th.

3 times (sort of)

The year in between, I placed 8th (in another car).

It's dirty

But that's what happens when this is between you and your test roads:

Who says you can't test on THAT road?

We are starting to entries in and can't wait to see everyone again.

In reply to Tim Suddard:

i should hope so, i sent mine in monday. i kept watching the challenge page for the entry form to get posted.

SVreX wrote: Who says you can't test on THAT road?

825/550lb springs, 4" of ground clearance, and a seat thats too narrow for my narrow butt says no. (though we have been incredibly tempted to throw a stock spring shock setup on and play rally )

Tim Suddard wrote: We are starting to entries in and can't wait to see everyone again.

Thanks Tim. We love this event. I can't wait to see how this car stacks up!

In reply to MrJoshua:

Chicken!

Yeah, I think that seat is gonna have to go.

Houston, we had a problem......s.

The car ran like crap at the Moultrie autocross. At the Mitty and in the morning Moultrie runs it had good power up to a certain RPM then backfired and coughed its way to redline. In the afternoon at Moultrie it was worse with constant stuttering throughout the RPM range. Since it came to Gainesville I have poked at it sporadically trying to figure it out and Spinout007 has logged a fair amount of hours with the MS and behind the wheel chasing demons. We killed two O2 sensors, swapped wires and coils, and started gathering parts for a COP swap. SVReX and Spinout007 blamed it on the tune, the O2 sensor, and the plugs. I kept trying to return the car to a state i knew worked well in the past to start troubleshooting from there. Today I pulled the cheap 7 year old plugs out to replace them with cheap new plugs. . The old ones looked old but not bad enough to cause our issues.

until i flipped them over!

Thats a first for me. So we got super happy, fired it up and......sad. Still had a lumpy idle and ran like crap. So started pulling wires-spark on all 4 but number one had no effect. Pulled the plug and fired it up-had compression. Flashedback to '11 when Dyintorace and i kept fighting to get autotune to stop making things worse and started checking injectors. The wires to the back of the injector plug could unplug with almost no pressure. Plugged them in and.....its see if a supercharged egg can keep up with a turbo pumpkin time:
run mumkin run!

Woot!

I knew you guys would find it!

MrJoshua wrote: SVReX and Spinout007 blamed it on the tune, the O2 sensor, and the plugs.

So, it was the tune, O2 sensor, plugs, and injector?

3 out of 4 ain't bad!

Didn't change the O2 sensor and the tune switch didn't fix the problem. Sounds like you got plugs and I got injector.