Who's prepping for the $2010 Challenge?

I never thought I'd have it in me to lowball some people to the extent I have... I've been surprised at what some people will take for their items if you wave cash in their face.

jwdmotorsports wrote: Speaking of D-Series motors. Do they all use the same mount points and is intake/exhaust/etc. interchangeable?

-ish.

They all share the tranny mounting pattern, and since 3 of the 4 mounts are on the trans, then for the most part, any D Series block can go into any D Series engine bay. The DOHC had a different driver side motor mount than the SOHC, but nothing that isn't easily overcome with some part swapping / minor fab IIRC.

Intake - 90% sure that they are all directly interchangable.

Exhaust - Sort of interchangable. IIRC the bolt pattern is the same, but the DOHC has the ports shifted down a few mm.

That should open up some options if I don't have to look for just D16A1 parts.

OK, so if I buy a pair of used seats but the driver's seat is more worn, ripped etc than the passenger, does the value get divided in half or can it be related at a percentage and who decides upon the percentage.

Devils advocate

Negotiating getting a 155,000K used E36M3 clutch and pp for free at FMV, courtesy of Columbus c-list

aussiesmg wrote: OK, so if I buy a pair of used seats but the driver's seat is more worn, ripped etc than the passenger, does the value get divided in half or can it be related at a percentage and who decides upon the percentage. Devils advocate

We decide. Post pics and details for the jury please.

ansonivan wrote:

SVreX wrote: So, what is the ruling on buying in bulk? Can you count only the portion of the purchase that is used on the build, or do you need to utilize the recoup budget?

Very interested in this one also... I want a set of reground cams... buying 10 to drop the unit cost would really help.

Let me know what you're building. I may be able to help here.

I've been surprised at what some people will take for their items if you wave cash in their face.

You're wise beyond your years, sonny

See also: Never negotiate over the phone/via email. Always have cash. Always show cash to seller. Always remind seller that there are a lot of "I was gonna's" in the world, but you're the guy with cash. Always know what your "walk-away" price is.

Also, when throwing down the word "cash" make sure and add an immediate time qualifier. Such as "$XXX cash money dollars tonight." That's how we got our turbo for 2010.

poopshovel wrote:

I've been surprised at what some people will take for their items if you wave cash in their face.

You're wise beyond your years, sonny See also: Never negotiate over the phone/via email. Always have cash. Always show cash to seller. Always remind seller that there are a lot of "I was gonna's" in the world, but you're the guy with cash. Always know what your "walk-away" price is.

troof! never negotiate remotely. always tell the seller that you've got three more to look at, that are closer to home. they can usually figure out that if you leave, you ain't coming back.

zomby woof wrote:

ansonivan wrote:

SVreX wrote: So, what is the ruling on buying in bulk? Can you count only the portion of the purchase that is used on the build, or do you need to utilize the recoup budget?

Very interested in this one also... I want a set of reground cams... buying 10 to drop the unit cost would really help.

Let me know what you're building. I may be able to help here.

vw 16v engines - I would love a set of cams reground to schrick 268/276 profiles

Do you have a cam grinding connection?

I grind cams. Thats not my specialty, but I'll look at it.

Anybody in PA know if the Carlisle Import&Kit Nationals would be worth going to to pick up challenge parts?

As A&M's project manager for our 2010 GRM Challenge team, my biggest obstacles by far are the school itself. Texas A&M is a state university, and is the 7th largest university in the nation. Any and all jokes you've heard about bureaucratic productivity are true.

The oldest among us is 23, and the average age is 21. We're all full-time students taking at least 12 hours (I'm taking 17). We're all (with the exception of one driver) undergraduate students, most engineering. We are incapable of entering in this competition, or any other undertaking of that matter, without some sort of backing. Thus, we're bound to Texas A&M and the Society of Automotive Engineers. This raises some problems with two main areas: facilities and finances.

Mechanically, we're independent. We make all the decisions as a group, and if we don't know how to do something, we teach ourselves or just dive in. Usually works out just fine. Financially, we're bound to the school. We're an officially recognized organization, and are given a small sum of money by the Mechanical Engineering department. The only catch is we have to do all of our banking through the Student Organization Finance Center, or SOFC. This is far and away the financial institution I've ever dealt with. 99 times out of 100, I have to front the cash for our purchases, and this means I'm usually due about $300 or so by the school. That's a lot of money for a college kid. The reimbursement process takes about a week once I turn in our receipts. By then, I've had to buy something else, and there is more money I'm owed. It's a neverending process. Occasionally, though, I can take out a cash advance, but it takes 24 hours for "processing" once the form is turned in, and I have 5 business days to turn in all the receipts accounting for every penny I was given, or our account is suspended (it's happened a few times). The best part about this "service" we're provided by the school is our organization is charged 2% for keeping our money there.

RD: we're charged 2% for using the mandatory bank, and have no direct way of withdrawing our money (like a debit card, etc).

The other fun thing we have to figure out is facilities. Most of you take for granted having a garage to work in, or at least a place to leave the car. We all live on campus or in apartments, so we have to find somewhere to keep our car and tools. Right now, we're in a small (15x20ish) building in a office environment, and we've had the police called on us by our cubicle-bound neighbors for making too much noise. They said we were running a car indoors, and at the time, the crankshaft and block were on opposite sides of the room. We've been trying to secure more adequate facilities for almost 18 months now, and are still in that same room. We've had a few possible leads on abandoned buildings, but between the layers and layers of bureaucracy and the clout we have as an undergraduate student project, we're stuck. As a project manager, there's nothing worse than hitting a wall and coming to a halt. We're currently sitting around, waiting for space to move to so we can weld and make stuff happen. It's a stress nightmare. I'm going to be lucky to make it out of college with basic motor and language skills intact.

I know there has been talk of making a "college class" at the Challenge, if there's enough interest. Some have said it's necessary because colleges have an unfair advantage with access to more equipment and resources. While that may be partly true, keep in mind there's another side to every story. We may have some fun stuff to play with and we'll have something cool to show off at the Challenge, but we're going through hell to get it there.

unevolved wrote: Right now, we're in a small (15x20ish) building

I feel your pain. My garage area is about 15x25. Any extra stuff makes it impossible to work in. Really tearing down the car means it's impossible to work in. Etc.

When I was in college the college sports car club had a very small garage that we stored our club autocross car in. It was part of the local YMCA building. We got accused of all the same stuff you mentioned and eventually got kicked out.

See also: The airplane hangar thread. If you can get enough guys to kick in a whopping $20 or so a month, you might be able to swing a pretty kickass garage...complete with FREE CL beer fridge! That being said, we've built and stored most of our hongs outdoors. An easy-up (for working in the rain) and a big blue tarp (in lieu of a car cover) are your friends. I'm pretty much the only one in our group with any "usable" garage space, and it's still easier to roll a car outside, as it's damned near impossible to move inside. I know that's not really an option if everybody's in an apt., but ever thought about renting, or even buying a house with a couple friends? Just thinkin' out loud. Best of luck!!!

AngryCorvair wrote:

poopshovel wrote:

I've been surprised at what some people will take for their items if you wave cash in their face.

You're wise beyond your years, sonny See also: Never negotiate over the phone/via email. Always have cash. Always show cash to seller. Always remind seller that there are a lot of "I was gonna's" in the world, but you're the guy with cash. Always know what your "walk-away" price is.

troof! *never* negotiate remotely. *always* tell the seller that you've got three more to look at, that are closer to home. they can usually figure out that if you leave, you ain't coming back.

I do a little of both :) Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes a seller will let you take a picture of him holding the item in question just after you offer 1/2 of what they were asking

jwdmotorsports wrote: Anybody in PA know if the Carlisle Import&Kit Nationals would be worth going to to pick up challenge parts?

Don"t know about Carlisle, but Maple Grove on 4/10-11 is really a good one.

Carlisle depends on what you are working on the sports car (import kit car) show is hit or miss if you are looking for wierd Fiat parts you're in business, if you're looking for 3' of 5/16 vac line to hook up your bypass valve to see if you can get that 23.x lap time from your Tbird you get to pay $7 a foot

wheels777 wrote:

jwdmotorsports wrote: Anybody in PA know if the Carlisle Import&Kit Nationals would be worth going to to pick up challenge parts?

Don"t know about Carlisle, but Maple Grove on 4/10-11 is really a good one.

Do you have a link for this swap meet?

I retract my earlier statement. According to GRM, Me and Wayne won the Challenge last year. I'll be expecting my bigass trophy, and 24" Kumho Road Venture KL71 mudders in the mail. kthxbye.

Ok, I am in

After a few weeks of shopping, I put a deposit down on my challenge car this morning. I am strictly in this for fun and am going to keep this under $1000.

Looks like plenty of things have changed since the last challenge I attended (2001? I forget...) but also many things are still the same.

To make a LONG story short, the car is a 1996 9000 CSE 5 speed 2.3 16v dohc intercooled turbo, with more bells and whistles then any sane man truly needs. See you in September.

I have a house in the burb's and a garage and I still do it all outside on a gravel driveway.

That's due to so many other craptastical projects and parts stored in the garage.

We just found a friend who runs the Energy Systems Lab here at A&M who cleared out some space in the back of his shop for us to use short-term. We'll be rocking his sticker on the car in October for helping us out.

unevolved wrote: We just found a friend who runs the Energy Systems Lab here at A&M who cleared out some space in the back of his shop for us to use short-term. We'll be rocking his sticker on the car in October for helping us out.

Congrats!