It’s been several months since I posted an update, mainly because the car’s just kept going and going without difficulty. I got one of the u-joints replaced. I replaced the stock Goodyear Eagle RS-As with Falken Ziex 912s, and currently Firestone Winterforce tires for winter. I also got the air conditioning repaired, and it works great. Other than this, the car has needed nothing but regular fluid changes.
I went to a Cumberland Motor Club dyno day this summer, and found the car puts right around 200hp to the wheels. With a stock crank rating of 239, that’s pretty much right on the money.
I did a couple of autocrosses this year. One was on the Goodyear Eagle RS-As, which convinced me that I needed to get rid of them. The Falkens held up much better, but I was still extremely slow. I managed to beat some novices - not all - but that was about it. Still, the car seemed to be a real crowd pleaser. The car, as well as my driving, got many compliments from the other participants, despite what the clock had to say. At the second event I did, I threw an amber revolving light on the roof just for fun after one of the organizers at the first event told me I needed to run some flashing lights during my runs. Also, during my first of nine runs at that event, I cranked “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys, just for fun.
Once I got the snow tires on, I took the car to its first rallycross, where I won SR. Unfortunately, I was also the only entry in SR, and in a different run group than the other rear wheel drive classes, so I wasn’t able to actually compare myself to anyone else. I hope to be able to do that at a future event. Meanwhile, I just had a whole lot of fun pretending to be Roscoe P. Coltraine in hot pursuit of them Duke boys. You can watch me in action https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX8C2Cn14W8">here.
