Doc1647545523

Here ya go, buddy: https://www.rallynorthamerica.com/rallies/ohio-valley-700-fall-2016/ Contact me for info. I'll be whatever help I can.

Thank you, Austin. Lucore Automotive has provided business-level sponsorship ever since coming to CR. I'll proudly wear my Lucore gear on the Rally. Let me know if you want to slap a sticker or two on Figgy. I've down to a little more than a week to prepare, so don't delay! Norm, thanks for your support, again. Your money goes to support some very brave children. :thumbup: Grant (Geeesammy), I appreciate your donation. When are you going to join us for one of these?

Yes, I do. But I'm going to have to make do with my limited skills. And a big thank you to Mike (Aesthetic Influx), another generous donation from a Rally North America veteran.

Thank you, Steve (KillJoy) for your support. It's appreciated.

Thanks for the inspiration words and for your support, Joe. :thumbup:

Cordell, you've already helped the cause by helping with the car when I was in a bind. But thanks even more for the donation. You're helping families who have kids battling life-threatening illness. Kyle (MAHLE), many thanks for your very generous donation. You co-piloted on a Rally, when are you coming with a team of your own? Addison (GOOD GUYS DETAILING), thanks. That was kind of you. Ben, thank you for donating. Wish me luck.

I'll call your bluff. Pay up and make the sticker, I'll let you put it on yourself.

I would imagine your "business" has been viewed for a lot less than that. That smart-ass comment earned you a $50 fine. Pay at the donate link.

Thank you, Carl. Very kind of you.

Thank you so much, Rick. Yours was the first donation. You come through every time! :thumbup:

but it's for a very deserving charity, so I've got no shame The 2016 Rally North America main event is the Big Sky Rally. Brian wrote a great summary of what it's about, and his thread is here: http://www.columbusracing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125081 This year CR is represented by two teams, Brian and his wife are a team, and I'm driving solo as Team Figaro. Each team pays registration and all our own expenses to drive across the U.S. and compete with 80 other teams from the U.S. and Canada. We're going to be having a great time this year in Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon. We'll be driving some of the Rocky Mountains greatest roads and seeing Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/af208/trentrbrts/Big%20Sky%20Rally/12189550_952690848103444_2061501409328772701_n_zpsc0zeghjx.jpg http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/af208/trentrbrts/Big%20Sky%20Rally/12829243_1019707524735109_1061326685837348153_o_zpsjbj2g5ai.jpg http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/af208/trentrbrts/Big%20Sky%20Rally/12183915_950406364998559_6486655883702665403_o_zpssq9pdx7a.jpg http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/af208/trentrbrts/Big%20Sky%20Rally/13041293_1046525822053279_6026063644982371376_o_zps8or0g9ij.jpg But most importantly, the reason that we're rallying is to raise money for the charity Camp Sunshine. It's a Camp fully equipped to provide a dream vacation experience for children with serious/terminal illnesses. The Camp provides all the medical and program support needed for the children and their families. Info about them is here: https://www.campsunshine.org/about-us/our-mission http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/af208/trentrbrts/Big%20Sky%20Rally/frontqtr_zpseob0n2ow.jpg Doing this without a navigator/co-driver, and in a car with a mighty 53 horsepower at the front wheels, I can use your help to move me up to a forward starting position. We start in the order of which team raises the most. Your donation goes 100% to Camp Sunshine and is made through their website. The donation is fully tax-deductable (you are emailed your receipt) and will directly benefit a child with serious illness. Click here to donate: http://events.campsunshine.org/site/TR/Events/General?team_id=3460&pg=team&fr_id=1250 I'm asking for $25 donations, but even $10 would be much appreciated. For a $100 donation, businesses can put advertising on the Figaro. Thanks for your support, CR!

Time for my weekly "auto-bump." Another beautiful weekend in the making. See y'all on the patio at 7.

Thanks for the compliments, everyone. But as you read, the credit goes to our CR sponsor, not to me. Tim, thanks for the photos. You have better pics of my cars than I have. Wheel Medic has done wheel work on nearly every car and bike I have. In the case of the Fig, the Viewt, the Bentley, and the FRS, it was Wheel Medic design from the start and all the way through.

Yep, and it lost out to the Blue Turd on the track. Cruising video:

I'm picky about wheels, but don't know much of the technical end of wheels & tires. It's especially hard for me to picture what wheel designs would look good and what wheel/tire combinations will provide best performance for the task at hand, while not interfering with brakes and body panels. I took the Figaro to the Wheel Medic crew and turned them loose on it: (BEFORE PICTURE) http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/af208/trentrbrts/Big%20Sky%20Rally/IMG_1913_zpspbnax97j.jpg Figgy had the stock 12" diameter 5" wide "pizza cutter" wheels, which were, well, distinctive but really not meaty enough to drive 3600 miles in an upcoming rally. The bolt pattern was 4x100. Upgrading to a large wheel and tire would pose clearance problems on the left rear wheel because of the fuel filler neck. Bryce took one look at the car and sent an employee to a specific location on their tire rack to bring out an old, scratchy, nasty looking wheel and told me this would be perfect on my car. I thought he was joking. It was an old "Le Castellet" 14"x 6" wheel that VW put on late '80's and early '90's Golfs, Jettas, and Rabbit Convertibles. It looked ridiculous. He explained that they would treat it, fill-in where the wheel was stamped "Volkswagen," paint it blizzard white, install center caps, and it would look great. I was skeptical, but I've learned to trust the Wheel Medic crew. They did the work at no risk to me, and they delivered on their promise. The new wheels look great on the car: http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/af208/trentrbrts/Big%20Sky%20Rally/frontqtr_zpseob0n2ow.jpg They were direct fit, no spacers. They did have to use conical to ball seat lug adapters, as 12 x 1.25 ball seat lugs do not appear to exist in this universe. http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/af208/trentrbrts/Big%20Sky%20Rally/wheelsoncar.jpg_zps7rq0xkzq.jpg Tires are Yoko 185/55/14, and made a huge improvement in performance and handling. http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/af208/trentrbrts/Big%20Sky%20Rally/full%20wheel.jpg_zpsrnqzbqcv.jpg And, as a bonus, Hanna designed the center caps to have the Figaro logo with DOX FIG (the license plate) written across them: http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/af208/trentrbrts/Big%20Sky%20Rally/enlarge.jpg_zpsmpqitnrq.jpg Four wheels and four new tires were installed at a rock-bottom price, about what the cost of just one wheel from a high-line manufacturer would be. If it gets better than this, I don't know how. Many thanks, Hanna, Bryce, and the whole Wheel Medic shop! These custom wheels get compliments wherever I go. :thumbup:

Great thread, Brian. :thumbup: I'll be posting a thread shortly as well. My excuse is that I just got the rally stickers on the car for photos. One item I might add is that a CR member, Scott Spielman (Spieldawg) is a co-founder of Rally North America and partially responsible for raising over a half a million dollars for charities since 2009. Scott's a great guy. He joined CR at the urging of his friend, George Staton, not long before George's death. Over 20 CR members have competed in Rally North America, and CR teams have had numerous podium finishes in this national event.

Yep, that was during the 1995 World Rally Championship season. They got a 1 year ban for using illegal turbo restrictors on their ST205 Celica GT-Four WRC (not that you're ever going to see one of those anywhere).

Round up the usual suspects. See ya at 7.

I'm headed out, but not my usual early bird appearance. Perhaps 7ish.

I remember hearing this a few years ago on Freakonomics: Can Parking Direction Tell Us Anything About Company Morale? December 30, 2011 @ 10:06am by Stephen J. Dubner A reader named Tim Wadlow writes in with an interesting theory: "I spent about 10 years as a operations management consultant, working with dirty, dull, and dangerous manufacturing companies. After spending time at roughly 100 manufacturing locations around the world, I noticed an odd trend: the direction that employees parked in their parking spots highly correlated with employee morale and satisfaction with their jobs. Most of the cars parked forward? A good company to work for, with employees who want to get to work. Most cars backwards? It seems as though the moment that the employee got to work, he or she was planning a quick exit. Next time you drive by a manufacturing company check it out. Maybe CEO’s should study Google Earth maps of their parking lots to determine if they are changing a companies culture?" I love Tim’s thinking and would love to see someone test the idea empirically even though I have my doubts. The forward/reverse parking metric strikes me as too crude and too binary to tell us much of anything. But maybe I’m wrong. One other thought: drug use is a big problem in some manufacturing plants; maybe employees who get to work stoned are more likely to park forward; and maybe that’s why companies with a lot of forward-parked cars tend to seem happier? I'm sure there are many exceptions to this theory, but in the places I've worked, it's generally been true. People who pull into parking spots are eager to get to work; people who back into their spots are eager to leave.

Fortunately for us, we have Wilmington just an hour away. Sad about Bonneville, though. I was only there once, briefly in the 1960's, and it made a lasting impression--so vast, grand but bleak.

Friday bump. I'll prolly stop out early to get tables on the patio and pre-screen for a good server. Likely will be there by 6:30.

Most show up at 7 and leave 9:30, but that varies. I'm just arriving now to beat the traffic from Delaware.

I'll prolly start it off early there. I expect heavy traffic, lots of popo on the roads, and short tempered drivers.

If you aren't having any takers, perhaps you should re-examine your technique, Mr. Carnegie. As my drug-addled, pit bull owning, wife beating relatives would say, "You'll catch more flies with honey than you will with vinegar."