edrach

Think about the Nokia Hakkipollitta snowtires. I've got two years of use on the ones I used today and they didn't let me down until I went too far right to let someone come down the hill. I never had a problem stopping or starting on any of the hilly sections.

It was certainly a lot of fun. Much more snow than last year prevented me from getting all the way to the top of the road (did anyone make it all the way up?). I made the mistake of moving too far right for a car coming downhill and the snow sucked me in. Qman was about to tow me out when a large truck offered and yanked me out of the snowbank...Ken you should change your handle to AAA man considering how many people you "assisted" in getting up the hill. Maybe QmAAAn would work! What was also nice to see was the number of young kids that came along to enjoy the snow. A really fine family outing.

I queried the seller; here's the response: I have five shirts all sized youth XL 14-16 Material is 100% cotton

Welcome to the Board. Sounds like you have quite a family of Sube followers. Best of luck with your new Forester.

SCCA rally schools are generally pricey, but the guy says affordable. We'll see. But I'm already counting the days.

Pulled this from the ORG website/discussion group. From: "John Elkin" <johnelkin@c...> Date: Sat Nov 1, 2003 8:52 am Subject: Oregon Rally School March 20-21, 2004 Washington County Fairgrounds Hillsboro, Oregon * Performance & Rallycross Driving Training * Street cars and fully prepped rally cars welcome * Navigation training including all timing systems and course note overview * Vehicle prep overview * SCCA National Rally School fully sanctioned and insured * Working box lunch included along with a social dinner with all students and instructors * Instructors to this point (with more to be added later): * Lauchlin O’Sullivan * Pat Richard * Scott Fuller * Paul Eklund * Dave Hintz * Dave Kean * Ben Bradley * Peter VanBogart * Exciting new names announced very soon! * Affordable! Look here and at http://www.oregonrally.com <http://www.oregonrally.com/> for more announcements as they become available. John Elkin johnelkin@c... 360-896-2808 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

My choice is http://www.cvaxles.com also. For an EA82/81 car they charged $55 plus shipping plus a returnable core charge. One of the few re-builders who actually use new joints when rebuilding axles. The $55 is a special USMB price so if they quote you more, mention that; it could be the price has gone up some since I last bought an axle from them.

Matt, if Jeanne decides not to go, you can ride with me--but don't plan on it since she's up for it right now.

Mark, you're correct. However, the SCCA rules are even more confusing than what is currently used. It's obvious that ORG has amended the regs to suit "what is popular." I had trouble finding the specific rules, but they can be found at: http://www.scca.org/amateur/performance_rally/03rulebook/Article10.pdf The 3700 pound minimum weight would entirely kill most classes.

Your 8 degrees with the hose plugged is spot on. As the engine rpm increases the vacuum should cause your advance to climb to around 20 degees advanced. It's possible the advance is not stopping at the maximum advance and that's what's causing the pinging. A timing light will tell you what's happening. Also, whose gas are you buying? I generally use Chevron, Shell or Unocal regular. Whenever I try to save a few cents per gallon (like Arco, Costco, or any of the other "off brands") my car pings like crazy.

Above and to the left of the blower. I think you'll need to remove the glovebox to find it. I don't know if there's a filter, however, I've found a mouse nest once in there. Once I cleaned that out, the blower worked much better.

Try searching the repair manual section. I could swear I (and others) posted some details that might interest you. As per the earlier post it is down below the dash just forward and slightly to the left of the blower motor. One 10 mm screw and two phillips head screws will remove it. Best source is the wrecking yard; unfortunately, many are bad when you get them. I used to hunt for good ones and found that only one out of 5 were good. I might have a good one in my stash; if you want I'll stop by the old residence and look. If I find one, I'd like $15 for it (I'll pick up the postage). By the way, the same unit is used on the EA81 as well as the EA82 cars. However, your best chance of finding a good one is to go with the newest car you can find.

Galen, I think he has more than one, but if that's the only one, I'll defer to you. By the way, are you still interested in the snowflake wheels?

Here's some updates and links from the ORG website: http://www.oregonrally.com/?page=RallyXDiscussion

Eric, glad to see someone with a realistic attitude about having fun. I'm not ready for Open yet. If I get to the point of not having enough competition in Truck/Suv, I'll be joining you in Open. Fun, that's really what it's about.

Loose castle nuts will do that to you. Aren't you glad you didn't have the money to pay the geniuses at Les Schwab for a repair you didn't need?

I've been a long time dis-liking SCCA for a number of reasons. However, it's a necessary evil. In our litiginous society, one has to have insurance, and rallycross wouldn't run without the $5M insurance policy that SCCA provides.

Matt, I asked his permission and he said okay. He's quite motivated to get his wagon running properly.

Second tow truck guy finally showed up. Cool guy--he knew what a Brat was. Says he just bought a yellow '84 wagon with a turbo. He needs someone to replace the headgaskets and is looking for help. His name is Ron and number is 206-423-9241. He wants to fix it up so "he can go out in the woods and play." He does have a real turbo since it's also an automatic tranny. His other comment is "If you ever need a tow, call me, I'll go anywhere. I even towed a guy home from California."

What bites even more is after waiting an hour for the tow truck, the operator claims he can't take the car without damaging it further and we have to wait for a "swing truck" which will be dispatched out of Seattle.

Can't just wipe the slate clean and re-classify. The problem is that the RallyX classes need to be commensurate with SCCA's classes for the Club and Pro Rally series. There's where part of the problem lies. The rest of the problem is the same as in Open where Subarus also dominate and I don't hear any complaints there.

Since I'm slightly superstitious and I believe things happen in threes--this is a warning:dead: Last Wednesday, my Brat was rear-ended while waiting for a traffic light to change. Luckily, minimal damage, but still damaged. Tonight 84Soob was coming to our house to pick up his seats and was cut off by an Expedition:madder: trying to pass on the right. Unfortunately, the wheel hub was broken at the steering knuckle and we're currently waiting for AAA to tow his car home. So park your Brats for a while until the Trio Curse is abated.

I'm quite partial to the Hakki's (from Nokia) but I've driven on the Toyo Observe also and it too is quite good. Price for the Hakki's in a 14" size recently came to $420 for the set of four with all the extra charges and tax. This was for the all season tires listed on their website and not the Q series which are specifically for the winter season. Miles is correct about the fact that taller, skinnier tires work better in deep snow.

Check the ORG website and check out the classes as they now stand. The Brat (and the wagons too) certainly fit in Truck/SUV. It would be ludricous to move either vehicle into PGT since there is a minimum adjusted displacement of 2650 cc. Even more ludricrous to move them into Open (for the same reason and thensome). Frankly, the Brats (and wagons) are not outclassing the trucks and Durangos because of any inherent advantage in suspension or engine.....it's just that there were almost 12 of them running in the class during the last event (with some pretty good drivers too). And in spite of that, the lone Durango still won the class that day! And on an overall basis, the Durango still came in 2nd for the second time in two years. Granted, that placing was surrounded by Brats but that's only because 6 or more ran for the series. The real key here is not the difference in the cars but the skill of the driver. Show me 6 Durangos with 3 or more year's experience running the series and they'll likely move up in the standings---or force the Brat drivers to get better!

Ken, I think the real problem is that ORG is trying to adhere to the SCCA Club rally classes and decided that the Brat would be best in the Truck/SUV class. I'm personally against moving the Brat to PGT running against turbos and other such more exotic cars (not that it wouldn't be competitive with the right driver). I feel the same about moving the Brat into Open. Realistically, I think the most fair solution would be to split the truck/suv class into two classes. Or leave it alone, the Durango is obviously competitive in that class with the Brats based on the year-end finishes of the only Durango to run the series for the last two years. It did disappoint me that we did manage to chase the Jeeps and "actual" trucks out of the class.