Noob from CT

[topmucker]

Hey folks, I've been lurking as a guest on the site for a while and finally decided to sign up. Lots of great reading and banter on here.

No illusions of being the next Bertie Fisher but would love to get out there in the next year or so. I've been doing trackdays for while but my heart has always been with Tarmac rallying...

I was lucking enough to grow up in Northern Ireland and got to see some awesome rallying - back in the days of 6R4's, Sierra Cosworths, Legacy's, M3 etc. Even got to see McRae rip it up a few times.

Anyhow, very happy to see rallyings growth here in the US... now we just need proper TV coverage.

KL

[Abington Rally]

Welcome! Where in CT are you?

[topmucker]

Hey Dan, I'm in Enfield - pretty much on the MA line. What about yourself?

[Abington Rally]

Nice area up by the MA line, I used to cruise around up there. I'm in the northeast corner, Pomfret, it's right near the MA/RI line. I bet you have some good stories from N. Ireland! We occasionally organize some back road drives in northeast and northwest CT, if you're interested, I'll let you know when we do it. We're a noob rally team too, car is almost done, might get some seat time this year but probably in the spring.

btw, if you're into tarmac rally, your best,and I think only local, bet is Rally New York in the spring, that event is all tarmac.

[topmucker]

Ah the Quiet Corner! At least thats what Box Maxim always calls it :)

Yep.. a few good stories about following the Circuit of Ireland with my brother in a rental car ;) That car got such a beating I felt a little bad when we returned it.

Enjoying the back roads sounds like fun... I'm currently restoring an E30 M3 so would love to stretch its legs when finished. At the rate I'm going though it will probably be the spring!

[REDrum]

Welcome!!!

More than happy to offer advice (often very cheap), used subie parts & tires, and beer. Come say hello at the next event. (RNY in 11 days BTW...) Shoot me your email and we'll add you to the NESC,Inc rally mailing list.


Rally New York in the spring, that event is all tarmac.

Its Irish tarmac..not quite pavement...not quite gravel. Just no "shinny" spots...

Cheers,
Niall

[topmucker]

Hey Niall,

Irish Tarmac sounds good to me! What's a tarmac rally without some narrow, off camber bumpy corners.. although there's probably no cowsh@te (dumped mid corner) in this part of the world.... come to think of it... I haven't seen too many hump back bridges over here either :)

I'll send you a PM with My email address.

Cheers,
Keith

[Ascona73]

Hello Keith, I live in the northwest corner but have a play shop in South Windsor (not too far from Enfield). Love the RWD thing, however I'm into older German Opels.

Bob

[topmucker]

Hey Bob - Nice to meet you.

I actually used to work in East Windsor (Wood Group Gas Turbines) and would love to check out your shop sometime... :) It looks great!

I'm actually old enough to remember Opel Manta's being driven in anger back home, those and Mk2 Escort were / are still tearing it up. I found these pictures of Manta's Rallying back home:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/howiendlynne/sets/72157623312516736/

There is some great YouTube of them as well.

Its funny, one of the reasons I went with an E30 M3 was that I remembered watching Bertie Fisher and Austin Mchale drive the wheels off them back in the day. I wanted something from that era and it was that or an Xr4ti (Sierra Cosworth to me!). Still not sure if I made the right decision but I do love the M3 :)

Keith

[Abington Rally]

We've got an Prodrive 911 SCRS at the shop right now, of course it's totally disassembled and in bodywork phase so it looks just like any other 911, but if you want to check it, or a ton of 2002's etc, let me know and I'll give you a tour of the shop. We have some s14 powered cars, and a couple factory turbos too. Seeing that you have and e30 M3, I figured you might be interested, oh and the guy next door to us is a Merkur freak, XR4ti and an older Sierra Cosworth Sapphire that, from what I understand, did RAC back in the day.

http://s94994139.onlinehome.us/albums/album29/DSC07619.jpg

http://s94994139.onlinehome.us/albums/2002-Factory-Turbo-Restoration/DSC04647.jpg

[topmucker]

Cheers Dan, I would love to check those out! That Porsche looks awesome. Maybe I could swing by some time around / after thanksgiving.

I'm not old enough to remember the Rothmans Porsches in action but my old brother is... I remember him talking about the sound of those things being incredible. He had been to a night stage at the Circuit of Ireland at one point and came back talking about the sound and smell (race gas?) of the Porsches. Wicked. :)

Keith