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Getting to Magnum Opus... and other rally adventures. (long)

4K views 11 replies 6 participants last post by  Dante 
#1 ·
This is for Don Kennedy, and others of his ilk… (long)

Our Magnum Opus story:
We were packing to move most of the winter, and moving some items from the house for sale to the new abode, so I probably didn’t give the Z the attention it deserved prior to heading out to Sandblast. But, we needed a break from the never-ending cycle of work and move, and Jimmy was game, so off we went. It was also to be the maiden tow for the new (to me) service vehicle, a 2011 Silverado.
Like most folks, I hadn’t read the owners’ manual thoroughly, but, hey, it’s a Chevy with a small-block V-8 in it… simple, right?

We elected to use I-81 and meet an old friend of mine in Roanoke, Va for dinner on the Thursday before the event. In northern Va, I noticed the voltmeter on the truck showing 9v, so I kept an eye on it. I didn’t want to mention it to my wife, as she’s already suffered two highway breakdowns with me, and seems to get nervous whenever I say “Road Trip!”. Shortly after that, the voltmeter was showing 16v, so we pulled off the highway to ask some advice of a certified ASE mechanic. Did I mention that I’d somehow left the owners’ manual at home? I had been reading it, to try to figure out how to defeat the safety nannies that GM had installed. I’ve since come to the conclusion that none of the folks involved with the GM nannies actually own a GM vehicle. A bunch of engineers that have dumb ideas about vehicle safety, along with a bunch of other managers that say “Great ideas! Let’s foist them on our customers!” But I digress…

The mechanic didn’t think there was any issues with my electrical system, so off we went, southbound on 81. We made it to Roanoke without incident, and during dinner, the discussion on the male end of the table turned to car parts stores. I wanted a backup alternator to have with me, just in case… So, before finishing the ride to Cheraw, we stopped by an Advanced Auto Parts to pick up the spare. The rest of the weekend was fairly uneventful, though during the rally I did note that the car seemed to handle a bit weird… but I chalked that up to not having competed since NEFR ’13 and the vagaries of deep sand. We were able to finish second in class and 10th overall, and towed home with one eye on the voltmeter.

I was asked to attend a small car event with the Z in April, and I decided to drive it there, so on went the snows. On my way to the event, I again noted the flakey handling, but figured the soft compound and sidewalls were to blame. Shortly after that weekend, I pulled the skidplate off the car to start prepping for my summer race schedule, which, at this point includes Magnum Opus, Black Bear and NEFR. While I was in the process of removing that, I noticed that the mounting points for the lower control arms were tearing. Obviously, not a good thing in any vehicle. So, being in the final throes of moving, I ordered the parts and dropped it all off at my mechanic. Easy, right? I mean, I could have done it, but really, I didn’t have the time. It’s all just bolt-on, then an alignment…
 
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#6 ·
Yes, there is a page two, but trying to get far enough ahead at work before I leave so I'm not too far behind when I get back has cramped my writing time. Not to mention the fact that I type with two fingers... patience, please! :)
 
#7 ·
Part 2…
It SHOULD have been easy, but once they took a look at everything, they realized that that one of the framerails was ripped on two of the four sides between the mounting locations for the engine crossmember. Ouch. So, we had to find a frame shop that would do the work, and that could fit it in the week of 6/2.
Lucky for me, Eric at Schodack Auto (http://www.schodackautony.com/) was willing and had the room in his schedule. Got the car back on 6/9, and had to perform a bit of customization to the existing skid plate to fit the new mounts. But now, it’s ready to go!
Did I mention that I was rebuilding the brakes on my trailer during this timeframe…? I foolishly had not performed any maintenance on them since I bought it in 2006, so it took me quite a bit longer to replace all the brake hardware than it should have… however anyone with electric trailer brakes is aware of the joy associated with replacing the entire backing plate with all new hardware. It does make the job quite a bit easier. That took up a bit of time 4 different days, but in the end, everything was completed and the trailer was loaded and ready to go Wednesday afternoon.

Steve arrived at my place on Wednesday night, and we left for Newberry at 5AM Thursday morning. Even with the expected delays at the border crossings, we managed to get to the hotel in 12.5 hours for an average speed on the trip of 69 mph. I must say that the Silverado makes that type of trip much easier than the Ridgeline did.
The run-up to the event was highlighted by dinner with the Krolikowski clan on both Thursday and Friday evenings. Wonderful folks, and thoroughly enjoyable evenings.
Park expose was on main street in Newberry, and while a few locals came out to check out the cars and bikes, we were mostly left to chat among ourselves, and contemplate the old Grand Hotel, where Doug Shepard recalled the memory of Sandro Munari spending a meal break during the 1974 POR.

The first leg, a loop of two stages, was situated about 25 miles northwest of town. Stage one was 9 plus miles of sand-based roads, much of it fairly narrow, but fast, almost exclusively 5’s and 6’s. A tough one to open the day with. We made it through there with no drama, and a stage time good enough for 6th fastest. Stage 2 was a bit shorter, at 7 plus miles, but had, as we described it, more texture. Varying road surfaces and some dips and yumps, along with a few more 3’s and 4’s thrown in to make sure we were paying attention. We managed to come out of there with a time that placed us 5th overall on a reseed based on the first two stages, and we were the fastest of the three historic entries. Stage two’s start was unfortunately delayed, due to a local who decided that he needed to use the stage road to access his favorite fishing spot. While waiting for the stage to start, we were introduced to the mosquitoes of that area, and I must say, those locals were not at all hospitable! We also had a chance to chat with the Huebbe’s, where we found out that they had had a bit of a delay on stage 1, which, it turns out, was the only reason we were ahead of them. On the ensuing stages, they would set about rectifying that, but with our 30 second lead, we really only needed to manage that if we could. After stage 2, we found out how difficult that would be, as they took back 5 seconds over the 7 miles. Man, can they pedal that Bug!
Service was uneventful, and we left to go run the same loop of stages again as leg two. On stage 3, Steve and I felt more comfortable with each other, and despite the deteriorating road conditions, we posted a time that was one second faster than our first pass through. Little comfort, as the Huebbe’s took an additional 7 seconds back. On stage 4, we encountered a blocked road due to a competitor’s car. Getting by took a few teams’ worth of people, so we could manhandle the car far enough to the side to allow us to pass. We were all given the Huebbe’s time, and we headed back to service to run the superspecial. Once we finished that, we entered service, and were told of the reseed order, based on Stages 1 & 2.

Little did we know that due to a couple retirements, we had moved up the third OA after the first 5 stages, but one thing we did know was that the Bug was being driven in a very determined fashion. We set off to head for the next loop of stages, which was to include a turnaround running of the highly anticipated ‘Skyline’ stage. By the time we started stage 6, Arsenic City, we were nearly three hours behind. It was unfortunate that the organizers felt they needed to include this stage, as it was, as described by most competitors, a POS. This stage had a rough start, which was fine, but the bulk of it was punctuated by wicked potholes or dips the full width of the road, more akin to something I can imagine on a desert race. We got away with one on this stage, as we hit a caution big dip at left 6 over crest at a speed much higher than what would be considered prudent, and we were catapulted into the ditch on the right side of the road, where we spent a few seconds on both full throttle and full lock to escape the tall grass that was thankfully free of anything solid. We also escaped the stage with a time that was 8 seconds faster than the Bug.

On to Skyline, a wide, climbing, 5.5 mile stage with a relatively firm base, and mostly 5’s and 6’s. The other feature of this road is that there’s not much in the way of canopy, so it was very dusty. At about 4.3 miles, after slowing to a crawl a couple times due to the dust, I misheard the note and carried far too much speed into a left 5 tightens to 4 soft, and we slid over the bank, coming to rest on the very soft berm. Which I promptly buried the rear of the Z in, in a futile attempt to escape. Out came the triangles, the towrope and a 20. All told, we lost about 11 minutes on that excursion, and any chance at an overall podium. At the top of the hill, we were able to return to our original position in the line-up for the run down. Many thanks to the other competitors for that. While up there, we also heard the good news that Arsenic City would not be run again, but that we would get an abbreviated service, and come back out to run Skyline for the second time, as originally planned. For us, the rest of the rally was uneventful, but due to our planned 5 AM departure time, we opted to skip the awards dinner and get 4 hours sleep before heading east. Right now, at 10:30 AM, we’re traversing Canada, maintaining a 68+ MPH average, so hopefully our return trip will be as quick and uneventful as the trip out was.

Great job to the organizers and workers, hopefully they can find a replacement for the one stage and a few more workers for the 2015 running. And, hats off to the Krolikowski’s for their overall win and to the Huebbe twins on their terrific drive and historic class win.
 
#9 ·
Park expose was on main street in Newberry, and while a few locals came out to check out the cars and bikes, we were mostly left to chat among ourselves, and contemplate the old Grand Hotel, where Doug Shepard recalled the memory of Sandro Munari spending a meal break during the 1974 POR.
I wonder if it was too early in the morning to get the locals out. Or the rally just needs more years to build it up.

...but the bulk of it was punctuated by wicked potholes or dips the full width of the road, more akin to something I can imagine on a desert race.
Would have needed something like this. :cool:




We got away with one on this stage, as we hit a caution big dip at left 6 over crest at a speed much higher than what would be considered prudent, and we were catapulted into the ditch on the right side of the road, where we spent a few seconds on both full throttle and full lock to escape the tall grass that was thankfully free of anything solid.
Our little "moment" on that stage.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10203595928371742

And, hats off to the Krolikowski’s for their overall win and to the Huebbe twins on their terrific drive and historic class win.

Great writeup! And thanks for giving us a great battle. Fun to push these old REAL wheel drive cars hard.
 
#11 · (Edited)
Steve had incars running all day, so I'm sure our mishaps will be publicized soon, but I'm not sure if they'll be up before he heads off to Mt. Washington.
Indeed, good fun to run (fairly) close to the Bug... We'll try it again some time. By the way, if Greg gets that MR2 sorted, we'll both be chasing him in the RWD class.
 
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