Spent the better part of the weekend working on the redesigned skid plate. It should hopefully prevent from ever having a cracked sump be the cause of a DNF again. I still need to weld additional wear strips on the underside and glue a rubber pad on where the aluminum contacts the chassis crossmember. The thing weighs a ton, but I keep telling myself that its low slung weight and its not like were short on power anyway! Overall I am quite please with how it turned out. John stopped by and we discussed the idea of rebuilding the original skid plate for use as a tarmac event sump gaurd, which I think is a good idea.

The cracked sump from BRS has been repaired. One of the cracks extended up quite far. Unfortunatly the original drain neck could not be saved as it was cracked too heavily and mushroomed apart. The original neck was cut off flush with the bottom of case and a new neck was fabricated out of 6061 aluminum. It was welded on and tapped for a steel helicoil for better thread reliabilty. Better than new.

Yep, thats it. 3 stupid little cracks that prevented the oil from staying in the sump and us from finishing the rally.

Here you can see how the rear axle was bent from the hard hit into the bank. I added the white line to make it easier to see.

The bent rear axle was causing the tire to rub on the wheel housing.