Grandview RallyCross

[Luke]

A simple Rally-X this Sunday tested both the car and our patience, but we struggled through and put down some good times to boot! The rally cross which is sanctioned by the Philly region SCCA took place on an old oval dirt racing track and utilized both the track and the infield for the course. We were the first to run among a 40+ car field, but about half way through the run we heard a clunk and the engine reved but the car would no longer propel itself. We coasted to the side of the course, popped the hood and put the car in gear while somebody watched the driveaxles, axles were spinning but not the wheels. The right side CV joint had blown. Quickly thinking our options through, we jumped in the van and headed towards a junkyard we knew of about 10 miles down the road. Luckily the yard was open on Sunday. We walked in, found an ‘88 SAAB 900 and got busy. About 15 minutes and $12 later we had in our possession one SAAB CV joint that we hoped would fit on our ’75 SAAB rally car. We arrived back at the racetrack and quickly installed the CV just in time for the 2nd 2WD heat. We started our 2nd run, perhaps a little too excited about our quick repair of the car. While coming off the main track and onto the infield the car just didn’t want to accelerate. The engine was running but the throttle was not working. Once again we coasted off to the side of the course. A quick glance under the hood reveiled a loose throttle cable. A bit embarrassed, we grabbed some tools out of the trunk, tightened it up and transited off the course. At that point, with all bad luck for the day over, we were able to put down 3 more solid runs. Overall, a great day out racing that turned into quite an adventure.

Some video from the event on google video.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 1939&hl=en

[Luke]

Some absolutely stunning photos shot by robert plafta

[Crazyswede]

those are some awesome photos.

[Jordan]

Wow, those are great photos. I've added him to the Links page.

[max]

I like those sliding photos he took. Must be nice to have a great set of lenses. ::Raises fist to the sky:: Curse you photo gods! Why hath you made camera glass so expensive!

[Crazyswede]

I just bought a digital Hybrid camera that seems to work pretty well. its a Cannon S3 LS (er is it IS). 6 MP, 12x optical, 4x digital zoom. lots of fun features and and manual configuring. It was about $400 with shipping and a 2Gb memory card. It also shoots 640x480 movies at 30 fps and several other modes as well....best of all it is in avi format vs mov.

[max]

What the heck is a hybrid camera? Does it have a small internal combustion engine as well to suplement it's battery life?

[Crazyswede]

well its part camera and part EL CAMINO.

no its a cross between a point and shoot and an SLR camera. Basicaly you can put a few different lens adapters on (not realy different lenses) and you can manualy adjust all of your settings. Or you can put it in one of several modes and let the camera do the work.

[max]

Can't lose with canon. I shoot with a 20d. I'd kill for new lenses, but I don't have like $2000.

[SaabsBreakDown]

I've been taking photos at rallys since I was a kid.

I use two Cannon AE-1's and I have 3 lenses total.

I rarely get good pictures of saabs, because they are never following the same lines as the rest of the cars.. its so annoying. Part of the car is almost always cut out of the pic when its a saab. I have tons of good pics of other makes though!

[max]

Are you tripod mounting your camera?

[SaabsBreakDown]

I don't use a tripod because I dont have one!

I'm usualy running around to different locations to get different angles.

What I usually do is sneak through the woods and get past the gay crowd control. I hate having people in my pictures

standing behind a mighty oak is way safer than being behind a 2 inch caution tape, IMO anyways

[max]

I don't use a tripod because I dont have one!

I'm usualy running around to different locations to get different angles.

What I usually do is sneak through the woods and get past the gay crowd control. I hate having people in my pictures

standing behind a mighty oak is way safer than being behind a 2 inch caution tape, IMO anyways

We do that too at times. It helps being on a crew team and having a bright orange wristband to flash around, but sometimes you'll get that 15 year old twerp who's main goal for that day is to do his job as a course official as if it was the last job in the world.

[SaabsBreakDown]

Well, i'm planning on volunteering at wild west next weekend, but if they are jerks on sat i will just sneak into the woods on sunday. Sunday is my favorite stage in the state, the nahwatzal, which i have been sneaking around since i was a lad

Theirs no catching me.

Do you guys like volunteering? What are some tips to get the good spots? I am really scared to be stuck at just one corner. Thats why i've never volunteered. I'm afraid the head guys will just think i'm a noob.

[Luke]

I've worked a bunch of Rallys and the only thing that really sucks is starting the cars, too much futzing around with the clip board and writing down times and stuff, and you don't get to see any action. Don't worry they won't make you do that your first time. Although Rally America dosent even have humans count down the starts anymore, they have those fancy TAG Heuer start clocks like in Ski racing. Corner mashalling is pretty fun, you can drive in on the stage roads and then you can walk around a lot as long as you stay close to the general corner, good opportunities to take pictures, etc... You should definatly volunteer though, you usually get free t-shirts and the best spots to spectate. Plus its a good thing for the sport. Usually you will work a couple of stages so you'll get to see a lot of different spots.