demuire

I should be there.

I wonder if I can get a copy of that video... They'll probably show it on RPM this weekend but I won't be around. Just went to the Ten site, but it's kinda not working at the moment...

*correct me if I'm wrong* Yes the number usually tells the driver how fast they can take the corner. Sometimes 1 is "really really fast" and sometimes 1 is "really really slow", it depends on the driver/navigator involved. Sometimes the number equates to the gear selected for the corner, sometimes it's merely a guide to how fast to take it... re cow: It must've been a Subaru cow ;)

Mental rev limiter? What's wrong with valve bounce? ;) Rode on the rev limiter in Hal a bit on the weekend, maybe that's why I've lost one of my rocker cover bolts and half the rest have come loose...

Hehe, I have signed poster by Mr Ed & Mr Iain ;) It was really quite something actually seeing all these people (Ed, Iain, Cody, Simon & Sue, Chris & Ben etc) in persons, and to top it off everyone was so happy and so nice, even the people who didn't finish or who didn't do as well as they would have liked. I didn't really meet anyone, was sort of too shy *gasp!* to actually really say "hello" to anyone... Saw Chris Atkinson by himself for a moment and would have so liked to contratulate him on his awesome win, but no words came out... Did have a tiny chat to Iain Stewart though - but I've met him before at the BSCC rally school so that's not counted :insane: So different to just about any other form of motorsport I've seen... I want a copy of that video... "caution, cow" :D

Yeah my GSR was full of glass after it rolled, the front window was laminated and most of it sort of held together, but some of it did end up in the cabin. One thing to note though, laminated glass is *very* hard to break through if you ever need to for some reason (like getting stuck in the car after an accident etc) and could be a concern if you ever need to get out in a hurry (like if the car's on fire or something).

Yeah I suspect it's the brushes or something. If I feel really bored one day I might source a set of brushes and take the starter motor apart and have a look. Just got my Gregories manual yesterday (yay for eBay), now I know how to replace those silly dash bulbs that I couldn't get to the other day ;)

Yea... And to add insult to injury, after getting excluded, I thought "oh well, maybe we can still tag along anyway" but noooooo... bit on an Arnotts Shapes while trying to plot the next section of the nav run (where was my navigator? Nowhere to be seen...) and broke a tooth! So off to the emergency dental service I went, and believe me trying to find a dentist at 12pm on a Saturday afternoon in Gympie is rather difficult. And the people at the emergency ward at the public hospital are very very very unhelpful: "no, we have no dentist, here are the yellowpages, have fun". Found one eventually for a small fortune, but at least it's now all fixed (I hope)...

Starter motor in the Camry died... So called around to find a replacement, and was rather surprised... Supercheap @ Newmarket: $207.70 Repco @ Enoggera: $193.50 (approx, can't remember) Supercheap @ Enoggera: $263 (approx, can't remember) Toyota: $970!!! (approx, can't remember) Kelly Wreckers: $77.50 exchange PR Wrecking: $50 So off to PR Wrecking I went... But WOW, among the "new" prices, such a HUGE variance, even between the two Supercheap branches!

I agree very much. Teamwork was nonexistant for me on Saturday, and we were excluded from the event within the first 2 hours of the event, before even the 2nd special stage. Very disappointing, but unavoidable considering the lack of experience and lack of teamwork happening in the car... Haikal kept making mistakes and missing calls and miscalculating times and distances and reading wrong columns and I kept getting more and more frustrated and things just kept going downhill. I probably wasn't making it any easier on him by becoming more and more frustrated... By the 65,303rd U-turn the atmosphere in the car was hostile at best, and when it was time to be at control and we were the correct distance away from control but in the completely opposite direction and Haikal kept insisting that we were on the right track... "no no, your compass must be wrong!" Things worked a billion times better with Craig, will take a bit of getting used to Haikal before we get our shit together. We're not expecting to do well at all for Queensland Challenge, I just hope we don't get excluded this time, and get more experience. Many congrats to Rob and Mel (and the service crew) for the awesome outcome. You continue to paddle that car in miraculous ways and impress all :)

throttle not closing completely?

Or you can drive up here and use my gun :) Just don't break the arbor (it does happen), or you can buy me a new one :) Another fastener system that is waaaay cool: Zeus fastener

It's... Like a big rivet. Except both halves of it are separate, one end being a threaded sleeve and the other being a bolt or screw. The actual "nutsert" is the sleeve, and the nutsert gun squeezes it like a rivet gun squeezes a rivet, and you end up with a threaded hole that you can bolt things to. Very cool. I've used them rather extensively in Hal, holding all sorts of things down including my centre console, my front apron, oil cooler etc etc. They come in M4, M5, M6 and M8 sizes, most of the ones I've used have been M6. Very very cool, but not cheap either. The gun itself is about $80.

In Pinky I had it bolted to the bolt holding the rear seat in, it was in the rear seat footwell just behind the driver. 2nd extinguisher was mounted in the boot. In Hal I have both fire extinguishers mounted in the footwell just under the seats (drivers and passenger side). Considered mounting it on the drivetrain tunnel in the backseat area, but decided the footwell would be easier to reach, but I think either would be just as good really. I don't like self tappers, I used nutserts instead. I sometimes wonder about how strong self tappers or nutserts are, after all the fire extinguisher isn't exactly light... But that's the way I've seen it done in virtually every car I've seen, so I suppose it must be adequate. Oh yes, also I've seen some people make a plate that goes between the bolts that hold the front seats down, and bolt the fire extinguisher to that. That way you don't need to drill holes in your floorpan etc, completely reversible. Probably the best option for a daily drive car.

Well, car is booked in to ABS to have the brakes looked at today, hopefully they'll figure it out...

If you're looking to buy a fire extinguisher (to compete or otherwise), check out KMart. They have 1kg Chubb fire extinguishers (CAMS approved with metal bracket etc) for $29.87. As a comparison my 1kg fire extinguishers from Autobarn were $40 each. Or, you can get one of them Supercheap ones, they're a bit cheaper but are 0.9kg and come with a fairly dodgy plastic bracket (I have one in Pinky at the moment). It doesn't seem to specify in the CAMS manual, but I've heard of people being knocked back by CAMS scrutineers before for having plastic brackets... Mind you, if I'm not mistaken Rob has been running plastic brackets for ages and hasn't really had any problems, so I don't know of the authenticity of these other reports...

Between now and then I also hope that my handbrake will mysteriously decide to work properly... I don't seem to have much luck with these things do I?

Hehe, BIG THANK YOU :) Hopefully: a) nothing drastic goes wrong between now and then - we passed scrutineering so apparently the car and crew are sound :) b) gearbox holds up, I'd really like to keep having 6 working gears (inc reverse) c) haikal doesn't get us lost in his motorsport debut d) the rally gods shine down on us :D and last and most importantly: e) we have a bloomin good time!

A very big GOOD LUCK to Rob and Mel, cut sick, have a ball, show them who's da boss :) I unfortunately won't be there to see you run on Saturday (doing Coastal), but I'll be up on Friday night, apparently displaying Hal at the ARC show at Kings Beach. So who knows, maybe we'll bump into each other or something. Else, I'll be up there till Monday sometime, and I'll definately see you on Sunday night at the ARC presentation night! Don't think I'm going to the Saturday one at this stage...

Gawd, what a pain. 2nd and 4th gear pop out occasionally in the new box even, and reverse is really hard to engage... :) At least it works most of the time, as opposed to the old box that worked some of the time...

I don't know why really... Who knows, maybe I'll give mine a go... If I can be stuffed pulling the shifter out again :)

And KE30 jap spec handbrake cables will fit on KE55 aus spec drums :)

Yes that was one of the reasons why it wasn't working, and it's wrecked the shorter handbrake cable as well (it rubbed all the paint off my chassis rail and melted on the exhaust). But no worries, got the cable off the other diff and the cables are all sorted now. Handbrake works almost as well as the old drums were in the beginning now, still not 100% but a hell load better than it was the other day. Hopefully they'll "wear in" like the old ones did too... Have to rebleed the brakes again tonight, I think when I reassembled the drums I got a bit of air in the system.

Heh, I've got one of those for my T50 as well, although I prefer the standard length shifter...

Handbrake cables on a KE3x/5x are not the same length. The passenger side one is about 2 inches longer, and that difference is a HUGE difference. If you put them in the wrong way around, your handbrake will not work.