This was our third pass on the long Egan Loop stage and some portions of the road were getting ripped up, churning up the deep loose sand in the slower corners and bringing lots of big rocks to the surface. The front running teams were all approx 20 seconds slower on this pass. Of the original 17 teams starting the event, only 8 remain after this stage. Former Canadian Champions Thomson &aby Ferdinand - Community Forum
QuoteJose Pinto Next time aim for the podium! We did make the podium, for the first time ever, on our previous regional rally, the Lanark Highlands Forest Rally. They pulled a cruel trick on us in this Black Bear Rally though. From right after the fourth stage until the finish after the eighth stage, the results had us listed in 3rd overall. At the finish, when all the other teams drove strby Ferdinand - Community Forum
QuoterkjBuddy bit my arm, like he usually does when I get him all worked up, and it started to go south so the docs did some minor surgery. For this one I had to be awake though, that sucked and now it hurts like the devil and its puffing up some. So, while they had you all opened up, did you take the opportunity to install a few upgrades? Chip, turbo, intercooler...? Or are you sticking withby Ferdinand - Community Forum
I'm glad you found us again, Jose. We lost a lot of people when the old site died.by Ferdinand - Community Forum
A4: McCaw Eastbound 2 Starts here. We were really stoked after our good run on the second Egan Loop stage. But this next stage, A4: McCaw Eastbound 2, was a sobering reminder that even the best teams can have things very suddenly go pear-shaped. Coming off a string of outstanding performances, 1st overall at the Ontario Regional Lanark Highlands Forest Rally and 3rd overall at the Canadiby Ferdinand - Community Forum
A3: Egan Loop 2 Starts here. Stage rallying is very much a team sport. If either the driver or co-driver is not performing up to snuff, then the team is slow. Our first two stages were merely okay. We weren't embarrassingly slow and we didn't screw anything up too badly. But we weren't warmed up yet. I was way too slow on far too many instruction calls. Understandably, thaby Ferdinand - Community Forum
A2: Egan Loop 1 Starts here. I'm always amazed at just how much faster the full race pace is compared to our easy sedate pace while checking the notes during recce. It still takes me much too long to adjust to that, and consequently a lot of my calls were way too late on this really fast and busy stage. We should have been quicker on this stage, but Martin and I weren't feelingby Ferdinand - Community Forum
A1: McCaw Eastbound. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZlPG5vObdM Starting here. We started 9th in the running order. The dust was pretty bad on this first stage and we might have been a bit too cautious, giving up some time to our competition. We were gunning for Ian Crerar & Doug Draper. With a stage time of 5:36, we were only 6 seconds slower than Ian, and 18 seconds slower than Marby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Our adventures started already the Monday before Black Bear, when I very nearly had to cancel my entry. I got called for jury duty! They sent me a letter a couple of weeks before requesting my presence in a jury selection panel at the courthouse on Monday morning. The letter said, "Please be advised that your attendance may be required by the court the following Monday." Stupid me. Iby Ferdinand - Community Forum
The 2009 Black Bear Rally, an Ontario Regional event, was held last weekend out of McArthur's Mills just east of Bancroft Ontario. Of the 17 teams entered, only 8 made it to the finish. In the only RWD entry, a 1991 Nissan 240SX, Martin and I finished 4th overall. Stories and in-car video to follow. Photos:by Ferdinand - Community Forum
QuoteEarendilSo, any ideas how to trouble shoot this, or can I just about assume it's the ABS computer? Check the wiring to the wheel sensors first. Each sensor has two wires encased in a rubber sheath. The wires leading to the front wheels tend to get beat up and cracked. You can unplug the front ABS sensors at the connectors on the inner fenders in the engine compartment, check rightby Ferdinand - Technical Forum
QuoteMichiel 318iSLooks like most of the people working on those connectors come across the closing door issue sooner or later. Had the same thing once, though I think I slammed the door myself, not the wind. Okay, okay, so I'll admit it wasn't actually the wind in my case either. I just didn't think anybody here would believe anyone could be so stupid as to slam the door themsby Ferdinand - Technical Forum
QuoteEarendilThe mechanical belt systems operate at about 90% efficiency, where as an electric motor operates at about 95% efficiency. Seemingly making an electric motor solution more energy effective. However, there is a 50-62% loss of energy in the alternator in transforming the mechanical energy to electrical energy. Until we can produce an alternator with better than 95% efficiency, anby Ferdinand - Technical Forum
Quotewodcutr earth has its own mechanisms built into it to keep everything in check. It's called "extinction". QuoteThe earth was created for man, not man for the earth. God is in control here. oh Anybody else notice it's getting hot in here? We may need to rig up a fan to cool things off -- mechanical, electrical, or otherwise.by Ferdinand - Community Forum
The T-shaped piece is handy later for pushing on with your thumb when pressing the connector back in. I used some needle-nose pliers to grab a hold of the plastic, around where that T-shaped piece comes out of. Pull the male portion of the connector straight out. The little tabs you see around the periphery of the plastic plug, where it seats into the A-pillar, are for retaining the femaleby Ferdinand - Technical Forum
There are some good reasons to use an electric fan, like in the case of FWD vehicles with their engines placed sideways in the engine compartment. But even in our E30s, if it is a/c equipped it will have an auxiliary electric fan placed ahead of the a/c condenser ahead of the radiator. That electric fan should come on automatically whenever the a/c is engaged, or whenever the coolant temp exceeby Ferdinand - Technical Forum
QuoteEarendilSince you are using a belt/pulley system that is already spinning regardless of the attachment of an electrical fan or not, the belt/pulley friction is already out of the equation. Agreed. Whether you use the belt/pulley to drive a fan, or to drive an alternator to power an electric motor to spin the fan, the friction losses due to the belt itself should be very similar. It seemsby Ferdinand - Technical Forum
QuoteEarendil the one thing being left out, that I always thought was the biggest deal, is the loss of power to a belt driven system with a pulley. There is resistance there which consumes power. True. One might think it would be better to bolt the fan directly to the end of the crankshaft thereby avoiding the power loss of a belt driven system. However, the small parasitic loss of the driveby Ferdinand - Technical Forum
Quotejl1371 Sorry by power I meant the drop in power to run the mechanical fan vs the electric fan. So you have lost less hp to run the electric fan. I would think the added drag on the alternator to power the fan would be less then the added drag of running the mechanical fan. I agree it is a less "efficient" of a set up. Would you agree that It takes a certain amount of effort to kby Ferdinand - Technical Forum
Quotejl1371 you should be able to add all the superfluous electronics you want without putting more strain on the alternator. Not true. The more electrical stuff you power with your alternator, the harder it becomes to crank the alternator. You can feel that when the engine is idling happily with no load on it and then you turn on the headlights with full high beams. The revs drop momentarby Ferdinand - Technical Forum
Quotejl1371 There are three reasons I have heard for running an electric 1. they don't take power from the motor Of course they do. Where else would the power come from? Quotejl1371 If the electric fan is a more efficient motor... Yes, a simple electric motor is more "efficient" in converting energy to useful mechanical motion, compared to all the thermal losses inherent withby Ferdinand - Technical Forum
Nice scenery!by Ferdinand - Community Forum
QuoteEarendil I have no clue what kind of miles are on the exhaust system. Inside the catalytic converter, the exhaust stream flows through a ceramic honeycomb structure. If the catalytic converter gets hit by a rock or it simply dies of old age, it is possible to shatter that ceramic structure and have bits of it blow right out the tailpipe. Or worse, it can get turned sideways blocking the exby Ferdinand - Technical Forum
QuoteArcheo-peteriXSo what do I put on the paint once the pink is gone? I don't want to have to do this again real soon...besides there isn't a lot of paint left on the car I'd like to know that too. I don't want my new red car turning pink either. I think the red paint is prone to this problem. Some portions are losing their gloss and turning chalky. A previous owner tby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Quotedanieli too double clutch all the time now, except for me it isn't really heel toeing, its more the left and right side of my foot. Me too. I use my right foot half on the brakes and half on the throttle, rolling it to the right to blip the throttle. We're lucky that our E30s have a pretty good pedal layout for this. Other cars have the pedals further apart and you have to reachby Ferdinand - Technical Forum
QuotebushhogWith respect to the synchro -- I have always understood (though I have never rebuilt a trans.) that a synchro. generally served two gears (e.g., 1st and 3rd, 2nd and 4th). If so, wouldn't the problem occur when moving into both gears? I wrote an article a while ago to explain how syncromesh works and why or when double-clutching should be used, but that got lost when the old BENby Ferdinand - Technical Forum
QuoteDave_G Hey, I know that place! That's Saint Lawrence Motorsports Park!Exactemundo. SLMP is located here. QuoteDave_G I've been going there with the Sports Car Club of Vermont for years, and in fact I'm heading over there tomorrow morning for a weekend of driving fun. They let us run our cars on the kart track (though a few people bring karts). We just do laps with one carby Ferdinand - Community Forum
QuoterkjGo-carts are sooooo much fun, such good training too they build great driving skills. Christoph is having lots of fun so far with this one. He's not the quickest yet, but certainly not the slowest either. One thing I'm amazed by, it seems like everybody else shows up at the track with motorhomes and huge enclosed trailers. We were the only ones there schlepping our go-kartby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Quotewodcutr So you have a death wish? Rick rides motorcycles. That death wish thing goes without saying. Any "Fiat type smart car getting 38 mpg" is going to provide superior occupant safety compared to a motorcycle, if you're planning on hitting him with your pickup truck. Besides, small vehicles like smart cars and motorcycles are way more nimble than your truck. Youby Ferdinand - Community Forum
LHFR - Stage A5 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDIzMljMDS0 Going into this 5th stage, we didn't really know where we were in the standings. We normally don't bother trying to keep track of other people's times. There's enough other stuff to worry about and we just do our own thing. When last we checked the scoring we were 7th overall. We kind of figured Ian Crerar hby Ferdinand - Community Forum