Oaxaca to san miguell

I think that is enough for now. I will get back on and tell more about San Miguell and what has happened since then. Now I m off to work on the car a little mroe to prepare for tomorrow's qualification. Happy Birthday to Grace and Hello to all of our friends and Family.

LA to Laredo in 24

Abel and I left yesterday from home in LA at 8 am. we drove through California, where the state was kind enough to give me a present! I even had to sign it when he gave it to me. We spent the afternoon and early evening driving through Arizona and the very southern tip of New Mexico. We spent the night driving through half of Texas, which turns out to be a huge state. Did not see much though as it was night. It started to get light around 7 am. We pulled into Laredo at 8:10 am and were welcomed by two Studebaker's, one tiger, a original mini and a jag e type. very cool to see those cars in race trim. The trip went without a hitch. Abel has helped me freshen up on my Spanish and I on his English. We pulled in slept for a few hours and then worked on getting the window nets and roll bar padding put in the car. while we were doing that, a new mini and a 60's sting ray corvette pulled in. I expect another 5 to 10 cars through the night and tomorrow. I will take some pics tomorrow and post them. I spoke with Mark and he will be pulling into Laredo tomorrow afternoon.

fun rally gear

now mark needs to figure out how to use it all.

I hate packing

Getting close.

We leave wedensday morning... the good news, the car is finished, well at least for the most part, still waiting on a few parts including a window net, a camera, sponsorship stickers, ok a few things left on the car. I still need to go to the grocery store to pick up snacks that we can munch on while driving. I still need to go to home depot to pick up some more tools that will be necesarry for changing a spark plug or two. All that being said I am getting excited. It will all be worth it when that green flag is on the window shield and Mark is talking about the first series of turns. as long as we can keep it "reasonable and prudent" (thank you Montana Highway Patrol of yore) we will cross the finish line.

I spoke with Eddie, driver of the camaro in our class, and we will be going in a convoy with his truck and car. We are going to drive straight through from LA to Laredo where Abel and I will pick up Mark from the airport there. More pics to follow soon

Literacy?

A little excerpt from the route book. Mark, you are practicing right? Sorry about the lack of updates, I had a technical issue with my camera so I have not been able to post the most recent updates and pics. Should be fixed soon and I will be back to blogging. Lots still to do and we leave in 6 days.

The car is about 5 days out from being "able" to drive on the street. that being said, there are a lot of little things that still need to be installed. The Terratrip rally computer and communication system are still in boxes. The steering wheel extender is in a box in the back seat. The seats are sitting on the ground outside of the car. Rear wheel spacers need to be installed and the chasis stillneeds to be weighted and set up. Lastly, softer street biased brake pads need to be installed. Once all this is done, we are going to go canyon carving with some other subaru/evo friends around southern cali doing our best to not be pulled over and have to answer some difficult questions about straight exhausts (literally just a 3 inch pipe from the turbo to the back of the car) and rollcages. I am pretty sure the only thing street legal about this car are the tires. Those I even would not recomend in the wet (not to worry, Mark promised me that he and Jen would do anti raindances every sunrise for the next two weeks, actually rain would be beneficial to our AWD subaru). Once that has been completed the car will go back under the knife for fine tuning and then out to the track for some high speed testing. hopefully by then the car will be completely sorted. Of course, we will have no choice becuase we leave a few days after that for Mexico...

Paint..

Spent all day With Quirt and Gary down at Crawford Performance. Today Gary painted our main sponsor, Los Angeles Harley-Davidson, on the hood of the car, it came out real well. Gary is a artist, fabricator, and one hell of amodel american. He owns a Company called Boat Aid out of Newport Beach. He plays with composits all day and makes some wicked surf boards as well as concept cars and racing hulls. He did a great job on the car! Also a big thanks goes to Quirt for helping us today.

HANS Device

Under a month to go and lots to do still. Today will be a long day of spending time at Walmart trying to find stuff that is on a list of things we should bring. I went over to the Racer's Shop in Redondo Beach and picked up our HANS Devices. Very interesting shop filled with vintage exotics. There were a few older Carrera Signs hanging about and I chatted with the owner, Steve Tillack, about our upcoming adventure. I have never used a HANS device and it might take some getting used.

Our other vehicle is just about ready to go. The tow truck, a '06 Diesel F 250, has been checked out and is ready for our roughly 2k mile trip coming up. We should have the Subaru back by next friday, which means we will be doing some "testing" in the mountains north of LA to see how the setup works on mountains roads. The weekend after that we will be going to the track to really dial everything in.

Off to Walmart....

The List is Long

We are getting closer to completion, but still have a very long list of things to do. The car is not finished yet, a massive amount of items need to be purchased and gathered prior to leaving, and the suby still needs to be test driven in its new configuration. Whats more, we still aren't too sure on how we are going to legally take two cars into Mexico. We still have time, right...

Rally Computer

After much deliberation we have picked up our rally computer. It is a Terratrip 303+ and should be quite useful. Just in case we are brining our other rally computer, a lot less buttons and much more user friendly.

Fire detection and suppression system

“Safety Third” is a great motto to live by, but it’s no way to win a race. With that in mind, Kevin and I have installed a state of the art fire detection and suppression system in the car. I can’t give away too many details of the top notch tuning that has transformed the STi into the fully operational space station it is today, but let’s just say there are some shiny silver and blue bits in the engine compartment that really work well together. A second-rate fire retardant system just wouldn’t do. With limited space (our turbo alone is the size of a beach ball) we can’t have any fancy tubing or sensors, so we focused on extinguishers. We chose three red and a cute little silver guy, and just threw them on top of the engine after research showed most fires start somewhere around the engine. With safety sorted, next week we turn to weight reduction strategies. Look for an upcoming post, “Cardboard: the new Carbon Fiber.”

Safety a Worry, I Think Not...

Due to the increased worry of people who love us, Mark will make a bold move and wear his safety hat. "Generally people are a fraid of what they don't understand" Mark said over the weekend when asked about safety "That is why I have decided to wear this hat. People fear me in this hat because they don't understand why anyone would wear such a hat.". Friends and family of Mark and Kevin would like to thank Mark for taking matters into his own hands and keeping the team safe. Thanks Mark!

SIDELINE SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT

Were proud to announce our new sponsor, Sideline Sports Entertainment. Sideline is a multi faceted entertainment company that specializes in dance choreography, casting and production in TV, Film, and Sporting events.

Quick Update...

Some pics of the car as it gets ready. Still waiting for a laundry list of goodies to be installed. Unfortunately the car is undriveable at the moment due to the transmission being rebuilt. Should be available to test in the next couple of weeks. more pics to follow

Mark and Kevin at '06 One Lap of America

The car and drivers as they looked for the 2006 Cannonball One Lap of America.

Crawford Performance and Los Angeles Harley-Davidson to enter the La Carrera Panamericana

Crawford Performance (http://www.crawfordperformance.com/) and Los Angeles Harley-Davidson (http://www.laharley-davidson.com/) have entered a 2005 Subaru WRX STi in the 2007 running of the La Carrera Panamericana in the Unlimited Class (http://www.theunlimitedclass.com/). The "Carrera" is a race held in Mexico over closed public roads in October. It is a brutal weeklong event that will test the endurance of both the drivers and the Crawford Performance prepared Subaru.

Mark Williams Copiloto

The man the myth the legend, Mark Williams, has accepted the copiloto seat in the 2007 La Carrera Panamericana in a Subaru WRX STi piloted by Kevin Jones in the The unlimited Class.