Chronicling the travels of the Samurai Boar

Footage from 0-60 Mag!

2008-09-14T13:01:00.000-07:00

The video from 0-60 came in! Was a lot of fun to work with those guys, I think I can actually call them my pit crew for this race. Big thanks 0-60!

some pics

2008-08-05T14:02:00.000-07:00

After I had finished the run up to the top I walked to a part of the course that was easily accesable to the drivers and watched as other racers came up. While spectating I met a new friend. Big thanks to Jiri for sending me these pics!

What's in a name?

2008-08-04T11:01:00.000-07:00

As indecent as it does sound, it appears as if there is a group that has already taken the title "flat over crest". So, a good friend, Gary Fuales, was entrusted with onerous task of finding a new and more appropriate name for this blog. After much thought , consideration and deep meditation he has announced that the most appropriate name for this particular Subaru is "the Samurai Boar"! Allow me to be the first to introduce you all to the samurai boar!

Second Part...

2008-07-25T00:50:00.001-07:00

First Part of the Run

2008-07-24T15:15:00.000-07:00

Here is the first part. Second part will be up later tonight. more camera angles to come...

Quick Update

2008-07-24T09:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, the race is over and I am finally back home. I have some great footage from the 0-60 Magazine boys but they have not sent it over yet. I will post my in car shortly. The short version: Ran it in 12:27 which is good for Second in class! What's more I was awarded with the Rookie of the Year honor!! A fantastic result!!! Not all good news, some friends of mine that I met there ended up crashing and breaking their backs, Nathan and Brandye Conley of Colorado Springs. From what I can find out they are recovering and moving extremities which is great news. They went off very early on in the run and hit a tree. The Conleys were very helpful. I should also thank Salta Motrosports, Doug and Angelica, and all of the Panamerica guys!

Day 2 Practice

2008-07-17T20:37:00.001-07:00

Its a bit late as i have to be up at 3 am so all I will do is post the first run vid of this mornings practice section. By the end of the practice I was over 30 secs quicker than this run, but this gives you a good idea of the top section looks like. It had rained the night before and the terrain was very muddy and slippery. by the end of the test there were large ruts on the road that made the course quite bumpy. My muffler has sustained a bit of damage today and sounds like there is a metal piece vibrating within. I might go muffler less. There goes my theory that quite is the new loud..

Day 1 Practice

2008-07-16T20:42:00.000-07:00

Day started at 0215. got the car and me ready and followed Doug and Angelica to the bottom of the mountain by 0330. As would be expected, without Mark I did not know where I was supposed to be on the mountain which meant that I had to pull over and flag people down to ask . they were actually quite helpful and all I had to do was follow another competitor up the hill to where I was supposed to be....which was the section of the mountain with the biggest drop offs. I did 5 or 6 runs progressively getting more comfortable with the the track, I also got some video...oh wait, I didn't apparently without mark I cannot figure out the video camera either. I did well, I kept it on the asphalt and felt fairly comfortable with road and car. Tomorrow will be a bit different as it is my first day on dirt and I will be at the top of the hill. We'll see how well the car tracks on dirt. on the plus side there are a lot of rally drivers here and they are pretty willing to give you tips on what one must do to drive correctly, which is nice. Tomorrow will be a very slow day for me. just going to get used to driving in the dirt and find out if I can drive sideways or not...I have to be up in 4 hours so I will try to continue tomorrow.

2008-07-16T20:39:00.000-07:00

We then had the rookie drivers meeting followed by the drivers meeting. Here I was told that although my car had passed tech, I had not. Apparently I was supposed to have done a physical before this thing and sent it in to them, obviously they do not know that I am kind of a big deal, which meant ... I got a little action this trip:(

2008-07-16T20:36:00.001-07:00

Tuesday was tech inspection. Not much to do there, pull the car out, grab the gear and go over to get teched. passed with flying colors...or at least the car did, more on that later. After, tech I hitched a ride with Doug and Angelica to go recce the mountain. They were getting their pace notes in order and I wanted to go with them to check out the mountain as well as learn from the masters! To get ready for this thing I had played a lot of the video game "Dirt". I thought it might help me with learning the course. Starting up the hill I recognized the turns. So far so good. there was a bit more dirt road on the bottom section than I thought, worries me because I do not have any special tires for this. I am using Kumho race tires that have a very low tread wear, which is good, but not too much of a groove, which is bad for dirt. They are also very large tires. This might not be a problem if I groove them tomorrow after practice. But I digress, so we are heading up the hill, no problem. We get to the tree line, this is where things begin to get a bit more "hairy". The middle section is paved, but there are no guardrails. this means that we are on switchbacks going up the side of the mountain with quite a drop off the side. Then, at about 11,000 ft it turns to all dirt. This is a new experience for me, I have never had the pleasure of racing on the dirt. I know the general philosophy of drifting, I have drifted in snow and dirt before, but I have never had the experience above 10,000 ft on a road that is much thinner than what it looks like in the video game. Anyway, we drive all the way up and back, the whole time we are telling ourselves to not look over the edge....

2008-07-16T20:27:00.000-07:00

Just updating you all on how I am doing on this adventure. I left LA in the afternoon last sunday to go to Colorado Springs for the 84th Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. It took me two days to get out here. The A team Van performed admirably. First night I stayed in St. George. Not much of note happened on the way over here. I did stop for dinner at Copper Mountain in Co. Beautiful place. there was a Specialized dealer show going on which allowed me to walk in posing as a dealer and check out all of the new product. I also got a free dinner out of it. Security was not very tight. Anyway, pulled in late monday. First person I saw was Angelica Fuentes standing outside. We chatted a bit and I checked in and joined her in the bar with Doug Mokett, Chip, and Chris. All La Carrera Panamericana Racers. We sat and had a beer catching up and then went to bed.

2008-06-22T13:33:00.000-07:00

As you can see the car is on the lift and the radiator and inter cooler are off getting cleaned. Funny story about that. The shop took off the parts and set them aside for the night. They were going to take them to get Sonic Cleaned the next day. When they came into the shop the next morning they noticed a large line of ants through the office and into the shop area. Apparently the ants had found the radiator and inter cooler and were feasting on all of the dead bugs stuck in the foils. They said that was a first! Right now the car is waiting for its bits and pieces back. There were a couple of surprises when they put it on the lift. turns out the radiator was rubbing on the frame. We will have to notch out some sections so that this will not continue to happen. Again, this radiator will not be staying around so we are doing quick fixes until the new parts make it onto the car. We also found that a coupler under the car is too close to the headers and is blistering. Luckily we found this as it was about to blow and that would not have been something that I could have fixed very easily at Pikes. We are going to make some changes to the way this system flows so that this will not happen again. That is about all that is happening with the car.

Pikes Peak 1 month away!

2008-06-16T14:33:00.000-07:00

Pikes peak is about a month away. I am officially starting to gear up for it. The car is at the "shop" getting tended to. I am not going to be performing many mods for this race over what i did for the last one. The car needs a few replacement parts and some cleaning. The radiator and inter cooler are coming off for some sonic cleaning. This will be the last race for these bits. I plan on doing some upgrading for parts that are lighter as well as flow better. this will keep the car cooler and should let it spool up faster. of course this is a good thing. I am adding a few bits to the roll cage to allow it to comply with Pikes Peak rules and make it a bit safer. Other than that not much happening. Replacing the battery with a light weight model. The rear window gets a lexan treatment. Fairly simple stuff. I spoke with Hankook regarding some sort of tire package, but I never heard back. not too surprised really. I already have my tires from BFG so not really stressed about them at the moment. If they are interested in future events I will chat with them while in Colorado as they are one of the sponsors. The Time Attack class looks to be very competitive. I am excited to see how we do. I will continue with updates and pics as they come along.
kj

2008-05-30T09:32:00.000-07:00

Check out my new ride!

2008-05-25T15:42:00.000-07:00

Big thanks to Gary Faules for posting this vid of Mark and I going through Mexico city! this is by the first turn which means we had slowed down for the corner:) this speed stage had some pretty dramatic crests, we found that if you go about 190 over these crests it is possible to get all four off the ground! not to worry, if you stay in it, the car doesn't mind!!

Slow Tow

2008-05-14T21:31:00.000-07:00

Quick video of what our drive in the van looked like just south of the border.

Chihuahua Express wrap-up: 1st day racing

2008-05-14T20:38:00.000-07:00

We got up at six to get ready to race, ate some breakfast, and headed down to the Pancho Villa square in Chihuahua to line the cars up and have the local newspaper take our picture. The picture wound up on the same sports page as my favorite boxer, Alfonso Gomez. I'll post it if anyone has a scanner big enough to copy a whole newspaper page.

Chacho asked us to start first so we were assured some open highway ahead of us. It felt pretty nice having the pole position, but with Doug Mockett and Angelica Fuentes in our rear view mirror, we felt a little pressure not to mess things up in front of the pros. In our first transit of the race, we quickly fell into a comfortable 100mph for most of the way to the first stage. We didn't "need" to drive this fast to arrive in our 59 second window, but when the cops are there waving you on, it's tough not to go for it. Federalis, we hug you.

The first stage was 40 kilometers. So much for shaking the cobwebs off on a short jaunt. (We weren't as scared as this picture makes us look - the sun was bright...)

We started the race pushing about as bad as I can possibly imagine, and were a little worried our "shaking stuff in the engine compartment" mechanical prep. should have been expanded to shaking some of the suspension bits. Once the tires warmed up, however, it didn't seem possible to take a corner too fast. Hint to our future competitors in an STI or EVO: don't bother doing any suspension work or adding a wide-body kit so you can stuff giant rubber under the fenders. Total waste of time. Trust us.

After the organizers repeatedly warned everyone during the driver's meeting to take it easy the first stage and the entire first day since that is when most of the crashes occur, we thought it might be a good idea not to take it easy. They say endurance races can't be won on the first day. While technically true, you can sure lay down a nice lead on people the first day. We had a solid first stage and beat second place by two minutes. Those minutes would come in quite handy the second day when we were assessed a whopping five minute penalty for inadvertently breaking just about every rule you can think of. More on that later....

We wanted to meet Denise at the service (lunch stop) in Madera but could not find her. We learned later she was on one of her many racing adventures that had very little to do with racing, and a lot to do with keeping another car up and running. Carlos and his son Carlos, who were not in the race but drove a nice red M5, showed us the way to a hamburger stand they said was good. After the cashier attempted to fleece us (Cuidado, MF!), we had fantastic hamburgers for lunch.

The rest of the day was smooth and I have a video somewhere around here to prove it. Coming soon...

We returned to the Westin Soberano, took a shower, and attended the first award ceremony where Chacho would present a first in class and first overall medal to what he began referring to as "a certain black Japanese sedan."

Chihuahua Express Vid

2008-05-12T14:49:00.001-07:00

I short movie from the organizers came out the other day, enjoy!

Chihuahua Express wrap-up: tech inspection

2008-05-07T21:20:00.000-07:00

After penetrating the border and passing the military checkpoints, our only hurdle left to clear before racing was the technical inspection. After an abbreviated sleep following our long drive down, we dragged ourselves out of bed, headed down to breakfast, ate some amazing little balls (insert your own joke here to play along,) said hi to some friends who raced la Carrera, and went outside to unpack the car.

I was going to show a picture of what unpacking the car looks like, but it looks a lot like driving a car out of the rear of a trailer, so... HOLD ON! THE VAN!!!

I thought the van escaped my lens, but I just found this pic. Would you let these two guys into Mexico in that black van with no windows towing a big white trailer? Neither would I. This is a testament to how cool Mexico is.

Ahhh the van.

We drove the car down to the tech area and passed without incident; not surprising since it was the same gentleman who cleared our car at the panamericana. Once you pass tech you can pick up your car number. We had asked for our standard, fabulously successful number 43. The officials informed us the number was taken but we could have our second choice. We picked 34, figuring in a spin at least we'd have good luck going backwards. They gave us 91.

We were pretty much ready to race the next day, other than checking the tire pressures and shaking some stuff in the engine compartment (we're not mechanics, but it makes us feel better to shake some stuff to see that nothing falls off in our hands. "What if something falls off?!" you ask? You obviously haven't seen our bomb-proof Subaru.) The last thing on the prep list was a bit of vanity: replacing a side skirt we left as a souvenir in the last race in Mexico.

We quickly gave up on this plan, opting to take a quick nap before picking up the amazing Denise "DeJeronimo" Jerome. We literally could not have finished the race without her help, more on that later.

The driver's meeting started on time, something we had not experienced before in Mexico. Props to Chacho (soft 'sh' sound) the organizer, for running a tight event. Just as the meeting gets going, some dude who goes by "Shields" walks in with a towel around his waist and a cigar hanging out of his mouth. Kevin and I both thought, "we need to meet this guy." He apparently felt the same, walked up to us and threatened/offered to "pour tequila down our throats" if we lost. No disrespect to Shields, but it would turn out we would have to take a pass on the tequila.

Chihuahua Express wrap-up: getting there

2008-05-05T20:50:00.000-07:00

Everything about racing in Mexico just feels right, the way you would want it to feel if you were the person who invented the whole thing in the first place, except the part about getting two cars into Mexico owned by one person, at the same time. The importation process is so lame, it's barely better than leaving the tow vehicle behind and only driving the race car the whole way from your house to the start line and hoping you don't need a spare of anything along the way. Unfortunately, since about 800,000 cars are brought into Mexico illegally each year, the process needs to be a little tough. Or at least that's what they tell us.

The tow/no-tow decision was made for us long ago when Kevin acquired a van that would be the envy of the entire A-Team. Shockingly, we have no picture of the van. Picture big, black, smooth riding, no windows in the back, and nothing behind the front seats except a mattress and a la-z-boy recliner. That's the van. With the right sized fuel cell it would be very easy to speed this thing across the entire width of any country without stopping, but that would be silly.

I flew into L.A. at about 7pm, we hooked the empty trailer to the van, drove the Subaru in, and threw just about everything we could think of into the trailer. Packing, as we have stated elsewhere on this blog, is one of our most hated activities. We hopped on I-10 East at about 11pm and our GPS told us we would be taking a right, three states later. That's a lot of highway after a long day of work, a rushed packing session, and the knowledge that we were most likely going to have trouble at the border.... Thankfully, we spotted an In-N-Out Burger just outside of town that was a harbinger of our success to come. If you work for In-N-Out Burger, please contact us. We have an exciting sponsorship opportunity you want to hear about.

Kevin took the first shift driving, and after a seriously delicious burger (In-N-Out, call us) I crawled into the bed in back. During the 30 seconds I was awake, I promised myself I would do everything in my power to nominate for a Nobel Peace Prize the person who came up with the idea of putting a mattress in the back of a van. Does a blog entry satisfy that promise? Yes.

At a gas station near a place that sounds a lot like 'Pikachu Mountain' we switched drivers, and contemplated how much more the van would be worth if we grill-mounted the $4,000 buffalo head available for sale behind the counter. Agreeing on "probably about $3,500" we put our credit cards away and kept on heading east.

At one of the next gas stops we met a friendly border patrol agent and innocently asked which crossing he recommended considering our van, trailer with race car, and passenger with a goatee that looks a little bit like bin Laden's. He confirmed Santa Teresa was as good as any other, and provided some other information to aid our journey. Knowing the readership of this blog, let's just say the information was helpful, and Mexican-border patrol agents are underpaid.

After one of our more legal border crossings in recent history, Mexico welcomed us with open arms:

We weren't sure what caused the van in the picture to burn, but there was no reason for alarm because previous experience has suggested the STI is fireproof.

The van did a bang up job of getting us to Chihuahua in just under 22 hours driving straight from L.A. Yes, that distance could be traversed in a much shorter time. Unfortunately for our hopes of a quick trip to the hotel, we have a bit of a war on drugs underway. Two Military checkpoints made sure we had no funny business going on in back:

Something about this first checkpoint made me a little nervous. Oh, I remember what it was. It was the dude in the back of the hummer (just under the big ALTO sign on the left) aiming his anti-aircraft gun at the tanker truck. After a couple checkpoints in the mad dust storm, we continued through gorgeous Chihuahua State (pictures in a future post) and checked in to the equally as gorgeous Westin Soberano. If you work for the Westin, or any of the Starwood properties around the world, please contact us. We have an exciting sponsorship opportunity you want to hear about.

All this could have been said with, "We towed the car to Mexico," but for me at least, getting there is about 30% of the fun. Plus, I wanted to use 'harbinger' in a sentence.

One Lap

2008-04-25T17:54:00.000-07:00

Should I go??

www.onelapofamerica.com

Pics from Lauren

2008-04-25T17:53:00.000-07:00

http://lscheller.smugmug.com/gallery/4739098_nwfKD#280726084_5iu29

A good link to Lauren's blog, daughter of car #43, who followed the race with Denise.

Break out your short shorts and leg warmers

2008-04-23T15:10:00.000-07:00

Mark here - I've finally been released from Jury Duty! Apparently the prosecution didn't like it when I said, "I think this case is a waste of time." It's kind of too bad, I was hearing some great stuff during the selection process. Like this nugget from Juror 23, "I saw on Barbara Walters that kids born today will easily live to 150 years old because we'll have stem cells that can regenerate any part of the body, but they won't be the bad stem cells, these don't even need a fetus!" and Juror 11, "I don't do any drugs or drink alcohol because if Mohammed doesn't go to the mountain, the mountain won't come to Mohammed." Hard to believe she was excused...

Now I should have some time to get a few pictures uploaded here.

Additionally, Kevin and I are thinking of kicking out the jams and making a proper website. When we started this blog we didn't want to jinx ourselves by having a super slick site and then get smoked in races. Now that we have determined our racing in Mexico is as unstoppable as Jazzercise in the 80s, we may be ready for the jump. More later...

one more...

2008-04-21T11:28:00.001-07:00

another first day stage...

A Stage from our point of view

2008-04-21T10:25:00.000-07:00

Still waiting for Mark to publish the blog, he has jury duty so cut him some slack. this is a vid of a short stage on the first day. Unfortunately I am not sure which stage... more to come...

blogging soon

2008-04-16T19:54:00.000-07:00

We will be posting a full report of our trip in Chihuahua soon. We were unable to blog due to time constraints and some internet issues. be patient, our story will come soon! Right mark?!

Chihuahua

2008-04-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

We made it down!! It is about 24 hours after we left and we are pretty exhausted. One of us will post a more comprehensive update tomorrow. no we did not have any problems at the border:)

2008-01-24T13:51:00.000-08:00

Looks like it is official...

January 24 , 2008

Dear: Kevin Race # 43
Organizers of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC) are pleased to announce your acceptance as a competitor in this the 86th running of the “Race to the Clouds”.

Race officials for the 2008 event are as follows:
• Phil Layton – Race Director
 Randy Ruyle – Director of Competition
 Sonny Anderson – Motorcycle Referee
 Marla Wiseman - Registrar
 Chris Early – Timing Director
 Todd Kueker – Safety Director

Since the last race there have been changes to the Pikes Peak Highway. Restorative and paving efforts continued up the mountain. 2008 competitors will face an expanded section of pavement thru Devil’s Playground. We are pleased to continue utilizing a transponder based timing system which is an improved and efficient timing masterpiece. AMB-it is world renouned for its hardware and software products.

The 2008 Race Headquarters will be at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, (Formerly the Sheraton). All race related meetings, registration, and press facilities will be there. Practice days will be limited to three with the course being divided into three sections. Qualifying times will be obtained when you practice in the Lower Section.

There are some mandatory meetings and events. Those are listed below:
• Rookie School
• Drivers’ Meeting
• Riders’ Meeting
• Other events as necessary.

Race day order has yet to be determined. There will however be no intermission, as in years past.

I look forward to renewing old friendships and establishing new. Good luck in the preparation of your race team and if we can be of any assistance don’t hesitate to contact us through the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb offices at (719) 685-4400. The web site, www.ppihc.com, is currently under revision with the new format projected to be on-line in January 2007. Regards.

Phil Layton
Race Director
Pikes Peak International Hill Climb

To Pull...

2008-01-08T23:19:00.000-08:00

After spending many long hours in the cab of my 2006 Ford F 250 and clocking just over 50k miles i have decided to sell the truck. To tell you the truth it was like sitting on top of a jackhammer. I have looked long and hard for the appropriate replacement and have decided to side with Mr. T. I am the proud owner of a black Chevy Express Diesel cargo van. stay tuned as this will get the same love that the A Team put into their ride. Don't hate me because I am a genius:)

on to the hill

2008-01-07T22:36:00.000-08:00

Well, now that we have won the Carrera Panamericana we wasted no time in finding new events to sign up for. The list is pretty short at the moment
Chihuahua Express
Targa Newfoundland
Pikes Peak Hill Climb

Chihuahua is a go for us. money has changed hands and we are eager to head back down to mex, this time with better video, and see how we do.

Pikes Peak, this one I am really excited for, second oldest race in the US. Application has been sent in and I am waiting to get approved. having never driven at speed on dirt this should be quite exciting. I need to find time to practice my Scandinavian flick.

The car is down at Crawfords having the engine rebuilt and the shocks replaced. over a year of competition on the setup i had and then we went down to La C, that just killed it.

Targa is not 100% for this year. not sure i can find the time to drive all the way over there....that being said, I did just drive all the way down to Oaxaca and back. Speaking of which, not 100% on doing the La C again this year. definitely an event that needs to be done again, just not sure I can do all of these events in one year.

pics from this years event are up, I ust need to put them all in one place. they can be found at www.theunlimitedclass.com/blog and at http://crawfordperformance.com/v2/results/db_imgview.cgi?linkID=38

Oaxaca to san miguell

2007-10-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-18T18:37:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-13T22:21:00.000-07:00

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

I hate packing

2007-10-13T22:05:00.000-07:00

Getting close.

2007-10-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

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?

2007-10-11T15:12:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-10-01T05:17:00.000-07:00

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..

2007-09-30T21:55:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-29T11:29:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-25T16:41:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-14T23:53:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

“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...

2007-09-13T08:36:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-11T23:35:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-09-11T12:47:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-09T13:28:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-09T13:21:00.000-07:00

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.