Event 12 information

Discussion of anything that doesn't fall into the Solo II and RallyX Categories
Dentspeed
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Post by Dentspeed »

I used to live on the Navajo reservation, and the sights out there are amazing. The vastness is awesome. You are very smart to make a trip like this. Sorry to hear about your car. Compared to what you have just seen, Vegas sucks. You are not missing much.
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Ian Wilson
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Post by Ian Wilson »

Funnily enough not one person has had a good word to say about Vegas. So I not bothered by missing it.
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Ian Wilson
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Post by Ian Wilson »

Big thanks to my lovely wife for phoning me at 6am this morning, I was getting up anyway…

So it was stand to the phones this morning. My finger poised on the dial button as the seconds ticked down to 8am. First call was to the local Honda dealership, parts department. As expected the answer was no. But I was told NAPA, Checkers or Autozone would *definitely* have one. Excellent news, struck out with NAPA and Autozone but Checkers said they could have a complete half shaft in Flagstaff by the end of the day if I ordered by 11am. Now this part is generic to pretty much all K series engined Hondas made after 2002. In this case it was from an 02 Accord 2.4 but he couldn’t tell me which kind of engine. A quick call confirmed the 2.4 was indeed a K series engine. Phoned back to place the order and was now told he’d made a mistake and it was from a 2.3. Yes – you guessed it wrong engine. Back to square one. While all this was happening I’d been ringing around to find a garage willing to do the work or a least let me do it. I’d figured most mechanics would welcome the opportunity to work on something a little more exciting than the dull boxes they normally get. Wrong – in fact most are more than happy to spend their one chance on the merry-go-round of life putting food on the table and having a couple of buds on a Friday night. But not all – so here’s a free plug for Advanced Automotive services and tires. In particular Victor the Dr. Who lovin’ guy in charge.

Having failed to find the parts locally I put a call into Hasport a well respected aftermarket company catering to the Honda scene. I’d fired the chief, Joe an email the previous night and with a mouth full of Turkey no doubt he’d fired me a quick reply that he wasn’t sure but would have a look around. So it was crunch time. Call went in and with bated breath I got the news I’d been hoping for. Yes, he had one second hand RSX half shaft. Fantastic, the good news is Phoenix is close by, the bad news, this is America and there’s no such thing as close by. In fact it was 165 miles. Victor came to the rescue and organized a rental car for me. I then crawled the 12 miles to the garage and briefed Victor and the guys on the finer points of tackling a Lotus Elise. We removed the under-tray; the half shaft was in a terrible state flopping around inside the tripod joint.

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Job done it was into the rental, a Chev HHR…

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Maximum velocity was required, but with a 2.4L 4 cylinder, warp drive was not available and I had to make do with impulse power alone. Despite frequent requests to Scotty in the engine room this is all she had to give.

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I had hit the road just after noon and was at Hasport by 2:30pm despite a few navigational hiccups along the way. The boys were hard at it but no sign of Joe, a search of the premises revealed the Turkey was having the last laugh. A short while later Joe emerged from the Presidential restroom and presented me with a sight for a pair of very sore eyes (thanks babes). Never before has a half shaft had so much lovin’ directed towards it. It got even better when Joe said I could have it for free. So my second free plug of the day goes to Hasport. Joe’s a top guy and anyone who owns a Honda City in the US gets my respect.

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I wanted a photo of Joe with the drive shaft but he insisted on changing out of his Armani suit first, muttering something about giving customers the wrong idea. :D

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Back on the road again for the trip back to Flagstaff, I realized just how different Phoenix was to Flagstaff. The big change in elevation meant that I no longer felt like I was sitting inside an airplane, it was t-shirt weather in Phoenix and cold in Flagstaff. Also for the first time I saw these.

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So with the mighty Chev HHR pulling like a wet teabag, I was back in Flagstaff just before 5pm. Tomorrow morning we’ll swap the damaged tripod joint out and hopefully be back on the road early afternoon. All things being equal I’ve only missed out on a night in Vegas – no great loss from what I’ve heard.

If I make it to L.A tomorrow I’ll be pretty annoyed if you find yourself reading a trip report. Hopefully the next update will be after the AutoX on Sunday.

Signing off from Flagstaff, AZ.

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Couple of extra pics for the Non-US readers.

The ultimate Chelsea tractor :D

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Choppers!

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Despite the flames the flying turd was faster.

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Steve-o
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Post by Steve-o »

Wow. I've been gone for two days and come back to a great bit of reading! I'm really glad that the trip is presenting you with the opportunity to view some of this great country. Damn fine job getting everything put back together. Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious. Right? :D I absolutely LOVE the pics of the cop cars. Those are priceless. I think I'm gonna make a new background for my computer with them! Best of luck from here on out!
Stephen Wilson

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MichaelXi
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Post by MichaelXi »

Having been to Tucson, Phoenix, AND Flagstaff, as well as the Grand Crevasse, I can vouch for the fact that AZ is the Coolest for being like 2 or 3 different planets in one state.
Tucson is all Pointy, prickly and Hot.
Phoenix has more Concrete and is even Hotter, but a little more Green.
Flagstaff is just GORGEOUS, but a little bit on the cool side.
LOTS of trees and grass, almost like the Smokies, just different Flora and Fauna.
Then, the Canyon is just like "out of Nowhere".
Ian, you could EASILY spend a WEEK driving AZ and NM, and ALMOST feel like home, yet, oddly different.
:)
Focus on FASTER!!!!
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Ian Wilson
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Post by Ian Wilson »

I know what you mean Micheal. Todays edition coming your way now.

Oh boy, what a day….

Arrived at the garage this morning to find the half shaft out of the car. The head mechanic told me we had a big problem. He couldn’t fit the new half shaft into the car – not surprising since mine is a custom Honda/Lotus hybrid shaft. Apparently the message hadn’t got through that I only needed the tripod joint to be swapped over. The old one was a total mess.

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This is how it should look.

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The spider had to be ground of my half shaft; normally it should just tap off.

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With the spider off, we set about taking the spider of the new shaft, but it became apparent straight away that for some unknown reason it was smaller than the old one. Disaster! I racked my brains trying to figure a way of somehow getting it to work. The only solution I could come up with was to try and reuse the old spider and put the new bearings onto it. Problem was the bearings were too small. At this point I should have given up but I convinced Brian, the resident I can make anything work mechanic to start grinding the spider down to a size where the bearings would fit.

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It would be a real bodge job, and carried the very real risk of failing in the middle of no where.

Being a Kiwi we have a long history of bodging, and although I was reasonability confident it would work (long enough to get me to L.A). Bill the head mechanic stepped in at this point and said enough was enough. Given the liability laws in the US he just wasn’t prepared to allow me back on the road. In hindsight this was probably the correct decision, I could just picture being in the middle of the desert broken down and cursing myself for not taking his advice.

You can see in this photo how far we got with grinding one lug down and the damage done getting the spider off the half shaft – this would have needed to have been welded up as well. So I reckon I was pushing the envelope too far on this one. If this had been deepest Mongolia I would have gone with it, but there was no requirement to take such a risk and cooler heads than mine prevailed fortunately.

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I managed to get a hold of Joe at Hasport and he was as surprised as me to find the tripod didn’t fit very un-Honda like. It turned out the shaft he’d given me was from a base RSX not the type R, neither of us realized there was a difference. There is a very slim chance Joe has something at home, but regardless it will be Monday at the earliest before I can get going again. This will probably mean driving straight to Laguna Seca. I must admit I’m a little concerned at how the car is going to hold up on the track, but theoretically it should be ok. The failure was simply down to a 10 dollar rubber boot splitting and not related to the mileage the car has covered so far. In any case once it gets to the West coast I’m close enough to L.A to get the car down to the shippers either under its own steam or someone else’s. Laguna Seca was supposed to be the highlight of the trip, but I’ve come to realize that the real highlight has been the people I’ve met along the way.

Now while I’d been typing all this up I got a message from a certain ChieF roca (Brian) a well known member of a Honda specific forum K20a.org. Not only did he have a half shaft, but he was prepared to get down to Fedex today so I could get it on Monday. Once again I’m blown away by the generosity of people I’ve run into along the way. Brian doesn’t know me from a bar of soap, yet has gone the extra mile. I just hope one day I find myself in a situation where I can repay some of the kindness I’ve been shown along the way. It gives you a warm feeling inside to realize that the world is still a good place and the crap the media dish out on a daily basis is just that. So if you’re ever in NZ and in a spot of bother, you know who to call :D
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Steve-o
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Post by Steve-o »

Oh I very much intend to be in NZ! I'm all for transferring with Sean!
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sean
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Post by sean »

http://www.auckland.ac.nz/
Tuition is 23,000 a year for the graduate ME program and lasts 1.5 years.

Is everything still in order to get back on the road Monday?
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Steve-o
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Post by Steve-o »

I'm a year behind you, Sean! NZ, HERE I COME!
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Ian Wilson
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Post by Ian Wilson »

sean wrote:http://www.auckland.ac.nz/
Tuition is 23,000 a year for the graduate ME program and lasts 1.5 years.

Is everything still in order to get back on the road Monday?
The part is on it's way and I should have it tomorrow morning. I just hope it's the right part! I'm on tender hooks hoping nothing will go wrong this time! If things go according to plan I'll be in LA tomorrow evening and then on the road to Laguna Seca on Tuesday.
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Ian Wilson
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Post by Ian Wilson »

The start of another overdue update and I’ve got a lot of typing to do!

We left off on Saturday, still stuck in Flagstaff, AZ. But with some hope of getting rolling on Monday thanks to Brian in L.A who having read about my plight kindly offered to send out a tripod joint which would hopefully fit the half-shaft. So nothing to do but wait till Monday. The highlight of the weekend was watching the latest Harry Potter movie I’m sorry to say. Flagstaff at an attitude of 7,000ft is not a great place to be at night if you’re traveling light, 10 minutes exposure to the cold was all I was good for.

Monday morning arrived and to my relief the package had made it to Flagstaff, I caught a taxi to the Fedex office and returned triumphant to the garage. Now for the big test would it actually fit? Bill did the honours and removed the spider from the Tripod still covered in grease, I was uneasy at this point since the joint looked identical to the last Tripod that had proven to be too small. But not this time. For the next 5 minutes, I was like a small boy who’d just been given free rein of the Walmart confectionary department. Bill got down to the job of fitting it and I was exiled to the waiting room – a different guy was in charge today and for *legal* reasons the workshop was placed out of bounds to me…. This was to prove unfortunate…

An hour or so later and the car emerged from the garage with Bill swearing he would never work on another. I have no idea why…

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So at 11am I was underway again heading for L.A. I wasn’t due in till around 7pm so about 200miles down the road I decided to get of the interstate and take a trip down memory lane.

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Unfortunately for this section at least there’s not much left. Nearly all the towns were of the haunted variety…

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The road wasn’t that interesting either…

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Not only that but what road there was pounded the car and I mercilessly…

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At this point the Interstate was starting to look very attractive, and eventually I made my way back onto it. Not long after I pulled in for gas and decided to take a quick peek underneath to confirm all was well after the pounding the car had taken for the 100 or so miles I’d been on Route 66. To my horror, I discovered yet again the boot had split!

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The cause was obvious this time, instead of using a proper strap, Bill had used a Jubilee clip to secure the boot to the haft shaft. As you can see by the photo this simply tore the boot in half. Great, back to square one and still over 200 miles to L.A. The engine block was covered in Tripod grease and I had no idea how much was left inside the joint. I tie-wrapped the boot as best I could and decided to continue on at reduced pace. 60 miles from L.A and the traffic was getting heavier and heavier. 30 miles out and I was crawling along. My destination that evening was a man whose help every step of the way on this trip has been monumental. From providing a mailing address so I could get car insurance to phoning around for spare parts and everything in-between, Patrick a fellow Elise owner has been an absolute rock whenever I’ve needed help. The surprising thing is I’ve never meet him. At 8pm all that changed when I finally arrived at his house. I sat down to the first real meal I’ve had in the better part of two weeks. A couple of bottles of wine and some good conversation later I staggered off to bed slightly the worse for wear…

Tuesday morning and the first priority was to get down to the sea, this was what the trip had been all about, getting from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean in what must be one the worlds most unsuitable Grand Tourer’s. To make it to the Pacific signaled the successful end to the trip and anything after was going to be icing on the cake. We got down to the beach and within a couple of minutes had attracted quite a bit of interest, unfortunately it was of the uniformed variety. Having explained why the car was parked where it was the ice cracked slightly and we were allowed to take a couple of photos before moving on.

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As Patrick’s Elise had gone out in a blaze of glory quite literally a few weeks ago, I threw him the keys to drive it back home. A gentle reminder that the Tripod joint was probably on it’s last legs was cheerfully ignored under the guise he was having problems getting used to the clutch. With smoke pouring from the tires each time we left a set of traffic lights Patrick aptly demonstrated the best way of getting around L.A…

Back home it was time to get the car sorted out. Patrick had made a few calls the previous evening and it turned out there was an independent Lotus garage not far away – Viking Motorsport. The owner Harry Appleby upon hearing my plight agreed to make space in the workshop, so Patrick and I headed down. I had a good feeling immediately, firstly Harry was a Geordie (Newcastle, UK), he’d been living in the US since 82 and had customers as far away as Florida. The workshop was full of Esprits and one very special Lotus Type 47 owned by Harry.

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The 47

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With the car in Harry’s very capable hands it was off to a local bar for a couple of cold ones – yes L.A in November is a very pleasant place to be! By the time we’d had some lunch the car was nearly finished. Not only had the Tripod boot been replaced but the outer CV boot had been found to have a pin hole leak in it and had also been replaced. With Laguna Seca now looking very on – I asked Harry to give the car a once over, remarkably other than a new strap on the left hand Tripod boot the car was in good shape.

Finally he refused to hand the keys back until it’d been cleaned, his boys set to it and it was looking like new in 10 minutes.

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I bet they wished all cars were as small as mine, look what rolled in next…

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Job done it was time to drop Patrick off at his office, where having heard about my frustration with my GPS software he promptly reappeared with a CD for another GPS program and loaded it onto my Laptop. Top man! Laguna Seca programmed in it was time to hit the road for the relatively short drive of 400 miles to the track. The car ran faultlessly all the way up. Which is more than I can say for the internet connection at the Hotel.

And who ever came up with the bright idea of building a freeway out of concrete blocks of varying heights and spacing should be shot along with his children and his childrens children!

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Ian Wilson
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Post by Ian Wilson »

“I don’t [insert appropriate expletive] believe it”

Four or five words I’ve found myself uttering with increasing regularity over the last few days. It was to be no different today…

Up nice and early, I was at track by 7:30am, visibility was only a couple of car lengths but the sun would hopefully soon burn the fog off. Registration and safety brief completed, I waited for the advanced group to be called. Nice mix of cars in the group and the track was for the most part dry. The green flag came out and as usual my plan of taking it easy went straight out the window :D After 25 minutes the rears were overheating badly and I decided to come in. The session had been a good one; I was only caught by a couple of Radicals, a pretty good performance since I was running road tyres. The track itself was interesting; the corkscrew in real life is simply breathtaking. You approach it completely blind and as you turn in the track falls away so steeply you have to aim for tops of the trees. My lines were interesting to say the least and I was looking forward improving over the next two days.

Warm down lap complete it was into the pits and the horrifying slight of smoke wafting up from the engine bay greeted me. Fire is probably my worse nightmare, the speed a fire can consume a car is mind blowing. So I was desperate to find the source. Eventually I realised it must the remains of the grease from the Tripod joint cooking off on the engine block. Decided I would head into town and find a garage to degrease the engine. But before I did I reached under to check the new boot. I was literally stunned went I reached under to see the boot had split yet again! Continuing on was out of the question. Although there was still plenty of grease in the joint the risk of fire was too great and to be honest with a score of Tripod 3, Ian 0, I was a beaten man.

Phoned up Harry in LA, he was as perplexed as I. But he offered to sort it out again if I could get back to LA. So an 800 mile round trip to spend 25 minutes on track, not only that but I’d filled the tank with 100 octane gas @ $7.50 a gallon :o. The thought of wasting it all on the drive back to LA bought tears to my eyes. But at least I had got *some* track time.

I wandered around the pits for an hour or so chatting to people and grabbing a few shots.

Anyone care to have a guess as to what this is…

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Cobra

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One of Maranello's better efforts

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Skip Barber Vipers

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On track.

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Left for LA at around 2pm and got to Patrick’s place around 8:30pm. Patrick was pleased to see me… I think

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Dropped the car off with Harry at Viking Motorsport in the morning. Late in the afternoon the car was ready once more and we still had no answers. The boot did not appear to have overheated and the direction of the split seemed to rule out contact with the body work or ballooning. For all I know I won’t have another problem for years. Needless to say I picked up a couple of lottery tickets...

Patrick’s managed to score four tickets to the Tonight show with Jay Leno on Friday which I’m really looking forward to. Saturday morning I’ll be heading for Crystal Cove in LA, every Saturday morning a few million dollars worth of Super cars turn up. This Saturday will be no different other than the presence of a tatty old Lotus Elise :D
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MARKP
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Post by MARKP »

Ian,

The car that looked like Schumacher's F1 car is a Formula Mazda. They have a series that they run those cars with. Sometimes it is televised on Speed Channel.

Sorry to hear about your CV joint troubles. I guess the good news is that you have found good help along the way.
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Post by dfsmith »

Actually, Laguna Seca is officially called Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca now. I think some of the clips in commercials for the Formula Mazda series and the RX-8 were filmed there as well. I sat in a static model of one of those Formula Mazdas at a Rev-it-up event a couple of years ago. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure it was frowned upon, but hey ... no one was watching and besides, it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission sometimes. :lol:

Sounds like you've had a mixed bag of adventures, Ian. Bummer on the CV boot, but at least you got some track time. It's good to hear how helpful and generous folks have been along the way. I'm looking forward to a full report on Crystal Cove.

And best of luck to ya on the lottery! :D
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TedV
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Post by TedV »

I’ll take a wild guess at the formula car going from memory… just by the body work… a Formula SCCA if it has a 2.3 ltr Mazda 4 cyl with chassis by Van Diemen also used in the Mazda Pro series with Cooper Tires. It has a better chassis compared to the old Formula Mazda with the Rotary engine. You can get a FSCCA car for about $35K to $40K.
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