What I've been up to

[dr.occa]

That's a good reminder for me Tom. I definitely need to remember to better manage my time so as to continue to avoid those "valleys" as you might say as well as pay proper attention to family and friends firstly.

So am I to assume part of your over-all plan is to have each chassis setup to where removal and depositing of the motor is facilitated to minimize down time and streamline things for the different motoring arenas? I'm sure that's a welcomed design for any motor head but I just thought I'd ask.

[kevlar corolla]

Yep I guess like they say life is about balance,easy to say but tough to do at least for me.

Yes the goal is to have a pretty easy switchover with the one engine and 2 completely different chassis and drivetrain configurations,with the chance of using either car in its off season pretty much nil its a money saver to use one powerplant.I guess I'll find out come march when its time to switcharoo,I need to do it as soon as ice race is over as I need to build the turbo parts and have it tuned/sorted before autox season starts up again in may.

[kevlar corolla]

Still making progress,slow but sure.Anyways I'm always getting hell for not giving updates so here's a couple pics,the wiring is all done and the engine runs,rear suspension is in and just need to fab up some toe links and mounts,the ducting is done for the rad,the engine box just needs the top and door side installed,all the controls are done,build a battery mount,reinstall the jackshaft tomorrow and restring the chains to mount the 4 tensioners,need to fab the exhaust as well.
Lots to do and the season starts in 3 weeks,not looking to good right now but maybe it'll come together in time.

[kevlar corolla]

Yesterdays work,

[kevlar corolla]

Been very busy working on this thing,the chain and tensioners are in and tested on the stands seem ok,clutch and shifter work well.I was lucky to have this weekends events cancelled so I got alot of work done,all sheetmetal work is complete and I only have the cv's to reinstall,run brake lines and do an alignment before next weekends event-going to be tight.

[dr.occa]

Killer Tom! What's with the modified half shafts? I'm sorry for being ignorant.

[kevlar corolla]

The cv's needed to be custom lenghts as I couldn't locate the diffs in the original location relative to the chassis centerline as the center chain case would've crowded me to the door to much.I prefer to be as far away from somebodies bumper as possible so I moved the diffs towards the passenger side to allow the seat to be moved more to the center as well,also these things are narrow at the rood line(exactly like an AE86)so moving inboard allows more space from the cage to my melon.
To bad I couldn't use the cv's stock as it would've been less work,less likely to fail and if(when) they do fail I'm screwed as I can't just head to the nearest napa etc for a replacement,oh well its just one more out of several things that offer possible failures.

Life on the edge I guess,hopefully its semi reliable.

[kevlar corolla]

This weekend is the last race event for the year,won all 5 races last weekend as well.Last weekend was also the annual drivers meeting to discuss next years rules and my car was discussed at lenght.For probably 30 years the class has been called the awd,specials and modifieds class,the guys in my class proposed and passed a rule to seperate the awd part for the class designation so for next year I'm kicked out and they get to race amoungst themselves while I get no one in my class-means no championship titles for me untill at least 2 other special/mod class cars are built.I have the class title locked up by over 100 points and currently sitting in 2nd overall.
The only thing that really ticks me off is that the guys whining drive cars they have nearly no effort into making faster within the rules,my plan for next year is to park the geo and prep another awd car to the limit of the rules and go and beat them again before returning with an even faster geo the following year.

On a side note my wife has been running a friends corolla alltrac wagon in the 2nd driver class and is also leading her class and sitting 1 point behind 2nd in the 2nd driver overall championship,gonna be very cool if we sweep the awd class titles.

[mandm177]

how do you know when you're a bad@ss mofo? when they change the rules to kick you out.

Good Job Tom!

[dr.occa]

how do you know when you're a bad@ss mofo? when they change the rules to kick you out.

Good Job Tom!

+1

Hell yeah!

Ain't that a pisser! Seriously, you know they're not sleeping any better knowing the only way they could beat you is by tuning only the rules. It doesn't negate your wins. This all the more proves your tenacity on and off the track inside and outside of the driver's seat. I agree with you Tom: beat them at their own game by defeating them using their own rules.

Bad Ass is all.



Good call Mark.

[kevlar corolla]

Thanks,yeah we'll see what I do for next year.I ran my buddies corolla alltrac this weekend again as the track was super slushy on saturday(my light car and wide tires is pretty sketchy in the slush)and then today with much colder temps and a nice nicely frozen track the fuel pump would run.

I had 2 wins in the alltrac yesterday but today I shot myself in the foot by catching the front bumper in the bank and spinning the car-in both damn races!.Long ass nose on a corolla compared to my little Geo.

After driving the corolla again I think I'll just make some improvements and add 2 of my big ass wings to the Geo and enjoy driving it wether I have a class or not.I kinda proved my point today,I can still win without a monster awd mid engined 12,000rpm sequential shifted Geo-but its WAAAY my fun to drive.

[86boy]

man oh man! how did I miss this before! I don't know how I'd feel if the engine was RIGHT next to me! Is that your "heater" in a sense?! that's just plain out crazy!

Congrats on the achievements as well!!

[kevlar corolla]

man oh man! how did I miss this before! I don't know how I'd feel if the engine was RIGHT next to me! Is that your "heater" in a sense?! that's just plain out crazy!

Congrats on the achievements as well!!

Thanks,no big deal to have the engine right beside you-I don't even think about it actually.Look at it this way,if the clutch in your car blew apart there's a very real risk your losing a foot but in my car the clutch is on the other side of the engine and spinning parallel to me so no chance of damge to me.You can REALLY feel that the car has its mass centralized,it pivots around its middle instead of having to swing the weight side to side when turing if the engine/trans was still up front.Watch the videos closely and you'll notice how little my hands need to move to initiate a turn,and the geo steering rack is damn slow.Keep in mind I only touch full throttle at the very top of 2nd gear on the main straight and in 3rd gear,I'm spinning the engine up to near 12k coming out onto the straight with light throttle so the revs are still up decent for the hift to 3rd.Everywhere else on track its maybe 1/2 throttle max,I have some changes in store for next year to improve that I hope.

http://youtu.be/NModSrFiMaY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The engine is out now and will go back into the open wheel car it came from this weekend,it needs to head to its 1st event of the season mid may.

[joel26]

Nice Vid looks like it was a lot of fun... Good driving...