Conference oass::racers

    Oh well....  The Chattahoochee Rally's been cancelled.  The Forest
    Service suddenly claimed we had to have all the paper work submitted 90
    days before the event.  For all the events in the past 2 or 3 years all
    they required was 30 days.
    
    With any luck, we'll try to re-schedule it for December as the last
    event of the year.  More details as they become available.
    
    Dave

Chad Dimarco won the rally in a Subaru Legacy and Tim O'Neil came second in the
Rallye Golf.  I don't remember the other finishers.....

Dave

(Knoxville to Atlanta in 2.5 hours?  No problem...)

    For some reason, most of the times I managed to get the Rabbit sideways
were on my side.  Usually you find the co-driver's door heading for the
trees, not the driver's.  The first time was coming out of the first dip,
foot to the floor in 4th gear, with the road climbing up and to the right.
The P7s were pushed a little too much and slipped a little.  A momentary lift
of the throttle brought it back under control, but it caught my attention!

    The other nasty time was coming out of the second dip (why did I suddenly
have problems climbing hills??) when I was into heavy left foot braking in
3rd when I decided I really needed to be in 2nd to power out properly.  The
turns tightens up a bunch to the right and there is a guard rail on the
outside as well.  I did a quick shift of my feet to the left (left foot from
brake too clutch and right foot from gas to brake) and attempted to jam it
into 2nd gear.  For some reason it hung up in neutral for a bit (with the
stresses on the chassis at that point I could probably understand why...) and
I had to keep my foot on the clutch while I hunted around for 2nd gear.  I
quickly reaquainted myself with the theory that when you are fully committed
to a turn, cutting power to the driven wheels isn't such a good idea.  I took
a little more tread off the P7s on that turn, but found 2nd and pulled out.
                           

    The fun slides were coming off the back dirt section onto the tarmac just
before the bridge.  You approach the turn in 3rd, on gravel, brake and
downshift to 2nd and set the car up for the right hander (by tossing the
co-driver first.)  Let off the brake, flip the car back the other way around
and hit the tar sideways (driver's door first), full opposite lock and full
throttle.  There is gravel all over the tar so it's just a matter of waiting
for the tires to grab, straighten the wheel out and go!  We probably spent a
good 50-75 feet completely sideways, just sitting there, watching the
porta-potties getting closer and waiting for the rear tires to find tarmac so
the front end can pull the car out.  Once the tires grab, it's important to
not over-correct because you then have to thread your way over the bridge.  I
was very sensitive to when the tires started to grab and did my best to
correct just as they did so we didn't start the rear end waving all over the
place.

    I found the Michelins easier to drive and more fun because they'd grab
once the car was sideways much better than the Pirellis.  With all the chewed
up corners and the darkness, I had more confidence diving into a turn with
the Michelins because I knew they would handle whatever road conditions were
is store for us.  Because they were taller (14/60x14 vs. 175/50x13) I lost
some acceleration, but they kept us on the road and I had more fun driving.
                                                                      

Re: Note 837.5 by OASS::BURDEN_D "He's no fun, he fell right over"    
>                   -< Sand Hills PRO Rally - July 13, 1991 >-

Good report.  One question though...

>    The stage itself went great, 2.46 miles with only 2 tulips and not too 
>    much dust.  

What's a "tulip"?
							Mike

  A 'tulip' is what we call route instructions.  Each turn in the route
  book has a line drawing of the turn with a dot at the bottom indicating
  where you come in, and an arrow showing the exit direction.  A 'Y' would
  look like this:
  
  	^    /
        \   /
         \ /
          |
          |
          0
  
  Dave

>> a 1924 Studebaker Special 6 Touring car.

How will it do on a rally???

Big solid 'I' beam front axle, HD elliptic springs on all four
corners, *ADJUSTABLE* friction-type shocks on all four corners.

Demountable rims, the wooden wheels stay on the car (saves
weight in carrying all those spare wheels around.)  Optional
hand crank for when the battery or starter die.  Speedometer
and odo (with trip odo) already mounted on passengers side, no
need for those new fangled computers!

Full rally instrumentation - Ammeter and Oil pressure, that's it.

Besides, some of our rally roads are probably considered tame 
compared to the roads this car had to handle when it was new.

Dave