BABE 2008 Rally Pics

I finally got all (well most of them anyway...) photos up on Flickr.

You should be able to see them at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24341440@N03/sets/72157605305560614/show/

BABE Rally Video

Here is a link to a video by Justin "the Rallymeister" from the Rally.

http://www.streetsafari.com/ph/BABE2008.mp4

Getting Home......

We did a Cannonball Run from New Orleans back to Richmond. We donated Evidence to a local charity and rented a Toyota Minivan for the drive back home.

Drove straight through.

Finally got out of the I-10 IHOP North of New Orleans around 12:30 pm on Monday.

Arrived in Richmond around 6:15 Tuesday morning.

Day 4: Ft. Payne AL to New Orleans LA (The Finish!)

Final day. Just have to make the ~440 mi Interstate trek from Northern AL to the Big Easy.

The group was lined up in the Lowes parking lot for the start and got a police escort out of town. We departed by 9:30am. Challenge for the day was to find 6 BP/Amoco gas stations and have the team's picture taken in front of pump #1. We cranked this out rather easily once we got in the grove. The tough part was the signs that indicated the presence of a BP and there actually was none, or the reverse--driving past an exit at 70 mph and seeing a BP sign emerge from the trees. But we got them all.

While searching for our third sign however, we noticed the temp gauge had jumped up significantly. This didn't bode well as we were in lots of traffic lights looking for !@#$ BP stations. As it turns out, our second cooling fan switch melted. So, we just hot-wired everything together and hit the road. Pulling the fuse became our on/off switch from there on out.

As we lost much time we figured we were in the back of the pack (it was an Amazing Race moment). As we stopped for gas somewhere in Nowhere AL, we run into three other teams. One included the wrecked "Crapriolet" that was worked on for most of the night. We stayed with them for until just outside N.O. when we had to do a splash-and-go for gas.

We were behind that previously wrecked car for a good portion of the day and it was doing 70 easy all day long. Amazing.

We made it to our destination--The Hotel LeMoyne in the French Quarter with about 90 minutes to spare, got our challenges turned in and broke out the post race beverages.

The award ceremony was at 8--we didn't win anything but had a blast the whole time. I have to get my thoughts together to sum up the week, sort through hundreds of photos and a couple hours worth of video----so here are some pictures instead:

WE MADE IT!!! ROLLED INTO THE BIG EASY SUNDAY NIGHT!! Evidence hung in there! On Monday, Team BT Justice will make their way back to Virginia. Stay tuned for more photos to come!!!

Day 3: Newport TN to Ft. Payne AL

Day 3 took us from Newport TN through the smokies and Deals gap down to Ft. Payne AL. Wasnt really a long day but the days are getting warmer and our AC only works when the windows are open.

Car got a work out up and down the mountains but did just fine. She was cruising through the tail of the dragon just fine as well.

We had to replace our fan switch as it basically melted and stopped working properly. There were a couple of times wherein we thought we had the fan on but in reality it wasnt. No overheating close calls but the switch needed replacement. We really need to be running it off a relay but we need only one more day for the switch.

Big excitment was last night in Ft. Payne when one of the BABE cars was in a traffic accident. The BABE car was turning left at a light into the hotel and was hit by an oncoming car. Nobody was hurt.

The great thing was once released by the police everybody pushed the BABE car (VW Golf Cabriolet) into the hotel parking lot and swarmed to get the car fixed to make it to New Orleans on Sunday. It was awesome. A combination of hardcore VW heads and a tug from a Toyota pick up to pull the frame out. It was like being in the pits at night at LeMans or the 24 hours of Daytona. Looks like she will make it to the start today.

That's what its all about.

Day 2 Pics

Quick update...

Made it to Newport TN. Car still running good. Seems to be smoother in 3rd Gear vice Overdrive so we are running w/o over drive. Mileage is still much better than we thought. We were getting about 24 MPG and its about 22 w/o overdrive.

Many hills today including a "short cut" up a dirt road over a mountain in western VA.

Made all the challenges but they really added alot to the trip. Left Harrisonburg at 10:00 am and arrived in Newport around 9:00pm.

Some of the cars are feeling the pain but folks are hanging in there. One of the teams is currently repainting their car in the motel parking lot--they are changing it every day. Greg just pushed Team "there will be bacon" into the lot--they have two good cylinders left (they started with four).

Long day and were tired--and the cold beers at the end are kicking in.

Off to Deals Gap at 9:00 am and the Tail of the dragon!!!

Day 2: Harrisonburg to Newport TN

We havent started yet..

Today's challenge is to hit 3 cities/towns along the route to Newport TN, get a picture of the whole team and the car in front of a building that identifies the name of the town--also a local from the town has to be in the picture with the team.

.....all this while dressed as superman.

Day 1: Staten Island to Harrisonburg

We made it with no problems. Pretty much a straight shot from Staten Island with a detour down Skyline drive before popping into Harrisonburg.

For the Day 1 challenge we were given a bunch of pictures of roadsigns and building along the route. Our challenge was to take a picture of them; however, the challenge pictures were photoshopped, cropped or otherwise manipulated to make things difficult from a car moving 60mph (no stopping on the interstate thankyouverymuch)

Car is running good and holding in there.

Day 2 takes us to Newport TN and starts two days of mountain climbing....

Day 0 We made it

Made it from Richmond VA to Staten Island yesterday. Car is holding up well.

IRCD is holding up after some fuse issues and now working like a champ

A few pics (will post all after the rally--just too many right now)

We Are Ready!

We leave tomorrow (Wed 21 May) morning.

Vroom, Vroom....

Cooling fan is fixed (for now). Wetested the fan motor, removed and replaced (R2) the coolant temp sensor, and trouble shot various relays (we still don't know where the hell the cooling fan relay is in this damn car), and numerous trips to the junk yard(cue theme from Sanford and Son)--we came up with an alternative. We developed an Improvised Radiator Cooling Device (IRCD) by disconnecting the fan motor from the ECM and hotwiring it directly to the car battery with an inline switch--which of course we left in the engine bay as running it through the firewall would be too logical.

Works like a champ now....except when the temp gauge goes up, you have to pull over, pop the hood and flip the switch under the hood.

But that is what this event is all about.

Hopefully more from Staten Island tomorrow night.

This is Evidence

Temperature control........

After struggling with a failing thermoregulation system in Evidence, our fearless leaders found a way to redefine what GM considers "American Ingenuity". In what some would consider 50% electrical engineering mastery and 50% Sanford and Son, this stallion has been resurrected from certain doom.

Stay tuned for the tech briefs..........

Oh yea, add one more thing...

An addition to our oil-stained list of negatives:

No cooling fan.

If we make it to the end it will be a miracle.

2 Weeks to go....

No Paint,
No Supersuits,
No A/C,
No Compression,
No Problem.

35 or 6 to 5

35.

That's the number. It is a great number when talking air pressure for your tires or if you just celebrated your 40th birthday. Unfortunately, when talking cylinder compression...it's not so good. The suspected non-firing cylinder turned out to be one that was wheezing along whilst its 5 other physically fit siblings did all the work with a normal compression reading.

According to Dad's meeting with Bubba, this is where we stand:

"He did a compression check on the cylinders. Our friend the cylinder in the back on the left side as you look at the engine from the front (the one with the fouled spark plug) has let us down. Bubba said he got a reading of about 35 on the compression meter and a normal cylinder should read about 165. So that sucker isn't pulling a fourth of his share!! And that explains his initial feeling that Evidence was "...running on only 5 cylinders...". In addition, he thinks that maybe it's got a burnt valve in that cylinder.

As far as the consequences, assuming of course that something else doesn't happen as a result of this, he said we will waste a lot of gas and we will have no power when we probably need it......But we would probably get there."

And get there we will as Team Justice will forge ahead without changing horses (mainly because we can't) and decisively confirm once and for all that we are most definitely not running on all cylinders.

Coming Attractions...

I threw together a short video clip after we worked on the car this past weekend.


Many miles to go.....

As spring settles in, the trees are in full bloom.



Meanwhile, Bubba has spoken--our 6 cylinder engine is currently only using 5 cylinders. Hopefully its just a bad plug...
...but there is no way in hell it will be one of the plugs on the front of the engine.

With only a month to go before the Rally start, the car still need's pimpin'--the crack team at Team Justice is feeling the heat.

Beware the return

Be afraid, very afraid.

I'm just sayin'....

Latest News From the Front

The highly trained automotive mechanics here at team justice have reported setbacks in being able to effectively troubleshoot the aerosol-fuel ignition triggering elements located within Evidence's powerplant. Seems the sadistic designers of the transversely mounted 60 degree V6 LB6 General Motors engine made the back 3 spark plugs pretty damn tough to get to.

Having run out of ideas, stolen utensils from the kitchen and no doubt beer, it looks like they will have to seek out the sensei of Simon station wagon repairs.

And his name is Bubba......

Muffler Makeover

"Evidence" needed a muffler in a bad way. Sure, it had one--in a theoretical sense. There was a can at the rear of the car that had one pipe going in and another pipe coming out--ostensibly to temper its stock car-like audible qualities and to dump excessive hydrocarbons into the atmosphere.



Armed with a can of PB Blaster, wrenches, a hammer and a cutting tool in case I need to call in reinforcements, I set out to put 'er right.

Upon getting the muffler off, I peeled it open to reveal..nothing.




After putting on a high-quality $29 muffler from Advance Auto and some muffler-sealant-putty-stuff, we are now in business.

We'll see how long it lasts....

"You can think about it....but don't do it"

Beer. That's how it started. It seems all great ideas come to us after a few. That was the case during Thanksgiving 2007 when Team Buford T. Justice was created. "Lets do the BABE Rally in May" we said. And do it we will.

BABE stands for Big Apple to Big Easy. You just have to get any car you can find for no more than $250 to get you from Staten Island NY to New Orleans LA. 1500 miles in 4 days in a $250 car. What could be more fun for a team of 3 brothers and dear old dad!?

Our ride of choice...a 1988 Chevrolet Celebrity Eurosport Wagon and it is not without its issues. It marks its territory wherever you park it, the signal indicators are hit and miss and there is quite a bit of gunky sludge on the bottom of the engine block from the aforementioned fluid leaks. We'll leave that alone as it's quite possible it is acting as some sort of sealant.

Brakes--OK, Tranny--OK (we think), Engine (OK..well except for the paint shaker effect around 50 Mph). Interior door panels are shot, and if you fail to remember that not-so-minor point, you'll rip them off as you get in and try to close the door. Grabbing the window sill with your finger tips seems to be the door closing method of choice.

Radio works but unfortunately so does only one speaker. The A/C appeared to have some life in it but this was tested during the waning days of winter--hmm-- Memorial day weekend...deep south....not holding our breath for any power chillin A/C. Unfortunately only two of the windows will roll down, so maybe we will have to hold our breath.

She failed her first VA State Inspection due to improper latching of the drivers door --it sagged in the frame with a .5" gap btwn the top of the door and the frame. A little drill action on the frame to reposition the latching pin netted us a State inspection certificate of achievement.

More mx actions are required, although many will be left as is. Next priority is the 50 Mph Death Rattle.

Of course we'll need to get some more beer so we can figure that problem out.