SurlyOldManMN

Bring it out to dyno day at RS Motors tomorrow and put it on the rollers. Give people a chance to drool on it in person.

Not bad at all. Hopefully they do a two-pod version at some point.

Enough with the damn mpg gauges.

Awesome! I've seen the clip in the Audi many times. Never found the whole movie.

Worked some checkpoints/timing controls for a laid back tarmac map rally in WI this weekend. Only had 7 cars, still totally worth it. Here's a couple of shots the rally master (Clarence Westberg) took: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7268/7016107999_007735af79.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7260/7017601647_e1623dddf8.jpg Whole "set": [ame=http://www.flickr.com/photos/98264744@N00/sets/72157629307484808/]March Muddy Waters - a set on Flickr[/ame]

That works.

PS: This is now the official "RALLY" thread, WRC, TSD, Monte Carlo, Trap, Gimmick or otherwise.

Wow. Rage. Building. I think my favorite so far was Mark Larson (Rally master for Ojibwe Forests Performance Rally) talking about this one jump that kept catching him out every time a certain road was used for a stage. I guess the 2nd or 3rd time he tried it he decided to just go for it. Suspension loaded up when he landed, hit a gnarly bump with no travel left, car rotated off course, flew 75 yards off course and parallel parked itself neatly between two trees, scratching both front and rear bumper against the trees but otherwise sustaining no significant damage. They had to pull it out sideways, the only other option was to cut down one or both of the trees as they were both in physical contact with their respective ends of the car. I love these guys. Oh, they also have a "no car left behind" policy after they left one in the woods one night and came back to a burnt out shell early the next morning. Jerks.

Sadly, not all that great. I got interested in TSD by accident and ended up seeking out the "Twin Cities Rally Club (TCRC)". I guess they used to have a HUGE group of people back in the 70's-80's and everyone eventually moved away from it. There is a core group that had been soldiering on doing small events. Lately that group decided to officially get the club back together and has started more aggressively marketing to the enthusiasts in the area. The guys involved are some of the best sources of awesome stories (and locations of awesome roads) I have ever come across. Very well seasoned, events are run without a hitch with only a handful of volunteers. The rallymasters are the same guys that will host and run any national stage rallies that happen to go on in the area. Good stuff all around IMO. The group averages one per month or so. Someone does a Monte Carlo every year, I didn't run it last year. Usually it's 10 or so cars, we have an annual gimmick rally on Halloween that will max out at 50 before they cut off registration. Gaining some steam lately, I'm hoping to pique some more interest. Edit: Here's our facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/110850758955090/ Google site thing: https://sites.google.com/site/mnwisroadrally/

I'm just getting in to TSD lately. I've driven one and co-driven a handful. Also ran a map rally. Working on a port of a curta-esque WP7 app. You guys have a pretty good core out there?

Just realized you said it was a civic. Different guy. There's always someone who thinks a certain shop blew their car. Odds are SOMEONE is going to blow it on any given shop's dyno. It is going to happen. It probably isn't going to be the shop's fault, the car owner will probably disagree. I don't put much stock into those stories unless there is a lot of detail and the shop has had a chance to respond.

If it's who I think it is, there is a rather long thread detailing the whole thing on MNS. When it comes down to it, the people "confronting" RS about it are unable to provide accurate, reliable first hand information. It's always "a friend" and there always something a bit vague about the timeline. Morries Minnetonka is usually noted for being one of the best dealers in the area if you want something "safer". There are a couple MNS members in parts/service. Generally speaking, if your dealership had to order something, they probably ordered it through Morries Mntka. Of course, if it were me and I was going to make a trip up here to identify a minor mechanical issue, afterwards I would be seriously tempted to let Nuke (of NF performance) tinker with it, then bring it over to Jeff Forss for an alignment. If I did that, I know I would have a fun ride home.

RS is pretty good to us. I had them do my clutch. What did you use for a username?

Oil leaks and your turbo are generally not a good thing to simply tolerate. There are several shops up here that can take a look for you if you want to make a day of it. Otherwise like I said, hit up mnsubaru.com and ask people who they're using down there. There are ore scoobs around than you think...

offsite backups are the key IMO, paper or otherwise.

Those things are not fireproof. Don't believe the hype. Water damage? Flood? Theft? Back up your media of choice accordingly.

What happens when your filing cabinet starts on fire?

The proprietary computer doo-hicky that only subaru dealerships have.

If your account was approved you should be able to post anything. Send me a pm about it either here or on MNS and we'll get you sorted out.

Hah, good to know. The MNSubaru folks are going to be doing a lunch at Lions Tap at 11:30'ish on Sunday. Heads up.

Interested.

Not much going on this weekend. You could always jump on mnsubaru.com and try to get a cruise arranged... If you want OEM parts, Morries Minnetonka Subaru is the spot. MNSubaru members get a 20% discount there. A couple of our members are techs for them, not sure if they can swing something for out of town visitors or not. The big ones for after market scoob stuff is RS Motors and Modern Automotive Performance (also home to AWD dynos). They both tend to dropship anything not made in-house, so probably not worth going out of your way unless you want something fabricated. Grimmspeed is also here if you were planning on picking up something from them but don't want to pay shipping.

Oh hi there!

Ah, gotcha. Very interested in the 15mm front pics!