2007 BABErally

Made it back to Knoxville

2007-05-28T20:05:00.000-04:00

After the awards, of which we did not place in the money, we headed out into the French Quarter. We went down Bourbon Street and headed over to Pat O'Brien's to get some hurricanes and some dinner. We then headed over to Cafe du Monde to get a few beignets. After that we called it a night. We could be lying or we could be lame and telling the truth, but we will never tell!

We woke up this morning for the long and boring drive back to Knoxville. The drive was uneventful, and since there were no challenges, we got to sleep a little while the other was driving. However, somewhere around Birmingham the car did develop an interesting sound in the exhaust. It is probably an exhaust leak, but right now we really aren't to concerned about it.

Now, we just need to decide what to do with the car. It is not the most comfortable, but it has been very reliable and gets awesome gas mileage. Anywhere here are a few pics from yesterday. Unfortunately, we did not get too many since we were busy snapping pics of license plates.

Here are some coming across Lake Ponchatrain:

Here are a few pics of the destruction from Katrina over on the north side of town:

We Made it to the French Quarter!!!

2007-05-27T19:10:00.000-04:00

Not really a whole lot to post about today. We left the hotel around 9:00 and started on our way to New Orleans. The car ran well, but we did have to put in about a 1/2 can of R-134a to keep us cool down here. One thing we have really been shocked about on this trip is the lack of traffic. We figured, that it being a holiday weekend, the traffic would be really bad. Maybe the price of fuel is making some people decide to just stay home. Once we got onto the south side of Lake Ponchatrain we saw that there was still a lot of damage from hurricane Katrina.

Our challenge today was to take pictures of license plates from as many states as possible. Our strategy for this challenge was to hit up the hotel parking lots (in the morning before everyone left), rest stops, truck stops, Cracker Barrels and U-Hauls. Yes, I said U-Hauls. If you notice, every single U-Haul truck has a plate from Arizona. However, the trailers have plates from all over. We ended up with 42 states and Quebec. We did pretty well. We will have the awards ceremony at 8:00 and then we will head into the French Quarter. We probably won't be out too late because we would like to get an early start in the morning. Dave will probably post a few pictures here shortly, but there really isn't much to see between Gadsden, Alabama and here.

3rd Leg?

2007-05-27T00:11:00.001-04:00

Dave pretty much covered it all so I will add some comments in blue.

320 miles, a little bit of refrigerant, and oil change, a tire rotation, four states (NC, TN, GA, and AL), and a fuel filter...

We picked up our stuff at Advance Auto Parts in Asheville. They didn't have a fuel filter so we ended up at a competitors store. A guy that used to come over and autocross with us was working there. So it was good to see Daniel.

Today we went from Asheville, NC to Gadsden, AL via some pretty cool roads. We left from Asheville around 9 a.m. and hit I-40 West. From there we took the first exit on the TN side (#451) and quickly ran out of road (we thought). I recognized the area because Jess and I launched a raft trip from there last year. It is paved for a very short distance and then it turns into what looks like a gravel driveway. We turned around and asked for directions and were told that the gravel road went for about 3 miles and then became a paved road that would get us into Gatlinburg. At this point we were traveling with J.D., who is also from Knoxville.

The gravel was pretty rough in a few places, but fun, and it got us to SR32 which was just as much fun as Deal's Gap but with ZERO traffic. I will definitely be taking the Miata back up there soon.

From there we went through Gatlinburg, Cherokee, and then Bryson City. We ran Deal's Gap a few times (the Festiva held together!!!) and then headed down to my house, which was very close to the Rally Route. The Festiva got an oil change, tire rotation (the alignment is off and is wearing the tires), and a fuel filter. We also threw the wheels on a bubble balancer and found the tire that has been vibrating on the interstate. A few stick on wheel weights and we had a smoother ride.

We had some lunch at the Greenback corner and left for Alabama around 4:30. The trip down to Gadsden was uneventful and we arrived around 7:30pm.

Interesting Coincidence

2007-05-27T00:06:00.001-04:00

Click the picture and look at the license plate. Room 223 (someone, ahem added the decimal point) was our hotel room # in H'burg. These pictures either mean something to you or they don't.

Day 3 Challenge

2007-05-26T23:56:00.000-04:00

Today's challenge was to take a picture of the oldest vehicle that we could find. The only requirements were that it be along the challenge route and it must have four wheels (attached). Oh, they also nixed going into any of the car museums in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge.

As we were coming down out of Deal's Gap, Tyler somehow managed to see this Model T that was hidden behind a wrecker. After stopping and taking pictures we spoke to the owner and found that it was a 1920 Model T Touring.

Pic of the Festiva with new stickers.

2007-05-26T23:51:00.000-04:00

Elvis Challenge Pictures

2007-05-26T23:39:00.000-04:00

In front of Advance Auto Parts headquarters (in Roanoke):

Some family in a gas station parking lot decided to humor the crazy people:

In front of Jack of the Woods in downtown Asheville:

We didn't think they'd let us count this one (they didn't) but we took it anyway:

Cheesburger in Paradise in Asheville:

Lots of other interesting people in downtown Asheville (Trix are for kids):

Day 2 Post from Tyler

2007-05-25T23:15:00.000-04:00

This morning we woke up and went outside to be greeted by about 70 Elviseses or Elvi or whatever the plural of Elvis is. There were fat Elvises in jumpsuits, skinny jailhouse Elvi, Hawaiian Elvises, Army Elvi, a little doggy Elvis, and every Elvis you could ever imagine and some you probably wouldn't want to.

We got off to a fairly good start. Dave was feeling a little rough so I took the wheel for the Day. We headed to the starting line. We pulled out from the hotel in H'burg and were handed our challenge for the day. Since we are were dressed as the king today's challenge was to have a picture made with at least three "innocent" bystanders. These innocence of these folks was defined as not having any association with the rally. Some of the other stipulations were that your entire team had to be in the picture. This means not only did you have to find willing photographees you had to find a willing photographer if you weren't smart enough to bring along a tripod. Bonus points were awarded if you were able to get at least 10 people in the picture in addition to the team members. Some teams hung around H'burg and James Madison University. We decided to go ahead and hit the road.

Once we hit the road we did a little a little thinking of our strategy. Our goal was to get as many pictures with 10+ people in them as possible. We figured to do this our best bet was to find a large group of folks willing to have their picture taken with two Elvi. We also remembered that the headquarters for Advance Auto Parts is in Roanoke. A quick google search gave us an address and with the GPS we found that it was only about a 5 minute journey off of I-81. Now when we were preparing the car almost all the new parts and fluids we replaced on the car came from Advance. we thought it would be cool to see if they would have ten of their employees willing to take a picture. They were actually very excited to see us. Not only did they bring us 10 employees for the picture, they hooked us up with some sweet new stickers for the car (which will go on in the morning) and some T-Shirts. So a big thanks to Drew, Carrie, Evan, Kara and all the employees at Advance that helped us get an excellent picture for the challenge.

After we left Advance we headed over to a nearby deli to grab some lunch. The deli was actually a sit down restaurant that was real busy. It took a lot longer than expected to get our food, but the waitresses did stop for a moment to pose for a picture. After lunch it was back on the road.

We lost a lot of time at lunch so we decided to take the most direct route to Asheville. We took I-81 and caught I-26 over to Asheville. One the way we met up with a few other teams and took some more of our challenge pics. Once we got past Erwin (Home of Hanging Mary) we went up some big mountains leading into NC. I had to downshift quite a bit to be able to keep up with the Sisters of FoMoCo. Sometimes, I was even going down to 3rd. The mighty Festy chugged on up the mountains with it's 1.3 liters doing all they could.

We made it into Asheville and on to Jessica's (Dave's girlfriend in case you forgot) parent's house in Fletcher. We are crashing here this evening so another big thanks goes out to them as well. We spent the evening downtown where the fine folks of Asheville were very willing to help out with the challenge. We had a barley soda over at Jack of the Wood. We finished all of our pictures and were able to get four with 10+ people in them. Jessica's parents met up with us at the hotel to look at some of the other cars on the rally. We then headed over to Cheeseburger in Paradise for a nice dinner. It is late and Dave has retired for the evening. So we will unfortunately have to skip the pics for now. We will get them up sometime tomorrow. They'll be worth the wait, I promise.

Day One Comments from Tyler

2007-05-24T23:39:00.000-04:00

First a little blog business:

1. If you are new to the blogging thing be sure to notice that the posts are in reverse chronological order. Also, only a few posts show on the opening page. The best thing to do view the blog is to click on the May Archive over on the right and bookmark it in Firefox (shame on you, if you are using Internet Explorer). CLICK HERE for a direct link.

2. I have to moderate each comment before it will show up on the blog. If I don't do this we get spammed a lot. So please keep leaving your comments and we will try to check in and get your comments posted up soon.

As Dave said, our day was fairly uneventful. The challenges (2 today) were tough. One required some quick thinking. The other required quick observation. This rally really isn't a race it is a lot like the Amazing Race TV show except there is no race to the Pit Stop. Points are awarded for being able to do a portion or complete a challenge.

As we left the starting line at about 9:45 we were handed a manila envelope with a $1 bill stapled to it. Opening the envelope we saw there were two challenges. The first one had to be completed by 10:00 am. We were to proceed to a K-Mart that was about 3 miles from the hotel. Once there we were supposed to buy as many different items with that dollar as possible. Seeing how there was very little time we had to think quick...

Dave dropped me off and I made a mad dash into the store.
candy isle.... too expensive
cat food.... $.48 a can SCORE!!!
WAIT!! Ramen noodles $.20 each and three different flavors, beef, shrimp AND chicken DOUBLE SCORE!!!!
There is no tax on food items in NY... TRIPLE SCORE!!!
Crap!!! Time is running out get to the checkout.
Hey look at those 7 different designs of gift cards that can be purchased for ANY amount...

5 CENT GIFT CARDS FOR THE WIN!!!!!

So we head out with 3 packs of 20 cent ramen noodles and 7 gift cards with a value of 5 cents each for a grand total of $.95 cents. Wooohooooooo!

After the security guard at the door checked our receipt, we headed to the car. So with that challenge complete we head out of S.I. Let me tell you, there were about 100 of us running around that K-Mart looking for as many things that they could buy for a dollar. That place was trashed. They are probably still cleaning up the K-Mart on Staten Island.

The second challenge was a "photo challenge". In talking with some of the 2006 BABErally veterans, they have challenges where you have to take pictures of certain things, and then show them to the marshals at the end of the day. Today we were given four sheets of paper that each had four photos on them. You were supposed to take the same picture as we made our journey to H' burg. the problem is that the pictures were mostly of road signs. The pictures were cropped so you could only see a portion of the sign. Then on what was left of the sign several of the symbols, words, or numbers were electronically deleted from the picture. So you had to not only take the picture, it was necessary to figure out what you were supposed to be taking a picture of. To make it even more difficult most of the pictures were on the Jersey Turnpike so you couldn't exactly turn around or stop to take the picture. Dave was driving during this challenge. It was very hard to navigate, look at four pages of pictures that I had taped to the dashboard and keep the tunes rockin' at the same time. We only ended up getting 3 of the 16 pictures.

We chatted with several of the other competitors today. They are from all over the US and we even have a few teams from Great Britain as well (This is obvious when you look at some of the pics below). There is a wide spectrum of people on the rally, but everyone seems to be a car enthusiast and talking about cars is always an easy way to strike up a conversation with someone. It's funny when you get around a large group of car folks. You don't know their name, but you could identify them by what car they drive. I think some of our fellow autocrossers out there know what I am taking about. It's been a fun first Day 1 and Dave is already talking about next year.

Well that is about it for Today. We have a late 10 am start tomorrow and we are heading to Asheville, NC so we should have some more nice scenery driving in the mountains. Hopefully our good luck with the car will continue. As far as mileage goes, we are almost halfway done with our trip (Knoxville - New York - New Orleans - Knoxville) and I am almost half asleep. So I am off to bed!

Day One Wrap Up

2007-05-24T23:21:00.001-04:00

Tally for the day: 405 miles, 40 mpg (doesn't seem to matter if the A/C is on or off), 5 states (NY, NJ, DE, MD, and VA), no oil, and half a can of refrigerant. The Festiva decided not to use any oil today, but our A/C did start getting warm around noon. We threw a little more refrigerant in and it was nice and cold again. I'm actually pretty impressed with the R12 to R134a conversion... I didn't think it would cool so well.

We were a bit worried that the coolant temp. would climb too much when we started climbing up Skyline drive. We turned off the A/C and opened the windows to better enjoy the mountain air (it was very nice weather and pretty cool as we gained altitude). The coolant temp moved around a bit but was nothing to worry about.

We made it to the hotel around 7:00, then hit the Ruby Tuesdays for dinner and turned in our challenge points. I'll let Tyler fill you in on the challenge items.

When we got back from dinner, some enterprising Advance Auto employee had left something on the car:

Are they trying to tell us something?

Day One Pics 7

2007-05-24T23:16:00.001-04:00

The car wasn't giving us any serious trouble, so we took the alternate route via Skyline Drive in Virginia. We were glad we did:

Day One Pics 6

2007-05-24T23:08:00.000-04:00

The EVIL Festiva ^^^^^^
...with a sweet A-Team paint job.

Pic of the limo with the duct tape roof complete:

The UNreliant

Day One Pics 5

2007-05-24T22:59:00.000-04:00

Some pics need no explanation:

The car above starts up on diesel and then (once the engine is warm) switches over to burning used cooking oil.

Day One Pics 4

2007-05-24T22:54:00.001-04:00

This car smelled so bad I couldn't get within 5 ft. of it without the urge to hurl.

Our buddy from Knoxville:

The Baked Potato Team. These guys are the only car that I am aware of that got pulled over. Not once but twice. They videotaped the bridge leaving S.I. or the bridge going into Delaware. Someone must have thought they were terrorists and called homeland security. They were also pulled over for littering because their car was gradually shedding it's aluminum foil.

Day One Pics 3

2007-05-24T22:50:00.000-04:00

This is a Toyota Station Wagon with a Ford grill. It was bought sight unseen.

The Lebacon:

Our co-competitor from Knoxville:

The Clutch Dumpers:

These guys pulled out of a parking space in front of the Hotel in S.I. looking all cool and blasting the British National Anthem. Unfotunately, the hotel had those guy wire strung up to indicate the 9' maximum height. After backing out of their parking space and driving about 15 ft they had to stop and dismantle the flag pole. It was a real buzzkill for them.

Day One Pics 2

2007-05-24T22:45:00.001-04:00

Sisters of FoMoCo:

Another shot of the ducks:

The Coilpackers:

Rusty the Dung Beetle:

Guard Dog:

Day One Pics 1

2007-05-24T22:35:00.000-04:00

A few pictures of the car with all the stickers on:

and some of the other participants:

These guys are raising money for one of their friends to have a proton laser treatment for an eye tumor in lieu of having his eye removed. They are selling the ducks. People "buy" a duck and they get to personalize a duck that has been "shoo goo'd" to the van. They have raised about 17k of the 50k cost of the surgery.

These guys (and gal) have since duct taped the entire roof. They made an appearance wearing two really bad tuxedos and the girl was wearing a really bad pink dress with pink Converse Chuck Taylors. Their bumper reads, "Off like a prom dress."

Made it to Harrisonburg

2007-05-24T19:39:00.000-04:00

We made it with no hitches. We are off to grab some grub. We'll post some more details and pics later this evening.

--Tyler aka Lohan aka Tanuki

Update

2007-05-23T22:11:00.000-04:00

First a big thanks to Jim S. who gave me A/C advice and loaned a heavy duty vacuum pump. As a result we were able to cruise into New York in air conditioned comfort. We still have a slight leak in the system and may need to add refrigerant later, but it blew cold all day long today.

Some data from today's drive: average 40 mpg, used 0.5 quarts of oil, traveled 733 miles in about 12 hours, and were in seven states (TN, VA, WV, MD, PA, NJ, and NY)

Ready to hit the road...

Virginia

Something was disturbing Tyler.

Maybe it was this car full of cats

The traffic jam...

...and it's cause.

The Staten Island Bridge, which costs $6 for the privilege
of driving over it.

Finally Made it to Staten Island

2007-05-23T21:36:00.000-04:00

We had a few minor setbacks. As we were leaving Knoxville, in fourth and fifth gear there was a little hesitation that was a little disconcerting. We drove on Chapman Highway for a while and the check engine light made an early cameo appearance in today's episode. We were close to an Autozone so we stopped by to see if they could read the code. It was about 7:20 and they did not open until 7:30. So after waiting about 10 minutes the Autozone monkey pulled the code for us. It was a #6 cylinder misfire.

#6 Cylinder?

I should've mentioned that Jessica, Dave's girlfriend, called us and was having an issue with her Jeep Cherokee. Her house wasn't too far off the beaten path so we went over to her place to help her out. Once the problem was all sorted we dropped her off back at her place. Don't worry Jessica, you are in good hands. When we come back from New Orleans, (assuming our $250 car makes it) Dave will have your Jeep running like a top in no time. In the meantime, stay away from the Subaru with the big wing that is parked in Dave's garage! I made note of the mileage, so I'll know if you take it somewhere. Don't try the Ferris Bueller's Day off trick either. I've already tried it myself. Oh, and if anyone from Subaru of America was reading this blog, I was just kidding about that last part.

We had one minor traffic delay to an accident, which according to the Virginia State Police, we had no part in. We are in Staten Island checked in and ready for some sleep after a long drive. Dave will be making a post and filling in some other exciting details.

Also, if anybody out there is reading this worthless drivel please let us know by leaving some comments. We would really love to hear from you.

Tuesday Progress

2007-05-23T00:08:00.000-04:00

This morning I (Tyler) went to a junkyard that Dave had called and confirmed that they had an A/C idler pulley. They also had a complete intact A/C system so I went ahead and picked up the condenser a few lines and the receiver dryer. Long story short, we have a working A/C with a minor leak that will hopefully be fixed by the time we leave in the morning. I did a few recon runs at Deal's Gap in the Subaru. It was hot up there, but not too crowded. When we come through on Saturday during the rally, it is going to be much busier. Well off to bed. We have an early start tomorrow.

Progress this Evening

2007-05-21T21:34:00.001-04:00

Dave and I did a little work to the Festiva. Dave shampooed the backseat and it looks better now. Tetanus shots are no longer mandated by the CDC for any occupants in the rear seat. We also got the transmission fluid changed. This car, as with several other manual transmission cars, is supposed to have the trannies filled with automatic transmission fluid. However, it looked like some nice 75W90 gear oil was pouring out of the transmission "pan". We took it down the road and it seemed to shift a lot easier. Before, it would shift smoothly and it would get a little tougher to shift as it warmed up (sounds backwards I know). We also washed it and put a coat of wax on it so it looks a little better. We are hoping that if we treat it right, it will treat us right in return.

Dave (left) and I (right) finally got a pic of ourselves to put on here:

Here is one we were younger. I was a lot shorter than Dave and he was a better dancer back then:

Seriously, that isn't us, but I can't help to laugh every time I see those two guys. If anybody has a link to a video of this with sound, I would love to have it.

Back in Knoxville

2007-05-21T17:04:00.000-04:00

I made it back into Knoxville yesterday evening. It was a pleasant drive in the Subaru. I went over to Dave's to pick up the keys to his place and headed over to Quaker Steak and Lube to see Tall Paul play. It was a good show and he was joined by Knoxville legend Crawdaddy and a guy named Scott Nickerson that started the first Parrothead club and the first Jimmy Buffet tribute band A1A. Crawdaddy and Scott really through down on the harmonica and Paul's guitar playing was as good as it was when he started corrupting my life as a Freshman at UT. Sorry Mom & Dad The Library I was going to on Wednesday night was actually the name of a bar that Tall Paul played in every Wednesday night.

Today was a busy day of running errands. We are going to try to do a little work on the car this evening. Tomorrow I am going to go over to the junkyard and get the parts to get the A/C working.

Today's Progress

2007-05-19T22:47:00.001-04:00

Lets see... got the driver's side mirror replaced with the one from the junk yard, put the window cranks on, put the back seat in, and worked on the A/C. The A/C stuff didn't go so well. The replacement line I got wasn't an exact fit, but it worked. It had a slightly different bend on the firewall end. I had to remove the condenser line because it was bent and it stripped the threads on its way off (steel coupler on an aluminum fitting). I heated and flexed the line a little and got it back in shape. I was surprised that the fitting threaded back on at all (the alum threads were gone), but it screwed on, bottomed out, and tightened up. Next I pulled a vacuum for about an hour and let it set. In about 2 hours all the vacuum had leaked out. There must be a pinhole leak somewhere (probably at the aforementioned aluminum fitting) but I can't find it with such a slow leak. All I can do is add dye, fill the system, then see where the leak is (looking for the dye).

This brings us to the next problem. The A/C idler pully and bracket are missing... so I cannot put a belt on and run the compressor. So, I'm done with the A/C for the weekend. My current plan is to send Tyler to the junkyard on Monday and retrieve the condenser and condenser line and hope the A/C idler bracket is around there somewhere (we're stuck without that).

Oh yeah, the cigarette lighter worked just find after a little sandpaper action.

Tomorrow I'll change the transmission fluid and use the carpet cleaner on the rear seat.

Lowe's Auto Parts / Salvage

2007-05-18T12:45:00.000-04:00

Just came back from lunch. They've got an '89 Festiva with the window cranks (might grab the whole regulator assy. if it isn't worse than ours), the A/C line, and a backseat. I didn't have the time or the attire to pull anything so I'll be going back in the morning to grab those items. Unfortunately the LF turn signal assembly was broken so we will have to stick with the super cool trailer running light I added to the car.

FIRST BLOG POST!

2007-05-18T08:56:00.000-04:00

Hey folks, Dave here...

A little update on the Festerus. I lubed up the passegner's side window and it is working fine now. The driver's side was a little more trouble as it had jumped out of the track. After taking the door panel off, removing the regulator assembly, bending around on it, slotting some of the screw holes, lubing everything, and putting it back together it works fairly well. It's not perfect but it is a good as it will be without a new window regulator.

I plan to attack the cigarette lighter tonight... gotta have power for the electronic goodies.

Oh, I also looked at the A/C. The line was broken where it connects to the compressor. The compressor appears to be in reasonable shape. It isn't locked up and makes compressor-like noises when you rotate it. The bad side is that I can't find a new line anywhere (goes between the compressor and the evaporator core at the firewall). It looks like the car has "Factory" air as opposed to "Dealer Installed" A/C. None of the lines pictured on the Napa/Autozone/Advance/Oreilly sites look anything like it. I also called Ford and found that they had discontinued the part. Not really surprised there. Royal Brass and Hose tells me they might be able to repair the old line but I'll be surprised if they can do anything with it.

I'm going to run out to a local junkyard during lunch. They had a few Festivas last time I was there and I plan to look for a few window cranks, the A/C line, and a back seat.

What we drive when we aren't driving rubbish...

2007-05-13T09:36:00.000-04:00

This is inspired from a thread on the BABERally blog. So when I'm not driving rubbish I usually can be spotted in one of these vehicles:

Usually I drive this car back and forth to work since the gas mileage is pretty good:

It is a 1990 Miata (Little Rowdy) that I bought from Dave a little over two years ago. When Dave had it he swapped a 1.8 drivetrain into it. It also has a few suspension tweaks and it is a real blast to drive. Dave and I and several other friends have bought and sold several cars to each other and we are still friends. I haven't figures out if everyone is really good friends or are if we are secretly trying to kill each other or be each others financial downfall.

BTW, Killboy took that picture on Father's Day two years ago when I went across Deal's Gap on my way to SC. Be sure to check out our link to his blog.

My other car is a 2004 WRX STi (Big Rowdy):

I daily drive this one on occasion as well. It also sees a few autocrosses, but not too many. It is bone stock with the exception of the Simpson child restraint seat in the backseat. My three year old loves to ride back their and rock out to Alice in Chains and Nirvana. Her favorite songs are Nutschell (AIC) and Sliver (Nirvana).

On a few weekends and a lot of autocrosses I drive my '93 RX-7 (just plain Rowdy):

So this is what I drive when I'm not driving rubbish. Dave has some really nice cars also. Maybe he'll post up a few.

Reminder - Today is Mother's day so get off the computer and go call your mother or at least send her an e-mail. This has been a public service announcement from Team Merkin.

Woohoo!! Made it to Knoxville

2007-05-11T22:14:00.000-04:00

Well first a little blog business:

1. When someone posts a comment when you enable moderation and do not set an e-mail notification you will not know that someone made a post until you login into the dashboard. This issue is resolved so feel free to comment away so that I know you all are out there reading.

2. I have added my fellow team member Dave. So hopefully you will be hearing from him soon.

So since I took the car to Columbia it has not been doing much other than going to an occasional trip down to Lowe's or Home Depot. However, this never occurred on a Sunday before 1:30 because of the damn blue laws in Lexington County, SC. You know it is a sin to go to Lowe's or Home Depot when you should be in church. You'll go straight to Hades if you even step outside the food section and find yourself looking at DVDs in the Wal*Mart Supercenter. However, since it is a "necessity" the auto parts stores are open at 8:00. Anyway, I digress.

So the car made it up to Knoxville just fine. It was a little hot without A/C, but it was bearable. However, driving North with the sun in the East, my arm got a nice sunburn. (Note to self: BRING SUNSCREEN!) It was warm enough that the coolant temp needle would move, but it was never enough to worry about. Coming up Saluda mountain, which is a pretty grade for about 3 miles, I had to downshift to fourth and floor it to keep up with my wife. Otherwise, the car was running pretty well. Hopefully, we will have similar luck on the rally.

We were informed last week that there is going to be a costume day on the rally. The theme is Elvis. We are assuming they mean Elvis Pressley. We thought about going as Elvis -the cool Elvis- Costello, but we are all set to go as the cheesy Elvis.

I am heading back to Lexington on Sunday. The car will be staying with Dave and he may work out few issues:

1. Possibly fix the A/C
2. Fix the cigarette lighter
3. Add a back seat if there is one available
4. Change the transmission fluid

I am coming back into Knoxville Sunday night and taking care of some business, visiting old friends, etc. I'll probably wash the car and wax it. I really don't want to wax it, but it will help make removing all the stickers after the event (if the car makes it).

So this is where we stand now. I apologize for not updating as much, but in about 10 days there should be plenty to read.

Made it to Columbia!

2007-02-04T17:52:00.000-05:00

I went and picked up the Festivus this weekend. The car drove pretty good on the 280 mile drive. I also got about 37.5 miles per gallon driving between 75 and 85 mph. I'll drive it sparingly between now and the BABErally. Hopefully, the drive to New York to Orleans and back home will be just as uneventful.

Pics!!!

2007-01-08T09:46:00.000-05:00

Dave e-mailed some pics of the car:

As ou can see the paint is really faded and the car is pretty dented up. These pics are good, but still do not do the dents in the roof real justice. As you see below, Dave added a CD Player to it. He bought his girfriend a new unit for her Jeep so this one got donated to the Festiva.

Here are some pics of the hub carnage:

Oh no!

2007-01-03T08:48:00.000-05:00

I finally got to see the car in person. Man oh man did the pics make the car look good! Overall, it is not too bad, but the thing is pretty dented up. It looks like it had a pretty good fron end collision and some marching band did some practice on the roof. Anyway, here is a rundown on the progress that Dave and I made on the car on 12/23:

Rear brake shoes are about toast -Changed the shoes
One of the rear brake slave cylinders is shot -Changed the cylinder, apparently the piston was slightly longer than the factory one and caused some fitment issues with the shoes. It was nothing a bench grinder couldn't handle
The axle nuts have about had it -These had to come off in order to remove the drums, there was some drama here more on that later.
The heater isn’t working -As with some cars we discovered that the heat does not work through the main vents. It only blows through the floor and defroster vents.
It may possibly need a new thermostat as it appears it may be stuck open or is missing altogether (may be contributing to the heat not working) -May or may not have been a problem here. The coolant was very nasty so the thermostat was changed and the block and the heater core were flushed.
One of the motor mounts is done -Think they are OK. Something to keep an eye on though.
Windows aren’t rolling up and down very easily -Need some new cranks. Driver window may be off of its track. We may fix it or we may just live with it.
Clutch pedal needs to be adjusted -Once we figured out which way to turn the bolt it was fine.
Needs an oil change -No problemo. Done
May need some plug wires -Looked all right. We'll leave them be for now.

So we made it through our punch list just fine (so we thought). The horn wasn't working, but we could hear the relay clicking so we figured the horn itself was busted from the front end collision. Dave had a horn laying around in the infamous "bucket o' bolts" (the bucket o' bolts pat. pend. is a 5-gal bucket that weighs 582 lbs and contains a vast selection of bolts nuts and other doo dads removed from wrecked cars that were stripped and sent on a long boat ride to China). So I had to do some grinding on the new horn bracket to make it fit while Dave ran a new wire to relocate it by the passenger headlight. Hooked it up and it went beep. Dave also noticed that there was no jack. No problem here either as I had one left over from a rusted out 323 GTX that we stripped a few years ago.

So with the work done I was all pumped up to get this asphalt peeling beast on the road. Everything seemed to be working well. I stopped by Greenback and picked up the jack. Called a buddy of mine, Nick, that does a lot of work on C5 vettes and told him I was stopping by to show him a real performance vehicle, and made my way towards Knoxville.

I was tearing ass down I-40 with all 1.3 liters pumping so hard that the torque was almost unbearable. I was between Campbell Station Rd. and Lovell Rd. when I heard a slight pop noise. I was passing a semi and I thought it was just something knocking around on its trailer. I passed the semi and I heard the pop again, which was immediately followed by a whine of death coming from the passenger rear hub. I looked in the passenger mirror and saw some smoke coming from the hub. I immediately took the Lovell Rd. exit, which was about 1/2 a mile away, and pulled into a gas station to survey the damage.

I got out and made the mistake of touching the dust cap on the hub. Got a nice burn on my thumb. (Sweet, 1st BABErally injury). I called Dave and he was already on the other side of Knoxville on his way to Asheville. I knew the bearings were obviously shot so I decided to limp over to Advance Auto Parts and pick up some wheel bearings and then AAA the car over to Nick's, who agreed to let me use his tools to change out the wheel bearings.

So I got the car over to Nick's and in addition to his own twin-turbo Z06, there was another C5 on the lift above his, another twin-turbo on a trailer in the driveway and another one that was being delivered on a trailer. The place looked like a vette hospital and all the vettes were scared of the mighty festiva. If you have a vette or some other LSx car and it is too slow check out www.highpressuremotorsports.com and for the right money Nick will not only make 1st and 2nd gear almost useless but 3rd as well.

Nick and his family were on their way out to some family holiday festivities but he gladly let me use his tools to work on the car. I got the car up and on jackstands and popped off the dust cap AKA "The Thumb Griddle". This is where things went from bad to worse. Inside the dust cap was... well dust or ash, or what remained of the grease that was in the bearings. Those things were shot. I have seen some pretty impressive wheel bearing failures but this took the cake. The bearing was completely seized and the drum was rotaing around the outer race of the bearing. The thing had gotten so hot that the threads on the axle nut had siezed so bad that the spindle stripped when I took the nut off. The hub was done.

I called Dave and told him the good news. He said he could pick up the car Tuesday morning whe he got back to town. I called Nick and asked if I could leave the car at his place until then. He said my car was scaring the vettes too much, which was bad for business, and the car had to go. Seriously, he lives in a real nice neighborhood and his HOA probably already has him on their radar screen. Living in a neghborhood with an HOA myself, I understood completely.

Now let me back up a bit, while I was working on the car I called my wife to touch base with her. I can't remember the whole conversation, but the important part it that she had to call AAA earlier that day because she locked her keys in the van. So to summarize, we had already used AAA twice that day so I was hesitant to call them a third time. I asked her to ask our friends if they would mind if I left the car at their place for a few days. They didn't mind. However, I was stuck with the dilemma of how I was going to get the car over there. It was approximately 6-7 miles away down Northshore Dr. I was thinking, "Well, this could be some good practice run for the BABErally". Keep in mind the axle nut is stripped so it is not there, and the wheel is being held on by the brake drum which is held on to the hub by who knows what. All I know is I could not remove the wheel know matter how hard I kicked it. I figured, "Why not I'll drive it over there and pull over at every nieborhood on the way there and check the hub to see if the wheel is about to fall off." If it got to the point I thought it would fall off I would call another tow truck.

So off I went, the hub was screaming in agony the whole way there, while I cruised ever so slowly down the road. I stopped about 6 times on the way over and the wheel never felt like it was going to fall off. Well, I finally made it. I called Dave and gave him an update. He asked me if I drove the car over there. I said , "maybe".

Fast forward to 12/26. Dave has the car picked up and a replacement hub source from a junkyard. Wednesday the car was fixed. Now the worse part was I was planning to drive the car to Nashville and ultimately back home. I needed to get back for work but my wife wated to stay and visit longer with the inlaws. After checking into several transpotation options it looked like it was going to be an 11 hour pleasure cruise on a Greyhound Bus from Nashville back to Columbia.

All in all, I am glad things went wrong when they did. It would have been worse if it broke down between Knoxville and Nashville or Nashville and Columbia, or even worse, during the rally. Also, Dave found the junkyard which will probably yield us a replacement turn signal housing and lens, an A/C line (after reading some of last year's competitor's websites, A/C may be a nice thing to have), and a backseat (will come in handy if we end up with another team member). So although the car is not in Columbia yet, some positives have come out of the adventure so far. Hopefully we have gotten any major failures out of the way.

Post Purchase Update

2006-12-20T09:11:00.000-05:00

Well the ball is rolling. Dave brought the car home and put it on the lift to check everything out. Engine wise the car seems fine. Apparently it cranks up very easy and has no apparent leaks. There are a few minor issues that we will fix Saturday. Here is a short list:

Rear brake shoes are about toast
One of the rear brake slave cylinders is shot
The axle nuts have about had it
The heater isn’t working
It may possibly need a new thermostat as it appears it may be stuck open or is missing altogether (may be contributing to the heat not working)
One of the motor mounts is done
Windows aren’t rolling up and down very easily
Clutch pedal needs to be adjusted
Needs an oil change
May need some plug wires

Overall, it is not too shabby for $250 car. It looks like we will register here in SC. I am heading through Knoxville on our way to Nashville for Christmas. I will be driving from Knoxville to Nashville and then back down to Lexington, SC. So the car will get a good test this coming week. Hopefully, all will work out well. If not, I have the AAA card handy. Hopefully next week there will be a positive update and several pictures.

Here we go!

2006-12-10T18:04:00.000-05:00

All right the prepartion time for Team Merkin has come to pass. I have a willing team member. The car has been located and purchased. Registration is complete and the entrance fee has been paid.

The first hurdle to overcome was finding a willing team member. Dave, who you may be hearing from soon, is a whiz when it comes to cars. He has been competing in the Grassroots Motorsports (GRM) Challenges since 2002, has built a rotary powered Locost and is very well respected person in the RX-7 community. Between the two of us (well mostly him) we can either fix about anything or screw it up so bad that it probably shouldn't have been fixed in the first place.

I can't remember if we were driving to or from the Grassroots Motorsports $2006 Challenge (My 3rd trip down, his 5th). I can't remember the exact flow of the conversation, but I think we were talking about the One Lap of America and how we would like to do it, but right now it would be a challenge in both the time and money expense. I brought up how I wanted to do this thing called the BABErally this year, but I was unable to do it since I was in the middle of moving during the '06 BABErally. I asked him if he wanted to give it a shot and he said sure.

Finding the car in and of itself was a bit of a challenge. This was mainly due to some of the requirements I had for the car. First, the car had to be mostly safe i.e., all seatbelts must be there. Second the car had to be able to move under its own power. Neither Dave nor I wanted to spend time replacing engines, headgaskets or any other major repairs. We both have to much other projects consuming our time. We wanted this "competition" to be fun and free of any of the last minute emergencies. I spent a lot of time perusing eBay. The problem with eBay is that people that are willing to sell a car for $250 don't seem to list them there. My theory is that eBay charges too much to list a car and there are a lot of people trying to scam sellers with cashier check scams. I also looked through craigslist quite a bit, but I wasn't having much luck there either.

Finally I saw this thread on www.streetcarforums.com. This thread does have some bad language in it from yours truly (LOHAN) but, hey some people were trying to snag the car. You'll notice that the car didn't start at a price of $250. However, my strategy was to make a $250 offer on any potential car I saw. I would explain to the seller that I am not a low-baller but I am competing in the BABErally and that the car had to be less than $250. Basically, here is how the conversation went in the private messenges:

Quote:

Originally Posted by LOHAN

Ask your buddy if he would take $250 for it. I'm not lowballing. I am looking for a car to compete in the BABErally with. You are only allowed to spend $250 on the car.

No, I know he wants to get more money than that out of it. Its worth 400 to 500 because you save that much in gas in a year, but I know that is not what you want it for. It would probably be good for the rally or whatever. In the last year or so, he has put about 350 in maintenance in it because he had to get new axles for it. Whats cool about this turd, is everyting is really cheap to replace, so he got a lot for his $350. I will let him know about the offer, but he has already been offered more.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LOHAN

No worries man. I knew it was a shot in the dark, but I thought I would throw it out there. Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatkid

If you are still interested at this point I will let it go at your offered amount of $250 just to clear some space in the drive way. I have one other person who offered a slight bit more but I don't think he is going to pull through. Do you have cash available?

Quote:

Originally Posted by LOHAN

Just wanted to let you know that if need be I can have a friend of mine up there pay you and pick up the car. You do have the title right?

Thanks!

Title in hand, at this point I was hoping that letting it go this cheap would mean it would be gone this week. I would really like to have it picked up asap, It can be picked up where I work in Knoxville. I have the title in hand and ready to sign over. Let me know if you are serious and when someone is able to take it off my hands, too many cars in the driveway. If you want to you can call me on my cell phone at 865 --- ----, Thanks, Travis

Dave picked up the car this past Saturday and said that overall it runs pretty well. We will probably do some light maintenance on it. We need to decide if we want to register and insure the car in SC or TN.

So this is where Team Merkin stands right now. I am going to try to add dave as a member to this Blog so he can post as well. I will also try to get some additional pictures of the Festivus.