Pike's Peak International Hill Climb 2011... Tune In!

[PEZi]

Well, it's that time again. The Pike's Peak Hill Climb is approaching fast! Right now, we are working on the cars, and getting them ready for next week. As of right now, our schedule is:

Sunday - Tire testing on pavement
Monday - Tire testing in some dirt
Tuesday - Tech day and possible road course test
Wednesday - Practice on the Peak
Thursday - Practice on the Peak
Friday - Practice / qualifying on the Peak
Friday Night - Fan Fest downtown
Saturday - Make sure the cars still run and look pretty
Sunday - 2011 Pike's Peak International Hill Climb

As of right now, the NICOclub sponsored Pike's Peak 240sx is ready to go minus a quick corner balance. The other car I'm working on, Dave Carapetyan's Unlimited class Evo needs a lot of work!

This is how things looked as of yesterday... Ken's car ready for corner balancing and Dave's car in pieces. Yesterday I installed the FireBottle Fire Suppression System and the full camera system in Dave's Evo.



















Dave's job was to sleep....



and.... yeah... lot of crap still to do... it needs to be running for testing by Sat.




There is a lot of competition this year, with around 20 people in our class competing against Ken in the pink car including the likes of awesome drivers like Rod Millen who is driving Rhys Millen's drift Genesis.

The Unlimited class is going nuts this year, though. 5 cars... all trying to go all 12.4 miles in less than 10 minutes up the side of this crazy mountain.


There's the Dacia Duster



Rhys' Genesis



Local boy Paul Dallenbach and the 1301hp Banks Twin Turbo Superbeast.



The Monster (Nobuhiro Tajima)



And my buddy.... and guy i'll be crewing for along side of Ken... Dave and the Evolution 959



It will be a fun year! I will update things daily as they progress... Tune in for more updates on what promises to be an awesome year full of records!

"I live my life 12.4 miles at a time... Nothing else matters: not the mortgage, not the store, not my team and all their s***. For those ten minutes or less, I'm free."

[95zenki man]

I <3 this car so much!

[Amays U G37S]

Everything looks schweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can't wait for race day!

[skydragoness]

I'm jelly. I'd love to watch this race in person/take photos.

I expect lots of photos later Anthony! :P

[sbird1]

That Duster looks awesome! I am also very jelly here... even just about being in Colorado. I love it there.

[PEZi]

I expect lots of photos later Anthony! :P

I'll take as many as time allows!

Today's updates:

Ken's car is done and ready for testing. Tomorrow, and possibly a little bit today, we're heading to PPIR to watch the Global Rallycross guys, as its the last chance qualifier before the x-games! Tanner Faust and all of those guys are here right now.

Dave's car started for the first time! The Evo has been fighting gremlins all week, and finally the Autotronic ECU was tossed... a whole new harness was fabbed up, and its running off of an AEM! It's mostly cosmetic left now, with a few things here and there... but it'll be ready for tech day!

Other than that... the fun can now begin!

[PEZi]

Today was an awesome day... got to hang out at the Global Rallycross event, which is the last chance qualifier before the X-games! For more info... check out the thread on the GRC here

While we were there, some of the hill climb cars were around in the pit area, testing and whatnot. Take a look at what I got off of my cell phone...

Sizing up the competition: Dave's competition in Unlimited include the PM580 Driven by Rhys Millen, as well as the Dacia Duster piloted by the Frenchman, Jean-Phillipe Dayrout. Then, also thrown in is the Genesis that will be piloted by Rod Millen that will be racing against Ken in the 240!







HKS turbos?



Maybe its because this bad boy is Nissan powered! VR38DETT





There's a spare one just chillin' out... who needs a swap!?!?



Anywho... they go to do some testing, and it was damn fun to watch.









More to come!

[Razi]

Wow, I didn't know that Dacia was Nissan powered.

[nissangirl74]

That's beyond awesome! Can't wait to see more pictures, wish we were there.

[PEZi]

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. We spent the last few days at the Global Rallycross

Sadly, the Pink car isn't out testing today as planned. A late night of working on the Evo just made the practice session we intended to run a little non-realistic.

Stay tuned, however, as another session is planned for tomorrow, and Tuesday as well. Followed by tech inspection, and then practice on the Peak Wed -Fri!

[RicerX]

I have never watched one of these events, so this year's will be my first! Exciting!

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Wow, there's some awesome looking vehicles there.

[dasoupdude]

Oh man that duster is a monster..

[PEZi]

We are on for tomorrow morning's dirt practice... We're heading out West somewhere near South Park, finding a nice dirt road and just seeing what the car does in general on the new Federal Tires under acceleration, braking and some cornering. Nothing too special, but pics and vids will follow!

[Razi]

Five badger excitement levels!

[Ace2cool]

Dacia's are too cool! I want one for me!

I can't wait to see the pink car climb! Good luck to all you guys!

[nissangirl74]

We are on for tomorrow morning's dirt practice... We're heading out West somewhere near South Park, finding a nice dirt road and just seeing what the car does in general on the new Federal Tires under acceleration, braking and some cornering. Nothing too special, but pics and vids will follow!

Those tires looked bad-a**. Can't wait to see how they do!

[PEZi]

Well, sadly the weather just didn't hold out for our test in the dirt today. Hopefully we'll figure something out to test them before we actually get on the hill to practice.

[skydragoness]

So awesome.
All I can think of is Dacia Sandero jokes from Top Gear.

[Razi]

Haha, same here, I just hear James May saying "Good news!"

[PEZi]

Well, as is usual with CO weather... we caught a break today and got to test!

I'll tell ya the bad news after some pics and video...

We grabbed the car from the campground and headed out West to find some sweet dirt roads.









Once we found a good spot, we fired it up and tried out the new Federal tires in the gravel... and they did surprisingly well! I got a quick video of some of the testing...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJHIAl5xeH4[/youtube]

And the bad news....

We have a massive oil leak. We won't know for sure what ended up happening until tomorrow when we pull the transmission, but as of now we have two possible culprits. One is the rear main seal on the engine, the other is the front main on the transmission. Either way, we have a big leak where the two meet, and we'll see what happens tomorrow! Stay tuned!

[Razi]

Ugh main seal replacements are a pain in the butt!!!!!
With my car's ride height I was basically touching my toes while doing my front main seal.
I know now to put it on ramps before messing with stuff.

Glad to see the S14 moving!

[PEZi]

Hopefully we'll be borrowing a lift tomorrow to make things simple... but its only if the price is right

[PapaSmurf2k3]

ooof that sucks mang. Can't you tell if its coming from the engine or the trans just by checking the engine oil? If its plummeting, then you know that's it

Either way, you'll figure it out tomorrow. Keep us posted.

[PEZi]

Its not leaking quite enough to tell by that. I did smell it though, and it smelled kind of like crappy stinky foot cheese (aka gear oil) but not entirely. Plus, that Motul 300V crap smells different than most motor oil as well... so as of now, we're just not sure. Either way, the trans needs to come out... so we'll figure out for sure then.

[PEZi]

LONG day today. Woke up early for tech inspection, then went and pulled the transmission. Turns out the bolts on the front of the transmission were just loose, allowing gear oil to flow freely out and drop out of the car where the transmission meets the engine. Simple fix, but LOL. One of the bolts actually worked its way out, and bounced around the clutch area for a bit.. leaving some marks here and there. Overall... nothing big. Got the transmission back in went out and tested!

Out at tech...





We needed a 'steering wheel pad' to pass tech.... how does this look?





Did I mention we have a legit S15 in our class? It came over from Japanland









The Genesis, of course





And the Red Bull Veloster rally car





And of course, Rhys' car



What do ya know.... a Leaf






After passing tech, we went to Revolutions Performance, and yanked the trans...





The bolt that was missing out of the front of the trans



You can see a few of the marks where it bounced around a bit



This time, they are tight and Loc-Tite secured.



And just a pic for the turbo nerds...



After all was said and done... we made it to the track to get some testing in!



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV-7Opjb67o[/youtube]

Tomorrow we start testing on the hill... stay tuned!

[dre1507]

listen here you little ginger loving person you, we're gonna need more vids of the action ok. jeez. izzat too much to ask for? lol.

[Razi]

Nice wastegate dump!

Glad you got that leak fixed.

Can't wait to see it on the hill!

[nissangirl74]

Looking great! Can't wait for more pictures and updates.

[OriginalWheelman]

"I live my life 12.4 miles at a time...

I lol'd.

Don't forget that Dacia is owned by Renault. That's a Nissan cousin there. Dacia is built for low income counties. They are designed to be cheaper, better on bad roads, and run on lower octane fuel.

Some say all their cars are made from recycled soviet tanks. And that they're all hand assembled... by George Takei. All we know is, they're called Dacia.