SE-R Adventure at 100 Acre Wood
I recently crewed as resident SE-R expert for novice stage rallyist Christy Carlson, who fielded a '92 SE-R at RallyAmerica's 100 Acre Wood rally in Missouri. She made the jump from SCCA Solo/ProSolo/RallyCross (a world I'm more familiar with) and had a blast. Keeping the car running was a challenge, though.
Christy and co-driver Adam
Our rally was a roller-coaster. After 193,000 miles, my own '92 SE-R developed fifth-gear pop-out just a few miles short of registration at the rally HQ. Bad omen. Pretty much everyone on the crew had a turn at making an "epic save."
My turn was first, before the rally even started on Friday morning. The car lost 99% of its drive on the way to practice stage, so we pushed it into a Mobil station and did transmission work in the parking lot. I did the fastest clutch cable swap in my life, hoping it was an cable stretch/engagement issue. No go. Then I tracked it down to an axle carrier bracket that had come off and allowed the passenger axle to back out a little from the trans.
Gear oil dumping everywhere, even getting into my hair. Ugh.
Later, the fuel pump wiring came undone and killed the car at the end of super special, but they got it fixed in the field. Previous owner's sketchy wiring, check. That would haunt us.
On the last stage Friday night, Christy slid off the road and into deep mud, but was able to be pulled out before the final sweep, thus getting a valid time. The incident worsened an existing unibody crack previously unseen, and tweaked the chassis so much that the passenger door wouldn't even come close to shutting. Luckily, we had an "in" with the UM-Rolla SAE team and their welder, and some of our guys stayed up until 3:30 AM in their shop working magic on the unibody to make it straight enough to race.
Saturday went beautifully at the start, with Christy gaining time on the class and sailing through first service without a hitch. On form, she's a pretty good driver. Confidence set in, and we went to watch a spectator stage in the lull until next service.
Then we got the call: the car was electrically dead, and Christy had withdrawn from the event at the super special at Potosi, the absolute furthest point away in the entire rally. After an exhaustive list of checks, I swapped MAFs with my spare and it coughed to life long enough to die in the middle of a hill leaving town. Getting the car pushed to a position to be towed from a nearby church was a death-defying midnight adventure. Two rednecks almost simultaneously ran into the car at once.
Ending with an Integra and a tow rope. Not the proudest hour. Disappointing to have the car fail, but it was good seat time for Christy.
If you want late nights, grandkid-worthy stories, and (admittedly) a lot of fun, go lend a wrench at a stage rally in your neck of the woods.
Christy and co-driver Adam
Our rally was a roller-coaster. After 193,000 miles, my own '92 SE-R developed fifth-gear pop-out just a few miles short of registration at the rally HQ. Bad omen. Pretty much everyone on the crew had a turn at making an "epic save."
My turn was first, before the rally even started on Friday morning. The car lost 99% of its drive on the way to practice stage, so we pushed it into a Mobil station and did transmission work in the parking lot. I did the fastest clutch cable swap in my life, hoping it was an cable stretch/engagement issue. No go. Then I tracked it down to an axle carrier bracket that had come off and allowed the passenger axle to back out a little from the trans.
Gear oil dumping everywhere, even getting into my hair. Ugh.
Later, the fuel pump wiring came undone and killed the car at the end of super special, but they got it fixed in the field. Previous owner's sketchy wiring, check. That would haunt us.
On the last stage Friday night, Christy slid off the road and into deep mud, but was able to be pulled out before the final sweep, thus getting a valid time. The incident worsened an existing unibody crack previously unseen, and tweaked the chassis so much that the passenger door wouldn't even come close to shutting. Luckily, we had an "in" with the UM-Rolla SAE team and their welder, and some of our guys stayed up until 3:30 AM in their shop working magic on the unibody to make it straight enough to race.
Saturday went beautifully at the start, with Christy gaining time on the class and sailing through first service without a hitch. On form, she's a pretty good driver. Confidence set in, and we went to watch a spectator stage in the lull until next service.
Then we got the call: the car was electrically dead, and Christy had withdrawn from the event at the super special at Potosi, the absolute furthest point away in the entire rally. After an exhaustive list of checks, I swapped MAFs with my spare and it coughed to life long enough to die in the middle of a hill leaving town. Getting the car pushed to a position to be towed from a nearby church was a death-defying midnight adventure. Two rednecks almost simultaneously ran into the car at once.
Ending with an Integra and a tow rope. Not the proudest hour. Disappointing to have the car fail, but it was good seat time for Christy.
If you want late nights, grandkid-worthy stories, and (admittedly) a lot of fun, go lend a wrench at a stage rally in your neck of the woods.
Be the first to like this post.
Back to top
