Rally Notes!

[Elise111]

Had a great 600 mile rally weekend on the California Central Coast in my new-to-me 1989 Caterham.  I few things that some may relate to:

1. 80mph is the sweet spot for rain to go over your head.  

2. Gas in King City is $5.19/gallon. Mileage was 17mpg.  People in cars behind me were nauseous. DCOE's need more tuning.

3. Freeway driving with doors on, hood off, 60's temps, and earplugs was almost pleasant.

4. I'll need to get a heater bypass valve for summer.

5. The sump is too low, even with 250lb/in springs.  Drip, drip, drip.  Another Redline order coming!

6. Diff catch tank works- no more 90W spray and the bottle has some 90W in it.  

7. Accidentally met esconditoron in Arroyo Grande who was on another rally in his Volvo. Thanks USA7's!

8. This magnetic phone mount works great, holds the phone and clips on the scuttle lip cleanly.

 

  

 

 

[JohnCh]

Great to see you using the car as intended!  Back road trips are my favorite.  Was this an organized trip or did you wing it on your own?

 

17mpg for a crossflow definitely indicates some richness.  Mine used to return about 22-23 overall, and a few mpg higher on freeways. 

 

Redondo Beach to King City is pretty far, how many of the 600 miles were back roads vs. freeways?  Any photos enroute? 

 

BTW you don't need a heater bypass valve.  You just need to ditch the heater and save weight 

 

-John

[escondidoron]

Likewise we had a great rally weekend in the Central Coast region of California with the town of Arroyo Grande as our base camp.  We covered 1150 miles in 4 days over some truly outstanding roads.  I first saw Pete driving thru downtown Arroyo Grande on Friday evening in the rain.  Arroyo Grande is a pretty small community and Sevens are pretty rare to see out in the wild.  So it was a great surprise to see Pete filling up his Cat at the local Shell station when I pulled in to refuel the Volvo on Sunday afternoon.  It truly is a small world.  We didn't take our '62 on the trip at the last minute with rain forecast for Friday afternoon starting in the mountains above Frazier Park.  Rain is one thing (and we don't have side curtains or a top for the car BTW) but snow is an entirely different matter.  Especially on semi-slicks!  Also note that the previous Friday I had been caught in a slush storm (was it hail or snow???) at Willow Springs.  I am prepared for many different things at a track day but snow / hail is not one of them!   So I wussed out and took our trusty old Volvo 145 on the rally instead.

 

Pete, I see a Volvo Amazon in your group.  Cool.

 

Here's a pic of part of our group along See Canyon Road above Avila Beach:

 

And another at the summit of Prefumo Canyon Road:

 

I concur with John WRT the heater.  I don't have one in mine.  Although I do occasionally wish that I was shorter in stature as it would make the acquisition of a top, or at least a bikini top, a viable option; as it is I don't look thru the windshield so much as I look over it.

 

Go USA7s!

[Elise111]

Looks like a caffeinated group there Ron!

 

We had 200 miles for our rally, the other 400 miles were to get there and back.  No heater?  Nah, 39deg weather at the start of the rally, so that heater was on full!  We had 25 cars in the group, with a significant number of Volvos, from Amazon to 850's.  Good British turnout with MGB's, several Triumphs, and modern Mini.   Several 911's, 914, 300D(!), E36 M3, some 510's and CTSV wagon.  A Model 3 even joined until the battery drained.  

 

I'm going to work on raising the AFR with a wideband sensor, and try a vacuum connection to the Lucas distributor.  If that fails, may go the 123 ignition route.  

 

[Croc]

Volvo 144 wagon!  Where is the love it smiley? 

[TheDingo8MyBaby]

Did that car previously have a single downdraft setup? It looks a lot like a car I had previously completed a PPI inspection on in Los Gatos, but it had a downdraft and the large circular filter stuck out of the bonnet.

 

Great photos! Thanks for sharing. I really enjoy doing multi-marque rallies and the California central valley and coast offers some fantastic roads for an event like this. I previously ran the Faultline 500 in my seven which goes through the same area and it was miserable. It was 105F+ degrees in Parkfield. I'd rather drive in the cold any day (so long as it's not hail).

 

I agree 17mpg is low. My old super sprint used to get 25mpg on the highway. One thing I've found is that DCOE's are always stinky, no matter how lean. 

 

Another downside of a wet sump with a crossflow is oil starvation; I found the best solution was a dry sump setup.