Rim of the World Rally

[ptimmerm@mashtun.JPL.NASA.GOV]

Initial Report (i.e. I don't have final scoring in hand)

Rim of the World Rally, Palmdale California

The SCCA PRO rally show came to town this weekend, and 
with it cam three very serious factory Group A type cars
and three very trick quattros, and about 354 other "lesser"
cars ;-).  Over the weekend, about 7 local members showed up
to watch the events.  There was only offical spectating on
saturday, at two appointed locations.  Other roads were
closed off by local park rangers and SCCA workers.  

Highlights of the event were

Checking out the very fresh car, build and driven by socal's Ron Wood 
of VW Specialies.  It was based on a Coupe GT body, with a
retunneled floor pan to accept a quattro drive train.
However, it ran a four cylinder VW motor with a Garret
t-03/T-04 hybrid turbo with variable vane geometry, and
a super trick water/air charge cooling system.  He used
a cooling system like the A1 quattro, 'cept his big rear cooler
and sump was pumping H20, not oil.  The Garret air/water cooler
was very small and tidy.  May other very well though out
and custom touches on this one off car.  It ran with a broken
turbo hose the first night, and only put out about 180 HP, not the
ussual 300 at the wheels (dynoed)  Haltech Ignition, custom
chrome-moly struts, custom suspension points, Accusump, aluminum
tie rods with late model ends, four bolt hubs, and much much more.

The guys from san jose who ran the ex-Buffum S2 rally car last year,
and broke it, were running a 4000 Quattro with the turbo motor.  The
car looked a little tired buy went like stink!  They ran fourth seed
behing the factory efforts, and no doubt placed very high.

The third quattro was a yellow quattro coupe from Huntington beach.
Frinday night they put the car up a tree and didn't get it down in
time for the restart on saturday.  DNF.

All in all, my first PRO rally (as a spectator) was a blast.
I drove 500 miles, shot ten rolls of film, got a deep deep
tan, sucked mucho dust, and had a great time hanging our with
Chris Nagano (our new socal treasurer, Dennis, Frank Baurer and
company.  

One finnal story.  Euroasia of Pasadena was running an Talon in the
event.  The two brothers were in there second rally at the rim. 
They were running very well as they came past our photo spot.
100 yards, or three corners up, they climbed the inside edge of
the roadway and rolled there shiney talon.  We had to run up 
the road while the course was open, and roll them back over.
They tryed to restart but a caved in engine cover caused a
broken cam belt after 1 second of running.  They promised to be
back.  After getting them some needed water, they posed infront
of their rolled car and mugged for the camera.  I got one of
them upside down as well, which they are anxious to see!

paul timmerman
socal qcusa - pres
pasadena ca
82 quattro couple
84 coupe gt