RE: Rim of the World?

[Mark Nelson <mnelson@brls.com>]

Thanks Mike!

We were pretty happy that we finished the rally, and learned A LOT
throughout the event.  I could tell, that throughout the stages, my Dad
wanted to run much faster, but I would keep harping on him, that we just
had to finish :-).  Unfortunately, it didn't work too well, and he would
get pretty eager in some stages and start going faster and faster.  I'd
tell him to slow down, which would last for about...oh 5 seconds :-)

Actually, what I found to be most surprising in our stage times, was
that we did the best on Stage 6, which was by far the toughest and most
dangerous with cliffs on either side of you.  The general prognoses
among drivers we talked to, was that many were afraid to go flat out,
because they were obviously afraid of going over the cliffs.  It really
didn't both us whatsoever, since we drive on roads like these with those
kind of drop-offs every day.  It obviously made a difference in our
time.

Some other notes I had on the course, were that countless corners were
just completely rutted with sand.  It was more like an off-road race
than a rally!  There were countless sections, where we felt it was a
PITA in our four wheel drive car w/the diffs locked, let alone what it
must have been like in a rear wheel drive car!  We also did learn that
we need to put an HKS adjustable Waste Gate on the car, and after
talking to several other 323 GTX owners at the event, they all said we
should be able to get another 70 HP out of the car, without doing
anything else.  It looks like we're going to have to invest in that,
before we run the car at Gorman Ridge.  Should be fun anyway... :-)

All in all, this did motivate me to really start cranking away on my S2,
for next year.  I will be driving the car, but my dad refuses to
navigate; something about not being stupid... :-)).  Anyway, I have a
couple of people already interested, so I may take them out in our 323
on some roads I know of, to give them a try at it, and also to see if
they can tolerate riding with me :-).

Best Regards,

Mark Nelson
================================================================
mnelson@brls.com
Borealis Technology Corp.
SQA Engineer
   http://www.brls.com
Incline Village, Nevada
Carson City, Nevada

1990 Audi S2 Quattro (Building for SCCA Pro Rally)

Past Audis: 1987 5000CSTQ, 1987 5000CSTQW
================================================================

<<Date: Tue, 6 May 1997 13:55:18 -0400 (EDT)
From: MSV96@aol.com
Subject: RE: Rim of the World?

In a note dated 5/5/97 Mark Nelson writes:

<<The last we checked, we had finished 8th in our class out of 14 cars,
which
we were pretty satisfied with....Mark Nelson (happy to have finished in
one
piece :-)>>

Congratulations to Mark and his dad for a great first time effort! 8'th
out
of 14 isn't bad at all, you came out in one piece, and by the sounds of
your
report...had great fun! Can't wait to see you running that S2!

Mike Veglia
85 4ksq>>