2008 BABE Rally

[jthw8]

Bob brought up in another post that I never reported back on the BABE rally this year.  Since I didnt run a VW this year I didnt know if it would be of as much interest.

Soo the brief run down...
This year we used an 86 Mustang GT converitble.  It has solidified my hatred for blue oval products, but most of that was in the prep work, I will say it ran strong and solid on the trip.  It was just an utter peice of crap to work on pre-rally, but alot of that was due to years of neglect and rust.

A V8, 5 speed and drop top sure do make for a fun trip.  It was nice to be able to do more than 70 and actually run through deals gap with some confidence.  In fact we ran through 5 times since we were having fun.  I have some great video but we are still editing it all.  We had 5 on car camera mounts and got video from all angles.  The best (in my opinion) is the one that sat about 3 inches off the ground under the front bumper, watching a run through "the dragon" that way will almost make you sick to your stomach, but in a good way :)

Only one "in trip" failure, as we pulled into the parking lot at the end of day 2 the clutch went out.  Turns out a power wire shorted out on the clutch pedal and sent enough voltage to fuse the clutch cable to the sheath it runs in.  The next morning bright and early a new cable from the parts store down the road had us back in business.....well there's a little more to it than that, but thats the short version.

Overall it was another great trip but a bit tiring as I did most of the driving on the way home, 20 hours straight through and I drove about 17 of them (for reasons not worth getting in to)  Our co-teams car lost its ability to clutch about 500 miles from home and we had to rev-match shift it the whole way here.  Made for some excitement for sure.

We did not put as much effort into a win this year as we did last year, we really had something to prove with the beetle and we did.  That being said we did still come in 2nd by 20 points (points are measured in the thousands so its a very close margin).   A new to the rally team won this year which makes me happy, I really didnt want to repeat and make new teams think it was unattainable.

Next year....the event changes.  It will be the first week of june, and it will be 5 days instead of 4.  They also upped the budget from $250 to $500 due to the rising cost of scrap metal.  And they added an american iron class, pre-79, V8 or straight 6 only, produced in north america only.

The organizer of the rally is turning over the reigns to his lackeys and coming along as my co-driver, remember he is a brit so Im trying to give him the true american experience and I will be in the American Iron class.  Since he is my co-driver Im not eligible to win next year (but get free entry for 2010) so I'm a little less worried about sticking to the spirit of the event for the build for next year.  The car was indeed bought for $500 and it looks the part on the surface, but underneath the ugly will be pure american hot rod to give him a little wake up call :)

Winning cars as I remember it were all from the Philly/South Jersey area
1st was a team in a 1990 Saab from philly
2nd was our mustang
3rd was a team from philly in a 90s Volvo

Biggest POS award went to 2 guys in what was left of a triumph spitfire (the floors were patched with peices cut from a metal desk, they had no roof)
The spitfire also won the MisfitToys Spirit of the Event award which is an award I sponsor.

Coolest car of the trip....1955 Plymouth Belvedere

[lovebus (jack)]

Sounds like another great time Jim. I glad you shared the event with us.

[njgt-1]

Since I didnt run a VW this year I didnt know if it would be of as much interest.

Jim,

it doesn't have to be VW related but these story's are priceless. any car guy would jump at the chance for such a "road trip". Keep us up to date on next years BABE !

[jthw8]

Well since you asked about next year.  As I said, I want to run in the new American Iron class, and I want to treat my british co-driver to a true american experience soooo.....

I'm currently prepping a 1963 Studebaker Lark :)

The straight 6 was seized up tight so rather than fight it, and since studebaker started using chevy motors in '64 it made it simple to decide to drop a small block chevy 350 in it :)

Right now I have the car (obviously) and a motor and trans, although the trans is a TH350 and I may keep looking for a 700r4 so I can have overdrive.

The suspension is getting rebuilt with a disk brake conversion on the front.  The rear wont really hold up to the V8 so its being replaced with an 8.8 ford rear from an explorer (the dimensions are perfect) this will give me a nice selection of ratios (3.73 is probably what I'll use) disk brakes in the rear and a posi.  That should pretty much cover all the pre rally work, post rally Im going to pull the body and replace the floor, do some minor patching and paint it plus some interior work.  Then it will go to my father for his 65th birthday.  He used to tool around in a Lark in his younger days and I grew up hearing all the stories of his exploits.

I'll check back in with some more of the stories from this year when I get a moment.

Sadly no aircooled VWs this year.  Lots of watercooled though.

[njgt-1]

I'm currently prepping a 1963 Studebaker Lark :)

A Lark! I love studebakers!, my favorite is the 53 commander seriese

that one sounds like a daytona on steroids! thats going to be real fun!

[jthw8]

A Lark! I love studebakers!, my favorite is the 53 commander seriese

that one sounds like a daytona on steroids! thats going to be real fun!

I may have spoken too soon on the "have a motor" front.  I got a used 350 off a local kid, luckily didnt pay anything for it and it was worth all of what I paid ;)

Looks like it had water in it....sigh.  Gotta see if its salvageable, otherwise Im on the hunt for another 350, if its attached to a 700r4 even better.