Very lazy with the updates here. Most are shown at darwin4x4.net or on facebook these days.
Since then the car has had an engine transplant (another Ecotec) and a few other things fixed up. Has done several rounds at Top End Mud Racing now. Of course to race you need a car name, so fittingly Nicolle has titled it - Grounds for Divorce
We've also partnered with Top End Towing who have been good enough to get us down to most mud racing events. And we can't forget Stets and Kyatta who helped getting it race ready and doing the engine swap!
Below are all the vids and a wrap up of Round 5...
Vids
Mud Racing Round 2 - killed the motor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiamBdvAhU4
Testing with new motor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUU9wfnb75Y
Mud Racing Round 4 - new motor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5awpaUmxUs
Playing at Gunn Point
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20on7Da5S-A
Mud Racing Round 5 - running new Boggers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nqwuZhrLXo
Round 5 Wrap Up
Well a few hiccups this round of mud racing.
Friday night went to move the car to fit the boggers from Stets. Wouldn't start as the starter motor was buggered. Move onto mounting a 12v fan inside the cab to aid in stopping the window fogging up. Managed to score a starter motor from the boys at Last Minute Racing who Oldlux put me onto. Came home, worked twice and then wouldn't engage onto the flywheel. Took it out and took it back Saturday lunchtime. Swapped for another one out of the jump pile that had the same housing as my old one, came home and found the same issue, plus it wouldn't quite line up with the bolt holes. Second trip back to Palmerston at 2pm and we found the housings were slightly different, one being for a V8. Swapped the working motor and solenoid onto my original housing, back home at 3pm and all mounted up and worked fine.
Swapped the tyres and put Stets boggers on, packed the spares and ready for Top End Towing to collect me at 4pm.
Down the track, put new wiper blades on, rainX on the outside and fogX on the inside.
Went out on the parade lap and the track was totally different. A lot of loose dirt that wasn't there before, making the track very greasy and slushy, and a bunch of bumps and holes that made for a very average track.
Round 1 without any issues, but after Round 2 the alternator light came on. Hosed it out with copeous amounts of water but no luck, the little mouse running around wasn't producing a charge.
Ran round 3 with no alternator and by the time I got back to the pits the battery couldn't cope with another restart so had to retire for the night. Unfortunately the cruiser was out in the middle so I couldn't steal that battery and being outside the top 4 I didn't worry about aiming for a finals berth. In hindsight I should have gone and raided a battery from somewhere as there were very few cars left and I could have got into the finals if only I completed Round 4 (wow, even the boat/Subaru rolled in round 4 and still made a finals berth).
Overall times were down due to the different track (59sec at the last meeting, 69.10 and 69.90 this meeting) so it was hard to tell how much of a difference the tyres made. They are smaller so better gearing, but are wider so mean more HP to push them through the muck.
