I'd like to share my latest and greatest project to date. My 1973 MGB roadster. She's in pretty rough shape. The odometer reads only 6,900 original miles but it might as well have a million miles. Its hard to see right now in its state of nearly complete disassembly, but it has great potential. I'd love to make it a show quality car but I am planning on using it quite a bit as a daily driver and also in SCCA road rallies. I don't want to be afraid to muck things up when driving it down some dirt road. Here are some shots of our first day together.

The body is pretty straight but there are obvious issues going on. The hood and fenders really should be replaced, but for now, a thorough Bondo job will do. The paint is downright horrible. It is almost totally faded and signs of rust around the rockers and quarter panels are on full display.

The interior gave up its secrets pretty quickly. The seats immediately revealed a need to replace the floor boards by rocking them. The mustiness was so intense that I could barely stand to breath inside it. The entire interior will need replacing. Rugs, seats, door cards, dash cover, all of it.

The engine is an 1800 cc inline four cylinder. I plan to restore and using this engine for now and possibly permanently. One can't help but imagine a small V8 dwelling within the frame rails. Oh well, maybe some day.

All in all, what can I say? Its a 41 year old car with a longer list of whats wrong than whats right and I'm happy to have it. I know what I have gotten in to and I have the chance to build something significant just the way I like it. More updates to come.

Winter Challenge Rally

        On February 15^th, 31 rally teams converged in Barre, VT for the tenth running of the Winter Challenge Rally. This TSD rally is the first Winter Challenge that I have participated in. While I typically am the driver for these events, our navigating duties were handled by my brother Josh. We had eagerly been looking forward to this rally in the weeks ahead with nervous anticipation. Having heard horror stories from past participants of teams getting badly stuck in snow banks or getting hopelessly lost, we had expectations of a difficult rally. In the week preceding the rally, I had spent nearly all of my free time, preparing my Subaru Legacy for what I expected to be nothing short of a gauntlet. Never before had I so carefully planned out what tools, emergency supplies, repair parts, and food for a road rally. I estimate that I had about an additional 100lbs of gear that I don’t usually bring. My reasoning is that I would rather contend with the extra (and very noticeable extra weight) than be unprepared for something that could have gone wrong. 

Ready for anything

The start of the rally in Barre, Vermont was just over three hours away from home so we left around 9:00am on Saturday. We arrived in Barre, topped off our fuel, and awaited registration. Teams received their 3 part rally instructions and wasted no time marking them up, taking notes, estimating mileages, and getting familiar with the route.

This rally is divided into 3 distinct sections. Part one has teams follow precise instruction in a verbal written format. Being daytime still for much of this first part, gave the rally master opportunities to provide manageable “traps” along the route. A trap is a tricky route instruction that might mislead teams into going the wrong way along the rally. A trap might also be something in the real world that isn’t listed on your route instructions that might also trip you up as it can be mistaken for something in your instruction.

Part two featured a map section accompanied by written instruction that gave more specific instructions as to speeds and specific information we would see along our route. This is the first rally that I have run in which these style of instructions were used. We expected this part of the rally to be tough.

Part three was very similar to part one except for a few items. The number of traps was greatly reduced to almost none. The instead of written instructions, a visual diagram called tulips, were used. The most impactful change (at least for us) was the drastic increase in average speeds that teams were supposed to meet. All three sections promised to provide us with a long and difficult night.

           Teams set off onto section one at 3:00pm plus car number. Being the very last team to preregister, we were starting last behind all other teams. We were car 32. We were not expecting miracles but little did we know that starting as the last car number would be a recurring theme for our night. We set off at 3:32 and had a pretty typical section 1. We got lost a number of times but always figured out that we were off course. After turning around, we discovered our error and carried on. Checkpoints were always a welcome sight to reinsure that we at least had some grasp of what was supposed to happen. Section one ended at a McDonalds where one of the rally coordinators was there to provide us with a new scorecard and time to leave. The time to leave was written on top of the scorecard but somehow we didn’t see it. Over ten minutes had gone past our supposed out time before we realized that we were already late to start.

Stopped at a late night checkpoint.

                

          I can’t really even begin to explain what happened to us on section 2. We spent more time off course than we did running the correct route. Just over halfway into the map section, we were what I would describe as hopelessly lost. Pushing forward in a very rural farming area, side roads and other landmarks were few and far between to compare our very limited rally map to. At this point, snow had been falling for a few hours now and winds were blowing snow across the road severely reducing visibility. At this point, our only chance was to return to a point where we at least had some idea of where we were. We even found a checkpoint, even if we found it coming the wrong way. It was the only checkpoint we would find in section 2. If all of our navigation problems weren’t enough, we even managed to get pulled over by a Vermont state trooper for having one of our low beams out. The trooper was kind though. She didn’t give us a ticket, and she even put us back on the right track and headed us in the direction of all of the other rallyists. Eventually we reached the end and met up with all other teams at the rest area. Once again, I topped off the Subaru with fuel, and nervously awaited the start of section 3.

A well plastered Subaru!

              

           Section 3 was to say the least, defeating. We reached our first checkpoint and were pleased to find 7 or 8 other cars already arrived. This meant that we were not too far behind and possible even keeping pace with other teams. We arrived at the next checkpoint and now only three cars were on the scene before us. We were falling behind. At our third checkpoint, we were now all alone and had no sight of other teams. This would be our final checkpoint as we struggled to keep pace so badly that any checkpoints were now closed before we had a chance to reach them. All we had were our instructions and the knowledge that at some point, our rally had to end. However, for us and several others, it would not be over before we managed to get stuck in a snow bank and had to be pulled out.

 For us it was a driver error. Fatigue and low visibility made it difficult for me to identify a snow buried ditch on the right side of the road near a farm house. Once my passenger side front wheel went into the ditch, there was nothing I could do. We came to a very abrupt stop just inches from a tree. While the snow makes driving complicated and difficult, accidents can be forgiving as we had no injuries and virtually no damage except for a lost mud flap and a slightly misaligned steering rack. A fellow ralliest happened to come by and pulled us out with some dramatic fishtailing maneuvers. We were shocked that we were still ahead of someone at this point. After being pulled out, we put our tools away and soldiered on to the finish.

The rally was supposed to finish around 3:00am. We did not reach to hotel until about 4:30am. All other rally teams had finished at this point and gone to bed. We went to return our scorecard in the hopes that maybe someone would still be around to collect it but the registration room was now empty. Purely by chance, we caught our rally master, John Buffum, just before he was about to leave and gave him our score card. We slept in our freezing car huddled under blankets eating leftover snacks until daylight and then drove the 3 hours back home. It was an incredible rally to say the least. While running the rally, I wondered why I thought that any of this was a good idea. Looking back, I can say that I am willing to do it again.

Greg Gibbs

Introduction

                 I have been an automotive enthusiast for my entire life. As one, I cannot simply look at a vehicle as merely a means of transportation. Not simply an appliance no better than a refrigerator or toaster, but rather an entity that has a personality of its own. They are entities that have style, emotions, and talents.

                When you think about it, our cars and trucks really are embodiments of the people that use them. Cars are imperfect objects in the same manner that people are imperfect.  The way that cars break down and need repair, people get sick and need to be remedied. How some cars are sporty and stylish while others are slow and seemingly unattractive is not dissimilar to how some people are fit and good looking while others are unfit and unkempt.

                Just like people, automobiles have an acute ability to extend common courtesies. For instance, your door chime reminds you that you are about to lock your keys in the car and is trying to spare you from a great inconvenience in your day in the same manner that one person can remind another at the supermarket checkout to not forget one’s keys.  Conversely, your cable actuated gas door may seize at the gas station, requiring you to find the emergency release somewhere in your trunk or requiring you to pry the door open by other means. This is also not dissimilar to the way the supermarket cashier might close their register at the precise moment you approach requiring you to further search for an open register.

                As you can see, I have spent exuberant amounts of time defining exactly why it is that I am such a fan of the automobile. I often find myself critiquing people’s cars and trucks as if the entire roadway were one never ending car show.  In my coming posts, I will be sharing the details of a project I am undergoing on my own personal vehicle with the intent of improving its overall fuel economy. The series will be filled with pictures of the project, accurate measurements of weight savings and fuel mileage improvements, and useful tips on how you can improve your own fuel consumption.

Drive Safely,

Greg