September 21, 2008 - The breathalyzer test at the beginning of day 5 was perhaps not completely serious. Yes, a few of these photos are out of order. entry 595 - tags: leg 5
September 21, 2008 - Mmm. The dessert spread in Brigus. It was a non-stop buffet, with new dishes coming out constantly. entry 596 - tags: leg 5
September 21, 2008 - Rob and Brenda Tanner set up the starting gear for the Brigus stage. They're my aunt and uncle, and Rob plans to run the event next year. He was pretty jealous of the fact that I was the one driving! Every time we drove up to the start line, Brenda would start jumping up and down and cheering.
Our service crew was my parents, of course. The whole race turned into a family affair. I'm not sure if they knew just what they were getting into, but they were a big help, doing minor work on the car in the evenings (things like checking oil and filling Camelbaks), fetching food for us at night, checking out of hotels and loading the truck and generally making life easier. They surprised us at one point with some green tea to help soothe our sore throats, a gesture that was hugely appreciated. Thanks Mom and Dad! entry 597 - tags: leg 5
September 21, 2008 - Scooting around one of the wider corners in Brigus. Almost done! entry 598 - tags: leg 5
September 21, 2008 - Across the ceremonial finish after our anticlimatic final stage. Uncle Rob was doing the announcing and got a little choked up. As did I. It happened a lot near the finish. entry 599 - tags: leg 5
September 21, 2008 - Winners! Okay, so we didn't WIN anything except our class. But our goals were to finish and maybe, just maybe get a Targa plate. And we did. So that's a win. entry 600 - tags: leg 5
September 21, 2008 - We had the big awards gala last night. Lots of awards and applause and food and more awards and more applause. Everything wrapped up at around 12:30 am. Jim Kenzie, the presenter, made a few very kind comments about our team. He praised our behavior in both accidents we came across, saying we did the right thing despite being novices. He also said our car was possibly the best looking at the event and really well prepared. More flattery!
There was a short video shown of highlights of the week. Holy cow, there was a lot of chaos - and that was just the stuff that happened in front of the camera! It showed us how little drama we had all week. We had a couple of small moments, but nothing like what we were watching. We didn't get much screen time, as you can imagine. I can tell you that the quality of the footage was top-notch though, and the TV show should be fantastic.
The Baldhead Racing award for the best-placed novices went to Hugo and Maxime Vadeboncoeur. They're a pair of brothers who drove a CRX extremely well, trading seats depending on if they were dealing with open road or village stages. They put in an amazing effort and finished 8th overall. I'd thought we might have a shot at this award early in the week, but it became clear on Day 3 that we just weren't going to be able to keep up with these guys. entry 601 - tags: results
September 21, 2008 - So that's the end of the 2008 Targa Newfoundland. Janel and I spent a few days hanging around St. John's being tourists and enjoying a more relaxing pace. As you can imagine, we're both really glad we did this. She turned out to be a fantastic navigator, cool under pressure and relentlessly reliable in her instructions. I got to play rally driver for a week and see how I measured up to others. In the process, we became closer than ever.
The car survived well despite getting pounded hard by the Newfoundland roads. I'll be going over it when we get home, and I'll post feedback in the build diary on what worked and what didn't.
The big question: next year? We're not answering that yet! entry 602
September 22, 2008 - So, the race is over. It's time for a bit of analysis. What worked and what didn't? What would I change?
Ergonomically, the car was great. A bit small when it came to helmet wrangling on the transits, but if we had time we'd stick them in the trunk. The Backsaver pads in the seats get a big and hearty thumbs up, as they were comfortable all week long.
The Camelbaks were a big plus. We were sipping on them the entire time, and the hydration helped keep some of the fatigue at bay.
Having snacks in the car - goldfish crackers, tubes of honey, granola bars and often an apple or banana - made a big difference as well. It's a tip that we picked up from the California Rally School, and it kept us both in a better mood as well as more able to concentrate.
One thing that we definitely missed was transit headsets. We wore earplugs on long transits to keep the noise from wearing us down, but that meant we didn't get much chance to talk other than shouted conversation. entry 603 - tags: post-race, ergonomics
September 22, 2008 - How did the suspension work? On smooth stages, it was a joy. The car worked perfectly, giving me enough stability for confidence but remaining nimble enough to deal with surprises. I was able to adjust my line through corners without surprises, late braking didn't upset the car and I even ended up with some fairly high-speed trail braking by accident. In those situations, I could feel the tail getting light, but it never bit me.
On moderate bumps, the travel was good. We were able to soak up some big imperfections, especially on the high speed stuff. We could always put the power down.
The rough stuff - it's difficult to describe just how rough some of the stages are. The fact that on at least two occasions, we went over sharp speed bumps that weren't even in the notes is probably a good indication. For those stages, I needed better bumpstops, stiffer rear springs and more ride height. The Subaru guys were running gravel suspension, if that's any indication. The front end of the car worked really nicely, it was just the rear that wanted a bit more. Also, at full compression in the rear we were planting the rear subframe brace into the pavement so we actually had a bit too much compression travel for this sort of behaviour.
I raised the car a bit over the course of the week, but I was hesitant to go too far in case I damaged the high-speed behaviour. I'm going to keep working on this so I can find out how to make it work better. But holy cow, those were some big hits. The car never got upset and the chassis was protected enough to prevent any damage, but I usually have a bit more mechanical sympathy than that. I did get a report from my uncle Rob that while I was grounding out at times, it wasn't as bad as some of the other cars.
The shocks did gave us a scare early on as we discovered we'd blown right through the bumpstops and damaged the seals. The non-pressurised design of the shocks kept them from losing performance in this case, though. entry 604 - tags: post-race, suspension
September 22, 2008 - Over the entire course of the race, the car never surprised me. Not once. I never had to wrestle with it or deal with wayward behaviour. It simply did what I asked and always gave me an option in case I wanted to do something else.
In short, it was a Miata.
That left me free to concentrate on Janel's instructions and the road. I can't emphasize how important that was - it's why others commented on how smooth we looked. The car simply didn't have any bad habits. More than a year of constant testing and thousands of miles at race speeds in this and other Miatas were a real benefit, as the car's handling is second nature to me and heck, they flatter any driver. entry 605 - tags: post-race.suspension, testing
September 22, 2008 - The drivetrain worked out well. The engine was flexible enough that even when I lost the top 2500 rpm of the rev range, I was still able to make good time. It used almost no oil over 2200 km of driving including 500+ km of full-throttle stages. More power would have been nice, but I think that's the lament of every driver.
I launched the car with smoking tires every single time and there were no problems. I did misjudge the start a couple of times and left the line with lots of clutch slip instead of tire smoke, but the clutch took it without complaint.
The misfire? Well, I'll figure out what it was shortly. I did discover yesterday that one of the wires to the intake air temperature sensor is broken. There was about 8" of unsupported wire leading up to the sensor, and the vibration and pounding made this about 6" too much. I'll fix it when I get a chance and see if that solves the problem. entry 606 - tags: post-race, engine
September 22, 2008 - The brakes were perfect all week. Nice and powerful but easy to modulate. Of course, Miatas are easy on brakes. The Challenger was not, and this cost them dearly when the rotors taco'd at the beginning of the long and fast Leading Tickles stage. I didn't even have to bleed my brakes. That's the result of a light car that's fast in the corners and (relatively) slow in the straights, of course.
The adjustable proportioning valve did come into play over the week, as I'd adjust the bias to get a different behaviour under certain conditions. entry 607 - tags: post-race, brakes
September 22, 2008 - The Toyos worked out well. The RA-1, of course, is a very friendly tire that doesn't surprise the driver at the limit. I drove well within those limits over the week, with a couple of exceptions where I took advantage of every bit of grip available to me.
In the wet, the car was great. It's almost a shame we didn't have more wet stages, as it turned out that we were very competitive under those conditions. I don't have much wet weather racing experience (and all of that came over the course of the Targa!) so I was quite reassured at how well the car worked there.
The R888 tires might have been stickier and I certainly saw them on a number of cars. Tire wear wasn't an issue for us at all, so they'd be a good option. I'd want to know how they work in deep water first though. entry 608 - tags: post-race, tires
September 22, 2008 - I'll be posting video of many of the stages over the next few weeks, after I get home. But spectator video is starting to show up. You can see us at about 5:05 in this particular one. The Clarenville stage is the one where we caught up to the Corvette in front of us. Watching this, it's no big surprise why. It's really interesting comparing people's lines here. Keep in mind that this is the slower half of the pack, part 2 shows the rest of the field and the lines are better.
September 23, 2008 - I'm going to miss Newfoundland. I'm on the ferry right now heading home, and I feel like I'm leaving friends behind. Everyone told me that the Rock got under your skin but I figured that just was the usual post-race enthusiasm. But it's true. The land is so beautiful and the people so friendly that it's a real shame to leave. Even if we don't make it back to race again, we'll have to come back to visit. entry 610
September 25, 2008 - Video! Not mine, this is from Flatovercrest.com. It's the highlights video we were shown at the gala after the race, and you should see pretty much every car in it. As I mentioned earlier, we didn't do anything dramatic enough to merit a lot of screen time. But you can see me briefly chasing down a Corvette with great enthusiasm.
September 26, 2008 - I think I solved the misfire issue that appeared near the end of the race. As I discovered right after the race, a wire to the air intake temperature sensor had broken. I patched that up today - a very temporary fix, but one that was good enough for testing - and the car seems healed. It'll pull hard to redline in at least three gears, which is something it would not do on the last stages. So we'll call that a success then.
It's a real testament to the flexibility of the engine that losing 2500 rpm of my rev range wasn't a crippling blow. Yes, the car was a bit slower getting up to speed. But I was able to drive around it, and we zeroed one stage and took a 2 second penalty on another like this. Compared to the penalties on day 3, that's nothing. entry 612 - tags: engine, post-race
September 26, 2008 - Another video! This is from the Brigus stage. There were only three or four corners on the entire rally where I hung the tail out more than was really necessary - and this is one of them. It was just so much fun, I couldn't help myself. You can hear me short-shift into the next gear due to the misfire. My appearance is at about 4:50.
September 28, 2008 - The culprit. The broken wire in this connector - which quickly became two broken wires when I poked at it - appears to be the cause of the misfire. entry 614 - tags: engine, post-race
THE DIARY
