Re: Our Crappy, One-Car, Lemons Rally - Lansing to Seattle
Hey everyone. So, turns out we've been pretty lame about keeping up with the adventure. Maverick is right. We got past his 'hood without incident. Did NOT freeze to death. Sorry for the disappointment.
Not that anyone cares. But here's the update.
We finally met our seller, Ed Chapman, and the little Mazda that could (make it back to Seattle). It looked like we'd imagined, giant splitter and all. Lucky for us, the car is about 1/2 mile from the only curves in the county, and we were, honestly, shocked at how tight the steering and handling was. The rotary pulled strongly once you got it above 3500. So, we got back to the barn, continued looking it over, and then started loading it will all the spares.
Backhoes are handy as hell, especially when loading another rotary in the back. 
Budget had been so miserable to us that we got an upgraded rental, so at one point, we were rocking a pair of convertibles, both of which were red, or at least used to be.
Because of the late arriving tool bag mentioned in a previous post, we had to drive back to Detroit. Yes, we had a perfectly good Mustang at our disposal, but with rain in the forecast and a trip to a mildly spooky part of Detroit planned, we drove #77. To visit Darko and the Viperoyce.
It was awesome. Better than imagined, and only marginally more awesome than his incredible facility. Gritty, sprawling and filled with exotic shit, it is super cool. Befriend this man. He's super chill, the work is even more impressive in person, and he's a good-looking dude. Triple threat. Cool, handsome AND he can fabricate like a mo-fo!
After a quick night's sleep, we loaded up another 150lbs of personal gear, plus ourselves, and headed down the road. We had arranged to drop the rental car in Kalamazoo, solely because it's a fun name to say. "We're headed to Kalamazoo!" Try it.
Anyway, super cool thing happened there. We'd loaded so much crap into the car that we'd pinched the pull cable for the trunk release. We'd figured out, however, that we could use the key to open the trunk from the rear lock. Which worked great, until.....
JB Weld did NOT fix this problem, and for a while, it was really hairy because all our tools were in the trunk. Which was locked. We finally managed to get it to release, but the real issue was the ignition. After MUCH debate, we decided to bite the bullet and stick the cut part of the key keep into the ignition and try a screwdriver. WORKED!! But, not sure we'll ever get that chunk of key out again. Earlier, I'd predicted that the car would run flawlessly, and any issues would be the result of our own idiocy. I am clairvoyant, apparently.
So, rental car dispatched, we were now truly on our own. We headed out in the bright, midwestern sun. 
Actually, it WAS really nice and sunny on Saturday, but got progressively colder as we pressed northward toward Minneapolis.
Oh, let me backup. We had a date with the great Judge Rood for coffee or lunch on Saturday. Our timeline was tight and he had an afternoon commitment, so we didn't have much flex time. When The Great Key Incident of 2018 occurred, I was sure we'd screwed the pooch and would miss him. We left Kalamazoo dejected, until I realized that we'd be changing timezones from Michigan to Illinois! Hazzah, the Lemons gods smiled upon us, gifting us the hour we'd lost with the key, and without further complication, we met the exalted judge right on time.
It was a great introduction to Lemons autocracy, and Judge Rood was extremely supportive of our terrible decisions. One might even say he was downright enthusiastic about them. I am embarrassed to admit that we have no photographic evidence of our meeting, except for this moment when we all contemplated the hard reality that nobody seems willing to park near our car.
After lunch, we had no further deadlines except to make Brainerd, MN by late Sunday afternoon. And it was BARELY Saturday afternoon. CAKE!
We took some time and finally set up 4 cameras on the car. Despite the best laid plans, the "intercom" system couldn't overcome the raw noise of the ride, so we either had to shout like we were at a concert, or just be content with the conversations in our head. At one point, not knowing the accuracy of the fuel gauge, we opted to explore it's outer limits.
Assured that we have a 14 gallon tank, the car promptly took 14.9 gallons, plus another 14 ounces of 2-stroke oil. OH, did we mention that the oiling system was deleted? So we get to pre-mix each tank, which is it's own special experience.
The rest of Saturday went well. We pushed forward into the evening, progressively adding layers as the heat-leeching accelerated. At one point, I was passenger and pulling on a 2nd pair of pants. In just my socks, my feet landed on the transmission tunnel just over the exhaust pipe. Ahhh, the only warmth our chariot provides it's occupants.
Speaking of passenger seat....
On the plus side, tons of legroom. You hardly notice sharing room with the spare driveshaft. On the other hand, loads of mouse urine in the donor seat from the parts car, hence the custom seat cover by Hefty. The smell only lingers for a few minutes after you start down the road. You also get cable management duties, and the ever-important task of NOT kicking any of the wiring connectors attached to the ECU your feet are on.
As we rolled into the night, we eventually landed at The Classic Garage for a fantastic burger, fries and shake in Eau Claire, WI. This place was absolutely perfect for the end of our 1st day. The manager cleared us to park in the "Classic Car Only" spot right up front. 
There was a group of 20 ACTUAL classic car owners (many with their cars in the plebian parking lot) that eventually left the restaurant. Hilarious to watch them walk by #77, stop, say "What in the hell...." and scratch their heads.
Eventually, we found a place to sleep, and the next day, with only 4 hours to go, we took a leisurely start. We only got a little rain, and surprisingly little landed on our heads. Before we knew it, we'd arrived in Brainerd, MN, basically the end of the road for us.
The next 3 days were spent at Brainerd Int'l Raceway taking an SCCA licensing school with BIR Performance. http://www.birperformance.com/register-scca-comp-school It's not cheap by Lemons standards, but you spend days 2 & 3 in 5-lap sprint races, all out. It's unlike any other school I've found and a great bit of training before our 1st race later this month. They were nice enough to let us park with all the other race cars, cause it rained a lot.
This brings us to Thursday morning, where all of Team Wankelr (car included) were finally united. 
(Logan, Dave, Scott, Kevin, #77)
After a short orientation, we left our teammates with the unenviable task of driving it home to Seattle. Temps were dropping fast and we wondered if they'd hit snow and just how awful the Direzza's would be.
Answers? "Yes" and "Bloody horrific". After 6 hours on the road, snow stalled them in Dickinson, North Dakota for the night. They JUST got there in time to find the one shop that had 205/60/15 all-weather tires in stock and could get them on by the next morning. Note the truck with snowplow attachment at left.
The tech was all excited "Cause I never seen one of these!" (NOTE: Tech NOT pictured.) They were a godsend, giving the guys a ride to a hotel and promising to have it done first thing in the morning. Ultimately not the all-weather set we wanted for racing, but pretty well rated.
Fast forward to this morning, and Scott and Logan were back on the road. At last report, they were arriving in Billings, MT a few hours ago with generally clear roads the rest of the way. They also adjusted the splitter to give a little front downforce vs. the lift it had been producing. If the weather holds, they'll be in Seattle by morning.
Overall, we all want to hugely thank Ed Chapman for the great car. We love the way it drives, and hope that holds at the track. The gas gauge stopped registering, and the starter didn't kick on once after a fuel stop. But mostly the car is great and a super starting point for our new team. With any luck, it'll be home soon and we can look to the handful of items we have to do before our first race.
Thanks to this community for happily encouraging us to crash and burn for your amusement. Apologies that we haven't faced more adversity. Not very LeMony. We'll try to make it up to you all.
Cheers,
Dave
