Day 5
Rally Day 3
Today's Challenge:
1. Take a photo of the oldest car you can find along today's route. It doesn't have to be running or on the road, but it must have four wheels, and unless you can prove its year of manufacture, the last year the car was sold will be used.
As soon as we got up it was back to the front-left brake. It was the only thing standing between us and mechanical perfection -- at least, perfection to the extent that we cared. Dannon, who had now officially replaced Jared as our third teammate, retrieved the challenge packet from the rally officials, and seeing as how it was not time-based, we knew we could spend some time fiddling with the car.
Try as we might, the caliper simply wouldn't retract. We cranked and cranked on the clamp we had, but always reached a point where we couldn't twist anymore. Dannon recalled his father banging on seized caliper pistons with a hammer, so we decided to give it a shot. With the brake line disconnected and the caliper resting on the ground, Desmond attacked the caliper piston with a rubber mallet, and bit by bit it retracted, squirting brake fluid onto the pavement out of the brake line connector! We put the new brake pads in and put everything back together again. We ended up having to add some brake fluid, but everything worked great!
It was especially fortunate that the brakes were in good working order for the day, too, because the day's route included a rather famous road -- Deal's Gap, aka The Tail of the Dragon. As we made our way there, however, I wasn't entirely sure what to think of it, especially considering the fun I had on the Blue Ridge Parkway and the other, less-famous curvy roads we took while still en route. Still, I was very much looking forward to it.
Fixing the brake cost us a lot of time in the morning, but by the time we reached Cherokee we had already met up with a few other cars, and we were reunited with our comrades in Bryson City. Fox was already on his motorcycle (which had been towed behind the camper on a trailer the whole way) in preparation for "the Gap," and left camper driving duty to Jared. Meanwhile, the Taurus, which had been repaired on Day 1 of the rally, carried the rest of the crew.
It wasn't long until we reached the famed turn onto 28 North, where Tim Hansen went the wrong way on the BABE Rally '06 and ended up in Atlanta. This year, however, it was Fox that made the wrong turn, along with Team Rickety Van and their old VW Van. The rest of us stopped and waited, but it didn't seem like they had realized their mistake. We continued on without them.
When we were getting close to the Gap (but already driving on tight, twisty roads anyway), we radioed to ask the Taurus, which was in the lead at the time, to move over and let us pass. They obliged, and we flew ahead. Radio contact was quickly cut off, but we didn't care. We were on the Tail of the Dragon. The Renault did surprisingly well for itself, especially with all the weight it was carrying, and it (like many/all of the BABE Rally cars, I'm sure) attracted both cheers and stares from motorcyclists parked at the many pull-off locations. Some heel-toe downshifting and tire squealing later, we reached the end, where we waited a full 4 minutes for the Taurus and camper to arrive. Fun stuff.
I must say, though, that my fears from earlier in the day were somewhat justified. After the high-speed hijinks on the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Gap seemed somewhat underwhelming. I mean, Deal's Gap has some of the sharpest corners and most ridiculous collections of switchbacks I've ever seen, and it's so curvy that it's very easy to stay within the speed limit, but the Blue Ridge Parkway is much, much longer, has better views, and had better-flowing, more enjoyable, higher-speed corners. Nevertheless, I've taken on the Dragon and lived to tell about it.
By the time we got moving again, we had realized that we still had quite a long drive ahead of us. We had to get to Gadsden, Alabama by 11:00pm for our challenge, and it was already getting dark. After a dinner stop at a Sonic, we hopped on the Interstate and started booking it. The Taurus and camper were soon left behind, leaving only the Renault and the Lincoln from the previous day. What would transpire on this night would cement our friendship with the guys in that car and make our car legendary.
It all started after we had reached Alabama. The camper and Taurus were long gone, and the monotony of a dark, empty freeway along with the desire to reach the hotel led to some higher-than-legal speeds. Despite its small engine, the Renault could rather easily attain 80mph, and that's what we were cruising at for much of the time (monitored by the Lincoln's working speedo). After a while, however, the Lincoln guys radioed in, asking, "hey, do you guys want to try for 90mph?" We replied, "sure," and stepped on it. Sure enough, we reached 90mph.
A little while later, the Lincoln guys radioed in again, asking, "hey, do you guys think you can do 100mph?" Desmond, who was driving at the time, hesitated before giving the go-ahead. "I guess so." He put the gas pedal to the floor once again and held it there. It took a couple moments, but the Lincoln guys radioed back, mystified. We were doing 100mph in a Renault Encore, confirmed not only by a working speedometer but by a GPS system. We even brushed 105mph.
As you can imagine, Gadsden appeared a bit sooner than expected, and as soon as we arrived, the legend of the 100mph Renault began spreading around the already-busy parking lot. The little French car had started out as one of the least-likely finishers, and now it was respected by all. I was quite surprised myself.
Oh, and by the way, the oldest car we found was a 1950's Ford something, but we couldn't figure out exactly what it was so we took a picture of the 1964 Dodge Dart that was a part of the rally instead, just to mess with the judges. Did I mention we were starting to enjoy the journey more than the rally?
The following night we were going to find ourselves in New Orleans. I had no doubt that we would make it.
Rally Day 3
Today's Challenge:
1. Take a photo of the oldest car you can find along today's route. It doesn't have to be running or on the road, but it must have four wheels, and unless you can prove its year of manufacture, the last year the car was sold will be used.
As soon as we got up it was back to the front-left brake. It was the only thing standing between us and mechanical perfection -- at least, perfection to the extent that we cared. Dannon, who had now officially replaced Jared as our third teammate, retrieved the challenge packet from the rally officials, and seeing as how it was not time-based, we knew we could spend some time fiddling with the car.
Try as we might, the caliper simply wouldn't retract. We cranked and cranked on the clamp we had, but always reached a point where we couldn't twist anymore. Dannon recalled his father banging on seized caliper pistons with a hammer, so we decided to give it a shot. With the brake line disconnected and the caliper resting on the ground, Desmond attacked the caliper piston with a rubber mallet, and bit by bit it retracted, squirting brake fluid onto the pavement out of the brake line connector! We put the new brake pads in and put everything back together again. We ended up having to add some brake fluid, but everything worked great!
It was especially fortunate that the brakes were in good working order for the day, too, because the day's route included a rather famous road -- Deal's Gap, aka The Tail of the Dragon. As we made our way there, however, I wasn't entirely sure what to think of it, especially considering the fun I had on the Blue Ridge Parkway and the other, less-famous curvy roads we took while still en route. Still, I was very much looking forward to it.
Fixing the brake cost us a lot of time in the morning, but by the time we reached Cherokee we had already met up with a few other cars, and we were reunited with our comrades in Bryson City. Fox was already on his motorcycle (which had been towed behind the camper on a trailer the whole way) in preparation for "the Gap," and left camper driving duty to Jared. Meanwhile, the Taurus, which had been repaired on Day 1 of the rally, carried the rest of the crew.
It wasn't long until we reached the famed turn onto 28 North, where Tim Hansen went the wrong way on the BABE Rally '06 and ended up in Atlanta. This year, however, it was Fox that made the wrong turn, along with Team Rickety Van and their old VW Van. The rest of us stopped and waited, but it didn't seem like they had realized their mistake. We continued on without them.
When we were getting close to the Gap (but already driving on tight, twisty roads anyway), we radioed to ask the Taurus, which was in the lead at the time, to move over and let us pass. They obliged, and we flew ahead. Radio contact was quickly cut off, but we didn't care. We were on the Tail of the Dragon. The Renault did surprisingly well for itself, especially with all the weight it was carrying, and it (like many/all of the BABE Rally cars, I'm sure) attracted both cheers and stares from motorcyclists parked at the many pull-off locations. Some heel-toe downshifting and tire squealing later, we reached the end, where we waited a full 4 minutes for the Taurus and camper to arrive. Fun stuff.
I must say, though, that my fears from earlier in the day were somewhat justified. After the high-speed hijinks on the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Gap seemed somewhat underwhelming. I mean, Deal's Gap has some of the sharpest corners and most ridiculous collections of switchbacks I've ever seen, and it's so curvy that it's very easy to stay within the speed limit, but the Blue Ridge Parkway is much, much longer, has better views, and had better-flowing, more enjoyable, higher-speed corners. Nevertheless, I've taken on the Dragon and lived to tell about it.
By the time we got moving again, we had realized that we still had quite a long drive ahead of us. We had to get to Gadsden, Alabama by 11:00pm for our challenge, and it was already getting dark. After a dinner stop at a Sonic, we hopped on the Interstate and started booking it. The Taurus and camper were soon left behind, leaving only the Renault and the Lincoln from the previous day. What would transpire on this night would cement our friendship with the guys in that car and make our car legendary.
It all started after we had reached Alabama. The camper and Taurus were long gone, and the monotony of a dark, empty freeway along with the desire to reach the hotel led to some higher-than-legal speeds. Despite its small engine, the Renault could rather easily attain 80mph, and that's what we were cruising at for much of the time (monitored by the Lincoln's working speedo). After a while, however, the Lincoln guys radioed in, asking, "hey, do you guys want to try for 90mph?" We replied, "sure," and stepped on it. Sure enough, we reached 90mph.
A little while later, the Lincoln guys radioed in again, asking, "hey, do you guys think you can do 100mph?" Desmond, who was driving at the time, hesitated before giving the go-ahead. "I guess so." He put the gas pedal to the floor once again and held it there. It took a couple moments, but the Lincoln guys radioed back, mystified. We were doing 100mph in a Renault Encore, confirmed not only by a working speedometer but by a GPS system. We even brushed 105mph.
As you can imagine, Gadsden appeared a bit sooner than expected, and as soon as we arrived, the legend of the 100mph Renault began spreading around the already-busy parking lot. The little French car had started out as one of the least-likely finishers, and now it was respected by all. I was quite surprised myself.
Oh, and by the way, the oldest car we found was a 1950's Ford something, but we couldn't figure out exactly what it was so we took a picture of the 1964 Dodge Dart that was a part of the rally instead, just to mess with the judges. Did I mention we were starting to enjoy the journey more than the rally?
The following night we were going to find ourselves in New Orleans. I had no doubt that we would make it.
). I'll probably start a thread about it after I acquire the car for the trip, so final planning could take place there and then. 
