Bremerton Adventures
 

So, Dean is carrying the rear DMS's to Bremerton, and Subiegal hooks him up with Dave the Man, who may have a replacement part for the broken strut. Dave and Dean discuss the dangers of launching the rod-thingy inside the strut (Dave's shop has a very large gouge in his ceiling from one of these things), when Dave figures out the strut is not broken after all. Yay!

Soon after the strut fix, Subiegal and friends show up to personally deliver fender liners for Dean. Talk about Service!

finally, someone who agrees with me that a VW R-32 is just lame shit... its a fast lil' bastard :D

Dave had all sorts of interesting Subaru and rally goodies in his shop:

The blurry one of Debbie and Jamie(SubiGal) is my fault...

I think it has a lot of potential, unfortunately, it is a VW/Audi product, so reliability may be an issue. I don't recall what a R-32 is worth, but from a bang for your buck perspective, the WRX is probably a better deal.

its 240HP, and goes for MSRP $29K and up

I raced one about a month and a half ago... and its screams. The guy was pretty cool.

Um.....its just a way over priced car for the speed. Don't get me wrong, the interior is sick, but for near 30k, there is a ton of other options out there.

I am not normally a 0-60 nut....but 0-60 in 6.4 for 30k....but then again it could still be a great autocross car. Just not my fancy.

It's biggest problem is the heavy weight. It costs the same as an STi, but trades performance for luxury... a nice car nonetheless if a touch of luxury is what you're looking for, but I'd rather go faster.

Back on topic: Dean, what was the dilly on the DMSs? How were they "not actually b0rked"?

After spending all day Sat. getting the alignment right, and dealing with many suspension issues I won't go into, I wanted to make sure all the struts were set to the correct bump & rebound settings. It turns out that the bump adjusters on my rear struts were not tightnened proeprly, so when I went to adjust bump, I turned them to full hard and when I unscrewed the adjuster rather than it clicking toward soft. The shaft shot out of the strut and was stopped by the lower bracket and my hand (ouch). a small amount of liquid escaped, but only a CC or so... I got it put back together, but assumed it was dead since the adjuster didn't work. So Sunday I pulled both rears, put in the stockers, and realligned the rear... So much for ALMS...

Emailed SubiGal to see if she knew anyone in Seattle who might be able to help from her Rally contacts... She reccomended Dave, who by coincidence also used to be DMS America...

After Dave took apart the strut, we found that the cartridge still had full throw/rebound and found the loose adjuster. The cartridge may wear out faster once it gets older and starts leaking fluid as it has already lost a small amount, but for now it is fine, and I would get them rebuilt if they start to leak anyway. Both rears have now had the regular routine maintenance done to them, and I know how to do it for the fronts at the end of the season.

It was now late on Wednesday and I didn't have the time or the energy to put them back on and realign the rear for the weekend and I already had the car fairly dialed with the stockers, so they came back in the trunk.

Dave also had a set of the road race springs (12.5KF/11.6LR) lying around I am probably going to pick up... I may need Gary's help to help sort them out though...

And thus ends the DMS Saga, except I need to check the fronts still, but now know at least to an extent what I am doing...

And now the Debbie VS. SUV Story...
 

Actually, she needs to tell it, or I will get in trouble, but it is another great example of playing with multi thousand pound cars that got out of hand and could have turned real ugly but fortunately didn't... I may chime in with comments from my perspective later...

So how about a chorus of... "Tell us a story, pleeeease Debbie...."

Re: And now the Debbie VS. SUV Story...
 

Doh! Art beat me to it :)

Re: And now the Debbie VS. SUV Story...
 

yah ahhh, tell us the story, pleeeease. SUV stories are always great :shock:

All I want to say right now, is that guy was a F****r.

"Hell hath no fury"....

what happened!?

Evo School
 

I started out photo documenting with good intentions, and by lunchtime on Day 1 (Evo Phase 1) I forgot all about pictures, and started concentrating on how to go faster ...
Day 1, arrive & tech. Dean needs to adjust his camber plates .....

Sue is ready to go! (The setting at Bremerton is beautiful. A little snow on some peaks you can see to the east... maybe it was to the north. I was confused about directions while I was there. We argued about which way the water was, until a local reminded us we were on a peninsula, so the water was all around us, :lol: )

Looking west. Or north. Somewhere. Opposite of where we were parked for tech.

This picture is facing 90 degrees to the right of the last one.

No dude, you jacked that up all on your own.

Re: Evo School
 

Looks like Dean has his trusty, hi-tech camber tool in hand :lol:

Re: Evo School
 

*his* trusty tool? I invented that tool, and I've got the dents in my fender to prove it! :P :lol:

Like I said, pictures took a back seat to driving as soon as class started.

We had a course walk, were given run/work assignments, took the first pass at driving with an instructor so they could gauge where we needed help; then riding with a freaking-crazy-fast instructor. Driving some more, and figuring out somewhere along the way that no one is counting cones. Work our work shift and run for cones (that no one is counting). Then lunch break.

Lunch was provided, burger or hot dog, soda, chips and an ice cream bar. We learned on Day 1, you eat your ice cream first. With temps in the 90's all week, my ice cream was soup by the time I was ready for it. We were given morning segment times reports and took a few minutes for analysis, and self-reflection. Or self-deprecation.