Lisa's Official Rallye Star Pike's Peak Update Thread!!!!

[Rallye Star]

Hey Evos!

We're in Colorado Springs right now. The weather looks great. We took our first trip up the hill with our crew chief Aaron Laeng and his mom Gwen and Alfred from Tuning Technologies who came all of the way out here to tune Rinkle! (How cool is he? Especially after the 1:30 AM dyno tune!) Rinks in happy in her box trailer. We're all going out to an air strip tomorrow to test and tune the car. This will be the first time that I've driven her!!! Very Excited!!! There is practically no snow on the hill and I'm hoping to get a great, dry run. Check back for more daily updates!

     MWM - > pikes peak mountains!

[evilrs]

Good luck!!  can't wait to hear about your success!!

[Smogrunner]

BUMP!!! Please, as many updates as possible. Good luck! Photos? Video?

[Alfred@TTech]

I have never been to Colorado before, much less participate in one of the most famed Hill climbs in history.  The effects of elevation on your body is pretty humbling. At 14,000 feet, you cant even laugh too hard without getting lightheaded and gasping slightly for breath.

This race is the real deal.  Once you get here, see the hill in all its reality and glory, a great respect is developed.  I am extremely happy and grateful to be a part of such a great team for this 85th running of Pikes Peak. 

Im off to sleep, we have a really early morning as the drive up the hill is long.  Thank you everyone for the kind words and support.

Alfred

[Skiracer]

Drink LOTS of water, vitamin C, eat a lot of carbs, and avoid alcohol!!!!   This will prevent altitude sickness....  Going from almost sealevel to 14K feet is pretty harsh on the body. 

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/Altitude-Sickness-Topic-Overview

[Smogrunner]

Alfred, I hope you have your own room, your legendary snoring will be the downfall of the entire team.

[Rallye Star]

Day 2- Testing! Two and a half hours away at the Leadville Municipal Airport. Our friend Rhys Millen set up the test which was held on a half-mile taxi way as several pilots did some testing of their own, flying sideways in a huge, yellow and red helicopter. It was quite a spectacle with Rinkle blatting away as Leon drove Alfred around to set up her mapping. I finally got to drive her when the mechanics were happy, only three short runs.  Man, that baby girl Evo can sure run! She lights up her tires all the way up to third gear!!! And that's only with 17 LBS of boost!Although I wanted to do more maybe it was for the best that we left, as a big thunderstorm left Rinks and I dashing in between huge raindrops. We drove back to town just in time for the rookie driver's meeting, tech inspection and the big driver's meeting. After that, we headed over to Phil Long Mitsubishi where Rinks went flying on a hoist as the boys fixed a bent tie rod and set her up for tomorrow's BIG test. That's right, our first practice starts at 3:30 AM and we're running the top section of the hill. Brr is all I can say!

Until next time, Evos!

[swimmer160]

good luck lisa!  Tear up the peak and show 'em what Mitsu's got to offer!

looking forward to vids and pics!

[CRX2EVO]

wow, talk about early

[Rallye Star]

day 3
I was really happy to be awake and ready to run at 5 AM. Things were looking good so far. At least until I hit the first corner. We were at the top of the hill and it's really fast and very scary and becuase it's so dry this year, the surface was very slippery. I hit the brakes and everything locked up. The pedal didn't move back up! I nearly went off the road. The rest of the run was like that and I was scared out of my wits! I was certain I was going to crash, no I knew I was going to crash. The crew tried to fix the brakes, but they really didn't understand the problem that I was experiencing. And to add insult to injury, as I was waiting to go back down the hill for another run, some guy in a Mustang backed into my car! Rinkle wasn't terribly hurt, but he did give her a red kiss and cracked small parts of her front bumper and splitter! What a jerk! We finally figured out the problem when Leon took a ride with me and drove the car down after I had another shaky run. There was a problem with the brake booster. In stock Evos the brake booster doesn't have a check valve that keeps vacuum pressure from the intake manifold traveling only one way. With the bigger turbo and engine, we figured out that we needed to have this valve since the extra vacuum pressure was causing the brake pedal to stay solid or to stay depressed under boost, which in layman's terms meant that every time I started going fast, I had no brakes and when I hit them, they stayed down! We ended up fixing the problem and I ended up the most frightening driving experience of my life studying the bottom of the hill and making a few complete runs of the hill. I did buy a cheap digital camera, so I'll try to take some pics for you tomorow. I'm off to bed!

[Bueller]

Wishing you all the best.   

[say when]

That car knows how to go fast.  Good luck lisa and crew.  I would love to be in your shoes right now. 
Tad

[Smogrunner]

The break issue sounds a little like the way ABS reacts to conditions on dirt roads - which sucks btw.

[Rallye Star]

Today I was on the bottom half of the hill, practicing from the start line all the way to Glen Cove. Leon jumped into the car with me to help me understand how to drive Rinkle. With less than an hour of total seat time in the car, I was third fastest in the Pikes Peak Open class on one of my runs and ended up qualifying fifth in my class. I spent the rest of the day driving up the hill in the loaner vehicle generously loaned to the team by Phil Long Mitsubishi. The weather was cloudy and threatening and it was raining heavily by 4 PM, leaving me with an open road and a beautiful view. The rain was highly beneficial to the road, washing away and compacting loose gravel. Tomorrow the we will be tackling the middle section of the road commonly known as the "Ws." We will also be attending the Fan Fest in downtown Colorado Springs where Rinkle will be on display along with other race vehicles tomorrow evening at 5 PM. Check out the Pikes Peak website for more information about this event at www.ppihc.com. The website also has live scoring for the practice runs and Saturday's event as well as photos. I've also picked up a cheap "rally proof" camera and will be posting live update pics on my site (www.rallyestar.com/ppihcphotojournal.html). Today we were joined by Jenn from Tuning Technology. It was really cool to have both her and Alfred there to look over the car. It was also great to see everyone getting excited as Rinkle banged and popped her way up the hill.

[flashfoto]

Sweet! Thanks for the updates. Wish I were there snapping pics!!

[Rallye Star]

Man, I thought I had posted yesterday! It was a long day... We were doing the middle of the hill and we had a few mechanical problems that left everyone cranky and on edge, but Alfred sorted out the problem and soon, with the help of the guys at Phil Long Mitsubishi, Rinkle was banging and popping like new! She's healthy and ready to rock tomorrow! We finished off the night at the Fan Fest, signing a million autographs and taking pictures. Today was a rest day and I spent it driving up and down the hill. The weather was beautiful after a night's worth of gnarly thunderstorms. The rain made the road just beautiful! We're going to have a blast tomorrow!

Everybody watch www.ppihc.com to see how we do!

[EVO Neil]

Good luck Lisa! We're with you in spirit! Cheers ~ Neil

[Majin Goku]

wish you were taking pics along with the updates..... or at least posting some footage....

[smokinevo9]

wish you were taking pics along with the updates..... or at least posting some footage....

+1

[Smogrunner]

Ouch.