This Happened

The 9-2013 24 Hours Of Lemons at Thunderhill was a rough race for our stable. First the Snowspeeder did this:

And here is is from the other car's view:

And finally from another car back:




Even more spectacular, but not subject to so many well positioned cameras, yours truly rolled the FX32. Here's a glimpse caught from several cars back:



You can see a bit better if you view this on the Vimeo page, but even there it's hard to see what is going on. The FX is 4-5 cars ahead moving to the outside of turn 2. Obscured from this camera, I go off track on the right causing the small visible puff of dust. Still obscured I hit the concrete rumble strip and loose control, moving across the track to the left where you can barely see the FX tumbling in the big cloud of dust. The car stalled on the right side of the track was not involved in any way, and it was just lucky my out-of-control path did not collide with it.

Later, we'll post a full update on the race, which actually turned out to be a pretty fun one.

Big Lapse Of Judgement

Yeah? Well. Watch THIS:



Learning from the mistakes and lack of footage from the MRolla project, we were pretty diligent setting up the tripod every day we were at the shop working on the FX32.

Footage was shot one frame every 30 seconds, for a total of 20,684 stills, representing over 172 hours at the shop. There were maybe 5 hours we were unable to shoot over the course of the project. I rendered it in 800x600, and to get the length down while using ALL of the still images, it is 60 fps. It was the first time I'd ever used Adobe Premier Pro, so there was a little time lost to the learning curve, but I really enjoyed putting it together, and I'm just a bit proud of the results.

Yes, you do recognize the music. English Beat's "March Of The Swivel Heads", an instrumental remix of "Rotating Heads", is the song at the end of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". I did do a bit of editing and extending to sync the song's and video's features.

I'm glad this video project is done, but if someone had some good in-car or bumper-cam footage of the FX32 on track, or especially any footage of the crash with Metro-Gnome at the final turn of the race, I would love to include such footage.

I'm a bit disappointed with the quality of the Youtube stream. I think once it gets enough traffic Youtube enables HQ, but I'm not sure how that works. Youtube will allow you to download the full quality MP4 file.

Coverage

Rear engine is now mounted.

The new build is moving along nicely. The project is getting some coverage and discussion around the web.

I've been updating some build threads on various enthusiast forums where some Q/A is happening:

AE82.net, A favorite little community specific to this generation of Corolla.
MR2OC, The most authoritative MR2 community on the web.
The 24 Hours Or Lemons forums.

Scott Ith, our new and hopefully regular teammate writes for Hooniverse and is a prolific automotive blogger. Here are articles he's done so far:


At Hooniverse:
Teaser
Build Update
Build Update 2
Build Update 3


At Scott's "Need That Car" blog:

Teaser

Build Update

The most thorough photo album is on the Farcebook.

FX32

Due to a permanent case of temporary insanity, we decided to build a sibling for the twin engine MRolla by cramming the rear end of a Toyota MR2 (AW11) under the hatch of a Corolla FX16 (AE82). Cutting commenced January 2013 and it's first race was March 2013.

Weight: 2831 Pounds. 52% front, 48% rear.

Front engine: USDM small port 4AGE, 5 speed manual.

Rear engine: USDM small port 4AGE, automatic.

*After the 2015 Miller race, Scott Ith, a regular local teammate and collaborator, purchased the FX32.

Races:

1. 24HL Sears Point 3-2013, finished 40 of 174.
2. 24HL High Plains Raceway 6-2013, finished 10 of 56. Winner Class B.
3. 24HL Thunderhill 9-2013, DNF. Rolled on lap 141. Winner (Team): Judges Choice.
4. 24HL High Plains Raceway 6-2015, finished 18 of 48.
5. 24HL Thunderhill 9-2015, finished 54 of 188.
6. 24HL Miller Motorsports Park 10-2015, finished 23 of 79.
7. 24HL Thunderhill 5-2016, ... *

Links:
All FX32 blog entries.
FX32 build photo album.

Complete build time-lapse video:

Another Fine Mess

I was looking forward to a nice relaxing 2013 race season; Racing in cars that are built already; Leisurely eliminating donor cars from my yard as I piece together a new daily driver. Instead, these brief conversations that occurred in less than an hour have altered my future plans considerably.

Call from Bill:

• Bill- Do you want my MR2?
• Me- Not really. What shape is it in these days?
• Bill- It’s not registered. I couldn't pass emissions. You can have it.
• Me- I don’t know what I’d do with it. Why don’t you sell it?
• Bill- It’s at my old apartment and they want it gone. I've moved to Idaho and don’t have time to come deal with it.
• Me- Did you call a scrap yard? I’m sure you could get a couple hundred for it.
• Bill- I can’t find the title. 
• Me- I really don’t want it at my place. Let me talk to Bender. Maybe we could flip it,

Call to Bender:

• Me- Do you want Bill’s MR2?
• Bender- No.
• Me- Free?
• Bender- Free?
• Me- Yeah. It was running after we helped him with that timing belt. Maybe we could fix that oil leak, swap in a 5 speed, get through inspection, and sell it for a few hundred bucks.
• Bender- Well  if it’s free…
• Me- I doubt it would take more than a weekend. I’m not going to have much time until February, and then we should be prepping for the March race.
• Bender- OK, I think we could do it.

Call to bill:

• Me- OK, we’ll take it.
• Bill- Thanks! The key is in the ignition. There are some parts in the seat and the battery is gone, but it should run.
• Me- Alright. Should have it gone soon.

Text with Bender:

• Me- You working? Do you have jumper cables? At lunch and Bill’s place is on the way back to the office.
• Bender- Out running errands. Have a tow strap. Could be there in 10.
• Me- OK.

Conversation with Bender after towing the car to my house:

• Me- This car smells like Hantavirus.
• Us- (Blah blah blah. This car is horrible.)
• Bender- It would great to show up at a race with TWO twin engine cars! 
• Me- (I think at this instant I was abducted by aliens, brainwashed, and placed back on earth with no interruption. Note the change in my thought process.) An FX16/MR2 would be GREAT! We could use this MR2 and I have at least one FX that is otherwise destine to be scrapped.
• Bender- I need another project.
• Me- If you are serious, I’m in. But I’m busy until February. Let’s target a race after Sears Point in March, like Colorado in June.

Facebook before I get back to the office:

• Bender- We’re bringing two twin engine cars to Sears Point in March!

At this point, I think Bender needs some sort of regular psychotherapy and/or meds, and if I don’t already, I will by March.

The DOT.MATRIX

(Update 1-2013: This car has is now the primary donor for the FX32 twin engine hatchback. It has be replaced by this DOT.MATRIX)

Behold: The DOT.MATRIX

I've never named a car. I've given a few cars titles, like the race cars here, but to me cars are inanimate devices that I don't talk to or presume hear when I call them by name. It seems a little childish to me, to have that sort of sentiment for an emotionless device. That doesn't mean I don't love cars and recognize their distinct characters. They are not pets, but favorite toys.

A reference to distinguish cars is both fun and useful though. I can't just say "my car" or even "my MR2" and expect people to know which of my cars I'm talking about.

I also think it's time to expand the scope of this blog beyond the race cars, to the street cars we frequently refer to anyway.

So I now dub my FX16 the "DOT.MATRIX". It's a partial reference to the Toyota Matrix, the successor to the FX, but more of a reference to a more primitive technological era when boxy small Japanese import cars and whining, slow printers were an exciting novelty.

So this is the reference page for the DOT.MATRIX:

• 1987 Toyota Corolla FX16. 
• It has a few GTS cosmetic bits.
• It has over 230000 miles on the odometer, but no guarantee that the gauge is original.
• It has a fairly happy blue top 4AGE. I suspect a slightly tuned rebuild, but don't know the history.
• It cost me $160.

Plans for the DOT.MATRIX include:

• Small port 4AGE swap.
• Rustoleum rattle-can paint job.
• Wheels.
• Some type of headlight conversion.
• Low budget stereo.
• Bumper testicles?