911 Carrera RallyCross Project

8 minute(s) of a 245 minute read

Another outing for the 911 Carrera RX, this time with a bit of speed involved; only a bit mind. We were happy to sponsor the 3rd iteration of the Empire Hill Climb Revival in Empire, Michigan again this year and as a bonus they let us use the car as course opening vehicle. This meant our duties were to lead the convoy of race cars from the village center to the bottom of the hill, run ahead of them on the hill (at a moderate pace), lead them back down then around the block to the start again for two more climbs then back to the village. Despite our "moderate pace" on the hill we still had a lot of fun and would not have been last if we were entered.

You can watch some in car video of one of our faster runs here: https://www.facebook.com/TeamIlluminataMotorsport/videos/10153998737330773/


The weekend began early on Friday morning loading up the van and the car but by just after noon we were on the road.






It's only a little over four hours to Empire so we pulled up to our hotel for the weekend a little after 4pm.




After checking in and getting our key it was off to registration where we encountered this beauty

No, it's not a real one; well not quite. It is an actual rally car, just done up in period Rothmans livery. Looked and sounded great.


The Empire Hill Climb attracts quite a bit of vintage kit as indicated by this Mercedes 190 E 2.3-16 Cosworth in the hotel. Yes, those are BRAID wheels too.




and this 72 911 with 3.2 engine. An actual rally car.




There were plenty of other interesting vehicles running including a vintage Lola and a Toyota Starlet with a Sadev transmission! Yes, the Starlet won overall!

10-18-2016

This past weekend, along with a few friends we were invited up to show off our historic rally cars at the Lake Superior Performance Rally (previously Press On Regardless) on the beautiful Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.That's Peninsula Squared! From the display in the spectator guide it looks like the were expecting us.



It's quite a long tow for us from all the way down state so we broke the trip into two sections which allowed us to meet up with the two quattros in Newberry on Wednesday evening and trundle the rest of the way to Houghton Thursday morning.

Plenty of rest stops and email checking on the way up. Work never stops.




Obligatory photo crossing the Mackinac Bridge. Windy and wet.




Here we are pulling out of Newberry. Even colder and wetter now. (33F)




From the road it appeared we were going to hit peak leaf peeping season.





All arrived safely at race HQ hotel.






As it was only around noon we had lunch and went for a drive up the Keweenaw Peninsula. But first an obligatory stop at a parts store for some running repairs. Apparently a quattro tradition this time of year.




Once we fixed the 84's errant turn signal we found some windy roads to open up the cars a bit.






Then a rest by Lake Superior.




before heading up Brockway Mountain where the other quattro promptly overheated due to a melted fuse holder. After lunch we headed back to Houghton as we'd been asked to park the cars outside the SAE Rally Forum at Michigan Technology University where they caused quite a scene.

The next day was the start of the rally so we were up bright and early to stage the cars at the entrance to Parc Expose, basically a car show before the event. Our number was swelled by the addition of a MK2 Ford Escort and Saab 96.




Spotted this in Parc Expose.




Once the event was underway we packed up and moved Historic Rally Cars HQ an hour south to Baraga to be closer to the action. Once back in our trusty (or not) cars we shot over to the first service in Sidnaw where a few spots had been set aside for us to pose. Fortunately thre weather had improved tremendously by this time.




We were thankful to get an early night after all the driving the last few days. Even more thankful when the bar bill arrived as our hotel was owned by the local tribe so, seemingly no federal alcohol tax! It was just a short jaunt over to L'Anse in the morning to exhibit the cars once again at the parc expose and hang out with rally people once more. It was a great venue being right on the water and the cars were as popular as ever.




Our next engagement was to run the spectator stage in downtown Houghton but before we could get there we needed lunch, and to visit another parts store. This time the Escort needed a new battery.




Here's a video of our exhibition runs through Houghton by Ben Newburn. The stage was a great way to end the rally and very popular with the spectators.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BLmRaLrjkSy/



and here's one very happy future rally rally driver.




On the way to dinner the Escorts transmission decided to end it's relationship with its engine so we had to stop again. Fortunately there were enough tools and bolts to effect repairs and, as a bonus, were were in a great spot to experience the sunset.





Another cheap night in the bar capped of a great few days hanging out with car friends and showing off the cars. The CarreraRX never missed a beat and only required the attentions of a gas station while the, oh, never mind..........

If you get chance you really should attend this event; it possibly the best rally in the country. Thanks to Tim Maskus for making this all possible.