I was over at Blacksquirrel's place this past Saturday for a little Final Four basketball and Need for Speed: Shift video game action on the PS3. While I was there I started poking around in his iPhoto archives, and I have to say, I was a little annoyed. He's sitting on a veritable gold mine of pictures over there! Some which grabbed my attention immediately were from a late Sunday run around the parking lot at Raceway Park in the
NGP Rallye Golf, after a particularly hot, yet wet and gray
Waterfest.
I can remember this event for a few reasons, not the least of which was that it rained quite a bit and was insanely hot at the same time. After working, sweating, and getting drenched that day, we had the glamorous task of packing up hundreds of wet cardboard boxes into the truck. The other fun part was that the two pallets of FK catalogs which had been air-freighted in for the event got pretty soaked, and we had to basically sort through them to salvage what we could and throw away what we couldn't.
That in and of itself was pretty beat, but the worst was yet to come. The Rallye had been only tuned for the break in period up to this point, and was in the process of having the Autronic management road-tuned by
Kevin Black. This was all fine and good, and at least provided a sound track for us while we toiled in a trailer full of musty cardboard and paper.
This is the NGP Rallye, as it was imported from Europe.
The real kicker for me personally was when it was time to go. Ed, the car's owner, and Dave climbed into the trucks for the ride home and I was handed the keys to the newly tuned Rally. It was running low boost, but keep in mind that in this car, low boost was still well over 400hp. 450hp in an all wheel drive Golf, race clutch, with a 6-speed Quaife gearbox, Sparco race seat, 13" brakes all around, sticky tires, and race-firm suspension.
Oh yeah, and no radio or air conditioning.
Yay! That's a winner. Before I even stepped into the car the rain began to fall again, and as I struggled reach for the fan controls with the harness holding me back (turned to cold, as if that would help), it became clear this was not going to be fun. The windshield was fogging at an alarming rate, and I couldn't open the windows more than 1/2" or risk filling the car with water, it was raining so hard.
We ran into traffic almost immediately. The heavy rain storms that hit the area that day had caused massive flooding and delays, with only one way really open to get to the Turnpike. That race clutch sure was fun...it was either rev the thing and slip it to move forward inch by inch, generating more and more heat coming through the firewall, and from the exhaust which terminated directly below my seat, or risk stalling it. That was not a good idea, as I wasn't sure how much time had been dedicated to tuning of the starting maps. I guessed not much.
There it is, up top!
I think it took an hour and a half to make it to the Turnpike. It should have been 20 minutes tops. Fine, no problem. I can handle this. get some speed going, air the cabin out a bit. Forget that I've been up since 5am and working since 6:30am, and it's now 15 hours after that point, and we're still 3 hours from home with the slow pace of the trucks. At least I won't get sle-CLUNK-epy.
Not an ideal seat for this sort of drive...
'Why is the car not in gear?' I put it back into 6th. It popped back out. Third time is the charm right? Not this time buddy. I try 5th. It stays, but I'm worried. On the phone: 'Ed, the car is popping out of 6th, you have any problems with this thing when you were having it tuned?' Of course not, is the reply back. It's my luck. Thank god I hadn't been able to give it more than a hair of throttle, lest Ed think I had done something to it. I had also noticed about this time that the gears were sounding decidedly louder than before. Maybe I was just tired. Sure, just tired. When we stopped at exit 5 for some food, the Rallye seemed a little hard to get back into 1st gear after I had paid my toll. Great...
After dinner I was explaining to Ed that if it kept giving me trouble, I was going to ditch them and get it as far south as possible before the trans gave out. He agreed and would follow behind me, so if I had to pull over I wouldn't be left behind. Not soon after rejoining the turnpike, the transmission began rejecting 5th gear. And getting much, much louder. I settled into 4th at about 4000rpm (which was really loud) and hoped we wouldn't cause too many accidents. The short ratios meant I was only doing about 45-50mph at best. Turns out that Dave and the rest of the guys had to ditch us while I creeped along and Ed followed behind.
One of the other Rallyes brought in at the same time, location now not know, believe to be in / around Pennsylvania.
Stopping at each toll became an exercise in creative slowing and restarting. If I didn't get the car back into a low gear before coming to a complete stop, it wouldn't go in period. All the while I was tap dancing on the throttle and brakes to keep the engine from stalling, and to allow it to even go into gear in the first place. What transpired from there was the longest, most stressful drive I have nearly ever completed. (the future Mrs WRS can tell you about the worst) - The transmission got so loud it sounded like a combination of a dentist's drill, a car accident and screaming child all at the same time. I can still hear it echoing through my head.
Miraculously I made it back to NGP's home base in Aberdeen without the car dying. By the very end I basically had 3rd and 4th gears, and that's about it. The culprit was found to be a mysteriously absent drain plug on the transmission. I've never heard of one of those falling out, but that's what it must have (may have?) done. Somehow the Quaife box managed 130-odd miles with zero gear oil, and lived to tell the tale. Not only that, but once it was topped back off with Amsoil 75-90, it was as good as new! Sure a little more gear whine perhaps, but that's it. And while I ended up driving the car to H20 International that very same year, my love of this Green Rallye was broken then and there, and sadly, I've never really looked at Rallyes the same way since. It was traumatic, difficult, and scarring, but it does ultimately make a pretty good story at the end of the day. I hope it never happens again.
_WRS
