PFR 2 weeks away

So, it is 2 weeks from today that I will be leaving for Merritt, via Edmonton to pick up John on the way to a weekend of racing at PFR. I know that the race must be getting close, since I had a nightmare last night (?only a nightmare to me perhaps?) that the car was still being put together the night before the rally. The dream isn't too far from reality, however, as I am still pulling together the last few 'critical path' items together. The new engine fired up for the first time the night before last. I quickly discovered a coolant leak from the front coolant flange that comes off the head. A new O-ring comes in today, so I intend to be running the first break-in session tonight. The exhaust went on last night even though I've got a touch of the flu, or a cold or something. I still have to install the driveshafts and make an adjustment to the throttle cable (also tonight). An alignment is scheduled for Friday, so I will have the whole long-weekend to practise with and tune the car. One unfortunate item is my cams have still not arrived, but I am assured that they are on the way (?). I will be breaking in the engine with the stock cams for now and won't be pushing the car too hard for the short term anyways. I anticipate that even with the stock cams, the car will feel much more torquey (Is that a word?).

There are also some other things I want to do with the car before PFR that are not on the 'critical path' (i.e. If they don't get done, I can still race the car). I've swapped out the manual steering rack for power steering and I have a steering quickener on the shelf that I hope to install. This will likely be a 4-hourish type of job, so I'm leaving it until I'm sure everything else is ok. I've also been trying to buy a minidv camera from ebay, but I'm so cheap that I've lost like 8 auctions in a row.

Overall, I'm suprised how similar this swap has been to the project management I do as part of my day-job. I have a due date for completion and getting all of the parts, etc together in time has been a challenge. That leads me to something I've been meaning to put into this BLOG. If you ever plan to build your own rally car out of a VW Golf or any other car, PLEASE TAKE THIS ADVISE: Buy a rally car that has already been built, or start with a platform that already has the engine you want. I think the only stock items left in my car are: 1) the shell; 2) the dash and some things below it; 3)the master cylinder (although other parts of the braking system have all be changed) and; 3) portions of the wiring harness. Granted, I have learned A LOT about this car by building it myself, but 1/2 of rally is about car preparation and maintenance. I think I would have learned almost as much by now if I had purchased a car already built.

If you're coming to PFR, then I look forward to seeing you there. If not, I'll put up links to pics as soon as I can.