2009 One Lap of America
MOD 2009 – Pictures Compilations
I like being behind the camera, but have found it challenging to be part of the activities and take photos too. Luckily other people are loaded with cameras and pictures as well, taking some of the pressure off.
Curt Shambeau’s Gallery from GalantVR4.org
Galant VR4 Thread posted by Polish
Galant VR4 Thread Pictures Request from Curtis
0AMS pitstop
Coming this far west with the car, we knew we wanted to at least take a visit to AMS outside of Chicago.
Of course being in need of a couple vband clamps certainly made it an important stop that would make the rest of the trip easier.
Eric was nice enough to give us a tour of the shop, fabrication areas and 
warehouse. It is easy to see why they are one of the largest shops around for import tuning. They have the most cleanily and organized shop I have ever seen and seeing the amount of in house fabrication certainly is a testiment to how much they put into their products.
After a chat about turbos, intake manifold sizing and the fate of the free world at we know it, we headed to the parking lot to install the new exhaust clamps. Of course halfway through the process it started raining soaking us pretty good.
Familiar Pit Stop
The last time we drove west, we stopped at the first service center on the Ohio turnpike.
It is the natural gas stop for the car (which just got 23.6MPG) and our bladders. In May it was pouring rain and we were scrambling to fix a mis diagnosed water in the intake problem. This trip we took some time to look at some extra noises we were getting concerned over. Like clockwork we found some areas in need of attention.
First is the alternator noise. Flashback Wednesday of this week, when I replaced the alternator bracket. I missed the important step of tightening the pivot nut after tensioning the belt. So the alternator was
walking outward instead of sitting firmly in place. It hadn’t yet managed to loose the nut, but was a head smacking manuever and one demerit in my team logbook. I do have some defensive arguments, but in the end I missed that one. Props to the team for not calling out my jackassadry as they knew I already was punishing myself.
The other problem we have is that we are destroying V-band clamps on the exhaust. We will be buying some from AMS if they have anything in stock. After some big hammer work and some bracket bending, they should easily survive 5 more road hours, which is all we really need.
Now however we are mildly behind schedule, trying to get out of Ohio, which fails to have one piece of scenery, beyond that of a field, to look at.
Sean is at the helm for this leg, accepting the highest levels of mockery and scruitiny for his, so far perfect, road driving skills. Tim and I are busy napping and raiding Seans luggage for the baked goods supplied by
his wife.
Motor Trend video interview
Motor Trend published some of the overall videos for the One Lap of America 2009. The first video has a nice interview of Tim around 5 minutes and 20 seconds in, describing the off road at Talladega.
You can see the picture of the infamous splash photo along with a picture of Tim wearing the “nancy pants” in the latest edition of MotorTrend.
0August issue of Motor Trend
It is late June and all has gone quiet in the world of One Lap. With a few actions still left for the team to complete, like getting Tim’s other VR4 running, so he can stop driving the clown car around town. More importantly so we can send back the parts to Curtis that saved us along the way.
It has been an amazingly awkward week for myself. After being kicked squarley in the nuts by my employer of 12 years, I have joined the growing numbers of unemployed in America. My day consists of remembering how to write a resume and bouncing between countless house projects, which I was much better at ignoring.
Today however brought me back to that happy time when I was, for one week, on the most epic car journey of my life. Today, the August 2009 issue of Motor Trend arrived, and just like the opening scene in “the Jerk”, I am somebody again. I will share with you only one picture of our team in the magazine, but we have three photos of the car and one of Tim standing tall. The article is written very well, and nails the experience itself.
I am suggesting you buy a copy. After running the sponsorship and marketing campaign, the first thing I did when I came home was to subscribe. Knowing how much work went into running a website, I have a high appreciation for the work gone into this article itself. Copies will be leaked, but the only way we can keep these events alive is through supporting the guys still covering the event.
I do have to apologize to anybody trying to get the magazine from the Wegmans in Penfield, Mom just bought all of the issues but one.
My mom has created a cult following throughout the family, revolving around this picture. The picture is of myself at Daytona in the staging lane. It was part of the online articles written during the trip. There is a copy on the fridge, one in a frame on the counter and I am pretty sure she has one in the wallet.
