Great Rally. I am exhausted.

"Nick Has an Exocet" (nickallain)
10/02/2020 at 01:01 • Filed to: Exocet, Rally

I got up at 6am sharp this morning and was out the door at 6:30am to drive down to the Monterey, CA area for DWA! Rally From Home South. Last Thursday was Rally From Home North.

I made some changes to the car yesterday for this rally. I put new sticky rubber on the Exocet. Goodbye Yokohama S.Drives - the worst performance tire ever made. Hello Falken Azenis RT600. Wow. These tires are sticky. It’s legitimately difficult (you need to be going in dangerously hot to a corner) to lose traction. I imagine that I’ve reached “you will need wheel bearings” levels of grip.

They also just LOOK meaty. I went up to 225s from 205s.

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The route is secret, but I can say that we met up near Monterey and also drove the road that they use in Motortrend’s Driver’s Car of the Year. It took about 1.5 hours from home to get to the starting point. I was greeted with a lot of really great cars - some familiar and some not-familiar. Subaru engined Beetle with a WRX turbo? Yep. Classic and modern classic BMWs and Porsches? Yep. French cars? Yep.

My friend Russ brought his GTO. Unfortunately his wife wasn’t feeling it and they went home early.

The morning’s roads were pretty bumpy but things smoothed out as they day went on. Unfortunately, air quality was rough and temps were just as bad in the mid to high 90s.

I wore an N95 almost the whole time, which sucked with the heat, but it’s better than lung cancer. I drank 9 16oz bottles of water a 32oz horchatta at lunch. I don’t feel too bad, so that’s good.

There were some very pretty sections, despite the smoke, and some apocalyptic ones since it’s hard to escape the recently burned areas. Some huge homes and wineries are just go.

Unfortunately, the day ended early for the LS swapped Volvo V90. Apparently the clutch went out. Thankfully, Peter in his off-road prepped 911 was ready to tow him into town where there’s cell service.

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There was also a water crossing. Yeah, I didn’t expect that. Nor did I like it. I ended up having to stop and clean the mud off my clothes, windshield, and roll bars (so I wasn’t putting my arm in mud).

This doesn’t look so bad from this angle, but trust me - I was coated in mud.

All in all, a great day. The roads were dirtier, ashier, and dustier than most rallies. As a result, I will need to clean my shower tomorrow. So much dirt came off of me that it stained the whole shower. I was like a victorian era chimney sweep by the end. Sunblock, dirt layer, sunblock, dirt layer...and so on.

DISCUSSION (10)

jminer > Nick Has an Exocet
10/02/2020 at 01:49

Well done, that sounds like a hell of a experience!

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > Nick Has an Exocet
10/02/2020 at 02:06

Oh damn, I have to have the windows open in the Z in the summer so I guess I would get some filters for my 3M booth respirator. The next tires I get for the Z will be far more aggressive, I don’t put a lot of miles on it.

vondon302 > Nick Has an Exocet
10/02/2020 at 06:26

That sounded fun. First time I’ve seen a Exocet do a water crossing.

Well done.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Nick Has an Exocet
10/02/2020 at 12:08

Awesome...

Taylor Martin > Nick Has an Exocet
10/02/2020 at 18:41

That’s radical pal, and while you can’t tell us the trails, I’m sure they were a hoot. I gotta get into a rally sometime, though I’m nowhere near one.

Nick Has an Exocet > Taylor Martin
10/02/2020 at 21:05

It’s worth the road trip if you’re comfortable thrashing your car a bit . We’ve had people come from far and wide. Make a trip out of it when we do a 3 day one. They do a really good job of pre-scouting roads and haven’t had many issues with the local constabulary.

CA has some really special roads - though some of them are all kinds of bumpy.

Taylor Martin > Nick Has an Exocet
10/02/2020 at 22:10

I’ve thrashed my car a bit, though nothing terribly extreme because she’s low to the ground. Regardless, when is the next 3 day (or when do they usually happen)? I want to get west sometime, there’s a lot over there, though it would be a very very VERY long, coast to coast adventure.

Nick Has an Exocet > Taylor Martin
10/03/2020 at 00:32

TBD on the next one. DWA is pretty conservative when it comes to COVID. They still aren’t doing Cars & Coffee .

Taylor Martin > Nick Has an Exocet
10/03/2020 at 13:07

Sounds like they’d rather play it safe, which makes sense, since we’re still somewhat in the thick of things.

Nick Has an Exocet > Taylor Martin
10/03/2020 at 13:12

I’d say a little more than half the C&C have come back. They’ve been using the advice of their insurance company, which is naturally conservative.