DCAWD.com

"It's begun". Slight teaser for you guys.

Anyone want to venture a guess ? CerebDaithi - no guesses from you since you cheated .

Fine then!!

nice IX. looks to be getting ready for a cage.

from here all I see is a cat-back and air kit. rest looks quite stock.

more info

I think there are still some interior pieces that could be removed.
I don't see a headliner in the pile.

^^^

Excellent Alvin, very happy to see this project starting!!!

supasixfo wrote:Anyone want to venture a guess ?

Black River Stages?

Is the other Dave cheating now too, Alvin?

What did I win?

You guys win some more build pics

Well I hope you guys are as excited as I am about this.

This is our stock heavy class Evo 9 rally build. PPD Motorsport in chicago is helping us with the cage and getting some of the more rally specific parts. Figured this was a pretty good resume on their part: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuCSdaPbxAA.

We're shooting for Black River Stages taking place Fri 9/23- Sat 9/24
(http://blackriverstages.com/), and are looking forward to competing in the RallyNY series in Oct, Jan, and March.

For those of you that know us, this will probably come as no surprise. We've been rallying since 2005, starting out with tsd's, mainly in the FLR Winter Rally Series. Performance Rally is something I've always wanted to pursue since our first rally; the 2005 Pine Barrens Express.

It's going to be a race to get the car ready for BRS and we're hoping to make it as every driver,
rally official, and volunteer i've spoken to says this is the one to make! Look for the Black Box Evo there!

Cheers,
Alvin

Me likey and has interest for your timely completion and attendance.

Yes timely completion is a good thing....

Alvin, what is this Black Box stuff? I assumed this would be under the VZ banner?

Looking like a hell of a build dude! Can't wait to see the final product and to see you racing it!!!

I knew you could get more of those interior pieces out of there.
The roof removal I didn't see coming however.

He's gone too far!!! But anyways roof removal is pretty integral to roll cage assembly.

I knew you could get more of those interior pieces out of there.
The roof removal I didn't see coming however.

Mostly this was done because the 9 shell had a sunroof and is being replaced with a roof we won't be launched out of (just splattered). I guess it also helps the cage's roof X-bars go in...

I've got some disappointing news for you all. Despite our best efforts, it doesn't look like we'll be able to make the Black River Stages rally next week. This was mostly due to the fact that our cage was significantly delayed (by more than a month from CustomCages in the UK). When PPD gave us the update on where they were with the cage, etc., there was just too much remaining to-do with the extremely limited time we had left.

We’re going to refocus our efforts on having everything prepared for International Rally New York next month, October 22nd-23rd.

We’re still planning to make it up to BRS as volunteers – hope to see some of you folks there. Will have some more pics of the build shortly!

Sorry to hear, but we all know how things like that happen! Better to take some extra time and get it right (esp. with a cage!) then to rush and get a half-assed job.

Sabre wrote:Sorry to hear, but we all know how things like that happen! Better to take some extra time and get it right (esp. with a cage!) then to rush and get a half-assed job.

this x a lot. better to take your time.

my wishes had no positive effect on your project... Sorry.

Forget the 'cage, don't crash and you'll be fine.

Better to take some extra time and get it right then to rush and get a half-assed job.

yeah, at least one of the heroic rush efforts would have involved driving the car 14 hours overnight from chicago to the rally. that probably wasn't a recipe for success.

on the bright side, now that we have some breathing room, we're probably going to be able to do things like, test the car, get some seat time with the new co-driver, and maybe even put together a proper build blog showing us from now til the rally.

zaxrex wrote:my wishes had no positive effect on your project... Sorry.

it's all your fault zaxrex. i blame it all on you.

Mr Kleen wrote:Forget the 'cage, don't crash and you'll be fine.

hah - that's funny, that's what my co-driver keeps telling me. come to think of it, even my crew chief keeps telling me if i don't crash, we'll have to worry a lot less about service.

of course, i keep telling him that i'm sure that all rally drivers crash only because they choose to. but if i do crash, to blame it on the navigator. because since the navigator is always right, it's always the navigator's fault.

Good news! PPD sent us over some pictures of the cage - It's done! As soon as the car gets back from paint, we're going to start putting the "rally" part into the rally build; rally seats, suspension, underarmour, lightpod, brakes, wheels/tires, mudflaps, intercom/rally computer etc. etc.

Cheers,
Alvin

Lookin good Alvin!

Looking great dude!!!