My Ohio Trip Didnt Go As Planned...

[BBoyPersia 21]

Figured Id share my story since I didnt get to talk to anyone much this time around...

So it started about 2 weeks before LX&B that I decided I want to try to get my car ready for the event... Pretty last minute for not doing anything with the car for 2 or so years... Nothing big, wanted to try running my car in street trim to see what I can do with the new setup. So I figured Id go ahead and paint the car while im at it for a fresh new look. So mechanically, since its been a while, I did the rear/trans/oil change and a quick check up on everything to make sure everything is still good. A week goes by and I feel a bit behind schedule to have the car running and painted. A few planned things go wrong that make me feel like im going backwards instead of forwards....

Most things checked out, a few basic things were cleaned up and changed.

Paint is in and time to clean up and prep. Got a week... I feel if I put in enough work shouldnt take more than a few days if all goes right...

So by now I spent a week past sunrise workin on the car... whats another week

Lets start... lets peel off the old plastidip and clean up to paint... shouldnt take more than 30 min... ...

the plastidip somehow was weakened and wouldnt peel in 1 piece. it kept breaking up. i saw where this was going. Long story short I had to wipe the car with thinner and rags to get it off.

In the mean time I knew panicing wouldnt get anything done so i kept focused. I also had planned embossed graphics in my paint. Everything thats removable was removed, windows/roof taped.

First panel I painted was ok but had an issue with the clear but I was able to fix that with a different filter. By the time the car was done, there was about 2 days left till the event. 2 of the panels on my car had problems that I had to repaint last minute which is why my back door and fender looked mismatched... It didnt help that those 2 days were rainy and humid either.... I couldnt control that but I did the best i could.

The night before the 6 hours drive, I had the rims prepped and painted and was putting the final touches on it, get a few hours of sleep and start driving at 2am to get to the gates at 8.

So time comes to head out, car starts up and im out. playin music, pitch black, long road, I didnt get crazy cuz knew I had to drive back. about 2-3 hours into the ride, there was 1 other car on the road... and he happened to be right behind me which was getting annoying. i go to move over a lane and i realize one of the dotted lines is a concrete block on the road. a block youd expect to see from a jackhammered sidewalk. I see it coming and know Im gonna hit it, already halfway into the turn. Hold on tight and bang. My first thought was hoping it shot out and hit the guy behind me.

I will say is it wasnt for my Grip bumper being polyurethane, I would of been getting towed. That impact at 80mph would of shattered any other bumper. The impact blew out the front corners of my bumper and knocked out both of my side markers. The bottom nose of the bumper bent in enough to hit my KB intercooler and put a decent dent it in. Shockingly it didnt leak. from the clean dent you can tell how hard it had to bend the bumper to imprint that. If the bumper would of broke the concrete block would of ate everything the way back.

After a quick look under the car, the only damage i see is my header wrap and what i mentioned above. I for sure thought my oil pan was gonna have a hole in it but everything seemed ok. now back to the ride...

About another hour into the drive the car starts throwing codes and starts acting up. Lightning bolt issue most people get with bigger TBs. The problem wasnt fixable in my situation but I was able to have the car running like i used to when i had the issue before. The last 3 hours almost felt like driving in limp mode. Anyways, get to the track finally and clean up about 471982347912 bugs splattered all over the car, paint is still new, last thing i want baking into it. at this point i didnt even care about being in the show just happy i made it, left the car on the side and went off the chit chat a bit and help Goss/HHP and the team with what I could. My aim was to go for the show n go People asked why im not racing, the story above is why I was happy I even made it and I just want to get home in 1 piece .

I was able to get a few short datalogs of the issues I was having and had Josh take a look to see if he can catch anything I missed. The random code kinda led to the map sensor... After asking around Andy @ ecmoparts and Burles helped get me one but that ended up not being the issue. After figuring out how Im gonna drive home, I ended up just having dinner with Rob and the HHP team and getting acouple hours of sleep instead of meeting at the host hotel to talk. At this point Its been a long 2 weeks with few hours of sleep and the last thing I want to do is drive 6 hours with a limp car AND tired. I also wanted to get my driving done at night when theres noone else on the road.

Get about 3 hours of sleep and off I go again at 2am. Pull up at the first name brand gas station to fill up and off I go. Halfway through the drive I top off the gas again the car starts driving normal again. Looking at my logs, doesnt seem my car likes the air in that area.

Car is at home in the air now. Final damage isnt too bad. The intercooler will be replaced but isnt a high priority right now as its not leaking. Ill need to rewrap the collector on my header before I drive anymore or else it will loosen up and ill have to redo the whole header. It looks like the block entered the passenger side nose shot back to the driver side header, then drug straight back and shot out between the diff and tire. I plan on doing a teardown in the engine bay before i do anything else with the car. But its been a long 2 weeks and i just want some sleep now. Hopefully next time ill get to enjoy the event more!

Oh and i did get to stop by....

[slide 9]

That is just some awful luck Rab, It was good to see ya and hopefully next event everything goes as planned for you!

[BuckeyeGuy 82]

It was good to see you, and sorry to hear of all the issues with the trip. Maybe next event, closer to home will be better for you and the car. Ohio air really isn't much different but I can tell you this weekend was hotter and more humid that what we have ahd all year !

[Goehner 240]

Dang, that does not sound like fun.

[bklynmag 6]

Thankfully you kept the car on the road when you hit that block. Sorry to hear about your luck. Hope to see you in Sept at VMP.

[FlyByU 139]

Glad you came out,with as much that was going on with you, you were still smiling. Gotta love it.

See you at VMP on the track!