Courtesy of Jace Tuttle, Dustin in the Panda at Mt Hood 2014

It’s been a full year since the Purple Panda has prowled the hills of Oregon. The Mt. Hood Rally is coming up this weekend, and I thought it would be good get some seat time, and show off Dustin’s car, the Purple Panda, which is now for sale.

Mt. Hood has always been a fun, low key event for us, with lots of good competition. This year the 2wd entry list looks very strong. The goal will be to get a feel for the stage, before turning it up to set some solid times on later passes. We’ll show the new folk what the Panda can do.

The Purple Panda is up for sale. Dustin is building a new car, and needs some cash and less distractions in his garage. It’s a well developed, reliable, safe and fun to drive car, as we’ll be showing this weekend. Come say Hi if you’re looking to get into rally quickly. See some of the details about the ‘Panda by clicking the link at the top of the page.

Britta and I (Adam) just returned from a trip to Europe. While generally having a good relaxing time, there were some opportunities to geek out on fun automotive type stuff. Most of this post will be about our visit to the opening day of the Professional Motorsports World Expo in Cologne Germany. At the end I’ll throw in a few observations about Europe and cars. In addition I’m adding a link to a gallery of photos to share.

I was looking forward to the PMW Expo because Toyota Motorsports Gmbh was supposed to debut their GT86 R3 rally car. Well, Rally GB, the final round of WRC was happening up in Wales, and that’s where the cars were. I did get a look at the mock-up. Oh well.

At the show I tried to see everything, but was paying attention to transmissions and electronics, which are items that Hatches could benefit from. Other highlights were complete engines sitting on stands, including Audi LMPs, Nissan’s 3cyl, old F1 engines, and some 4cyl race motors too.

After the show, and some days in Belgium, we took a quick trip over to the Nurburg Ring to do some laps. I was hoping to rent a Toyota GT86, but due to a lack of research, the RSR company didn’t have them available (another company did). We did 4 laps in a Clio RS200, which was a blast. Very much like a rally stage, with blind corners, and surprisingly slick.

Below is the gallery – and below that are my final thoughts

Some final thoughts –

• Electric power steering in the VW Polo rental was bad.
• Electric throttle and small displacement engines almost resulted in some roundabout disasters.
• Lane discipline is amazing over there.
• The Maximum speed alloud in Iceland is 100km/h which is a shame.
• The Citroen C4 1.6td taught me to short shift.

Another year . . . Another ’86 day.

The car we love to race goes by the chassis code AE86. Today is August 6th. This is ’86 day.

Dustin and I are both building new Corollas, Hatches, and ‘the Drop Bear’. While it’d be nice to share a gallery of build pictures today, we don’t have it ready quite yet. Instead, I’d like to highlight 2 new builds being done with the blessing of  Akio Toyoda, the President of Toyota. He’s an enthusiast and so are we. This is his idea of the future of the GT86, successor to our beloved AE86 Corolla.

Here we have a ‘WRC spec’ AWD version built by Tommi Makinnen. A beautiful car, on dirt.

Here is a car built to the FIA’s R3 rules by TOYOTA Motorsport GmbH (TMG). It will debut at Rally Germany.

In summary, the future of Toyota in rally looks bright, from the top levels, to us (somewhere near the top, and always climbing). Thanks, and Happy ’86 day from Panda Crane Rally.

Things are going to get busy very soon for the Corollas of the Panda Crane Rally team. If you check the calendar, you’ll see a number of driving events coming right up. First is the Rally Cross at Monroe Speedway, then a Chump Car Race at Pacific raceways. And at the start of May will be Oregon Trail! We’re working on getting everything up to snuff. Here’s a photo for those who think we’re slacking.

It’s been a while since we’ve had time to give a full update, so here’s a quick summary of what we’ve been up to since last year.

• Dustin and Jeff placed 19th Overall, and 5th in class at the Big White Rally in Canada. He was setting 2wd podium times, until a snowbank caught them for  30 minutes on stage 5.
• Patches was sold. It’s hard to say goodbye to a piece of your life, especially one that represents 10 years of growing up.
• WRC Mexico 2014 – There will be no ‘Regional Class’ this year. Attending makes a great vacation, we recommend it, but won’t be there ourselves. It takes place March 6-9th.
• The Cascadia International Rally Championship will be where we’re focusing our attention this year. There is going to be a very strong 2wd group at most of the events. See you soon friends!
• Hatches, Adam’s new car is coming along. Look for pictures on our twitter feed and blog updates here.
• Go Google ‘Drop Bear’ and try to imagine what surprise Dustin is working on.

Thanks for your time! Wish us luck for the coming season which starts at the Oregon Trail Rally in May.

Patches has been sold! Thanks to Peter, who will be showing some Californians how good RWD can be.

For Sale from Seattle Washington,
Log-booked 1986 Toyota Corolla GT-S $4321.00

Includes a full set of spares. Gallery
 Legal to run the full Cascadia Championship next season.
 It has raced and placed at most of the events:
 http://goo.gl/JUOXm2 http://goo.gl/XKNBY5
 1. Oregon Trail                   4th 2011
 2. Olympus                        5th MaxAttack 2011
 3. Idaho                          2nd 2wd 2011
 4. PFR                            2nd Gp2 2008 (day one regional)
 5. Rocky Mtn                      Haven't competed
 6. Big white                      3rd 2wd 2011

The car is well developed, fully sorted, and light weight. Details
See pictures http://goo.gl/RauRVY

It has been far too long since our last post. Everyone has been busy preparing for Mexico. Adam decided to wisely call off racing as his build was too far from ready, and the time and money investment was too much for an incomplete car. I, possibly unwisely decided to forge onward. Adam got Van Vanlandingvan ready to go for the trip, while I prepared the Purple Panda.
Jeff and I left Seattle Friday Morning March 1st and headed on our way. We had a wonderful lunch in Pendelton Oregon and made it to Provo Utah the first night. We got up at 530am and kept hauling the next morning until we reached Los Cruces New Mexico. We had a good time and met some nice Bartenders at the M5 club that night.
Once again getting up at 530 we bolted through the endless desert that is Western Texas and arrived in Laredo in the evening. Sadly, as I write this we are still in Laredo. We got up this morning and headed for the border, didn’t have issues crossing, but because they think of the box van as a commercial vehicle we were denied a temporary permit. We spent 12 hours at customs waiting for brokers to try and figure out how to get us through. Around 630 we decided to call it quits and headed back across the border to get dinner and a bed to sleep in. We think we’re going to be able to get across tomorrow, but if that fails we’re emptying as much into the rally car as possible and driving the last 600+ miles to Leon. Here’s hoping for us not being forced to that.