So, what did you do today?

[Fbody383]

...although this may be the wrong way to go about it, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

Certainly nothing wrong with it last race. I was agreeing that having too much going on may be taking time out.

I still struggle with "value," knowing what to give away when to get more back somewhere else.

I'm glad you're not coming to Hallett this year... we'll make fun at your expense, and that's one place higher for my finish. <>

[blk96gt]

For some dumb reason I decided I needed to get rid of and clean up some of the wiring on the car. Pulled the split loom off for most of the engine compartment wires last night. Majority of the headlight wiring is now gone from the engine bay, along with some other stuff that I'm not sure what it went to (wasn't plugged in to anything). Going to work on unpinning wires from the power distribution fuse box tonight, then work my way inside the car and behind the dash. From what I can tell as long as I leave the PATS system untouched I should be OK. Still would prefer to be able to disable it with a tune though.

The main goal of this endeavor is to attempt to make the wiring as simple as possible. If there are any wiring experts in Houston that don't have anything do this weekend (or non-experts that just want to come drink beer and point out what I'm doing wrong), feel free to swing by.

photo 1.jpg
photo 2.jpg

[blk96gt]

Got the majority of the unneeded wires out of the engine bay yesterday. Dropped the number of fuses in the engine compartment fuse box from 15 to 8, and will likely end up dumping a couple more before I'm finished. Today I started working inside the car and have pulled the majority of the harness wrap off, as well as a large number of unused connectors and wires. Now it's just a matter of following the rest of the connectors to their point of origin and pulling the pins. The easy way would be to just cut the wires, but I'm trying to make this not look like shit.

Only major headache so far was after I pulled the dash off, I realized the cage ran through both the passenger and driver side dash support brackets. I didn't have an issue cutting the passenger side, but the drivers side I was hesitant about since it supports the steering column. Once I dropped the steering column and unbolted the bracket I was able to move it around and access the majority of the harness.

In case anyone was wondering why I didn't order something similar to a painless harness, it's because nobody makes one for a 4.6. The closest I've found is this Telorvek harness. I wasn't about to pay $870 for it though, although it would be nice. If for some reason I hose this up to the point where the car won't run, the Telorvek harness is my backup plan. The site says you have to tune out PATS, but if you call them they will include the appropriate wiring for it. My goal is not to go that route.

A couple progress pics. My plan of attack has pretty much been been starting at all the connectors that aren't plugged in and working my way back to where they start.

Dash/steering column bracket still attached. The harness runs behind that big tube, then down to the interior fuse panel and a few other places. One of my goals is to relocate that fuse box to make in more accessible (Yes I see the unpainted cage tubing, planning to remedy that before everything goes back together).
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Steering column dropped and harness access!
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Harness wrap removed to reveal a wonderful mess...
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As a final note, if anyone ever decides to build a 4.6 car, do all this BEFORE the cage is put in. The cage makes accessing the interior harness a huge pain in the ass. The ideal time would be right before you go to get the cage installed, since you have to get most of the shit out of the car anyways.

[kbrewmr2]

Cruised through the 2014 One Lap of America results and spotted a familiar set of names that came in 14th overall. Great run for a 1st time effort.

http://onelapofamerica.com/event/Cum....do?eventId=33

[Fbody383]

Was having lunch at Whataburger and heard a woman yelling at one of her kids, "Sit you ass back down! We don't act like that in a restaurant."

[AI#97]

Cruised through the 2014 One Lap of America results and spotted a familiar set of names that came in 14th overall. Great run for a 1st time effort.

http://onelapofamerica.com/event/Cum....do?eventId=33

Yep. We are still recovering from the beating which is 3500 miles in the car, most of which are on crappy northeast roads, and another 2200 in the truck/trailer. We feel pretty accomplished considering we had the lowest wheel hp of the cars in the top 28....some by a good bit and did it on the second narrowest tire in the field with 245's. Even the other subarus may have had 100 hp on us at the wheels and were 400-600lbs lighter. Only car with a narrower tire was a bone stock BRZ on 235's. Considering the car in 8th place was a full on world challenge Merc SLS and some of the GTR's had 800 HP, not too shabby. Looking at the individual results we scored as high as 8th at two events and averaged 12th-14th at the rest. The one Camaro SS that finished below us would put some of the nicest AI cars to shame with it's dry sump LS7, aero and weight savings. It was a blast doing more new tracks in 7 days than we had done in 10 years....combined! Only track either of us had been to was Mid Ohio and it had been 6 years since I had been there. The event format doesn't translate to a lot of track time, but the transits between are the adventure, especially for Husband and Wife. I think we are going to have to return to a few of these tracks with the big cars and do some ludicrous speed.

We felt we punched well above our weight class with the little grocery getter station wagon. We are already looking ahead to next year and another 100-150 hp. Made some good friends this year and can't wait to see what Brock has in store for us next year. Only 11 and a half months to prepare! Maybe the racecars get moth-balled for a while for wholesale upgrades on the Subaru!!!!

[Rob Liebbe]

Very cool - congrats to Matt and Misty!

[marshall_mosty]

Sounds like you had an awesome time. It's very rare for a husband/wife to share the same passion. That's really cool. It doesn't surprise me though since you met at the track (at least that is what I surmised)...

[y5e06]

I was pondering Aero for the Fat Bird today when i saw this on my way home.
duh. home depot parts....

[AllZWay]

Very cool - congrats to Matt and Misty!

Ditto!! Very cool. I would like to do this sometime.