So... we raced! And we DNF'ed... Oh well...
On Monday morning the car looked like this:
Our casualties and the cause for the DNF:
Two broken lower a-arms... We replaced them: One we had, one (aluminum, no less!) we borrowed (Thanks!). And then the pinion gear bolt snapped. We called it a day.
I JUST realized that the Baja is finally not... indestructible, while it gives the impression that it can take whatever you throw at it! It's seen bashing, racing and everything in between. It's obvious the plastic parts take the beating slowly, and after a lot of hits, they decide to hit the dust (the... mud, in my occassion!). In retrospect, 35 tanks of fuel is quite a lot, considering 30 of these were done in the dirt. Just check my other bashing and racing pages...
During the race I noticed that one of the DS boots was hanging loose. The mud was so much at the time, that I could not press it back on its place, during a refuel.
I had put both these dogbones at the same time on the car. I was just in a hurry, so I didn't put DS boots on the other one.
After removing them, I inspected them, and I think they are still in excellent shape... Once I wash them and regrease them, of course...
Talk about mud! A LOT of mud! Yes, that's oil on the right photo... Actually both rear shocks lost all their oil. The reason is the slop developed between the shock shafts and the bronze inserts. No bent shafts yet, front or rear...
Same thing up front...
The same holds true for the main chassis section. Mud entered everywhere!
Notice we made a lexan piece windshield to try and keep a little mud out of the air filter. It worked!
The air filter saved us: Inside the elastic string Outerwears sits a TGN prefilter, covering the stock inner filter.
Continued on page 2
