…and eventually you’ll have a car to enter a race with. We have the slow part NAILED and we’re working on the ‘steady’ part by going up to the shop and doing a couple of hours of work each week. Right now we’re working around not having a down pipe with a cat so we can pass a clean air, which will be a help in terms of progress. Plus it’s been cold and WRC and Top Gear are back on so we’ve been watching that and this: http://blip.tv/shawncalgary

You heard it here first, kids – we actually got off our lazy, turkey ham and stuffing-filled holiday butts and did some work on The Manchurian. Well, first we took the Lada to the train station where we recieved some abuse (“It’s Christmas Eve and you show up with a LADA?” Us: Yes. “Are there any parts WITHOUT damage?” Us: Yes. “What condition would YOU say it’s in?” Us: For a 22 year old rally car it’s in awesome shape! »

We have had a ton of progress on the Manchurian and he is almost ready!!! Sadly that is not the case… life has been busy and the car has not been touched since the last update 🙁 That is all about to change we have started making phone calls, sending emails, making lists, and collecting parts… Last night we were at the shop and got him on the scale 3133.4 lbs (weighted about 60% to the front – they call them lawn darts for a reason! »

The Manchurian is finally out of the driveway and in its new home for the next couple months. Here we will turn it from a mild mannered North American (incognito) street car to a mild mannered rally car. Ready to whisk us through Canadian corners or fling us into all manner of slightly immovable objects at a moments notice. Stay tuned for build updates staring in a couple weeks. »

The beloved Lada is actually up on Bring A Trailer, which is a site we read way, way too much for people with jobs and no more disposable income. Check it out! http://bringatrailer.com/2012/08/23/rally-sputnik-1991-lada-samara-factory-car/ PS We knew it was for sale, right? Right? »

So there’s one other update missing here: we entered the Lada in a car show after Galway! And even better, we got to use it to boost a custom Jag XK that was parked beside us. Pictures are below. (And yes, of course we drove it there). »

This one followed Black Bear, but not quite as closely as these posts would suggest… So we played this one low key and headed up to Bobcaygeon the night before to enjoy some deep fried fajhita bits and relax at the 3 islands (or lakes, or bays, or something) hotel, where each bed gets 16 pillows. Seriously. We always like this rally and this year there was an extra bit, which was a quarry gymkhana! »

So there are quite a few updates to provide here, but we’ll start at the beginning. No, not with the big bang, fire, or any old guys with beards. Recent beginning. Like Black Bear Rally, 2012. We entered, we arrived, we had welding tools and a place to stay and heat and dust to deal with. How dusty was it? Recce looked like this, so they went with 2 minute windows between cars and that pretty much fixed it. »

Yea Yea, we know everyone uses the line but it is true once again… Either way we spent some time with the Mighty Lada this afternoon after picking up our newest surprise (more on that later)… We pulled off a lot of the smashed and bashed parts that are in our way to make our assessment on the damages and it looks like we got really lucky… their is a fair bit of damage but we feel confident we can be ready for Black Bear in just over 2 weeks… it might not look pretty but we should be good to go… »

The test day started early; we were up at… Ok, so then we hit a big effing rock and split it in half. Why? Well, you could say after 8 months off the instructions weren’t very good so we came in too fast over some crests into a left downhill with loose gravel where we’d already gone wide once earlier, except this time we went really wide, barely missed a tree/sign, couldn’t catch it quite in time and skimmed the drivers side into the rock, which stopped us abruptly. »