Category: Adventures

Adventure Preparations

2/15/2017

In March I will be taking the first adventure as AmbiVe. The trip will be to a road trip to a race event in Arizona. The primary objective is to get pictures and video of a friends car for the site and recording his passes at the half mile race event. Of course, if I'm driving down to a race event, I have to participate. That means, preparations must be made.

My registration has already been paid, but it is not clear which vehicle I will be taking. The two options currently on the table are the 1967 Ford Mustang and the 2005 Honda S2000. The S2000 is certainly the more efficient and faster option, but the Mustang is just cool.

The first step is to make a list of what I need to do to each car before hand.

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In order to take the Mustang, I need to dial out some slop in the 50 year old steering, replace the door seals, and a few standard maintenance items (oil, differential fluid, and transmission fluid), and hopefully at least make the brakes all lock up at the same time. If I can wrap this all up in the next couple weeks, it is likely we will be taking the Mustang on the 2,200+ mile trip, which would certainly allow me to pack a lot more equipment for documenting the experience.

I believe the brakes are in decent shape at the primary issue is the position of a sliding proportioning valve that is designed to save you from complete brake failure if you have a fluid leak. The downside to this design is that when people bleed the brakes, it also moves the check valve as if there were a brake fluid leak, essentially making either the front or rear brakes more or less effective. I have never fully addressed this issue from when I bought the car (I fixed it enough and adjusted my driving), but it really should be addressed for a trip of this scope. Hopefully it will be as simple as bleeding the opposite brakes until the warning light goes out.

If I am going to take the S2000, all it really needs is transmission and differential fluid changes and an engine oil change. Since it needs so little, it will be the default answer should the Mustang not work out.

The First AmbiVe Adventure

2/13/2017

We will be taking the first adventure officially as AmbiVe next month. Hopefully this will be the first of many trips and events we will be able to attend and participate in, and in turn, bring to you in video and article form. So what is the first official AmbiVe adventure? A road trip of course. Well, a 2,600 mile road trip down to a half mile race event at the Gila Bend Airport in Arizona.

We will leave on a Wednesday, drive to Reno, NV to stay the first night. The following morning we will drive from Reno, NV to Lake Havasu, AZ where we will spend a day pondering the London Bridge being in the middle of the Arizona desert. At some point the next day we will make the short trip from Lake Havasu down to Phoenix. The next day we will drive down to Gila Bend, AZ to race and record people racing, then return to Phoenix that night. The following day, we will begin our return trip. We may adjust our travel plans as we go if we find something more entertaining to do or something you might enjoy seeing.

This is a multipurpose trip. We will be meeting a friend near Phoenix where we will get some pictures of his 950+ HP project car (to be unveiled as a featured project on the site) and document his efforts at the race event. Of course, if we are going to be at the race event anyway, we have to race too.

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Adventure Preparations

The First AmbiVe Adventure

STAY TUNED!

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