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Rallying through the south(ish) with a Niva


gogmorgo
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So I've been running the Lemons Rally in my Niva. So far she's been good...ish. Wheel bearing started going back around Grand Forks, couldn't find a suitable replacement in Fargo, but did in Minneapolis, and drove halfway to Chicago to where we met a friend with a trailer for the rest of the run. Chicago to Scranton PA was a long run with no issues.

Day one of the Rally (to Pittsburg via Buffalo) itself we lost fifth gear a couple hours in, but cruising in 4th (4K rpm at 55mph) we haven't missed a checkpoint yet.

Day two of the Rally ran down to Asheville. Again not much trouble from the Niva, although she was in for an oil change due to sheer mileage covered and a timing chain re-tensioning by the end of the day. Again no missed checkpoints. We were in second place by the end of the day.

Day three ended in Memphis. We again hit all the scheduled checkpoints although we were a little delayed coming in and lost an opportunity for more points in a challenge. We've slipped down to P4 on the official standings but not all our points had been tallied yet.

Day four is starting, we're heading down to Birmingham, AL, by way of Paris, TN.

SVoQZReh.jpg

 

Half the reason I'm posting this is cause I've seen a few MJ's out and about and wondering if I've also been noticed.

There was a light blue shortbed with a black topper under a portable garage, and then a short while later a brown longbed somewhere in WV, where exactly I couldn't say anymore, we've been through so many smaller towns that it's getting hard to keep track.

We also saw a nice white longbed heading in the other direction just north of Asheville, NC, the other day.

Yesterday there was a really nice dark blue truck that turned out ahead of us (going the other way) that I waved like hell at. Near Camden, TN I think. Thing looked sweet, the way I wish my would but doesn't after surviving 525,000km and 26 Canadian winters.

 

If anyone else sees this thing on the road, give us a honk or a wave. We'll be at Barber Motorsports Park this evening, hanging out around Birmingham before starting the long trek back home (especially long at 55mph) on Sunday.

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If anyone else sees this thing on the road, give us a honk or a wave. We'll be at Barber Motorsports Park this evening, hanging out around Birmingham before starting the long trek back home (especially long at 55mph) on Sunday.

 

You're going to love Barber's, especially if you like motorcycles. If you walk through the museum, see if the below is there. It's a modified MuZ Silver Star bike I sold them years ago.

 

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I have no doubt that just about everybody notices you :D most likely thinking "what was that?"

Literally every other time we stop. Lots of head snaps on the highway, :thumbsup:

Even half the ridiculous people we're rallying with have never heard of it before.

 

And when I say ridiculous... That helicopter at the back is an actual chopper body sitting on top of a Toyota minivan chassis with Audi Quattro running gear, and they were actually driving it before they toasted the transmission.

0wMdlCO.jpg

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Sadly no. Not 100% positive which you're referring to, but as far as green things at the back go, from left to right, there's a Ram with bright green decals, an XJ with the feet stickers, a Bronco, and then a (not green and a 2006 Tahoe underneath) International Harrvester bread van right in front of the helicopter.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Oh yes. It definitely lived up to its reputation. It also takes a huge amount of concentration to stay on the right side of the double yellow, unfortunately not many cars on the rally were doing that. Probably why that Bronco caught up to us as easily as it did, he was all over the road.

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Yeah, we didn't get as much coverage as some of the other teams. After losing 5th gear we were down to 55mph (or risking permanent hearing loss) so in order to hit all the checkpoints we were leaving well before first light, watching most of the teams go by during the day, and showing up among the last stragglers at the day's end. So we didn't really end up hanging out anywhere for too long.

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