Roll Cage Sponsor: TJC Design Studio

In one whiskey-fueled night Comrades Davin and Rory, along with TJ and Alfred from TJC Design built our entire roll-cage. (It was mostly TJ, Alfred and Davin) The next morning, when I came to help clean-up and retrieve the car, they had already finished cleaning the shop and delivered the car to my house. Incredible. They are also craftsmen of the highest order. They can cast out-of-production parts and make metal do beautiful things.

Real Race Driver Sponsor: Holly Classics

Another great sponsor has decided to sully their good name by sponsoring our race car. Holly Classics , has thrown in some much needed gas and hotel money. Holly is owned by John Hollansworth, a man whose contributions to auto racing and and the car hobby are numerous. He's a true car guy and a great friend.

Now we Won't Burn to Death Sponsor: Classic Instruments!

Classic Instruments makes the best aftermarket gauges on the market. Providing clocks, clusters and dash panels to some of the worlds best-known car builders, these guys are obsessive perfectionists. We're lucky to count the guys at Classic Instruments as friends. In fact, we can now count them as the kind of friends who will dig deep and buy us 2 complete racing suits from Crow .
With gloves. And Boots.

Check out their site.

Vodka Sponsor: Valentine Vodka!

Just when things were starting to look bleak for Natasha, Valentine Vodka stepped up with a monster sponsorship; cash and a case of the finest craft-distilled-in-Detroit VODKA. The days of drinking the swill from the corner liquor store are over. Check out their site and treat yourself to some world class booze.

Engine Open, Mild Setbacks Begin

When we removed the valve cover, everything looked good. Maybe a little too good. It looked like a freshly rebuilt engine. We briefly considered leaving well enough alone and closing it back up. That is until we noticed some slack in the old timing chain. "HMMMMMMMMMMMMM" we all said. So we pulled off the oil pan.














Here's what we found in there. It looks pretty good, right? Like a fresh motor. But wait! What are those little flecks of metal on the oil screen? Why are there more flecks of metal in the oil pan?

Maybe we should remove the timing chain cover and have a look...

Oh man! Both of the chain tensioner shoes are completely f'ed, better head over to Autozone and...

So, there's that. And maybe some of the valves aren't as "sealy" as we'd prefer. So.

Here we are, a few short months from race day and we're still short a hell of a lot of parts and a hell of a lot of cash to acquire said parts.

Engine and Tranny out!

The engine and transmission are out of the car. We've also removed the brake calipers, wheel cylinders, and all the brake and clutch hydraulic cylinders. We'll be tearing these down and cleaning them up over the next couple weeks and let me tell you comrades, they need a cleaning.

We also found some troubling rust damage once we got the car in the air. Right behind both front wheel wells are soft spots so bad I was able to push through them and into the passenger compartment with my bare hands.

Comrade Davin also brought out a huge wing from his
dirt track car that looked totally sweet on the Lada.
However, we're concerned that it would lift the front
wheels off the ground at speed.

Natasha on the move

After an hour's worth of glorious, heart-friendly shoveling to free it from my snowed-over driveway we pulled the Lada out of my garage today. One of the tires has been gradually deflating, which I was able to rectify using the original equipment manual pump in the tool kit. It was still wrapped in paper from the factory and had apparently never been used. It worked perfectly!

In the pictures, the car is perched atop a large snow bank in our parking lot at work. It was the only way to park the trailer in our lot (or maybe the most dramatic way to display the full majesty of our steed.)

It's headed to a teammate's shop just south of town for some work tomorrow night including removal of the brakes, suspension and driveline. (teammate has a lift and a much larger space)Then it's off to receive it's roll cage.

I was hoping for a nice bracing chill to remind our comrades of the struggle faced in the long, and ultimately successful Battle of Stalingrad, but though it was -5 this morning, it warmed to 18 by the afternoon.