DC area pelicans: a non-profit needs help

wastintime · 09-23-2009, 06:25 AM

Hey everyone,
I don't know if anyone read a post that I posted earlier this month:
Introducing: a Non-Profit Race Team
but, I run a racing program for a non-profit in DC. We're opening on October 1st and... Murphy's law has applied to say the least.

The kit car that we are building is arriving from London tomorrow, we should be able to pick it up from the freight company early next week. Unfortunately we need a trailer with at least 6' x 16' of room to pick it up and transport it to our shop space. We don't have our trailer for the program yet, and you don't want to know what a towing company will charge us for wasting a tow trucks time while we break down the crate and unload it, not to mention the miles between the freight company and shop space.

If anyone is interested in and able to help please e-mail me at astallworth@kaleidolinks.org

Thanks in advance,

Por_sha911 · Por_sha911's Garage

Bump for a good cause

Por_sha911 · Por_sha911's Garage

I know there has got to be someone that can help

Dan Morton · Dan Morton's Garage

If you haven't already, cross post this on the local DC board - dorkiphus.net. They are very active and can probably help.

wastintime · 09-24-2009, 04:53 PM

*sigh*... Ugh Dorkiphus... I do not have a good relationship with the guys on Dorkiphus, well some of them... long story... doesn't matter, actually I already passed this on to some of them, so hopefully we may indirectly get some support that way.

Por Sha, thanks for the bumps.

In addition to this post I e-mailed a lot of friends in motorsports. I don't want to really post this officially yet, but one of them really stepped up and made a great offer. It may work out that we're actually building this car inside a pretty famous pro race shop now, rather than in a public storage space running off a portable generator... Ugh, the things that happens when contractors mess up and are 3 months behind schedule and your shop won't be ready until 5 days before you have to have a kit car built and on track.

If anyone can still spare the use of a trailer we would be eternally grateful.... like I said, at worst free lunch, we can probably even get you a tax receipt for it or something like that if we calculate what you could have rented it to us for.

Thanks again,

berettafan · 09-24-2009, 05:45 PM

Getting poor kids involved in road racing....how cool!!! Wish there was such a thing here on the shore. My wife teaches 7th grade in a fairly rough area (for the shore anyways) and it would be a hoot to show those kids that racing isn't just ricer punks and Nascar.

Sorry i can be of no help on the trailer but i hope all works out well as this sounds super cool.

I really think so many underpriviledged kids could break out of the cycle of gov't dependancy and crime if they were just shown the world a bit more. Yet school systems continue to cut travel budgets.

wastintime · 09-24-2009, 07:21 PM

Thanks Beretta, It actually is a pretty amazing and revolutionary program... and I get to take credit for creating it which is kind of cool.

It has been done before, but not well... there's one program in DC that only works with go-karts and ICY racing had very limited youth involvement, so one of our goals is that above all else the kids will be involved every step of the way. Obviously we're not having them do anything dangerous that they aren't ready for, so there are things we will do for them, but we'll make sure they observe and are still exposed to it.

I can't wait until February when we get to take the kids out for rides in the XTR at VIR. We're actually publicly unveiling the kids in the program and the finished car at an on track fund-raiser at VIR on February 15th. VIR was gracious enough to donate us the track for the day, and we've got about 6 pro drivers showing up including Jon and myself to give rides to the guests and show of the XTR. Leh Keen is a good friend of ours and he's definitely coming out and bringing his M3. Randy Pobst is coming out, David Murry might, as well. So it's going to be a pretty neat event.

Our initial "class" is about 10 kids, and they're all good kids, the DC government likes to throw around the word "at risk" but these are really good kids, some of whom are really bright and have great grades but they are just really poor basically and are from terrible neighborhoods and have horrible family lives. One of my biggest goals for the program is giving them something to get involved in and find a passion for.

Seahawk · 09-25-2009, 06:31 AM

Call me. 240-577-4861

wastintime · 09-25-2009, 01:47 PM

Thanks, Paul!

wastintime · 10-02-2009, 08:12 PM

Just wanted to say thanks again to Paul for loaning us his trailer, it worked perfectly and really helped us out, there are some very happy kids right now who just finished helping us inventory all of the parts in the kit.

It's always great to realize what a great group of guys most car enthusiasts are and that I could post this and immediately have people willing to help out.

Our possible shop space fell through (although we will be taking field trips there), unfortunately, so in the spirit of getting things done and it's all about the kids... lol, I rented 500sq. ft. of public storage space and with the help of a portable generate, heater, and lights... we're building a car.

Here's a picture of about 1/2 of our first group of kids on one of the storage bays with the chassis and parts:

wastintime · 10-02-2009, 08:17 PM

Lol, just to keep it 911 related... here's a picture of my car behind the donor bike that the motor and trans. for the XTR are coming out of.

wastintime · 11-08-2009, 05:02 AM

Hey everyone,

I thought I'd post an update to the project.
While you should never say anything bad about a sponsor... I don't think I can get in trouble for saying that building a LHD car with a set of RHD instructions and adding british wiring to the mix (and the fact that there is no wiring diagram) has caused a few headaches, but I'm sure that in the end, when the car is finished it'll all be worth it.
I'm actually rewiring the car from scratch at the moment... but 1 month and some change later, here we are. Actually the car is 99% mechanically done at this point. Next week the test motor goes in, hopefully the car starts, and then we work on modifying the body... we've got a month and a half to finish, but I think we'll finish on time provided we can get a few parts on time.

KaleidoLINKS - KL Racing Photo Gallery
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wastintime · 02-02-2010, 08:40 PM

So, 3 weeks behind schedule... which really isn't that bad, I don't think... we're finally testing the car at Roebling this Friday... I'll try to post some pics and vids from the test.

If anyone is interested, here is the invite to the fund-raiser we're having at VIR next weekend (the 15th)