Mike Kamm

I use the 3" diameter 80 grit discs in my pneumatic angle grinder.

The invite with details for meet #2 has gone out via my 4WD Compact Car email list this morning. If you'd like to join us and are not yet on my list, please send me a PM and I'll get you on it. Word has it that there's as much as 5" of snow on parts of the route as of today. Mike

'Tis the season for Northeast Compact 4WD Car Adventures and thanks to our newest member [and Civic RT4WD owner], it looks like outing #2 will be on Sunday December 30th. Send me a PM for details if you'd like to join us. As the song goes: "Let in snow, let it snow, let it snow!"

I agree. I guess that's what holds my interest. I know I could buy a Jeep and join a big off roading club but I've always been interested in vehicles that are not very mainstream.

I was out scouting more roads today. Saw this '89 Corolla All-Trac wagon on someone's front lawn: These things are pretty cool. They've got a diff lock button standard. It might make someone in my area a nice soft roading machine for cheap money.

Since our event there have been a few fellow northeasterners that have taken notice and would like to join us in the future. One of them lives in Middleburgh, NY which is a gold mine for trails and unpaved roads. He knows where they are and is considering putting a run together for us like I did. Stay tuned for more details. I too, will be looking for more roads/trails in the future. I am especially interested in steeper climbs as I want to exploit the 4WD feature of our cars more during future events. It's a balancing act to find just the right roads for our cars, smooth enough to stay damage free, yet challenging and fun. Of course snow will add a nice element of challenge for roads that may not be challenging enough when dry. Also, a friend of mine wants to get in on the action and is looking for a car. I saw a Corolla All-Trac for sale on the side of a road in Canaan and will get info and pics tomorrow for him. This stuff is contagious.

Here's two more. Jeff used a setting on his camera called "minature effect". I'll be darned if it doesn't make the cars look like Matchbox cars!

Here are a few more pics from my friend Jeff.

After you guys left, I started on my way home, but then turned around because I realized that I needed to check out an additional trail in the area that I had a lead on. It wasn't dark yet and my car was already dirty so.... It turned out to be very narrow and steep. Those are not bad things, but I only got about .7 miles then it got seriously rough and you'd have needed a Jeep to continue.

That is too funny! No the bell housing is completely different as well as all of the motor mount locations, and it uses a hydraulic clutch release system where mine uses a clutch cable. The wiring is time consuming either way.

Yes I need to find more of those climbing hills like we started out on. That was fun. Someone asked if your Brat ride height is stock, or if it is raised a bit? Those slick smooth roads were calling us. Mark and I race on frozen lakes each winter with a group called A.M.E.C.. A two liter SR20 would have been awesome, but it was too much work to try to swap in. I had a low mile 1.6 liter twin cam engine from a rolled over '93 Sentra [110 h.p] I installed. I added a small T20 turbo a few years later. It goes pretty good though.

Sorry to hear about your manual trans bearings bard. I prefer standard myself, but am learning that in some situations, an automatic is actually a good idea for this kind of stuff.

I will play it by ear and if enough people want to have another go I would do it again. Most of the roads we were on are not plowed in the winter. So going back out on the smoother routes after a fresh snow is very appealing to me. Me too! This event was announced on forums of every 4WD compact car model I could think of, including Tercel4WD.com, Club Justy, Club Protege, Club SX4, Civic Wagon, All-Trac Wagon, etc. Cool aren't they? There's a build thread on my turbo system here. To keep the project under budget, I designed my own fuel enrichment system.

I'd like to share some responses that I've received from friends after seeing this event report: Way cool Mike, The ElPaso Gas Company pipeline ran through my home town in Eastford, CT. We had miles and miles of abandonded roads in the state forest and the Yale Forest, but those were roads. As soon as we got our license, our favorite activity was to see how far we could go with our road cars into the pipeline before we got stuck and had to walk out. An older kid had a 1943 Dodge Staff Car and we would walk to phone and tell him where we were. There is really no reason to grow up! Sure looks like you had fun. Bill Here's another from a Tercel 4WD forum member: Wow, I've never seen a 4wd Subaru wagon that old! Being a child of the 80's with all the hard lines and angles that came with them, I'm not into the styling of that Subaru but it is definitely cool to see one so old alive and kicking. The Brat is quite cool, is it lifted? Very inspiring, thanks for the pics! My favorite is the sandwich on the engine. My wife was grossed out but I loved it!

After meeting up in West Sand Lake, NY we headed straight for the hill climb portion of the event. Pictures sometimes don't show how steep the angle of the climb was but hopefully this will give you an idea. Mark's '91 Civic Real Time 4wd wagon powers up the hill. Jesse was next in his clean '85 Brat. Next we headed out into the woods. Just before the lunch break I placed my meatball sub on my valve cover to warm it up. Worked out nicely. A good time was had by all and by the end of the day our last trail was near the MA border. More pics will be added later as I get them from my friend Jeff and Mark in the Civic.