The Worst Valentine's Day: A Zip Tie, a Great Run, and a Blown Turbo
Our 2026 season opener was the Mt Buller Sprint — Round 1 of the Australian Tarmac Rally series, straight up the mountain, 15 km at a time, with Rachael on the notes. And it nearly didn't happen at all: days before the event, Betsy (our 2005 WRX STI) dropped an engine, and we spent the lead-up scrambling to get her back together in time to even make the start line. "We almost didn't make it" was not clickbait.
Tractor mode
The first proper run up the mountain went badly, and for a while we didn't know why. The car felt gutless — like a tractor. Turned out the boost reference line to the internal wastegate had popped off, which meant the gate was stuck open and we were making about 10 psi of boost instead of the 20-odd it should. Basically half an engine. The fix, as is now traditional for us, was a zip tie and some optimism.
Getting somewhere
With boost restored, it came alive. We started climbing the stage times — 28th on one run, then quicker again, clawing back twenty-odd seconds a go. Temps were sensible (a bit of water temp at 107, oil at 114, nothing scary). The car felt good. Fresh engine, new confidence, the general attitude being: it's a new engine, send it.
The good run that wasn't
Then came the run it was all building towards. We were flying — made up a full 30 seconds and actually caught the car in front of us on the road. Thirteen kilometres into a fifteen-kilometre stage, going brilliantly… and then it dropped back to tractor mode and stopped.
Here's the embarrassing bit. At the time, we were fairly sure we'd run out of fuel — which stung extra because we'd literally argued about it on the way down the mountain. Coming down at about 38%, one of us said "we're fine, we can run it down to 5%." Reader, we were not fine. So we sat there, hanging our heads, assuming we'd fumbled a good result with a rookie fuel error on Valentine's Day.
Except… it wasn't the fuel. When we got the car home and into it properly, the real culprit was the turbo — it had let go. Small mercy for the ego, much bigger problem for the wallet. Either way the result was the same: stranded, out of gear, DNF, done for the weekend.
On to the next one
A DNF at the very first round of the year, on Valentine's Day, to a turbo we didn't even realise was cooked until we got the car home. Not the start we were after. But it's Round 1 of a long season, there's a lot of car to sort, and Round 2 of the tarmac series — the Great Alpine Rally up around Falls Creek — is only a month away. We'll be back to have another crack. Happy Valentine's Day, I suppose.