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On Monday we posted an interview with the drivers of the MaxAttack! Team NorthWest, a three-car rally team joining forces to contest the third and final round of the 2010 MaxAttack! 2WD Championship this October in Houghton, Michigan.

This is the second of three exclusive interviews with these NW MaxAttackers and covers the cars they drive. As an added bonus, Brian Gottlieb tells us how his car went up in a ball of flames this past July at the Idaho Rally and reveals the car he just bought to run the Lake Superior Performance Rally with. Here’s WorldRallySport.com’s second Q&A with Cody Crane, Dave Henderson, and Brian Gottlieb.

WRS: Tell us about your Rally car.

Cody Crane: (Car #649) 1988 Honda CRX. 135hp, 109lbs torque at the wheels, 2300lb, welded diff, KYB AGX struts that I have had for the last four race seasons.
Dave Henderson: (Car #711) 2006 Mazda3, stock engine, Bilstein shocks on minivan springs. That’s what we run.
Brian Gottlieb: (Car #466) Hmm. Extra Crispy?

WRS: Brian, what happened to your Toyota FX-16 at Rally Idaho?

BG: The motor threw a bearing during testing a couple of weeks after Oregon Trail this year, and we worked hard during the weeks leading up to the Idaho Rally to get the motor rebuilt and back in the car. After a long struggle with the tuning, the car was finally running well on the 2nd day of the Idaho Rally and we put down a few decent stage times before the engine started misfiring again. The misfires sent unburned fuel down the exhaust, eventually heating the exhaust until it melted a brake line, or a fuel line, or the underbody protection, or something. The car burst into flames on stage. We pulled over and tried to put it out with the fire extinguishers, but it was no use. By the time the E-Crew arrived, the car was toast.

[Brian’s newly acquired rally car is a 1989 Honda Civic. The specs are posted below.]

WRS: Are you doing anything different to prepare the car for LSPR?

CC: Suspension?
DH: Trying to keep the motor together prior to the event.
BG: I want a well-sorted rally car that I can climb into with confidence.

WRS: What was your first street car?

CC: 1964 Chevelle SS. It never ran, I just sat in it and pretended to drive it.
DH: 1981 Mazda GLC, built it up with suspension and exhaust to race with the GTI and Rabbit crew in Seattle area, put 150,000 mile on it in high school going to ski races all over the West coast.
BG: When I turned 16 my parents let me have their brown 1979 Volvo 244DL. I drove it all the way through college and 2 years of grad school. I thought it was pretty much indestructible, and drove it as such.

WRS: What’s your current street car?

CC: 1965 Ford Falcon and 1985 Volvo 760 turbo
DH: 2002 Ford F-350 crew cab pickup.
BG: I have a 2001 BMW M3 convertible, a 1997 Land Rover Defender 90, and an '86 VW Vanagon Syncro. The D-90 is my favorite. That thing goes anywhere.

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Here’s a rundown of Brian’s newly acquired 1989 Honda Civic:

This Rally car is “Built to be light” by Derik Nelson of Seattle, WA. Derik's friend Zeek gave the project a code name, calling it: “Dojo: The House of the Samurai.” The name stuck. Andrew Havas won both the 2007 and 2008 Oregon Trail Rally MaxAttack! rounds behind the wheel of this car.

- B20 2L Honda CRV block with the Integra LS non-vtec head producing approx 175hp
- Custom suspension using stock Honda parts with Proflex shocks
- Kaaz differential
- Close ratio gearset
- Comptech stainless steel race headers provided by Comptech
- DentSportGroup custom programmed ECU
- Weighs in under 2300 lbs.

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This Friday we’ll post the third and final segment with the MaxAttack! Team NW drivers as they tell us a bit about themselves beyond rally. If you missed the first segment with the drivers, read it here: http://www.worldrallysport.com/node/6654

If you haven’t seen the MaxAttack! Team NW’s intro video yet, watch it here: http://www.worldrallysport.com/node/6650

Image Copyrights: World Rally Sport, Credit: Matthew Young
Image: Brian Gottlieb and Pat Darrow at the Oregon Trail Rally, opening round of the 2010 MaxAttack! Series

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