GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

[GavinR]

It was 1997 and I was competing in the MN Tarmac Championship in a GpN RS2000 (Mk5) for the second year with Carrie and although we did quite well it was not the most exciting car to drive and FWD didn't really suit me

So one Wednesday in May, Carrie spotted a Gp4 RS2000 in Motoring News, 240bhp N/A Cossie, T5 box, Semi-Floating Atlas, Fibreglass bonnet and boot, Alloy Arches and Spoiler, all for £7k

We drove up to Wakefield that afternoon and met Steve Wood who had built the car in 1993 himself using parts bought from Gartrac, and he'd done a very good job of putting it all together

After being taken for a quick ride up a couple of nearby lanes, I didn't even bother to test drive myself, I'd never been in a car so quick and a deal was struck, left a deposit and went back the next week to pick up DVY

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Our first event in DVY was in July at Colerne airfield, nice open stages with very long straights, the first stage went well but halfway through the second there was a loud clonk from the rear end so we pulled over and retired

Further investigations the next week found a broken halfshaft so I ordered a couple from Gareth at West Wales Rally Spares (because he had the biggest adverts in MN)

When they arrived I found they were bigger diameter than the broken one - DVY was running Gp1 shafts

2nd event was in August at Goodwood, DVY now with Gp4 shafts in the rebuilt axle, we had a good day until the gearbox started to get very hot and difficult to change gear - the last stage we left the start in 2nd, stuffed it in 4th and left it there until the finish, but we still finished 9th overall

Another couple of phone calls to Gareth and a 5 speed Quaife Pro was fitted for the next event at Debden Airfield, and I'd been playing with the suspension, lowering it all round and adding a lot more camber to the front, and we were amazed to finish 6th overall out of 90 starters

A few more events in 1997, I remember retiring at Longcross when the trigger wheel for the MBE ignition fell off then we had DVY on a Rolling Road in Thetford (the closest one we could find that could tune MBE) to check the repaired front pulley and trigger wheel was in the right place, and discovered we only had 190bhp not the 240bhp the original engine builder said it had

Luckily by then we were good friends with Michael Helm (used to race Fiestas and was then rallying a Mk3 Fiesta with a 2.0 ZVH engine) and he introduced us to Roland and Ron at HT Racing who turned the N/A Cossie into a rather special one

We picked up the engine on Christmas Eve, fitted it and went back to HT where they tuned it by ear (no time for a Rolling Road and no Dyno back then) and we did the Wethersfield Stages on 30th December - about 100 miles in the pouring rain we couldn't really tell what the engine was like, but 10th was good enough

[merp0]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

You can't leave us dangling like this, keep writing.

[Dan]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

next chapter please

[4drmatt]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY



enjoying this thread already

[alladdin]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

1998

After doing 9 events in DVY in 1997, with a best result of 4th overall / 2nd in class at Longcross in December, and winning the LCAMC championship, in 1998 we entered the LCAMC, AEMC, ACSMC & ACSMC Sussex Challenge (all at Goodwood) and the Barretts South of England Tarmac Championships (basically all the local regional associations championships and the Barretts which was the one to win back then)

In January, DVY had been on Sanspeed's rollers, tuned by Roland Hayes of HT and there was much jubilation when the graph went off the top of the page which was about 230bhp and a bit of fiddling with the timing (now running Lumenition distributorless ignition) gave a very smooth torque curve

In February I'd entered the Kent Road Rally as a navigator which was the same weekend as the Old Oak stages at Snetterton, so I hadn't entered, but after seeing a preview in MN the previous Wednesday we thought we could do well, so we hatched a plan to do both

I used to be a member of the organising club (Green Belt) so they were happy to give me a late entry at car 57 so I had longer to get there. We got scrutineered at Snetterton Sat afternoon, Carrie stayed with DVY while I drove to Brands Hatch, sat in a Mk2 Escort all night navigating (should have won but that's another story), left Brands at 6am and was back at Snetterton at 8am just as Stage 1 started, a few cans of Red Bull later I was ready to go

DVY was going like a train all day and after 8 of the 10 stages we were 3rd overall, 3s behind the Fiesta Cosworth of the McArdles and 4s behind Tim Ball's Darrian, and it was getting dark

SS9 and we took 4s out of the McArdles and 3s from Tim Ball, so now 2nd and 1s off 1st place, so it was all or nothing on SS10, and we were 4s quicker this time, getting 1st overall by 3s

More events followed, 3rd overall at Goodwood and 5th at Longcross in April, then 14th at Millbrook in May as part of the National Tarmac Championship, 1st in class on all 3

In June was 8th at Abingdon and 4th at Longcross, 2 more 1st in class, then another at Goodwood in August, seeded car 2 behind Dave Jacobs' 6R4, but his car wasn't ready, so we had a comfortable run to 1st overall, winning quite easily this time

And a typical shot from Goodwood

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

1998 Part 2

September and another Longcross, 3rd overall, then the Bomb-a-Long at Wroughton, 3rd again, and down to Goodwood for the Spotted Dick and Custard Stages, 2nd overall, but still 1st in class on all 3

October and the last event at Goodwood that year we needed a good result to tie up the ACSMC Sussex Challenge. It was raining hard but after a couple of wet events at Longcross earlier in the year I had a good supply of new PB20 wets so I was happy

After 4 stages we were 3s behind Steve Farman's TR8 who had even wider wets than I did and 13s ahead of Paul Shelmerdine's Escort Cosworth

Stage 5 was the last before lunch, the wettest one of the day and we took 12s out of Paul and 20s off Steve to be leading easily by lunch

Stage 6 and the organiser's did an impromptu noise check in the starting queue and threw us out for being too noisy and then didn't bother to check anyone else, so back to the paddock, stuffed everything we could find up the exhaust, held it together with a coke can and passed noise about 2s before the stage was closed and got round, losing 8s to Paul

As the afternoon went on, the rain stopped, but we were still having grief from the organisers about noise, we'd stuff the exhaust to pass noise before we went out, then fail noise when we came back in, and I was dipping the clutch past the drive by noise meters out on the stage, losing 16s on stage 7 to Paul so we were only leading by 1s now

By this time Carrie had discovered the cause of all this hassle - Paul Shelmerdine couldn't believe an old Mk2 Escort driven by a young couple had beaten his wonderful 4WD Escort Cosworth by 12s over 4 miles in torrential rain (I could, when the shift light comes on in 4th down the back straight as the rear wheels start aquaplaning with all the standing water, but you keep your foot buried anyway, when others were backing off, you know you're going well) and he'd suggested to the organisers during lunch that DVY was the loudest car out there, hoping to get us thrown out - and practically the whole paddock was helping get through noise as they wanted to see us beat Paul, one of the marshals gave us a proper exhaust bung so that was fitted for stage 8

Now DVY was quiet, I didn't have to back off past the noise meters but the bung strangled the engine which wouldn't rev over 7k so a time equal to Paul was good in the drying conditions

2 stages left, threw the bung away, the organisers had given up hassling us by now, so I kept my foot down everywhere and got another 1s ahead so there was 2s going into the final stage. Same again, and we were 1s off the bogey time (average of 70mph) with Paul equal to it, so we were 1st overall by 1s

Finally 2 more events in 1998, Lynn Stages at Snetterton, 4th and 1st in class, and Longcross in December, but by this time we'd won most of the championships so cruised round to 8th and 3rd in class

At the end of the year we'd finished 1st in the Barretts (on the same points as Michael Helm's Fiesta but winning on count back), 1st in the ACSMC Tarmac with maximum points after class wins on every round except for the last one, 1st in the ACSMC Sussex Challenge at Goodwood and won the LCAMC and AEMC quite easily

[Retromotorsport]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Keep writing

[PaulAlex]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

1998

and the Barretts South of England Tarmac Championships (basically all the local regional associations championships and the Barretts which was the one to win back then)

Quality read so far We must have done some events against each other in the past, as I have a pot for winning class C in the Barrett's series somewhere upstairs. I think it was 96 or 97...

Certainly lots of the names you mention bring back some memories! Hurry up with the next chapter!

Cheers,

Paul

[lee 1]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Cracking read we need more

[exboyracer]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

This thread needs 5 stars

[Paul C]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Great read Gavin, you've had some excellent results in your rallying career!

So how's the rebuild going then with DVY?

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Quality read so far We must have done some events against each other in the past, as I have a pot for winning class C in the Barrett's series somewhere upstairs. I think it was 96 or 97...

Certainly lots of the names you mention bring back some memories! Hurry up with the next chapter!

Cheers,

Paul

Yes, I've got you on an Entry List for Millbrook 1995 as Car 68, Blue/Green Mk2, HVW *** T, finishing 33rd and 12th in Class, back then I had a previous Mk2 Escort, White with Light and Dark Blue stripes, RKD 246 T, finished 11th and 4th in class, but sold it at the end of 1995 and moved on to the Mk5 RS2000, so didn't do many local events except for Millbrook until I got DVY

Great read Gavin, you've had some excellent results in your rallying career!

So how's the rebuild going then with DVY?

Patience, all will be revealed

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

1999

We did a few more modifications to DVY for the 1999 season, fitting polycarbonate windows, removing the heater, cutting the inner doors, removing the steering lock and some unnecessary wiring, etc, but the engine was just taken back to HT for freshen up

The Barretts Championship had finished and all Rallies had been banned from Goodwood as they were too noisy - there was even a picture of DVY in MN when they reported this story so we just entered the ACSMC, LCAMC and AEMC this year

First event was back to Snetterton again, seeded car 1, everything was running well again, holding our own against the opposition, and after 8 stages we were 2nd, 8s behind Wayne and Peter Railton in their Escort Cosworth and about 40s ahead of Dennis Marshall's Renault Turbo powered mid-engined Metro 6R2, and once again it was getting dark

Stage 9, we pulled back 3s so we needed another 5s on the last stage. Stage 10, coming down the pit straight on the final lap we could see the Railton's had clipped the chicane so I straight lined it as much as I could, and we made up exactly 5s, leaving us equal on times

As we had been slower on the first stage, we'd have lost the tie decider, but the Clerk of the Course was watching the chicane and you got 10s for hitting one, so the Railton's were penalised giving us 1st Overall for the second year

A typical shot from Snetterton, on one of the concrete sections by the old bridge


This event was followed by a 4th / 1st at Longcross in April, 14th / 1st at Millbrook again, 3rd / 1st at Longcross, both in May, then 5th / 1st at Abingdon and back to Longcross for 3rd / 1st - following the loss of Goodwood, a lot of the events were running at Longcross but that suited us and DVY quite well, we were normally beaten by a few 6R4's but could beat most Escort Cosworth or Mitsubishi Evo's that turned up

One time at Longcross we were held up by Dick Mauger's Escort Cosworth, eventually diving up the inside into a "Bus Stop" chicane only to be cut up with Dick ending up spinning into the chicane whilst we carried on - he came over in service to tell us not to do something that stupid again and that we'd have to go home now as DVY was so bent, and claimed he didn't see us, but the service crew (normally David and Richard who hardly missed an event with DVY ) were already unbolting the front wing and hammering it back into shape and we made it out to the next stage without too much trouble

And the usual jump shot from Millbrook