GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

[GavinR]

I bought FLY in Feb 1991 as a Road Rally car - built from a std Mk2 1600 Sport and a Mk1 Stage Car, I ended up with a 2.0 Pinto on a 38DGAS, Mk1 3.0 Capri Front Struts / Brakes, RS2000 gearbox, 4.4 LSD English axle and a 6 point cage.
18 months later, the shell disintegrated and FLY was reshelled into a tidy 1300 Auto shell, seam-welded & strengthened, same running gear but now with a Bias Pedal Box, Hyd H/Brake and Xr3i vents on the rear axle.
Aug 1993 saw my first Stage Rally, at Millbrook, with a more powerful engine, and that winter the shell was Turretted and 5-linked with slipper springs.
After a couple more years of Road Rallies, I concentrated on the Stages in a different car and FLY would get dragged out of the shed a couple of times a year to do a rough stage rally (Twyford or Kune Tune (below))

and the annual outing on the Preston Road Rally...

Spring 1997 at Twyford, now with a floating narrow Atlas, 5 speed Quaife and twin 48 Webers, the shell split along the floorpans as the front chassis rails bent upwards more than normal, the gussets bending the bulkhead, so the shell was straightened on a jig and reinforced with 3mm plate on the floors and bulkhead and the cage multipointed.
Still doing the odd Road Rally - here on the Swan (Reading) - and yes we did get through the ford OK


Summer 1998 on the Kune Tune, a rod went through the block and the engine was taken to HT (who were looking after my N/A cossie by then) for a basic rebuild, which saw Roland change the cam and extensively port the head without charging any extra and FLY had about 180bhp.
November 2000, my wife and I moved house to West Wales, fitted Split 48 Dellortos and competed on the Cilwendeg.
After a few years of competing on selected events and selling the Stage car in Aug 2004, 2005 has seen a few more Road Rallies - Carpetbagger (Devon) in January, Ystwyth Rally (Aberystwyth) in February, Classic Tracks (Llanybydder - 4th O/A) and Eagle (Newtown) in May, Dafydd Richards Memorial (Lampeter) in Oct and Preston (Norfolk) a few weeks ago (below)


Current spec: Strengthened Auto Shell, 6 point Roll-Centre cage multipointed to A & B pillars, 170 bhp 2.0 Pinto on Split 48's built by HT Racing, 5 speed Quaife Gbox, Princess 4 pots on 2.25" Adj Bilstein struts, bias pedal box, Xr3i vents at the back on 4.6 ZF LSD Baby Atlas, 5 linked and turretted on Bilsteins and std 1300 slipper springs, Alloy Fuel Tank, etc
Project for 2006 - build up my spare shell as the current one is getting tired

[Retromotorsport]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Great read there Gavin... and shows the reason for these threads, as a lot people know you did a bit but now they know the history

So keep us all updated as you rally around the hills and dales.

And has that car still got Steves (S&C) alternator on it?

[tim]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

agree wit gary a good read there and a nice bit of history there

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

And has that car still got Steves (S&C) alternator on it?

Yes, 55A Bosch one bought off him in 92 & still working perfectly

[Retromotorsport]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Yes, 55A Bosch one bought off him in 92 & still working perfectly

He said its out of warrenty 'specially as you've been driving it through rivers

[Paul_G]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Great pictures love the one with the steam as you go through the Ford

[Clint]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Great stuff excellent action shots, nice seeing them still gettin very well used LOL

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Just heard I've got an Entry for my next Road Rally - Rali Bro Caron - 18th/19th Feb
Run by Lampeter DMC, starting under 5 miles from my house
Booked an MOT for tomorrow - hope they don't find too much for me to do

[david_white]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Just heard I've got an Entry for my next Road Rally - Rali Bro Caron - 18th/19th Feb
Run by Lampeter DMC, starting under 5 miles from my house
Booked an MOT for tomorrow - hope they don't find too much for me to do

Good luck matey for the mot and the rally, just keep it out of rivers this time

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

MOT passed

Just got a few things to do to Fly before the next event - including doing a club 12 Car in Newtown the Thursday before the rally in my Mk1 mexico

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY - Rali Bro Caron

We had a great night on the Bro Caron last Sat night - Fly ran faultlessly in freezing conditions and apart from a minor indiscretion near the end we didn't have any problems, my wife was back in the hot seat calling the bends beautifully

Lampeter DMC had organised a 100 mile route of tight twisty tarmac lanes mainly to the south of Lampeter, made more interesting by patches of ice on the hills and under the trees, which led to a few near misses with the scenery

75 cars started including 16 Mk2 Escorts - seeded car 38 we were lying 38th at the halfway Petrol halt, but made up some time in the 2nd half to finish 23rd overall after being held up slightly by the Sierra XR4x4 seeded one car ahead of us

The rally was won by last year's winner local man Gary Davies, this year in a freshly built light blue 4 door 1.3 Ghia Mk2, c/w square headlamps, chrome bumpers, 1.3 badges..... oh and a 2.4 dry sumped Pinto and Proflex suspension all round

Plenty of pics on http://www.bg-photosport.co.uk and http://garyjonesrallypics.co.uk

Near the end, there was a control about 30 yards before a very tight hairpin slot left and although I threw it in as fast as I could, we just nudged the bank on the outside and had to reverse out before carrying on with 1 spotlight pointing at the hedges. Luckily, at the next control was Melvyn Evans, who runs the garage where I get my MOT's done, and his wife straightened the spotlight while he signed our sheet.
As all the lights were still working, we were quite surprised to find the amount of damage incurred when we pulled up at the finish...



Looks like I'll be busy with the hammer next weekend


The previous Thursday, we'd gone up to Newtown to try one of their evening 12 car events, driving my in-law's Mexico historic rally car for the first time, currently on permanent loan to us

Having bolted a couple of spot lights on during the day and managed to melt 2 ignition packs when the coil shorted out we weren't having a good day, and then after filling up with Petrol a few miles from the start, the Mexico refused to fire up.

Luckily a friend of ours, who was also competing, came to help us and we bump started it and I managed not to stall it all evening.

The route was 50 miles of lanes around Newtown in heavy rain, and after losing 10 minutes along with 4 other crews helping a stranded Golf GTI back onto the tarmac after he'd got it sideways and balanced the car with the front blocking the road and the rear hanging over a ditch, we were pleased to emerge 2nd overall

[DanR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

superb thread! and nice car!!!! nice to see one being used and not polished

[Sharon]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

OOHH Ouch

And a husband and wife team Great stuff

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Now with Cosworth power for a month or so

As my next rally is the Classic Tracks on Sun 28th May I thought I'd better take the engine out and investigate the cracks around the heater bubble and also the many cracks in the boot floor around the panhard rod tower, whilst also hammering the front wing back into shape

Seeing my old N/A Cossie motor sitting at the side of the garage (where its been since DVY was sold in Aug 2004) and having sold an old Range Rover on eBay for more than I expected, my wife and I decided to bolt it into FLY and have a bit of fun



Only problem is that the Cossie's dry sumped and the Pinto isn't but by Easter weekend I'd gathered all the bits I needed to make it happen - Ralloy Dry Sump Tank, 12.5m of 3/4" Braided Hose, extra Oil Temp and Water Temp gauges and 10l of Valvoline Racing Oil - and my friend Dave from Newtown came round on the Sat and then back on the Sunday & stayed to Monday to help out

Anyway I spent Friday welding the boot floor - after removing the fuel tank there was a large crack above the chassis rail where it had been flexing over the years due to the panhard rod and a small crack round the bottom of the turret so this was all plated and a whole new spare wheel well fabricated to hold the dry sump tank



Saturday saw a large plate from the gearbox tunnel to the heater bubble after flattening the lip (there was an 8" crack underneath here - no wonder we used to get wet feet after driving through fords ) and also a couple of smaller plates round the strut tops / bonnet hinges and moved the clutch cable hole 1.5 inches towards the tunnel to get the cable inside the exhaust manifold

By Sunday afternoon Dave had finished the boot (fuel tank back in, moved the batteries to make way for the dry sump tank, rewired the fuel pumps so they both run together, oil pipes heading through the car and the engine was going in with Carrie (my wife) as chief crane operator while Dave and I guided it in. Everything looked good until the dry sump pan hit the steering rack before the engine mounts were at the right height. An hour and a half later we had welded 3mm plates to the XM end of the mounts to raise it up by an inch and it was bolted in



Monday morning we finished off the dry sump pipes while Carrie fitted the K&N's (easier with smaller hands), fitted the electric fan, larger rad and expansion tank, wired up the Lumenition ECU and relocated the washer bottle, fitted the exhaust and starter and poured fresh oil over the cams so they would turn easier

After lunch we though it'd be a simple 10 minutes to get the oil flowing round the system and fire it up - but unfortunately my usual technique of drivig the dry sump pump with an electric drill didn't work as there was too much air in the system. Next plan involved an old wet & dry vacuum cleaner on the pipe but that didn't have enough suction either so plan C was hatched - if you can't suck it, blow it

With Dave's finger blocking the oil tank breather, myself pressurising the dry sump tank from my air compressor, Carrie waited expectantly at the front and finally we had oil coming out
Back on with the pipes and the drill and the engine had oil pressure at last, took the plugs out so it could crank over with no compression, pressed the starter button and with a loud clunk, my pinto's 24v inertia starter jammed solid in the flywheel

While I changed this to a large inertia one, Dave and Carrie went to park a few vehicles in the other shed as we were heading out as soon as FLY was running. New starter in, cranked over lovely, plugs back in & fuel pumps on, a few pumps on the throttle, it cranked over a few times and fired up just like that, and sat there idling perfectly

Dave couldn't believe that he missed it actually firing up after spending most of the weekend helping me getting the engine installed, but big thanks to him for all his help

After a quick petrol stop we headed up to Newtown, Carrie and I in FLY with Dave following in his '97 1300 Colt. Driving quite gently only using part throttle and revving to 6000 as the Quaife Clubman box isn't really designed for 240bhp, we still had the biggest grins for years, apparently Dave reached 95 in places trying to keep up



P.S. Anyone got a Quaife Pro going cheap, any condition?

[tim]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

did u win a virtual road rally the other week, saw somthingi in motorsport news and wasnt sure if it was you or not?