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Thread: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

  1. #1
    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    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

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  2. #2
    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    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
    GavinR

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    Pit Crew Decade Plus User merp0's Avatar

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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

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

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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    next chapter please

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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY



    enjoying this thread already

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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY


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    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    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

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    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    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
    GavinR

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    Way too much free time Decade Plus User Retromotorsport's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    Keep writing

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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    Quote Originally Posted by GavinR View Post
    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

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    Mechanic lee 1's Avatar

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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    Cracking read we need more

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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    This thread needs 5 stars
    http://escort.accelerator.org
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    And other junk I don't like to talk about!

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    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?

  14. #14
    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    Quote Originally Posted by PaulAlex View Post
    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

    Quote Originally Posted by Paul C View Post
    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

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    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    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
    GavinR

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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    That last pic is so

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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    Excellent story Gav! I hope you told that Dick Mauger to erm, 'go forth and multiply'?

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    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    Quote Originally Posted by mervhill View Post
    Excellent story Gav! I hope you told that Dick Mauger to erm, 'go forth and multiply'?
    No, I was busy with DVY, but Carrie gave him a piece of her mind
    GavinR

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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    Quote Originally Posted by GavinR View Post
    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
    Those were the days I remember that event well
    I'll see if I can find some of my pictures of that event so folks can spot the damage

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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    Quote Originally Posted by lee 1 View Post
    That last pic is so
    I think Gavin has one somewhere where you can clearly see one of those big foot road cones (stood upright) underneather the DVY

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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    Excellent thread as always Gavin.
    I deliberately don't read your threads until I have enough time to read them properly and try to take it all in. Top quality stuff.

  22. #22
    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    1999 Part 2

    It was now July and time for a few events further west

    First was Azimghur at Colerne Airfield, a venue which didn't really suit DVY with a lot of long straights and a round of the Welsh championship with quite a few Darrians turning out. We finished 8th / 3rd

    Next was Fat Albert at Keevil Airfield, running for the second year and the first time in the ACSMC championship so it was a new venue to a lot of us

    Having the noise check in the middle of the nadgery bit gave us a good chance to have a look at this broken concrete section, but it didn't seem bumpy enough to cause any problems

    So we got off to a quick start, setting 2nd fastest times on the first 2 stages, only being beaten by Haydn Morgan in a 1.6 Corsa, but by Stage 4 we were down to 3rd behind Colin Early's 2.0 Darrian T9. On stage 5 Haydn's electric power steering failed, slowing him down by about 10s a stage which was enough to put us back into 2nd, 3s behind Colin

    Stage 6, the last one before the stages were reversed in the afternoon, I was trying really hard, but on the last time out of the hairpin at "Dingly Dell" I flicked the tail out a bit too much and there was a loud crunch from the back end as I hit the gate post on the way out

    We only dropped another 1s to Colin and during lunch break, Richard and I set to work with the very large hammer (I always carry 3 sizes of hammer in case of need ) and made the rear quarter look respectable again with the help of a large roll of tank tape donated by Wilf Jones. Meanwhile David and Carrie walked back to the hairpin to collect the ally rear spoiler that had been ripped off as well, which turned out to be in quite good condition

    Stage 7 we took 5s out of Colin and another 11s on Stage 8 so we were well into 1st by now. But charging up the leaderboard was Mike Tregoning in his 2.5 Millington Darrian T9, recovering after a very slow 1st stage and was now up to 2nd just 5s behind us

    Stage 9 and Mike pulled another 4s back, so one stage left and 1s in it, I really went for it on the last stage, going 4s quicker and, with Mike only improving by 1s we were tied on times, but got 1st Overall because of our better 1st Stage time

    Probably the most memorable part of this event, was going up to collect our pots, with all of the Welsh and South West crews wondering who we were and coming 1st in an old Mk2 Escort, with Darrians 2nd, 3rd and 4th


    Next was Wethersfield Stages on August Bank Holiday, in glorious sunshine, we spent all day swapping times with Chris Rees in his Escort Cosworth, with Royston Carey's Clio never far behind. Going into the last stage we were leading by a couple of seconds, and everything was looking good until we entered the bomb dump for the last time and the bck end disappeared for no apparent reason, but down the next straight I realised we had a rear puncture and with 2 miles to go we dropped 10s handing Chris Rees his first ever Stage Rally win and letting Royston through into 2nd with us finishing 3rd / 2nd

    Then the Bomb-A-Long at Wroughton and our worst result for a few years when the fan belt flew off on Stage 4, we had to come in a lap early and take a maximum, finishing 27th overall / 14th in class

    We went down to Avon Park to marshal (you had to marshal a round of the ACSMC so we always picked the furthest one away) and had an interesting spot at a chicane made from oil drums. A few people moved them slightly and then the Slater brothers came along far too quick in their Cossie Turbo G4 Escort, middled a barrel and ended up with it wedged on top. They got out, thinking their rally was over, but I reckoned we could get the barrel out, so 4 of us lifted one side of the car while Carrie dragged the barrel out and sent them on their way

    The final event of the year was Longcross in December where it was very icy so we cruised round for a finish and got 8th / 6th, but this was enough to secure the ACSMC, LCAMC and AEMC championships again
    GavinR

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  23. #23
    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    Quote Originally Posted by Tazman View Post
    I think Gavin has one somewhere where you can clearly see one of those big foot road cones (stood upright) underneather the DVY
    That's hanging up on my wall, but the only copy I have is so large it won't fit in the scanner
    GavinR

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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    Quote Originally Posted by GavinR View Post
    1999 Part 2

    It was now July and time for a few events further west

    First was Azimghur at Colerne Airfield, a venue which didn't really suit DVY with a lot of long straights and a round of the Welsh championship with quite a few Darrians turning out. We finished 8th / 3rd

    Next was Fat Albert at Keevil Airfield, running for the second year and the first time in the ACSMC championship so it was a new venue to a lot of us

    Having the noise check in the middle of the nadgery bit gave us a good chance to have a look at this broken concrete section, but it didn't seem bumpy enough to cause any problems

    So we got off to a quick start, setting 2nd fastest times on the first 2 stages, only being beaten by Haydn Morgan in a 1.6 Corsa, but by Stage 4 we were down to 3rd behind Colin Early's 2.0 Darrian T9. On stage 5 Haydn's electric power steering failed, slowing him down by about 10s a stage which was enough to put us back into 2nd, 3s behind Colin

    Stage 6, the last one before the stages were reversed in the afternoon, I was trying really hard, but on the last time out of the hairpin at "Dingly Dell" I flicked the tail out a bit too much and there was a loud crunch from the back end as I hit the gate post on the way out

    We only dropped another 1s to Colin and during lunch break, Richard and I set to work with the very large hammer (I always carry 3 sizes of hammer in case of need ) and made the rear quarter look respectable again with the help of a large roll of tank tape donated by Wilf Jones. Meanwhile David and Carrie walked back to the hairpin to collect the ally rear spoiler that had been ripped off as well, which turned out to be in quite good condition

    Stage 7 we took 5s out of Colin and another 11s on Stage 8 so we were well into 1st by now. But charging up the leaderboard was Mike Tregoning in his 2.5 Millington Darrian T9, recovering after a very slow 1st stage and was now up to 2nd just 5s behind us

    Stage 9 and Mike pulled another 4s back, so one stage left and 1s in it, I really went for it on the last stage, going 4s quicker and, with Mike only improving by 1s we were tied on times, but got 1st Overall because of our better 1st Stage time

    Probably the most memorable part of this event, was going up to collect our pots, with all of the Welsh and South West crews wondering who we were and coming 1st in an old Mk2 Escort, with Darrians 2nd, 3rd and 4th
    I remember that one well, Richard and I managed to get out of service and spectate one stage. I think we got to a point where you had to do a left right round a triangle of grass except the route wasn't properly defined and Royston decided to turn his Clio into a very fast lawn mower

    Next stage the marshals had defined the route better

  25. #25
    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    Quote Originally Posted by Tazman View Post
    I remember that one well, Richard and I managed to get out of service and spectate one stage. I think we got to a point where you had to do a left right round a triangle of grass except the route wasn't properly defined and Royston decided to turn his Clio into a very fast lawn mower

    Next stage the marshals had defined the route better
    I think he broke something doing that and got a couple of maximums before he'd sorted it out

    Another good memory of Longcross was from the summer of 98 when one event used the steeper truck slope going down, which I think had a gradient of 1 in 3 instead of the usual 1 in 4

    1st lap of the stage we were very cautious and it didn't seem much steeper than normal so the 2nd lap I kept my foot down.....

















    Carrie and I had time to look at each other in mid air, and decide that it might not have been the best idea I'd ever had, before we landed

    No harm done, just some scrape marks on the front spoiler and sumpguard, and we had to change the roller tops for the next event
    GavinR

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    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    2000

    We decided to have a more relaxing year in 2000, just picking some of the more enjoyable events and we wanted to take DVY out on an Irish event

    In the Mk5 RS2000 I'd done West Cork, Ravens Rock and Wexford a couple of times and found West Cork in March the most enjoyable so we put an entry in

    Over the winter the engine had been back to HT as usual and this time we tried some wilder cams to get a bit more power and increased the rev limit to 8.5k

    We entered Snetterton as a shake down and to see if we could win again but with 2 6R4's and 3 Escort Cosworth's behind us it was going to be difficult

    After 4 stages we were 6th, 40s behind John Indri's 6R4, then on Stage 5 things got worse when the fan belt flew off so we came in a lap early

    In service we could see that the alternator mount bushes were shot so when we tensioned the fan belt it twisted the alternator makingn the fan belt come off. Whilst John and Diane asked round the paddock for very long bolt or some large washers, we had to start Stage 6 otherwise we'd be out of the event

    So off the start, fan belt comes off, down the pit straight and back into service. This time we wedged enough wshers in the rubber bushes to make them solid and the last 4 stages passed without further incident, we eventually finished 36th overall, 16th in class

    After a few phone calls on the Monday, a better alternator arrived from Gareth WWRS on the Tuesday, just in time to be fitted before we left for Cork Wednesday afternoon

    The last time I'd been to Ireland in a Mk2 was '94 and '95 when I found the usual tarmac set up didn't work very well on the bumpy Irish lanes with the car being unstable over 90mph so this time I put the 190lb rear springs on the front and some 140lb on the back and raised the suspension all round, but stayed with the tarmac Bilsteins all round

    Seeded 54 out of 150 cars we set off on 18 stages all about 10 miles each, we had a very good event with only a couple of minor problems - the rear suspension would lower itself between services and one link rod bolt snapped but this was quickly sorted by Richard in service

    Another stage we were flagged down by an inexperienced marshall who said the stage was blocked as the car in front had had a big accident, so we waited there but when the car behind went past without stopping we carried on to find a badly bent Mk2 just off the road with the crew standing beside it looking fit and healthy

    After the 2 days we were very happy to finish 25th overall and 6th in class (1651 - 2050cc 16v class) and DVY handled the bumps perfectly, we even hit the rev limiter in 5th a couple of times (about 125mph)





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    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    2000 Part 2

    After West Cork, we had a new 4-1 exhaust manifold made by Specialised Exhausts to make the most of the new cams, then back to Sanspeed's rollers to get everything running perfectly before the usual trip to Millbrook in May

    Seeded car 16 again, we were looking forward to another blast round the hill circuit, but by the end of Stage 2 the baulk rings were going in the gearbox which was strange as it had new ones fitted the week before (I used to get 6 or 7 events after fitting new ones before the next lot went in), but the bell housing was quick release and we had the spare gearbox fitted in 35min in service thanks to Richard and David

    The spare gearbox was an identical freshly rebuilt 5 speed Quaife Pro so we were back up to speed on Stage 3, but on Stage 4 the baulk rings in this one started to break up as well which left us with a bit of a problem going into the lunch break

    Luckily Jim Morris came over to see if he could help (he was servicing for another crew in a Mk2 and we'd known him for many years) and offered us their spare gearbox another 5 speed Quaife Pro, so this was fitted over lunch

    So being a bit more careful changing gear this time we set out on the afternoon stages and completed them without any more problems, finishing 13th Overall and 2nd in Class behind Royston's Clio. After the finish we removed the loan gearbox and gave it back to Jim before pushing DVY onto the trailer

    I'm not sure if it was the slightly higher rev limit we were running or just the nature of the venue or the way I just stuff it in gear as quick as I can, but I'd had enough of breaking synchros. Having talking to other people previously about the pro's and con's of steel baulk rings I didn't fancy that route, so the next morning I phoned Gareth at WWRS to ask him to order a Quaife 5 speed Sequential Dogbox and to offer him my 2 Quaife Pros in part ex (fitted with more new baulk rings) and a deal was struck

    In early August we travelled to Wales to collect the new gearbox and visit WWRS for the first time. Gareth was as eager to see the gearbox as we were as Quaife had only started selling them a few months earlier - DVY was one of the first cars in the country to be fitted with one

    We'd arranged with Gareth to sleep on his floor and that night we all went out to spectate on the Valley Services Road Rally just up the road, our first taste of proper Welsh Road Rallying, and couldn't believe how quick the top crews were, or the number of spectators watching at 1am in the morning

    Back home in Essex I took the gearbox to Roger Ray, a friend from the local motor club who runs an Electronics company to see if he could make me a gear indicator cheaper than Quaife could

    I entered a Sprint at Wethersfield to get used to the new box and at 4 miles long it was a very useful day out, even though I lost count a couple of times which gear I was in it felt a lot quicker changing gear

    By October the gear indicator was ready and I entered an event at Longcross, not with Carrie this time, but with Peter Rayner's 16 year old son Aron on his first ever rally - we'd known Peter and his family through the motor club for a few years and I often used to pick up Aron if I was out "testing" in DVY so he was quite comfortable in the car

    I think Peter and Carrie (service crew for the day) were more nervous than us when we went out on the first stage, but everything ran very well, apart from losing a couple of seconds on one stage when a strange vibratin came from the exhaust (traced to the bell housing cover plate dropping onto the sumpguard), Aron called all the chicanes and splits well and we finished 3rd overall, 2nd in class, 7s behind Paul King's freshly built Mk2

    In November 2000 we sold up in Essex and moved to West Wales - after years of successful rallying on secondhand Michelin slicks (£20 each at the most), the MSA decided to ban them for 2001 (only option then were Dunlops at £110 each) so we wanted to do some more Irish events in DVY and get out on some proper Road Rallies in FLY
    GavinR

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  28. #28
    Racer 4drmatt's Avatar

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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    just re-read the whole lot.

    such a great read

  29. #29
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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    next please

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    Way too much free time Decade Plus User Retromotorsport's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    Essex, thought you was a herts lad

    ohh and next please

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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    A great read Gavin!! Brings back some memories, not seen DVY for years, since i was a lad anyway!!

    Awesome pics too!

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    I support TS Decade Plus User
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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    Keep em coming Gav! Still got 8 years to go

  33. #33
    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    Quote Originally Posted by Retromotorsport View Post
    Essex, thought you was a herts lad
    Grew up in East Herts living with my parents, then met Carrie and lived in West Essex for 4 years before moving to West Wales for nearly 8 years and now I'm in Bristol as I work there
    Last edited by GavinR; 04-11-2008 at 23:35. Reason: .
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    Way too much free time Decade Plus User Retromotorsport's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    Ahh my confusion is corrected .. now wheres the next bit

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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    WOW! That's some story. A great read, I just wish I could have taken the computer into the loo! Some of the pics are going up in the garage.

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    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    Quote Originally Posted by BluPrinT View Post
    A great read Gavin!! Brings back some memories, not seen DVY for years, since i was a lad anyway!!

    Awesome pics too!


    Now I feel REALLY old

    carrie
    GavinR

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    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    2001

    This was a year to forget, for many reasons

    Over the winter the engine went back to HT as usual and we switched back to the old cams and exhaust system as I wasn't going any quicker with the extra top end power and we swapped flywheels with a friend's (Rob) similar cossie engine so we could run a twin paddle clutch - the single paddle had to be relined every 6 months

    We were planning another trip to West Cork in March, but living in West Wales, Snetterton was rather a long way to go for a shakedown so we entered the Peter Lloyd Stages at Pembrey in February

    When we arrived it was dark and raining very hard, so I put some nice new wets on DVY for the first stage. This went well, learning our way round the venue, but there were some rather large deep puddles in places that created a fountain through the gearstick hole

    In service I sealed the hole with loads of tank tape and went out for the 2nd stage. This time we hit a large pothole invisible under a puddle and bent 2 rims, destroying 2 wets before we got to the finish so we called it a day before we did any more damage

    Then Foot and Mouth hit the country, causing serious problems for a lot of the farming community

    Because of this, a lot of motorsport was cancelled and with 2 weeks to go West Cork was cancelled as well to protect the rural Irish communities

    One event which did run was Millbrook at the end of May so we went there for the usual excitement

    But this was short lived as well, with a death rattle from the engine on stage 2 just before the finish and it seized just as we stopped at the finish control

    A few more trips across the country followed as the engine was shipped back to HT for a new crank, rod and bearings and they diagnosed oil starvation, either caused by the baffle in the dry sump not letting enough oil return to the tank, or the oil feed pipe collapsing internally, so all this was sorted

    Then it was off to Longcross in June, but once again there were engine problems, most of the oil ending up in the catch tank after a few stages

    We went straight round to HT, and left DVY there with Roland. This time the problem was detonation, everything was stripped and checked and even the radiator was rebuilt to keep everything cooler, but on the next outing at a Wethersfield Sprint in August exactly the same thing happened, the catch tank filling up with oil as the pistons started to melt

    Then followed probably one of the biggest and most expensive mistakes of my life, when we sought a second opinion from a well known engine builder, Jondel, who turned out to be a complete tosser

    Many months and £5k later, the cossie returned from said engine builder, with new pistons, a fresh 205 block (from a transit ), a new rocker cover (the old one was warped ) and even some crappy Pipercross foam air filter replacing my perfect K&N's, remapped ignition (the detonation was caused by the flywheel swap moving TDC ) and a dyno sheet showing 232bhp

    With a bit of difficulty, and after refitting the K&N's, the engine was reinstalled - the transit block had been machined to have 2 oil feeds, the extra one being where the oil pressure switch went, (on questioning Jondel I was told they always do this), so I ran a remote filter with pressure take off and a T-piece into the 2 oil feeds

    Everything was finished by Christmas so we were looking forward to a better 2002
    GavinR

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  38. #38
    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    2002

    This year instead of going back to Pembrey, we went to Builth Wells Showground in February for the Wye Valley Charity Stages and had a good day, finishing 9th I think, although DVY didn't seem to be pulling as well as she used to

    Then it was off to West Cork in March, but after I took DVY for a quick blast up the road the Tuesday before, the engine started rattling from the big ends, so I phoned up Jondel to see what they had to say, the engine having done 30 miles since the £5k rebuild, and their only response was to ask for the engine back so they could have a look, which wasn't that helpful as we had to leave for the Irish ferry at 11pm and it was now 1pm

    Not to be deterred, I phoned David to see if he could get away from work a couple of hours earlier while Carrie picked up our neighbour's son James and we started taking the Pinto out of FLY. Many hours later, we were ready to go, DVY was on the trailer (still with the Cossie fitted), the Pinto was in the back of the van along with the engine crane and everything else I could think of to make it run in DVY

    Wednesday lunchtime we arrived in Clonakilty, where the West Cork rally is based, and spent the rest of the day removing the Cossie and bolting the Pinto in. Thursday Carrie and I went recceing, leaving David to finish wiring and plumbing the Pinto and it was running that night, Friday we finished recceing, got through scrutineering and picked up the rest of our service crew from Cork Airport, Michael, Nigel and Richard

    So onto the rally, we were missing the power of the Cossie and were running out of revs down the long straights, the Pinto was feeling the strain with the cam and followers wearing between services, so much so that we didn't make it to Parc Ferme that night, deciding instead to try and repair the engine and enter the Sunday Run the next day, so we found another Pinto in a Granada in a local scrapyard and changed the worn followers

    On the Sunday Run it was going well until about lunchtime when a couple of cam lobes wore out completely, so we retired and headed back to Wales

    Next the Cossie was shipped off to Jondel for an inspection, while I rebuilt the Pinto with a new cam and followers. The Cossie needed another crank and rod and they dyno ran it again even though I asked them not to, and when Carrie and I went to collect it, we were presented with a £3k bill, about half of which was labour. When I suggested we'd pay for the parts only we were told that the problem was caused by a lack of oil because of the way I'd installed the engine, but they had insisted I install it with 2 oil feeds, and I had followed their instructions exactly
    At the end of the day, he had electric gates to his property and my engine, and wouldn't let us leave until I had written a cheque for the full amount

    Two days later we received a threatening phone call from Jondel - they'd been to the bank with my cheque and found I hadn't signed it, which was a surprise to me as I'm not that clever and we were told the boys would be round in a couple of days to sort us out

    So I parcelled up all the unnecessary parts that had been fitted - Pipercross Air Filter, various oil fittings and the rocker cover - totalling £500 at their prices with a letter offering once again to pay half the bill

    We didn't hear anything further so I refitted the Cossie into DVY, having a special bung made to fit the 2nd oil feed hole in the block so the oil pressure switch could go back in its normal place, and put the rest of the oil system back to how 99.9% of the world run dry sumped Pintos

    Then we went to Millbrook in May, this year finishing 12th / 2nd in Class behind Royston, strangely not having any oil problems since I'd plumbed it back to normal, but I still wasn't happy with the engine, probably because Jondel had insisted that the CR should be 11:1 when HT always built it to 12:1

    Finally, 31 days after getting the engine back from Jondel we received a summons to the Small Claims Court for £3k, saying that we had made no attempt to pay the bill and denying ever receiving the parcel of parts and letter

    First Court Hearing, Carrie and I went along to be met by an expensive lawyer employed by Jondel, and 7 months later at Christmas we were still fighting the case, we'd collected statements from various people to say how good the engine used to be, gone back to Sanspeed's rollers for a comparison (208bhp at the flywheel) , and we discovered the engine was now 2060cc not a genuine 1999cc, but it was no use, the Court didn't understand and decided the best way to resolve the case was for an independent expert to inspect the engine at a cost of £2k which would have been a complete waste of time as the engine had been repaired already

    And we couldn't use the engine while this was going on, as it was evidence, so in January 2003 we paid the £3k and the engine was shipped off to Ron at HT to be rebuilt properly with a fresh block, new pistons and 12:1 CR, and back to 1999cc, all for £1600

    The remaining transit block, oversized pistons and a cossy crank and rods were built up as a short engine and sold to someone in Scotland

    Next 2003, things can only get better
    Last edited by GavinR; 12-11-2008 at 00:08. Reason: .
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  39. #39
    Mechanic lee 1's Avatar

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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    So you would'nt recomend jondel thenamazed you are so calm about it i would still be fuming

    Keep it comming Gavin

  40. #40
    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

    Quote Originally Posted by lee 1 View Post
    So you would'nt recomend jondel thenamazed you are so calm about it i would still be fuming
    Well it took me 2 hours to write that as it brings back bad memories, I try not to think about it, and no I wouldn't recommend them to anyone
    GavinR

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