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Thread: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

  1. #41
    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    It's when you line up at the start and the other 40 cars are a lot shinier than mine, so I'm going for a 10 yard paintjob not the current 50 yard one

    Now what were you saying about high build primer, I've got 10 litres here, hopefully that will be enough...
    GavinR

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  2. #42
    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    Well she's now redder than before...

    More sanding





    Lots of filler and many hours sanding I was happy enough, then complete disaster when I put the first coat of cellulose primer on as it reacted with one of the previous coats of paint. The roof was fine as I'd gone back through the previous coats but on the front, sides, doors, bonnet, etc, where I had only sanded the bads bits, there was lots of crazing in the primer. I don't have time to start again, so after reading about similar problems on the internet, I went to Halfords and bought 5 x 500ml aerosols of their grey primer (which is acrylic so seems to cover anything) and used up 4 of them to cover the crazing, which worked but obviously the crazing can be seen through the halfords primer



    4 top coats of Radiant Red, some bits have come out shinier than others (it was difficult to see while spraying, I could have done with an extraction fan or two!)



    Crazing effect



    Did the headlight surrounds and bonnet as well





    Just got to bolt everything back on ready for Saturday's rally...
    GavinR

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  3. #43
    Racer Decade Plus User mexicotait's Avatar

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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    Thats bright
    Shows how much the original had faded
    Hexham and District Motorclub

  4. #44
    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    I think the previous colour was similar to the original Reliant but I wanted something brighter so went for Ford Radiant Red
    GavinR

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  5. #45
    World Champion Decade Plus User alladdin's Avatar

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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    never good to be prepping / painting to a deadline its too unpredictable for us amateurs.

    its looking better tho and you always notice less imperfections once its all fitted up

  6. #46
    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    East Anglian Classic 21st June 2014

    I had a few days off, finished refitting the Scimitar and changed all the cooling pipes to silicon ones before picking George up on Friday lunchtime for the long drive to Norfolk, arriving just before scrutineering opened. There were 45 cars entered this year and we were running car 5 after finishing 3rd last year.

    The event started with a long regularity out of the start to take us over to the first test venue. We'd set the trip against the measured mile, but it was under reading a fraction on the regularity section so we were early at the first 3 controls, then got held up following a local which made us late into the 4th control, so not a good start

    The first 4 tests were at a farm last used 2 years ago and I remembered it being quite rough, but the tracks had been regraded since then and it was good this year. There were 2 tests run twice, and they all went well, we were equal quickest on one run and in the top 5 on the others

    Back out on the roads for the second regularity, I asked George to adjust the trip slightly to try and make it more accurate, but I went the wrong way and we were still early at the next control. George adjusted it the other way and it was a lot better after that, we got to the next control spot on time and the next 2 we were very close. This took us to 6 tests at Thorpe Abbotts airfield, 3 layouts run twice, the first just cones on a concrete runway but the other 2 more interesting around the perimeter track on a mixture of gravel and broken concrete. We struggled on the first layout, only managing 10th quickest each time, but the first run of the second layout we were fastest by 5s as a lot of crews went the wrong side of a cone and got a 10s penalty. On the other runs we were 5th or 6th, definitely closer to the top crews than last year

    The lunch halt was also here and we sat out on the grass chatting to the other crews in the sunshine. At this stage we were 6th and the only worry I had with the Scimitar was the steering wheel moving up and down a little. This was traced to the bottom u/j sliding on the pinion splines so I did the pinch bolt up even tighter which helped a little. I'd fitted a new Rally Design forged coupling during the week and the original one had a bit of play, but it's not a tight enough fit on the splines, hence the movement - I'll have to buy a proper one for the next event

    After lunch there were 3 regularities in a row which sounds bad but the middle one was off road round an airfield so a different challenge to the normal ones. The first one went well, only dropping a few seconds here and there except for the final control where everyone was slightly late. The airfield regularity worked very well - we had a series of tulips defining the route of roughly 3 laps but slightly different each time - each tulip had a time beside it and we were managing to average 30mph without too much trouble although we were confused by the location of the final time control and arrived 18s early (most other crews had a similar problem). The 3rd regularity was ok, a bit early everywhere but no mistakes from George - I turned up a side road that turned out to be a farm track but George reversed the trip while I reversed out and we made up the time quickly

    The next 4 final tests were back at Thorpe Abbotts, similar to the morning tests but run in the reverse direction with the 2 gravelly ones run as one long test, all done twice again. I was trying hard on these and on the second run through the longer one we started 30s behind a Triumph 2000 and managed to catch him at the finish, not bad on a 3 minute test

    The final regularity was plot and bash, made slightly harder this year by giving the navigation at each control rather than all of it at the first control. First section George got down quickly and we were just 1s out at the control. The second section was a 'herringbone' type of navigation which George is not that keen on - she couldn't make it work all the way, so we stopped briefly and I couldn't make it work either, but we had the first few miles on the map so continued driving while trying to work it out. Finally we realised what we had done wrong but all this meant we were 26s late. The 3rd section worked better, only a few seconds early here at the final control.

    At the finish we handed our paperwork in and had a buffet dinner while waiting for the results - this is what happened next

    18:20 - George went in to check the results and was surprised to find we were 1st overall - a lot of crews has made a mistake on the first plot and bash section which cost them a minute's penalty

    18:42 - Clerk of the Course signed the results as Provisional with us 1st overall

    19:15 - The crew in 2nd made a formal appeal to the Stewards, paid the appeal fee of £50, their original query to the Clerk of the Course having been turned down.
    The appeal was about the navigation for the first plot and bash section which included a type of navigation which they claimed they had not seen before and as it had not been explained, this contravened a Blue Book Regulation which states competitors must be given all the information to work out the correct route.
    The stewards held a hearing with the crew in question and allowed their appeal

    19:30 - New Provisional Results were published with us 5th overall. The crew in 2nd were ironically still in 2nd, with the 3rd placed crew moving up to 1st

    19:48 - Results published as final and awards given out - we had left by then

    So we were 1st for over an hour then finished 5th
    Thanks to George for a great job all round

    Pic from Andy Manston - there's a cone just out of sight on the left and George is pointing to the next one!

    GavinR

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  7. #47
    Bodger mario r h santos's Avatar

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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    At least you could savour 1st place for an hour which is more than most can say! Well Done Gavin!

    Cheers a congrats for your nice writting,

    Mário Santos.

  8. #48
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    cool, strange result, but sounds like you had fun and you finished well whatever the results eventually said which is the important thing

  9. #49
    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    Yes it was all a bit strange - we'd have been happy with 5th at the start, or even if the query had been sorted out before the results went provisional, but to drop down like (through no fault of our own) was disappointing

    We were pleased with our speed round the tests, 4th this year on test times compared with 8th last year on similar tests and a similar entry, a few recent tweaks had definitely helped

    Just a few minor things to sort out before the next event in July
    - Lower steering joint is sliding on the splines, despite the pinch bolt being done up FT - this was a new Rally Design one I bought to replace the original which had some play in the U/J, but the RD one is obviously not to spec
    - Indicator stalk broke due to the movement in the column caused by the above, so I've got a secondhand one coming
    - Change front wheel bearings as I'm getting pad knock off on the bumpy sections
    GavinR

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  10. #50
    Racer Decade Plus User mexicotait's Avatar

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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    Ive had a rally design one and it was too slack for my liking
    In tge end i went for a burtons hd one which solved the problem
    Hexham and District Motorclub

  11. #51
    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    Quote Originally Posted by mexicotait View Post
    Ive had a rally design one and it was too slack for my liking
    In tge end i went for a burtons hd one which solved the problem
    That's good to know - sometimes it's difficult to tell if other suppliers use rally design ones or different ones

    I must remember not to buy anything from Rally Design that needs making precisely
    I bought a front wheel bearing for Fly a few weeks ago - the bearing race next to the hub nut was loose in the hub and even the oil seal is a metric size so also slips out easily

    Thanks
    GavinR

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  12. #52
    Mechanic danknight72's Avatar

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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    I allways use parts from rally and competition equipment

  13. #53
    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    Ross Traders Historic Rally - 19th July 2014

    After the last event there wasn't much work required but I did change the loose U/J, reshimmed the steering rack, replaced the broken indicator switch and tried a proper Reliant window winder in the passenger door

    This year the Ross Traders had a good entry of 52 cars with George and myself seeded at car 12, and the Scimitar Coupe of Richard Prosser and Andy Gibson at Car 7. As is usual on this event, there were 6 regularities with some navigation given out an hour before the start and some along the route. There were fewer tests this year, only 7 instead of the usual 15 due to the unavailability of Chepstow Racecourse, but the biggest difference to previous years was the interesting weather

    After the briefing at the start, we plotted the navigation and with about 5 minutes to go, George tried the new improved window mechanism - she wound it down and it wouldn't come back up. With a lot of heavy rain forecast this would be a bit of a problem, so I hopped out and grabbed the top of the window, managed to pull it up and just left a few inches gap at the top to pass the clipboard to the marshals...

    The day started nice and bright with a short test in Oakenhill Wood, a good forest track with 30 cones to slalom around and it was very slippery at the edges of the track (where they put the cones). Our time was ok but we clipped a couple of cones on the way through. Out on the road, the first regularity was already plotted and we were going well until we got to where we thought the 4th control would be, but there was no one there (you don't know where the controls are, but you get an idea with the distance from the previous one). We carried on gently while George checked the route, which was correct, so we continued until the next control who confirmed the marshal hadn't turned up for control 4. The other problem was we didn't know what speed we were supposed to be doing at control 5 as the speed change was based on the position of control 4. All very confusing and it does make you doubt that you have done it right. We sorted ourselves out and completed the section, 10 controls in total. We were rather early at the last couple, but by this time we were being followed by Car 2 who was doing exactly the same speed as us, giving us confidence we were on the right track.

    Then we returned to Oakenhill Wood to complete the first test in the reverse direction. Our time was very similar and we only clipped one cone this time. Two more regularities followed, both plot and bash, but George got them down quickly and we had a good run through until the final section of Regularity 3. We came out to a T junction which didn't look right to me and a bit up the road I convinced George we must be on the wrong road, so we turned round and went back and tried the other way, which didn't work either. So George was right and there wasn't enough distance to the next control to make up the lost time, and we dropped 3 minutes here.

    The next 2 tests were in a large car park of a factory and lunch was in their social club. About 5 minutes before we arrived, the heavens opened and we attempted the test in torrential rain with thunder and lightning overhead. Although the wipers were working well, the screen was very misted and I was having trouble seeing the cones. It was one of those situations where you had to laugh - George was laughing so much she could hardly tell me which side of the cones to go And when we got to the finish we had to do it again
    Anyway we were quite slow round here but didn't hit any of the cones, and lunch was very good.

    When we left lunch, we were 12th overall and the organisers decided to cancel the next 2 tests in the same car park due to the conditions, so we went straight to the next regularity. The Scimitar would demist ok on the road with the quarterlights open, but every time we stopped it would steam up again! We'd plotted this one over lunch and got held up on the first part by a local who was only doing 24mph when we wanted to do 26mph (!) and then forgot a speed change later on which cost us another 18s. The final 3 controls were on private land at Goodrich Castle which George knows well from competing on the Ross Endurance Rally for a few years. We got 2 of them right but the final one of 1/2 mile at 30mph was impossible to do in the time (as designed by the organisers) and we dropped 20s compared to the fastest cars time loss of 13s.

    Next there were 2 more regularities - regularity 5 started well but the 2nd marshal's clock had broken so he resorted to using his wristwatch, but unfrotunately this was about 1m30s early leading to a lot of confusion for everyone. Regularity 6 went well all the way through and finally the weather was clearing up and we got to the final test at Goodrich Castle in beautiful sunshine. Although George had a diagram, she called all the bends from her memory of previous runs through and we set 5th quickest time which was a great way to finish the event

    At the finish in Ross on Wye there was a good buffet dinner while we waited for the results. Due to the missing marshal on Reg 1, 3 of the 10 controls had to be scrubbed, and we (along with a couple of other crews) queried the marshals broken clock on Reg 5 and 2 controls were scrubbed here as well.

    When the results went up, we were pleased to be 6th overall, a good improvement over 14th place in 2013

    Richard Prosser and Andy Gibson had a good day in the Scimitar Coupe, setting similar test and regularity times to us, only spoilt by failing to write down a codeboard on the route which cost them a 5 minute penalty which put them down to 11th - without this they would have beaten us to 6th by 18s

    Well done to the organisers and marshalls for coping with the conditions and very well done to George - when there are less tests, the navigator has a much greater influence on the result

    It was good to do a localish event, despite the delay with the results, I was home, had washed the car and was relaxing by 9pm

    Gavin
    GavinR

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  14. #54
    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    I didn't do any more events last year but used the Scimitar on the road occasionally
    This year I'm hoping to do 4 or 5 and the first one was the Leukaemia Historic a few weeks ago

    Before then I had a few jobs to do including sorting out the demisting, a loose wheel bearing and a spongy brake pedal

    The original demisting fans (one in each footwell) never worked so I'd fitted some small blowers but they weren't powerful enough to demist, so this time I bought a pair of the largest ones I could fit



    Cut a bigger hole and riveted some captive nuts to the fibreglass housing


    Then re-used the original resistors to make them 2 speed


    I haven't been out in the rain yet but I'm sure they will be fine

    I replaced the wheel bearing but this didn't help with the brakes, they worked ok but took a couple of pumps to get a firm pedal, so I decided to bleed them and discovered the cause of the problem - the integral reservoir on the front circuit is too small and when the pads wore down the fluid level dropped so low that some air was sucked in
    Anyway, after some bleeding, everything was back to normal and it's another item on the list to check after every event...
    GavinR

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  15. #55
    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    Leukaemia Historic Rally - 16th May 2015

    This was the first historic I did after building the Scimitar in 2012 and the tests were very tight and difficult. Last year I navigated on it and the tests were a lot more open and enjoyable so I decided to have another go this year. The Leukaemia also has an 'Endurance' class for modern cars up to 1400cc and as George has an Endurance spec MG ZR she was also driving. This left me short of a navigator but having done 2 enjoyable events already this year with Carrie, she was persuaded to try a historic rally for the first time since 1996 when we came 2nd Post-Historic on the East Anglian Classic in the Capri RS3100 I had at the time.

    I have a good system for doing Regularities, refined over the last 3 years with George, and after scrutineering Friday evening, I had laid out a 10 mile route to teach Carrie how to use the speed tables, what to do at each control and when there's a speed change, and this all went well.

    The event was based at Chepstow Racecourse and we were seeded Car 10 out of 49. We were given the Regularity navigation an hour before the start and got them plotted quickly and went through the speed changes on each one so we knew what times and distances to reset the stopwatches and tripmeter. Before the first Regularity, we had 3 tests at the racecourse, 2 in tarmac car parks and one on a gravel track. These all went well, a bit slow on the first one, 4th quickest on the second and one of 7 cars to beat the 'bogey' time on the 3rd test (the bogey time is set at an average of 30mph and if you are quicker you are given the bogey time). Onto the first regularity, a short one with just one time control. Everything was going well until we reached the control which seemed to be very early and the time and distance didn't match with our calculations so we got a penalty of 1m 31s here

    A short link section took us to 3 tests at Coombe Farm Estate, some lovely gravel tracks through woods and around fields, I remembered these from last year. Once again, a bit slow on the first one, but top ten times on the next 2. Regularity 2 followed with 3 time controls and this time everything worked well, we only dropped 5s overall Regularity 3 also had 3 time controls and the first section was quite long so I was a bit keen when I saw the marshal and went in too quickly dropping 10s, but the next 2 controls were better. This brought us to the coffee halt and a chance to catch up with some of the other competitors. Of the crews we spoke too, some had also been around 1m 30s out on the first Regularity and some had been spot on - we soon realised this was because of a different interpretation of the navigation, something to query with the organisers later...

    Regularity 4 started straight out of the coffee halt, another 3 time controls and we dropped 9s in total. This took us to 2 tests at a large tarmac car park, either side of a ploughman's lunch at a nearby village hall. The 2 tests were identical and we were 5th each time. At lunch there were results up to the coffee halt and we were 10th but without the first Regularity we would have been around 5th.

    On most historics, the Regularities get harder throughout the day and it was the same on the Leukaemia. Regularity 5 had 5 time controls over 20 miles and some tricky junctions to find. We caught a horse on one section and waited patiently until the rider found a good spot to let us past, then nearly went the wrong way at the next junction and we were a minute behind our schedule. Luckily this was a 20mph section and we managed to catch up to our schedule before we reached the next control, and overall only dropped 15s and also saw quite a few cars going in strange directions! Regularity 6 was the last one, 4 time controls but a lot of speed changes. It was a lovely day and a couple of times we forgot to change speed while looking at the view, remembering a few tenths of a mile later and managed to correct ourselves in time, we dropped 9s on these.

    This left 7 tests before the finish, the first 3 at Coombe Farm again, reruns of the earlier ones and we went a lot quicker, 3rd, 4th then fastest on the last one here, 3s ahead of Howard Warren's Porsche 911
    There was a new test on the outskirts of Caerwent, 4th quickest, then the final 3 back at the Racecourse, 3rd on the first one then joint fastest on the last 2

    Sat in the canteen under the grandstand, we felt we had a good day and had seen various cars drop out or get lost (on the tests as well as the regularities), but we were still surprised to be listed 2nd overall when the first set of results were posted. We soon dropped to 3rd when a test time was corrected and although I queried the first Regularity twice with the organisers, they insisted their route was the correct one (it all hinged on how you treat a roundabout - is it one junction in total as they did, or one junction for each exit as we did) and our penalty stood, without it we'd have gone back to 2nd. We were beaten by the Porsche and also a Mini Cooper

    George also had a good day, having teamed up with a very good navigator, she had some good test times and the regularities went well, she finished 5th overall and 1st Endurance car

    We were very pleased with 3rd Overall, the Scimitar ran very well, nicknamed 'the jalopy' by Carrie, she was surprised how quick we were round some of the tests! Carrie did a great job on the Regularities - she's never had any trouble reading a map, but keeping your eye on 3 things at once is a lot harder!
    She enjoyed the event and we've entered the East Anglian Classic in a couple of weeks...
    GavinR

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  16. #56
    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    East Anglian Classic - Saturday 20th June 2015

    Run by Chelmsford Motor Club, the event is usually based in Norfolk but this year the organisers decided to move it closer to Chelmsford, which suited us as it is a couple of hours closer to home. There was a good entry of 39 cars with myself and Carrie seeded at Car 3.

    The start and finish were at Elsenham Golf Club, very close to Stansted Airport and the route had 5 Regularities and 16 Tests, all the Test were at Wethersfield Airfield which we know very well, having competed and organised other events there over the years.

    The first Regularity started well, we were spot on at the first control but then 7s and 14s early at the next 2 which was confusing as we thought we were on time but our distances weren't quite right. Anyway, we arrived at Wethersfield for the first 8 Tests, 4 different layouts all run twice, a mixture of concrete, tarmac and a tiny bit of gravel, I was using standard road tyres for a change and these worked well, we were fastest on 3 of them and 3rd or 4th quickest on the rest



    Next there was a longer Regularity through the lanes of Essex and Cambridgeshire to the lunch halt in a Pub. Once again we were early everywhere despite adjusting the trip calibration to try and improve the accuracy, we dropped 48s in total which was not good when the best crews only dropped 10s. So it was a surprise to see we were 1st overall at this stage, but only by 1s from Jim Deacon / David Taylor's MGB Roadster. Our Test times had just about made up for the difficulties we were having on the Regularities



    A third Regularity took us from lunch back to Wethersfield and this one was a bit harder, we only had 6 minutes to plot the route, but Carrie got it on the map quickly and we were a lot closer on this one, dropping 16s over the 3 controls. I had given up trying to adjust the trip and instead we were trying to be slightly late everywhere, not as easy as it sounds because on a longer section we needed to be later than on a short one! Back at Wethersfield it had started to rain and this made the Tests very greasy. The Tests were the same as the morning ones but run in the opposite direction. We were going well but I felt we were going slower than earlier and the other crews would catch us up, although there were quite a few going the wrong way at times, and we set 2 more fastest times



    Back on the road for Regularities 4 and 5 to take us to the finish. The 4th one we had already plotted and this went well despite the heavy rain causing the windscreen to mist up every time we stopped at a control (the recently fitted large blowers were blowing well but it seems not all the air is getting to the windscreen...). The 5th one is always the hardest being 'plot and bash' and this time they gave us a bit of navigation as we left each control. Carrie did very well to get the route on the map quickly while I drove at the correct speed and we only had to stop once to check one junction, and did this soon after a control when we knew we could make up the time. There were 4 controls and we were close at all of them, although 2 of these were later cancelled as 10 cars were caught in a traffic jam when a tractor wanted to go into the gateway where the marshal was parked!

    There was just a short run back to the finish and although the afternoon was good, I was sure the MGB would be ahead of us by now and probably a few other crews as well. There was a buffet meal at the end followed by an agonising wait for the final results...

    1st Overall by 1m 22s


    Last year's winner, John Ruddock was 2nd in his Mk1 Escort having made up time on the afternoon tests after a slow start, and the MGB was 3rd having dropped a minute getting lost on one Test

    Very well done to Carrie, an excellent job on the maps and guiding me round the Tests, to come first on her 3rd Historic event is a great achievement.
    It's also the first Historic I've won as a driver so I was very pleased too

    And thanks to everyone at Chelmsford for organising the event and all the marshals who came out for the day

    All photos courtesy of M & H Photography
    GavinR

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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    Top result Gavin and Carrie!! Nice to see a different car being used too

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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    Fantastic, well done

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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    Quote Originally Posted by PaulAlex View Post
    Top result Gavin and Carrie!! Nice to see a different car being used too
    X2
    Makes the hard work worthwhile

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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    I saw the results in motoring news last week but wasn't sure it was you congratulations on the result and yet another fantastic write up make all those long nights worth every minute

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    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    Ross Traders Historic - Sat 18th July 2015

    This time I had a new navigator in Ross Whittock from Bath Motor Club. He has been doing night events for a few years now and has been co-driving on various forest events this year but has never done a historic road rally, but after a brief training session a few days before, we were ready to go.

    There were 57 entries with us at car 6. The event started in the Forest of Dean with a Test in Oakenhill Wood which has been used in previous years, the dry conditions helping us set a good time of 7th quickest. This was followed by a long Regularity with 9 Time Controls. Although we had plotted this at the start, some of the codeboards were tricky to find. We went past one which was down a track, but when I tried to reverse back for it, I could not get reverse, which was strange as everything I'd had reverse in the car park at the start. The gearstick would go across to the reverse slot but not backwards into the gear. Anyway, it was slightly downhill to the codeboard so we rolled back, got it and were 55s late into the control. We lost another minute with a wrong slot on another section but the rest of the regularity went very well.

    This took us back to Oakenhill for the same Test run in the reverse direction. We were a bit slower this time, 11th quickest. Back out on the road, there were 2 shorter Regulairites taking us to lunch at Ewyas Harold Village Hall. These both went well with just the odd traffic problem making us late at a few controls. I parked carefully at lunch - I had tried for reverse a couple more times but still could not engage it. When we left lunch we were happy to be lying 10th overall.

    Just up the road we arrived at Whitfield estate for 3 Tests, one in the woods and the other 2 on tarmac roads through the parkland. The middle Test was too quick with over half the crews beating the 30mph average, and we set good times on the other 2.

    The 4th Regularity was the hardest one of the event, 11 Time Controls and the navigation was given to us as we left the start, so Ross was working hard plotting the route while I tried to drive at the correct speed, and we got in to the first control exactly on time. Soon after, we had another wrong slot and this time I got reverse, so we backed out on the road, but then I couldn't get 1st or 2nd! We continued in 3rd and 4th, hoping it would sort itself out, but soon after we turned into a narrow lane, through a ford and up a steep hill. Despite the torque of the V6, I was having to slip the clutch in 3rd and about halfway up the hill the clutch started smoking and that was it. We couldn't go up the hill, and couldn't go back down as we would block the road for the other 50 competitors. So I put the handbrake on and Ross got out to direct traffic while I removed the centre console and checked the gearstick and external selector rods. These were all fine, but whatever I did I could not get 1st or 2nd

    We waited for about an hour until everyone had gone past, then Ross walked down to the last junction to stop any traffic and I reversed slowly down the hill. Back on a slightly bigger road we could get going and managed to get home without any more problems.

    So a disappointing event, but many thanks to Ross for coming out with me. It was my 11th event since building the Scimitar and the first non-finish, so not a bad record
    My next event is on Sunday 9th August so I've got a busy few weeks to sort everything out for then...
    GavinR

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    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    Gearboxes...

    I started by removing the gearbox and dismantled it on the bench, taking a few pictures as I went along

    One rather heavy gearbox - this is a Type 5 with overdrive. The Type 5 was fitted to 3 litre Capris and before that to Zephyrs and Zodiacs, some of which probably had the overdrive and 2 rod gear change mechanism seen here.



    Top cover and selector mechanism, showing the 3 selector rails and the 2 levers in the top cover. The longer lever is for reverse and the spring next to it provides the resistance to moving the gear lever into the reverse position. The shorter lever engages with either the 1st/2nd selector rail or the 3rd/4th selector rail and is moved from side to side by the other lever which pivots in front of it. At the front of the casing are 3 holes for detent balls and 3 springs sit above them in the top cover. This is in Neutral, so you can see the notches in each of the rails where the balls will sit in either 2nd, 4th or Reverse. Notches for 1st and 3rd are hidden inside the casing. The Reverse notch is further back as the lever is longer, the selector rail moves further to engage the gear.



    Unbolted and removed the overdrive - this was difficult as the splines were stuck tight to the mainshaft. The manual suggests running the car in overdrive then dipping the clutch which will release the loading on the splines, but the overdrive hasn't been working recently so I couldn't do this. So I resorted to using the large bolts holding the adaptor plate to the main casing as mini screw jacks and it came apart. This shows the adaptor plate still attached to the main casing, with the main shaft nut lock tabs unlocked ready to remove the nut. Also on the mainshaft there is a cam which drives the overdrive oil pump which provides the hydraulic pressure to enage the overdrive gears. The cam just slides off and this picture shows a tiny slot where a woodruff key sits to drive the cam.



    With the adaptor plate removed, showing the ends of the 3 selector rails on the left, the end of the layshaft middle right, and the reverse idler shaft just below it. These 2 shafts are prevented from spinning by the rectangular ends fitting into slots in the adaptor plate. The rear bearing sits in the adaptor plate.



    After removing 5 roll pins, the selector shafts can be removed rearwards, 1st/2nd comes out first, then 3rd/4th and lastly Reverse. In the back of the casing, shown at the bottom of the picture, are 3 interlock pins which prevent more than one selector shaft being moved at one time, thus ensuring you cannot select 2 gears at once. The interlock pins are in a cross drilling and there is a bung closing this off. The bung is like a tiny core plug, but I managed to get it out without any damage by using a 3mm allen key from the inside pushing out with a screwdriver for leverage.



    Here is a close up of the interlock pins. There is a very brief mention of these in the manual, but no pictures or diagrams. The tiny pin in the middle, sits in the middle selector shaft and moves from side to side when pushed by one of the bigger pins being moved by the notches in the outer selector rails. When I got everything apart, this tiny pin was not moving freely in the middle selector shaft and I think this is what caused the gear selection problems.



    When I could not get reverse, it was stuck off centre thus holding the reverse interlock pin in the notch on the reverse selector shaft so it could not move. But when I found reverse, it then got stuck off centre the other way, preventing the 1st/2nd selector shaft moving. The hole the tiny pin sits in is 3mm diameter so impossible to see inside it, but if I put some wire up it, it is not smooth as if it is going rusty. Everything else in the gearbox looked fine - gears and synchros all nice and shiny, but I did not want to put it back in without getting a replacement 3rd/4th selector shaft.

    I also removed the clutch to see what damage I had done to it - there was scoring to the cover plate and signs of everything getting hot, and similar marks on the flywheel. I'm not going to replace the flywheel as that is lightened and balanced but did order a new clutch cover and plate.



    A couple of years ago, I had bought a spare propshaft off someone in Merthyr Tydfil and came home with a spare gearbox as well. I took the top off this one and it looked very clean and shiny inside, and had definitely been rebuilt at some point.



    I swapped the gear change mechanism from the old one and even replaced the detent balls with new 5/16" balls. I also balanced it vertically in the vice and squirted oil around where the selector shafts go into the rear of the casing in the hope of getting some oil to the interlock pins.



    After quite a few hours struggling, the box was back in, bolted to the engine and the gearbox mount on and I left it like that last night. So today I just had to finish connecting everything and fill it with oil. I'd also serviced the engine and replaced both engine mounts and the gearbox mount as they were all tired, despite being replaced when I rebuilt the car. Anyway, after I had added a litre of oil to the gearbox, I noticed it was dripping oil from behind the gearbox mount, under the overdrive. Hoping it was just the overdrive bottom plate gasket leaking, I removed the gearbox mount for a better look, but it was worse than this - it was coming from where the black brake band is sandwiched between 2 parts of the overdrive casing. There are 8 studs and nuts which hold this together, so I went round and did them up only to find one stud was snapped underneath near where the leak was. Maybe this was why the gearbox was a spare one.
    I got out the old overdrive, which has a full complement of studs and took the 8 nuts off and the casings came apart quite easily and nothing dropped out, so I removed a stud for use on the new one. This gave me an idea - if I could do the same on the new box with it in the car, it would save a day taking the whole box out and fixing it on the bench. Some of the nuts were difficult to get to, but by lowering the box slightly I got the 7 nuts off and split the casings far enough apart so I could get some mole grips on the broken stud and extract it. (While dismantling the old overdrive, I discovered why it has not been working recently - the pump plunger was stuck down having picked up on the overdrive casing - there's a flat section which stops the plunger twisting and this section had rubbed against the casing for enough years that it had worn enough to get stuck - a few minutes work with a file and it was free again - with the plunger stuck there would not be any oil pressure to engage the overdrive).

    While underneath doing this, I discovered the real cause of the oil leak - the brake band had been fitted in the wrong orientation!!!
    The oil passages should line up, otherwise no oil will get to the overdrive gears and output shaft bearing...



    The brake band cannot be removed without removing the 3 sets of smaller gears and the brake ring, and I thought if I tried this it would all come apart, so I removed the other 5 studs (the top 2 go the other way so were on the rear part of the casing), and then I was able to rotate the brake band into it's correct position, refit the 5 studs and the replacement for the broken one, refit the rear casing and everything was back together.
    So finally I was able to start her up and check the clutch and gears work correctly, which they did. I haven't been for a drive yet, hopefully tomorrow.

    One final note, after fixing the overdrive leak, there is now a little drip from the tailshaft oil seal! I'm collecting the drips and will see how much comes out overnight and decide whether to try and replace this seal one evening next week, or leave it until after I've done the rally in Yorkshire next weekend...
    Last edited by GavinR; 01-08-2015 at 23:31.
    GavinR

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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    good bit of detective work there, ive strippped and repaired a good few gearboxes over the years but am never overly happy doing so, partly because they are often such a pain to get in/out on modern cars and partly because unlike an engine its much harder to be 100% sure they will work properly after!

  24. #64
    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    It's funny, I'm happier doing gearboxes than engines, and like to understand how they work
    GavinR

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    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    I went for a gentle test drive last night and everything is working well, even the overdrive switches in and out smoothly which is a bonus

    The tailshaft seal stops leaking when the car is on level ground, so I'm going to leave this until after this weekend's rally (and will try to remember not to park uphill )
    GavinR

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    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    St Wilfrids Historic - Sun 9th August 2015

    A bit of a late report, but I've been busy competing and organising other events

    I'd never done a rally in Yorkshire before but this fitted into my calendar well, it was recommended by some of the other regular competitors and Carrie was happy to have a weekend away. We went up on the Saturday and visited Fountains Abbey on the way to scrutineering near Ripon.
    There were 58 entries and we were seeded at 17. The start was in Ripon Market Square and we were flagged away by the Mayor early Sunday morning.

    The first Test was in an industrial estate nearby, a bit tight but we got round ok. On to the first regularity which was a short one with just 2 controls, we were spot on at the first, then an off road section round a couple of fields took us to the second control, only 1 second late was as good as anyone else.

    The next 6 Test took place at a large working quarry - they were great fun but a little rough in places where we were driving on bigger stones. The Scimitar stood up well but we couldn't keep up with the top crews round here. Back on the road, the 2nd Regularity had 5 controls and a bit of plotting for Carrie to do. We started well but the middle section crossed a new section of the A1 which wasn't on our maps - the organisers had provided instructions of how to cross it, but not where to go at the junction the other side - we got confused, along with 20 other crews, and dropped a couple of minutes here.

    Next there was a short test before a 25 mile Regularity over the Yorkshire Moors. This went very well with some good views over the countryside. On one long straight we heard this rumble from behind and unexpectedly the Vulcan bomber flew over us, heading South from a display at Croft Circuit
    This took us to the lunch halt where the results showed we were lying 20th.

    The 4th regularity started straight from lunch and we dropped some time on this one meeting tractors in the wrong places - it was a beautiful sunny day so the farmers were busy harvesting. Another short test round a car park was a bit too tight for the Scimitar and this was followed by the next regularity with 2 controls which went well.

    Regularity 6 was the toughest one on the event - 7 controls and a lot of plotting for Carrie, overall we dropped just under a minute but this was 6th best on this one, moving us up the field. Back to the quarry for the last 3 tests - some of the earlier tests joined together, but even rougher as none of the cones had been moved! There was one final Regularity after this, just a few controls to get us to the finish at a good pub in Topcliffe.

    There was quite a bit of discussion at the finish around the section crossing the A1, but the organisers maintained there was enough information to work it out, (technically there was but it wasn't obvious) so the penalties stood.

    We left before the results went final as it was a long way to come home - after dropping Carrie off near Welshpool, I got home at 1:30am
    When I checked the results the next day, we were pleased to have got up to 10th after the afternoon regularities

    Thanks to Ripon Motor Club for organising the event, it was very enjoyable and we're hoping to go back next year


    That finishes my year of 4 historic rallies, many thanks to Carrie and Ross for navigating - I'm planning a similar calendar in 2016 with possibly a couple more if I can squeeze them in


    To round up the gearbox work, I removed the prop, the gearstick and 5 nuts which hold the last part of the tailhousing to the overdrive, put it on the bench, changed the oil seal and refitted it - it took about an hour with the gearbox remaining in the car

    Thanks

    Gavin
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    good stuff and a great read as always, thanks for writing it up gavin

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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    I saw you and most of the other cars on the road from ripon as you went past my mum's house
    Nice day wasn't it
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    Leukaemia Historic - 14th May 2016

    Having come 3rd last year and with the event based at Chepstow Racecourse just 15 minutes from my house, we had to go back again this year. There was a very good entry of 60 cars and I was seeded at Car 4 with Carrie navigating. George was also driving her MG ZR with Anthony Preston navigating in the Targa Class for modern Road Rally cars up to 1600cc.

    The format of the event was very similar to 2015 with 16 Tests and 6 Regularity sections and an hour to plot the route before the start.

    We started with 3 Tests at the Racecourse, a mixture of tarmac and gravel, and we weren't particularly quick, but the first short Regularity went well, only dropping 5s.

    This took us to Combe Farm, 4 gravel Tests through undulating farmland and trees, slippery in places but great fun. Our times were improving with 5th quickest on the 3rd Test here. Another short Regularity was even better, only dropping 3s, and we headed north to a new Test at Crumbland Plantation - a mixture of farm tracks, around a few buildings and across some fields to the finish. We dropped some time here as one coned section was tighter than I realised so I had to use reverse to get round. The 3rd Regularity took us to the coffee halt at Raglan Castle where we were pleased to be lying 3rd overall with George not far behind in 7th.

    From Raglan, we headed east for a longer Regularity where we had a few problems getting caught up with another competitor and the marshal giving the wrong time when we arrived at one of the controls, so we dropped a total of 19s. There was one tarmac Test at Mamhilad which has been used for many years followed by a buffet lunch at a local village hall. By the time we left the results had been updated and we had dropped to 4th with George moving up to 6th.

    After lunch we went back to Mamhilad for the same Test and then started heading south with Regularity 5, anopther short one where we only dropped 2s. Next was the last and longest Regularity with 6 controls and many speed changes. This went very well as we only dropped 19s which was the best on this section. Then there were 7 Tests to get us back to the finish. The first 3 at Combe Farm, repeats of the morning's Tests, and we went quicker on all of them, 3rd quickest on the longest one. There was a short Test on the outskirts of Caerwent, 3rd quickest here again, but the final 3 back at the Racecourse we were a bit off the pace again.

    Back at the finish we sat in the sunshine eating dinner and watching the last competitors go round the Tests while we waited for the Results.

    Our performance in the afternoon was good enough to give us 3rd Overall, 35s last year's winners Howard Warren / Iain Tullie (Porsche 911) who were 40s behind Matt Warren / Andy Pullan (Mk1 Escort RS2000). George also made up time in the afternoon, finishing 4th Overall and winning her class.

    Many thanks to the organisers and marshals for a very enjoyable event, and thanks to Carrie for a good job on the maps and speed tables, we were the best on the Regularities.

    Two pictures from the Crumbland Plantation Test, taken by Joshua Davies-Box





    East Anglian Classic - 19th June 2016

    There was a small but strong entry for this event and myself and Carrie were seeded at Car 1 after winning in 2015. The event was once again based near Stansted Airport with 5 Regularities around Essex, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire and 13 Tests at Wethersfield Airfield.

    We started with 3 Regularities, the first one going well, the second one we were a bit out on the distances and the third one we were held up by a member of the public who was not impressed to find there was a rally going past his house when he was trimming the hedge (he would have been given a letter some weeks before) and we dropped 30s. We were also having problems with some of the marshals not being ready which sometimes happens running first on the road.

    Onto Wethersfield and there were 7 separate Tests laid out, an ambitious plan by the organisers but it did stretch the marshals. We enjoyed these and set some quick times. The next Regularity went well but the problems with the earlier ones meant we were 7th at lunch.

    After lunch we had a complete disaster on the Regularity due to various things going wrong and we lost over 2 minutes. Back at Wethersfield made back the time on the Tests before the last Regularity which was Plot and Bash. This year it was very simple navigation so everyone had a good run through.

    At the finish we were 9th Overall and 4th in Class, with Matt Warren / Ryan Pickering first overall. We were 4th on the Tests but the Regularity problems dropped us back. Thanks to Carrie for navigating.

    Two pictures from Wethersfield taken by Andy Manston of M & H Photography





    Next event is a return trip to Yorkshire for the St Wilfrids Classic in August
    GavinR

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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    Hi gavin

    Any idea what time it starts in ripon on Sunday

    We are coming a long for a watch
    Will try come and say hello if we can find you
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    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    Hi,

    I haven't seen any finals yet, but according to the regs it's starting in the market square with first car away at 8:30am
    We're seeded car 12
    Hope to see you there

    Thanks

    Gavin
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    Good to see you out yesterday
    We were at the start and went to watch at the quarry
    Came over to say hello but you were plotting so didn't want to interrupt
    Looked a good event and one we hope to do next year
    Hexham and District Motorclub

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    Pit Crew Decade Plus User GavinR's Avatar
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    A round up of the last 2 events this year...

    St Wilfrids Historic – August 7th
    I did this one in 2015 and had an enjoyable day so decided to take the Scimitar back to Yorkshire again this year. Carrie was navigating and we were sensibly seeded at 12 out of 50 cars. The event is organised by Ripon Motor Club and we were flagged away by the Mayor from Ripon Market Square on Sunday morning.

    The event started with 2 short tests at an old army training areas before 5 longer tests at a quarry near Lightwater Valley – this quarry had been used extensively in 2015 but this year’s tests were more flowing and smooth although we did have one airborne moment over a small gravel bank!

    The route headed west into the Yorkshire Dales for 3 long Regularities. The first one was going well until we were held up by an unhelpful farmer driving his tractor – he got in the way of nearly all the cars and was spotted by the marshals at the next control, so the organisers scrubbed the penalties here. Next we were held up by a herd of sheep crossing the road, but not as much as the 3 cars in front of us, and we got back on time by the next control. There were no problems on the 2nd Regularity and we only dropped a few seconds here. Before the 3rd Regularity there was a brief Coffee Halt – so brief we decided not to go to it and get back on time. It was lucky we did because a motorhome caused complete chaos getting to the start of the next section as it was too wide for the narrow lanes. We had to queue through the start and then ended up in a convoy of 3 cars on the same minute, but decided to drop back to the next one to give ourselves a bit of space. This worked well and apart from getting slightly lost in the middle of the section, having to follow another competitor for a few junctions before we worked out where we were! Next was a short Test in Leyburn Cattle Market with lunch in the hall opposite and the results showed we were in the top 5.

    The afternoon had 2 Regularities and 4 Tests at a grasstrack venue. The first Regularity had limited plotting time and there was one bit that was ambiguous so we did an extra loop to make the navigation work exactly. Unfortunately this wasn’t the organisers route and we dropped 1m 30s here. The 4 Tests were great fun, 3 of them on flat grass fields and the 4th took us for a lap of the grasstrack circuit. The final regularity was good and took us to the finish at a pub for a large roast dinner.

    There were a few queries about the results, but the organisers stuck to their route and we finished 6th overall and 2nd in class, the regularity problem dropping us a few places.


    Palladwr Historic and Targa Rally – October 23rd



    This local event was run by Salisbury and Shaftesbury Motor Club for the first time since 2005 and used a lot of Test venues more recently used on the Great Bustard Endurance Rally, including Worthy Farm, the home of Glastonbury Festival. Myself and Carrie were seeded at 4 in the Scimitar, just behind Georgina Clark / Anthony Preston who had entered the Targa event in George's MG ZR.

    We started with a short car park test at Worthy Farm before a long Regularity, the first 7 miles in Worthy Farm with a jogularity road book, before heading into the lanes for another 15 miles. In Worthy Farm it was difficult to judge the pace – we arrived late at the first control so pushed a bit harder and arrived early at the next one!
    George and Anthony were held up by Car 1 who missed a turning and ended up in front of them. Out on the road, everything was a bit more relaxed although some of the distances seemed slightly out compared to the measured mile, so there were some quick adjustments before the next section.

    The next Regularity was short and relatively simple and it took us across to the next 2 farm tests, both done twice. Regularity 3 was a monster and had taken a while to plot at the start, with some tricky navigation. There were 8 controls, but unfortunately a road accident on the route meant the last 4 controls had to be scrubbed.

    The next Regularity was a short one on private land at Slait Barn, followed by 2 farm tests marshalled by Tavern Motor Club members before we arrived at a lunch halt. Unfortunately a double booking meant lunch was a picnic in the car park, but it was a good chance to catch up with the other crews. Results at this point showed myself and Carrie 3rd overall and George & Anthony not far behind in 4th.

    The afternoon comprised a short farm test run twice, a longer test back at Slait Barn, 2 Regularities and a final 3.5 mile test at Worthy Farm. The farm test was good, and George got the fastest test time on the second run. Slait Barn was 2 laps of smooth tracks, but some of the cone chicanes were a bit tight for the Scimitar!
    The 2 regularities went well, but a tricky bit of navigation to get to a control on a white road underneath the A361 caused problems for a lot of the Novice crews.
    It was good to have a final blast round the Worthy Farm Test before we headed back to the finish at the Highwayman to find out the results.



    Carrie and I were 3rd Overall, 30s behind Simon Harris / Matthew Vokes, and the event was won by Howard Warren / Iain Tullie in a Mk1 Escort RS2000. George and Anthony were 4th Overall, and won the Targa Class by 7 minutes!
    Last edited by GavinR; 23-12-2016 at 13:58.
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  34. #74
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    nice one well done

    excellent write up as always

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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    nice one well done

    excellent write up as always

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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    great write up and good to see the old girl still out there competing and getting good results aswell

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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    Well done on the 2nd overall Gavin
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    Quote Originally Posted by mexicotait View Post
    Well done on the 2nd overall Gavin
    Not quite this year - seeded Car 2 and finished 6th Overall
    I'll do a report later...
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    .
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    Re: GavinR's Scimitar Historic Rally Car

    Read it wrong on Facebook was looking at the entry list not the results
    Still a very good result in the company
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