my road rally mk2

[mexicotait]

hi folks

i started a thread on my car a few years ago but never really updated it after a while and forgot about it but here it is

http://www.turbosport.co.uk/showthread.php?t=156446&highlight=mexs

didnt do that many events so so didnt really see the point in keeping it up to date but thought i should start making a bit of an effort even if its only for my own records.


so where that thread finished off the car was in the similar state to when it was originally put on the road.


basic spec:

bog standard 1300 gt xflow
standard type 2 four speed box
worldcup bilsteins made into coilovers 220 pound springs
twincam anti roll bar double width kit
2.4 quick rack
rear has single leaf springs
rear bilsteins
anti tramp bars

full bolt in cage
bucket seats
6 point harness
map light

2013


car had had a bump when i first had it on the road and the back panel was starting to go rusty so that was cut off along the bumper line then a replacement welded in my first go at welding on the car and was a steep learning curve. the welding i was fine with as i do a fair bit at work. but making panels and the like took a while to get the hang of mind you id get plenty of practice in the years to come. apart from that the car was just sitting there as i was saving for a decent road car.

spent most of 2013 sat in the garage feeling sorry for itself until then end of the year when i finally got it mot and taxed in the november.

i was also buying bits to build a decent xflow. money was tight so the car sat not doing much.

2014

spent most of the early part of 2014 sat in the garage until a local event at nissan car factory the wearside classic in september.

id entered with my girlfriend on the maps. it was classed as an autotest but was more like what you would call a targa rally now, various tests throughout the day all on tarmac. i was praying for rain all week but when the day dawned bright and sunny i new id be in for a struggle the little 1300 would be struggling all day plus id never done an event like this sliding around cones etc so thought it would be a slow start. my girlfriend jess had never really done anthing on the maps before hand either but she was very good once she got her confindence up.

all week i had been having a an intermittent missfire but couldnt find what was causing it and it returned through scrutineering even though the car passed without a hitch i wasnt happy it woudnt pull cleanly so the first loop of tests werent very good but no mistakes and we carried on. after the first loop the car wouldn't start by now i had worked out the alternator wasnt charging no light on the dash but a quick check found it running on 11 volts. bugger. into the next set of test i managed the first on but waiting in the que then engine cut out and wouldnt restart and as we were last in the que there wasnt even anyone to swap batteries with.

so that was that but a friendly marshal towed us home and wouldnt even accept any money off us.

but sitting in waiting to be recovered was nice







sick of breaking alternators (running spotlights etc and revving the engine to death on road rallies meant the lucas ones never lasted long) i looked into replacing it with a more modern one.
eventually settling on using bosch ones from a ford ka 70 amp output and i got three off ebay for ten pound each. still on the first one now
you have to change the standard escort plug to ring terminals but worthwhile upgrade


that was it for 2014 apart from using it on the road
think i did one 12 car road rally that didnt go well when my dad started to fee ill after only the 2nd time control so we called it a night but were first to the after rally buffet which felt like a win



more to follow

[mexicotait]

Re: my road rally mk2

[U]2015[U]

car went back into the garage for some upgrades. GavinR on here modded me a handbrake to make it flyoff and i fitted a hydraulic cylinder to it plus some 3litre capri drums plus got some uprated brake shoes and fitted them.

this was finished just in time for a local event a tranwell woods very local to me being about 2 miles up the road. using the works van and trailer saved me having to mot and tax it and plus would be good if it broke again


id entered along with my dad who was also driving in his mk2 and we were navigating for each other.

was a brilliant day finished somewhere in the mid teens after a few penalties. the new handbrake setup was working really well and i couldnt stop myself from using it n every corner. managed to turn a set of newish knobblies into slicks as well.


brilliant day.


did a few more 12 cars that were held on a wednesday night normally one a week. did ok but they are made tricky for the nav and my nav david was a little bit rusty having not done anything for a few years so took a bit of time to knock the rust off.

then returned to tranwell for the event being ran again in october.

this time id entered with my mate michael who had always wanted to have a go out in the mk2 and as you were allowed to to walk the tests first i was sure we could go the right way even if he wasnt


in the end we had a good skid around was hurting from laughing so much. michael didnt really give me much direction as he was either laughing or squealing but we finished in the mid teens again. low power and being against some properly good people who do a lot of auto testing were my main excuses......got some good pictures though









then returned to nissan again to try and see if we could have a better result. my dad was sitting in with me and was worrying about being sick. i was more worried about breaking down again so once again took the car on the trailer.


once again my rain dance didnt work so it was a nice clear day.

started off well, dad directing me well and the car felt good. the good handling making up for a lack of power. but the last test before lunch we started having trouble with the diff not locking and spinning the inside wheel. still we finished the day and made good use of the handbrake to wreck some more tyres.

that was it apart from driving up to scotland to buy a new engine for it off here.


more to follow.....

[mexicotait]

Re: my road rally mk2

Did one more 12 car that year after my mate josh volunteered his girlfriend hannah to nav for me
She had only ever done one road rally before me with josh so was a bit nervous
She had done a fair bit of stage rallying though and coming from northern ireland she had sat with some quick boys including a very quick modified mk2 running over 300bhp

Her dad used to to take her out testing in the cars he prepared so she was used to going a lot quicker than i would ever be going


On the night she was spot on called everything well,struggled a bit on some bits of the plotting but got the hang quickly to finish 5th

Very good on a first event where most navs fail to make it to.the finish


That was the last event of the year

So it was back in to the garage for some upgrades

[mexicotait]

my road rally mk2

So had a drive up to scotland to meet a rab off here to buy a 1600 xflow

It was very cheap so i didnt even bother looking to carefully at it thinking i could sell it in bits if anything was wrong with it.

I got it home swapped the sump over to a baffled one i had already and put it in the cornr of the garage all wrapped up.

Pulled the old engine out and started stripping the bay



Stripped and in primer

This took days to get to this stage
Seam welded everything and added the grp4 strengthening kit



And finally in topcoat

On boxing day hence the wrapping paper masking


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[mexicotait]

my road rally mk2

Then few more jobs
New radiator,Distributor, starter, type 9 box amongst other things
Setup on a single 40 on a lynx manifold to fit with road rally regs


Then out to marshal on the flying scotsman
Brilliant event where only pre wars cars allowed to enter
Brilliant seeing pricless bentlys etc being hurled around

This is just outside rothbury near paperhaugh just after the rothbury road fell into the river
Shame i used to use that road a lot for testing



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[GavinR]

Re: my road rally mk2

Great to see some details of what you've been up to the last few years

[mexicotait]

my road rally mk2

Thanks gavin been meaning to start one for a while
Even though ive messed up the years somehow


2015

Lost track of what was done when but a quick look at sone old regs put me right

Picture above was in 2015 got tye nee engine in over christmas and im the new year it was running.

Was hoping for the first 12 car of the year but the starter packed up the day before so didnt want to risk being stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Starter replaced with a high torque one made life much easier for starting and it could be fitted much more easily than the standard one.

Took it to bogg brothers in malton to be setup after spending a few hours changing jets etc he did a power run and the meter went up to 125bhp

Bit optimistic on this spec but the car was running and pulling well.

Only other change was a set of princess four pots which made a big difference to the braking andi the car was ready.

First 12 car i managed with hannah was in april.
Goood blast round making use of the new engine. We could stoo abd plot knowing we could make the time up which makes life much easier for her. Think we finished 5th and first novice.


The next event was the berwick classic.
A two day regularity rally with tests in between. Id spectated on this event many times so was very excited.

Unfortunately hannah couldnt make it as it was the same day as a stage rally she wws booked to do so instead my goid mate phil was sitting in. He does the northern tarmac championship in a ford puma and i service for him.


Drove up on the sat evening after phil had spent hours cleaning the car. Didnt tell hime most of it was on muddy tracks 😂

Didnt start well literally when we needed to be push started however once going we got through scrutineering fine and chatted to other competitors about what lat ahead, set the trip up to the measured mile and were nervous but ready.

Set off car 36 behind a lancia fulvia and straight into the first reg. Phil had never done these before so i was teaching him as we went. It worked quite well but we were slightly early at the first control.
Doing 28mph is easy on tight roads but on the big wider roads you lose sense of your speed and its easy to get caught out.

First reg done was onto the first three tests
First one went well this was the forst corner of the first test

This went well until i spun on one ofnthe hairpins but was quickly back on track.

Two more tests followed fine but leaving the last test the finish marshal told us there was a lot of oily smoke coming out of the back.

Not much we could do and the engine was still pulling well so we chose to ignore it and headed home for the night.


The next day started with breakfast and the traditial start in berwick town centre

Followed by a short drive up.the coast to torness power station and the first test of the day.

This went well 6 th quickest but still smoking had a quick look and it was burning oil but not much we could di about it so just carried on


Few more tests followed
One around a mucky truck yard was great fun


Then on to one of the numerous farm yards


And then onto a field test which was hopless as it was so wet and slippy we couldnt get off the start line

Everyone got a maximum as it was taking so long to get round
Great fun though



Then onto a regularity on a private road which was good fun
Got boaked at the end though as it was rough in places and one guy in another mk2 was taking his time

My mk2 is fine over the rough so i sat on his bumper with the air horns going till eventually we got by over taking on the grass 😂

Then the sun came out at the finish



Phil wasnt best pleased after all the effort he put into polishing it 😁

Oil problem turned put to be a breather hose had collapsed internally
So wasnt letting the engine breath.

Results were ok think we came in the mid 30s

Doing well on the tests but being let dowb by the regs

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[mexicotait]

my road rally mk2

Next event was the shaw trophy
Similar type of event but no regs just nice drive in the country side and blast round some tests. Started locally in the town of morpeth.

Jess my partner was also doing this navigating for my mate josh in his proton whilst hannah his girlfriend was sitting in with me as usual. As you could enter as a team we entered under the name of team wife swap 😂😂

Started out well enough although miserable scrutineer didnt do much to calm people we set off car 16 behind my dad who was car 14 and josh at 6.

Off onto the road and the first two tests were cancelled because the land owner wasnt happy with the speed of the cars😔

So straight into the third test ran twice around a big farmers yard.

Didnt go well when we went round a cone the wrong way and got a maximum hannah didnt tell me or i would have reversed
Still second time round and we were fastest that was more like it.

Next nice road section to belsay where a few tests were laid out on a clubmembers farm
First one i was revved up so got off the line well flat in third to a stop astride reverse back and tried to j turn round
Messed it up but still got round quick
Slot left in to a big compound round a few cones
Had the mk2 drifting nicely then came back out onto the main track too sideway with the rear end in the hedge
Unfortunately for me there was a big concrete post hiding in the hedge which i hit


The car still drove ok and after the miserable scrutineer had a good nose around we carried on

Full of red mist now i set some fastest times and werent out of the top ten all day

The last loop of test were brilliant farm tracks about a mile long i went off on a ninety left then ninety right but just kept my foot in and rejoined the track and set another fastest time.

Josh had a great day to be 3rd overall and 1st modern
We would have won had it not been for the wrong test
Dad had a steady day to finish 19 or thereabouts

So not the best day

I new the car needed some tidying but now it needed a lot!

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[mexicotait]

my road rally mk2

So the rest of 2015 was spent reparing the damage


The quarter pulled out quite well
But both rear arches were well rotten including the tubs









This took ages
But shell was solid and straight again
Few more repairs to the inner sill and the splash panels on the front but apart from that the shell is mint



More to follow

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[onecamohv]

Re: my road rally mk2

great work luke, great to see all the details in one place, keep the updates coming!!

[mexicotait]

my road rally mk2

2016

Car went away to have the repairs repainted and cameback bettter than new

Id never been happy with the cage in the car
It never fitted too well and it meant i couldnt get the seats where i wanted them
So sourced a safety devices cage from west wales rally spares




Seat bars in



Car was the fully rewired as stuff had just been added and changed so many times




Tank and tank base

Got a sender from america to work with the original gauge




And rebuilt the axle and added a brace bar
Lsd was rebuilt with new plates


That took me to end of 2016



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[cosworth4door]

Re: my road rally mk2

Looks good mate, I hope you keep updating this.

I would also like to get into it but have had major setbacks...maybe next year lol

[mexicotait]

my road rally mk2

So over the xmas had a bit of spare time finished all the jobs off and took it for an mot




Passed no problem and alan the mot wad impressed when we took it up the road
Despite the icy roads meaning the brake test was pointless😂


The to the first event of the year the january jaunt

Ran by hexam motorclub they do one once a month on wed night
Except in the summer with the light nights

55 mile route of challenging navigation and had chris dodds on the maps who normally drives a very fast 205

He is also a very good nav competing on lots of events on both sides of the car

Went out for a bit of practice the night before finding none of my tyres would work in the greasy conditions and more worryingly the engine was breathing very heavy filling the catch tank after only a few miles 🤔



Too late to back out now i refilled it with oil and just made a plan to keep the revs lowish and see what happened

To the event itself the roads were still horrific so cold and greasy everyone was having problems but at least we stayed on the road

First section went well until we missed a slot and dropped two minutes

Carried mostly sideways and doing well only problem was when one of the marshals tried to take doddsys paper work off him 😤
And stopping at a junction to see a taxi on a late night run pulled out after him and doddsy made a comment about hoping we dont get stuck behind him
Wasnt a worry as he must have been a local i couldnt keep up he was flat over all the crests and blind bends
Needless to say i dont think he had a fair onboard😂


Got to the finish without problem to see we had dropped four minutes which was impossible as mick who started 3 minutes behind was on the next minute to us and they cleaned it
In the end we were second behind mick so didnt bother chasing it.
I was more worried about the engine
No oil was showing on the dipstick and the pressure had dropped right down
Put some more oil in and drove slowly home

So engine out for a rebuild

Was a great night and after a year long rebiuld the car was superb
Even made the local paper

Although it says escort mexico which im sure will ryle a few purists up.

Only because my name on the rally forum is the same as on here

Might have a mk1 mex one day 😂

More to come....

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[mexicotait]

my road rally mk2

Pulled the engine out at the endi of jan
It was minging the whole bay was covered in oil and other things found in the country side




And out




Stripped it down to find the bores were well worn and oval the ring gaps were massive

And both main and big end bearings were showing signs of wear
So everything was cleaned whilst the block and crank were sent to be sorted

I had some 1300 40+ pistons as spares so they went in along with new mahle bearings the cam and followers looked mint so they went back as they were

Part way though assembly


And finally back together


Abd in place




Doesnt look any different but what a difference.

Must say a big thanks to mark ( onecamohv) who i pestered with endless engine questions

So that brings us up to date
Just running the engine in now done about 150 miles and its on its second oil change

Its pulling much better starts better and not using any oil or smoking

Its starting too loosen up now as i increase the revs


Next event is the berwick classic in april

Might be a hexam event before then but hasnt been announced yet

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[mexicotait]

my road rally mk2

Looks good mate, I hope you keep updating this.

I would also like to get into it but have had major setbacks...maybe next year lol

Aye thats the way it goes normally
When i couldnt compete i always used to marshal or sit in with other people just to keep the fire lit
Just off to collect my wheels which ive had painted
Then should be ready for the next event

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