GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

[mexicotait]

GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

[para144]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/s851x315/10574373_929494960399523_5169440090015641389_n.jpg?oh=9044e33410ccba73d77ca180b5780278&oe=545E8E74&__gda__=1416126098_a40d93eb29f7ea33fc141fc8c63a6cbe

Great shot of FLY on Epynt

[para144]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

http:// https://www.facebook.com/ral...399523/?type=1

Great shot of FLY on Epynt

[Arwel]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

You seemed to be going very well yesterday Gavin. Literally flying from the photos I have seen. Not a good day for me and Abi, electrical fault stopped us on the road section on route to SS4. Matt also had a bad day with engine failure on SS1. I think we need an Escort

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Thanks for all your comments, got the engine out on Sat and found a small split in the sump below no 1 cylinder. Haven't had time to investigate further but maybe the rod let go first and hit the jack shaft causing it to seize up...

Our service crew were servicing for another crew as well, so we had to wait a bit to be towed in

Anyway the Pinto's back in now so just a few jobs left and I'll be ready to go. I'm car 71 and there's 6 of us in the Road Rally class, if we get into the top 3 I'll be pleased

I'll try and get over to see you Matt, and I think Arwel is competing as well so a few TS people out

[freddy686868]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

seen you towing the car in on the neath valley stages i was a marshal on the main service gate as the i'm in the three counties car club that run the rally. Really gutted for you i thought you had done more than one stage as you got towed into service quite late in the day.

[lee edwards]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Fair play mate your threads always make a good read! Your keen il give you that

[MCURZON]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

See you on the Mewla then Gavin, first time we've had entries in for the same event!
Come over and grab a cuppa if you have time, my service crew have an amazing tea urn! I'm in car 100
Cheers
Matt

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Neath Valley Stages - Saturday 9th August 2014

I had big plans for this event, after competing last year with George and finding the long straights quite boring, I came up with a cheap way of having more power in Fly...
After 3 weeks of working many hours in the workshop including 3 full days leading up to the event, I got everything done and had a successful test drive at 7pm Friday evening, before loading up and catching a few hours sleep before George came over for 4:15am and we set off to Resolven

George had no idea what I'd been up to, in fact there was only one friend in the motor club who knew and he'd been helping me, but when I started Fly for scrutineering she knew something was different - I'd fitted DVY's n/a cossie into Fly to give us an extra 90-100bhp

Scrutineering was fine and around 10am we headed to the first stage in Rheola forest. Going off the line I was having trouble getting the power down, I found it difficult to feel when the wheels were spinning so I was changing up too early, it was definitely going to take a few stages to get used to, and George was having to read the notes out quicker. Even if I wasn't cornering any quicker, the straights were a lot more interesting, just a few inches off line into the loose and the rear started fishtailing and up the hills it was even better!

So everything was going well and we'd done about 7 miles of the 8.1 mile stage when there was a death rattle from the engine and I looked down to see the oil light come on, so I switched everything off. We'd got far enough through the stage that the final mile was downhill so I carried on coasting and we reached the finish just as the car behind caught us. We continued coasting to a safe place, parked up and I got out to see what had gone wrong...

I opened the bonnet to see the cam belt just lying there, not fitted around the cams, the dry sump belt nowhere to be seen and this pulley lying on the sumpguard...



It's the jack shaft pulley and you can see in this pic where the shaft has snapped...



So it was great fun while it lasted, but turned into an expensive experiment. It would have been good to get through one stage if nothing else, to see what our times were like, and of all the things that could go wrong on a rally, I never expected to have the engine let go
Although I've started taking the engine out, it's difficult to know what failed first...
1. Did the jackshaft seize, get snapped by the cambelt which then flew off and took the dry sump belt with it?
2. Did the dry sump belt come off first, causing the jackshaft to seize?
If it was an oil problem, I'd expect the bottom end to seize first, rather than the jackshaft

Anyway, I took a few bits off last night and found the dry sump pump was very hard to turn - usually I can turn it by hand, but had to use a spanner to get it going
I also put a spanner on the crank pulley and this was even harder, but I went backwards a little and the bottom end is not seized up, so maybe something will be salvageable - the noise we heard would be the pistons hitting the valves when the cams stopped. I'll get it down to HT next month and they can let me know how bad it is

Meanwhile, I'm doing the Mewla on Epynt in just over a week, so this weekend I'll be refitting the Pinto and I've changed class to the Road Rally class
George is on holiday but she found me a replacement co-driver in Ross Whittock from Bath Motor Club - he's been navigating on Road Rallies for a few years now and has done a couple of forest events earlier this year but has never been over Epynt. His dad, Dave Whittock, won the Mewla in 1982 with Bob Fowden, so I've a lot to live up to

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Wethersfield Targa Rally - Sunday 13th July 2014

After a few hours work Sat morning, the calipers brackets were welded on, the axle refitted and I went for a test drive - Fly was going well but the handbrake was not so good, reaching the top of it's travel before enough pressure was applied

I didn't have any time left, so I loaded up and headed to my brother's in Essex. Saturday night there were big thunderstorms and heavy rain so when we arrived at the airfield, there were large puddles everywhere although it wasn't actually raining. We spent a while bleeding the rear brakes which helped but I still couldn't lock the rear wheels at speed

The event was run by Chelmsford and had a good entry of 60 cars with various quick crews out - I was hoping for a top 5 but knew the rain would help us so fitted some worn 21r's all round. Derek was down to drive Fly as well but had bought a Clio 182 off eBay on Sat morning very cheaply so decided to use that instead

There were 3 tests done 3 times in one direction and twice in other direction with minor changes in between. I was 1s off the top 2 on the first test but quickest on the next 2 and was leading by 5s after the first loop. Derek started off slowly in his new car

On the second loop, Derek was driving first and drowned out in one of the deeper puddles despite going very slowly into it. After 5 minutes she fired up and we drove back to the start as the organiser generously said we could have another go. We looked under the bonnet and there was an induction with an extra hose routing the air intake to just under the front bumper, so water had been sucked up to the filter and blocked the inlet. We disconnected most of this and drained the water out of the pipes before setting off again, this time taking to the grass to avoid the puddle. A few hundred yards later we stopped at a marshal for a signature and when Derek pulled away, something broke and we lost all drive. So not a very good day for Derek - we pushed his car out of the way and left it there until we could load it on my trailer later

Back in Fly I pulled out a few more seconds and the same again on the 3rd loop up to lunch to be leading by 30s from a double driven Clio Williams and Aron Rayner and David Lobb double driving a 1400 Corsa

We had a couple of showers in the afternoon but apart from adding petrol and swapping the tyres front to back, Fly was going well. Derek was good on the maps all day and by the finish I'd extended our lead to 48s. So another 1st Overall on a Targa Rally.
Derek was pleased to be the winning navigator but would have been happier if he'd finished in his car
The Clio Williams was 2nd and 5th, with Aron 3rd and David 4th, they were all very close


I think the handbrake problem is down to one of the brackets being not quite square, but I'm not happy with the caliper positioning (going over a small bump the bleed nipple hit the chassis rail, snapping the end off, luckily just the bit where you'd attach the bleed hose, so not a problem), do this needs sorting before my next event which is the Neath Valley Stages on 9th August...

[Graham]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

cool, thanks for the update

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

After the last Targa I spent a few weeks doing some upgrades to Fly...

I'd run Monte Carlo discs and calipers on the front when I was hillclimbing and still had the calipers and some spare discs on the shelf so I thought I'd put them back on. Unfortunately when I looked at the discs they were well worn, so I got some new ones from Peter Lloyd together with some DS3000 pads and fitted everything up, carefully spacing the caliper as far back as possible which means some of my 5" & 6" Wellers will fit - the Princess 4 pots and discs will be up for sale shortly



After having wheel studs snap on Fly and Dvy in consecutive years, and after some advice from Simon (Gp4), I decided it was time to move up to the twin taper fully floating set up. I bought all the parts from Grp4 Fabrications with Group 1 studs instead of the Group 4 studs
Removed the Quaife Hubs



Chopped the bearing carriers off as far out as possible and pressed the new stub axles on, after a lot of measuring to make sure the wheels would be in the same place



Welded them in place a little at a time with frequent checks for squareness



As Fly's axle is rather narrow at 47.5" casing width, but I still wanted to use the XR3i calipers, I knew sorting out some discs would be interesting
From the left, Rally Design discs for Princess 4 pots, XR3i discs, Mazda pickup discs (6 stud but the same 108 PCD so would only need 2 holes drilling) and Peugeot 406 260mm discs, showing the difference in offset of them. If I tried to use the XR3i discs, the disc would be in the middle of the rear shocks...



Tried the Mazda ones on, not bad as 20mm thickness and no offset



But settled on using the Peugeot ones as they were the same thickness as the XR3i ones (24mm) so fitted the calipers better, and only had 4mm offset. I machined the bore out to 71mm, turned the diameter down to 250mm and enlarged the stud holes to 15mm so they were a good fit over the studs



Once the discs were on, I positioned the caliper brackets and welded them on before heading off to another Targa Rally on 13th July...

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Debden Targa Rally 8th June 2014

Run by West Suffolk Motor Club at Carvers Barracks near Saffron Walden, I'd been there a couple of times before for gymkhanas and targas and its usually a good event.
This year the regulations came out late and they only had 38 starters including various hot hatches, a couple of endurance cars and 4 crews in MX5's including my brother Derek who has recently sold his Rover 200 and bought an MX5 instead

Last year there were 3 tests laid out, but one test area was out of bounds due to noise issues this year so we only had 2 tests, but this was better for me as the test they couldn't use was mainly tarmac and the others had various sections of gravel
Each test was run 3 times in both directions so a total of 12 throughout the day

I was quickest on the first test but beaten by a couple of MX5's on the next one, then went a few seconds quicker when they were repeated, and quicker again on the 3rd run through to be leading by 26s at the lunch break from an MX5, a BMW 318 and another MX5, all of which had 10s penalties for hitting a cone.

Derek was not doing so well, his MX5 had cut out on the way back to the paddock after the first 2 tests, and although it restarted fine once it had cooled down, it cut out on the second loop halfway through the second test so he decided to retire rather than breakdown in a difficult position, but he was navigating for me so still had an enjoyable day

With the tests reversed in the afternoon, I tried to keep everything tidy and every test went well, I gained a few seconds here and there and avoided hitting any cones despite getting close on a few occasions

Final result - 1st overall by 44s from the BMW after nearly 30 minutes of driving - I turned 2 sets of worn knobblies into slicks on the back, and Fly ran faultlessly all day. Thanks to Derek for a great job on the maps, and thanks also to the organisers and marshalls for a well run event

Next event will probably be another Targa rally in Essex

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Classic Tracks Rally - 25th May 2014

My 6th time on this event and it gets better every year

Same as last year, the event was based at Jamie Jukes' farm in Penrhiwllan near Llandysul and there was a full entry of 75 cars plus reserves
Carrie was navigating for the first time since this event last year, and Guy and Chris Clark were marshalling for us

Looking clean and tidy at the start, but having the fuel pump wiring fail going through scrutineering wasn't a good start, I managed to rewire it to the cut out switch and this lasted all day



There were 20 Tests, with the first one round the gravel tracks at the start venue which had been extended from 2013 to give a 2 mile test, with some steep hills, some fast downhill sections, a shallow ford and a couple of yumps! A great way to start the day although the damp weather made everything very slippery, I've never used the handbrake so much on the tight corners



The organisers had also been out with machinery on some of the more well used tracks on other farms making them smoother and keeping the farmers happy

Some sections were rather muddy though...



We had many moments throughout the day, being flagged down on an early test when the car in front drowned out in a ford, luckily there was enough room to go round them, getting very close to a number of sheds, barns, bales, hedges and banks, and overcooked a couple of hairpins, our rally nearly ended in a large log pile at lunch time, but we got away with them all and Fly never missed a beat, only a slight rumble from the front end on the last road section gave us any cause for concern (traced to a knackered wheel bearing)

All the tracks and farms were laid out very well, plenty of arrows and tape, making sure we all went the correct way
I think this picture is from Pant-Sod farm which has been very tight and narrow through a shed in the past, but a new route this year was great fun, I got Fly swinging nicely round the double hairpins through the tyres



Overall we had a great day, kept it tidy on the slippery bits and flat out on the rough stuff resulting in a clean run through all the tests

We finished 4th overall, just 16s behind 3rd but 4-5 minutes off the top 2 crews, both in Mk2's as well
Carrie did a great job on the maps and thoroughly enjoyed the day, many thanks to Llandysul Motor Club for putting on this unique event, and thanks to Guy and Chris for giving up their time to come and marshall

A short video of one track

Next event is a Targa Rally over in Essex run by West Suffolk Motor Club this weekend

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Thanks for the reminder, I was just getting round to doing a write up...