GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

[azz259]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

How did you get on at this years classic tracks? I navigated in a bmw compact and was a very good day, that first stage at spencers yard was something else !

[alladdin]

Use a good coat of 2k primer filler Gavin, it's amazing what you can flat out of it .

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Then onto more tidying of the bodywork

The boot lip was cracked and going rusty in places so I welded in a new section


Passenger door was getting really bad - I'd repaired it in the past with filler and fibreglass but the rust was coming through again, so I cut the bottom of the door skin off and welded in a new section. The front and rear corners had gone almost up to the swage line


Filled the door


And the boot lid


Taking the door off revealed a rotten door pillar - it's double skinned round the hinge holes and a lot of this had rotted out


Part of a replacement sill made a good repair panel and I removed the wing to get access all round


I still had a few litres of cellulose left over from previous repairs, so mixed it up and sprayed the boot and door


Then the door pillar


And as it was going well and I had some paint left in the gun, I gave the front panel a few coats (I'd wire brushed and primered it a few days earlier)
While I was there, I fitted an oil cooler (just waiting to be plumbed in). I've also redone the radiator cut out and replaced the rear silencer with a bigger one as I was on the noise limit on the last event


My next event isn't until the end of May but I need to get Fly out of the workshop to start on the next project which is respraying the Scimitar. Doing this work to Fly is good practice although I need to spend more time and effort on the filling and sanding if I want the Scimitar to come out well...

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

We didn't make it out on the Somerset Stages in the end as George was out of the country, although this gave me time for various repairs and a general tidy up...

The drivers chassis under the footwell had been squashed a few times on road rallies and doing a few forest events over the past few years had made it even worse
So I cut the bent section out


Cut a replacement section from a 4 door floorpan


Welded it in and plated some other rot


Then fashioned a skid plate from 2mm sheet


Front view


The passenger side chassis was fine so I just made a skid plate and welded it on

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

So you would rate the 21r then
Great writeup as usual gav !

[Graham]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

fantastic stuff and a brilliant write up as always well done

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Bath Festival Road Rally - 22nd-23rd February

There was a full entry of 50 cars for the 3rd running of this event. After the previous 2 years car problems, George and I were hoping for a troublefree run and that's what happened. There were 7 special tests and a regularity before petrol, then a longer regularity followed by 80 miles in the lanes to the finish. I was expecting the road sections to have a greater bearing on the results than the tests so went on a new set of A021R's that had worked so well last year, but this meant being sensible in the tests which started with a couple of short tests run twice each. After these we were lying 13th but it was all very close.

The next 3 were in forests, the first one we did twice and had done it last year as well. We got going better on this one, it was smooth and mainly dry. The last one was the longest at 3 miles and we had done a shortened version the previous year. It started off quite muddy so I was being careful but the final half was good and dry. Our time of 6m59s was 5th quickest.

Onto the Regularity, up a private tarmac road and back down a yellow, we were quickest here only dropping 9s which left us 5th overall at petrol, but only a few seconds ahead of Cars 1 & 2 - although we didn't know any of this at the time.

The regularity out of petrol went back through the forests we'd used on Test 5 & 7 but we were given a road book with tulips describing the junctions and distances at each one - George did very well interpeting this despite me forgetting to reset the trip at the start (I can usually add up well but going through a forest in the dark trying to calculate the differences between mileages to 0.01 of a mile was a challenge!)

We were lucky not to get held up that much, the only car we caught was car 10 who pulled over quite quickly, just before a LWR triangle in the forest - I thought we were earlier on but George shouted left at the right moment and we just made it round the triangle and into the control. At the last Passage check of the section we caught Car 12 and then again at the finish but it's difficult to know how much time we lost. All this allowed cars 1 & 2 to make up their seconds and end up ahead of us.

Out on the road section, George was doing a great job - we didn't have a single wrong slot and found all the numerous LWR's, just a couple of hesitations but we were never more than 30s into our minute and usually got it back on the next section by pushing a bit harder to be waiting outside the control board. It was raining quite hard at times and there was some mud in places but the tyres were working well and we didn't drop a single minute over the 80 miles

As we headed back to the finish we weren't sure how we would have done - it looked like cars 12 & 14 were clean as well so for all we knew there could have been 15 cars clean which would mean the results were all down to the times in the forests...

As it turned out, only 6 cars were clean, quite a few dropping time on the very last section which was a 1/2 mile down a muddy white.
We finished 6th Overall which is the best result George and I have had on a night event

A couple of pics from Andy Manston
On the first Test


Near the end of the road sections, a ford not far from Glastonbury


Next event will be back in the forests on the Somerset Stages, after some more chassis repairs for the MOT...

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Hi,

I ran the DGAS for many years before switching to a set of splits when I moved to Wales. I sold these on when I stopped doing many events and replaced it with the single 45. At the beginning of last year I sold the 45 and went back to the original DGAS after having it rebuilt.

The power output between the 45 and the DGAS are very similar on my engine, but the DGAS fits in the engine bay better

Thanks

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Did you previously run a single 45 ?
Is the dgas performing better ?

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Thanks for the comments

After saying my first event was in February, George phoned up and said she was available for the Carvers Traders Rally on 18th Jan. This event was run by Burnham-on-Sea Motor Club on the lanes around Exmoor which we know quite well, so we put in a late entry.
This meant I had to get on with some of Fly's rebuild...

After removing the tank, large cracks in the boot floor


Even worse underneath, Panhard Rod mount not connected to much


The drivers side chassis rail has collapsed inwards and the bottom of the turret rusted away - years of being pounded by the bump stop has taken its toll


After putting the Panhard Rod mount back to where it should be and welding it to the boot floor, I cut out some of the chassis rail and inserted some thick box section with a notch in the bottom for extra clearance. The passenger side isn't as bad but I'll notch it at a later date


A few years ago I was gently rear-ended and although it straightened out pretty well, it had left some cracks round the rear light and these were going rusty. After a bit more straightening I cleaned them up


Welded the cracks and put plates behind the bigger holes


Ground the welds down, some primer and 4 coats of paint, looks a lot better than when I started. I also welded thick washers on for the main battery earth



So to the rally itself, not particularly good entry even for the South West of just 25 cars. We arrived a bit late after a slow journey from Bristol through some floods, I was glad i was in the van as some were pretty deep. Then we sat in the scrutineering queue for an hour, each car was taking a long time mainly because the scrutineer was very chatty, but we got done in the end

We were given some of the route an hour before the start and plotted it with plenty of time to spare. The rest of the route was in sealed envelopes to be opened at certain controls on the route. The first control was a mile up the road, on a main road just before a tiny road turned off. We queued up and could see the first few cars turning off so I headed in that direction while George opened the envelope and found a marked map with 5 miles of route on. The lanes were quite bumpy but we didn't have any problems getting to the first control with time to spare. The next section was just as easy but Fly started to misfire and coming up a steep hill she cut out completely and wouldn't restart. I grabbed a torch and looked under the bonnet and saw a large hole in the air filter


Assuming this was the problem, I removed it, threw it in the boot, Fly fired up and we were a couple of minutes late into the next control. Something still wasn't right, cruising along a B road on the next section she was still missing a bit and when we got to the next control she cut out again and we only just got her going as our time came up. The next section was down some twisty lanes and even though everything was just about ok flat out, every time I slowed for a corner she would cut out and either stall or slowly spring back to life. George and I agreed we couldn't carry on like this and as we were only 5 miles from the van and trailer we decided to call it a night before we completely broke down in the middle of nowhere!

Even trying to do these 5 miles was a challenge, so I pulled up again and had a better look at everything. To my surprise I found the top half of the carb was loose, 2 of the screws were missing and the other 4 were only held in by the filter base plate. I got a few tools out and tried to screw it down, but there was something in the way so I took the top right off, found the accelerator jet almost unscrewed and a float floating in the float chamber


So I chucked that in the boot as well and screwed everything down tight. George turned on the pumps while I watched but the single float wasn't strong enough to close the needle valve so neat petrol was flooding into the engine, no wonder it wouldn't idle! Anyway after a few minutes she started without the pumps on and we got back to the trailer and home without any further incidents. I assume the float had come off over one of the bumps on the first sectioon and the resulting misfire and petrol going everywhere had allowed the rest of the carb to come loose...

The next day after a quick search I found a DGAS carb on the Scimitar forum being sold cheaeply by a chap I know in Gloucester so I collected it the following week.
I swapped the jets over, checked the fuel pressure, changed the oil and last weekend I went to a local Rolling Road in Yate, JPR Tuning. After a few hours we had a good smooth torque curve and a peak of 140bhp at 6k rpm. They could have got a bit more peak power but we decided it was better to have more torque throughout the range, especially for road rallies

So, fingers crossed for the Bath Festival in 3 weeks...

[lukem30]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Just read this thread from the start, great read and lots of interesting event reviews.

[Graham]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

thanks for the updates, they make a great read as always

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Wish we had targa rally's up north
This is the sort of event that would save Motorsport up here but instead all the clubs are too busy
Making sure that the national tarmac championship with the whining big boys get to run

Not very fair

[alladdin]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

as always

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

2013 Update

After the Classic Tracks, my next event was in July - a Targa Rally at Wethersfield Airfield in Essex. Chelmsford Motor Club had previously used the airfield for Single Venue Rallies and Sprints but it had been unavailable for over 10 years, so it was good to get back in there.

I was out in Fly with my brother navigating and he was driving his Rover 200 with me navigating. There were 3 tests laid out, all to be done 4 times, 2 on the perimeter track and 1 in the bomb dump, all quite twisty and the odd bit of smooth gravel to keep it interesting

After a slowish start on the first loop I was 8th overall and Derek was 15th, but we improved steadily throughout the day.
Despite the clutch cable snapping on Fly 100yds from the finish of the final test, luckily I was still in 1st so only lost a few seconds, I got up to 4th overall and Derek had one of his best results, 9th overall and winning his class

A couple of pictures from Wethersfield from Andy Manston. Targas (previously Gymkhanas) are great fun and are a good cheap form of motorsport, many people are out in standard or lightly modified road cars and there are not many rules and regulations to worry about






Next I was out on the Neath Valley Stages for the 3rd year in a row. The event was using the forests of Resolven, Rheola and Margam Park, all between Neath and Port Talbot so it was a very compact route. There were 45 stage miles, the first lap was 8 miles of Resolven, then 7 in Rheola and Margam, and the second lap was the same Resolven stage then the next 2 run as one 14 mile stage. George was co-driving as usual and Hugh was out servicing.

We'd entered the Road Rally class but were disappointed to find out at the start that we had been amalgamated with the 2 litre modified class - if we had known a few days earlier I could have fitted the 48's for a bit more power. Fellow Tavern club members Alan and Denise Desbois were also out in their unique Peugeot 306 RWD with Andy Stevens servicing.

It took me a few miles to get back into the rhythm of driving in a forest but by the end of the first stage we were going well. Stages 2 and 3 also went smoothly and we took it gently over the infamous Margam jump - it's a man-made jump, pretty much just a pile of gravel but too short so the rear of the car gets kicked into the air and therefore not really worth attacking at speed. Back in service we waited for Alan and Denise to arrive - they had pulled over on a road section to check the suspension and found a bent front strut. Fly didn't need any fettling, just a bit of fuel, so Hugh helped Andy change all 4 struts on the 306 back to the previous set up - they did well to complete this in 35 minutes.

Out for the second lap, we were 16s faster on the identical Resolven stage and had a great run through the last long stage. We were pleased to finish 16th out of the 43 modern cars and 4th in class out of 17. Many thanks to George, another great job on the notes, and Hugh for servicing.
I've enjoyed the 2 forest events in 2013, it would just be nice to have some more power now as Fly takes a while to get going on some of the straights...

One pic over the jump taken by Scott Turner




After a few months off, I did another Targa in November, this time at Woodbridge Airfield. There were 4 tests laid out this time, run 4 times each but the final runs were pairs of tests joined together. They were quite tricky in places and using some roads I'd never seen before, a couple quite sandy and bumpy in places. I was seeded car 1 and had a disappointing slow start finding my way through all the cones assisted by Derek and was languishing in 17th after the first lap. Derek went well, helped a bit by being the second driver and was only a few seconds behind me in 18th. Second drivers were all doing well, having tyre marks to follow or having navigated someone else first through a test is definitely an advantage and 9 out of the top 10 at this point were second drivers.

The next lot of tests I really got going, not having anything to lose I took a few more risks than usual, set a couple of fastest test times and moved up to 6th

The afternoon saw a bit more improvement but I could only manage 4th overall, just one second behind Ian Mepham in his BMW 318 and just ahead of Jamie Turner. Owen Turner had been leading going into the final 2 test but got a puncture, changed it in 1m 30s and finished 6th. Derek had a good clean run through everything and finished 15th. George was out competing as a driver for the first time in her Endurance spec MG ZR and did very well to finish 30th out of the 75 cars

A couple more pics from Andy Manston






My final event for the year was the Peak Revs Road Rally based in Leominster. In November 2012 George and I did 3 Road Rallies and this was our favourite so we were keen to do it again. It was not a round of the Welsh Championship this year so had a shorter route of 80 miles and no petrol halt. They were also running a Special Test for the first time, about midway through the event

After all the formalities were completed, we were given an hour to plot the route, but we were a bit out of practice not having done a night event since February so we had to rush through the last few sections. There was one PC we struggled to plot and ran out of time to double check it.

On a Road Rally it's difficult to tell how you're getting on, but we seemed to be going well, catching some of the other Semi-Experts around us despite the slippery conditions and patchy ice. I was running on Yokohama A021R's and they were working well although the muddy whites were quite interesting, one near the end we took a minute out of the car in front over 1/2 a mile

The Special Test was round a disused and overgrown bomb dump at Ditton Priors, used in the past for Stage Rallies but not for many years. The Test Diagram was not the best I've seen but George did well to direct me round the tracks and cones, we had a good clean run through.

Near the end we came to the PC we'd had trouble plotting but didn't manage to find the marshals so this gave us a Fail, which puts you behind all the crew who are fail free. This left us 38th and 11th in class, without the fail we would have been just outside the top 10 and near the top of the class.

Looking at the Results, we were very pleased to be equal 2nd quickest on the Special Test, just a few seconds behind the overall winner



In 2014 the plan is for more of the same, a mixture of Road, Forest and Targa rallies, but before then Fly's rear chassis needs a major rebuild as there are cracks in many places and the chassis above the bump stops is disintegrating...

First planned event is Bath Festival in February