GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

[Binnes]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

I would like to bring this thread up to date by saying that Gavin and Georgina won the Mixed Crew Award on the Peak Revs Road Rally at the weekend!

Congratulations and it was nice to put a face to the name at the start!

Ben Innes.

Clerk of Course - The Peak Revs Road Rally

[kizzy]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Awesome example

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Another pic from last weekend, on the final test

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Welsh slate I believe...

[exboyracer]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Great stuff Gavin

Interesting trophies, looks like someone raided my black museum

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

I love tge padded tractor :-)

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

And a few videos

This one is at the start and finish venue tests, we feature at 1:37

[MCURZON]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Well done Gav

[Graham]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

excellent, and a great result, well done

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Classic Tracks 26th May 2013

An excellent event run by Llandysul Motor Club in West Wales, nowadays run as a Targa Rally with 20 Special Tests on private land - using farm tracks, fields, narrow paths, a couple of forest tracks, around farmyards and even through some cattle sheds

A full entry of 75 I was seeded car 6 with Carrie navigating on her first road event for a few years, we started off at a club members farm where he'd built gravel tracks through a few fields, across a stream and up and down a steep hillside with hairpins, must have been about a mile long, it was great fun and an excellent way to begin. There were a lot of spectators as we were using this venue 3 times throughout the day. In between we went off to other farms, most of which we recognised from previous years, but can never quite remember where the tracks go

Fly was going well, not as bouncy over the bumps with the new rear springs and at the lunch halt we were 7th
The afternoon was just as good, many cars retiring as the toughness of the event got to them. Down one bumpy white where the potholes had been filled with large stones rather unevenly, we had a big moment when we took off sideways and landed a bit awkwardly - after this Carrie suggested I might want to back off a fraction as we were near the finish by now

The final test was back at the original farm with a final blast round the track and when the results came out we were pleased to be 6th Overall and 3rd Experts
Well done to Carrie for navigating, and thanks to Guy, Chris and Danielle for marshalling for us

Pots


Near the finish of Test 15

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Another busy couple of weeks as I had entered a Targa Rally over in Essex last weekend, finished Fly 3pm Saturday and headed off to my brother Derek's house in Chelmsford. A couple of years ago I did a lot of Gymkhana's run by Chelmsford and the Targa format has replaced these, the only difference being the lack of skill tests which is no great loss!

This one was run by West Suffolk MC at Debden Airfield. After previously competing there we were expecting some loose gravelly sections so I was running worn knobblies. Derek was driving his Endurance spec Rover 200 on some old Yokohama 21R's and we were navigating for each other

There were 3 tests laid out and we did each one 5 times, 3 in one direction and the last 2 in reverse direction after lunch
The first 3 went well, I was 2nd= overall and Derek 15th out of the 50 entries, and after the 2nd 3 I was leading by 6s from a Polish chap Tomasz in a Honda S2000 who made a mistake on the 3rd test which was the one with the most gravel

Unfortunately on Test 5 Derek stopped at the finish and clouds of smoke came from under the bonnet - we pulled out of the way, opened the bonnet and found oil everywhere, dripping off the sumpguard. There was still oil in the sump and when we started the engine it wasn't pouring out of anywhere, but we couldn't continue like that so we left it there until lunch and then put the Rover on my trailer for the journey home. We could only think that an oil seal or gasket had gone, so under hard cornering or braking, oil would spill out, but sat still idling it would be fine

I did the 3rd loop and was lying 2nd at lunch, Tomasz had now got to grips with the loose sections and was taking a few seconds off me on the smoother tests, so I was 6s behind. For the 4th loop, I was trying really hard to make back the time, but coming out of the last hairpin on Test 12 I changed to second and the gearstick went loose and we were left in neutral
We had enough speed to freewheel across the line and got a tow back to the paddock where I had a look to see if it was fixable, but once I removed the gearstick and found everything connected at that end, it had to be something internal in the box, so we called it a day

The only problem now was we had 2 broken cars and only one trailer After a bit of thought about what would have broken in the box, I wondered if I might still have 5th gear (as it runs off a different selector) and I did, so I drove Fly back to Derek's in 5th and he followed in the van and trailer...

Being short of time, that evening I removed the box and had a look in the top, expecting the roll pin that holds the selector boss to the selector shaft had broken, but this was fine (I had one break years ago and now reinforce it with a split pin up the middle of the roll pin), it was the pin that sticks out of the boss itself which had snapped off, something I'd never come across before, although I see Quaife sell steel ones so it must be a known problem.
I had a standard spare one, so fitted that Monday night, the box was back in Tuesday night and I had a successful test drive last night

This weekend I'm over in West Wales for the Classic Tracks, with Carrie navigating as George is away
I'm looking forward to it, I just hope nothing else breaks

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Last weekend I had a chance to look at Fly - I was worried the rear shock might have burst contributing to the heavy landings, but the shock was ok and everything else was broken...

Bent rear spring - it's only been on a year, at least it didn't snap though


Cracks round the turret - although they've done well, bought from Peter Lloyd together with the 4 link kit and fitted in 1995


The same crack from inside the boot - there were also cracks in the boot floor and around the panhard rod mount


With the bank holiday, I had enough time to empty the boot and weld everything, adding a few plates to the turret, although maybe next winter I'll have to change them. I've also swapped the rear stub axle for a spare - it looked ok but that's twice in as many weeks I've had a problem on that corner - and I fitted a new wheel bearing as well

I think it has highlighted that I need some more ground clearance / suspension travel at the back, I normally run quite a bit of fuel and 2 spares which adds to the weight. So I dug out a set of double leaf springs which were given to me by a friend many years ago when he cleared out the late Charles Golding's garage - they were spares for his Autocross winning Mk2 Escort. No idea of the spec, I've never seen double leafs before, but they are Mk1 Escort width slipper springs, probably made by Gartrac and will be fitted this weekend

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Somerset Stages 20th April 2013



Although I've helped organise the Exmoor Endurance the last few years and George has driven through the forests many times planning routes, we'd never rallied in them so we entered the Somerset Stages to see what they were like…

The event runs in 3 legs, 5 forest stages to start, then a short service to change to tarmac tyres before 2 runs up Porlock Toll Road, then a long service before 4 more forest stages. It has been so dry recently and the stages were quite dusty but as we were seeded quite highly we didn't have any problems catching cars.

Leg 1 started with Knowle forest, the only one I've driven through having marshalled in there a few times. It didn't go that well, I didn't really get into it, so George had to wait for me on the notes a few times, but at least no one caught us! Next was Chargot and it was great to see a lot of Tavern members out marshalling the arrival and start controls. We were a bit quicker through here although I got a bit confused near the end when there were a lot of corners all together. After a 10 minute break to check the car over (it was auxiliary service but we hadn’t bothered with any service crew!) we headed up to Croydon forest where the final 2 stages of the morning were. Croydon 1 was quite long at 6.64 miles, a few large rocks in places but not too bad and by the end of it we were going very well. This was followed by a short run through Timberscombe and then another stage in a different part of Croydon forest – this one we were 43rd quickest and when we saw some results at service we were pleased to be lying 56th overall out of the 120 cars still running. One slight mistake - as the service area is in Butlins car park, no refuelling was allowed so we’d planned to fill up at Tesco’s on the way past, but I didn’t have any money and neither did George… Luckily we spotted Steve Harkness who was running one of the tyre vans and borrowed some money off him

In service, John Dando and Hugh, who were there servicing for Rob Dennis, helped us fit the slicks and we headed off to Porlock. I’d marshalled here as well, but never driven it at speed so was looking forward to it and was hoping to set some good times. We had 2 good runs up the 4 mile Toll Road, going 10s quicker the second time but our times were relatively slow – it would have been good to take DVY up there to see how we could have done with a bit more power

A longer service this time, we fitted the forest tyres and Hugh rebalanced the carbs as the idle was very rough. The final leg took us back to Knowle, a very similar stage to the first one with just one extra loop added, everything went well again. Then it was back to Chargot for 2 runs in the reverse direction. Even though it’s a short stage at just under 2 miles it has a good variety of corners. The first time through, after about 1.5 miles there was a 6 right with logs inside through a dip – I missed all the logs but Fly took off out of the dip and there was a loud bang as we landed heavily on the rear left, followed by a knocking noise from the back end. Assuming we had a puncture I backed off and we cruised to the finish. We only had 4 minutes to be ready for the next run, so as we lined up George hopped out but there was no puncture her side. I got out and checked my side, no puncture either! I checked all the link bars and springs and everything was fine so there was no option but to clonk our way through the next run…

Out of the stage we drove to auxiliary service, borrowed a jack off Nick Eccles (who was doing Management for fellow club members Simon Munden and Gordon Leigh), took the rear wheel off and found an enormous dent on the inner rim, which was enough to make it hit the caliper every revolution, hence the clonking. I’m not sure how the tyre stayed up, but was just glad nothing else looked damaged, so we fitted a spare and headed to the final stage in Croydon forest. This was the previous 2 Croydons linked together with a few extra loops giving a 10.2 mile stage. We had a very good run through, everything worked perfectly and near the end we caught Simon and Gordon who had slowed when their rad hose split.

At the finish we were pleased to be 43rd overall and 8th in class, well done to George keeping her place in the notes as my speed is quite inconsistent in a forest, slow through the tight corners but quicker on the more open sections. Thanks to John, Hugh and Nick for their help during the day

And some in car

SS5 - Croydon 2

SS7 - Porlock 2

SS9 - Chargot 2 - spot the dip...

[oddy]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Good luck today Gavin,
Gonna be dusty!
Cheers,
James

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Very good

Tomorrow George and I are out on the Somerset Stages in the forests of Exmoor and a few runs up Porlock Toll Road which is tarmac

So after getting a lift home from Shepton Mallet, I returned with the van, trailer, some tools and spare wheel studs and spent 30min by the roadside repairing Fly before loading up and heading home
As the Somerset is a stage rally we'd be running in the 2 litre class with a lot more powerful cars, so I bolted a pair of 48's onto the Pinto (they were on DVY before I went to injection) and went to HT for a session on their rollers last week, gaining about 20bhp over the single carb

Also, last weekend I changed the other rear studs just in case they were about to break, fitted new rear discs (running on the disc for 50 yds doesn't do it any good ), hammered, filled and painted the rear arch which had been squashed by the wheel escaping, swapped the gearbox for FLY's original Quaife Clubman which I'd rebuilt over Easter and finally fitted the seats from DVY and a few other bits and pieces

Looks like it will be a good sunny day, we're Car 61 out of 100 in the main field, and there's an additional 40 1400cc cars running at the front, so it's going to be a busy day...