GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

I've registered for the Premier Championship in 2016 and the first event I'm doing is the Bath Festival at the end of Feb

On the last event I'd scraped the front wing on a wall, and reversed into another one turning round in a hurry
While straightening the wing I found a crack in the door pillar so took the door and wing off to repair it



Filled the front wing


And rear quarter


I've also changed the head gasket, water pump and I've got some more upgrades planned but that'll have to wait until the spring

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

It's 25 years ago today that I bought FLY

Some years I did many events, other years just one or two...

86 Road Rallies (3 wins), 23 Stage Rallies (best 4th overall), 14 Gymkhanas / Targa Rallies (5 wins), 2 seasons of Hillclimbs and Sprints, numerous other Autotests, 12 Cars, Scatters and one Autocross.

Currently sat in the workshop, all ready for this year's events.

Thanks to everyone who's helped out, given advice, and/or navigated for me over the years

[alladdin]

GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

That's some history 👍

[onecamohv]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

thats unbelievable for a relatively standard shell, incredible use out of one car, i think its more than paid its due!

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Bath Festival Road Rally - 27/28th February 2016

My first rally of the year and due to the popularity of the event, the organisers had increased the max entry to 70 cars, with 66 starting on the night.
George was navigating after an 18 month break from night events (due to work commitments) so we went out on a 12 car a week before to get some time in the car.
(Run by Cheltenham MC, we had a sensible night and came 2nd, the main problem being the lighting stalk failing on the way to the first control which I fixed by running a cable direct from the cut out switch to the fuse box, but by the time I'd done this we were late leaving the control!)

The Bath Festival had a different format this year with no Special Tests, but 20 miles of forests and other tracks (previously used on the Tests) being part of the road sections. I was trying some new Dmack forest tyres and was a bit worried on the first few sections when the tracks were very slippery and there was no grip, but the later forests were a lot drier and they were working well, and pretty good on the tarmac too.
At petrol we were 8th overall, over 3 minutes behind the leaders, but we were finding the slots well and were happy with how everything was going.
We had a good dice with the car in front of us, Dan and Nick Darkin in a Proton Satria - they were quicker on the tarmac but we could catch them on the loose!

The 2nd half was much more road based with just a few farmyards and triangles to negotiate. We kept up a good pace and apart from a missing a couple of slots near the end, it all went well. At the finish we were pleased to be 7th overall as it was a large entry, and this gives me 99 points towards defending my Premier Championship title

Many thanks to Dave Whittock and the rest of Bath Motor Club, and thanks to all the marshals who manned nearly 90 controls through the night, some doing 2 controls. And thanks to George for a great job on the maps

My next event is the Devils Tour next weekend on Salisbury Plain with Carrie navigating

[mjr]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Great result on The Devils Tour Gavin !
Glynn and I marshalled on a test during the day and were on the Plain at PC18 in the night.
FLY looked and sounded great all the time.

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Hi gavin
Notice you have twin cables running on the twin choke
Can you show a close up picture of how yours are attached the carb linkage?

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

That's a coincidence, someone asked the same last weekend

I modified it a while ago by cutting the ball joint off and drilling a 6mm hole through the end of the arm.
Then I welded another arm on the end of the rod with another 6mm hole in it.
To clamp the cables, I drilled 2 x 2mm holes in an M6 screw so the throttle cables could pass through and clamped them with nuts on the M6 screw. There's also solderless nipples on the ends of the cables just to make sure they don't go anywhere!
The throttle cable adjustment screws / guides go through the original square hole in the bracket which has a bit of 3mm plate welded over it and 2 holes drilled for them.
A bit fiddly to tighten up so I did it with the bracket unbolted then bolted it to the manifold afterwards.

Difficult to get a decent picture, but I hope you get the idea
The head of the screw is on the right, hidden behind the hose, and the bit of slotted angle is only there for the extra throttle spring.





Thanks

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

That's brilliant gavin cheers

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

A brief update from the last 2 months

Devils Tour Road Rally - 26th March 2016
This event was a similar format to last year with Special Tests in the afternoon and evening, followed by a Jogularity section and a 60 mile night route over Salisbury Plain. Carrie was navigating and we were seeded 5 out of 31 entries.
The weather Saturday afternoon was terrible, steady rain and strong winds, and we were very grateful to the marshals for standing out in it. We were going steadily and were 5th overall at the supper halt with under a minute covering the top 7 cars.



After supper we headed out to the Jogularity, about 15 miles with 3 controls. We got a bit confused getting to the start of the section but once we were going it went well, just a few seconds late at each control.
Next there was a long drive over to the eastern side of Salisbury Plain for the first night section. After competing last year, we decided to take it steadily and stop to work out any of the tricky diagrams and not as map sections. This worked well and we were lucky not to see many other cars, allowing us to concentrate on what we were doing, and we only dropped 3 minutes in the 60 miles. I thought some crews would have cleaned it, but when we arrived at the finish we were surprised to find the quickest crew had dropped 2 minutes, another was on 3 and another on 5.
When the results came out, we were 3rd overall, just over 30s behind the winners, so a good result and thanks to Carrie for navigating.




Wethersfield Targa Rally - 24th April 2016
Run by Chelmsford MC with 15 Tests and a full entry of 70 cars.
The Tests are quite long and complicated as it's a big airfield and Derek felt ill when he navigated in 2015 so Carrie sat in with me, and I navigated for Derek in his Peugeot 205 Rallye.
We made a bad start, getting slightly lost on the first Test, setting a time which was 28th quickest and had another bit of confusion on Test 3 so after the first loop Carrie and I were 12th. By lunch we had got up to 4th and in the afternoon we had a good run to finish 2nd overall, just 3s behind the winner and over a minute ahead of 3rd.

Derek had a good day in the 205, getting used to a fresh engine although it wasn't running perfectly, finishing 20th overall and 4th in class


Woodbridge Targa Rally - 22nd May 2016
With the Classic Tracks not running this year, I headed back to Essex again for this event run by Wickford AC. Derek was navigating for me and I was navigating for him as we've done at many Woodbridge Targa's before. The airfield hadn't been used for 18 months so the infamous Buddleia bushes had grown back beside the runways and disused buildings. We were running first out of 60 entries and spent the first loop finding the best route through the bushes for everyone else to follow!

Our times were pretty good and the Test layouts didn't change between the runs so we made up a lot of time on the second runs and were 5th at lunch. Only a few seocnds separated 2nd to 5th, but the leader was well ahead. After lunch we did the same Tests twice in the opposite direction, with Derek driving first so I could see where the tricky bits were. By the end of the day I had just scraped into 2nd, with another Mk2 Escort very close behind in 3rd and 4th (as it was being double driven) but still a minute behind the winners.

Derek was going very well after having the 205 tuned and fitting some worn trackday tyres, finishing 16th and 3rd in class


It will probably be August before I'm back out in Fly which should give me time to finish some improvements I've been working on for the past few months...

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Any updates gavin
How are you getting on defending your championship?

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

It's all going well - over the summer I've done 2 historics in the Scimitar and last month I did a Road Rally in Fly. No amazing results but all top tens and I'm currently leading Driver again. I've got a Targa and a Road Rally in November and that will be it for the year.

Over the summer I continued with my planned improvements to Fly...

I'd been after another set of splits for a while now having sold the previous set about 10 years ago, but couldn't find many available or at a sensible price, so I came up with a plan to use the pair of 48 SK carbs which had been on DVY for many years.

I bought a new bare manifold from Dave Brooks and also borrowed a pair of Astra 8v splits so I could copy the linkage and work out how the carbs were cut up
After a lot of research and measuring, I got to work with the hacksaw







Bolted to the manifold with a few mm between them - I filed the edges down a bit more after this to get a bit more clearance




Machining the last of the linkage parts with the angle grinder and the lathe...


I bought some smaller trumpets...


... to fit nicely under the Pipercross Air Box which has a sponge filter in the neck, so very quiet


And a quick Rolling road Session at JPR Tuning in Yate


The top end power was very similar to the DGAS, but I've gained quite a lot of torque

Since then I did Course Car on the Washingpool Farm Targa and also the Exmoor Targa, both of which I organise for Tavern Motor Club so it's nice to be able to go out and have a play after all the hard work

Last month I did the Mercian Road Rally with Carrie - we'd come 4th last year, but this year the route was slightly different with some of the rougher whites not being used and a lot more in the lanes. We were going well but I won't drive as fast as some crews in the lanes even if they are straight, and with one of the early sections which had a long white being scrubbed due to a local blocking the road, we finished 8th Overall.

[Graham]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

cool, my guess would be the superior induction shape helped in the midrange but ultimately the total airflow potential available to each cylinder is reduced

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Wethersfield Bonfire Targa - Sunday 6th November 2016

This was my last event in Fly for the year and Derek was navigating. Chelmsford MC had a full entry of 70 cars and had laid out 4 tests at Wethersfield Airfield, with each test being run 3 times, and a few changes between the tests.

It was very cold when we arrived and Fly wouldn't start, so Derek had to tow me round the car park a few times to get her going!
After that, the first 4 tests went well and I was leading by a few seconds, although there was a problem with the 3rd test as the way the cones had been laid out meant you would have had to go on the grass to get round one hairpin and we're always told to keep off the grass! We kept off the grass and took a sensible route, some other crews went on the grass, and some stopped to think about it!



The second runs were a lot better - Derek had gone round first so I had the benefit of seeing exactly where the route had changed before driving it myself, and at lunch I was leading by 24s from David Lobb in his Corsa.

It had been sunny in the morning, but clouded over at lunchtime and was dirzzling by the time I went out for the 3rd runs. Everything was damp and greasy with not much grip anywhere, but I had a good run and thought it would be enough to maintain my lead. When David went out a bit later, it was raining and there was slightly more grip. He had a very good run, especially on the longest test through the bomb dump and finished 10s ahead of me, also helped by the 3rd Test being scrubbed.

So 2nd overall, matching the previous 2 Targa events I've done this year!




For the Premier Championship, it was slightly different this year with 8 events to count and everyone split into different classes based on their experience, so there was no overall driver trophy, but I did win 1st Expert Driver by 40 points from Simon Harris, and I was 4th overall in the outright championship, behind 3 navigators!


Next year I won't be doing the championship as Fly needs a serious rebuild over the summer, but I've entered the Carpetbagger Road Rally in January and the Bath Festival in February so that should be an exciting start to the year

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Carpetbagger Road Rally - 21st/22nd January 2017

This event last ran in 2010 before being stopped by PR issues. I'd done it twice before and it has a reputation for being a long tough event, so when it was announced it was returning in 2017, I put in an early entry with George navigating.

I had a busy few weeks leading up to the event getting Fly ready - rebuilt the gearbox as 2nd gear was sticking, fitted a new starter, clutch, clutch release bearing and cable. This last job caused me a lot of problems, the new cable came from Rally Design but the outer casing was so weak, it was clamping the inner cable as soon as there was pressure on it, so the clutch pedal was stuck solid

After bending the clutch pedal, and a spare one, taking the gearbox in and out a few times, I fitted a QH clutch cable and everything was fine.
Other than that, I had to weld up holes under the rear seat, cracks in the 4 link box, the rear seat cross member had rusted away from the floor, the rear chassis needed a big patch and the outer sill had rusted through so some filler dropped out while I was bashing everything around!

Big hole and cracks - repaired with a section from a 4 door


Dodgy filler work and a couple of coats of paint


Other jobs included repairing the linkage on the splits, changing a throttle cable, welding up a rusty strut top and fitting a new dip/main beam stalk (brand new made in Turkey)


With some Dmack DMG1 knobblies all round, we were ready to go. 54 cars started including some top crews from Wales and Derbyshire, so we were seeded back top 28. It was a cold dry night, but not as cold as some have been recently, so the conditions were a mixture of dry roads and sheet ice!

We started near Chard in Somerset with a short run out to the first 10 competitive sections. We nearly went off quite a few times, hitting unexpected patches of ice or patches of mud where other cars had been off, and dropped time on every section. There was a short link section to make up time, before another lot of competitive sections, a further link and some more to take us to petrol in Wellington. We were going at our usual speed, nowhere near the top crews but catching the few people around us, finding the slots and triangles and enjoying ourselves and arrived at petrol happy we hadn't done any damage during the 90 miles!

A lot of people had dropped out already, a mixture of driveshaft failures or encounters with the scenery and we were lying 11th out of the 25 crews still running

The second half was a bit shorter at 60 miles and the roads and conditions were similar - we came up to one very icy slightly uphill T junction, only just managing to stop at the Give Way, before finding I couldn't pull away and slid backwards down the road we had come up. About 50 yards back away from the ice, I had a run at it and just got round! After a few sections though there was a faint rumbling coming from the back, enough for me to want to have a look in the next link section. But before we could get to it, it suddenly got very loud, everytime I braked or lifted, but was fine under load.

We stopped and had a look, but there was nothing obvious apart from a strong smell of axle oil. I didn't think it would last the next 40 miles, so we headed slowly back to Wellington where we had left the trailer and went home

So an enjoyable event, but surprised to be let down by the axle. I was worried the tube had come loose again, so got it out on Sunday night.
Investigations show the pinion bearings are badly worn (hence the initial rumble) and the vibration was enough to make the pinion nut come loose (despite having tons of thread lock on it from the last time it was rebuilt, not by me). The nut was so loose, when there was no load, the pinion was moving back until it hit the LSD casing, making some interesting teeth marks!



I've ordered a set of bearings and will fit these as well as smoothing the teeth marks on the casing. The pinion itself looks fine as the teeth are a lot harder than the LSD casing...

Plenty of time for testing before the Bath Festival at the end of Feb