GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Bagger Road Rally - 26/27th Jan 2019

So after doing as much straightening as I could myself, Fly went off to James (Oddy) for a freshen up and looked very tidy when I picked her up a couple of weeks later



A few days work and everything was ready for the Bagger Road Rally - one of the toughest road rallies in the country!



74 cars started and only 22 finished the 200 mile route using the lanes of Somerset and Devon, unfortunately we weren't one of them

We got the whole route plotted at the start with 20 minutes to spare and were catching crews on the first few sections, but dropping time at most of the controls
There was a short link section after TC7 to allow us to make up time and we were just outside the top 10 at this stage
I was driving sensibly quickly (i.e. not flat out) as we knew just finishing would be an achievement

Coming down a narrow yellow I hit an unexpected yump quite quickly and we took off and landed with a loud bang from the rear end and the car was all over the place. Hoping it was just a link bar bolt had snapped, we stopped to check but everything was still attached.
It soon became clear that I'd snapped a shaft - the yump was so unexpected I didn't manage to lift off before we landed and I assume the shock of landing was enough to snap the shaft - they've been in there for over 15 years, but should be unbreakable with the power I've got.

We carried on slowly for a bit with one wheel drive but it was clear we would have to retire so cut route across to a control to find a marshal. We lost all drive going up a hill but I discovered I could drive very slowly in reverse, so managed to turn round and reverse up to the control at a junction - we were off route so didn't get in the way of anyway else. There was no marshal at this control so we parked up and walked 1/2 mile to the next control and found Tom Jefferis and his son marshalling. Tom competes on the Exmoor and very kindly leant us his car so we could drive back to where the trailer was parked, collect it and return his car, before loading up Fly and heading home.

Yesterday I gave Fly a good clean and removed the shafts in the workshop - the passenger shaft had snapped just where the splines meet the main shaft.
At least it wasn't the diff or CWP, but I'll strip the axle and put new friction plates in the diff as I'm sure driving with only one shaft won't have done it any good!

My next event is the Bath Festival Targa in March so a bit of time to sort everything out

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Gav,

I have a load of 14" knobblies some brand new, most very good second hand. No longer have the car the fit them on! Maxsport, MRF, Pirelli and Dunlop, all have been dry stored in the dark. If your interested PM me and I will sort out some pictures when I back home next.

Thanks - I've sent you a PM

[clarky205]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Gav,

I have a load of 14" knobblies some brand new, most very good second hand. No longer have the car the fit them on! Maxsport, MRF, Pirelli and Dunlop, all have been dry stored in the dark. If your interested PM me and I will sort out some pictures when I back home next.

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

I've been getting on with the repairs...

How she looked after stripping some bits out of the way



Started by winching the spotlight mount out, but this split the front panel...




After removing the engine and box I managed to jack it out from the inside, and welded up the split so it shouldn't need much filler



With the engine out, I've fitted new bearings just to be safe, removed the sandwich plate and put the engine back in
I've also straightened or repaired everything else at the front (spotlight, mount, grill, bumper, etc), had the radiator recored and the ally tank repaired

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

great write up!

what actually happened to the leaf springs Gavin if they were ok when you put them in, did they actually bend?
looks nearly broken in that pic !

Yes they bent past the point of no return !
There's a mark on the chassis rail where the leaf spring clip was hitting it

[onecamohv]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

great write up!

what actually happened to the leaf springs Gavin if they were ok when you put them in, did they actually bend?
looks nearly broken in that pic !

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Those ones were 50mm wide so I just put 5mm washers either side on the shackle to make them the right width for a Mk2

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Good write up Gavin shame about the tree incident

One of our cars left a door mirror around there thanks to that tree!

I’m glad I didn’t do it in the escort now but I was gutted not to be out

Do you know what width the 2.8 Capri springs are?

[123-lorrydriver]

GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Brilliant write-up!!
Gutted about the tree and the oil cooler. Sure you'd have had another good finish otherwise.....nice 1 👍👍

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

that sure was a large crack in the turret must have been close to popping the top off all together good to see the old girl getting plenty of action that is what they should be doing not polished and taken to shows on trailers

Just about held on with the cage reinforcement!

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

The 40th Preston Road Rally - 1st/2nd December 2018

Run by Chelmsford Motor Club, this event is well know for being very rough and has a route of 180 miles of whites, farm tracks, fields and byways
The current organising team have been running it for 12 years and it takes a lot of work - dealing with landowners, clearing tracks, PR'ing, setting out the route and clearing up afterwards, so they have decided this year will be the last time that they organise the event

This encouraged me to go back and have another go - I have competed on the Preston 9 times before and finished 2nd 3 times, Carrie has done it 4 times and finished 2nd twice (with me), but the last time we did it was in 2005 and we had a few problems!
As it was going to be the last event, they increased the entry to 90 cars and we all lined up at Snetterton Race Circuit before heading out into the countryside

We passed scrutineering without any trouble, but then the windscreen washers packed up, and one of the front tyres was hitting the wing on lock
After a bit of work with a pin and needle, the washers were cleared and I trimmed a bit off the front wing


We started off well, setting regular top 10 times although the rougher sections were really rough this year - I was having to back off a lot as the rear suspension was bottoming out regularly despite the new set up...
Being a long event, there are 2 petrol halts and as we pulled into the start of the Mildenhall Forest section before first petrol, all headlights went out and there was a smell of hot electrics
Wiggling the dip / main beam stalk showed that it was where the problem was and the only way I could get the headlights working was to hold the stalk in the flash position
Not having time to do anything else, we started the section like this - the only problem was I had to let go of the stalk to change gear.
I suggested Carrie could change gear while she was navigating but she didn't fancy that - instead she managed to reach the stalk and hold it on while I drove. This worked reasonably well although we dropped a couple of places here.

At first petrol we were 9th and I had time to fit a spare stalk and tighten up the new steering wheel boss which had not been put together very well (at the factory, not by me), but the rear springs were starting to sag.
Back out on the roads, we were going quickly on the smoother sections (3rd fastest in Kings Forest and 5th in Croxton Forest) but slowly on the rough sections (20th on Foxpin 2 but at least we didn't get stuck in the sandy mud on one straight!) and this kept us in 9th at 2nd petrol.

A quick check over Fly and tightened the steering boss again, we had quite a few comments about the rear suspension from the other competitors



The other side is even lower - a bit strange as Carrie is a lot lighter than me



With 6 sections to go we just wanted to finish and try and stay in the top 10, so gentle on the rough stuff and quick and the smoother bits, but it was not to be
On the Wretham section (around an Army camp and some fields), I slid wide on a muddy right hander and hit a solid tree with the left spotlight. We didn't hit it that hard but instantly the oil light came on and the pressure gauge went to zero so I knew that was it
I managed to reverse out of the tree and drive slowly to a safe place before switching off and getting out to assess the damage

Picture of the tree we hit, taken a few hours later by the driver of the next car who hit it a lot harder than we did!





Unfortunately the oil cooler is directly behind the left spotlight, and the impact was enough for the spotlight bracket to hit a union and snap it off the cooler

We texted the organisers to let them know we had retired and try to organise recovery, but realising we were only 100 yds from the public road we rang Richard Turnbull who had been out marshalling earlier to see where he was. He had just reached the finish at Snetterton and very kindly drove back to where we were and gave me a lift to collect the trailer so we could recover ourselves

So an eventful night which has given me some work to do before my next event, the Bagger Road Rally in late January.

PS
If you are thinking of trying softer leaf springs, don't try what I did!

This is in the workshop after the event with just the weight of the car resting on the jack - no spares in the boot and no fuel tank
You can just about see where the spring clip has been hitting the chassis rail



My next plan is for some Capri 2.8 single leafs which should be 116lb and will be a lot stronger
This year I had been running some 146lb single leafs with 1" lowering blocks but they are too hard for even the smoother forest tracks

[headbolt]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

that sure was a large crack in the turret must have been close to popping the top off all together good to see the old girl getting plenty of action that is what they should be doing not polished and taken to shows on trailers

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Preston prep work...

Apart from the usual checks which led to replacing the compression struts, track rod ends and one track rod, and repairing a tear in the chassis rail caused by a rock on the 1000 Lanes, I discovered the cause of some of the creaking behind me...



One of the 23 year old square turrets had popped the top off, so I pulled it back down with some threaded rod, welded up the cracks and added some reinforcements. The other side was fine so I left it



I also wanted to try and soften the suspension to handle the bumps better. After a bit of searching I bought a new pair of Capri H/D multi-leaf springs - these were rock hard but after removing 2 leafs and using the remaining 2 it worked out to be around 85-90 lb / in (measured by placing 2 x 56lb weights on the spring and measuring the compression).
Next I cut off the front spring eye and narrowed it slightly to go into the PTFE slipper bush, and moved the axle location pin 3/4" backwards so more of the spring was in the bush.





When fitted, these springs gave me 4" of suspension travel before hitting the axle bump stops
Next I fitted some coilovers fitted with 50lb springs with the spring seats set so that the springs would start working with 1" of travel left

At the front I went to 170lb springs with 1" preloaded on the spring seat to maintain a decent ride height. Even like this I could move the front down slightly - with the previous 200lb springs this was not possible

Final jobs were to fit the spotlights and a set of 185/65R14 Maxsport RB1 Grass Tyres on 14" wellers which I'd acquired over the summer and I was ready for the Preston

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

In October I competed on the 1000 Lanes Road Rally run by Heads of the Valleys Auto Club in the lanes around Abergavenny
George was navigating and Carrie, Peter and Emily were marshalling for us

It was a very wet night with flooding in some places causing the organisers to do a few reroutes
Our night didn't start well, getting a puncture at the end of the first section, then driving a few miles of the next section before stopping to change it, then had an overshoot in a field on the 3rd section and needed the spectators to get us back on the track!

After that we got it together a bit, setting some sensible times, eventually finishing 41st (out of 75 starters). It was good to do a local event - I was home by 7am


At the end of October, I was out organising the Exmoor Targa Rally - this year we had a great entry of 68 cars and access to more forestry.
Everything ran well and on time, with no incidents to worry about
As usual, I enjoyed going round in Fly as Course Car with Carrie




The following weekend (4th November 2018) I was out on Chelmsford's Bonfire Targa Rally at Wethersfield Airfield, this time with Derek double driving for the first time in 2 years.
We had a good day, a bit slow on the first loop left me chasing to make up time, but quickest times on 7 out of the next 10 tests got me back up to 2nd, only 6 seconds behind 1st.
Derek enjoyed the day, but was a bit out of practice driving Fly so he finished 21st overall (out of the 75 starters).





Then it was a few weeks of prep work for the 40th (and last) Preston Rally - the roughest, bumpiest, muddiest rally there is...

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

See you’ve got an entry in for the preston

There’s two crews coming down from up here and we are going to marshal.

Also helping out with scrutineering so hope to see you at some point