GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Yes - one of the cables had started to break as they go through the bulkhead and the frayed ends were causing the problem
Fitted a new cable and it's all fine now

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Good result and good write up

Did you get the throttle sorted?

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Bath Festival Road Rally - 25th/26th February 2017

After the axle problem on the Carpetbagger, I fitted new diff and pinion bearings, machined a solid spacer for the pinion and used a new pinion nut to hold everything together. I did 30 miles on the road and everything seemed fine - I also used this time to "wear in" a pair of new soft Dmacks gravle tyres on the rear
This helped a lot and they were gripping well from the start

There were 63 entries and George and I were seeded at 16, a bit lower than usual. The event had a similar format to previous years with a lot of forest sections in the first half followed by some lanes and whites to the west of Bath in the second half, giving around 150 miles.

After a few hours plotting at the start, we headed off towards Warminster and the Longleat Estate for a 2 mile section in the woods. It had been raining all day, stopping just before the start but this had left the tracks very slippery. Down the first straight the throttle started sticking a bit which was slightly disconcerting, pushing us on into some of the corners, but we still set a good time. On the next road section I stopped to have a look – everything looked fine, so I just sprayed WD40 (the only thing I had handy) round the linkage and cables and moved the cables slightly to get a better angle to the carbs.



Next we had 4 sections in a nearby forest, still mucky and slippery but going well. Another short link section took us further around the Longleat Estate and a long section with a mixture of lanes and forests, a lot of these familiar from previous events. The first two parts we took 35s out of the car in front and they kindly let us past at the next control which led into a section around Frome Showground which was run as a regularity. Back onto the lanes for a few miles before heading into my favorite forest, Kingswood Warren, nice and fast, flowing and smooth! We crossed a road into Alfred’s Tower forest, notable for it’s multiple hairpins, some of which aren’t on the map, and we nearly caught another car here. Another road section took us to a white and a byway, both very muddy. Halfway down the white, looking for the turning for the byway, I spotted a likely looking slot with fresh tyre marks and turned in, only to find ourselves in a field. There was a faint track across it but it didn’t seem right so I carefully swung round and back out, and found the byway 100 yards further on – a lot of crews made the same mistake here! We were fastest on one part of this, and 2nd fastest on a couple more.

The next section started on an undulating yellow down to a slot left which I usually see too late, but this year the photographer had helpfully put his Photo board just before it so I got it right and we headed into the forests again. The final section before the Petrol halt was down a private tarmac road through a farm. This is very quick so the organisers put in chicanes to slow us down, but we’ve down it a few times before and were 2nd fastest here. At petrol we were surprised to be 4th car on the road, having overtaken a few and various cars had retired. We didn’t know where we were lying overall when we left but thought we were doing ok (later results showed us 2nd, 32s behind the leader and 26s ahead of 3rd, with 4th a couple of minutes further back).



The 2nd half started well with us cleaning the first few sections easily and only dropping a few seconds on the others. We then reached a section round Semley Hill – George remembered we’d missed a tricky slot here a few years earlier, but unfortunately I drove past it again and by the time I’d turned round and gone back we’d dropped 2 minutes. There followed some very muddy whites and I was struggling for grip, so it must have been really difficult for the Novices on more standard tyres, and we dropped some more time.



There was one section with a Quiet Zone manned by a DSO at the beginning and this made me think it was a slack section – by the time we’d realised it was tight, we’d dropped another minute. Back into the forests nearing the finish, we were back on the pace, but caught the car in front and couldn’t get past.
With the time dropped in the second half, this pushed us down to 3rd overall, nearly 5 minutes behind 2nd, but still the best result George and I have had on a night event

My next event will be the Somerset Stages in 2 weeks, using the forests of Exmoor which I know reasonably well after organising a few events in there over the last few years

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

I think me an gavin are talking about gravel tyres John.

Are you using them on the track

[freddy686868]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

I think that's the problem they are too new and are moving around too much
Need a few auto tests to bed them in I think

sorry forgot to mension i still thought they were terrible after the road miles. i will try them again as they have been on track but i'm not holding any hope.

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Hi,

I run 25psi all round whatever the tyre. When I first used the soft Dmacks on the Bath in 2016 they seemed bad for the first few sections then a lot better as they wore down a bit. I've got some new ones for the back this year, so will put some miles on them before the event!

I think that's the problem they are too new and are moving around too much
Need a few auto tests to bed them in I think

[freddy686868]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Gavin what pressure you running in the dmacks

I tried some the other day and didn't seem to have much grip
They are softs as well so I expected them do be decent

i had a set of d mack softs too and i thought they were terrible, i done a good 60miles on the road before hitting the track too.

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Hi,

I run 25psi all round whatever the tyre. When I first used the soft Dmacks on the Bath in 2016 they seemed bad for the first few sections then a lot better as they wore down a bit. I've got some new ones for the back this year, so will put some miles on them before the event!

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Gavin what pressure you running in the dmacks

I tried some the other day and didn't seem to have much grip
They are softs as well so I expected them do be decent

[Graham]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

shame about the axle, but glad its not turned out too bad, great write up as always

[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

[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

[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

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.

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

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