GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

[alladdin]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

as said , superb write up
(and nice meeting you btw)

[Barn]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Well done Uncle Gav

What was the food like at Loton? Any wild boar with goji berry sauce and creamed mushroom fillet???

[Dan]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

top stuff sounds like a great weekend, definatly got your launches sorted now too with that much extra practice

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Thanks for your comments

Plenty of pics on http://rhodopsin.co.uk/Other%20Sports/index.htm

My favourite pic from Saturday

http://rhodopsin.co.uk/Other%20Sports/Loton%20Park%2005-04-08/The%20Practice/Practice%202/slides/Loton%20Park%2005-04-08%200382.htm

And one from Sunday

http://rhodopsin.co.uk/Other%20Sports/Loton%20Park%2006-04-08/Runs/R1/slides/Loton%20Park%2005-04-08%201813.htm

[Tazman]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Nice one Gavin

Shame you can't use those tyres at Millbrook

[Retromotorsport]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Brillient Gavin.. well chuffed for you

[MCURZON]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

FLY is one of my favourite cars on the forum. Probably the car that sees the most action on here I reckon!!

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

I do as much motorsport as I can afford, last year it was 1 Road Rally, 12 Hillclimbs & Sprints and 2 Stage Rallies - this year I'm planning 10 Hillclimbs, 5 Sprints and 3 or 4 Stage Rallies, all in Fly

In a couple of weeks I'm back at Loton which will be the start of 5 events in 3 weeks, so I thought I'd better sort out the sills on Fly so she can be MOT'd next weekend ready for Millbrook

I'd bought inner and outer sills for both sides back in January but hadn't got round to fitting them as the MOT ran out on the day of Goodwood, but today I invited a friend round (who's a lot better welder than me) to weld them on

Jacked Fly up to get some access - still got to paint the new garage though


Found the passenger side wasn't too bad and I remembered fitting a new outer sill about 6 years ago, so my friend just added a couple of large patches


Driver side had been patched extensively for last year's MOT but the bottom of the outer sill was rotten again, so the whole inner and outer sill between the rollcage reinforcement plates was cut out


And the rear inner arch will need a large patch


And my friend used to work in a bodyshop so I got him to knock out the small dent in the front wing from Fat Albert last year


By this evening, the whole inner sill was back on, so tomorrow its just the outer sill, the rear inner arch and a bit of filler in the front wing, then I'll underseal and hammerite everything in sight

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

All the welding was finished yesterday, so today a bit of filler and paint went on

Front wing looking tidy again


Rear inner arch repaired


Inner sill


Outer sill


And finally painted over the rust on the front bumper and put Fly to bed for the week


All ready now for the MOT

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Fly passed the MOT on Sat without any problems, but while underneath inspecting her we did notice some fuel dripping from the rear carb where it joins the manifold

So I ordered a set of Misab plates from Burtons and they arrived this morning

So I spent a couple of hours removing the K&N's and the rear carb to fit a pair of them


And all back together again


All a bit of a tight squeeze but I've always preferred a large set of K&N's to any other filters

Anyway, everything's ready now for Loton Park this weekend, up against the usual Mk1 Escort and a few Peugeot's - and Windy will be entertaining the crowds in his class

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Loton Park - Sat 17th May

A good entry of 10 cars in my class made up of a Renault 5 Turbo, JamieCRX's dad driving the CRX, a couple of lads sharing an MR2 and the usual Loton regulars including Steve Bailey in his Mk1 Escort

Arriving at Loton to find it was damp and drizzly wasn't the best start to the day but I already had the wets on so I though I'd be ok in Practice and it would dry out later

1st Practice and warming the tyres up was interesting, with hardly any forward motion due to a serious lack of grip, so I went sensibly off the line, round the first lot of corners, put my foot down for the straight and fishtailed most of the way along it! I settled for a steady run up the hill, finishing with 74.23s, which was similar to everyone else

But when I went to drive back down the hill, I found the front brakes were stuck on a bit and by the time I reached the paddock they were stuck so hard that I was having wheelspin trying to get some forward motion

By the time I jacked the front up they had freed off slightly so when the Clerk of the Course came over to have words about my style of driving down the hill, I showed him the front pads steaming on the damp tarmac and he understood the problem

Windy and his friend and Westfiled driver Matt Hillam came over to lend a hand and we worked the calipers pistons back and forwards a few times before Windy suggested the fault may be with the pedal box, yanked the brake pedal a few times and with a loud clonk everything was working as it should do, so we gave everything a good dose of WD40 and put it back together for the next run

2nd Practice and I rolled gently down to the start not touching the brakes at all, but by the time I'd warmed the tyres up the marshals couldn't push me up to the timing beam as they were sticking again so I crept into position and went off up the hill with a lot to think about, this time doing 75.23s, slower than the first one

By yanking the pedal again they freed off so I could drive back down sensibly and knowing that I had a couple of hours over lunch before the Timed Runs I thought I'd better do something about this

The only thing I came up with was to try and move the master cylinders further away from the brake pedal so they had more chance of releasing so I fitted a couple of washers between each cylinder and the pedal box

1st Timed Run and although it was still drizzling the track wasn't quite as wet as earlier, so I stuck the soft slicks on to see what happened. Coming up to the line I could tell there was more grip as I needed a bit more throttle to spin the tyres up and I got off the line well, 2.83s to 64ft, 26.82s to the split at Triangle and off up the hill, nearly didn't stop for the 2 hairpins at the top and finished on 68.87s which I was a lot happier with

Looking at the times after this I found the Renault 5 was leading on 68.24s so I was determined to try harder on the last run

2nd Timed Run, and I was far enough back in the class to see that the Renault 5 didn't improve his first run time, so I thought I'd be in with a chance of 1st. I got off the line well again, 2.85s to 64ft and 26.85s to Triangle, a bit faster through the kink up the hill but came out of this with a bit of a wiggle on (this is completely flat in the dry but a bit iffy in the wet ) scrabbled round the hairpin left at the top, over the crest into hairpin right, came out with one rear tyre on the grass for too long and went over the line wondering whether I had done enough

But my time was 68.38s, just .14s behind the Renault, still 2nd in Class, and about 1s ahead of JamieCRX's dad who won his first ever trophy

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Loton Park - Sunday 18th May

The weather improved considerably for Sunday's event with broken cloud and sunshine all day

Another good entry of 10 cars in my class, including 4 Peugoet 205's, Mike Cockayne is his very rapid 1600cc Peugeot 106 complete with Flappy Paddle Gearshift, Steve in his Mk1 Escort and someone I'd never seen before - Karl Stevens in a very tidy Silver Mk2 Escort, all stripped out for Hillclimbing - it turned out that he'd been Hillclimbing for 15 years, knew Gary and Windy but had never been to Loton Park before

1st Practice and it was great to drive in the dry again, not even any damp left under the trees so I had a good blast up the hill in 62.69s, a similar time to Steve's Mk1 but the 106 was showing us to do it with a 60.91s and Karl set a 66s which he was disappointed with but the rest of us thought was very good for the 1st time at Loton

2nd Practice and I pushed a bit harder and felt that I'd gone a lot quicker than the 1st one but got a time of 62.59s which was strange. Steve was down to 61.89s, Karl was impressive on 62.01s and the 106 was consistent with 60.76s

It all made sense though when I came to drive back down and the front brakes were stuck on again - I pulled the pedal up with my foot and they were free again so I spent my lunchbreak fitting even more washers to the master cylinders and working them to and fro to try and loosen everything up - but I could never get it to stick in the paddock

1st Timed Run and I thought I'd better get going if I was going to get a decent result today so I did some serious tyre warming, launched well off the line getting 2.38s to 64ft, hung on through the first complex of corners, got on the straight down to Triangle, stuck my left foot under the brake pedal and felt Fly surge forwards again (so for the rest of the day I did this every time I wasn't changing gear - left-foot unbraking ). The split time at Triangle was good 23.92s and I reached the top in 61.33s which was a lot better

But Karl was really motoring by now on 60.76s, the 106 was down to 60.51s but getting a bit worried by the Mk2, and the Mk1 had tried a new technique at the top of the long straight -I'm well into 4th up here, then brake for a left over crest 100m before the hairpin, a quick blast up to the 50m board then brake hard for the hairpin - Steve had taken the crest flat in 4th, then braked at the 50m board before running out of road at the hairpin so he did a bit of grasstracking and no time was recorded

2nd Timed Run and I knew if I could go as fast as in April I'd beat everyone's 1st Timed Runs but I expected the 106 and Mk2 to be even quicker. And Steve reckoned my April time was due to having 4 goes at the 2nd Timed Run so having nice warm tyres

Anyway I queued up for the start and could see the time counting up for Karl in the Mk2 who set a 61.35s so not any quicker than run one - the 106 was following me so I wouldn't know if he'd go any quicker - but the sun was out and I was determined to have a go for 2nd.

A few seconds on the rev limiter in 1st and the tyres were very warm, I got another good start with 2.35s, braked as late as I dared for the first square left, a quick blast down a short straight into a long left hander, keeping it flat in 2nd until the corner tightens, dab the brakes, right and left flick through Fletchers Dellow onto the straight up to Triangle, left foot unbraking again, into 3rd through the split (23.53s) braked late and down to 2nd for the square right at Triangle, tried not to get too sideways on the way out, round the next right hander into a sharp left at Keepers, back on the power as soon as possible, up through 3rd and 4th through the flat kink on Cedar Straight, dabs the brakes over the crest at 100m board, back on the throttle again to the 50m, braked and down to 2nd for the hairpin left, using all of the concrete rumble strips on the outside, braked into 1st for the crest into the last hairpin at Museum, back up through 2nd and 3rd keeping off the grass and through the finish

I felt I done as much as I could and the first good sign was Karl greeting me as I pulled up saying I'd got ahead of him

A quick look in the Timing Hut showed 60.49s (only 2/100th's off my April time) and even better that the Peugeot had not improved either recording 60.64s

So I was very chuffed to get 1st in Class, by 2/100th's of a second

The 106 was 2nd, Karl 3rd and the Mk1 did a 62.00s which was good enough for 4th

[tom burgess]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

WOW what a fantastic write upi feel as if i was nearly theregot my heart going a bit too reading itCongratulations on the class win.Superb result

[BluPrinT]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Excellent thread & a good read!

I grew up watching Gavin & Carrie's exploits in FLY, mostly before they moved over to Wales, them and the car are probably partly to blame for my love of old skool escorts!!

Do you still have the other escy, white one was it?

I'll come and say hello Monday!

Baz

[merp0]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Great read, and well done.