GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Time for an end of season update...


Carver's Traders Road Rally - 17/18th September 2011

Another South West event, only 25 entries this time, George was on the maps and we'd entered as Novices as the classes were based on her experience and not mine
It started from Ralegh's Cross on Exmoor and had a 140 mile route with halfway in Tiverton. We had 45mins to plot the route but only managed to plot 3/4 of it so were hoping we would have some time at halfway to plot the rest. The first half started well, getting past the 2 cars in front early on but we got a bit lost trying to find a white so ended up following them again and then met a local down a narrow road who took a while to reverse out of the way and we lost quite a bit of time

At halfway we plotted the rest of the route and set off into the lanes again. After about 20 miles we had 3 sections defined by a marked map which we'd been given at the start in a sealed envelope - when we opened the envelope at the control, we had 2 copies of the map for section 2 & 3 and no map for section 1
I ran back to the marshal but he didn't have any spare copies so I waited for the next car to open their envelope and had a quick look, trying to memorise the route, ran back and drew it on the map, so we now had the route but not the codeboard or control locations, but we got through it all and only missed one codeboard. The rest of the route worked well and we got back to Ralegh's Cross around 5am for a large cooked breakfast

We spoke to the organisers about our marked map problems, but when the results came out we'd done as well as the other Novices on those sections so it wasn't worth trying to get the sections scrubbed. We ended up 8th Overall and 1st Novice, George was very happy as it was her first class win


Woodbridge Gymkhana - Sunday 13th November 2011

I wasn't sure I'd make this one as it was the same weekend as Rally GB, but the National B event which my friends were doing was on the Friday and Saturday, so I loaded Fly a few days before and headed off to Wales on Thursday as service crew. My friends finished without any problems and I left Builth Showground at 4pm Saturday afternoon, picked up Fly and was at my brother's in Chelmsford for 10pm

I had a set of knobblies on Fly, bought secondhand in January and had already done the 3 Road Rallies, so the rears had about 3mm left and fronts not much more and Woodbridge is often a bit mucky so I thought they'd be ideal. Derek was double driving this time, having sold his 205 a few months ago and was trying some travel sickness pills as he sometimes feels a bit ill when navigating

The tests were quite straightforward with 3 separate ones laid out. The first loop was a bit damp and greasy and I didn't have much grip, but when Derek went out everything had dried nicely and he was only a couple of seconds behind on each one, leaving us 3rd and 7th at the morning break

After a couple of skills tests, the second loop of tests was similar to the first with a few small changes and with the tyres working better I managed to set fastest time on all 3, moving up to 2nd. Derek also gained a place to 6th at lunch

We did another skills test after lunch (both cleaned it) and then on to the 3rd loop which was test 4, 5 and 6 run in the other direction. Derek was navigating well, the pills having the desired affect and he'd written which side of each cone to go on the diagram so just had to call these out. Unfortunately on the final test one direction was wrong and we lost maybe 6s correcting our mistake. Derek had a good run through without any problems

Back in the paddock I chatted to the chap who was leading (in a Civic Type R) and discovered he'd had a similar cock up on the final test and lost about 10s
When the results were published, this was enough to give me 1st Overall by 3s. Derek was very pleased with his best ever result of 7th Overall and picked up 1st in Class


Fly is now resting but not for long as I've already got 2 Road rallies planned, one in January and one in February

[exboyracer]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

Well done on keeping your head while all around you were loosing theirs

[Retromotorsport]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

Congrats on the 2nd

[Graham]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

great result, great write up i always love reading them :them:

[GavinR]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

Neath Valley Stages - Sat 13th August 2011

As I had no events in DVY planned this month I decided to do something different and take Fly back into the forest
Georgina was happy to co-drive although slightly worried about reading pacenotes for the first time in 4 years, but my last time in a forest was 1997 so I knew it would be a slow start
I'd also asked fellow Tavern member Hugh Currell to come and service for us as I wasn't sure how long we'd have in service or how Fly would stand up to a forest event

The event was based around Walters Arena and was practically a single venue with 2 stages run twice followed by a 5th stage combining the first 2 giving nearly 40 stage miles and only 6 miles of link sections
They had a good entry of 61 moderns and over 20 historics and a late entry gave us 5 in the Road Rally class

Scrutineering was slow but we passed without any problems and sat around in service for a few hours waiting to start, keeping busy by changing the rear forest tyres for some chunkier ones as everything was rather wet and mucky, and cooking bacon butties on the gas stove

Stage 1
Everything went well but I felt I was driving very slowly, not sure of how fast I could go round the corners and there were some steep hills and muddy sections which sapped the power and at times it felt like we had 2 front punctures, I could only describe the conditions as "claggy". George was reading the notes well except when I made a comment about how slow we were going and she lost her place

Stage 2
This was just round a corner from stage 1 and the organisers warned us about a big ditch on the outside of the first corner, a very tight hairpin, which had already given 5 cars problems, so we went very carefully round it. This stage was a lot more open in places with some nice flowing bits but still some twisty sections. Near the end we passed an Astra in our class beached on the outside of a corner having nearly gone into the ditch, but a few corners later I nearly did the same thing, failing to spot the hairpin slot I was supposed to take (even though George had called it) and headed for a more obvious slot into the spectator car park and we bounced over a shallow ditch before I realised my mistake. Luckily I had no trouble reversing out and we were on our way again

Stage 3
An hour long service, so Hugh gave Fly a good check over only finding the front wheel bearings needing a little tweak and some play in the rack, but nothing to worry about. We had a look at the results and were 38th and 3rd in Class - the late entry had knocked a wheel off on stage 1, and the beached Astra had got pushed out by spectators but got a stage maximum
This stage was identical to stage 1 except for a short section near the start to avoid a very mucky uphill hairpin. Although it was still drizzling, the stage was drier in places and I felt we were going a lot quicker

Stage 4
Similar to 3, it went well and I remembered which hairpin I'd got wrong although this time there was a BMW wedged in a deeper part of the ditch so we had to go slowly past it, and we had a bit of a moment when I went wide to avoid a big dip on the inside but got into the mucky stuff and nearly put it in the ditch on the outside but still managed 22s quicker than Stage 2

Stage 5
Another hour in service, which seemed a bit long as the event was running behind due to the number of cars off, so Hugh checked the link bars and tyres before we all had another cuppa. We'd gained a few places, now up to 33rd and 3rd in Class, but it was diffcult to tell if this was because we were going quicker or because so many cars had retired and we were over 2 minutes behind 2nd in Class
This stage was 3 & 4 joined together making 12.5 miles in total, but it seemed to go quicker than that despite the tracks being very cut up in places. George was excellent on the notes, only getting confused when she turned 2 pages at once, but was quickly back on it. With a few miles to go we came across a BMW stranded in a ditch, but I couldn't remember if it was in our Class or not so concentrated on not doing anything stupid myself and got to the finish without any problems in a time of 17:54

On the Road Section back to the finish we checked the Entry List and the stranded BMW was in our class, so we moved up to 30th Overall and 2nd in Class

It was a very good day, well organised and they kept everything running despite the numerous incidents (21 cars retired from the moderns)
Well done and thanks to George for reading the notes, she was pleased to get a nice crystal glass award, and thanks to Hugh for servicing

After the awards in a local Rugby Club, I found the van had sunk into the verge where I'd left it, but luckily Tudor Davies and his driver were walking past so they helped us push it out

A rather muddy Fly last night

[GavinR]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

I made a lot of progress last week, painted everything I'd welded, got the fuel tank and pumps back in, rear seats, side windows, and fitted a lot of stuff from DVY - seats, harnesses, intercoms, camera mount and handheld fire extinguisher





Then on Sunday I organised and competed on a grass gymkhana for Tavern Motor Club and came 2nd out of 16 entries

And tonight I've fitted the plumbed in fire extinguisher which was serviced last week, just got to make the mud flaps and sort out some secondhand forest tyres and I'll be ready, I've even ordered the Pacenotes from Brian Patterson

There's about 60 entries at the moment and 4 of us in the Road Rally class, the others being 2 BMW's and an Astra

[GavinR]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

So it's been 4 years since I've done a stage event in Fly, and that was with the cossie in, so this weekend I made a start on the various things that will be required for the Neath Valley

Crack in the boot floor has been getting bigger


I had a comment on a Road Rally about the rear cage mounts looking a bit weak, so I've reinforced them and boxed them in, after removing the rear seats and side windows for access


The fuel tank leaks when full from an old sender unit in the top - I had to remove it to weld up the boot floor, so poured fibreglass resin all over it to seal it


Boot floor crack welded up then plated over - it's the stress of the panhard rod mount that causes the problem


Plenty more to do, but mainly safety features rather than repairs

[Graham]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

another great result there gavin

[GavinR]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

I was out on another Chelmsford Gymkhana a few weeks ago, this time at Honington Airfield near Bury St Edmunds. As this is still an active air base, all the airfield is nice smooth tarmac

It was organised by Owen Turner who is a top Endurance Rally driver and his gymkhanas are always hard work as he uses every corner possible to make up the tests

4 tests were laid out and we started off by doing them on their own, then in pairs and finally 3 of them together to make up a long test to finish. In between we had a few laps of the skid pan, scoring marks for "flamboyance" instead of speed and a couple of simple Regularity sections (these made up the Skill Tests which are always a part of the gymkhanas)

It was a very warm day and with the long tests a lot of cars were having overheating problems, but Fly ran faultlessly, just having to swap tyres a few times when they wore out. I was also navigating for Derek in his 205, and Cath was also driving Fly with Matt Endean navigating. Cath was going better than when she had last driven Fly at Debden, finding the good tarmac a lot easier, but struggling with the lack of power steering

On the longer Tests, Derek was starting to feel rough, so Cath jumped in to navigate the afternoon ones, I just kept up my normal speed while everyone else struggled

I was 2nd or 3rd most of the day, but fastest times on the last 3 tests saw me take 1st Overall by 34s from Matt Fowle's 106

Cath was pleased but exhausted to finish 16th, and Derek was happy with 23rd (his 205 is completely standard) out of the 58 starters

I'm currently doing a few bits on Fly in readiness for the Neath Valley Stages on 13th August, it'll be my first time in the forest since 1997

[GavinR]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

Yes we had a great time, so nearly hit a lot of things (those cow sheds were narrow and slippy ) but so much fun driving down tracks and round farms

Results will turn up in the post sometime I think, be interesting to see which Tests we were quick on as there was quite a mixture...