GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

[mexicotait]

GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Emptied now cheers gavin

[richmcl]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Hi Gavin,

I've actually bought another Mk2 (my first one since I sold my orange one to do the 205 challenge in 2001!).

Mine's basically a near standard 1.6Ghia 4dr, so I'm starting from scratch. I'm probably (depending on what parts turn up cheap enough) going to keep it fairly std so it's eligible for Historics, so normal rally prep stuff to start with.

If you have anything you need rid of, please let me know.

Cheers
Rich McLachlan

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Hi Rich,

Good to hear from you - you'll enjoy the historic events in that
Not sure I've got much that would be any use for a 1.6, although I might have a spare quick rack if you haven't got one already? And some std M16 calipers

You'll have to bring it down for my Targa rally in March

Thanks

[onecamohv]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Great updates Gavin, love reading them, you are definitely knocking good use out of the poor car looking forward to more updates

[mjr]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Gavin, what an inspirational thread !
Thank you

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Bath Festival Road Rally – 7th-8th February 2015

Fly didn't need much work over the winter until I tried to start her up in late Jan and the starter melted together with the remote solenoid. Thanks to Chris (DrDub) for letting me have 3 inertia ones he had lying around, she was up and running again a week before the event

I’ve done this event every year since it was re-invented in 2012 and each year it gets better and better, this year there was more emphasis on the Road Rally section and the lanes we used were excellent with just short link sections in between. My usual navigator, George was away on a long distance event, so I asked Tavern Motor Club member Bob Rutherford if he would sit in with me and he agreed, having also enjoyed the event in previous years. We’d never done a rally together but I was sure we would get on well. He has many years of experience in all sorts of rallying, having sat with George's Dad and Brother on many occasions and I've known him for a few years through the motor club.

There was a bumper entry of 60 cars including some top crews over from Wales. We got to the start early and spent a good few hours plotting the route – 8 pages of grid references, including 60 Passage Checks and Code Boards, but at least all Bob had to worry about was calling the route as it was all pre-plot!

We started with 4 short tests and they were very good, nice smooth gravel and concrete tracks. We got off to a good start, 2nd quickest on Test 1 and quickest on the other 3, including fastest on the longest forest test by 12s – not bad on my usual A021R's as a lot of crews were out on forest tyres.

Last year, 6 crews had cleaned the road sections, but this year all sections were timed to the second which meant we were dropping time quite frequently. They had also added a lot more farmyards and unmarked triangles which had to be negotiated with the help of extra diagrams. Everything went well in the first half – I was driving at a good pace and we were finding all the tricky slots, farmyards and triangles. Even so, we were surprised to be told by Clerk of the Course, Dave Whittock, at petrol that we'd been leading the event by 18s after the first timecard, which was roughly halfway through the first half. This was helped by Car 1, John Davies & Nick Bloxham, clocking in early at one control and getting 2m 20s of penalties!

After petrol there was a long section round Numpnett Thrubwell, it must have been 15 competitive miles with the odd farm and track used along with the maze of lanes. I've been through here on 12 cars but usually get lost, but Bob knows these lanes very well having grown up round there and could pick out the slots and triangles very well. We got everything right, only loosing a minute on one very tight section and the odd few seconds on some of the others.

The pressure was kept up with a string of shorter sections and there was a good section across some fields near the end. We had a clean run through the second half, swapping times with Car 4, Nic Morris & Martin Phasey in a Peugeot 205, seeing them at most of the controls. There was no sign of Car 1 though which suggested they were going even better.

After a good breakfast at the finish we found we had been 4th at Petrol and we waited patiently for the final results...

2nd Overall was a lot more than we had hoped for, about 1m 40s behind Car 1, John Davies, and 3 minutes ahead of Car 4, Nic Morris. Many thanks to Bob for a great job on the maps, and thanks to the organisers and marshals for a well run event.


1st Test, hairpin left, aim for photographer on the exit



Somewhere in the second half on a muddy junction



Photographs by Brian Gilbert (Photosport), used with his permission

Next event will hopefully be in April

[alladdin]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

well don Gavin , must have been a fair few quick cars out.

[Graham]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

fantastic, well done

brilliant write up as always

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

To cut a long story short, I put Fly's axle on Dvy for Ireland this year and we were losing a lot of oil, so when I went to swap the axles back I investigated the oil leak and found one of the axle tubes was loose in the housing

I'm rallying next weekend so don't have time to retube the axle so I've welded it all back together...

Removed the diff for better access to investigate the problem - you can see where it gets thinner to go into the casing


Missing pin and everything covered in oil


Balanced the pigs head in the vice and used a big socket and some extension bars to knock the tube out, it didn't take much effort


Tube removed, the plug weld didn't have much penetration and the main part of the plug came out of the casing easily


Retapped the pins to M10 and drilled 2 extra 13mm holes for more plug welds


The casing is worn at the end of the tube, but only on one side


Cleaned everything up, knocked the tube back in and clamped it in place with the ally brace. The 2 pins are in the original holes maintaining the orientation of the axle mounts


Part way through welding, did the bolts up tight and welded them to the casing so they won't come out. I also welded the end of the tube to the casing inside the diff and made 3 plug welds


Tonight the axle's complete and ready to be refitted

[EricE]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Really been enjoying reading through your endevours with this car, looks like so much fun and is very inspiring! Just curious what sort of event was the Bath Festival Road Rally? Seeing a lack of helmets got me curious.

[mario r h santos]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Nice diy repair Gavin.

Cheers and hope it can handle a few more beatings,

Mário Santos.

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Really been enjoying reading through your endevours with this car, looks like so much fun and is very inspiring! Just curious what sort of event was the Bath Festival Road Rally? Seeing a lack of helmets got me curious.

Hi Eric,

Road Rallies take place at night on public roads which are not closed. There are various restrictions on the modifications allowed to keep the speeds down.

[Arwel]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Good luck on the tracks on Sunday Gavin. We're out in a borrowed Proton at car 49. Not done Classic Tracks before but really looking forward to it. See you there.

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Thanks Arwel, saw you were out, hope you have a good run

Time for some updates first...

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Devils Tour Road Rally - 4th-5th April 2015

This event was run by Devizes Motor Club and had previously been known as the Myotis. It had a slightly different format this year with Special Tests in the afternoon followed by a short Jogularity then a 60 mile night section on Salisbury Plain. It was also Easter weekend so finding a navigator was proving difficult, but after doing West Cork with Carrie she was convinced to come out on her first night event for 5 years

We were seeded Car 3 out of a smallish entry of 36. There were 8 Special Tests, starting with one on an old part of Keevil airfield run twice. This was a small loop of concrete with a couple of junctions in the middle of a field so very slippery and great fun



Not quite the right line, missing the apex first time through


Got it right the second time, one wheel on the grass


Next there were 2 tests on the edge of Salisbury Plain, round a farmyard then up a steep hill, before we returned for a third run round Keevil, a bit quicker as the tracks had dried out. We headed north for 2 short tests through a farm which nearly all the cars cleaned - we beat the 30 mph average by 20s.
The final test was at a farm near RAF Lyneham with part of an old airfield under about 6 inches of grass and muck. It was very slow but a good laugh!

At the supper halt we were lying 3rd, a few seconds behind an MG ZR and a Subaru Impreza

After supper there were 3 sections of Jogularity which is where you are given times to the second to be at specific junctions along the route. Carrie had never done one of these and I'd only done a couple but it worked quite well except for overshooting a triangle in the middle section

Finally onto the night route, 4 separate sections on Salisbury Plain with an awful lot of codeboards used to slow us down as the roads are very fast in places. The first section was going well and we arrived at the control 5 minutes early but missing a codeboard. We went back to have a look but couldn't see it so carried on. The second section was fine, found all the codeboards and were only a couple of minutes late at the control.

It was the third section which caused problems for nearly all the crews. As the Plain is used for Army Training they build their own roads wherever they like and only some of these are on the map. On the trickier sections, the organisers had given extra help such as diagrams and written instructions. On this section we came to a fork in the road and the instructions said keep left and then there would be a codeboard after 1/2 a mile, but after a mile there was still no sign of it so we turned round and went back to the fork to try the other road. Unfortunately as I changed down to get round the corner the clutch cable snapped

We were in a bit of an awkward position but with Carrie's help directing traffic I got it changed in about 10 minutes in which time we could see cars going everywhere, all completely lost! Once we got going again we tried the other road, but again after a mile there was no codeboard. Turning round again and heading back we spotted a side road so tried that and finally found the board but it still didn't seem to be where it should have been. We tried to get back on track, turning round a few more times, I even got the compass out to see if we were heading in the right direction (we weren't!)

Eventually we found our way to the control but with all the problems we were 3 minutes OTL (OTL is 30 minutes after the time you should have arrived). We stopped at the marshal but didn't take a time and tried to make it up on the next link section but this was too short. We carried onto the 4th section knowing that we had to clean it by 3 minutes to get back inside OTL and be classified as a finisher. Luckily this was the one part of the Plain I remembered from a previous event there in 2012 and I kept my foot down through some of the rougher sections. This worked and we cleaned it by 5 minutes

At the finish a lot of crews had similar problems and some didn't make it that far so we finished 15th overall

The problem with the third section turned out to be a shut gate at the fork which was blocking a 3rd road which was the one we wanted
It was a challenging event but enjoyable and I'm sure the organisers can improve on it for next year



Wethersfield Targa - 19th April 2015

A couple of weeks later I competed in my first Targa of the year with Derek navigating, and I navigated for Derek in his new Peugeot 205 Rallye.
The Chelmsford Motor Club event attracted a bumper entry of 72 cars and they had some good long tests using some more areas of the airfield compared to previous years. The weather was very dry so I knew it would be difficult to get a win and although I was leading after the first test, at lunch I was 2nd by about 20s. Derek was quite a long way down getting used to his new car.

In the afternoon I tried to make up the time, but it seemed the harder I tried the more cones I clipped and with a 10s penalty for each cone by the finish this had dropped me to 3rd Overall. Derek finished 38th but was happy to have a trouble free run for a change and did a good job navigating for me despite the long tests making him feel ill.



After these 2 events I've spent a good few hours in the workshop making sure Fly is ready for the Classic Tracks this Sunday with Carrie navigating again.
Cracks have been appearing in unusual places, one where the tunnel meets the floorpan and the seat reinforcement cross member - I had to jack this back into place and weld it up, and there was a large hole in the chassis above the front spring hanger on one side which took a bit of fiddling to get access to but is good and strong again now. While I was underneath I found an odd circular piece of metal hanging out of the bellhousing which turned out to be part of the clutch release bearing, so that was a 3 hour job to change it. Anyway, she's all ready to go now and we're seeded Car 10