GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

[onecamohv]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

looks great gavin!! ready for more abuse!

p.s what front damper/spring combination are you running for targas Gavin?

[tom_escort_mk2]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Looks really smart Gavin! Good luck for the events over the winter

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

looks great gavin!! ready for more abuse!

p.s what front damper/spring combination are you running for targas Gavin?

I've run 200lb springs and Bilstein 300/70 long tarmac inserts for many years on Road Rallies and it seems to work just as well on the Targas, so I've left it the same

[onecamohv]

GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

I've run 200lb springs and Bilstein 300/70 long tarmac inserts for many years on Road Rallies and it seems to work just as well on the Targas, so I've left it the same

Great thanks, that confirms my exact thoughts I'm running the very same damper but with 180lb and it seems a tad soft so I was going to try 200's, but this confirms, thanks Gavin.
I'd say your cosworth is a similar weight to the xe. Are you still running an arb or compression struts?

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[onecamohv]

GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

https://youtu.be/0vfS11YSY2Y



Watch this onecam

I've watched all those videos 100 times 😁

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[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Great thanks, that confirms my exact thoughts I'm running the very same damper but with 180lb and it seems a tad soft so I was going to try 200's, but this confirms, thanks Gavin.
I'd say your cosworth is a similar weight to the xe. Are you still running an arb or compression struts?

I had an ARB on Fly for many years but switched to comp struts after an incident with a bank. She handles the same with both set ups

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Good luck for tomorrow gavin

Hope she goes well

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Well that went surprisingly well

The CRS Targa Rally was run for the first time near Thetford in Norfolk. Organised by Chelmsford MC, there were 95 cars entered, split into Vintage, Classic and Modern by reg date, so Fly was in the Classics. It was a multi-venue Targa with 50 miles of Tests using farm tracks, yards, grass and a lot of stubble fields, luckily dry ones! I'd entered with Carrie and we were seeded at Car 6.

Knobbly tyres were not allowed but a lot of crews were using winter tyres. I'd gone with new A021R's which I had in stock (and will probably be illegal on Road and Targa Rallies next year, so a good chance to use them up).

The first Test was in the grounds of the Start Hotel - this was the muddiest one, even running near the front of the field.



The stubble fields were great fun, once we'd worked out there was no need to keep to the tractor tram lines, so where there was enough room we could drift quickly round the corners





In the afternoon, some of the Tests were reused in the afternoon and the fields were cut up a bit, so it was difficult to choose a good line.



We set some quickest times and were nearly always in the top 5, except for losing 45s on one Test when the car in front stalled at a control and I had to get out and help push it out of the way!

At the finish, we'd won the Classic category by 6 minutes and our times put us 2nd Overall out of the 95 cars


This doesn't tell the whole story though...
The alternator light started flickering on Test 9 but everything looked ok under the bonnet, then on a 200yd road section between Tests 11 and 12 there was a clonk front under the bonnet and the light came on permanently. We got to the next Test but the temp gauge was climbing so we pulled over to have a look. The fan belt was hanging round the fan, but the alternator pulley was missing
Carrie and I walked back along the road but couldn't find the pulley or the nut - there was a washer on the sumpguard, but it wasn't much use on it's own!
Back at Fly, I worked out I could adjust the alternator enough to tension the fan belt on the shaft and this worked well enough to turn the fan and pump, so we could limp back to the Hotel. It was 11:30am on Sunday and we were 5 miles from Thetford, and the local farmer, who had stopped to help, suggested we try Thetford Auto Parts. A quick phone call established they had an A127 type alternator on the shelf, so we headed there...
We got there driving slowly, and I was amazed when they brought the new one out and it was identical to Fly's one, and even had a pulley attached and the same connections, all for £60 exchange.
Five minutes later it was fitted and we were back on the road
Carrie checked the time schedule and we realised we were just under an hour behind, but with 95 cars and 1h 15m for lunch we might have time to go and do the last 3 Tests before lunch and get back on time. This worked and we completed the Tests and got to lunch with 15min to spare

[headbolt]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

another excellent writ up and a great result make all the effort worth while bet you wouldn't find an alternator for a modern car that easy on a sunday

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Brilliant what rallying is all about

Well done gavin!!

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Exmoor Targa Rally - Sat 7th October 2017

A brief bit of history...
I joined Tavern Motor Club in July 2008 but only got involved in November 2008 when Martin and George Clark organised a 12 car which started 2 miles from my house - I went along and marshalled and started going to the club nights. At the AGM in April 2009, Martin asked for a volunteer to help with the Exmoor Endurance Rally, specifically the night route, so I stuck my hand up. In 2010 I was invited onto the committee and took over as Chairman in 2013 and I'm still Chairman today.
Endurance rallies had been invented in 2004 by Phillip Young as a low cost formula for standardish cars of up to 1400cc. I'd never taken much notice of them as I didn't have a suitable car, so it was something I was happy to help out on. Martin started the Exmoor in 2008 and Tavern ran it with help from Burnham on Sea and Minehead Motor Clubs.
Martin and George organised the whole route with forest and tarmac tests during the day and a 60 mile road rally at night. My job was to sort out the marshals for the night route and go round in Fly to make sure they were all in place. I did this in 2009, 2010 and 2012, the 2011 event being cancelled due to lack of entries.
After Martin suffered a stroke in September 2012, George continued to organise the event with help from various people, running it in 2012 and 2014, the 2013 event being cancelled due to tree disease!
But the Endurance formula was dying out - it proved to be quite expensive to run a competitive car, the top crews using adjustable suspension and 6 new tyres per event, together with frequent rebuilds due to some rather rough events, the entry levels were dropping year by year and the Endurance Road Rally Championship finished at the end of 2014 with George winning the Navigator Championship.
George stepped down from organising the Exmoor after a successful 2014 event so I took over in 2015 with everyone on the organising team agreeing to turn the event into a Targa Rally, thus allowing Road Rally cars to run alongside Endurance cars in an effort to boost entries.

In 2015 and 2016 we had just over 40 entries but this year things improved with an entry of 60, although only 53 started.
The organisation starts in April with a route being submitted to the MSA, followed by meetings with the Forestry Commission for the forest tests and Porlock Manor Estate for the tarmac tests, dealing with the Rights of Way dept at the council for any footpaths or bridleways on the Tests, and PR'ing any properties on the minor roads used on the link sections.
This year we had 38 miles of tests with 100 miles of link sections for £175 which included a hot meal at the finish.

The most enjoyable aspect of organising the event is driving Fly as Car 0 on the day "waking up the marshals"
We use the MSA Radios as on Stage Rallies, so once the Chief Marshal and Set Up crews have been through, I get the all clear and drive round at a competitive speed. On reaching the Finish, I radio in and the Start marshals send in the first car. Everything ran like clockwork with no hold ups - all the tests started within 1 minute of the time schedule

Overnight rain had made it very slippery on the early Tests but the sun came out later so it was a bit quicker in the afternoon.
Here are some pics from Andy Manston

Croydon Forest in the morning


Kennisham Forest in the morning


Catching up with the marshals at the start of Croydon after lunch


Croydon again, enjoying the sunshine


Exiting one of the many chicances used to slow the cars down to a 30mph average


And the final Kennisham Test before returning to the Finish

[Graham]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

nice one, also nice to read about someone else putting something back in re organizing events, which is how i ended up a committee member of an msa club and scrutineer, as a competitor you just dont have any idea of the work behind the scenes which is mostly done by un paid volunteers

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

I do a similar job on my motor clubs targa event the shaw trophy
Unreal how many hours go into it nd how many things need to be sorted
Even driving around as car 0 is stressful always worried I’m going to make a fool of myself

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Another win I see Gavin

Well done!!

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Another win I see Gavin

Well done!!

That was the Bonfire Targa at Wethersfield which I competed on with Antons Kuzenko navigating for me for the first time - Antons was also driving his 206 GTi with his regular navigator alongside

There were 3 loops of 5 tests and 2nd after the first loop, 7s off the leader and 5s ahead of 3rd. Antons was doing well, calling the cones in the same way that I'm used to

At the lunch break, I was leading by 10s - until they included the cone penalties which put me 10s behind. There were 2 cones near the end of one test, set at an angle and I thought we could squeeze through without lifting but managed to nudge both sides

On the very next test, the leader Adrian White (BMW 318) got slightly lost and dropped 14s, so I knew I just had to keep it clean to get the win
I managed to avoid all the cones and won by 8s from Andrew Bainbridge (Clio Williams) with Adrian another 9s behind



This year hasn't started as well - in fact it hasn't started at all!
George and I entered the Bagger Road Rally in January but pulled out the night before - I was suffering from flu and George was losing her voice...
Then tomorrow we were supposed to be out on the Bath Festival Targa which has been postponed due to snow (as have 4 other rallies this weekend)