GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

[Graham]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

nice one

[freddy686868]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

cars looking fresh

[Graham]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

cars looking fresh

i thought that

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

I think Gavin must own most of the weller wheels in the country!

[onecamohv]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

I think Gavin must own most of the weller wheels in the country!

i managed to pry 4 off him a few years ago

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

I've probably got 40-50 wellers, mainly 6" and 7", with a few 5 1/2". Never had a problem with them and if you get the right spoke style (there's about 3 different styles) the 6" ones fit over Monte Carlo calipers with a 1/4" spacer. They don't weigh much either

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

The Festival Targa Rally - 31st March 2018

Run by Bath Motor Club for the last 6 years as a Night Road Rally, increasing PR problems forced the organisers to turn it into a Targa Rally, using the same forests and tracks they had used on the Road Rally. It was scheduled for 3rd March, but was postponed to 31st due to snow. I'd entered with George but she couldn't make the revised date so Carrie agreed to sit in with me. And with the top seed unable to make the revised date, we were Car 1 out of 50.

Having an extra 4 weeks to prep Fly, I added a few bonus features, such as headlight washers mounted on the bumper - I used Land Rover Defender washer jets which are quite tall, and fitted a second Mk2 Escort washer bottle on the inside of the inner wing, just above the chassis rail, fed off the windscreen washer circuit - usually if the windscreen is muddy, the lights will be as well. I also added some splash shields between the sumpguard and chassis rails to try and stop as much water getting in the engine bay - I used mudflap material screwed to the sumpguard cross member as I didn't want to drill holes in the sumpguard of chassis legs. This seemed to help as the engine bay is cleaner than usual and we didn't have any water problems despite hitting some large puddles at speed!

Parked up at the start - a good selection of cars competing



The first test was run twice just as it was getting dark - a short concrete road which starts with a square right, under a railway bridge with a bump on the exit



Then into the proper forest tests - luckily the rain had stopped at lunchtime but it had rained for the previous 24 hours making everything wet, muddy and very slippery in places. The advice from the organisers was to keep it in the middle but even that was tricky at times!



We arrived at petrol after 8 tests and found we were leading by 8s after 4 tests, but knew we were quicker than that as the top 5 had beaten the bogey on Test 3 by varying amounts. As we left it looked like we were 40s ahead which was very good, but having had a huge moment on Test 6 there was still plenty to do. And the front left wheel was knocking - play in the compression strut joint but all the bolts were tight, so try to ignore it!



The forests used are owned by Longleat and also Stourhead Estate and were in pretty good condition. The worst one was Southleigh Woods - it was rough last year and even rougher this year. The second half had 6 tests, all repeats of ones we had done earlier and the tracks had dried out a bit allowing us to get more power down, but cut up in other places.
The next 3 tests we improved our times by 13s, 9s and 21s so knew we were going well



Last pic on the final corner of the last test - we'd stopped before this one to have another look at the front left as it was getting worse, but couldn't do anything with it so carried on.



Back at the finish just after 1am for a nice chicken curry, we waited for the results. At petrol we had been leading by 1m 3s but we always get worried that we might have picked up a few penalties along the way... and when the final results came out at 3am, we needn't have worried!

1st overall by 2m 34s - we were quickest on 11 out of the 14 tests
2nd was Jason Stone & Dan Stone in a freshly built BMW 318 Compact - a good achievement as Jason hasn't driven competitively for at least 5 years
3rd was Paul Freeth & Chris Head in a Rover 200, 15s behind Jason and Dan due to more Test Penalties

Many thanks to Bath Motor Club, all the marshals and Carrie for pointing me in the right direction!

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Brilliant Gavin well done

Good to hear dan stone is still rallying too

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

After the Festival, my next event was the Classic Tracks in May in West Wales. This time Carrie and I went over the night before and stayed at Jamie Jukes' farm, just up the road from the start. A beautiful place with his own gravel test track which we've been round on the Classic Tracks before, but it wasn't being used this year.
We hadn't done the event for a few years, but it used some familiar Tests and some new ones. We had an enjoyable day, but weren't quite on it as much as usual, so were pleased to finish 10th overall.

Next was the Kemble Targa, double driving with Antons Kuzenko. The tyre rules were quite restrictive and the only ones I had which complied were worn knobblies, which worked surprisingly well on the dry tarmac and concrete. After a close battle with Ben Griffin in his Peugeot 106 Rallye, I finished 2nd overall just 5s behind Ben.
Navigating for Antons, he was also driving well and finished 4th in his Peugeot 205 GTi.

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

The Bustard Targa Rally – 22nd July 2018

Run by Salisbury and Shaftesbury Car Club for the first time this year as a Targa Rally, it last ran as an Endurance Rally in 2014. With over 30 miles of Tests including Worthy Farm and Slait Barns, the entry filled quickly and 50 crews lined up at the start in Shepton Mallet, including myself and George seeded Car 1.

The event started with a very short gravel Test in a car park at Worthy Farm, which went well, before heading out onto the tracks around the farm and fields for two 5 mile Tests.
I started quickly on Test 2, but didn’t realise how little grip there was on the loose gravel and we had 5 or 6 overshoots during the Test as George tried to keep up, having not navigated on a Road Rally for over a year. At the finish we knew our time was not good as Car 2, James Newbould / Lizzie Pope had beaten us by 30s!

On the short link between test 2 & 3, we decided I needed to slow down a little bit to stop overshooting the cone manoeuvres. This worked very well and we were quickest on this Test by over 30s!



After Worthy Farm, we headed towards Frome for a Test around Frome Showground followed by 2 Tests at Witham Hall Farm. Both of these are regularly used on the Bath Festival but driving them in daylight was a bit different. We were quickest by a couple of seconds on all 3.

Next we headed south to Slait Barns, a 3 mile gravel test around a solar farm. Great fun with plenty of grip and it was good to see a lot of my Tavern Motor Club out marshalling on this test. We were quickest again, but only just from Ben Smith / Simon Harris who remembered it well from the Endurance events.

Arriving at petrol, we were surprised to find we had been leading after Worthy Farm and when the results were updated we were 37s ahead of James & Lizzie, with Ben & Simon only 3s behind them. A lot of the FWD cars were having trouble with tyre wear in the very hot conditions, and when I checked my A021R's I found the rear tyres were not going to last the day, so George and I fitted the spares.

After petrol, we headed back to Frome Showground for a slightly different test, then over to Slait Barns for the reverse of the morning Test. We extended our lead on these 2 tests before moving on to a short Test at Pylle along part of an old railway. This was run twice and was mucky and slippery under the trees so we had a sensible run through. Test 12 was across a couple of fields used for parking at Glastonbury Festival, then it was back to Worthy Farm for the final 2 long Tests.

Knowing we had a chance of winning, I drove steadily through the first of these which doesn’t always help the concentration and we were 5th quickest – the final test we had a better run and were quickest again.
We nervously awaited the results at the finish, hoping we had not picked up any cones penalties, and were pleased to see the results go final with us winning by 1m 8s from Ben & Simon.

Many thanks to Salisbury & Shaftesbury Car Club, all the marshals and especially to George for navigating.
After 7 years and 21 road rallies, this was the first time we have won a rally together. And, as George had won the last Great Bustard Endurance, it was fitting that she won the first Bustard Targa!

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

See you’ve got an entry in for the preston

There’s two crews coming down from up here and we are going to marshal.

Also helping out with scrutineering so hope to see you at some point

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

In October I competed on the 1000 Lanes Road Rally run by Heads of the Valleys Auto Club in the lanes around Abergavenny
George was navigating and Carrie, Peter and Emily were marshalling for us

It was a very wet night with flooding in some places causing the organisers to do a few reroutes
Our night didn't start well, getting a puncture at the end of the first section, then driving a few miles of the next section before stopping to change it, then had an overshoot in a field on the 3rd section and needed the spectators to get us back on the track!

After that we got it together a bit, setting some sensible times, eventually finishing 41st (out of 75 starters). It was good to do a local event - I was home by 7am


At the end of October, I was out organising the Exmoor Targa Rally - this year we had a great entry of 68 cars and access to more forestry.
Everything ran well and on time, with no incidents to worry about
As usual, I enjoyed going round in Fly as Course Car with Carrie




The following weekend (4th November 2018) I was out on Chelmsford's Bonfire Targa Rally at Wethersfield Airfield, this time with Derek double driving for the first time in 2 years.
We had a good day, a bit slow on the first loop left me chasing to make up time, but quickest times on 7 out of the next 10 tests got me back up to 2nd, only 6 seconds behind 1st.
Derek enjoyed the day, but was a bit out of practice driving Fly so he finished 21st overall (out of the 75 starters).





Then it was a few weeks of prep work for the 40th (and last) Preston Rally - the roughest, bumpiest, muddiest rally there is...

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Preston prep work...

Apart from the usual checks which led to replacing the compression struts, track rod ends and one track rod, and repairing a tear in the chassis rail caused by a rock on the 1000 Lanes, I discovered the cause of some of the creaking behind me...



One of the 23 year old square turrets had popped the top off, so I pulled it back down with some threaded rod, welded up the cracks and added some reinforcements. The other side was fine so I left it



I also wanted to try and soften the suspension to handle the bumps better. After a bit of searching I bought a new pair of Capri H/D multi-leaf springs - these were rock hard but after removing 2 leafs and using the remaining 2 it worked out to be around 85-90 lb / in (measured by placing 2 x 56lb weights on the spring and measuring the compression).
Next I cut off the front spring eye and narrowed it slightly to go into the PTFE slipper bush, and moved the axle location pin 3/4" backwards so more of the spring was in the bush.





When fitted, these springs gave me 4" of suspension travel before hitting the axle bump stops
Next I fitted some coilovers fitted with 50lb springs with the spring seats set so that the springs would start working with 1" of travel left

At the front I went to 170lb springs with 1" preloaded on the spring seat to maintain a decent ride height. Even like this I could move the front down slightly - with the previous 200lb springs this was not possible

Final jobs were to fit the spotlights and a set of 185/65R14 Maxsport RB1 Grass Tyres on 14" wellers which I'd acquired over the summer and I was ready for the Preston

[headbolt]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

that sure was a large crack in the turret must have been close to popping the top off all together good to see the old girl getting plenty of action that is what they should be doing not polished and taken to shows on trailers

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

The 40th Preston Road Rally - 1st/2nd December 2018

Run by Chelmsford Motor Club, this event is well know for being very rough and has a route of 180 miles of whites, farm tracks, fields and byways
The current organising team have been running it for 12 years and it takes a lot of work - dealing with landowners, clearing tracks, PR'ing, setting out the route and clearing up afterwards, so they have decided this year will be the last time that they organise the event

This encouraged me to go back and have another go - I have competed on the Preston 9 times before and finished 2nd 3 times, Carrie has done it 4 times and finished 2nd twice (with me), but the last time we did it was in 2005 and we had a few problems!
As it was going to be the last event, they increased the entry to 90 cars and we all lined up at Snetterton Race Circuit before heading out into the countryside

We passed scrutineering without any trouble, but then the windscreen washers packed up, and one of the front tyres was hitting the wing on lock
After a bit of work with a pin and needle, the washers were cleared and I trimmed a bit off the front wing


We started off well, setting regular top 10 times although the rougher sections were really rough this year - I was having to back off a lot as the rear suspension was bottoming out regularly despite the new set up...
Being a long event, there are 2 petrol halts and as we pulled into the start of the Mildenhall Forest section before first petrol, all headlights went out and there was a smell of hot electrics
Wiggling the dip / main beam stalk showed that it was where the problem was and the only way I could get the headlights working was to hold the stalk in the flash position
Not having time to do anything else, we started the section like this - the only problem was I had to let go of the stalk to change gear.
I suggested Carrie could change gear while she was navigating but she didn't fancy that - instead she managed to reach the stalk and hold it on while I drove. This worked reasonably well although we dropped a couple of places here.

At first petrol we were 9th and I had time to fit a spare stalk and tighten up the new steering wheel boss which had not been put together very well (at the factory, not by me), but the rear springs were starting to sag.
Back out on the roads, we were going quickly on the smoother sections (3rd fastest in Kings Forest and 5th in Croxton Forest) but slowly on the rough sections (20th on Foxpin 2 but at least we didn't get stuck in the sandy mud on one straight!) and this kept us in 9th at 2nd petrol.

A quick check over Fly and tightened the steering boss again, we had quite a few comments about the rear suspension from the other competitors



The other side is even lower - a bit strange as Carrie is a lot lighter than me



With 6 sections to go we just wanted to finish and try and stay in the top 10, so gentle on the rough stuff and quick and the smoother bits, but it was not to be
On the Wretham section (around an Army camp and some fields), I slid wide on a muddy right hander and hit a solid tree with the left spotlight. We didn't hit it that hard but instantly the oil light came on and the pressure gauge went to zero so I knew that was it
I managed to reverse out of the tree and drive slowly to a safe place before switching off and getting out to assess the damage

Picture of the tree we hit, taken a few hours later by the driver of the next car who hit it a lot harder than we did!





Unfortunately the oil cooler is directly behind the left spotlight, and the impact was enough for the spotlight bracket to hit a union and snap it off the cooler

We texted the organisers to let them know we had retired and try to organise recovery, but realising we were only 100 yds from the public road we rang Richard Turnbull who had been out marshalling earlier to see where he was. He had just reached the finish at Snetterton and very kindly drove back to where we were and gave me a lift to collect the trailer so we could recover ourselves

So an eventful night which has given me some work to do before my next event, the Bagger Road Rally in late January.

PS
If you are thinking of trying softer leaf springs, don't try what I did!

This is in the workshop after the event with just the weight of the car resting on the jack - no spares in the boot and no fuel tank
You can just about see where the spring clip has been hitting the chassis rail



My next plan is for some Capri 2.8 single leafs which should be 116lb and will be a lot stronger
This year I had been running some 146lb single leafs with 1" lowering blocks but they are too hard for even the smoother forest tracks