My MK2 Rally car

[Paul C]

Re: My MK2 Rally car

I've had my CWP changed in the last week to a 4.1, and it turned out i had a 3.7 in it. So that explains why 1st gear would do about 50 mph!!

I've raised the rear suapension today by about 5mm one side and 10mm the other. It sat wonky as hopefully it will be leveled out now.

Fitted my wet tyres ready for the Longmoor loco stages on the 30th this month.

Its a 2wd only rally, tight and twisty. So its not all about power.

Just got to give it a quick spanner check and make sure it starts

[Paul C]

Re: My MK2 Rally car

Had a great day on Sunday at the loco stages. I've been there twice before, once marshalling and once servicing. But it was my first time competing.

I was praying that it wouldn't be wet, raining or icey. The weather was good to us all day long.

My usual navigator is away in Oz so someone else from my club stood in. His crash helmet intercom wasn't compatable with the cars intercom, so he had to resort to shouting all day.

Whilst queueing up for scrutineering the car over heated which turned out to be a dodgy connection on the fan temperature switch.

On the first stage i was my usual over cautious self. I had no idea where i was going. But we made it round in one piece. The second stage was a repeat of the first and we shaved 31 seconds off our time. I was very pleased with this and it gave me some good confidence for the rest of the day.

On stage four i handbraked it round a tight hairpin bend and hit one of the few curbs in the venue with the back passenger wheel . I seem to have the urge to use the handbrake on every corner, which isn't fast, but brings a large grin to my face . Lukily it did minimal damage to the rim and i pressed on.

After lunch the stages were run in reverse and it was like learning the venue all over again (for me anyway). By stage 6 we were 12 seconds behind some fellow Bournemouth car club memebers who were servicing next too us. They were in a 205 1.9gti. Both of us were in class C and i really wanted to get in front of them. With 2 stages to go i came up with the plan .

As i always brake to early for corners, my plan involved counting to 3 and then braking hard, at the end of the 2 long straights. This would then give me the 12 seconds i needed over 2 stages. EASY

So i counted to 3 on the first long straight, the car locked up started to go sideways and all i could see was a lampost out the side window pray: Somehow we made it round the corner, but at this point i decided my plan was not such a good idea

Anyway, it paid off and we finished one place in front by 2 seconds .

The car behaved very well, but my rear brakes are over braking and getting hot, causing a soft pedal. The bias box is set all to the front brakes, so i'm going to have to adjust the clevis pins on the individual cylinders and play about with it a bit.

I was informed on the day that i have an entry for the Goodwood stages on the 2nd of feb. So need to sort the brakes by then.

Heres a picture of me from the day http://www.grahamrobins.net/photos/L...8/112+copy.jpg

[alladdin]

Re: My MK2 Rally car

great thread sounds like you need an in line brake limiting valve on the back?

[MCURZON]

Re: My MK2 Rally car

Love this thread, really like to hear about people's exploits when out competing. Think we all need to start taking more pics in service area as so much interesting stuff happens there.

This is one of my new year's resolutions!!

[GavinR]

Re: My MK2 Rally car

Well done Paul, I saw the results the other day

With your brakes, it you have Volvo 4 pots with vents on the front and XR3i calipers with vents on the back - I still run Fly with these rear brakes and have had various different front brakes so there should be enough adjustment on your bias box to get it set up correctly

So a couple of questions for you:
Master Cyl size for front and rear?
Brake Fluid spec for front and rear?
Brake Pad spec for front and rear?

And one final question - are you adjusting the bias the right way? (I've had this problem myself before now )

See you at Goodwood

[Paul C]

Re: My MK2 Rally car

Thanks for your comments guys

Gavin,

I've got standard pads in the back, mintex 1144's in the front. Not sure on the cylinder sizes, i know for the fronts its from rally design, wilwood with an integral resivoir. I'll have a look this weekend and see what the sizes are.

http://www.4sportvideo.co.uk/ click on the white nissan picture on the bottom left for a video clip of Longmoor.

See you at Goodwood

[Paul C]

Re: My MK2 Rally car

and here are the pics from the day.

http://www.photographeronthe.net/rallygallery/part_display3.asp?curPage=32&idcat=7948&par=7947&pid=382

not many of me in a straight line Car 53

[Paul C]

Re: My MK2 Rally car

I've been and looked to see what size cylinders i've got and the front is a wilwood 7/8 and the rear is a girling .625.

I manually wound the bias to the oposite end using a socket (as the dash mounted adjuster is shot). I did this to physically see if i have the bias the right way. Once it was wound to the oposite end the rear cylinder had more movement in it than the front.

So i think all the bias is on the front.

I also dug out some bilsteins front shock absorbers. One has a bent insert and i'd like to convert them to coil overs. I've read the sticky on doing this, but what inserts should i get for tarmac rallying? Long or short? Poundage and length of springs?

[GavinR]

Re: My MK2 Rally car

I've been and looked to see what size cylinders i've got and the front is a wilwood 7/8 and the rear is a girling .625.

I manually wound the bias to the oposite end using a socket (as the dash mounted adjuster is shot). I did this to physically see if i have the bias the right way. Once it was wound to the oposite end the rear cylinder had more movement in it than the front.

So i think all the bias is on the front.

I also dug out some bilsteins front shock absorbers. One has a bent insert and i'd like to convert them to coil overs. I've read the sticky on doing this, but what inserts should i get for tarmac rallying? Long or short? Poundage and length of springs?

The cylinders are not good - most pedal boxes I've seen use .625 for the front and .700 for the back so I'd change these first

A 7/8 cylinder would be used for all 4 brakes, not just 2

I'd put competition pads all round as well, but it depends on your budget

I've always used long inserts, 300/70 rating and I currently run 200lb springs on Fly, not sure what length though

[Paul C]

Re: My MK2 Rally car

Thanks Gavin. I won't have chance to change them before Goodwood, as i'm off on holiday next week. But something to look into afterwards.

Paul

[GavinR]

Re: My MK2 Rally car

You shouldn't have much trouble round Goodwood as the stages are very short and the average speed is quite high - I've beaten the bogey (just) a couple of times round there in the old car

[Paul C]

Re: My MK2 Rally car

Well we did goodwood on saturday and its fair to say i was very dissapointed driving home.

After 6 rallies i'm finally going to have to carryout some maintenance and upgrades .

It all started off when we couldn't get the door numbers off from the last rally. It was so cold that the numbers became brittle and came off in tiny pieces. in the end a motorsport type stand set up next too us, so i bought two new door squares and stuck them over the old ones and hey presto! we could stick on number 37!

I knew i had brake problems but didn't have time to look into it and sort them. After the first stage i came back in with very little confidence in the brakes and a soft pedal. Barney quickly jumped in and bled the brakes up which brought the pedal back up. Out we went again but i couldn't bring myself to drive fast around the long sweeping corners (what a girl!!) not used to all this track stuff.

On one of the stages i actually managed to brake nice and late for one of the long chicanes, which i was pleased with. The next chicane along i was confident that i could master the late braking, but instead ended up locking up all 4 wheels and ploughed through the road cones which made up the chicane So off we went for a whole lap with 2 cones stuffed under the sump guard/ front bumper . When we came back round to the same offending chicane, i slowed right down as not to annoy the marshals again (!). I booted it on the way out the chicane and the front wheel lifted and the cone popped out

Finally finished 26th overall. Big thanks to Barney for his help with the brakes. Well done to Gav for his results. I think he managed to sneak in front on my mate in his Subaru. He was pleased though as it was only his 4th rally!

My plans now are to buy a .700 master cylinder for the fronts and i plan to phone up the Squires and enquire about their AP front brake kit for 1k!!

[SnappyRacers]

Re: My MK2 Rally car

[Paul C]

Re: My MK2 Rally car

Thats the offending items

Well i've had a nice parcel arrive from R.A.C.E yesterday, some new AP 4 pots, a .700 brake cylinder and some door squares Just need to find some time to make a start on fitting them up ready for my next event MIRA. Still waiting for the regs to come out for this though.

Paul

[Paul C]

Re: My MK2 Rally car

Small update, tomorrow my mate is going to sort the brake cylinders out for me and change the front pads and discs.

I'm not going to fit the AP's as i'm going to put it on ebay for sale this week. So if anyone is interested in a rally car ready to go Its a good car to get you started into RWD rallying. So watch this space (and the ebay section).

Also going to sell my T4 VW transporter surf/ day van and my vtec mini rally car.