GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

[mervhill]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Nice one Gav, and that's awesome that Pembrey is a two lapper both days, sweet!

[Gary Wright]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Wow and i thought i loved my mk2.

[PaulAlex]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Great write-up (an dobviously driving!) once again Gav - Well Done!

If I have half as much fun in my Escort as you do with yours, the build will have been worth it.

Cheers,

Paul

[Tazman]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

And finally the in car video from both days, with a proper mount this year
YouTube - Loton Park 16th & 17th May 2009

awsome footage

good to see you have sorted the camera shake out

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Pembrey Summer Sprint Weekend 5th & 6th June

It certainly didn't feel like summer when I arrived at Pembrey last weekend but at least it wasn't raining

This year they were running 1.5 laps both days with only one practice run so there wasn't much time to relearn the track

Sat practice - As the track was dry I went out on the rally slicks and set a respectable 130.52s, not far off last year's PB of 129.78s, the longer gearing definitely helping down the pit straight

Sat 1st Timed Run - After getting a tow start from Matt Hillam when the starter went clonk , and a brief shower that left some damp patches on the track, I was ready to go. I started off sensibly but knowing this might be the driest run of the day, pushed a little too hard round the long left hander by the paddock and had a big moment when the back stepped out suddenly and then went the other way (Glen got most of this on video ) but managed to keep pushing for the rest of the track to get 130.08s so I was happy with that. The only other car in class (a 2.0 Mk1 Golf) was a few seconds back on 135.41s

Sat 2nd Timed Run - I fitted the spare starter and everything was working properly again, but during lunch it had started raining steadily, so it was onto the wets. While queueing up for the start, there was a strange intermittent rattling / grinding noise coming from DVY, which I discovered was the fan. Didn't have time to do anything but with the cold weather it stayed cool enough. I had a steady first lap, trying to work out how much grip there was, braked far too early for the hairpin at the end of the pit straight, but pushed a bit harder on the second lap and got 141.46s

Windy and Matt were out in the Rally Car class along with the familiar 2.3 Cossie powered Mk1 Escort of Mike Griffiths.
On the first runs, Matt did an impressive 122.84s while Windy and Mike went 7s or 8s slower than their practice times, leading to questions over the timing equipment. After talking to the CoC and Matt's generous agreement, they were both allowed re-runs, Windy getting 123.55s and Mike just squeezing into the lead with 122.68s. This was enough for the class win after the rain arrived.

After a sleepless night in the tent due to the constant rain(but dry and warm at least), I had a quick look at the fan which had slipped off the spindle, so I put it back on and tightened up the spindle screw as much as possible and hoped it would last the day.

Sunday practice - It was still raining so I went out again for another sensible lap, tried to brake later for the hairpin, but it was too late and I went straight on, luckily onto a large run off area, before getting back on track with a time of 138.43s

Sunday 1st Timed Run - The rain had finally stopped and it was probably dry enough for slicks, but not wanting to chance it I left the wets on and had a clean run to 132.00s. The Golf was back on 138.17s and there was also a 205 in my class who'd cut out over the finish and wouldn't restart - he got 148.66s

Sunday 2nd Timed Run - The sun was out and it was actually warm, so the slicks were on and it was time to see how fast I could go. I managed to get a good run, getting most of the corners about right including Honda which leads onto the pit straight, and finished with a time of 125.24s

The Golf did 129.13s and the 205 didn't make it out

In the Rally Car class Windy had set some amazing times in the wet - 130.64s in practice, but in the Timed Runs could only manage 124.21s

Matt and Mike were flying again, but Matt lost out again by a fraction setting 121.37s to Mike's 121.19s

Next event is a rally at Caerwent for the first time in a couple of weeks

[Benjamin]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Mate this is an excellent thread, not sure how long i've been reading but i started about 11:30..it's now like 1:09!

Thanks for an excellent read mate, and i really hope the success continues, your an excellent driver.

[Graham]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

good stuff, i used to sprint at pembrey and used to enjoy it, although as an 800mile round trip i always used to question my sanity on the way

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Midsummer Caerwent Sun 21st June

After a few late nights, Dvy was back to rally car spec

Cath was co-driving again and arrived on Sat in time for us to drive Dvy to scrutineering (its only 10 miles) which was passed without any problems so we signed on and got the roadbook, so we could have a good look at the stage maps that night - I'd never been there before and although Cath had done a few Endurance Rallies round Caerwent that was off OS maps. The stages were all 10-11 miles with no lapping - Caerwent is an old military munitions dump so there are a lot of roads in a small area

Sunday we arrived early to get a good spot in the crowded service area and snoozed for an hour before getting ready for the start

Stage 1 - I'd decided to start off on some old Matador slicks as the first time round I was just being sensible, but these did not work that well, locking up frequently under braking, but we got round without any problems, keeping away from all the kerbs and not being caught by the car behind

Stage 2 - A repeat of Stage 1 but I swapped to the medium and soft Hankooks and Dvy felt a lot better, more stable under braking, and our time was 31s quicker

Stage 3 - I wasn't sure if the rear tyres would last the day, so I bought a couple more off Steve Harkness Tyres and put them in the van ready for later. I was trying a bit harder now, getting the feel of the place, but braked too late into a T-right, sliding to a halt about a foot before the kerb straight on, so had to back it out before carrying on. Then with 3 miles to go we went across a short section of gravel, back onto tarmac with a couple of wiggles, arriving at a hairpin slot right a bit fast, so I tweaked the handbrake and we drifted gently sideways into the kerb on the outside - instant rear puncture
We made it out on the remains of the tyres, losing about a minute in the process, but no other damage was done and we fitted one of the new tyres in service

Stage 4 - A repeat of Stage 3 and everything went well, I didn't touch the handbrake once and avoided all the kerbs. After this Stage we were lying 32nd and 11th in class out of the 100 or so cars that started

Stage 5 - I woke up a bit for this one, remembering most of the sections by now, except for one bit I remembered too well, previously we had done 90 left, 100yds slot 90 left, this time it was 90 left, 200yds slot 90 left, so when I turned left after 100yds I was confronted by a couple of no entry signs and some tape, with Cath shouting Not that one, the next one! but I was quickly back on track and we set a decent time, moving up to 28th

Stage 6 - A repeat of Stage 5 and I went the right way this time, going 9s quicker with 15th quickest time for the stage, up to 26th now and 9th in class

Stage 7 - The last one of the day and we wanted to try and make up a couple more places, but half way through I came out of a corner and the engine started misfiring, switching to the second fuel pump didn't help so we did the last 5 miles on 3 cylinders, losing about 1m 30s this time
Back in service I removed the plug leads to see which cylinder wasn't firing and one came off in my hand, leaving the metal tube on the spark plug, so that explained the problem

A few more cars retired on the last stage, so we didn't lose any places, finishing 26th overall and 7th in class, might have been 20th without the problems, but we were still happy and had a very enjoyable day and plan to go back there again when we can

Next event is Shelsley Walsh on Sat 4th July, assuming I've sorted out some new ignition leads by then (I haven't managed to find my old set yet and my attempts to repair the broken one have not been successful) - unfortunately Dvy runs a coil off a Peugeot/Citroen which has different connectors to most so they have to be specially made, the current set were done by Magnecor in 1998, but I'm sure it'll be ok

[Graham]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

another good write up gavin

[Retromotorsport]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

So wheres the in car footage of Cath giving you a bollocking for wrong slotting ..

Anyways .. well done mate

[Tazman]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Well done Gavin, look forward to seeing some in car fotage

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

No in-car allowed at Caerwent as its MOD

After a frantic email to Magnecor and a couple of phone calls to clarify exactly what coil I had, a new set of leads arrived on Wednesday a week later, they even gave me a 10% discount for being a previous customer

So I fitted them to DVY, started her up and was surprised to find it didn't make any difference After pulling the pliug leads off one by one from the coil, I established that the coil was only firing 2 & 3 (so we'd done 5 miles of Caerwent on 2 cylinders )

Unwrapping the wiring to the coil I found a broken wire, so I soldered a new one on and she was running sweetly again

With Shelsley Walsh coming up this weekend, I removed all the excess weight and fitted some new shorter rear springs so I could run the rear a lot lower (I was at the bottom of the coilover thread before)

[alladdin]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

great write up as usual - you must make notes while your waiting for the stage start

one point - would you be better off swapping to a common coil setup from a "blag a part" point of view ?

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Shelsley Walsh Sat 4th July

A small class today with just Tony in the Renault 5 and Peter in the CRX but I knew it would be a challenge trying to beat Tony again

1st Practice - I hadn't had time to take her for a test drive and as soon as I fitted the slicks I discovered a problem with the new springs - the seats were now level with the wheel rim and catching on it on one side, but after a bit of fiddling with different spacers and adjusting the panhard rod, everything was turning freely again
It was such a hot and humid day, I had trouble spinning the wheels up to the line and as soon as I left the line I could hear and feel a bad vibration from the tunnel and there was some smoke up the last straight so I backed off, getting a time of 37.86s
The conclusion was that DVY was now so low that the prop was rubbing on the tunnel

Back in the paddock I borrowed some axle stands off Tony and had a look underneath - the prop was rubbing on part of the tunnel reinforcement and also there was a tiny bit of sound deadening bitumen under the diff tunnel which had melted (hence the smoke). So I wound the springs seats back to where I'd started
It's all a bit strange as I'm sure DVY was set up ridiculously low years ago but possibly the diff angle is different now, making the prop sit higher

Unfortunately all this fiddling meant that my 2nd practice run was to be in the last practice batch 11, and after an hour delay when one competitor in a Healey 3000 got a bit out of shape and ended up on his roof in the middle of the track (he was ok but the car was a real mess ), the last 3 practice batches were cancelled

1st Timed Run - still boiling hot and humid which seemed to affect Tony's turbo engine more than the rest of us, but he still did a 34.08s (his PB is 33.34s)
I got off the line well, nicely up the hill but braked far too early for Bottom Ess (22.67s at 79mph), tidily through Top Ess and over the line in 34.93s at 83mph, not bad (my PB in Fly is 34.49s) but there was still a slightly worrying vibration from underneath, possibly the prop missing some weights after the early problems

2nd Timed Run - a bit cooler now with dark clouds gathering and the tiniest bit of drizzle as we lined up for the start left us wondering if the hill would be dry all the way up. Needing to make up nearly 1s I decided to drive it as if it was dry and try and brake really late for the Esses.
I got off the line well in 2.39s, carried more speed through the first couple of lefts getting into 4th before the little wiggle up towards Bottom Ess, then saw some long skidmarks going straight on which put me off and I braked too early again although my split time there was 21.97s at 81mph, 0.15s up on my PB but 1mph slower showing I braked earlier, struggled round Bottom Ess in 3rd before going down to 2nd for Top Ess, got out nicely and over the line but only managed 34.51s at 83mph.
Tony was a bit cautious with 34.67s, a lot of people going slower on the 2nd run

So a disappointing day, but even with a 2nd practice run I'm not sure if I'd have got down to Tony's time, I'll just have to see if I can get the braking right next time I go there in September

Next weekend I'm out at Loton Park which are rounds of the Loton Park Championship

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

great write up as usual - you must make notes while your waiting for the stage start

one point - would you be better off swapping to a common coil setup from a "blag a part" point of view ?

Probably but I've got a spare coil and used to carry spare leads with me as well, now I'll definitely be carrying both