GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

[Tazman]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Saw the picture and had a mild heart attack.......................then I read the report

Good to hear you had an enjoyable event, bet getting out and spectating a few stages made a change

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

In car from West Cork, first one starts off a bit slow, but the other's look good - I think the camera movement makes it look quicker

SS11 - Rossmore

SS12 - Sams Cross

SS13 - Ardfield

SS14 - Hayes Cross

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Loton Park Sun 4th April

A few days changing the springs, removing any unnecessary weight, including fitting a 2.5 gallon fuel tank, and DVY was ready for the first hillclimb of the year

I was in a class of 6 this time, 3 Peugeot 205's including Ralph Pinder who normally does the National A meetings, and the usual 3 of us in Escorts - Karl in his Mk2 and Steve in his Mk1, both unchanged since last year (Steve was hoping to be out with his new engine, but the engine builder melted a piston on the dyno while mapping it so this has been put off for a bit)

1st Practice - The weather was good but with a cold wind resulting in not much grip on the hill and a few damp patches under the trees although that didn't stop Ralph setting a time of 59.32s Steve was on 60.68s, Karl on 61.93s and myself on 61.86s

2nd Practice - Everything was dry by now so it was time for a proper run, Ralph went up first in 59.87s, then Steve with 59.63s and then Karl left the line so I warmed the tyres and lined up on the Start line only to be shown the Red Flag
Karl had reached the first corner, a square left, and the throttle stuck open so he locked everything up, narrowly missed the armco and headed towards the escape road before it came unstuck, the marshals said everything was ok and removed a cone from his front spoiler and he carried on up the hill and was given a time of 125.76s
So after this slight delay I did a run of 59.72s which I was happy with

1st Timed Run - We all went down to the start apart from Steve who's engine wouldn't fire up, he traced the fault to a loose wire on the alternator but unfortunately the wire had shorted out and melted the ignition module and he didn't have a spare so his day ended there
Ralph was up first and set a new PB of 58.69s, but Karl was even more impressive with a new PB himself of 58.40s, helped by some new front tyres bought during the lunch break after finding flat spots on the previous ones when the throttle stuck earlier
I got off the line pretty well and round to Triangle in 22.95s, about 0.4s up on Karl and Ralph at this point, but I had trouble getting the power down out of Triangle and also out of Keepers so by the top of Cedar Straight I was behind and finished with a time of 59.15s

2nd Timed Run - Ralph went slightly quicker with 58.60s and Karl was very similar on 58.44s, I got off the line even better but had too much drift round Loggerheads and slower to Triangle and despite keeping a tidy line out of the next few corners I could only manage 59.52s so I finished 3rd in Class

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Loton Park Mon 5th April

There were 6 of us again today, a slightly different mix of cars, Ralph deciding not to take part as there was a slight rattle from his engine, but Steve had arranged for an ignition module to be delivered in the morning, Karl was aiming for another class win, Simon and Bernard were there in their usual MGF hoping to break 60s with some Avon slicks and slightly lower gearing than last year, and Phill Skipp was out in his Astra

1st Practice - This was a question of who was ready to go, Steve was having a bit of trouble fitting the ignition module so did not do this run, the MGF's electronic cut out had packed up so they were busy removing it and Karl had been helping Steve so went up a bit later, so I lined up behind Phill and did a time of 64.81s, some overnight rain leaving the track a bit slippery

2nd Practice - All the cars were running by now so we all went up in the right order, Steve with 60.00s, Karl on 59.58s and myself on 59.73s, the track having dried out completely

1st Timed Run - Karl did another serious time of 58.49s and Steve had a good run to 59.38s, I made a good start and had my best run of the weekend to Triangle in 22.80s, kept it tidy and powered up the hill, flat over the crest before standing on the brakes into Fallow hairpin left, or that was the plan, in reality I had a big moment under braking, DVY going sideways one way then the other then back again and by the time I was back in control I'd nearly missed the corner and probably lost about 0.5s so the resulting time of 59.28s wasn't too bad, but I wasn't happy as it could have easily been a 58s run

2nd Timed Run - Karl missed a gear going into the final corner at Museum but still did 58.98s, Steve was slightly slower on 59.59s, I'd wound some more brake bias to the front but was slower to Triangle after trying a bit too hard and getting on the grass but there were no dramas at the top of the hill this time and I finished on 59.18s to get 2nd in Class

Well done to Karl for his four 58s runs over the weekend, very impressive

So an interesting and enjoyable weekend, slightly frustrating that I couldn't get back into the 58's, difficult to say whether it was a lack of grip due to worn rear tyres, the cold track temperature or just that I couldn't string a good run together but we'll see what happens next time I'm there in July - by then I should have removed another 5-10kg from DVY and the weather should be warmer

In car from the weekend

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

A couple of pics from the Monday

Coming out of Triangle - maybe 20psi in the rears is a bit too low


Keepers Corner

[Tazman]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Nice report as normal Gavin, could you have got the back end any lower

I reckon you need to put the old fuel tank back as the weight might help with traction out of the corner

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

I reckon you need to put the old fuel tank back as the weight might help with traction out of the corner

I did think about that

And the next lot of weight will be coming out of the boot as well

Maybe I'll swap the tyres front to back next time and see if that helps

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

I didn't have much planned for May but then I found the Middlewick Stages at Woodbridge next weekend so I put in an Entry

Not much to do on DVY except for sorting out a quieter exhaust (last year's is on Fly) and try and work out why it rattles a lot on the overrun

So yesterday I took the rear box off and welded a bigger silencer in, but the old one didn't rattle so I checked the centre pipe by pushing an old broom handle up it, and felt some resistance, so I took it off and it was rattling badly from the Cherry Bomb

A few minutes with the angle grinder and I could see the problem


Not a lot of wadding left in here


20m later I'd cleared the inside and welded the end back on


I'll try and get one next week but if I don't this one can go back on, she's quiet enough with the rear silencer so I don't think it'll make much difference

[STEVE H]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Good luck this weekend at the middlewick stages Gavin, i know you will do well

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Middlewick Stages 9th May 2010

Instead of getting a new centre pipe I bought a couple of universal sections from Merlin Motorsport and welded them together to the right length and angle. By Thursday night everything was ready, including new TCA's and a replacement steering arm after I found the incident in Ireland had bent one. I also found 2 broken link bar bolts, the front lower one on each side so these were replaced.

Friday lunch time I headed off to Ipswich for scrutineering which was passed without trouble and met up with Holly Bailey who was codriving on this event - we'd never done a rally together before but I remembered her from Stage and Road events about 10 years ago after which she went on to do the British Championship for a couple of years - this was her first event for 2 years though so she was a bit nervous and excited at the same time

Saturday at Woodbridge it was a bit chilly and damp, passed noise at 92dB, put some petrol in and checked the tyre pressures on my best set of PB20 wets

SS1 - Woodbridge is a mixture of loops round hangars and sections of the old runways following paths cut through buddleia bushes and small silver birch trees, all on good tarmac, each stage was about 8 miles over 2 laps, so SS1 was just a case of being sensible and finding our way through the stage and relating it to the diagrams - one section was quite confusing, the organisers had drawn some quite tight corners in but the road was wide enough to straight line everything so I was already into the next section before Holly finished calling them
On the first lap we'd passed John Indri's new Darrian who had slid off into some bushes and as we came round the second time he got going just in front of us, covering my windscreen with muck for a couple of corners before he got away
The time of 9:56 was good enough for 18th out of the 50 starters, 1s ahead of Jon Segger but 23s behind Terry Luckings' 2.0 Golf who we were parked beside

SS2 - We'd sorted out the diagrams and everything went a lot better, 36s quicker than SS1 and equal with Terry, I'd even remembered to turn the camera on

SS3 & SS4 - Some slight changes to the stages but the sections through the bushes were the same and there were some longer straights, on SS3 we pulled back 3s from the Golf but by the end of SS4 I was having trouble keeping the back end in line and we dropped 13s to them
During lunch I checked the rear tyres and they were not far off being slicks so I put another pair on (it was still damp and drizzly) and checked the suspension, nothing had come loose though
Holly checked the results and we were 15th, still making up time after the slowish first stage

SS5 & SS6 - After a slight delay while the stages were switched direction we were off again, the tyres were working a lot better and I was pushing hard reaching 6th on one of the straights and we were 6th quickest through SS5 just ahead of the Golf and similar on SS6. With a couple of retirements from the top 10 we were surprised to be up to 8th

SS7 - There was a bit of rain during service so we sheltered under Terry's gazebo, but we didn't think much of it until a few corners into the stage it was a lot slippier so I said to Holly that this one could be interesting
A couple of miles in we were caught by Pete Rayner's Mk2 who was leading the event so I let him past and gave chase. About a mile further on, Pete lost it under braking for a SqR and span off onto the grass so we shot past
Nearing the end of the first lap we came round a corner in the bushes and suddenly the Golf was there in front of us having had a few spins himself, but he got going before we could get past. On the next straight Pete had caught me up so I let him past again and then on the next one he went past the Golf, both cars throwing up so much spray I had to back off slightly as I couldn't see anything.
We followed the Golf round the second lap, he would get away round some of the fast corners but we would catch up down the straights and through the bushes, I nearly lost it in one place on a particularly wet patch but no harm was done
Coming up to the last corners before the Flying Finish, a 45 right and left through some bushes, the Golf didn't quite make the 45 right and went straight on into a 10ft high silver birch tree, which luckily for them uprooted and they went over the top of it. We were laughing so much that I nearly missed the corner as well
The Golf span round and followed us over the finish, having lost 34s to us on the stage, which we thought might put us a couple of seconds ahead overall. The only damage to the Golf was a dented front bumper and a few twigs sticking out, but the in car of this stage is very enjoyable

SS8 - Similar conditions to SS7 but this time I caught a car on lap 2, the Anglia of John and Louise Cooledge (who I know from years ago) and they pulled out of the way. A couple of corners later on the same patch of water as SS7 Dvy suddenly swapped ends and we were going backwards rather quickly in 2nd gear. I remembered to dip the clutch, stuck it in first but couldn't quite get going before John came back past so we had to overtake him again.
I pushed hard to the end of the stage to try and make up lost time but we had dropped 5s to the Golf

When the results came out, we were 8th, just 1s behind the Golf, who was 1s behind the 2.1 Mk2 of John Legg
Pete Rayner had been leading going into SS8 but a puncture a mile from the end lost him 23s and the lead so he ended up second, effectively winning our class but his 2nd Overall pot gave us 3rd in Class
Jon Segger finished 15th and 7th in Class, having trouble getting the power down in the tricky conditions while Tudor and Ashley Davies finished 24th and 11th in class, Tudor giving their new engine it's first test

So a very enjoyable event at an interesting venue, well organised by Green Belt and Middlesex County Clubs, and many thanks to Holly for sitting in with me

Next event should be Caerwent in June

Stage 2

Stage 4

Stage 6

Stage 7

Stage 8

[exboyracer]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Great write up Gavin, some nice pedalling too

[northeee]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

well done gavin, great vids looked very wet

[JonSegger]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Great write-up/footage as ever Gavin and a great result

(Watching the videos, I really can't believe how much more grip you had than we did - even on SS7 you look to be going less sideways than we were on any of the stages. We were running cut Dunlop slicks, x12s on the rear and x22s on the front. I thought they'd be a lot better than they were.)

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Thanks - it certainly didn't feel like we had much grip, I was trying very hard not to go sideways and feed in the power gently, didn't always work though

I'm down to my last few PB20's now and none of them have much tread left (and they're not made any more) so I'm going to invest in a set of x22's cut into full wets - I remember Windy at Millbrook a few years back going very well in heavy rain on x22's all round

Maybe the x12's were too hard to work in those conditions?

[Retromotorsport]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Made me chuckle at the end of Stage 7 .. well done to you both