GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

[PaulAlex]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Good luck!

[Huxley]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Good luck Gavin

[anotherdeadhero]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Looking very smart Gavin

Have a good run in Cork.

[Redrocket-]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

http://results.westcorkrally.com/2016/Results/Car098.html

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

West Cork Rally - 12/13 March 2016

George and I spent a day and a half recceing the 14 stages while my service crew finished the car. We didn't bother with the front stripes, just the rear ones, going for the clean look!

Friday afternoon we got ready to go to scrutineering when it opened at 3pm, but when I went to start DVY, one of the fuel pumps wasn't working
Richard and I checked the wiring but it was the pump that had packed up. As I had a spare in the van, we changed it and got to scrutineering at 4pm, passing without any problems.







Saturday morning we left Parc Ferme just before 12:00 and went through service on the way to the first stage, Clogagh. Carrie had walked up to this stage and reported that the roads were damp but drying slowly. As it was quite cold and cloudy, we decided to fit the X22 wets (which I'd bought a few years ago and never used) as they were softer than the slicks. These worked well on Clogagh and the next stage Ballinascarthy and were hardly wearing so we left them on for the second run through those 2 stages.



Clogagh 2 we went 18s quicker over the 10 miles, but part way through Ballinascarthy 2, the gear stick was spinning in my hand and I couldn't get any gears. A similar problem happened in 2015 when the bolts came out and I remembered how we had continued, so while still coasting with George looking for a safe spot to pull over, I managed to jam the gearstick back in the box and select 3rd so we could continue. It was about half way through the 11 mile stage when this happened and we were just over a minute slower than the first run. The stage was very fast this year - we'd hit the limiter in 5th on the first run which is 115mph, so with just 3rd gear we were struggling on the straights. On the way back to service I had a better look at the problem, discovering that the bolts were still in but the rosejoint had come out of the housing because the circlip had popped out of it's groove. Not wanting to risk it happening again, George phoned Richard and David to get a spare gearstick ready and I fitted it in service while they checked everything else.

Saturday afternoon was another 4 stages, Ring and Dunworley both run twice. Ring was also very fast with Car 1 beating the bogey time (set at an average of 81mph!), and the wets went off near the end as they started to overheat, and Dunworley was very twisty but the spare gearstick was fine and we finished the day 48th in the National section (with another 20 of the Internationals ahead of us). We put the slicks on for the final 2 stages and these were working well (Hankook soft T91's on the front and Dunlop X12's at the back).
On the road section back to the final service of the day, the fan belt was squealing a bit, and when we checked it in service, we found the bolt holding the adjusting arm to the water pump was missing. Richard went to fit a replacement bolt, but found he couldn't as half the bolt was snapped off in the water pump! To solve this, we removed the 10mm bolt which holds the water pump to the block, drilled out the end of the adjusting arm to 10mm and fixed it with a longer 10mm bolt to the water pump and block.

Sunday and the weather was a lot better, sunshine and blue sky everywhere. We started after 12:00 and went through serivce on the way to the first of the days 6 stages, which were run in 2 loops of 3 stages. The first one was Shanaway and although we gained on the car in front, the car behind gained on us so we didn't make up any places. The next one was Sams Cross and we had a really good run through here, 35th quickest at an average speed of 65mph. The 3rd stage of the loop was Ardfield, this year run backwards which was a bit strange as we're so used to going the other way, but it worked well.
Queuing in traffic through Clonakilty back to service, there was a strange burning smell and more squealing noises from the engine bay. We had a good look at everything in service but couldn't see anything wrong so we just tightened the fan belt a bit more and headed out for stages 12-14.

The squealing seemed worse when the engine was hotter, so we turned her off at every opportunity, but got through Shanaway 2 5s quicker than the first time, although I was having a bit of trouble getting her into gear on occasion.
Stage 13 was Sams Cross 2 - I started and stopped the engine a few times queuing up to the start line, but when I started it for the final time, I couldn't get it into gear, as if the clutch wasn't releasing properly, as I could get all the gears with the engine off. George and I pushed her onto the verge and I adjusted the clutch cable, hoping it was as simple as not enough travel on the pedal, but unfortunately this did not make any difference so we had to retire

Still, we had done 12 of the stages, a total of 120 miles of rallying and enjoyed our week in Ireland despite not making the finish this year. DVY still looks immaculate and I have a few improvements planned for next year. I doubt I will do another stage rally this year, but we'll see how it goes.

On the Saturday I had fitted my old in car camera which I had tried to repair to stop it shaking so much, but it was no better.
On the Sunday, Carrie provided us with a Go Pro copy and this was small enough to screw onto the dash pad and easily accessible for me to turn it on and off
The in car has come out very well, and with the camera mounted so close to the windscreen, it even looks like we going quickly



In car from the first 3 Sunday stages
SS9 Shanaway

SS10 Sams Cross

SS11 Ardfield

Many thanks to George for a great job codriving, Richard and David for their help keeping DVY going and finishing the last few jobs before the event, and Carrie for the extra pictures and videos. We've already booked the accommodation for next year!

[mick32]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

at exactly 2min into the ardfield stage i was sat on the ditch on the square right that corner claimed a few cars the exit was extremly slippy.we enjoyed the corner so much we stayed for the second loop but didnt see you go past and assumed the worst but im glad it was mechanical.tried to look for you in service on sat but it was setup like a maze and couldnt find you.we actually got sunburned on sunday the weather was that good.

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

We were on the left in service, overlooking the fields away from the main areas, but had to move a couple of times as people had parked too close to the van. Hopefully we'll see you next year.

Over the weekend I took the gearbox out to see exactly what had gone wrong...
The release bearing was very tight as expected so that was the squealing noise we heard, but it was damage to the clutch cover which put us out of the rally



One of the broken fingers was in the bellhousing, but the 2nd piece was wedged between the clutch plates, preventing it from releasing

The flywheel doesn't look too good either - the insert for the 7.25" clutch shows signs of heat and there's a wear ridge at the outside.



I'm not sure where to get a replacement insert from, or whether just to take the flywheel to a machine shop and see what they can do.
If I get a new flywheel I'll need to get it modified anyway as there's a trigger wheel bolted to the back of it.
Plenty of time to sort it out though

[mick32]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

i reckon that flywheel could be surface ground by a machine shop they,ll only be taking .2 or .3 of a millimeter off it.

[apmonty]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

and maybe take the same off the clutch mounting face on the flywheel as clutch face should be a 100thou inch proud for an AP as far as I remember. http://www.andersonracingengines.com/ used to make inserts for their alloy flywheels or even coltecracing.com as Holbay did the same

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Thanks for the advice - it'll help me decide what to do

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Over the last year I didn't manage to get out on any events, but got the flywheel refaced by Ron at HT and fitted a new twin plate clutch, together with a new bearing and clutch fork, thinking I might as well replace everything at the same time.

I also built a new axle casing using a Gartrac pig's head and thick tubes together with their brackets, and used all the parts from my old one - I've built it to narrow width with fully floating hubs and group 1 studs from Grp4fabrications. This is so I don't have to run 1" spacers to get the width.

Then it was just getting everything together to go over to this years West Cork Rally which takes place this weekend (18th/19th March).
A change for this year is the addition of a night stage, Sam's Cross, on the Saturday evening, so I spent a few days fitting spotlight mounts and doing some wiring (the spot light circuit now being used by the heated screen).

No idea if they are pointing in the right direction, but they look the part

[headbolt]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Good luck in cork and she certainly looks very fresh now looking forward to your usual excellent write up on your return

[mario r h santos]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

x2

Good luck in cork and she certainly looks very fresh now looking forward to your usual excellent write up on your return

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

How did you do then gavin?

See some of the top boys had trouble with rocks being pulled onto the stage

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

We had a great time this year, apart from a complete nightmare on the night stage, everything went well and we finished 36th in the National section
I'll do a write up later

Pic (by Rallythroughalens.com) from one of the Sunday stages when it was slightly damp and mucky