GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

As a test, I did a track day at Castle Combe this week.

Passed the MOT after some welding to the boot floor / panhard rod mount, and I swapped the CWP from a 5.1 to a 4.6 which will give a top speed of 125mph instead of about 108mph (which is not enough for some of the events I'm hoping to do). The 4.6 was one I had taken out a few years ago and kept so a cheap swap.

I'd done 25 miles on the road and then 60 miles at Combe - everything went well although the oil temp was a bit high (over 120) so a bigger oil cooler is on order!
Water temp was 80-85 and I was getting up to 116mph into Avon Rise.

Lap times (taken afterwards from the in car video) were around 1m 25s, very similar to the Cossie 2 years ago, but I was running the 5.1 then and getting flat out in 2 places so not a direct comparison. It was a lot better not worrying about hitting the limiter in 5th!

The suspension is set up for Closed Road events, so a bit soft for a circuit

[rallyrob]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Nice write up. At least you're reducing tyre wear by going round corners on 3 wheels.

What's that revving to to give you that top speed with the 4.6 then Gav?
It is still on 13" wheels, isn't it?

[JimKeogh]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Excellent read....good Luck with everything.

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Nice write up. At least you're reducing tyre wear by going round corners on 3 wheels.

What's that revving to to give you that top speed with the 4.6 then Gav?
It is still on 13" wheels, isn't it?

The outside edge of the outside front tyre was showing a bit of canvas by the end of the day!

Yes, always on 132 wheels - the rev limit is 8k and I've now got a Tracsport semi-helical gearbox (instead of the Quaife Pro) which has a higher 0.82 ratio 5th gear to help the top speed.
The Tracsport gearbox with a 5.1 would give 113mph at 8k, but I'll stick to the 4.6 for the moment.
The ideal ratio might be a 4.9 to give 120mph top speed but the CWP sets are not cheap!

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

...everything went well although the oil temp was a bit high (over 120) so a bigger oil cooler is on order...

Found the issue with the oil temp - on the Cossie, I had a sender in the return union out of the dry sump pump and this went with the engine
So I went back to using the sender in the bottom of the oil tank which I haven't used for years, but I must have had a different gauge last time I used it as it's over-reading by 20 degrees

I'll fit the new oil cooler and have bought a new sender which matches the gauge in the car so I should get an accurate reading now

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Good news Gavin whats the first event?

[360phil]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Hi Gavin, great to see that you've got the new engine up and running.

I see you've got an entry at Down Ampney at the end of May. I've also got an entry, first rally in ages.

Any advice on tyres, it will be my first time there?

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Hi Gavin, great to see that you've got the new engine up and running.

I see you've got an entry at Down Ampney at the end of May. I've also got an entry, first rally in ages.

Any advice on tyres, it will be my first time there?

Hi

Down Ampney is like most old airfields, all concrete, some bits breaking up in places and getting slightly rough
It's also very slippery if it's wet - one corner is often wet even on a dry day
Most crews will be on slicks with the odd one using worn knobblies - I'll be on old soft slicks

Thanks
Gavin

[360phil]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Thanks for the info Gavin.
I just need my engine builder to finish my engine in time.

[EarlDM]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Hope you guys share your experience in Down Ampney.

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Red Dragon IT Stages - Down Ampney - Saturday 28th May 2022

Finally it was time to do a rally with the new engine. There are 3 events at Down Ampney a year and this was the one that George was available for.
There was a full entry of 75 cars plus reserves and we were seeded Car 18.

I went over for scrutineering on Friday afternoon in case there were any issues - the first one was that my electric cut off switch pull cable was not working even though it seemed free. I always carry a spare new cable so that was quickly fitted. The other thing the scrutineer was interested in (under direction of the MSUK Technical Director) was Escorts with modified bulkheads and tunnels and mine fell into this category. The outcome was that my vehicle passport was noted as needing to be a Category 2 passport not a Category 1

To cut a long story short, around 8 cars were also noted in the same way - subsequent discussions with MSUK established that the affected cars can continue to be used as they are, and MSUK will be issuing guidance confirming what and how big modifications are allowed under a Category 1 rules. As is often the case, the Blue Book rule is not very well defined!
So scrutineering was passed and back home to finish loading a selection of tyres and off early on the Saturday.

Down Ampney is an old airfield with 2 main runways and a perimeter track together with some wider areas of concrete and various trees and bushes near the roads. The roads are used by the farming estate and at some point it will be dug up for gravel. Even though there had already been 2 events there this year, the first stage is always very slippery as the concrete gets very dusty very quickly.

We started slowly on the softest slicks I had (20 year old Dunlops) and slid around managing not to hit anything, and just stayed ahead the car behind us. In service, I decided a set of newer soft slicks would work better (10 year old Hankooks) so these were fitted all round and we went 40s quicker over the 8 mile stage. It might just have been because the surface had cleaned up considerably, but I immediately felt a lot more confident on those tyres.
DVY was running well but I was having problems with gear selection, especially going into first for some of the tighter chicanes, caused by a weak spring on the gearstick.

Stages 3 and 4 went well and I was learning how to work around the gear stick issue by being more careful. There were a lot of cars retiring, either through hitting bales or bushes, or just mechanical failures. I think we were about 12th at this point as Chris (who had come along to service) had a quick look. I wasn't too worried, I just wanted a good test of the car, and to try and remember how to drive her

Stages 5 and 6, very similar, but when we got back to service we noticed an "egg" starting to appear in the sidewall of one of the front tyres, so fitted another matching Hankook. A quick check of the link bar bolts and some fuel and we were ready for the next one.

Stages 7 and 8 were good, I felt I was getting faster as the day went on. We kept nearly catching a Historic Mini on the stages. but not quite close enough to go past.
Now it was time to check the results - 7th overall, 11s behind 6th which was an Astra GTE in our class and we were taking 4-5s out of him each stage, and 2s ahead of another Mk2, also in our class, so time to get a move on with just 2 stages left

As is common with most single venue events, stages are run in pairs with slight changes to the layout between them, so stage 9 had a simpler route through one complex. This meant we were using a bit that hadn't been used before and as I arrived in 5th to brake for the chicane, I found there was a lot of gravel and we weren't slowing down enough...
George spotted a large bale she thought we were going to hit, and I counted 6 cones that were in the way as we headed sideways towards them, but at the last minute everything came back together and we got round the corner, and braked a lot earlier on the next lap!
Despite this, we had gained another 6s on the Astra, so just 5s needed on the last one. I really went for it, the dodgy corner was nice and clean this time round and we squeezed past the Mini on one of the narrower straights to go 12s quicker. The Astra also improved but not enough.

Final result was 6th overall and 2nd on class, our last stage time was 3rd quickest and we beat the Astra by 6s
Very very pleased with the result and the way DVY performed - the new engine didn't use any water or blow out any oil, we just changed some tyres and put fuel in which is how it should be
Many thanks to George as always

It was good to meet 360phil at scrutineering with his very tidy N/A Cossie powered Mk1 - he also got picked up for a modified bulkhead at scrutineering but I think they retired after ending up in a bush, hopefully without too much damage

Some in car from Stage 7 before the battery ran out

[Graham]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

another great read Gavin. i chuckled when i read about the MSUK stuff, although i dont move in rallying circles i am a scrut myself, and i can tell you we all hate the blue book for its holes and discrepancies. just like the MOT testers manual, which allegedly is also black and white with no grey areas, but we all know both are

[Sidways93]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Good read and looks like the new engine works well! Hopefully the escort tunnel situation doesn’t filter down to road/targa although not sure it could with cars not needing to be logbooked.

Cheers

[Huxley]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

looking good Gavin

I’ll wait for my car to get picked up on that then on the next event

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Yes the Blue Book is never black and white!

The Blue Book allows for "localised alteration" to the bulkhead, transmission tunnel, floor to allow the fitting of a different engine / gearbox / axle, so I have asked for a definition of "localised alteration". Some people interpret this as you can enlarge / modify the standard panels with a hammer, but not replace the panel with one of a different shape for example.
I'm sure it won't be a problem for less modified Targa cars - on the last Targa I did, the scrutineers were more interested in whether various cars rear seats still had the original metal framework inside them...

I'll update when I get the promised "guidance" from MSUK