Moggy's Darrian T9

[Moggy]

Re: Moggy's Darrian T9

any update Moggy?

Car is in bits again. Rear suspension all removed and the rear arms have been modified and strengthened significantly as they were flexing a bit under load causing a camber change.

Driveshafts are being rebuilt and then it all goes back together next week....car will be corner weighted again after that.

Did teh worst job on teh car (removing the peddle box) TWICE last week as Me and Dave put back in the wrong set of holes, meaning I can't reach the peddles properly...Have changed brake master cylinders again and have bought some 1166 pads on reccommendation of Questmead........we will see.

Car will be back together next week. It is next out at Anglesey 25th April and then again the week after at 3 sisters 2nd May......tried to get a late run at MIRA this week but it's full

I am loving my Darrian and would drive it every weekend if I could....it's uncomfortable, very fast, extremly nervous and bloody noisy and hot inside...........but it's sweet.....

Can't wait to get to the start line again...come and say hello anyone from TS.

Aim is to have two cars for the start of next year so we can do any event in our championship, even the rough ones which the Darrian can't do.....

[Moggy]

Re: Moggy's Darrian T9

Well we did the Lee Holland rally at Ty Croes on Anglesey yesterday.........Lidia the kids and I went down Friday with the caravan and spent Saturday on Triadurr Bay beach! Dave and Les came down Saturday afternoon with the van and the rally car.

Everybody stayed at the venue Saturday night and had some good banter sitting round the BBQ drinking beer and talking sh*t as you do.

I was quite apprehensive on Sunday morning (which is not like me) as we had made quite a few changes to the car (again) since we last used it and I wasn't sure if it would be a step forward or back......rear trailing arms were significantly strengthened and we had made changes to both front and rear suspension geometry........this car is VERY sensitive to suspension changes and trye presure.............we had also changed brake pad material and master cylinders................so I was a bit nervous as to how it would all go.

We were seeded car 9 ........Stage 1 and we were off..........it was about 5 miles and we had a small half spin on a downhill 90 right were previous cars had cut the corner too deep and pulled gravel across the road.....despite this we caught the lovely Lotus Exige (who had started 30 seconds in front of us) right at the end of the stage and were leading the 1600cc cars.

Some of the stages used the rougher very fast and bumpy roads at the back of the venue and once again we seemed to be very quick here....we were really pulling in the more powerful cars through these sections and the car was taking to the air nicely on one big crest......we must have been fairly quick as co-driver Mark managed to actually bend his footbrace going for the imaginary brake paddle!

The car felt fine and despite a few brake fade problems (we have the wrong fluid) we were comfortably in the top 10 all day....eventually finishing 6th overall and 1st 1600cc.........we beat all but 1 of the 2 litre cars as well !

Thanks again to everybody who helped on the car....Dave, Les, Jon, Dan and Avto.

There was a lot of Escorts on this rally and a couple were fabulous in the extreem......one car had a 2.5 litre Duratec, 6 speed sequential gearbox and ran full WRC suspension.....it was on Focus/escort WRC front and rear uprights with an independant rear suspension set up (focus WRC) and 18" wheels....he had 6 pot AP brakes and the discs were so big that you could have fitted tyres to them and used them as wheels.....he finished second overall after a few teething problems.....we followed him on one stage and he was a bit slow through the tight stuff and chicanes (way too wide).....but then we got to the up hill straight............OMG it just squatted and then dissapeared into the distance.

Sorry but no in car video this time as Anglesey's new policy prevents it

The little Shawspeed engine was really houling round to 8500rpm all day and once again left me quite deaf by the end of the day (the exhaust is 6 inches behind my head)

3 sisters again next week and more Subarus and Super 1600 cars to hunt.......there is even a 6R4 out this time

[Retromotorsport]

Re: Moggy's Darrian T9

Cracking result .. well done

[Moggy]

Re: Moggy's Darrian T9

Cracking result .. well done

cheers........we have been seeded as car 3 for the rally this weekend comming

We will be totally surrounded by Subarus, pukka escort cosworths and a 6R4 etc....in a little 1600 Darrian.

No pressure there then!

Feeling ever so slightly nervous now!

[Retromotorsport]

Re: Moggy's Darrian T9

nervous driver.. nervous car... calm navi..= perfect.

Just to add a little more pressure...
seeded 9th made up 3 places to finish 6thO/A
seeded 3rd make up 3 places to finish 1st O/A

and the calming one,
if you was seeded 1st the only way is down.... at least you can go both ways ..

shall I shut up now

Good luck, and bring a pot home

[Roadsport]

Re: Moggy's Darrian T9

Great result! Good to hear theres no issues with the clutch anymore.

How were the oil temps now? Is the cooler in the same place or have you moved it yet? Have you changed the oil viscosity?

[Moggy]

Re: Moggy's Darrian T9

Cheers mate!

We have not changed viscosity yet, but will do after the next rally. We put loads of heat shielding arround the bay and this has helped...we have put a high power fan on the cooler and used it a few times during the rally......it helps.

[Roadsport]

Re: Moggy's Darrian T9

A fan for the oil cooler. Nice touch. You had 10w40 right? And now going for 10w50?

[Moggy]

Re: Moggy's Darrian T9

5w40 mate. Millers

[cossie matt]

Re: Moggy's Darrian T9

Great Result Moggy. I'd really like to do an Anglesey event, glad to see the changes on the car are going well.

Good luck at 3 sisters.

Matt

[Moggy]

Re: Moggy's Darrian T9

Great Result Moggy. I'd really like to do an Anglesey event, glad to see the changes on the car are going well.

Good luck at 3 sisters.

Matt

Cheers Matt..............just got to re-pack the silencer (as the exhaust manufacturer let us down) and we are good to go..............hope it's dry.

Enville stages 20th June is last Summer event at Anglesey this year...........I think you do very well indeed on that one....

[Moggy]

Re: Moggy's Darrian T9

Did a small rally yesterday at 3 sisters.

We were a bit worried about noise as it was a bit loud last time out and our exhaust supplier had let us down miserably by failing to supply new wadding.........an emergency dash to Demon Tweeks was not really how I wanted to spend saturday afternoon....luckily it's only 20 mins from my house..........anyway we risked it with the old wadding and car was only 95db in the end so don't know what they were on about at anglesey when they said it was 100db

Not really sure what happened on the rally we were 4th overall initially but then gradually slipped back to 10th and 2nd in class at the end...........had a few gear selection issues but nothing major.......perhaps it was the driver which needed tuning not the car......

Thanks to Dave and Les as well as Jon and Dan from SHAWSPEED for looking after the car as usual......Jon even ended in up IN the engine bay fixing the gear linkage (no mean feat in a Mid engined Darrian)..........it looked for a while we would go OTL but after a superhuman effort they got it fixed and were only 2 minutes from max lateness in the end......this meant we had to run further down the field for the rest of the day.........anyone who was spectating yesterday this is the reason we (car 3) were running behind car 9 most of the afternoon.

I am looking for new wheels for the back of the car.....the type I use are apparently no longer available they are RACELINE RL7'S. As per the rear ones in my photo.

Does anybody know where I can get some or something similar?.....7"x15" group 4 ford fitting....max offset

[Moggy]

Re: Moggy's Darrian T9

video from Sunday..........how's that for reflexes (about 2mins 20 secs in)

[Retromotorsport]

Re: Moggy's Darrian T9

Guess someone had kindly moved the tyres for you... shame it was closer, not further away. Good miss though

[Moggy]

Re: Moggy's Darrian T9

Guess someone had kindly moved the tyres for you... shame it was closer, not further away. Good miss though

Cheers........it was a bit close..........sometimes in rallys having a car this low is a dissadvantage, in that you don't get a proper view or perspective on what is comming (hence why we have quite detailed notes for single venues).....that camera shot is level with my eyeline...........so often we can't see over or past things. Compaired with a MK2 Escort rally car my eyeline is lower than their door handle.

We did a rally with chicanes made from lorry tyres (on their side 3 high) they were higher than the car with no gaps to see through so it was driving blind.

Still I wouldn't swap my car!......the advantages far outweigh the dissadvantages.

We are going to fit roll bars front and rear now and then take it to a test venue to do some experiments..............we have no rallys now until 20th June, so let's see.