Road Rally 205 GTi

[mexicotait]

Re: Road Rally 205 GTi

what tyre pressures are you running ? do you run the same all round?
205s are really light in the back so id recommend running lower pressure or even a softer compound on the back
we have always run with about a three to four psi difference between front and back normally we want 28 front and 24 back when hot
depending on the temperature and surface we normally start about four degrees under when cold
took lots of trying and testing to get it right but we kepttrying going up or down one psi at a time and eventually found where the driver was happy

[Arwel]

Re: Road Rally 205 GTi

Had a bit of an eventful day yesterday on the Rali Cwm Gwendraeth at Pembrey. Nice to meet Hsm on the gate in the morning.
We had a bit of arubbish morning as the first 3 stages thats all we seemed to be doing was spinning or hitting things. 3 spins on stage 1 and clipped a tyre, a little off on stage 2 which cost us over 5 mins as we got beached on a lorry tyre and had to jack the car up on mud to remove the tyre before we could carry on then one more spin on stage 3 which got some speccies running.

Afternoon went much better. To try and cure the tail end happiness of the car we added an extra spare in the boot and filled the fuel tank and seemed to work well. Much neater and quciker in the afternoon. I set out to finish and ended up 43rd overall and 5th in class so I was really happy. Also managed to get some scores on the doors in the championship. No pics yet but when I get some I'll pop them up on here.

New uprated rubber strut top mounts worked well. Rear end needs sorting. I was running same PSI al round, may try some different psi in the rears for the next one and some solid mounts are defo on the cards.

[mexicotait]

Re: Road Rally 205 GTi

Lower tyre pressures in the rear will solve your tail happyness

[Arwel]

Re: Road Rally 205 GTi

Lower tyre pressures in the rear will solve your tail happyness

Nice one, shall give it a go for Caerwent next month. Need to be extra neat apparently as there are high kerbs lining the road that ll destroy wheels if you hit them.

[mexicotait]

Re: Road Rally 205 GTi

Yeh it can be a scary place that great event though
Good luck !

[Arwel]

Re: Road Rally 205 GTi

Cheeky pic from Sunday. On boards are yet to be edited but should be done soon.

[mexicotait]

Re: Road Rally 205 GTi

Nice slide !!!

[Arwel]

Re: Road Rally 205 GTi

Stage 1 and 2 now done. Stage 1 had a few spins and clouted some tyres. Stage 2 had a bit of an off and got beached on a lorry tyre which cost us about 6 mins. Enjoy

Stage1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXAGCwY_Ubw

Stage 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5lRNWr8tqU

[Arwel]

Re: Road Rally 205 GTi

Quick little update. Round 3 of the Steve Harkness Welsh Tarmac Championship is in Caerwent next Sunday 25/3/2012. Missed round 2 as it was the Tour of Epynt and I have'nt found balls big enough to have a go at Epynt yet so we're back for round 3. Even after missing round 2 we are leading Class 5 of the Championship...mainly as we are the only crew entered in the category but thats a minor detail



Car is currently in a friends garage where it will be having some solid mounts fitted to the beam, to try and improve the tail happiness of the car, and a quick spanner check to make sure everything is ok.Should get some work in progress pics on Monday.

[Arwel]

Re: Road Rally 205 GTi

Well what a busy day today has been. Spent the day in a friends garage who had offered to help (do most of the work) change the beam mounts to solid ones and bushes to polybushed ones. Everything went well really, beam came off the car no problem, gave it a quick check over and its all good. The rear blocks and the front bushes were shot through, no wonder it had been trying to come around a lot latelty. the rubber blocks when compared side by side were different in height by about 5mm so that probably was nt helping things. Front bushes were a bit of a pain to get out but eventually they came out and in went the polybushed ones.

Drove home about 20 miles or so and difference is amazing. Car feel a lot more planted in the corner and doesnt seem to wonder around at the rear. Turn in and the whole car now turns so a little bit of testing later in the week now and should be looking promising for Caerwent on Sunday.

Couple of quick pics below.

Beam off




Old blocks off (no old bushes as there was nothing left of them)


New bushes and blocks



All back together

[Arwel]

Re: Road Rally 205 GTi

What a day today has been. Did the Tour of Caerwent rally within the Caerwent Military training grounds. What a venue. After being warned about the kerbs that line the road, the aim was simple..Stay away from them and get a finish. 7 stages and around 70 competative miles. Very warm day which had me slightly worried after stage 1 as the water temp was creeping slowly towards the red. By the end of stage 2 it was in the red and the stop light appeared on the dash, we were near the finish so we plodded on. Came to the end control and the marshal pointed out that we had a lot of water pouring out from underneath. Initial thoughts were that it had thrown a pipe but it turned out that the expansion tank had pressurised so much and then emptied most of its contents out of the overflow pipe. We let it cool down then replaced the water and replaced the expansion tank cap as it had a nice crack running through it. Turned the heater in the car on hot and all was well for the rest of the day. Stages 3,4 and 5 went without incident and we were holding our own. We had a big moment on stage 6 coming off some nice clean tarmac onto some dusty gravel covered stuff where the back stepped out and had a bit of a wobble.. luckily managed to hold it and correct it and get away with it... corner was cautioned for the next run through Stage 7 was taken a lot easier until a mini appeared from nowhere and as I hadnt been caught or passed all day I did nt want it to happen on the last stage so I pushed on a bit to keep him away from my rear. End result was the same time as stage 6 and the mini remained behind



We ended the day 33rd overal and 2nd in class and picked up best Novice crew award so happy days all round. Car run reletively fine, Claire in the silly seat was on the ball and I did well not to cause any damage to the car at all. Talbenny stages in 3 weeks so a spanner check is needed and hopfully a box with a slip shall be installed

[Arwel]

Re: Road Rally 205 GTi

What a day it has been at the Bob Shaw Memorial Talbenny Stages, Full of ups and downs.

Stage 1 was very slippery and I just could not get into it. Returned to service to find we had lost our rear valence along with number plate, fog light and auxillery light and a mud flap. Carried on with no problems.



Stage 2 was much the same, even though we were a fair bit quicker there I was still very untidy and a tempremental handbrake wasn't helping the matter. Stage 3 was a turning point. Even though 1 and 2 didnt feel right we were still 4th in class and 41st overall.



Stage 3 went much better, I felt like I was in the zone .



Change from soft to medium compound tyres on the front for stage 4 as it was drying and warming up and we contiued to climb the leaderboard and close in on 3rd in class.



Stage 5 was interesting as it rained heavily before we went out, slippery wasnt the word, there was no grip and it felt like I was doing rallycross rather than a stage event judging by the amount of time I spent on the grass.



Stage 6 was cancelled before we started as car 1 rolled and blocked the stage.



Before the penultimate stage (7) we found ourselves 11secs off 3rd in class. I set off on a mission to take 3rd and just so happened that I went off the line the car I was hunting was going past the merge to begin his second loop. Through the stage we closed and closed on him and I knew we were taking some time out of him, not 11seconds worth but enough to set us up nicely going into stage 8....however we didnt make it came onto a long straight after a 90right turn, up through the gears, went for third, got a big bang and lots of smoke and no more drive. Game over. Gutted and didnt take any points for the championship. Looks like the crown wheel as parted company with the diff and escaped out of the box as there was oil everywhere under the bonnet and a cheeky piece of cog resting on the sumpguard. Luckily we have a new box ready to go and some new shafts coming so just need to remove and replace. Off from work tomorrow so will investigate tomorrow and see what we find. Joys of rallying

[Arwel]

Re: Road Rally 205 GTi

Spent all of today pulling the box out. First time I have done it on my own so I am pleased with my days work after following the guide on here.



I knew it wasn't going to be pretty when I found this on the sump guard





After a fair few hours work and some swearing and getting covered in gearbox oil, this is what was left of our gearbox. It looks like the diff has gone bang and gone through casing.





and this is what came out of it





On top of that it looks like there has been some damage been done to the clutch plate and the face of the flywheel. Need to check the teeth on the flywheel and have a proper look at the clutch to see if any damage has been caused

[rwd2ltrfiesta]

Re: Road Rally 205 GTi

oh shizz, musta bin a cheesy grin moment rite b4 that happened

[Arwel]

Re: Road Rally 205 GTi

Well nothing has happened with the car as of yet. Its still sitting there in a sorry state missing its gearbox. Clutch pressure plate is ruined along with all the bolts so a new one is required, may replace the clutch as well just to be on the safe side. With a little luck it ll be back together by the end of next week and I can then do some road milage to test it and make sure everything is as it should be.