Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

[checkyouout]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

I'm on the spanners at Donnington Paul - will pop over and say hello if it's not too fraught.

I met one of my suppliers at work today and they mentioned you were doing the Dukeries

[PaulAlex]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

I'm on the spanners at Donnington Paul - will pop over and say hello if it's not too fraught.

I met one of my suppliers at work today and they mentioned you were doing the Dukeries

No problem - hopefully we'll have time to catch up at some point. Fingers crossed, I'll be servicing in one of the garages...

Which supplier?

Cheers,

Paul.

[checkyouout]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

No problem - hopefully we'll have time to catch up at some point. Fingers crossed, I'll be servicing in one of the garages...

Which supplier?

Cheers,

Paul.

Hi Paul,

We're supposed to have a garage as well so we shouldn't be far away.

The supplier is Amillan - we are putting a new switched network and switchboard in with them this weekend - I think you will know Adrian and Simon from there?

Cheers

Andy

[smiffy1972]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

Best of luck to you next weekend mate

[M K]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

We're out at Donington on 24th/25th October if you fancy coming along Matt.....?

Only just seen this post, might be free Saturday to come watch/ lend a hand if you need it.

[PaulAlex]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

Only just seen this post, might be free Saturday to come watch/ lend a hand if you need it.

Hello Matt - its only scrutiny on Saturday, event on Sunday I'm afraid.

Cheers,

Paul.

[mexicotait]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

Paul is 2nd overall and first in class going into the last stage
Matt downer 9th overall

[PaulAlex]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

Rainworth Skoda Dukeries Rally - 24th/25th October, Donington Park.

Well, it feels like we're slowly making progress - but we're having to work for it!

At face value if you'd have offered my 3rd overall, first in class and ahead of every 2.5 litre car I'd have ripped your arm off - especially when you consider that there was a very strong field. However, in reality I'm a little disappointed as we entered the final stage of the rally in 2nd place overall, and then the Millington-powered, 4WD Proton Satria that was beating us broke down - effectively leaving us at the front of the field with 6 miles to go!! Sadly, as the Proton broke down Tom and I were having our own woes - we just couldn't see where we were going as our lights were badly setup as we hadn't had the opportunity to drive the car before the event (exhaust issue, long story!). So, we dropped nearly 30 seconds compared to our stage time in the daylight, allowing 2 cars past us in the process - bugger!!!

Needless to say, a proper light setup is being added to the upgrades list, along with a better fuel tank to stop the fuel starvation that we've seen at both circuit-based events we've contested recently.

On a positive note, we had a LOT of people come to see the car and compliment the build quality, and also quite a few giving us positive feedback on how we were using it. I still feel that I made too many small driving errors, but on the stages where I didn't make mistakes the stage times were punching well above our weight

I'll try and post some event pics up soon.

Cheers,

Paul.

[Sweetcorne]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

Rainworth Skoda Dukeries Rally - 24th/25th October, Donington Park.

Well, it feels like we're slowly making progress - but we're having to work for it!

At face value if you'd have offered my 3rd overall, first in class and ahead of every 2.5 litre car I'd have ripped your arm off - especially when you consider that there was a very strong field. However, in reality I'm a little disappointed as we entered the final stage of the rally in 2nd place overall, and then the Millington-powered, 4WD Proton Satria that was beating us broke down - effectively leaving us at the front of the field with 6 miles to go!! Sadly, as the Proton broke down Tom and I were having our own woes - we just couldn't see where we were going as our lights were badly setup as we hadn't had the opportunity to drive the car before the event (exhaust issue, long story!). So, we dropped nearly 30 seconds compared to our stage time in the daylight, allowing 2 cars past us in the process - bugger!!!

Needless to say, a proper light setup is being added to the upgrades list, along with a better fuel tank to stop the fuel starvation that we've seen at both circuit-based events we've contested recently.

On a positive note, we had a LOT of people come to see the car and compliment the build quality, and also quite a few giving us positive feedback on how we were using it. I still feel that I made too many small driving errors, but on the stages where I didn't make mistakes the stage times were punching well above our weight

I'll try and post some event pics up soon.

Cheers,

Paul.

Well done Paul

Loving the car

[turbospud]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

for the poor lighting prep but overall

[PaulAlex]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

for the poor lighting prep but overall

Here's my excuse....

We were close to the noise limit at Snetterton, so we decided to have the rear/only box modified for Donington to try and quieten it down a little. I dropped it off at the exhaust manufacturer a couple of weeks before the event, only for them to contact me week later to say they'd messed-up and didn't have the required material as they thought. By time it was ordered/delivered, there was no time to collect the exhaust from Derby so we ended up taking the car to the event as a non-runner and then fitted the exhaust in the scrutineering paddock on Saturday lol. There is a 6pm curfew at Donington, so that meant that I couldn't take the car from the venue to play in the local lanes that evening.....

I wont make the same mistake again!

[mexicotait]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

It happens but at least you are making progress

[Graham]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

blinding result

[david_white]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

Superb, hope to make it to your next event ;-)

[PaulAlex]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

Not too much to report recently, other than the car has been back to Shaun's for the rear arch replacement. Now its back home we're doing all we can to make sure the trip to the Rentokil Killarney Historic Stage Rally goes as smoothly as planned. The entry list was released yesterday, and its mental! We're seeded at 95, but it is probably as good as we can expect against the experienced locals and their crazy machinery....

Unfortunately, much of the money spent on the car this time isn't on Gucci bits that you can see. The biggest upgrade is to the driveshafts after Fossie recommended an investment now that the car has more power than when the axle was first commissioned. We've ordered some "special" shafts made from very high quality material (read "megabucks") which I've never even seen advertised before! Its amazing what you learn the top cars are really using when you take a closer look and ask the right questions!! In theory these shafts will be much stronger than the Quaife shafts that we're currently on, and mean that we have a pair of shafts for the spares package.....

We've also replaced the Pagid pads after we got one set very hot at Donington, and have ordered some 9" rear wheels - as we're allowed to run these in Ireland Meanwhile, Andy Pipe is re-wiring the lamp pod for me, including fitting a HID kit to produce more light than we had on the last event

I'll post some pre-Killarney pics before we leave for Ireland next week

Cheers,

Paul.