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Guys,
As my car is nearly finished and I'll be out in it soon I thought I'd give you an idea of rallying and sprints from an Aussie point of view.
I moved out from Wales to the sunny Gold Coast 3 years ago with the intention of giving the motorsport bug up. I sold my BMW 2002 Rally car to a guy in Ireland and was ready for lazy days by my pool.
Its obvious that once you've tasted the sweet feeling of petrol induced speed its hard to give up because after a year of twiddling thumbs I saw a bargain half built MK2 Escort with no rust (later to discover that most cars haven't got any rust here!) and the addiction was on again...
After building all of my previous cars myself with a little help from friends in the know I had learnt that its a long ardous process of learning that I haven't got the skill, patience, time and most of all access to the proper tools needed, so I handed the work over to someone that did.
Coming from the UK with an abundance of Escort preparation companies I was a bit stuck for choice, but luckely by chance I stumbled across a gentleman by the name of Aarron Hodges who after spending most of his short life working for racing firms and building his dad's Escorts and Anglia's decided to start his own business. He has himself a fearsome Escort of his own with over 400hp on tap and he knows how to peddle it!
So it was off to SCS Automotive in QLD to have the car turned into a GRP4 replica without the BDG. Although there's lots of finishing touches to do I had my first drive yesterday and I'm over the moon with the results. I can't recommend Aarron highly enough for anyone wanting to get a quick reliable build done over here in Oz.
The car is being setup for both Tarmac and Forest rallying and will next year be let loose on the new 2wd championship which is, as in the UK dominated by classic 70's/80's cars but in Australia's case the classic Japanese cars rule (Datsuns, Toyotas and Mitsi's) so we'll have to change that sharpish.
I've attached some Pics and a link to a small vid of that first drive but I will start to document my experiences through next season the give the UK folk an idea of the Aussie way (HOT and DUSTY!!)
Regards
Mark J
As my car is nearly finished and I'll be out in it soon I thought I'd give you an idea of rallying and sprints from an Aussie point of view.
I moved out from Wales to the sunny Gold Coast 3 years ago with the intention of giving the motorsport bug up. I sold my BMW 2002 Rally car to a guy in Ireland and was ready for lazy days by my pool.
Its obvious that once you've tasted the sweet feeling of petrol induced speed its hard to give up because after a year of twiddling thumbs I saw a bargain half built MK2 Escort with no rust (later to discover that most cars haven't got any rust here!) and the addiction was on again...
After building all of my previous cars myself with a little help from friends in the know I had learnt that its a long ardous process of learning that I haven't got the skill, patience, time and most of all access to the proper tools needed, so I handed the work over to someone that did.
Coming from the UK with an abundance of Escort preparation companies I was a bit stuck for choice, but luckely by chance I stumbled across a gentleman by the name of Aarron Hodges who after spending most of his short life working for racing firms and building his dad's Escorts and Anglia's decided to start his own business. He has himself a fearsome Escort of his own with over 400hp on tap and he knows how to peddle it!
So it was off to SCS Automotive in QLD to have the car turned into a GRP4 replica without the BDG. Although there's lots of finishing touches to do I had my first drive yesterday and I'm over the moon with the results. I can't recommend Aarron highly enough for anyone wanting to get a quick reliable build done over here in Oz.
The car is being setup for both Tarmac and Forest rallying and will next year be let loose on the new 2wd championship which is, as in the UK dominated by classic 70's/80's cars but in Australia's case the classic Japanese cars rule (Datsuns, Toyotas and Mitsi's) so we'll have to change that sharpish.
I've attached some Pics and a link to a small vid of that first drive but I will start to document my experiences through next season the give the UK folk an idea of the Aussie way (HOT and DUSTY!!)
Regards
Mark J
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