Firstly, the metro! Unfortunately this is still in bits round at HT Auto's! This is due to several different reason - delays in me being able to source parts (unfortunately I'm only able to get out at weekends due to work!), parts being delivered wrong (the car's engine is seemingly one suprise after another with nothing seeming to be as standard!), focus on the Escort... Looking at the overall cost of repairing the engine and the limite number of events left this year it unfortunately looks like my season could be over from a driving point of view. I'm now looking to 2010 and the Jack Frost Stages at Croft in January.
The Escort is looking pretty good now and we're looking to get it taxed at the end of the month so we can have a couple of run outs in the evenings before the the rally. This is mainly to put some milage on the new gearbox and give the car a shakedown as well as to allow me to get some practice in reading maps at night as it's been almost a year since I last did a rally in the dark or with maps!
Wednesday 28 October 2009
Saturday 26 September 2009
Update - September 2009
Things have been quietly moving forward for RPR in the background as we prepare for the run into the year end.
The Metro has been in limbo whilst parts have been acquired and the crank has been sorted out, but hopefully it will be back in one piece by the end of the week. Things are still up in the air with regards to what event(s) I'll be doing later in the year with The Rockingham Stages in December looking like the favourite and it will give us an end of season event that will hopefully allow us to get the full team out as well as being able to us the facilities to offer hospitality to our sponsers.
The Trailer has new base boards fitted and has had a lick of paint and new arches fitted and is looking very tidy indeed.
Finally the Escort... Clive has done a fair bit of work since the Armstrong Massey including removing the cylinder head for a check up and fitting a straight cut gearbox that seems to have given the car a new lease of life. Entry is now in for the Premier Stages Rally in Sherwood Forest at the back end of November.
The Metro has been in limbo whilst parts have been acquired and the crank has been sorted out, but hopefully it will be back in one piece by the end of the week. Things are still up in the air with regards to what event(s) I'll be doing later in the year with The Rockingham Stages in December looking like the favourite and it will give us an end of season event that will hopefully allow us to get the full team out as well as being able to us the facilities to offer hospitality to our sponsers.
The Trailer has new base boards fitted and has had a lick of paint and new arches fitted and is looking very tidy indeed.
Finally the Escort... Clive has done a fair bit of work since the Armstrong Massey including removing the cylinder head for a check up and fitting a straight cut gearbox that seems to have given the car a new lease of life. Entry is now in for the Premier Stages Rally in Sherwood Forest at the back end of November.
Saturday 15 August 2009
Metro Post Centenary Stages
After the early ending at the Centenary Stages we dropped the car off at HT Auto's so we could do a strip down and find out what was wrong.
When I got round there on Tuesday evening the engine was already out of the car and ready for us to get to work. We got the clutch out and opened up the bottom end and eventually we discovered the problem – the crankshaft big end bearing (apparently) was knackered and this
had caused some scoring on the crankshaft itself. In addition the bolts that held the endplate where the timing gear is seated had worked loose and this was what we believe was causing the noise.
The cure to this has been a reground crankshaft and bearings and new timing gear and hopefully we’ll be able to get the engine back together and get some miles on it within the next few weeks.
Other upcoming tasks include looking at the wings and cutting
some out to give us more room, fixing the petrol leak, welding some new plates underneath the car where the body is looking a bit dodgy, fitting the fly off handbrake and push button start and replacing the CV boot that was destroyed when we hit the pothole. I’ll also need to replace one of the wheels as it was also damaged by the impact with the pothole.
When I got round there on Tuesday evening the engine was already out of the car and ready for us to get to work. We got the clutch out and opened up the bottom end and eventually we discovered the problem – the crankshaft big end bearing (apparently) was knackered and this
had caused some scoring on the crankshaft itself. In addition the bolts that held the endplate where the timing gear is seated had worked loose and this was what we believe was causing the noise.The cure to this has been a reground crankshaft and bearings and new timing gear and hopefully we’ll be able to get the engine back together and get some miles on it within the next few weeks.
Other upcoming tasks include looking at the wings and cutting
some out to give us more room, fixing the petrol leak, welding some new plates underneath the car where the body is looking a bit dodgy, fitting the fly off handbrake and push button start and replacing the CV boot that was destroyed when we hit the pothole. I’ll also need to replace one of the wheels as it was also damaged by the impact with the pothole.Centenary Stages - 09.08.09 - RAF Barkston Heath - Review
Things are never as simple as they should be…
After having the car down at HT the weekend before the event to sort out the fuel leak and give it a once over, there was only a few minor jobs left to be done during the week. These included fitting the new tyres onto the rims when they arrived, fitting the electric emergency pull off which had seized up since the last rally and giving the car a general tidy up. These jobs were quickly dispatched and come Saturday lunchtime we were good to go… or so we thought!
Problem 1…
I need to remember to take the keys with me when I go to collect the trailer! For the second time we pulled up to the compound to find out that I’d left the keys at home. This meant that we were almost an hour late setting off to Barkston Heath and once again I was warm and grubby!
Problem 2…
Make sure you double check the hotel you’ve booked everyone into! I had rested easy during the week, happy in the knowledge that we were booked into a hotel about 8 miles from the venue. If only it was that simple. The Travel Lodge I thought I had booked into must have sold the last rooms whilst I was messing about and I’d not double checked when I refreshed the page and had booked us into Spalding, 30 miles away, instead.
Eventually we made our way to darkest Lincolnshire and pulled into the service area. This has to go down as one of the best organised rally’s we’ve ever competed on (taking my own ineptness out of the equation!). As we pulled in we were met by one of the organisers who explained the layout of the service area to us and showed us the way to the trailer park and scrutineering area. We chose a spot at the far end of the service park and unloaded the car and made our way to sound and scrutineering.
Problem 3…
Make sure your suit complies with the relevant regulations. This was actually one we saw coming. My brand spanking new co-driver with a licence that had arrived two days before the event was Matt Chambers from HT Auto’s and he had acquired a Proban suit for the event from eBay. I was worried as soon as I heard this as I thought that Proban had been banned from the beginning of 2009 but countless investigation had failed to clarify on way or another what the exact situation was. To be on the safe side we made the decision that Clive would also take his overalls and, if the worst happened, his licence. We passed through sound without any issues and made our way to scrutineering where we were immediately told that Matt’s suit would not be allowed. We did a quick swap with Clive’ suit leading to much hilarity regarding the differing size of the two – Matt being lightweight living on a diet of cigarettes and lager, whilst Clive is 6ft+ and on the more… substantial… size. The general consensus was that he would resemble some of the better known hip hop artists whose choice of attire tends to be on the loose side, especially in the crotch area. After a few more final checks we were given the green light… job done!
Problem 4a…
Don’t listen to Matt when he claims that it would only take 10 minutes in the morning to do the final fettling on the car!
We made our way to our hotel and had many wonderful adventures along the way and throughout the evening that some tried to blame upon a magical potion we consumed, before arriving bright and early the following morning back at Barkston Heath on what was promising to be a sunny day.
Problem 4b…
Don’t listen to Matt when he claims that it would only take 10 minutes in the morning to do the final fettling on the car! The first job and the one that we thought to be the only major one of the morning was the ritual pumping up of the suspension. This was swiftly done and Clive and Dave sat back thinking that their job was done until the end of the first stage. The fools! I had mentioned to Clive and Matt that the new tyres we’d fitted sounded like they were catching on the arch when I was on full lock. We had hoped that pumping the suspension up would cure the problem but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. As I pulled the car out to ensure that everything was OK there was a loud grinding sound as the tyre hit the wing. We drove the car back into our bay and jacked it up to find that for some reason the tyres, which were the same size as those I’d competed on at 3 Sisters, were fouling on both the inner and outer wings. Whilst it wasn’t catching much it was enough to make be nervous about having a high speed blowout – this had to be solved before the first stage in a little under an hour. We looked in depth at what could be causing the problem but it didn’t seem to be any one thing so there was only one thing for it – major engineering work! The first issue seemed to be a bolt in the inner wing that was catching. We weren’t sure exactly what the bold was for and surmised that it had probably been used to hold on the mud flaps. The fact that it seemed to be a shed bolt definitely pointed that it wasn’t anything automotive! Removing the bolts, located on both sides of the car, proved to be a bugger of a job leading to excessive swearing by all involved, but eventually the were off and, with a bit of hammering there was no longer anything catching on the inner wing. The outer wing was a different matter however with the tyre catching pretty badly and threatening to split the wing. We didn’t want to increase the height of the suspension anymore as we were concerned with the effect that this would have on the handling of the car so we made the decision to do some on the job body modifications! This is where having fibreglass wings comes in useful as we began to cut away the wing under the wheel arch cover to give us more clearance. Finally, with minutes to go before we were due out on stage, we reversed the car out listening for the tell tale sound of rubber on metal or fibreglass… Silence. We were good to go.
Stage 1
We pulled into the queue waiting to get into the ATC and, looking at the cars ahead of us decided to get out of out helmets as the temperature was already starting to rise. One of the marshals came up to us to check us in and explained that the timing system had failed so there would be a delay starting the rest of the cars. Eventually we pulled up to the start line and got ready to go. 5… 4…. 3… I built up the revs and put my foot on the clutch 2… the car began to roll backwards down the way we came 1… I put on more revs to hold it at its bite mark Go!!! I floored the accelerator and the car pulled away from the line and onto the straight
Problem 5…
Make sure you check your Tacho before the start!
The car screamed like an banshee and I notched it into second gear. The tacho had obviously re-set itself to 9,000rpm again so that would be no use during this stage. We came barrelling up to the first corner … or as barrelling as a Metro can be… and I hit the anchors and swung the car round to the right. The brakes were working then, always a good sign! I hit the accelerator again and the car slid out of the corner into a K left.
I cannot praise Sheffield & Hallamshire MC enough for the layout of their stages. There was something for every car out there and all the feedback on the British Rally Forum has been positive and reflected this. There was a superb mixture of fast straights, fast flowing left/right corner sequences and tight twisty corners. It says something that I had bigger faster cars behind me a couple of times and on the tighter bits they just could not seem to keep up and it wasn’t until we got onto a longer faster section that they were able to get past.
The first stage was going well, although Matt got lost a few times as he came to grips with reading the maps which, unusually for a SV rally, were amazingly clear and printed on A3 rather than A4. My confidence was growing as I got further round the stage and found out where the limits of grip were. We blasted through a series of chicanes on the back of the stage with a resounding bang as first the passengers side rear end and on the next chicane the drivers side hit the tyres… OK, I need to be slower and more composed round them then… I braked and turned into a 90 right and accelerated before crashing my foot down on the brakes again as we slid straight on towards a pile of tyres, there was no way I was going to get round the corner no matter what I did so I just held my breath and said a prayer to St. Colin, patron saint of spectacular rally crashes as we ploughed towards the tyre wall in a cacophony of screaming tyres and burning rubber before stopping inches from calamity… No time to think though, I struggled to get the car in reverse and get back on the stage. That would be the limit found then! I floored the go pedal again and carried on to the end of the stage.
We only had 20 minute between the end of stage 1 and the start of stage 2 so any changes would have to be quick. I pulled into the bay and struggled to escape from the grasp of the harnesses and intercom. Mechanically the car seemed to be OK but, looking around it, there was a telltale stain from the fuel filler cap where petrol had leaked out. Bollocks. I’d bought a new petrol cap that I’d hoped would solve this problem but apparently not. Nuts were checked and the bonnet removed to help cool the engine down but other than that there wasn’t a lot to do so, 15 minutes later we were back in the car and away to stage 2.
Stage 2
I’m not sure what happened on this stage. We cleared it trouble free with none of the dramas from stage 1 but the times just did not reflect it.
Problem 6…
Make sure you’re happy with the petrol in the car before the stage!
I know that some of the time was lost when, halfway through the stage, I looked et the petrol gauge (always a bit of a waste of time in a BL car!) and it was well below the zero mark. Shit. That means that either I was on the brink of running out of fuel or that the sensor wasn’t working right. I informed Matt that I thought we were going to struggle to get to the end of the stage and we let off a bit as we entered the infield section. I looked down again as we came out of the corner and the needle had gone up. We had fuel in the tank. Let’s cane it again! We blasted through the end of the stage and past the flying finish and into service.
Things were looking good but the fuel was still coming out of the tank. With around an hour until stage 3 we filled the car up and decided to continue with the modifications that we had started in the morning – gasket sealant! The engine was, unsurprisingly taking into account the rising temperature, getting quite hot and I was keen on getting as much air into it a possible to let it cool down. Fluids and tyre pressures were checked but thinks were looking good. The suspension was lowered slightly as the heat generated by the warmth of the day and the engine had caused it to go higher than we had pumped it in the morning and we were starting to resemble a 4x4!
Stage 3
Got it! I nailed the start much better than on the previous stages and flew onto the first straight. I had looked at our stage times between 2 and 3 and I was not happy. I simply was not fast enough and, despite Clive’s assurances that I was always going to lose out compared to 16 valve engines, I knew that was only part of the story and that I had to drive the car harder and brake later. This is something we’ve discussed before when we’ve been out in the Escort – both cars have 8 valve engines and we’re losing out to the 16 valve cars, especially when we’re accelerating out of a corner and the only way we can compensate for this is to try and go hotter into the corner so we carry more speed through it and onto the straight. It’s an interesting way of having to drive and depends on a big set of balls, the ability to keep control of the car and knowing where the limit is so we can keep within it – go over it and, as we’ve found out in the past, things can get messy and expensive! I’d got to know the course better and I knew that on certain corner sequences I could get away with not breaking for the first corner and then just using a quick touch of the brakes to bring the back end of the car around as I entered the second corner of the sequence. I’d been caught up by the cars behind me on the first two stages, both of which were much faster than me and ended up towards the top of the class and I was determined not to let the next car behind me catch me – a MGB GT. This could be interesting… The tight backfield section that had suited my car was missing from stages 3 and 4 so it was fast and flowing all the way so in theory it was going to have to be balls of steel all the way! We shot through to the end of the stage without seeing the MG but something didn’t feel right – I seemed to be lacking power when I shifted up to 4th gear on the straights. We pulled into the service area with half an hour until the next stage and followed the by now familiar routine of checking the fluids, tyres and wheel nuts.
Stage 4
Another good start and we were off again! Stage 4 was a re-run of the previous stage so it was another fast and flowing 7 miles. Thinks were looking good as we came onto the back of the stage and a series of twisting corners when the car started to slide a bit wide… not a problem as the road was wide enough to allow for a lot more dramatic slide than this, but suddenly there was a horrific crash as we hit a pothole. Jesus that was hard. We hit the next corner and turned in… everything seemed OK, the car was gripping OK and we didn’t seem to have any problems. We pulled out of the technical section and onto the big sweeping right hander and I threw the car into 3rd gear… nothing.
Problem 7…
The car maintaining speed but there was no grunt. Something was definitely not right. Matt looked across and told me to ease off. We cruised round to the end of the stage, moving aside as the MG came past us. Bugger. We pulled into the service area and took off the bonnet. It wasn’t looking good. If it was anything major or something that couldn’t be sorted with the equipment we had at hand we’d be out. We took the rocker cover off and peered at the head. Nothing obvious stood out that could have caused the noise and the lack of power so we did a bit of tightening up and I pulled out to see if the problem had been resolved. It was a long shot. Too long as it happens. The car was still making a pretty horrific noise and, unless I was willing to blow the engine we were out. I drove down to Rally HQ and handed across my damage declaration.
Game Over.
After having the car down at HT the weekend before the event to sort out the fuel leak and give it a once over, there was only a few minor jobs left to be done during the week. These included fitting the new tyres onto the rims when they arrived, fitting the electric emergency pull off which had seized up since the last rally and giving the car a general tidy up. These jobs were quickly dispatched and come Saturday lunchtime we were good to go… or so we thought!
Problem 1…
I need to remember to take the keys with me when I go to collect the trailer! For the second time we pulled up to the compound to find out that I’d left the keys at home. This meant that we were almost an hour late setting off to Barkston Heath and once again I was warm and grubby!
Problem 2…
Make sure you double check the hotel you’ve booked everyone into! I had rested easy during the week, happy in the knowledge that we were booked into a hotel about 8 miles from the venue. If only it was that simple. The Travel Lodge I thought I had booked into must have sold the last rooms whilst I was messing about and I’d not double checked when I refreshed the page and had booked us into Spalding, 30 miles away, instead.
Eventually we made our way to darkest Lincolnshire and pulled into the service area. This has to go down as one of the best organised rally’s we’ve ever competed on (taking my own ineptness out of the equation!). As we pulled in we were met by one of the organisers who explained the layout of the service area to us and showed us the way to the trailer park and scrutineering area. We chose a spot at the far end of the service park and unloaded the car and made our way to sound and scrutineering.
Problem 3…
Make sure your suit complies with the relevant regulations. This was actually one we saw coming. My brand spanking new co-driver with a licence that had arrived two days before the event was Matt Chambers from HT Auto’s and he had acquired a Proban suit for the event from eBay. I was worried as soon as I heard this as I thought that Proban had been banned from the beginning of 2009 but countless investigation had failed to clarify on way or another what the exact situation was. To be on the safe side we made the decision that Clive would also take his overalls and, if the worst happened, his licence. We passed through sound without any issues and made our way to scrutineering where we were immediately told that Matt’s suit would not be allowed. We did a quick swap with Clive’ suit leading to much hilarity regarding the differing size of the two – Matt being lightweight living on a diet of cigarettes and lager, whilst Clive is 6ft+ and on the more… substantial… size. The general consensus was that he would resemble some of the better known hip hop artists whose choice of attire tends to be on the loose side, especially in the crotch area. After a few more final checks we were given the green light… job done!
Problem 4a…
Don’t listen to Matt when he claims that it would only take 10 minutes in the morning to do the final fettling on the car!
We made our way to our hotel and had many wonderful adventures along the way and throughout the evening that some tried to blame upon a magical potion we consumed, before arriving bright and early the following morning back at Barkston Heath on what was promising to be a sunny day.
Problem 4b…
Don’t listen to Matt when he claims that it would only take 10 minutes in the morning to do the final fettling on the car! The first job and the one that we thought to be the only major one of the morning was the ritual pumping up of the suspension. This was swiftly done and Clive and Dave sat back thinking that their job was done until the end of the first stage. The fools! I had mentioned to Clive and Matt that the new tyres we’d fitted sounded like they were catching on the arch when I was on full lock. We had hoped that pumping the suspension up would cure the problem but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. As I pulled the car out to ensure that everything was OK there was a loud grinding sound as the tyre hit the wing. We drove the car back into our bay and jacked it up to find that for some reason the tyres, which were the same size as those I’d competed on at 3 Sisters, were fouling on both the inner and outer wings. Whilst it wasn’t catching much it was enough to make be nervous about having a high speed blowout – this had to be solved before the first stage in a little under an hour. We looked in depth at what could be causing the problem but it didn’t seem to be any one thing so there was only one thing for it – major engineering work! The first issue seemed to be a bolt in the inner wing that was catching. We weren’t sure exactly what the bold was for and surmised that it had probably been used to hold on the mud flaps. The fact that it seemed to be a shed bolt definitely pointed that it wasn’t anything automotive! Removing the bolts, located on both sides of the car, proved to be a bugger of a job leading to excessive swearing by all involved, but eventually the were off and, with a bit of hammering there was no longer anything catching on the inner wing. The outer wing was a different matter however with the tyre catching pretty badly and threatening to split the wing. We didn’t want to increase the height of the suspension anymore as we were concerned with the effect that this would have on the handling of the car so we made the decision to do some on the job body modifications! This is where having fibreglass wings comes in useful as we began to cut away the wing under the wheel arch cover to give us more clearance. Finally, with minutes to go before we were due out on stage, we reversed the car out listening for the tell tale sound of rubber on metal or fibreglass… Silence. We were good to go.
Stage 1
We pulled into the queue waiting to get into the ATC and, looking at the cars ahead of us decided to get out of out helmets as the temperature was already starting to rise. One of the marshals came up to us to check us in and explained that the timing system had failed so there would be a delay starting the rest of the cars. Eventually we pulled up to the start line and got ready to go. 5… 4…. 3… I built up the revs and put my foot on the clutch 2… the car began to roll backwards down the way we came 1… I put on more revs to hold it at its bite mark Go!!! I floored the accelerator and the car pulled away from the line and onto the straight
Problem 5…
Make sure you check your Tacho before the start!
The car screamed like an banshee and I notched it into second gear. The tacho had obviously re-set itself to 9,000rpm again so that would be no use during this stage. We came barrelling up to the first corner … or as barrelling as a Metro can be… and I hit the anchors and swung the car round to the right. The brakes were working then, always a good sign! I hit the accelerator again and the car slid out of the corner into a K left.
I cannot praise Sheffield & Hallamshire MC enough for the layout of their stages. There was something for every car out there and all the feedback on the British Rally Forum has been positive and reflected this. There was a superb mixture of fast straights, fast flowing left/right corner sequences and tight twisty corners. It says something that I had bigger faster cars behind me a couple of times and on the tighter bits they just could not seem to keep up and it wasn’t until we got onto a longer faster section that they were able to get past.
The first stage was going well, although Matt got lost a few times as he came to grips with reading the maps which, unusually for a SV rally, were amazingly clear and printed on A3 rather than A4. My confidence was growing as I got further round the stage and found out where the limits of grip were. We blasted through a series of chicanes on the back of the stage with a resounding bang as first the passengers side rear end and on the next chicane the drivers side hit the tyres… OK, I need to be slower and more composed round them then… I braked and turned into a 90 right and accelerated before crashing my foot down on the brakes again as we slid straight on towards a pile of tyres, there was no way I was going to get round the corner no matter what I did so I just held my breath and said a prayer to St. Colin, patron saint of spectacular rally crashes as we ploughed towards the tyre wall in a cacophony of screaming tyres and burning rubber before stopping inches from calamity… No time to think though, I struggled to get the car in reverse and get back on the stage. That would be the limit found then! I floored the go pedal again and carried on to the end of the stage.
We only had 20 minute between the end of stage 1 and the start of stage 2 so any changes would have to be quick. I pulled into the bay and struggled to escape from the grasp of the harnesses and intercom. Mechanically the car seemed to be OK but, looking around it, there was a telltale stain from the fuel filler cap where petrol had leaked out. Bollocks. I’d bought a new petrol cap that I’d hoped would solve this problem but apparently not. Nuts were checked and the bonnet removed to help cool the engine down but other than that there wasn’t a lot to do so, 15 minutes later we were back in the car and away to stage 2.
Stage 2
I’m not sure what happened on this stage. We cleared it trouble free with none of the dramas from stage 1 but the times just did not reflect it.
Problem 6…
Make sure you’re happy with the petrol in the car before the stage!
I know that some of the time was lost when, halfway through the stage, I looked et the petrol gauge (always a bit of a waste of time in a BL car!) and it was well below the zero mark. Shit. That means that either I was on the brink of running out of fuel or that the sensor wasn’t working right. I informed Matt that I thought we were going to struggle to get to the end of the stage and we let off a bit as we entered the infield section. I looked down again as we came out of the corner and the needle had gone up. We had fuel in the tank. Let’s cane it again! We blasted through the end of the stage and past the flying finish and into service.
Things were looking good but the fuel was still coming out of the tank. With around an hour until stage 3 we filled the car up and decided to continue with the modifications that we had started in the morning – gasket sealant! The engine was, unsurprisingly taking into account the rising temperature, getting quite hot and I was keen on getting as much air into it a possible to let it cool down. Fluids and tyre pressures were checked but thinks were looking good. The suspension was lowered slightly as the heat generated by the warmth of the day and the engine had caused it to go higher than we had pumped it in the morning and we were starting to resemble a 4x4!
Stage 3
Got it! I nailed the start much better than on the previous stages and flew onto the first straight. I had looked at our stage times between 2 and 3 and I was not happy. I simply was not fast enough and, despite Clive’s assurances that I was always going to lose out compared to 16 valve engines, I knew that was only part of the story and that I had to drive the car harder and brake later. This is something we’ve discussed before when we’ve been out in the Escort – both cars have 8 valve engines and we’re losing out to the 16 valve cars, especially when we’re accelerating out of a corner and the only way we can compensate for this is to try and go hotter into the corner so we carry more speed through it and onto the straight. It’s an interesting way of having to drive and depends on a big set of balls, the ability to keep control of the car and knowing where the limit is so we can keep within it – go over it and, as we’ve found out in the past, things can get messy and expensive! I’d got to know the course better and I knew that on certain corner sequences I could get away with not breaking for the first corner and then just using a quick touch of the brakes to bring the back end of the car around as I entered the second corner of the sequence. I’d been caught up by the cars behind me on the first two stages, both of which were much faster than me and ended up towards the top of the class and I was determined not to let the next car behind me catch me – a MGB GT. This could be interesting… The tight backfield section that had suited my car was missing from stages 3 and 4 so it was fast and flowing all the way so in theory it was going to have to be balls of steel all the way! We shot through to the end of the stage without seeing the MG but something didn’t feel right – I seemed to be lacking power when I shifted up to 4th gear on the straights. We pulled into the service area with half an hour until the next stage and followed the by now familiar routine of checking the fluids, tyres and wheel nuts.
Stage 4
Another good start and we were off again! Stage 4 was a re-run of the previous stage so it was another fast and flowing 7 miles. Thinks were looking good as we came onto the back of the stage and a series of twisting corners when the car started to slide a bit wide… not a problem as the road was wide enough to allow for a lot more dramatic slide than this, but suddenly there was a horrific crash as we hit a pothole. Jesus that was hard. We hit the next corner and turned in… everything seemed OK, the car was gripping OK and we didn’t seem to have any problems. We pulled out of the technical section and onto the big sweeping right hander and I threw the car into 3rd gear… nothing.
Problem 7…
The car maintaining speed but there was no grunt. Something was definitely not right. Matt looked across and told me to ease off. We cruised round to the end of the stage, moving aside as the MG came past us. Bugger. We pulled into the service area and took off the bonnet. It wasn’t looking good. If it was anything major or something that couldn’t be sorted with the equipment we had at hand we’d be out. We took the rocker cover off and peered at the head. Nothing obvious stood out that could have caused the noise and the lack of power so we did a bit of tightening up and I pulled out to see if the problem had been resolved. It was a long shot. Too long as it happens. The car was still making a pretty horrific noise and, unless I was willing to blow the engine we were out. I drove down to Rally HQ and handed across my damage declaration.
Game Over.
Thursday 30 July 2009
Centenary Stages - 09.08.09 - RAF Barkston Heath - Preview
The entry is in and has been accepted for the Centenary Stages Rally at RAF Barkston Heath in Lincolnshire. The Metro has only been out on the road a few times since the Roskirk Stages but the work needed to get it good to go is pretty straight forward!
The two main jobs are the fitting of new drive shaft oil seals and getting and fitting some new tyres so hopefully I'll have some grip this time out! Hopefully I'll be able to get both these jobs done this weekend leaving only minor jobs to be carried out during the week. These jobs include fitting ANOTHER Extinguisher release cable as it has once again rusted and won't work, changing the handbrake to a fly off handbrake and replacing the key ignition with a push button system! None of these are essential however and they may well be left until after this event.
Exactly who will be sitting at the side of me in the scary seat is still up in the air. If Matt gets his license in time and manages to get a race suit he'll be doing the co-driving for me, if not, Clive will once again be doing the map reading! From my point of view, either is as good as the other as they'll both hopefully be able to get us off stage if something minor goes wrong, where as my mechanical knowledge goes a bit awry after 'spray it with WD40'...
***UPDATE***
The car was down at HT Auto's yesterday to have an oil leak fixed. We'd initially thought the leak was coming from the drive shaft oil seal but once we got it on the ramps and got the sump guard off it looked like the problem was somewhere near the oil filter. We drained the oil, changed the filter and used some gasket seal to ensure the the leak wasn't coming from the area around the fitment. We refilled the car with oil and ran it without any seeming problems so fingers crossed it's problem solved...
The two main jobs are the fitting of new drive shaft oil seals and getting and fitting some new tyres so hopefully I'll have some grip this time out! Hopefully I'll be able to get both these jobs done this weekend leaving only minor jobs to be carried out during the week. These jobs include fitting ANOTHER Extinguisher release cable as it has once again rusted and won't work, changing the handbrake to a fly off handbrake and replacing the key ignition with a push button system! None of these are essential however and they may well be left until after this event.
Exactly who will be sitting at the side of me in the scary seat is still up in the air. If Matt gets his license in time and manages to get a race suit he'll be doing the co-driving for me, if not, Clive will once again be doing the map reading! From my point of view, either is as good as the other as they'll both hopefully be able to get us off stage if something minor goes wrong, where as my mechanical knowledge goes a bit awry after 'spray it with WD40'...
***UPDATE***
The car was down at HT Auto's yesterday to have an oil leak fixed. We'd initially thought the leak was coming from the drive shaft oil seal but once we got it on the ramps and got the sump guard off it looked like the problem was somewhere near the oil filter. We drained the oil, changed the filter and used some gasket seal to ensure the the leak wasn't coming from the area around the fitment. We refilled the car with oil and ran it without any seeming problems so fingers crossed it's problem solved...
Monday 27 July 2009
Armstrong Massey Rally - 05.07.09 - Driffield - Review
The Escort’s first outing of the year at the Armstrong Massey Stages in Driffield provided the sort of intense run out we wanted to shake the car down before looking at a bigger event for later this year. We’d done the Thor Hammer Stages at the venue a few years before and whilst one section of the course that was particularly rough had been removed from this event, the stages proved to be as hard on the cars as the last time we came out to play here!
Scrutineering took place on Saturday evening and the Escort passed through without any problems, allowing the Clive, myself and the team to chill out for the rest of the night. With 5 people in the support crew, including two mechanics, we had the biggest team out since the RAC… I know that might not seem such a big thing, especially as we’d only done one event since that rally, but it makes all the difference as it allows Clive and myself time to re-focus between stages and takes off a hell of a lot of pressure when it comes to checking everything is still bolted on and working! We’d made the decision to camp overnight no cut down on costs and whilst the weather remained dry and relatively warm and entertainment was provided by a television powered from Matt’s van, I think it’s probably something that we’ll avoid in future as nobody apart from Matt seemed to have the best of nights sleep… although maybe that had something to do with the night time conversations Matt has with himself…!
Saturday dawned bright and unfortunately very early. I was suffering as well, feeling nauseous and pretty sick – not what I needed before a day bouncing around in a Rally car! I’m not the best of people in the morning anyway and I rarely eat before the first stage as I’m not usually hungry first thing, but this was something else. We gave the car a final check over and changed the tyres from slicks to worn forest tyres after looking at what parts of the course we could see and speaking to other competitors and made our way to the start.
Sitting in the queue of cars waiting to enter the time control it was immediately obvious that something was not quite as it should be. We’d watched the first few cars nailing it along the straight past the flying finish but things had gone quiet and the cars in front of us seemed to have come to a standstill. We got out of the car and word filtered down that one of the cars further up the order had had a pretty heavy off. This is always a horrible moment for anybody involved as any information always seems to take ages to come through, but the length of the delay and the fact that the paramedics had were on the scene seemed to indicate that it was serious. Since the event we’ve found out that the driver was OK but the navigator suffered concussion, whiplash and had his internal organs shaken about a bit and was taken to hospital for treatment and a scan before being released. Another of the competitors reflected what I’ve always said – it’s always the navigator!
Once the stage was cleared things got moving again pretty quickly, which is a credit to the organisation of the team running the event. We blasted through the first stage in what seemed to be a very… composed… manner, considering the Escort usually has it’s arse hanging out at every opportunity! As we came up to the finish Clive said that the car felt massively down on power and that even with his foot flat to the floor he didn’t seem to have the grunt that he know the car was capable of. We pulled into the service area and got out of the car and the crew set to work checking it over.
Stage 2 was a re-run of the first stage and again we seemed to be down on power. The car was just not pulling as it should be and our lap times reflected this – over the first two stages we were slower than cars that we should have been beating and over two minutes a stage down on the leaders. We pulled into service at the end of the stage and the problem was quickly diagnosed – one of the carburettor mechanisms wasn’t working correctly and we were, in effect, only running on one carb. We knew that if we couldn’t sort this out it could be the end of the rally so Matt, Clive and Dave started work on trying to repair the fault, racing against the clock to get us out for stage 3 and finally closing the bonnet with minutes to go before we were due at the time control.
Things immediately began to look up as we booted it onto the first proper straight. “That’s much better” said Clive as he put his foot down and we tore down back straight. Stages 3 and 4 saw our pace pick up as Clive put the extra power to use and we moved from being one of the slowest cars to being one of the not quite as slow cars! If we’d taken the first two stages our of the equation we’d have been two placed higher in the final standings, but I suppose facing that kind of adversity is what rallying is about.
We pulled in at the end of stage 4 just as the heavens opened, which proved to be a Godsend as the heat had caused our radiator to boil over on stage 4 and we were desperate for cooler conditions to avoid big problems in the afternoon. It also proved to help dampen down the dust that had been a problem all morning when trying to follow another car on some of the looser areas.
For some reason on the first two stages after lunch we were just not on the pace. I don’t know whether it was because the layout just didn’t suit our car, whether there was something wrong mechanically or whether Clive didn’t get back into the groove as fast as he’d have like after a long break, but we just weren’t at the races. Cars that we had been much faster than at the end of the morning session were beating us and, looking back at the times and at how things felt in the car, I really cannot put my finger on why that was.
The final two stages of the day were the reverse of the first two in the morning session and Clive was caning it trying to catch a KA that, due to the confusing timing system used by the organising club, had somehow got in front of us. On both stages we were close behind it as we entered the final corner but were never quite fast enough to overtake it! If the stage had been miles longer I reckon we’d’ve had ‘im!
After sitting down and (literally) letting the dust settle, I think we can take a lot of positives from the event:
o We were once again hampered by a minor technical problem that affected our overall rally. Unless it happened early on the first stage, this was a problem that should have been spotted and sorted before the event but due to the car being stored at HT we were unable to give the car a shakedown that would have highlighted this problem. Some things you can’t plan for – rallying, especially on the sort of rough stages that this rally threw up – will always potentially shake or break something and there is a finite number of things that you can do beforehand to prevent this, we need to make sure that we’re getting the basics right however and ensure that the car is good to go before an event. On a positive note, apart from the carb and the overheating (which we’ll already planned to resolve by putting a new scoop into the bonnet), the car ran trouble free on some of the worst stages I’ve ever seen. Unlike in the woods where you come out of a rut onto dirt or gravel, we were bouncing out onto hard, sharp concrete, yet the car stood up to it well.
o Having a team to help out is fantastic and saves Clive and myself having to scrabble about
under the car. This is especially helpful for Clive, especially if you have someone who knows the mechanics of the car, as it means there’s more than one person who can try to work out what could be going wrong and how to fix it. On a the social side of things, it was a good laugh having a few of us there having a bit of banter both before and during the rally (despite the fact that between stages I could usually be found laid down feeling ill!)
o When we were fast, we were very, very, fast. When we were slow we were rubbish! The first two stages we know about. I wish I knew why we weren’t as fast on SS4 and SS5.
o It was the first time the car and Clive and myself had been out in these roles since November and we seemed to settle back into the groove pretty quickly. Despite feeling like I was going to chunder several times I avoided it as the stages weren’t all that technical there wasn’t too much for me to do. Clive drove a nice clean rally and just about avoided 360’ing it! There were a few corners that we were a bit iffy on here and there but I think that will always be the case if you’re on the edge, yet we got round each time without anything too dramatic happening… I think Matt Rudd may have been on the brink of having kittens on one corner when we ran a bit wide though!
o Single venues are fun, but Driffield is far to rough and we’ll probably give it a miss until some work is done to rectify this. Whilst the worst part of the Thor Hammer was not used on this event, we felt that it had been a little misrepresented by the organisers. It was bloody harsh on the stages and I think we were battered about worse than any rally we’ve competed in. It wasn’t smooth concrete – it was horrible and potholed and even when you stuck to the side of the road advised by the organisers it still bounced you to buggery. There was also a lot of confusion caused by the timing system used by the organisers. Most single venues give you a checking in time for the next stage at the end of the previous stage. On this event they decided to use the system used on multi venue rallies. This meant that you took your finish time for the last stage and added x minutes to this time to get your arrival time for the next stage. This was fine in principle but a lot of the competitors either had not used this method or weren’t expecting it. This led to us being penalised (later revoked) for clocking into a time control early when I had not stuck with my own convictions and had listened to another more experiences navi who told me that I was due in at one time when in fact I was due in a minute later. I’m not sure why the decision was made to use this timing method but I wasn’t convinced that was appropriate for a SV event and I think the method of giving a competitor a start time for the next stage allows for much greater flexibility for the organisers. I don’t know what happened towards the end of the rally but we were sat in front of the time control waiting for our check in time and cars that were behind us we checking in and we ended up being waved up to the time control.
o Camping is fun. Hotels are better. Preferably at least 4 star with a Bar and Spa.
Many thanks to: Our Team – Stu, Matt, Paul, Jack and Antony; The Organisers – Beverley and District MC; The Photog – Matt Rudd matthewruddphotography.co.uk; The Helpers: the Marshals, the Medics and everyone who helps us go out and play! The Competitors: We’d have been first without you!
All Photographs courtesy of Matt Rudd Photography: www.matthewruddphotography.co.uk
Scrutineering took place on Saturday evening and the Escort passed through without any problems, allowing the Clive, myself and the team to chill out for the rest of the night. With 5 people in the support crew, including two mechanics, we had the biggest team out since the RAC… I know that might not seem such a big thing, especially as we’d only done one event since that rally, but it makes all the difference as it allows Clive and myself time to re-focus between stages and takes off a hell of a lot of pressure when it comes to checking everything is still bolted on and working! We’d made the decision to camp overnight no cut down on costs and whilst the weather remained dry and relatively warm and entertainment was provided by a television powered from Matt’s van, I think it’s probably something that we’ll avoid in future as nobody apart from Matt seemed to have the best of nights sleep… although maybe that had something to do with the night time conversations Matt has with himself…!
Saturday dawned bright and unfortunately very early. I was suffering as well, feeling nauseous and pretty sick – not what I needed before a day bouncing around in a Rally car! I’m not the best of people in the morning anyway and I rarely eat before the first stage as I’m not usually hungry first thing, but this was something else. We gave the car a final check over and changed the tyres from slicks to worn forest tyres after looking at what parts of the course we could see and speaking to other competitors and made our way to the start.
Sitting in the queue of cars waiting to enter the time control it was immediately obvious that something was not quite as it should be. We’d watched the first few cars nailing it along the straight past the flying finish but things had gone quiet and the cars in front of us seemed to have come to a standstill. We got out of the car and word filtered down that one of the cars further up the order had had a pretty heavy off. This is always a horrible moment for anybody involved as any information always seems to take ages to come through, but the length of the delay and the fact that the paramedics had were on the scene seemed to indicate that it was serious. Since the event we’ve found out that the driver was OK but the navigator suffered concussion, whiplash and had his internal organs shaken about a bit and was taken to hospital for treatment and a scan before being released. Another of the competitors reflected what I’ve always said – it’s always the navigator!
Once the stage was cleared things got moving again pretty quickly, which is a credit to the organisation of the team running the event. We blasted through the first stage in what seemed to be a very… composed… manner, considering the Escort usually has it’s arse hanging out at every opportunity! As we came up to the finish Clive said that the car felt massively down on power and that even with his foot flat to the floor he didn’t seem to have the grunt that he know the car was capable of. We pulled into the service area and got out of the car and the crew set to work checking it over.
Stage 2 was a re-run of the first stage and again we seemed to be down on power. The car was just not pulling as it should be and our lap times reflected this – over the first two stages we were slower than cars that we should have been beating and over two minutes a stage down on the leaders. We pulled into service at the end of the stage and the problem was quickly diagnosed – one of the carburettor mechanisms wasn’t working correctly and we were, in effect, only running on one carb. We knew that if we couldn’t sort this out it could be the end of the rally so Matt, Clive and Dave started work on trying to repair the fault, racing against the clock to get us out for stage 3 and finally closing the bonnet with minutes to go before we were due at the time control.
Things immediately began to look up as we booted it onto the first proper straight. “That’s much better” said Clive as he put his foot down and we tore down back straight. Stages 3 and 4 saw our pace pick up as Clive put the extra power to use and we moved from being one of the slowest cars to being one of the not quite as slow cars! If we’d taken the first two stages our of the equation we’d have been two placed higher in the final standings, but I suppose facing that kind of adversity is what rallying is about.
We pulled in at the end of stage 4 just as the heavens opened, which proved to be a Godsend as the heat had caused our radiator to boil over on stage 4 and we were desperate for cooler conditions to avoid big problems in the afternoon. It also proved to help dampen down the dust that had been a problem all morning when trying to follow another car on some of the looser areas.
For some reason on the first two stages after lunch we were just not on the pace. I don’t know whether it was because the layout just didn’t suit our car, whether there was something wrong mechanically or whether Clive didn’t get back into the groove as fast as he’d have like after a long break, but we just weren’t at the races. Cars that we had been much faster than at the end of the morning session were beating us and, looking back at the times and at how things felt in the car, I really cannot put my finger on why that was.
The final two stages of the day were the reverse of the first two in the morning session and Clive was caning it trying to catch a KA that, due to the confusing timing system used by the organising club, had somehow got in front of us. On both stages we were close behind it as we entered the final corner but were never quite fast enough to overtake it! If the stage had been miles longer I reckon we’d’ve had ‘im!
After sitting down and (literally) letting the dust settle, I think we can take a lot of positives from the event:
o We were once again hampered by a minor technical problem that affected our overall rally. Unless it happened early on the first stage, this was a problem that should have been spotted and sorted before the event but due to the car being stored at HT we were unable to give the car a shakedown that would have highlighted this problem. Some things you can’t plan for – rallying, especially on the sort of rough stages that this rally threw up – will always potentially shake or break something and there is a finite number of things that you can do beforehand to prevent this, we need to make sure that we’re getting the basics right however and ensure that the car is good to go before an event. On a positive note, apart from the carb and the overheating (which we’ll already planned to resolve by putting a new scoop into the bonnet), the car ran trouble free on some of the worst stages I’ve ever seen. Unlike in the woods where you come out of a rut onto dirt or gravel, we were bouncing out onto hard, sharp concrete, yet the car stood up to it well.
o Having a team to help out is fantastic and saves Clive and myself having to scrabble about
under the car. This is especially helpful for Clive, especially if you have someone who knows the mechanics of the car, as it means there’s more than one person who can try to work out what could be going wrong and how to fix it. On a the social side of things, it was a good laugh having a few of us there having a bit of banter both before and during the rally (despite the fact that between stages I could usually be found laid down feeling ill!)o When we were fast, we were very, very, fast. When we were slow we were rubbish! The first two stages we know about. I wish I knew why we weren’t as fast on SS4 and SS5.
o It was the first time the car and Clive and myself had been out in these roles since November and we seemed to settle back into the groove pretty quickly. Despite feeling like I was going to chunder several times I avoided it as the stages weren’t all that technical there wasn’t too much for me to do. Clive drove a nice clean rally and just about avoided 360’ing it! There were a few corners that we were a bit iffy on here and there but I think that will always be the case if you’re on the edge, yet we got round each time without anything too dramatic happening… I think Matt Rudd may have been on the brink of having kittens on one corner when we ran a bit wide though!
o Single venues are fun, but Driffield is far to rough and we’ll probably give it a miss until some work is done to rectify this. Whilst the worst part of the Thor Hammer was not used on this event, we felt that it had been a little misrepresented by the organisers. It was bloody harsh on the stages and I think we were battered about worse than any rally we’ve competed in. It wasn’t smooth concrete – it was horrible and potholed and even when you stuck to the side of the road advised by the organisers it still bounced you to buggery. There was also a lot of confusion caused by the timing system used by the organisers. Most single venues give you a checking in time for the next stage at the end of the previous stage. On this event they decided to use the system used on multi venue rallies. This meant that you took your finish time for the last stage and added x minutes to this time to get your arrival time for the next stage. This was fine in principle but a lot of the competitors either had not used this method or weren’t expecting it. This led to us being penalised (later revoked) for clocking into a time control early when I had not stuck with my own convictions and had listened to another more experiences navi who told me that I was due in at one time when in fact I was due in a minute later. I’m not sure why the decision was made to use this timing method but I wasn’t convinced that was appropriate for a SV event and I think the method of giving a competitor a start time for the next stage allows for much greater flexibility for the organisers. I don’t know what happened towards the end of the rally but we were sat in front of the time control waiting for our check in time and cars that were behind us we checking in and we ended up being waved up to the time control.
o Camping is fun. Hotels are better. Preferably at least 4 star with a Bar and Spa.
Many thanks to: Our Team – Stu, Matt, Paul, Jack and Antony; The Organisers – Beverley and District MC; The Photog – Matt Rudd matthewruddphotography.co.uk; The Helpers: the Marshals, the Medics and everyone who helps us go out and play! The Competitors: We’d have been first without you!
All Photographs courtesy of Matt Rudd Photography: www.matthewruddphotography.co.uk
Tuesday 30 June 2009
Armstrong Massey Rally - 05.07.09 - Driffield ***UPDATE***
Final preparations are now underway for the Armstrong Massey Rally this weekend.
The finishing touches to the car were completed last week - these ranged from the simple, such as putting on new decals; to the more complicated such as raising the exhaust and moving the brake lines. Unfortunately the tent we had been promised has sadly not materialised so we'll either be investing in some pop up festival tents or kipping in a brand spanking new one that Matt from HT is talking about buying. Personally I have a tent so I'm all right - everyone else can kip in the chemical toilets at the venue!
Looking on for the rest of the year, I'm going to be out and about in the Metro in August. Initially I was thinking about doing the Lion Stages in Kidland Forest but I have serious doubts about the cars ability to survive - it just isn't set up for a full gravel rally in its current guise. I'm now looking at doing the Centenary Stages which has been moved from Twyford Woods (out nemesis from the past) to Barkston Heath and (possibly) features a yump... which should be interesting! I wonder if they'll let me drive around it!
Work has begun in earnest to get more sponsorship onboard for the Roger Albert Clark Rally. If anyone fancies jumping onboard and supporting us, please drop us a line!
The finishing touches to the car were completed last week - these ranged from the simple, such as putting on new decals; to the more complicated such as raising the exhaust and moving the brake lines. Unfortunately the tent we had been promised has sadly not materialised so we'll either be investing in some pop up festival tents or kipping in a brand spanking new one that Matt from HT is talking about buying. Personally I have a tent so I'm all right - everyone else can kip in the chemical toilets at the venue!
Looking on for the rest of the year, I'm going to be out and about in the Metro in August. Initially I was thinking about doing the Lion Stages in Kidland Forest but I have serious doubts about the cars ability to survive - it just isn't set up for a full gravel rally in its current guise. I'm now looking at doing the Centenary Stages which has been moved from Twyford Woods (out nemesis from the past) to Barkston Heath and (possibly) features a yump... which should be interesting! I wonder if they'll let me drive around it!
Work has begun in earnest to get more sponsorship onboard for the Roger Albert Clark Rally. If anyone fancies jumping onboard and supporting us, please drop us a line!
Monday 15 June 2009
Armstrong Massey Rally - 05.07.09 - Driffield
The entry is now in for the Armstrong Massey Rally at Driffield for the Escort. This event takes place at a venue we have had previous experience of during the Thor Hammer Rally in 2006. A mainly concrete surface makes this a fast rally that can be dusty in dry conditions but we had good fun here last time out before mechanical problems but us out on the penultimate stage.
This is the first event this year in the Escort and we're hoping for a good competitive runout as a shakedown before the Kall Kwik... unless Clive gets bored and decides to enter another event before then!
We're also looking to do an event in the Metro in either July or August. There are several small changes that need doing before then but nothing major - I want to replace the key ignition with a push button ignition (I kept losing my keys during the Roskirk!), there is a small oil leak that I want to source and fix and I have a new adaptor to convert my handbrake to a flyoff to let me do flamboyant handbrake turns!
This is the first event this year in the Escort and we're hoping for a good competitive runout as a shakedown before the Kall Kwik... unless Clive gets bored and decides to enter another event before then!
We're also looking to do an event in the Metro in either July or August. There are several small changes that need doing before then but nothing major - I want to replace the key ignition with a push button ignition (I kept losing my keys during the Roskirk!), there is a small oil leak that I want to source and fix and I have a new adaptor to convert my handbrake to a flyoff to let me do flamboyant handbrake turns!
Monday 9 March 2009
Roskirk Stages Review
What a strange sensation... we've actually completed a rally!
After a day of frantic last minute preparation on Saturday, we drove over to Wigan in readiness for the rally on the Sunday.
We pulled into 3 Sisters at about 7.45 in readiness for scrutineering that was scheduled in for an 8am start and unloaded the 'Tro from the trailer. Scrutineering was reasonably smooth but slightly worryi
ng when the car in front was failed due to the registration plate being on the bonnet... the same place as my own! Luckily my car had actually been logbooked with the registration in that position so it wasn't a problem!
After much discussion over the preceding weeks we had decided that we would run the event on road tyres, the thinking behind it being that the slicks wouldn't be able to generate enough heat. The weather forecast was also looking ominous with rain and snow forecast for Sunday so again, with a choice limited to slicks or road tyres, the roadies were looking like the wiser choice!
Pulling up to the start line for the first stage everything that had been discussed and that I had learnt over the past few years as a co-driver passed briefly through my mind. Whilst the circuit was small and the stages reasonably simple, there was a good variation of corners and I'd had a bit of a think about how I'd tackle them when we'd walked it earlier. This all went out of the window when the light turned green!
Driving a car normally, or even quickly, on the road does nothing to prepare you for a stage rally. Whether you're in a WRC or a slightly battered Metro, you're there to push the car and driver to the limit to try to be as fast as possible. My experience of this was limited to say the least and the opening series of stages would be about firstly me testing my own ability and then about seeing what the car could do.
One of the first things I had to get used to was driving and stopping a
car that was missing all the fancy gizmo's that we're got used to over the 20+ years since the Metro was built - no fancy electronic differentials... no ABS... no power steering. An immediate feature was the way the car behaved under braking and acceleration - the car got sideways very easily when I hit the brakes and started to turn into the corner but it generally felt like it was controlled when I hit the accelerator. Coming out of the corners was a different matter, the car had the power but just was not able to put it down with the wheels spinning hopelessly before gripping and slingshotting me out of the corner.
With such a tight, twisty track and only the one long straight, the stages were challenging for both myself as I threw the car into and (usually) around the corner and for Clive as a navigator, especially on the early stages that featured multiple splits.
After a couple of exciting, fast stages in the dry to get the adrenalin flowing, the weather decided to take a hand as we headed to stage 3 when the heavens opened! With standing water on the track and my demister deciding to stop working, this quickly proved to be my worst stage in the rally. Coming out of a tight right hander into a quick left/right series of turns, the car got unbalanced and, when the front end suddenly gripped the read end pivoted around throwing me off the track. This was followed a few corners later with a second spin as I tried to get the power on too soon coming out of a K left... round and round I went again onto the grass.
The wet weather and track continued on and off for the next three stages and, after losing the car twice so close together, I had decided to take a more conservative approach. This was reflected in my stage times which were the slower than anybody else's on stages 3/4/5. Looking back at this is a little disappointing in one respect as I was reasonably competitive with the tail end cars on the opening stages and, as the track dried out, my times were again there or there abouts - far from being a front runner but not the slowest either!
My final position was 39th - last of the running cars, with 10 cars that had dropped out. I feel I could have finished higher if I'd not spun on stage 3 and maybe I could have pushed a bit harder but I wasn't willing to trash my car on my first rally! The car was very slippery when conditions were wet and after going past the final flying finish the car flicked horribly and I nearly ended up in the barriers... not the ending I would have wanted!
Put into perspective, I gained experience in driving in conditions which tend to be the norm in the UK and also highlighted a couple of places where I might need to look at improving with regards to the car - an LSD would definitely help me coming out of the corners, as would some decent tyres as in the wet I couldn't get any traction at all . My times were not the fastest but neither were they the slowest on all stages and I finished the rally, which was my primary objective and also got to push myself and get the experience of driving a rally stage.
After a day of frantic last minute preparation on Saturday, we drove over to Wigan in readiness for the rally on the Sunday.
We pulled into 3 Sisters at about 7.45 in readiness for scrutineering that was scheduled in for an 8am start and unloaded the 'Tro from the trailer. Scrutineering was reasonably smooth but slightly worryi
ng when the car in front was failed due to the registration plate being on the bonnet... the same place as my own! Luckily my car had actually been logbooked with the registration in that position so it wasn't a problem!After much discussion over the preceding weeks we had decided that we would run the event on road tyres, the thinking behind it being that the slicks wouldn't be able to generate enough heat. The weather forecast was also looking ominous with rain and snow forecast for Sunday so again, with a choice limited to slicks or road tyres, the roadies were looking like the wiser choice!
Pulling up to the start line for the first stage everything that had been discussed and that I had learnt over the past few years as a co-driver passed briefly through my mind. Whilst the circuit was small and the stages reasonably simple, there was a good variation of corners and I'd had a bit of a think about how I'd tackle them when we'd walked it earlier. This all went out of the window when the light turned green!
Driving a car normally, or even quickly, on the road does nothing to prepare you for a stage rally. Whether you're in a WRC or a slightly battered Metro, you're there to push the car and driver to the limit to try to be as fast as possible. My experience of this was limited to say the least and the opening series of stages would be about firstly me testing my own ability and then about seeing what the car could do.
One of the first things I had to get used to was driving and stopping a
car that was missing all the fancy gizmo's that we're got used to over the 20+ years since the Metro was built - no fancy electronic differentials... no ABS... no power steering. An immediate feature was the way the car behaved under braking and acceleration - the car got sideways very easily when I hit the brakes and started to turn into the corner but it generally felt like it was controlled when I hit the accelerator. Coming out of the corners was a different matter, the car had the power but just was not able to put it down with the wheels spinning hopelessly before gripping and slingshotting me out of the corner.With such a tight, twisty track and only the one long straight, the stages were challenging for both myself as I threw the car into and (usually) around the corner and for Clive as a navigator, especially on the early stages that featured multiple splits.
After a couple of exciting, fast stages in the dry to get the adrenalin flowing, the weather decided to take a hand as we headed to stage 3 when the heavens opened! With standing water on the track and my demister deciding to stop working, this quickly proved to be my worst stage in the rally. Coming out of a tight right hander into a quick left/right series of turns, the car got unbalanced and, when the front end suddenly gripped the read end pivoted around throwing me off the track. This was followed a few corners later with a second spin as I tried to get the power on too soon coming out of a K left... round and round I went again onto the grass.
The wet weather and track continued on and off for the next three stages and, after losing the car twice so close together, I had decided to take a more conservative approach. This was reflected in my stage times which were the slower than anybody else's on stages 3/4/5. Looking back at this is a little disappointing in one respect as I was reasonably competitive with the tail end cars on the opening stages and, as the track dried out, my times were again there or there abouts - far from being a front runner but not the slowest either!
My final position was 39th - last of the running cars, with 10 cars that had dropped out. I feel I could have finished higher if I'd not spun on stage 3 and maybe I could have pushed a bit harder but I wasn't willing to trash my car on my first rally! The car was very slippery when conditions were wet and after going past the final flying finish the car flicked horribly and I nearly ended up in the barriers... not the ending I would have wanted!
Put into perspective, I gained experience in driving in conditions which tend to be the norm in the UK and also highlighted a couple of places where I might need to look at improving with regards to the car - an LSD would definitely help me coming out of the corners, as would some decent tyres as in the wet I couldn't get any traction at all . My times were not the fastest but neither were they the slowest on all stages and I finished the rally, which was my primary objective and also got to push myself and get the experience of driving a rally stage.
Mant thnks to Rob Lees: rob@roblees.freeserve.co.uk for use of the photographs!
Friday 6 March 2009
Roskirk Preview
This weekend see's me finally (hopefully) get to take part in my first Special Stage rally... at the second attempt after last years disasterous outing at Manby!
The car has been taxed which allowed me to go out in it last night to try to get used to it. Being used to driving cars with such luxuries as ABS and Power Steering over the last few years, it was a bit of any eye opener... especially with regards to the braking!
The tyres have been sorted and, with the forecast for rain/snow over the weekend, I'll probably be running on roa tyres! The Harnesses are fitted with brand spanking new eye bolts for the crutch strap and the intercom was moved from the Escort last night.
The aim for the weekend is to get to the finish. The stages are short and all smooth tarmac so it will give me a good oppotunity to get used to the feel of the car and give it some welly! There are some pretty interesting events that we're looking at during the year so there's no point in wrecking it on my first outing!
The car has been taxed which allowed me to go out in it last night to try to get used to it. Being used to driving cars with such luxuries as ABS and Power Steering over the last few years, it was a bit of any eye opener... especially with regards to the braking!
The tyres have been sorted and, with the forecast for rain/snow over the weekend, I'll probably be running on roa tyres! The Harnesses are fitted with brand spanking new eye bolts for the crutch strap and the intercom was moved from the Escort last night.
The aim for the weekend is to get to the finish. The stages are short and all smooth tarmac so it will give me a good oppotunity to get used to the feel of the car and give it some welly! There are some pretty interesting events that we're looking at during the year so there's no point in wrecking it on my first outing!
Tuesday 24 February 2009
Roskirk Stages - 3 Sisters Circuit - Sunday 9th March
The entry for the Metro is in for the Roskirk Stages at 3 Sisters Circuit on Sunday 9th March 2009.
Almost a year after the car was last due out, the gearbox has been out and cleaned and a new diff fitted to replace the one that blew up at the start of the first stage on the Phoenix Stages and the suspension has been pumped up on the passenger side. The car was in for it's MOT last week and failed... the new bumper fitted was covering the fog light! This was swiftly repare by Matt @ HT Auto's via the medium of taking the bumper off!
The car is now in the process of having a final check over in preperation for the event, including the fitting of brand spanking new 6 point harnesses.
Almost a year after the car was last due out, the gearbox has been out and cleaned and a new diff fitted to replace the one that blew up at the start of the first stage on the Phoenix Stages and the suspension has been pumped up on the passenger side. The car was in for it's MOT last week and failed... the new bumper fitted was covering the fog light! This was swiftly repare by Matt @ HT Auto's via the medium of taking the bumper off!
The car is now in the process of having a final check over in preperation for the event, including the fitting of brand spanking new 6 point harnesses.
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