[rally_prep] Road Rally 205 Gti

[arwel 43 2 Cars]

Entry has gone in for the next event which is the Mid Summer Caerwent Stages around the unforgiving military roads within the complex. It's an amazing venue but like Epynt, it will bite if your not careful. Will be aiming for a good result this time around.

[arwel 43 2 Cars]

So, we are car 71 out of 100 cars for the Midsummer Tour of Caerwent. Didn't put a full amount of past events down so starting lower than should be. Im not bothered by that and will plan a attack from the back of the field. There are 10 in our class all together and I'm going to throw it out there now... I usually aim to get round and finish.. this time Im aiming for a top 3 in class...I feel I have the car to really have a challenge with some of the big boy escorts in the class now. Little bits n bobs need to be done and a little test but nothing major.

[Adrian247 5 1 Cars]

Best of luck chap, mind the curbs.......

[arwel 43 2 Cars]

Best of luck chap, mind the curbs.......

 

Oh yes... did the Tour of Caerwent in March last year and avoided them all day. Did last years Midsummer and was avoiding them again untill stage 2. Went out on the wrong tyres in the wet and pretty much bounced off every bloody one, 2 bent bottom arms was the result. Dont plan on doing that again

[arwel 43 2 Cars]

Ready for battle in Caerwent tomorrow. It's giving rain so the wets are on and hopefully will level the playing field with the big powered escorts in the class

 

[arwel 43 2 Cars]

What I was hoping would be a good day and chance to show what the car can do since its refresh didnt quite go to plan. Stage 1 started very well as we caught the car in front of us within 2 miles. After that it went down hill. We came to a bit of road that appeared to have been taped off incorrectly so we had to stop to suss out what the hell was going on as the map said one thing but the road said otherwise. By the time we had it sorted a car had gone past us. We eventually hunted him down and were right on him going into a tight tricky bit of road that was lined with cones as the road had been repaired. He clipped a cone and pulled it on to the line so I went to avoid it and ended up on some loose gravel, under steered towards a support beam for the perimeter fence so tweaked the bar to save it but ran out of room. The wheel took the impact with the support beam which resulted in a bent stub pin, a shattered disc and a ruined set of pads. We managed to limp round the rest of the stage and borrowed the parts required from another competitor and managed to get back out in time for stage 2.

 

Stage 2 started well, again catching the car in front and everything seemed to be going well. Car felt really good and seemed well suited to the venue. However, coming down a long straight flat out in 4th gear, it just lost all power and eventually cut out as we rolled to a stop. Some quick investigation work found a cracked distrubuter cap and a rotor arm in about a million pieces, game over. No trophy rally on this rally so was unable to go back out.

 

That even is never kind to me but I love it so keep going back for more. So, the beam needs to be checked for any other damage and now changes to be made to the suspension and some new brakes and hopefully a lick of paint before the Eventsigns Mewla Stages over the Epynt ranges again in August.

 

Disc and pin

 

Inside the Distributer cap

[arwel 43 2 Cars]

On another note, here is a stage from Mini Epynt at the start of this month

 

[allye 530 3 Cars]

What a pain in the arse! Hard luck too. Just gives you a great excuse for some proper management!

 

Decent job on that disc and pin though.

[arwel 43 2 Cars]

What a pain in the arse! Hard luck too. Just gives you a great excuse for some proper management!

 

Decent job on that disc and pin though.

 

Ha ha ha.. I was a little gutted the damn stantion holding the fence was still straight as we passed on stage 2.

 

Long term plan is to fit bodies so management will come then. New rotor arm and cap for now and spares in the car in case it happens again.

[samthornton1990 23]

Flying on the Epynt there! Looking good! Need to get your lass a cushion

[arwel 43 2 Cars]

Flying on the Epynt there! Looking good! Need to get your lass a cushion

 

Still more commitment needed over Epynt. Happy with how it went though. I think I best get Abi a cushion for the next rally over there... them jumps feel a bit harder in a 205 lol

[Tom Fenton 1,526]

Make sure you loctite the rotor arm screws in. I'd say there's a good chance yours s*it itself due to one of the screws getting out.

[arwel 43 2 Cars]

Good idea.. I will do that. Slight problem at the moment. New rotor arm and dizzy cap and wont start. We have fuel and we have a spark from the coil going to the dizzy but no firing.

[arwel 43 2 Cars]

I have got it running now. It turns out even though the coil was giving a spark it wasnt strong enough to fire. Switch to a spare coil and fired up. In need of a new trailing arm now and a few other changes and we'll be good to go. More coming soon.

[arwel 43 2 Cars]

We've put an entry in for the Eventsigns Mewla rally over the Epynt ranges on the 25th of August. Recce on the saturday which is something I haven't done before so will try and note down as much information as possible which will help with my relative lack of experience of the place. The aim again will be to finish and maybe push on a little bit when im comfortable to see how we compare to the escorts. They were way ahead on the Mini Epynt in June so if I can close that gap a little I'll be happy.

Between now and then, there is some new rear shocks and thicker torsion bars to go on and stiffer springs up front which should stiffen the car up a bit and give a better feel.

[arwel 43 2 Cars]

With a little over a week before the Mewla, the car has been moved to a friends garage for a little work to be done, mainly... these.

 

Few other little things to do but hopefully will have it all sorted by the middle of next week for some pre event testing.

[arwel 43 2 Cars]

Mewla rally didn't go exactly to plan yesterday. First loop of 3 stages were good with the speed increasing as I got more confident with the car and got dialled into the new set up and generally getting to grips with new parts of Epynt I hadnt been over before. We got half a mile into stage 4 and we broke a shaft in half after exiting a junction. No full lock or or anything, just had enough and went bang.

 

 

Eventually got recovered and fitted a new shaft and went out for the trophy rally in the afternoon. Finished 2nd in that behind a bloody quick Darrian T90 so not too bad. Positives to be taken away is that the new suspension set up is fantastic and so are the brakes. All in all the car is now how I want it mechanically and Im really happy with how it feels. So we have a good few weeks now to change a few things that need doing ahead of the Peter Lloyd Stages in Pembrey in October.

[arwel 43 2 Cars]

Amazingly, 3 weeks before the Peter Lloyd Stages the car is ready for action. Its had a little service carried out, engine oil, box oil etc.. new arms, converted the hubs to studs and had a genereal spanner check. I've entered a Motorkhana event that is being held in Pembrey on Sunday as it'll be a good little test before the rally and give me some more seat time in the car. Not too worried about times or anything on Sunday, just want to go there and have fun and really settle into the car.

[arwel 43 2 Cars]

Finished 8th overall today and 2nd in class. Set the fastest time on the 3rd sprint and set the second fastest time out of everyone in the morning loop of sprints. Aswell as the speed being very much there, it was great to properly push the car today and find out where it's limits were. It was very damp and slippy this morning and then dry and grippy this afternoon so we had the best of both to test the car in and it came up trumps. Its so much more predictable now and no longer has the feeling that its trying to kill you, all its taken is a freshly rebuilt beam, new tarmac bilsteins, 21mm torsion bars and tarmac springs up front. You can imagine the cost of all that but its money well spent.

Peter Lloyd Rallying stages on the 13th October will be very interesting now

[Anthony 1,000]

Nice one! It's surprising the difference that fresh suspension will make to a car.

 

Pretty worrying that you snapped a shaft like that, as there seem to have been a few recently and it's not like you're running crazy power/torque and (unless I've missed it) only running a Quaife rather than a plate diff set mega-agressively. What are they making the 'shafts out of now - cheese?

[arwel 43 2 Cars]

Cheers Anthony, it really is fantastic, it's like a totally different car now.

 

There must have been a really bad weakness in that tube, it snapped totally clean in half. No issues at all yesterday though and we did have it at some interesting angles at times

[arwel 43 2 Cars]

Peter Lloyd Rallying Stages this coming Sunday and myself and Abigail have been seeded car 46. There are around 10 in our class and Im looking at pushing as hard as we can and see how we can do against the bigger powered escorts.

 

A few little issues have come to light and been taken care of in the last week or so and its now covered a bit more test mileage and Im happy with everything. So fingers crossed for no issues and a good clean, competitive run.

[arwel 43 2 Cars]

Peter Lloyd Rallying Stages was yesterday 13/10/13. Finished 23rd overall and 4th in class. Missed 3rd by 1 second which was a bit gutting but I achieved my target of a top 25. Lost a lot of time being stuck behind a slower car on SS3 and it also rained and we were on slicks which hurt our stage time massively. Only issue we had yesterday was a misfire for half a stage which we think was fuel related but apart from that it was all good. Car was amazing in the wet once we were on the correct tyres and Im really pleased that everything finally came together after some bad luck on the last 2 events.

Wont be out again now until the Christmas Stages in Pembrey on the 29th of December so the car will have some much needed TLC and be treated to a fresh coat of paint and we shall put the 4:9 cwp in the gearbox.

[arwel 43 2 Cars]

Here is some footage from last weekend.

 

 

Edited October 20, 2013 by arwel

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Hahaha! Amazing

 

'less of that please' & 'what a d*ck'

 

Sounding well and going like stink!

 

That Beamer was bit of a d*ck though....

Edited October 20, 2013 by allye