Ti Motorsport

Patriot Stages

Any hopes of winning or even finishing second in the Cotswolds Championship took a big knock on the first stage of todays Patriot Stages. From the moment the newly rebuilt [by Quaife themselves] was fitted the gear change was unsatisfactory. The first stage was cancelled when a Mk 2 Escort got it all wrong and more than half the field of 90 + drove through the stage in convoy. That was enough for Martin & co-driver Neil to decide to put the car back on the trailer & head home. Later investigation proved to be a clutch problem rather than the box

With the next round of the Wallis's Wagons Championship, the Jersey Rally the weekend after next the team has to decide whether to go back to the H pattern 6 speed box or stick with the sequential option.

Finishes in the remaining rounds of that championship are now essential and should ensure a win in the champioship and as the Exeter Stages is also a Cotswold round we really need to win that one so no pressure there eh!

Yorkshire Rally

As you can see from the picture elsewhere the C2 is at Sira Motors having a new quarter panel fitted folowing Kaz's Ulster excursion into the hedge, hopefully we will have the car back on Monday to complete preparation for the next BRC round in Yorkshire.

We are hoping to run a test with the C2 & the MG of Gordon Nichol just before the event. We are however struggling for a venue at the moment so if anyone knows of a suitable bit of forest please let us know.

Safari Information

All event info is available at East African Safari rally including details of event safaris which are great value and give you the chance to see the event as well as the animals.

Your chance to come & join the team

Trackrod Rally Yorkshire

Following our first finish in BRC in Ulster there was plenty to do to get the car ready for Yorkshire. One of the problems had been the breaking of the gear lever, this is something other C2's have suffered from so  we made serious modifications to ours which incorporate a solid centre block instead of the standard welding of the thin wall tube.

Our other problem was the top gearbox mounting & when we removed the box to check the clutch we found that 2 of the 3 threads in the box had stripped. We have had to put inserts into the box to salvage the casing. We are now trying Nordlock washers as well as loads of Loctite in an effort to overcome this particular problem.

Unfortunately the C2 is off to the body shop for its panel damage so we are unable to be at Castle Combe for the Rally Day.

We now just need to sort out our gravel settings before we go to Yorkshire. We also have a new tyre from Pirelli 195 instead of the 165's from the opening round.

Safari Update 4

All done. All spares packed, just got to get it to the docks & wave it goodbye for 6 or 7 weeks. Now we have to try to find some extra sponsorship to pad out the budget then I might get a beer or two when I go out there.

If the car performs as well as it looks we should be in for a good result. I understand that we will be car 28 which will be a nice place to be.

We ended up going with softest spring setting and will use the practice stage to decide whether to stick with them or to go harder. The weather has been wet for ages and the organisers are concerned that they may have problems & may have to do some re-routes if the rains don't stop soon. We wouldn't mind too much if it was wet as the 504 has fantastic ground clearance & excellent traction. Lots of torque from the V6 should help as well.

Otterburn

Another tale of what might have been for Rob Russell who was leading by 2 minutes when fuel problems dropped them 7 minutes on the long 22 mile stage.

More details as soon as I get them.

Well it seems lots of other people had problems on the long stage as well so Rob actually ended up 2nd so well done Rob.

I have asked Rob to give us a report so you never know we may get a little more detail from the man himself.

After dropped scores Rob & Co-driver Lee Baverstock lead the championship & have a 10 point lead over Andy Chalmers so it's all to play for on the last round

Otterburn Latest

As expected Barry Tottie will not be doing the event this weekend, Rob Russell will however be there.

This will be the irst time since we entered the 1400 Challenge that we have not had a van on a Challenge round. Rob is however carrying a load of spares so if anyone is stuck go & talk to him nicely.

Safari Rally Update 3

So we have finally delivered the car back to Sira Motors in Barking for the finishing touches. They have to fit the bonnet & boot and probably give it another polish before the sticker brigade go to town.

Like all things rally the finishing off took longer than anticipated and an all nighter was needed to get the car back on time.

Apart from the obvious major change in going over to the V6 engine there have been quite a few  other changes. I have been talking to Thanos Karydas in Greece who owns & rallies 2 504 ex works coupes and as the Greek roads are notoriously rough he has been a great help in trying to optimise our suspension setting and incidentally he may have thrown some light on our rear camber problems.

The biggest difference to our car is in the front suspension where our Proflex struts combined with serious wheel spacers have given us an extra 4" of travel over the standard set up. Despite an increase in engine weight we are going slightly softer on our front spring rates in the search for grip & puncture resistance. Rear travel is limited by the wishbones as the drive shafts can come into contact with them. This is one of the reasons for the restraining straps. We are going to run the rear slightly harder at Thanos's suggestion but as the organisers are allowing recce of the first 80k [yes 80k].stage we will have the chance to try it out & change the rates if necessary.

In an attempt to save the twin exhaust down pipes we have fitted on extra under body protection plate which runs from the sump guard right back to the rear beam.

Now all we have to do is sort the spares & life can get back to a bit of normality

Ulster International Rally 2007

Points at last but what hard work we made of getting them.

Following our recent outing on the Wuggings Stages we were fairly sure that we had sorted the engine mounting problem that has dogged us from the start of the season and were looking forward to the challenging stages of northern Ireland.

The event has moved headquarters from Belfast to Armagh and the Armagh City Hotel provided Rally HQ & service parc to International competitors. The facilities were excellent & everyone seemed impressed.

Scrutiny went off without a hitch and we were then left with 5 hr wait for the start. Plenty of time to try to decide on what might be the best tyre choice, the weather being fine in Armagh but there were reports of rain elsewhere. At the 10 minute service following the start we settled on slicks with a pair of inters for spares then they could change tyres around if the weather changed between stages.

A 70mph spin on the first stage dropped Kaz down the order but resulted in no damage to the car. The remaining stages passed off without incident and the crew brought the car into the first proper service.Our modification to the lower mounting seemed to be working & a quick spanner check saw the car on its way again. Jason Pritchard stopped on stage when the main battery lead to the starter motor came apart. By the time the cars came in for final service on Friday night Kaz had moved into 2nd place behind Martin Laverty, George Thomas having collected 2 punctures. Our car was however in a spot of bother as we had lost reverse and the gearbox mounting was loose. Lots of loctite and slightly longer bolts were fitted and the car went to parc ferme.

Saturday and an early start with a long day ahead. The same dilemma regarding tyre choice faced us again. This time they went out with inters on the front & wets on the rear with the slicks for spares. The results service at the hotel was excellent and it soon became apparent that Kaz had a problem this was confirmed a few minutes later when Stefan called to say the gear lever had broken at the pivot point. A quick trip over to Raymond Moore from Hurst's and we had a new lever ready. While Michael fitted the new lever I once again fastened the gearbox mounting which was now becoming annoying.

The next group of stages and Kaz managed to collected a front puncture but other than re tightening the gearbox mounting things were going well. The weather was about to throw a bit of a spanner in the works. A heavy downpour mid stage caught the crew out and to avoid a head on crash Kaz hand braked the car to go off sideways, impacting with a hedge & taking out the off side rear quarter panel. The car however was still fine so when they came into service we had a little fettling to do.

The final batch of stages seemed to take for ever but finally we got the text to say they had cleared the final stage. Some huge relief, finally finally we had some points.