« January 2008 | Main | March 2008 »
Crew required for 2008 Midnight Sun Rally in our appK 504 saloon to join Peugeot Swedens Gert Blomquist & Lena Lindberg in their 504 coupe. More details of the event at Midnight Sun rally . We have worked an all inclusive package with entries hotels etc etc at £6500 inc vat. From previous experience there are some amazing stages together with a chance to compete against some rally legends
Due to severe supply problems with our guards for both 205 & 106 we have currently withdrawn both from our parts list. People currently waiting please contact us for a refund.
South Downs Stages Martin Head / Niel Billingham 1st Class
Wyedean Rally Richard Phillipson/ Briam Cammack 4th Class
Those of you who read the Wyedean report will know that we had problems with the installation of our new Quaife kit into the Honda box. Further investigation under a little less pressure have revealed witness marks where the larger Quaife gears are fouling the casing
. Hopefully a little light relief with a die grinder should give us the clearance required. Look at the 12 o'clock position just above the bearing housing.
Plans for Richard Phillipson to use the newly acquired Quaife CR gear kit & Griper diff on the Wyedean went out of the window when we had problems fitting the kit. Not helped when we rang Quaife for some guidance only to be told that the assembly drawing was possibly wrong. So the original box was refitted while we resolve the problem.
Scrutiny went off without a hitch and with our start number of 103 we had the opportunity for a laid back start to Saturday. The event had 7 stages 2 before auxillary service followed by 2 before main service [1 hour] back at Chepstow racecourse then 2 to auxillary service & a final stage before returning to the racecourse.
The first 2 stages Chepstow Park & Serridge 1 went off without any problems Richard & Brian both all smiles at the auxillary service point. Swallow Vallets was followed by Piercefield but this time when the car came into service there were a couple of issues, a detatched front bumper was easily sorted but the clutch had caused a problem at the start of stage 4. The pedal had stuck down and when Richard freed it the clutch still slipped as they went off the line. From the point when the clutch did bite everything seemed ok and despite a really good check we could find nothing wrong.
Stage 5 was Speech House followed by a second run through Serridge and again no problems, the mysterious clutch trouble hadn't resurfaced so the boys headed for the final stage Mailscot.
Back at Chepstow and Richard & Brian had bagged 4th in class which was above expectations given our standard gearbox & bodes well for later events.
Roger Mustoe in his 1400 Polo won his class & Gary Barlow who was equal leader at on point in the 1400's was encouraged by the performance of his car despite blowing a water hose & dropping down the order.
Richard Phillipson will open his 2008 season on the Wyedean Rally this weekend [9th] running car 103. The car now has a Quaife CR gear kit together with a Gripper LSD, so something else for Richard to get used to but will prove invaluable if the stages cut up as is expected. Brian Cammack will again co drive.
Also out on the event is Gary Barlow who is now using a Nova. Gary will start no 207, 6th in the 1400's. I believe this is his first outing with this car.
It looks like the weather may play a significant role with lots of people forecasting snow, me I favour another day like last weekend at Goodwood where we were blessed with sunshine
As with most things rally wise things seem to come around a lot more quickly than we expect, the opening event of the year which seemed ages away is suddenly upon you and its a mad panic to get everything finished on time.
It should have come as no surprise to me that the refitting of our Quaife sequential gearbox would not be without issues and until about 10pm on Friday evening I had been pleasantly surprised that although running a few hours late everything Else was OK. Time to reverse the MG out of the workshop, put it on the trailer & head home for a 5am start & thats when everything went **** up. I could not select reverse gear with the paddles. When I had set the ECU gear positions manually there had been no problem but try as I might I could not select with the paddles. At 4am I finally manually selected reverse, loaded the car & headed home.
Scrutineering at Goodwood is quite a civilised affair with the officials coming to you instead of having to join a great long line of cars, the only issue being that they have restored the old pits & you have a nice covered garage to use. Normally not a problem because you can either reverse in or reverse out HOWEVER if you dont have the where with all to reverse it has drawbacks. We therefore opted to fore go a garage in favour of a splendid drive through service area.
With strict orders not to go off Martin & Neil [Head & Billingham respectively] went out for the first stage. The format of the event was single stage service single stage with 4 stages before lunch & 4 after.
The modifications carried out on the shift system seem to have transformed our box and by lunch time Martin & the MG were showing its true potential perhaps for the first time since we started. 10th overall, stunning really for a 1400 car against a WRC Focus 306 Maxi Peugeot & of course some very quick Escorts. Haydn Morgan last years winner was only a few seconds in front.
The first stage after lunch & it all went wrong when Martin spun on some oil laid down by one of the previous cars and landed on a tractor tyre. This was where no reverse crucified us and just over two & a half minutes was lost while the marshalls got our beached whale back on track.
This dropped us to 3rd in class but a blown head gasket on the Suzuki Swift of Andy Butcher & Paul Leyford moved us up to second & some spirited driving by Martin took over 30 seconds ot of the Corsa sri of Paul Hollingam & Alicia Miles to win the class & get 22nd overall. Not bad but you have to ask what if he had not had a close encounter of the tyre kind.
