Ti Motorsport

Event Countdown

Event Countdown

Latest News from the ERA

Route latest... We have received a most encouraging email from Dominic Asquith, British Ambassador in Cairo, addressed to Lord Steel, who visited various Egyptian Government officials a few weeks ago, to say that the Tourist Minister has agreed to press for the opening up of the road border between Egypt and Sudan on the Red Sea Coast. This would be a major first and are signs of a real breakthrough. When Egypt went through its revolution in January, Britain was the only country in the World to advise holiday makers to stay put – so 5,000 Brits remained in their hotels on the Red Sea, something the Egypt Government were most appreciative of...now they are normalising relations and are keen for positive publicity as a sign they are opening up and making progress. Relations between the British Embassy and the Egypt Government have never been better. The Rally will therefore be a flagged up as a sign to the world they are keen to trade with their neighbours – we might well be the first non-Egyptian Military to cross this frontier. Meanwhile, our Plan B of using the Saudi coast road is making progress and the Saudi Motor Federation are out making notes for a run to the ferry at Jeddah... We will use the new ferry service out of Venice which ever route firms up, but it means the rally is certain, it’s all-systems-go.

Exhaust Lagging

Whilst the Peugeot 504 Coupe of David Williams is now up for sale, it hasn't stopped us carrying on tweaking bits & pieces.

Latest bit is the exhaust manifold. The new 4 branch system has been lagged; there were issues with the proximity of the speedo cable & the heater hose. We had encased the speedo cable in heatproof sleeving but it was still worryingly close. Hopefully the lagging will help both.

The manifold runs directly below this heater hose. First impressions seem to confirm the manufacturers claims of reduced under bonnet temperatures. It was just a little disconcerting to be engulfed in smoke from under the bonnet after taking the car for a run. Especially having run the car for about 15 minutes to cure the stuff in the first place.

Bigger Injectors Please

With all our various dilemmas resolved Derek looker's Peugeot 205 made it to the rolling road for mapping the DTA ECU.

As we are using a single plenum with no auxillary air bypass, getting some form of idle was quite difficult, especially in view of the cam we are using.

We also had a little bit of a scare when the overheating warning came up on the DTA panel.

Total false alarm however. We had changed the water temperature transmitter since the last time we had done anything with the map & the new sender was running at a different scale. The DTA unit allows for changing the scaling & it was soon back to work on the main map.

We did have another little moment when lots of smoke issued from under the bonnet.

Must tell the exhaust man to use some better heat proof pain on his manifolds.

 

Maybe 2 tone will be the next in thing.

The 2 Steve's had expressed a bit of concern about the injector times they were having to use & thought we might run into problems when it came to the top end of the map. At 60% throttle that's what happened. No more fuel available.

Go home & find some bigger injectors.

At least with the car now drive-able we were able to visit the MOT shop & get that out of the way.

Progress on the Escort

There has been quite a bit of progress on the Escort down in deepest Barking. The rear quarter panel, attacked by the Ugandan bus last time out, has now been replaced & the fuel tank taken out ready for fitting a new foam filled 12 gallon unit. We think 12 gallons should be enough based on a consumption figure around 8 to 10 mpg. It might be a little tight on the longest stages and we may have to lay in a contingency plan if any stages are over 100 miles long but that's life.

That's quite a big hole when the tank is out. Gogi will also take the opportunity to blank off the existing fillers in the rear quarters, the new tank filling from inside the boot.

The engine has been taken down & was a bit of a disaster area apparently. It would appear that the engine was over fueling, resulting in bore wash, hence loss of power & big bill for re linering the block.

We have been told it should be ready in about a weeks time, which will fit in well with our schedule, as the gearbox should be ready by then.

Shafted

We have, at long last, resolved the drive shaft problem on Derek Lookers Peugeot 205. In the end it proved so simple, just a mix & match between Peugeot 309 & Peugeot 106. The inner joint from an Xsi 106, for the short joint to suit the Gripper Diff, fitted to a 309 1400 shaft & CVJ. No need for spark any erosion.

Now perhaps we can complete the mapping & get the car back to Derek.

No Prizes for Guessing

Craig Teasdale collected his SUBARU, ready for their PR day at Abingdon. ][ As we had no answers on a ten pound note, our all expenses paid trip to Cape Town for the finish of the World Cup Rally went unclaimed. Dream on.]

So yes the car was of course Craig Teasdales RAF Championship Winning Subaru.

Final Fling

James Shallcross' last event of the season, The Ilkley Trial, went much better than the previous 2 outings. Just getting to the Otley, West Yorkshire, based event was a bit of a trial in itself. James had spent Saturday at Cornbury Park, where  he was part of the organising team for the Rally Show.

A careless slip on one of the later hills, when he clipped a marker, cost James a 10 point penalty.

At the end of the event James was 2nd, just 9 points behind the winner.

Casing Maladies

William Hornseys' Peugeot 106 Rallye is back with us. Following a class win at Lydden last time out, things went wrong at the weekend when the gearbox mount failed. A great shame as he had taken the class pole position.

Subsequent investigation revealed the broken lug on the casing. The internals of the box appear to be perfectly OK, so just a new end casing required.

Lucky then, it could have been so much worse.

Mocal Calling

Replacing the Coke can, which the event scrutineer wasn't too happy about, was another job on Craig Teasdales car. So that it can be easily removed we have mounted it using Camlok quick release fasteners.

The Mocal catch tank takes the breathers from both Engine & Gearbox

More Guess Work.

Problems with the mounting bracket captive nuts on the rear anti-bar brought the Spooksworks car to us. A bit of a rush job, there being a PR day on Tuesday & a commanding officer to impress.

We have welded in a plate with new captives, prior to fitting a new Whiteline Anti Roll Bar kit.

The bar has 3 sets of holes allowing fo fine tuning.

Tuesdays PR day will provide a chance to try it in the different configurations.

 

Those of you still trying to figure out what car it is, well here's another clue.