Ti Motorsport

Yorkshire Rally

Well it's taken long enough but Kaz & Stefan finally managed to get onto the podium with a super 2nd place in this weekends Trackrod MC's Yorkshire Rally Citroen C2R2 Cup & 19th overall to boot.

First stage dramas when Kaz hit the first of the chicane's [they are designed to slow you down after all] gave the chase crew a bit of work to do but after that the C2 had a totally problem free run. Other crews were not so lucky, George Thomas had gearbox failure whilst Jason Pritchard suffered clutch failure.

The new Pirelli tyres were a vast improvement over the 165's used on the opening round and our spring rates seem to work well.

One of our ongoing problems is the noise level inside the car which has made it even more difficult for Kaz & for quite a lot of the event Stefan resorted to hand signals to help. For Rally GB we will have the all singing all dancing Peltor system as used by the WRC boys which we hope will solve the problem. Failing that you may see Kaz & Stefan using tin cans & string to talk to each other.

Congratulatios to Martin Laverty who took top C2 honours & Martin Roberts who kept up his impressive finnishing record & who must now be one of the favourites to take top spot in the championship.

Kaz & Stefan also managed to grab 3rd spot in the R2 group which this time took in the 2 litre Gp N cars with the likes of Matt Beebe & Versa Mikkola  competing.

Yorkshire National Rally

Gordon Nichol & co-driver Jane Nicol [note subtle spelling difference] Yes I know Gordon begins with a G, had a bit of a torrid time in the Ti Motorsport 1.8 MG ZR.

Drive shaft failure right at the end of the first 10 mile stage could have spelt the end but some quick spanner work ensured that the crew were able to continue.

Futher problems followed when the remote canister for one of the front suspension units got ripped off & with no emergency service available to the national competitors it was a case of very carefully through the remaining stages.

All credit to the crew who brought the car home in 16th place & 4th in an amalgamated class.

Well done Gordon & Jane

Yorkshire Rally

Final preparations are underway for this weekends round of the BRC. The car has now had its quarter panel replaced & will now have the final suspension tweeks sorted before heading to Chris Birbeck's for some last minute testing on Thursday afternoon.

Gordon Nichol will join us to give the MG a shakedown & to re-familiarise himself with the car especially as it is now in gravel spec.

We look forward to meeting any readers who might come to the service parc during the event

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.

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. 

Ulster Rally Update 1

If you read the event report you will know that apart from a split breather hose the car behaved itself on The Wuggings Stages.

Both Kaz & Stefan had reported that the car seemed a little down on power on the Manx & our session at Power Dynamics [Power Engineering re badged] confirmed their suspicions. We are 7 or 8 % down. Everything checked out but we ran out of advance on the inlet cam while the power was still climbing so we will have to reset the pulley position.

Kaz Stefan travel out next Wednesday to recce while Mike & myself will take the service van & car over on Thursday. More details are available at Ulster Rally

Ulster Rally Preparations

Preparations are well under way for the Ulster Rally which takes place at the end of the month. We are hoping to get a run on next weekends Wugging Stages at Colerne to check out our engine mounts which have caused us so much trouble.

Other developments on the car include a little weight shedding although we have consistently been the lightest C2 so far & a little suspension tweeking.