Rallyrep in action

[Tim C]

Originally Posted by Rally43

... I just ordered a pipe bender...

We did the same .

If you need anymore pointers, you know where to come .

Originally Posted by Willbo

I've just gone right through this thread.
FANTASTIC please keep it going.

Thanks Willbo, will do.

[Tim C]

Busy, busy next weekend.

Saturday (16th) we'll be at Gurston Down near Salisbury for the hillclimb.
It looks like a full entry, including Tiff Needel with a 5th Gear film crew testing out the new V8 Arial Atom!
I think it's actually an elaborate ruse to see our car . Anyway, we might get to be on TV .

http://gurstondown.org/

Gurston is a 2 day meeting, but in the interests of supporting a less well attended local event, we have eleceted to do the sprint at Clay Pigeon near Yeovil on Sunday (17th). And of course, variety is the spice of life .
It's on the kart track, which is a bit twisty for us, but it's good fun.

http://www.claypigeonraceway.com/index.php

[Tim C]

I've been a bit snowed under and had a bout of man flu to top it off, so there's a bit of catching up to do .

We arrived at Saturday Gurston meeting to see the Fifth Gear TV crew setup in the corner of the paddock with an army of Ariel guys crawling over their Atom making sure it was firing on all 8 cylinders.

Jonathan Smith, Tiff's co presenter was wandering the paddock and had a good look at our car. Jonathan was double driving the Atom with Tiff. There was quite a difference in their times in the morning practice runs, but during the normally quiet linchtime break , they were going up the hill together. I guess it was a bit of a teaching session and that will be the gist of the feature for the programme. Jonathan got to almost within a second of Tiff's time at the end of the day.

Jonathan is a bit of a classic Audi fan, he wrote an article for the Audi Magazine earlier in the year, test driving Audi UK's early blue quad lamp ur quattro. I noticed he stopped a conversation he was having when Andy was about to launch from the start line and came rushing across to lean over the fence to see another start. A little chat revealed he has a GT Coupe!

The programme is due for broadcast next Friday (13th May). It's the night before Cornbury, so we'll be in the hotel, but will have to try and catch it.



Anyway..... our day. Morning practice was OK, although everything seemed to be happeneing a bit quick, somewhat rusty from the previous season I think.

On returning down the hill from his first timed run, Andy was stopped by a marshall and handed some bits that had fallen off the car on the way up. They turned out to be the lockring for the spring platform on the nearside front suspension coilover. That ment early retirement.

We elected to dash home and swop the front suspension back to the original struts to enable us to compete at Clay Pigeon the following day.




The tight kart track on the Sunday provided the usual 3 wheel entertainment with times improving slightly.

That was until Andy didn't quite make it through the chicane and clipped the tyres on the way out. It broke the bumper, wheel arch extension, the very bottom of the wing, pushed the headlight back a bit and slightly creased the leading edge of the inner wing .



It wasn't that major, with a few of holes drilled for some extra fixings, a couple of hastily fashioned metal brackets to tie the bumper back together and some obligatory gaffer tape, we were back in business.



Fortunately the headlight surround survived .



So, a new bumper and wheelarch extension have been fitted up and should be painted tomorrow along with the repaired wing. The inner wing has been dressed out and it should go back togther this weekend. In the meantime we need to address the suspension issue and get ready for Cornbury next weekend .
Fingers crossed that it will be a bit less "eventful" .

[Nicky C]

Some pictures from Gurston.

Jonathan looking nervous before his first run.









Tiff being Tiff

[Nicky C]

And some from Clay Pigeon kart track.











This is Tim, getting through the chicane.

[Tim C]

After a relaxing time at Cornbury (not), we're off to Wiscombe this weekend.

That's the 21st and 22nd, near Seaton, east Devon. http://www.wiscombepark.co.uk/events/events.htm

[Rally43]

Good luck tim. Post up pics.

[Audi Derek]

How did you get on Tim..






..

[Tim C]

Originally Posted by Audi Derek

How did you get on Tim..

..

Hoo-bloody-ray….. got through the weekend with without any problems .

Saturday, we were a bit tentative. Not having had much competitive running this year and not much of an opportunity to get used to the new suspension setup on a course that is very tight and twisty with banks and drop offs and lined with trees. By the afternoon though, we were back into the 45 seconds, which is pretty much where we were last year (apart from my blistering 44.71 ). Most of our competitors had a bit of an advantage having been there the previous weekend, we couldn’t make it because it clashed with Cornbury. Myself and Andy finished 6th and 7th respectively.

Sunday’s overnight rain looked set to slow things down but it soon dried with the strong wind and the times started to come down. On the first of the afternoon competitive runs Andy smashed his personal best with a 45.07 and I almost matched mine with a 44.76. Andy then left me with some work to do by crossing the line with a 44.49 . I answered it with an identical 44.49 . That put us into, an improved, 4th and 5th positions (my faster first run putting me into 4th).

I was pleased with a new PB but a bit miffed not to have gone faster than Andy, especially as I messed up the last corner which certainly cost a couple of tenths . Even more frustrating was to be only 4 hundredths of a second (that's 0.04 of a second!) behind third place Bob in his very well setup, very light and very nimble 1971 911. And even more frustrating still, I was almost half a second ahead of Bob at the first split, shows how much I messed up the last corner .

There’s always next time .

Gurston again, next weekend. It’s a national championship round, spread over the 2 days. So there should be some serious stuff there .

[Tim C]

Our short run of good luck ran out again at Gurston last weekend .

Saturday was practice day, our times were coming down on last year but I had noticed some smoke from the exhaust.

On Sunday it started blowing more oil than usual out of the catch tank breather filter. Andy mopped it up before taking his first timed run. After seeing it, I elected not to take mine and we called it a day.

Compression was way down on No.2, causing the crank case pressure and blowing oil out the breather. Lifted the head off on Tuesday night, all looked healthy, no signs of detonation. So the following evening, out came the block. When piston no.2 was pulled out, the lands between the rings had broken up.

Probably down to old age followed by the regular punishment we give it . On the plus side, all the bits had been contained within the rings and the bore is fine.

Another piston has been balanced to match the others and the block went back in this morning. All being well it should be back together this week.