907 replies to this topic

[tomb1992]

those 10's are gorgeous  ! almost to good to go rallying in haha. are they 10 x 6 or 10 x 5 ? seen similar ones that Force racing do 

[rally1380]

looking good Dave

 

Cheers Si......doesn't look quite as good now (covered in mud and grass!).....ain't washed it yet and that was over a week ago!!!!  I'm the complete opposite to the show and shine queens!  Would get out there and wash it but have a JCB blocking my garage door.

 

How's your build going?

[rally1380]

those 10's are gorgeous  ! almost to good to go rallying in haha. are they 10 x 6 or 10 x 5 ? seen similar ones that Force racing do 

 

Cheers man.  They ain't used for rallying...they are just used for tarmac and grass!!!  I use 12" minilites for rougher stuff.

 

When you say similar to Force racing ones.....they are the ones that Force Racing chop up and turn into split rims.  Mine are the standard 5" wide Exacton wheel which came as standard on the Mini Special.....i'm such a geek!  They are mega light though and would recommend them to anyone as they are fairly cheap and easy to tart up!

[keefr22]

Would get out there and wash it but have a JCB blocking my garage door.

Now that's what I call an anti-theft device....!!!

[minisi35]

Not bad, been on holiday for the last 2 weeks so haven't touched it. Will clean it this week as were taking it to the mini show at uttoxeter on sunday.

Ive got to make a new dash front for the drivers side as ive a new rev counter which is a different size hole. Change the exhaust centre hanger as its broke already(I have uprated one ready) then fit the new pads and rebleed the brakes. Don't know if I will fit the stage 3 head before the novice

I see you have a new toy, how does it go?

[rally1380]

Not bad, been on holiday for the last 2 weeks so haven't touched it. Will clean it this week as were taking it to the mini show at uttoxeter on sunday.

Ive got to make a new dash front for the drivers side as ive a new rev counter which is a different size hole. Change the exhaust centre hanger as its broke already(I have uprated one ready) then fit the new pads and rebleed the brakes. Don't know if I will fit the stage 3 head before the novice

I see you have a new toy, how does it go?

 

Goes really well in all honesty, although doesn't seem that fast when compared to the mini.  But.... when my wife was driving the clubby back from the Gymkhana last week she gave it the beans and the Ibiza (with me at the wheel) blasted past......so lesson is although a mini is low, loud and seems quick.....over 50mph is 2.0 16v territory!!!!  Would be interesting to do a comparison along a twisty narrow lane though.

 

I've got some modifications and improvements planned and might enter it in to the Roamerlite rally coming up.....but may well give the mini one last spin (bad choice of words!) before the strip down, respray and next evolution!!!!

 

I'm in the same boat as you with a cylinder head.  My engine is reliable at the moment (thats tempting fate!) so don't want to crack the engine open to change to my 'proper' head and risk creating issues!!  Will probably do it when i've got the ibiza fully sorted so if i need to take the mini off the road I can at least still compete in something else.

 

You coming up to spectate on the Vale of Clwyd????  Plenty of very nice cars competing.

[minisi35]

Might see if I can get a pass out lol . Wheres the start from?

 

Ive been asked to do course car on the roamerlite so that will be the first event in the new car!

[rally1380]

Might see if I can get a pass out lol . Wheres the start from?

 

Ive been asked to do course car on the roamerlite so that will be the first event in the new car!

 

Start is between Mold and Rhuthin.....place called Llanferres.  Starts and finishes at the pub there.  From what i've heard we go to the Cattle market in Rhuthin twice in the morning so may well be a good place to speccie in the AM.....think there is a test very early on just down the road from the start venue too.  So you could make a morning of it and then be back for the afternoon to keep the boss happy!!!!

 

Great one on the course car duties......we will be there again this year, and will make sure we don't hide ourselves away this time.  Be good to have a look at your new toy in close up detail.

[rally1380]

Small update.

 

Have been getting some engine movement recently and noticed one of the engine steady bushes looked a bit secondhand.  The purple one in the photo is about a year old (need to check invoice date) so decided that standard polyurethane obviously ain't up to the job.

 

The bulkhead side was fine and still in perfect condition so can only assume the heat from the engine has effected the bush somehow....and there was me thinking poly bushes were supposed to be long lasting!

 

Swapped the knackered bush out for a Powerflex Black series bush (righthand one) to see if that lasts a little bit longer.  They do seem a heap load harder but whether that is a good thing or not we will have to see.  Anyway, not exactly a great advert for Powerflex (only 12 months life!) so they get one more try with the more butch Black series effort....last chance Powerflex!!!!

 

[jaydee]

Wow 1 year it means they've lasted long.

These are the only that last:

http://www.minispare...F101320EVO.aspx

[rally1380]

Wow 1 year it means they've lasted long.

These are the only that last:

http://www.minispare...F101320EVO.aspx

 

Mmmmmm....cheers for that. Not too sure rubber will outlast these rock hard new ones though.  Be interesting to see how long these ones actually last though.

[jaydee]

Its a pretty hard greade of rubber, rock as poly, but wont stay deformed as poly ones are used to

actually have a set of them in my engine steady, havent replaced them since summer 2010 and theyre not perished like the poly you posted, i think i will take am off for inspection and eventual replacement in the winter as they're 2 years old with more than 10k miles of hard driving on them :)

[rally1380]

The event hadn’t even started and I had the traditional last minute hiccup from the car.  I’d decided to change the N/S outer CV boot as it had a very slight tear in it and any grit getting into the joint could see the rally over for us.  Changed that no problem for a proper Rover one from Minispares….far better quality than the generic one I previously fitted from my local motorfactors.  As Minispares state…’its three times the price’….but I think it is more like 5 or 6 times the quality!!!  Anyway, hub and shaft back together with everything nice and clean and tight for the big day (this was Thursday 5.30pm) and I notice that one of the wheel nuts has decided to spew out its thread!!!!!  Nice one!!!!  So had a quick rummage through my bits and bobs box and found a suitable replacement that did the job.  Had me thinking though that perhaps the nuts I’ve got ain’t up to the job…..will have to look into that.

 

Anyway, Friday was upon us and we packed the car up for a trip over to sunny North Wales for scutineering.  Thing is, I don’t have a trailer so I drive everywhere, so packing a weekends worth of clothes (easy for me…..but the wife is a different kettle of fish!) through into the back past bucket seats and roll cage diagonal isn’t easy!!!...and before anyone mentions the boot….I carried two spare wheels after the last events issues + tools!!!  Called by KDMC’s head honcho’s (and Mini fan!) place near Chester for some spare wheel nuts (you never know!!!) and then made our way up to Llanferres to have the car checked over.

 

Noise checked at 89 dB (I think) and away to see the scutes. Just ahead of us was a fellow KDMC member, and on reversing his MGB GT out of the garage, his exhaust manifold clamp caught a small steel lip on the garage ramp and stopped the car solid.  The second reverse attempt didn’t go any better either and ended up with the manifold bending forward towards the engine block and shortening the exhaust somewhat!!  Large steel bar was employed to lever the car off the lip….not the best start to the weekend!!

 

Our little car passed with flying colours with the scrutineer looking over the car with smiles and saying how nice the car was.  Progress card all filled in…..off to signing on for our rally pack.

 

We then did the usual pre rally job of setting the trip meter calibration.  At this point, the weather decided to ignore my description of ‘Sunny’ North Wales, and replace the ‘Sunny’ with ‘torrential downpour’……gave the wipers a thorough work out though and no failure so thumbs up on that one. Trip all set….off to accommodation to pour over the maps and get any plotting done.

 

Saturday

 

08.10 am – Drivers briefing followed by the important bacon butty (with tomato ketchup) and a coffee…..fully fuelled and ready to go!

 

09.28 am – MC1 check out (on time too!) and off to Test 1 for an early (ish) morning spin round Loggerheads car park.  35 seconds (4 behind the top crews…not too bad as I was taking my time so make sure of a right, not ‘wrong’ test.)

 

So, test 1 done and now off to Regularity 1.  This was in the form of a tulip road book, and was fairly straight forward to follow. Arrived 11 seconds early at the first ITC (messed up first speed change) and then 20 seconds late at the next.  Not too bad for the first effort of the day and we are still learning the ropes (clocks!).

 

Tests 2 and 3 next at Ruthin Cattle Market.  I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reg 2 next and this was plotted the night before. Dropped about 1 min 30 in total.

 

Test 4 and a spin round ‘Barry’s place’ on tarmac and gravel

 

Reg 3 and plot and bash time. Spot height a plenty and all going so well until we missed a time control and getting a 5 minute penalty!!!  Time for a coffee break and forget the penalty!

 

Test 5 and back to the cattle market with the two previous tests combined into one.  13^th fastest time I think.

 

Regs 4 and 5  next and a trip up through Clocaenog forest and making our way over towards St. Asaph.  Dropped 11, 21, 10, 10, 4, 14, 28s, 6sec and 60 sec max for a speed change mistake….still not too bad!!!!

 

Next up tests 6 and 7 at Kinmel Hall on estate roads.  First one was all gravel with a bit of mud thrown in for good luck. Next up was tarmac with a few 360 and slalom cones…great fun!  Kinmel is a venue for Wales rally GB and will see the WRC boys blasting round – feels great knowing I’ve kind of done a WRC stage.

 

Test 8 and 9 – Business park tarmac autotest style tests.

 

Test 10 – Cefn test up tarmac drive of a rather large country house.

 

13.58 – Book into MC3 and LUNCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Butties, cake, crisps and a brew……not quite WRC fodder, but was very tastey indeed!!!!

 

14.58 – MC3 out and back to Kinmel for test 11 and both previous tests tests combined!!!!!!  16^th fastest time and caught the car in front by the end which cost us a couple of seconds!!!  Fantastic test and could have done it over and over. Run by the Rhyl and District MC boys.

Test 12 and 13 were more or less repeats of the previous business park tests. Both top 20 times.

 

Reg 6 and trip through Cwm forest and play the game of dodge the big rocks and exhaust left by one of the cars ahead!!!!  Great fun and a real stage feel to the regularity…..even at 18mph average and only dropping 8 and 9 seconds!!!! Out of the forest and along to a rather normal looking track. At the top of this track revealed a house and 90R, 90L past a Spitfire (the aeroplane not the car!!!!!!) sat on some lucky person’s large lawn!!!!!

 

MC4 then self-start Reg7.  Booked out of MC on time (unlike others!) but missed our self start time so dropped 27 sec. But after that we pulled it out of the bag and proceeded to clear one section and only drop 1 sec on another climbing 7 places overall in the process.

 

16.58 MC5 and the finish….long day on some cracking roads!!!!!!

 

Result – 1^st in class and 26^th Overall

[keefr22]

Great report & great result again Dave!!

[rally1380]

Great report & great result again Dave!!

 

Cheers Keith.  Hopefully the report gives people a feel for whats involved.....alot of hard work for the navigator!!!  Cannot stress how good this event was, by far the best event of the year and used some really classic 116 roads....just not too sure how the CoC will improve on it for next year!!!!  There is talk of running it as a 2 day event with night stages!!!!  Next year can't come soon enough!!!