Update on my weekends motorsport antics........
NORTH WALES HONDA 116 TARGA TRACKS
Originally I was going to enter this event in the mini, but due to lack of prep time, lack of funds, and lack of a nav (long story....will cover that at a later date) I was asked by my step dad (keen road rallyist) if I fancied sitting in with him. I'm not the sort of person who likes to miss out on an event so I agreed and so the plan was hatched to find him a suitable car as he'd just sold his Ford Puma rally car after a bump on the PK.
You need to understand something about my step dad.....he doesn't like spending money on cars!!! His idea of a rally car is something stupidly cheap that if he crashes it (has happened a lot!) he'll just scrap it and move on. So my suggestions of nice MG ZR 1400's on ebay fell flat on their face and we ended up entering the targa rally in a 100% standard (and rusty) 16 year old Nissan Micra.......now some of you will be saying, yeh but the 1300 16v engine 'sport' is a little flier.......this one was graced with a 998cc motor that someone had butchered and fitted (badly) an induction cone to so probably down on power but up on induction noise!!!!
So after a quick repair on the Saturday to try and put the exhaust on properly and quieten it down a bit, we were ready!!!! Please bare in mind the only modification done was to put some part worn Pirelli rally tyres on and a 2mm (if that) ally sump guard made from an old sign!!!!!
Fast forward to Sunday and a 6am start to get over to Glan Y Gors race track in North Wales for scrutineering and the start of the rally. We passed the scrutes eagle eyes no problem and made our way round to the competitors parking to be greeted with the sight of our competition......rally prepped mk2 Escorts, Honda Civics, 205 GTI's etc etc etc..... 
.....our little micra was definitely a David amongst goliaths. There was a mini there, but it was a fully stage prepped monster in it's own right so who knew how we'd get on.....or even if we'd finish!!!
All signed on, and with the heavens opening, we set about test 1 around the Go Kart track at GYG.
Body roll was dramatic but the grip levels good thanks to the sticky Pirelli's.....in fact I reckon it had more grip than most thanks to the lack of power.
2:18 for the first test and 23rd overall so far....not bad for a car bought for £80 and on secondhand tyres.....now off to test 2 and some rough stuff!!!!!!
The second test was up in Clocaenog forest around the perimeter of a field that happened to have a wind farm in it - surface was gravel and wet grass (mud by the time we got there). We set off, and nicely controlled manoeuvres in and out of 'bus stop' style chicanes saw us off to a good start....then we came to the hill!!!! On our way up the hill (struggling to reach 30mph) we noticed a Pied Wagtail (it's a little bird for those of you without a clue) flying in front of us along our route.....the funny thing was we couldn't catch the little thing so we both set about laughing our heads off!!!!
90 right at the top of the hill and into a 360 round a cone and away again to a passage control and more 'bus stops'. By the end of the test we'd almost caught the car in front so I was quietly thinking we can't be doing that bad really. 3.26 was out time for this test.
Tests for the rest of the morning consisted of 2 wet and slippy gravel tracks through farm yards, round farm buildings and up the side of farm fields (great fun) and a trip through Kinmel Park (a WRC stage of all things!!!) and then a stop at lunch.
The results at half way showed that we were in fact up to 9th overall!!!!!!
A lunch of sandwiches, crisps and cake were laid on for us to recharge after the mornings fun and a catch up with other competitors who (like us) all seemed to be having a giggle and a really good time - a few with battle scars on their cars after trips into fences and gate posts in the farm tests!!!!!
First test after lunch was an autosolo type test and we sailed through that without much issue as i'm used to these sort of tests having done HRCR rallies (all be it as a driver mostly).
Then back to Kinmel hall where our exhaust decided to part company with the CAT so we now had a very noisy little car that was now probably down on even more power. Luckily the pipe was staying put up under the car, so other than noise we had little to worry about.
From here it was a bit of a trip on the roads through Denbigh and Ruthin to a well used road rally venue behind Llysfasi College - a cracking farm that like having a rally go through their land (could do with more people like them). Below is the test diagram for this test......
NOTE HOW IT SAYS SLIPPY!!!!!!!!
We set off and unfortunately we got slightly muddled up (driver had blinkers on!!!) at cone A so a bit of shouting and hand waving started in the car!!!!! Once i'd got my way, and gone on the correct route we then proceeded to fly round - the Micra really is a manoeuvrable little car. Then we got to the slippy section and I called out "caution - slippy down here" with plenty of warning....... we started to slide sideways and out of control into a big round bale of hay. Luckily no damage was done and once untangled from the bale and the red/white tape we proceeded with the rest of the test bouncing the little 998 engine off the limiter as we went with the engine noise (thanks to the lack of silencers) very LOUD!!!!!.
Next test was at a quarry that is also used for rally testing - great fun!!!!!
A return to the windmills next and another quick time and only 25 seconds behind the fastest car and the eventual event winner in a very quick mk2 golf.
Last test was back at the Go Kart track but a slightly different layout that saw an uphill drag to start off....not great for our now very noisy and underpowered car - right in front of the officials and noise test guy!!!!!! Thankfully it felt louder inside than it actually was to the outside world so the fact it sounded more like a V8 dragster inside wasn't a problem.
All finished we headed off to the café for a well deserved pie, chips, peas and gravy (bet the WRC crews don't eat like that!) set on by the organisers.
After a little wait and time for a catch up with others and inspect all the dents on various cars 
it was results time.
Neither of us had done a Targa rally before, i'd only navved 3 times previous and we competed in a car bought for £80.....Amazingly we finished 7th overall and 2nd in class!!!!!!!!!
Hopefully this write up makes sense to people and gives inspiration to get out there and have a go. 116 Car Club's event was very well organised and because it was a 'closed to club' event, it meant you didn't have to have a competition licence and we proved you didn't even need a rally car - a granny shopping car without bucket seats, 5 point belts and a roll cage can mix it with the high powered highly expensive rally prepped cars.
Get out there and have some fun......these Targa rallies are here to stay and although this was the first in north wales, it won't be the last!!!!! See you all in 2016 for the next one????
Edited by rally1380, 29 July 2015 - 11:05 AM.
and that the Mini is in fine fettle. Any more plans for this year?
< these were the faces I pulled....plus the air went a little blue also!
