907 replies to this topic

[rally1380]

 I know of a red & black 1275GT with a half decent shell that's still for sale Dave...  


 
Keith

Do you?....who's? Ha ha

[28hodge]

Read this from start to finish over the last 3 days, inspiring stuff, though gutting to read about the accident and enforced layoff for 2016.

There used to be a 12 car that regularly ran by the lanes next to my dads house, used to love standing by the yard gate watching them. I also used to work for Pete Tyson, and had a civic type r at the time that he was always trying to get me to enter 12cars/scatter rallies in, but I was so skint from running it as it was as a low paid 23yr old that the thought of doing extra mileage in it meant I never did.

Pete runs, or used to at least, my local club, Kirkby Lonsdale motor club. There is another lad in it too who I know quite well called Dan Willian, think he finished 2nd on lejog last year?

As I said it's inspiring stuff. So I think my project will be built with 12car/targa rallies in mind. It's a 1991 carb cooper, so historic stuff is out, which is a shame as they sound great fun.

I may need to ask some quite dumb questions but hopefully I'll get to a klmc club night and they should straighten me out. I like the look of the targa stuff most I think as they look a little like a real stage rally, I think finding a nav for 12 cars will make them more tricky for me to do.

We shall see.

I hope you get Barry fixed up and straightened out quickly.

[rally1380]

Read this from start to finish over the last 3 days, inspiring stuff, though gutting to read about the accident and enforced layoff for 2016.

There used to be a 12 car that regularly ran by the lanes next to my dads house, used to love standing by the yard gate watching them. I also used to work for Pete Tyson, and had a civic type r at the time that he was always trying to get me to enter 12cars/scatter rallies in, but I was so skint from running it as it was as a low paid 23yr old that the thought of doing extra mileage in it meant I never did.

Pete runs, or used to at least, my local club, Kirkby Lonsdale motor club. There is another lad in it too who I know quite well called Dan Willian, think he finished 2nd on lejog last year?

As I said it's inspiring stuff. So I think my project will be built with 12car/targa rallies in mind. It's a 1991 carb cooper, so historic stuff is out, which is a shame as they sound great fun.

I may need to ask some quite dumb questions but hopefully I'll get to a klmc club night and they should straighten me out. I like the look of the targa stuff most I think as they look a little like a real stage rally, I think finding a nav for 12 cars will make them more tricky for me to do.

We shall see.

I hope you get Barry fixed up and straightened out quickly.

 

Hi.

 

Yes I have competed against Pete Tyson....he is very quick in his mini.  Although I think he had a bump in it last year some time, so not sure what he is doing regarding rallying.

 

Dan Willian is another very quick bloke and his old Proton Compact was a beast of a machine....think he is organising 'the Devils own rally' in the Autumn which is up that way. 

 

In fact i'm competing on the Morcambe road rally this weekend as a nav, so if you are about, get down and have a look. 

 

 

As for building a car for Targa's and 12 cars........my best bit of advice would be to just get out there and get some experience.  Yes you have to do some things like fit a sump guard and protect the brake and fuel pipes, but to be honest everything else is just pretty add ones that at the very beginning of any motorsport career is really not needed.   At the very start, just making it round a rally without picking up any fails or penalties should be the goal......and ending the day with a smile of your faces.  

 

People do spend big money, and I've probably spent a fair bit on 'Barry', but I have always been sensible where I spent the cash and very little on the car is big bucks new spend.  I got the car for a bargain price and have built the car up slowly and progressively sorting bits out when they break, fail or just wear out.

 

Get a sump guard on your car, enter a 12 car and enjoy......and any questions (daft or not) just fire away.

[28hodge]

Burton services is less than 10mins down the road for me so I will pop along and have a gander.

I'm not planning anything special for the car as to be honest I spend enough money on motorsports racing road bikes that I can't afford another mega expensive hobby.

It needs a bit of welding and rust removal first and as the heel board needs replacing I'll run the lines inside at the same time. So yeah a sump guard some spots and a cage and some seats I think is all it'll get. I want the last two items as we had a bad accident in my brothers first car (mini 1000) coming home from school that I was really lucky to come out of relatively unharmed and as the gf is most likely to be the nav to start with I'd be a bit more comfortable knowing it had a cage.

Im guessing to start with good road tyres will be ok, rather than starting with a gravel based tyre?

Edited by 28hodge, 21 July 2016 - 12:20 PM.

[rally1380]

Burton services is less than 10mins down the road for me so I will pop along and have a gander.

I'm not planning anything special for the car as to be honest I spend enough money on motorsports racing road bikes that I can't afford another mega expensive hobby.

It needs a bit of welding and rust removal first and as the heel board needs replacing I'll run the lines inside at the same time. So yeah a sump guard some spots and a cage and some seats I think is all it'll get. I want the last two items as we had a bad accident in my brothers first car (mini 1000) coming home from school that I was really lucky to come out of relatively unharmed and as the gf is most likely to be the nav to start with I'd be a bit more comfortable knowing it had a cage.

Im guessing to start with good road tyres will be ok, rather than starting with a gravel based tyre?

 

Tyres - errrrrr.......I've only really ever run road tyres on a couple of occasions, but if you do an event that is 100% tarmac then definitely yes to road rubber....in fact my first couple of road rallies were on some dodgy tyres that came with the wheels....still got them as they are rock hard....won second in class with them aswell.  

 

Novice rallies are a good place to start to gain experience.....or you have a bash at reading the maps for someone just to get the swing of what happens when on an event.

[GraemeC]

I've only ever run road tyres on all events and never really suffered - 3 wins on the Northumberland Borders on A-008s.  

Just invested in a set of Avons - although probably stick to 008s on the back for tests.

 

Might wander up to Burton Services myself.  I'm not out playing this year but know most of the entry.  What are you naving in - I'll try and say hi?

 

Hodge28 - whereabouts are you?  I'm happy to help to and you can always nose around my car.  I'm in Millhead, Carnforth

[rally1380]

I'll be in Car 23 - a black Nissan Almera GTI.

 

If I look slightly confused with who you are if anyone does come and say hello then please don't take it personally.....It always takes time for me to connect forums (and i'm a member of a few) with folks when they say hello in person. It took me a good few rallies to work out who one bloke was who kept saying hello to both myself and my wife....now we're good friends.

[GraemeC]

No worries - I'll make sure I introduce myself!

[28hodge]

Graeme I'm just round the corner at lupton between crooklands and Kirkby. Car needs the heel board and inner outer sills flitch repairs and then valance and closing panels and boot floor mounts replacing before I can even consider any basic rally prep, but any help and guidance would be appreciated.

I'll come up tonight, prob only for a couple hours during scruitinering so will try to say hi. I'll have to get home before the actual rally starts

[28hodge]

Nipped to burton services and had a look round, lot of heavily prepped cars but also a bog stock mx5 so guess you can do as much or as little as you want.

Saw you Dave but you looked busy with s map so decided I'd leave you alone, asked a couple lads for a look at their plotted os map and a lot of the roads were 5 mins from my house, so I am now sat in the drizzle in a field between cantsfield and hipping hall waiting for the cars!

Edited by 28hodge, 24 July 2016 - 12:07 AM.

[28hodge]

Had to move as was being eyed up by a couple cows, can hear plenty cars so can't be long now

[GraemeC]

I never made it in the end - hope you had a good run Dave?

[rally1380]

Well, it was certainly an eventful rally to say the least!!!!

 

All the plotting and start procedure was straight forward and as per any event, but after about half a mile we had a tell tale knock from the front struts that said all was not well under the arches and that the seals or something (they had just been rebuilt) had given up doing what they should and all the strut fluid was making itself at home in the engine bay!!! Oh bother we thought!!

 

So rather than going all out, we set about just getting round and trying our best to pick up some well needed championship points......that was the plan at least!

 

All started to go even more wrong at TC21 just outside Cantsfield.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see from the diagram and map, we went from TC21 straight into a river to RC16.  At RC16 we proceeded to get beached or drop a wheel in a hole - either way we were stuck and not going anywhere and doing a great impression of a waterwheel.  We soon had another rally car up our chuff and seeing as we were blocking the route by parking in the river I jumped out (seem to always end up with soggy feet!) and asked the car behind to tow us out. Amazingly he got out and retrieved his tow rope from his car, so i hooked us up and he pulled us out.....thankyou car 24!

 

By now we were steamed up so let car 24 past and tried to follow him as we squinted through our fogged up screen.  About half a mile (ish) further up the white we passed through various Passage controls and then almost near the top disaster struck!!!  Paul misjudged a grass track and rather than sticking in the muddy tracks the other cars had made he thought he'd get more traction on the virgin grass - which was wet!  Rather than stay straight, we veered off and into a ditch beaching on the sumpguard!!!!  Oh bother again.

 

By now I was fed up with getting soggy feet and spending more time stuck than actually competing!!!  We flagged down another competitor who tried to tow us out but no luck.  We thought this was our rally over but after the rally cars had come through a local young farmer appeared in a big Nissan 4x4 and a tow rope.....now we were in business!!!!!

 

Finally free of our ditch we made it to the end of the section but neither of us was in the best of moods now.   I think Paul was ready to go home and in all honesty I think I was almost going to agree, but being a stubborn sort of person I convinced him to at least try and get to the mid way main time control MC2 at the end of the final section.  Luckily another section had been cut from the route so we arrived at MC2 with 30 seconds to spare before we would go OTL......we may have got a wounded car, but we were still in the rally.

 

Fuelled up, we made it to the next time control with seconds to spare before our due minute....game on!

 

The second half was really just damage imitation and we limped round.  Several cars passed us and we just tried to do our best in all honesty.  We finished and only picked up a couple of fails - one for missing a code board which I think was just after we got ditched, but I had my head in the map and Paul was concentrating on following the 4x4 Nissan that we probably just drove right past it.  The second was booking in OTL at a time control, but to be honest we were just glad to finish and get a result.

 

Cracking breakfast at the truck stop where the rally finished and the results team got the provisional results done (done by hand with no computer in sight!) before we'd even munched through our full English......mmmmm, black pudding!!!!

 

No awards to show, but we did manage 14th overall.

 

Honestly this was the hardest rally I've done.  Not from a route point of view, but just from the shear amount of concentration and problem management I had to do.....and enjoyed all of it....ish!!!!!!!  

 

[cookie4343]

Great read.

[28hodge]

Tc 21 -tc22 is where I walked out too, I used to live in Cowan bridge so now that area well as I used to shoot on this land years ago with my air rifle. I walked down to laithbutts farm so you must have gotten stuck just befor me, I watched about 10 cars come through and then started to walk back out along the fields by the side of the road. The code board you missed was halfway up the hill after the second cattle grid, loads were missing it having to dive on and lock up then reverse back for it.

One went past it but had a car behind him also and they also missed it, the car behind reversed for it whereas the lead car stopped, then set off again, but pulled in, turned round and went down the section backwards to get the board, before spinning around again and going through the stage in the correct direction, is that allowable?

I know they are open roads so essentially you should be prepared to meet traffic but I'd of thought traveling the wrong way knowingly through the test would be kind of an unwritten rule?

After I'd watched through this section I walked back out to hipping hall at the end of the lane and set off home, following a saxo in the rally, poor lad got done by the speed camera at Devils bridge, only to find out your next section was at the top of my road at Lupton.

What was happening here dave? As they were all queued up in the bus stop on the side of the A65 and seemed to be setting off at timed intervals and properly going for it in this bit, was it a timed section to get a result in the experts? I nearly walked down the lane to continue watching as I have a fair idea of the lanes you will have used in this section, but it was gone 3 and I had fairly soggy feet too from walking through the fields in the drizzle.

It looked awesome though so looking forward to welding mine back up so the shell has some actual metal content and getting entered into one.

Will you be doing the Devils own event dave?

Edited by 28hodge, 25 July 2016 - 09:34 PM.