Skoda Rally Blog

If you’ve been arsed to read any of this, or if you know me, then you’ll know the reason that I started rallying is that I’ve always wanted to enter the “Rallye Sunseeker”, which in various forms I have watched since I was 17. I remember going to Bournemouth Gardens one winter morning with Mugsy and watching the cars fly by. And watching the cars last year prompted me to start on my rallying journey.

And today two things have happened that are going to let me make that happen. Firstly, I’ve sent off my old licence (Stage Rally National ‘B’) to get it renewed and upgraded to National ‘A’ which is the correct status for the Sunseeker. To get that I had to finish 4 rallies, but I’ve somehow managed all 6. Excellent

The other thing is that I’ve sent off my application form to enter the Sunseeker, plus the “Shakedown Stage” which is on the day before (the Thursday), and is a 2 mile stage which you can run 6 times. And it’s a good chance to shakedown the crew as well as the car! As I’ve only driven 56 competetive miles on gravel, this will mean adding an extra 20% of experience. And the Sunseeker will double what I’ve already done and then some – it’s 75 miles of stages, plus 150 road miles. Should do that on a tankful.

I’m hoping to get the throttle-body injection on the car before the rally, but it’s looking a bit tight. I need to get the manifold made up, which might be a problem. I’m not going to run it unless I’ve done at least 500 miles with it to prove the reliability, so we’ll see; I think it’s probably not going to happen, but I’ll give it a shot.

Today was always going to be a decisive day in my rally ‘career’. Since I can remember I have always wanted to do rallying on gravel. Any other form of racing just hasn’t captured my imagination like rallying has, and tarmac hasn’t been on the same level as forest/gravel events. And my previous attempt was a disaster – really demoralising. But Steve Colville persuaded me to enter the Tempest, and to get the car sorted as he was sure it was a problem with the car that made things bad. Two changes were made – the tracking was set up with a bit of toe out to calm things down, and a set of kumho Mud & SNow tyres were fitted, replacing the worn Dunlops that were there before. In addition, a set of four big (but cheap) lights were fitted to a makeshift light bar on the car, and a map light too, as well as moving the fusebox and fixing some other electrical bodges. So the car was about as good as it will ever be without serious expenditure. After last time (and as I was going on holiday the next day) we took a trailer for the first time ever.

Scrutineering went well (as ever), but there was some serious equipment around, and this was just in the clubman rally – the international competitors were already done, and in far more serious kit – WRC cars abounded. We got to service and were pleased to find that we were being assisted by some friends of Steve’s which was really great. We didn’t get going until 11:58, running last on the road (at my request), so we had time to watch the first stage, which was the spectator stage in rushmoor arena. We got going, and unfortunately the car bogged down on the first turn to be seen by the crowd. That aside, it was going well – Kev was reading pace notes for the first time, and he made a good job of it. It gave me a lot more confidence knowing what was going on, and strangely the practice on the Xbox paid off – I didn’t really have to think about listening to it much, it just made its way in.

Stage 7 (which was our first) was short, and not really much of a test. The following three were longer, and ‘real’ forest stages. And here was a very nice discovery – the car behaved itself, and I _could_ drive on gravel after all. I’m not quick, but not desperately slow, and having reminded myself of David Higgins’ tips (which I had bullet-pointed on a sheet and read before the stages), I found myself driving the car properly – braking properly, and using the power to drag the car round the corner, and using the width of the road. This was going well. Probably too well. We got through the first 4 stages without and serious incidents, just a couple of dodgy moments when the back got a bit loose, but the car felt good, despite running in large ruts from the other 100-odd cars in front. It wasn’t quick by any means, but it was damn good fun. Even on one stage where the gravel was slippy, it was still not the terror of Newton Abbot, just a bit loose. The pace notes were excellent, and we were having a great time.

The first service just consisted of checking the car over, although the guys jacked the car up and cleaned the wheels and arches, which was cool. But with only 20 minutes to service, it was all go, even on a simple car like the Favorit. I’m sure it’s pretty tight on a ‘proper’ car. ##

The next four stages went well too, although the ruts were getting deeper, particularly on the arena stage. It went better this time, althought he bumps meant the car felt as if it was cutting out. It wasn’t, which was cool. Each stage saw things coming together better, with the car going well, although some really heavy bumps (and I mean heavy – wincing car-breakers, it seemed like) left the car feeling a bit sorry for itself, although I think this was more me than anything else. Poor little Skoda! It kept going though, and was back to service in what seemed like next to no time. The only problem was a rubbing if I was braking and turning left, although this seems to be a general clearance issue – nothing is broken or bent. My solution: DOn’t brake and turn at the same time!

Out of service, and on to the last four stages, but this time with the lights on, as it was getting dark quickly. Stage 15 was the arena again, and the ruts were RIDICULOUS. Seemed like the car was just running along on its sumpguard, although it wasn’t really.#

Stage 16 would go a bit differently though. It was another re-run stage, but the rutting was unbelievable in the tight hairpins, and about half way through the car got beached on one, and pulled the exhaust out of the front-pipe. It seemed as if we were driving the Blitz on four wheels – even with the intercom on it was hard to hear a word that Kev was saying, but we couldn’t stop now. We got to the end of the stage and I killed the motor to avoid deafening the marshals, and headed off to the next stage. When we got there, we were told that we could keep running as it was November 6th so there would be firework displays all over the place anyway. Which was good news – I’d have been gutted if we’d had to stop. So noisily (and I mean the loudest thing I could imagine) we set off down the stage, and saw a few more cars broken down along the way, although all with “OK” signs on them, which was a good thing. I found that Kev’s calling was actually clearer now, which was making things even better. The car was going OK, despite losing some power from the lack of exhaust, and everything else seemed good – the lights were working well, and removing most of the ‘doubt’ from driving at night. There was one wrong call (a left instead of a right) which led me up a dead-end, but aside from that we went well. And on to the last stage. I wanted to try to put the exhaust back in place, but we didn’t have a torch, so I couldn’t see what to do. So we started the last stage with full noise, but were told that a hairpin later on in the stage would be best taken very wide as two cars had rolled there – it turns out that Steve was one of the victims of it. This was a repeat of the gravelly stage that had some grip issues at the beginning, and the car got a little loose for a while, but never got scary, just waved about a bit. We got to the dodgy hairpin and avoided the massive rut that had claimed a couple of cars, and then just afterwards saw a Skoda Fabia that had rolled nastily, although everyone was out and OK. We carried on up the stage, and saw a couple more broken cars, including a 206 buried in the trees – it looked serious, but again the “OK” board was out, so we kept on going. And got to the end of the stage! I was amazed! We’d finished the Tempest Rally, which is probably my greatest car-based achievement to date. It was a tough rally, and had hurt the car a bit, but not terribly badly. The noisy exhaust meant we were slow to get back to the final control, and got some time penalties, although I dispute the times that were put down on the card. But that’s just snivelling – we finished, and we had a damn good time! And I _can_ drive on gravel, which is a great boost to me. We won’t be rallying for three months, and the next event will be my “home” event, the Rallye Sunseeker on the 25th/26th February. This will be a similar event, but more challenging. And I think we’ll be up to the challenge. For sure, we’ll give it our best. And I’ll be achieving a dream that I’ve had since I first watched it when I was 17. And that’s got to be a good thing.

… to the Tempest. I’ve done a fair bit of work on the car’s electrics – there were a few things that had been added with fuses or relays just strung along the bottom of the dashboard, and I’ve never been happy with that. And the fuse/relay board was above Kev’s feet which I didn’t think was great either – easy to damage, and difficult to get to. So I moved it into the glovebox, and fitted a new fuseboard for the other additions and the new spotlights, which are nearly done. They are bright, for sure. I’ve got a couple of other things to sort out, electrically, and I must get the trip-meter working, ‘cos that will make a huge difference to us on the next rally.

One bit of good news is that we will be running last on the road. This is a Good Thing.

But the thing is, I saw my first set of pace notes last night. Kev’s bought them, and we’ll hopefully be working off them. This is really big boys’ stuff. It makes the stages sound scarier because there are all sorts of cautions and so on in them. I’ve done my usual thing of thinking that it’ll be the hardest thing in the Universe, so I’m pretty scared about the whole thing at the moment. And I’ve still got to sort out the new tyres and steering geometry today as well as drop the rear of the car to calm things down.

Better get on with it, then…..

Er, just checked this on the Tempest Rally site.

For some unknown reason, we’ve been seeded as 38th of 46! In front of a 2.8 XR 4×4, a 1600 Mk2 and a 2 litre 306! Er, anyone for tennis?

Spotlights are being fitted to the Skoda today, if I can find enough metal….

I wrote my last entry straight after coming back from NAA Stages, and it wouldn’t take an expert to tell that I was a bit crestfallen. Having thought about it, I wouldn’t have minded being slow. And I wouldn’t have minded being crap/dangerous. But managing to combine the two is what really gutted me. I was never thinking I would be good, but I did think I’d be OK. As I may have mentioned, I used to drive a bit on gravel when we used to go out late at night in old Escorts, and I was OK. Not great, but I learnt how to control the car, and remember doing 80 down forest tracks in my Mk1, without any major moments. But I really was depressed about the whole situation. Tarmac rallying is a bit of fun for me – the forests are “real” rallying for me – the stuff that originally turned me on to it. I know now that tarmac is a lot more fun that I thought it would be, and the right events (Fat Albert and Caerwent) can offer a really good time. But I want to do another forest event. And I went to see Steve Colville during the week, and he’s persuaded me to enter the Temperst Rally on the 6th November. This is a BIG event – it’s part of the British Rally Championship (albeit we’ll be doing a ‘cut down’ version), and is hardcore. Unlike us! But I’ve sent (and e-mailed) my entry, so we could be “in”. Possibly – I’ve not heard back from the Entries Secretary, but they’re doing the seeding today, so I guess I’ll find out soon enough if we’re in or not. In the meantime, some mods are needed for the car:

Spotlamps – some of the stages will be in the dark!
Maplight – for Kev to see where we’re going
Tyres – Fortunately Gary Hayter of Ebblake Tyres has some good gravel tyres for us. That should help!

At certain points in everyone’s life, there are disappointments. Be they moments where you realise that someone you’re in love with is sleeping with the postman, that you’re not going to walk on the moon or be a film star, or whatever. No matter how ludicrous the idea, it can come as a shock.

Yesterday saw us entering Newton Abbott Audi stages – our first forest event. It was only short – 25 stage miles and 17 road miles – far less than the 100 mile drive to get there. Due to the reverse seeding, we were second car on the road, following a Skoda Felicia (which was a late entry – otherwise it would have been behind us), and were due at 10:01. The stages looked pretty smooth, but it was raining heavily – a really grey, horrible chilly day, with vans getting stuck on the grass in the “service area” and all sorts of amusing shenanigans. Still, if you don’t bring a van, it can’t get stuck, can it?

It was scary. Very scary. And that was before the stage had started. And then it did start. Up a hill, and round the first bend. The first impression I got was that I had no grip or control whatsoever. I’ve driven on gravel a fair bit (mainly when I was younger, being silly), and I certainly wouldn’t say I was an expert, but I have some skill at controlling a car on such a surface. Or at least I thought so. However, the slow, snaking evidence of this stage would clearly indicate that either I lost whatever skill I did have, or I was delusional. I’m sure it looked pathetic from the outside, but it was terrifyingly poor from the inside. The car would lurch about all over the place, even in a straight line. Corners were hard work, and getting the power on to pull the car round the corner didn’t always seem to work – the car would dig in or slide and I’d have no idea what was going to happen next at any point. About three-quarters through the stage we got caught by two following cars (together), and I moved over to let them by, and found it difficult to get back onto the line. We pootled to the end of the stage, and registered and embarrassingly slow time.

Stage 2 was stage one run in reverse. Tried to do better, but about 1/3 of the way through re-entered the forest with a 45 left-hander. No grip at all. The back went, so I tried to correct it, and the car slewed side to side several times. And then just sideways, just like you see on the TV from the in-car. The car bumped up a couple of times as it hit things, and I thought it was going to get messy as we were now bumping into where there were cut-off tree-stumps. I saw one come perilously close as we drew to a stop, and the car angled up as it hit whatever it did. For a moment I thought we were going to go over, but we just settled back down onto all four wheels. I started it up again, but we were stuck fast. Kev seemed surprised when I told him he’d have to get out and push, but he did it and managed to almost lift the car out of the ditch on his own (with help from the engine, but you know what I mean). He dived back in, and we got going again, albeit very slowly. The rest of the stage was a panicked blur, although the car seemed fine. Unlike the contents.

Stages 3 & 4 were short one-mile sprints through a new spectator area, which was less treacherous than the other stages, but still slippy. But my confidence in my driving ability had totally gone by this point, and I really wasn’t looking forward to it. And having lots of people there probably didn’t help much either. We set slow times on both passes, and headed off for ‘service’, which involved some sandwiches – the car needed little doing to it, apart from a bit less pressure in the tyres and some fuel.

Stages 5 & 6 were back where 1 & 2 had been, with some alterations; the first bit went reasonably well but slowly, but the new section featured a narrow track with a small edge and then a very steep drop-off with trees growing on it. It looked like one error would cause a real problem (involving testing out the strength of the rollcage and an ambulance), and when the car slipped sideways at one point I really felt like I’d had enough.

The waiting area looked like one of the forests on endor, and was boggy enough to lose a foot in. Getting away from the like for SS6 was hard work as the mud was very deep, and the car just slewed sideways. Things got a bit better on this stage, but the car was still slipping all over the place, and there was a huge bump near the big drop-off. We were just limping about rather than driving at any kind of speed, and I’m sure most people’s grans could drive faster and better.

SS7 and 8 were back where 3 & 4 had been, but with some extra length added (where the waiting area had been before), and were run in reverse to 3 & 4 which was good, as the nasty log area which had been at the end was out the way early. There were some good sections where the spectators were, and I managed to get out of jail on one slippy corner by really nailing the throttle to pull the car round. Second time round we had to get out of the way for a Sierra Cosworth, but still made up some time on the first run, so it wasn’t too bad.

SS9 was back to bellever, and finally I managed to get a hairpin right and use the handbrake, although I’m sure it felt better than it looked. And then it was all over. Just a trundle back through the stage once everyone had finished, and then off to the pub (where someone nicked my wallet, it would seem), and then the 100 mile journey home. As ever, the Favorit performed perfectly throughout the day, not missing a beat despite being driven by an incompetent.

As I said at the beginning, there are milestones in people’s lives when they realise that the course they thought it might take isn’t what will actually happen, or that their abilities fall far short of what is required. I never had any illusions of coming into rallying to do well, I just thought I’d have a go and enjoy myself. And forest events more so – yesterday was supposed to be the realisation of years of wanting to do such an event. But it just showed clearly that I don’t have the natural ability to control a car in such circumstances, or the nerves of steel needed to learn at anything other than a glacial pace. Anyone who can control a car on gravel has my total respect. It’s certainly something that I know I’ll never be able to do to any degree of competence.

Tomorrow, things get even more serious. Up until now the rallies we’ve been doing have all been Single-Venue (SV) events. So basically they’ve been in closed-off areas, be they airfields or training areas or whatever. But tomorrow is the first forest event, and that means two things. First up we’re on gravel, through forest roads! Which is (for me) what rallying is all about – just like the big boys… That also means that we don’t have laps, which is a good thing (especially as it’s reverse seeding, so we’ll be going at the front, possibly even first), but it also means we don’t get maps like we have before, and have ‘proper’ maps, and have to actually navigate. We also have to get from stage to stage – there are 25 miles of stages, and 17 miles of road. And that could get very interesting. I hope everything is going to be OK. I don’t see that it shouldn’t be, really, as we’ll just trundle through the stages like we always do. But it’s a whole new league.

On the car front, I’ve put two new front wheel bearings on, which has got rid of a nasty noise that was coming from the front, and finally got round to fitting the new strut-tops at the same time (as everything was already apart), and now there’s no “click” from the front end, as the strut-top itself wasn’t cracked, but the plastic rim at the top was, leading to the strut moving about under ‘duress’ (i.e. taking off!) – the car is probably in as good shape as it has been since I’ve owned it.

Cue hideous mechanical failure…..

We decided to be super-prepared this time, so we went up the day before and got the car scrutineered on the Saturday afternoon, leaving us to relax in the evening. Except we couldn’t relax because we’d forgotten the gazebo! So we had to scour Newport for a B&Q which we eventually found (the directions from the rather terse locals were less than accurate), only to be confronted with the obvious – they’d sold out. And Kev managed to douse himself with petrol, so we had to go clothes shopping too, and have the van stink of petrol all weekend! Still, it’s a laugh. Had a great meal with a few other teams (Steve & Fiona, Gary and Ricky from BDCC and a couple of others we didn’t know, but now do), and then an early night at the finest B&B possible for ?22.50 – a nearly new house, a really nice owner, and (best of all) right by the entrance to Caerwent. A perfect start to the day.

We got in there, and saw all sorts of hard-core machinery in the trailer park. And then followed the car in front who seemed to know where they were going. But didn’t, and we ended up driving some of the stage! It was really narrow, and the kerbs weren’t the 11″ concrete we’d been told about, but were just normal in most places. But still, if you hit one of them at 80 mph, then it’s going to get messy, isn’t it…..

We all decided to service together, which was a nice friendly atmosphere, and just had to get two new front tyres from James and get them fitted. They looked really good – I know that stuff like that doesn’t matter, but they looked really hard-core and expensive. I hoped they’d grip as well as they looked.

The first stage took a long time to get going, and there was a massive queue. And then it got cancelled. We heard all sorts of rumours of rolled cars, fires and bad arrowing, but it turns out someone had binned their car, and crawled back onto the stage and blocked it in a bad place, so that was that. We just had to roll through the finish to get our next start time, but no-one told us about that so we ended up being almost last on the road. Bummer.

Due to the new order, we spoke to the guys who’d be behind us (in a 2 litre Escort) just to say hello and tell them to flash when they inevitably come up behind us, as we’re in a slow Skoda and it was bound to happen. They seemed really nice, and said they were just shaking the car down, so might not catch up! Yeah, whatever guys!

Finally we got onto the stages! What a shock! A couple of people had told me it would be the closest thing to closed-roads rallying that I’d find in the UK and I can’t argue with that – it was excellent – really narrow in places, and the kerbs really could bite, and Kev really had his work cut out navigating – this was definitely his finest hour, as there were a lot of times when I couldn’t see beyond the corner in front, so I needed him to tell me if there was a straight, or another corner or whatever. On your own this would be a nightmare, but with him it was spot on. The new tyres were amazing – grip wasn’t the word, they were just fantastic – lots of grip, stable on the brakes and loads of feedback – you could tell exactly what was going on, totally the opposite of the Pirellis I had on there before. The stage was only 8 miles, and we went reasonably well – didn’t get overtaken by anyone, which isn’t bad in that time, I reckon. On our way round, we noticed a LOT of broken down cars – some really hard-core machinery (Imprezas, etc) sat sadly by the side of the road, while the Skoda motored on by! At one point the stage was blocked by a beached Escort and we had to drive on the grass to get past, but at least the stage wasn’t stopped. We thought it had been, and stopped before getting waved past, and lost some time. Others did the same, and one guy even thought the stage was stopped and was coasting back until he got overtaken!

SS3 got cancelled when we were in the queue as another car had blocked the stage, and this was getting silly – effectively it had cost us ?90 to do 8 miles. Not good, and all the crews affected (the last 15 or so) were really hacked off by now, as we’d done 1/4 the mileage of the front runners who had been unimpeded. And the big gaps between stages (time wise) would have allowed us a crack at running. Not happy at all.

SS4 was 14 miles! More of the same, but with a bit more confidence. This stage was a 2-lapper, and we got overhauled by Mandy Twynham on her second lap (our first), so I let her go by and then attempted to keep up. Didn’t do a bad job either – I reckon we lost about 6 seconds in that time, which wasn’t too bad. Another guy came past in his Mk2, which was flying, and then he got stuck behind a Mini. The mini guy just refused to get out of the way, despite it being a long straight (in fact several), and the Escort was clearly quicker than it (indeed so was the Skoda!). Eventually, the Mk2 had enough, and dived inside the Mini, and as a result the mini went straight on at the bend! We took advantage and shot past him! Funny thing was that the Mk2 was on lap one, and missed the split (which was badly signposted), so we overtook him as a result! He didn’t catch us up at any point, and I felt everything was really coming together. We weren’t doing every corner at the max, but it was good.

SS5 was a slightly shorter, and more of the same. Except this time we got lapped by a 2.5 V6 Calibra, and tried keeping up with that! On the straights he (obviously) walked away, but in the bends we were matching him and even catching him in places. With a bit more power we could really go well. Oh, and a bit more skill too! There were more cars littering the place, including a rolled Mini, and a 205 placed on the outside of a really tight bend, just waiting to get clouted! All the crews looked dejected as we sped past in our little Favorit!

SS6 was much the same, but we managed to cut 18 seconds off the time, as things were really coming together now and I tried harder on every corner – the lines were getting better and I took a few liberties where it looked safe to do so.

We ended up finishing 50th out of 102 starters, but there were only 56 finishers. Still, we finished, and we still have our 100% finishing record! We may be slow, but we do get there in the end. And have a bloody good time in the process. Excellent. Caerwent really is one of the most exciting places I could imagine rallying in – great fun, and a real challenge for both driver and navigator and the car too. There were some long-ish straights, and we got up to 80 at one point, which isn’t bad in the little Skoda. Others were banging off the rev limiter in 5th, being 130mph. And our times were seriously down on everyone else’s, even in our class. But we’ll get there. Possibly most important is that I now have four signatures on my licence, which is mission accomplished! I can now do ‘National A’ events, which is the plan so I can do the Sunseeker next year.

Also nice was a few people were amazed that I drive the car home after the events. “What happens if you crash or the car breaks?” ‘Dunno, I’ll worry about that when it happens’, etc. And one guy came over to ask:

“Do you drive it to the events and home?”
‘Yes’
“Where are you from”
‘Bournemouth’
(amazed)”Now that’s Motorsport!”

Nice.

However, on the drive home, it became apparent that the car was a little unhappy. The engine and box are fine, but I think the front wheel bearings have seen better days – there’s a bit of a rattle from both sides now, so I’d better fix that before our first forest event, Newton Abbot Audi stages, 10th October – less than two weeks!

…. ‘cos the next event is at Caerwent on Sunday. I’ve just had the finals through the post, and to my horror I’ve found that we’re seeded 91st out of 101! I’m not sure whether this number has been arrived at by confidence in our abilities from our previous results, the Welsh “sense of humour” or the random throwing of runes. Whatever it’s down to, I’m scared! Some of the stages are 13 miles long, so with 30 second start intervals and with a 2 litre 16v Astra and a few more 2-litre cars behind us, I’m thinking we’ll be in the way. Oh dear.

Anyway, Caerwent is infamous for attrition – it’s said that 2/3rds of the entrants won’t finish because if you make a mistake you hit an 11″ concrete kerb. Which is GAME OVER. So I’m hoping that the attrition will help us out. Or something…..

On the car front, the cracked strut-tops which needed replacing were a surprise when I went to purchase them from the local Skoda garage. Not only were they in stock(!), they cost ?11.50 for the pair! Bargain! Unfortunately I need to fit them, and I can’t get to the garage as the dead Focus in in the way. And it’s raining today so that won’t be getting done. Poo.

Otherwise there’s little to do, really. Just take up some eclectic religion which will provide safety for its followers. And maybe 25 bhp…..

Arse! Why did I start this? Answers on a postcard to “You utter dick competition” at the usual address……

Today I am not a happy bunny. Anyone who’s unfortunate enough to know me personally would probably say I’m a bit of a miserable git. However, today I have a good reason, as my ‘lovely’ Focus engine has expired. So I had to drive the Skoda to work today. At a school. Which meant lots of schoolboys pointing at the car and stuff, which was amusing, but I could see that some of them thought it wasn’t the real thing! Ha ha ha, how amusing. Anyway, I’ll not have to do that again, as I’ve bought something to use temporarily (A volvo 440 of all things). But it means limited funds, so maybe the fuel injection will have to go on hold for a while. I’ve not even ordered the new strut-tops yet, which I really do need! And a new oil filler cap, which got lost the rally before last and has been using a flexi-cap which isn’t much good. But there’s little else to report apart from small boys staring open-jawed and pointing at the cars and getting their mates to look….

Ho ho ho.