Skoda Rally Blog

Just had a letter from the Plymouth-Dakar saying we didn’t get in.

Gutted.

…. Saturday is the Somerset Stages, which I’m really looking forwards to. Firstly, it’s a forest rally, so there’s reason enough to look forwards to it! But it’s a BTRDA 1400 round, which means that the 1400s go first, so we’ll get good roads, being 44th on the road rather than 144th. I’d still think the roads will be cut up, ‘cos there are some serious machines in front of us, but hopefully not like the Sunseeker was.

As mentioned earlier, I have a new navigator for the event, my mate Paul, who is much bigger than Kev was, so I had to find a new seat, which proved to be far more of a trial than I would have expected it to. In the end I had to borrow one from a member of B&DCC (Thanks Dean!), so I’ve got a throne big enough to fit him in the car, and everything else on the car sorted out. Including insurance, which is another long, boring story in itself, but let’s just say I was on hold for OVER TWO HOURS before giving up on Competition Car Insurance. Fortunately I’m now insured with someone far nicer, with better service, more mileage and for less money! Not a waste of two hours after all, then!

This will probably be my last event for quite a while. I’ve decided that I’m going to stick to forest events because SV events aren’t the right balance of action to sitting around for me; a forest event is pretty much full-on all day, whereas on an SV you tend to spend most of the day sat around, and then do a 10 minute stage. (or in my case, a 15 minute one). I’ll probably do Caerwent again, as that’s a different kettle of fish, but I’m mostly going to stick to forest stuff. Which is expensive, so that means I’ll be doing less anyway (I’m broke!), and also there’s not really a lot until October, so I can concentrate on getting a great deal of other things done instead……

This, of course, is providing that I don’t throw it off of Porlock Toll Road and into a ravine!

I’ve been taking it easy. I’ve never denied that. But that’s easy by rallying standards. Now, I’m certainly not going to say I’m hardcore by anyone’s standards, but a number of people have told me that if I’ve not crashed, then I’m not going fast enough. Personally, I think that’s a lot of crap. I’ve always been one to learn by building up to a level, not by shooting my mouth off and going over my limit and then spectacularly failing. And added to that, if I crash the Skoda I won’t be rallying it for a while as I haven’t got anywhere to re-shell it, or any money to do it. And so on.

Anyway, excuses enough! Here’s some footage at the end of Stage 8 from the Sunseeker, which shows that maybe I am trying, and do have the odd moment or two. ‘kay? It’s another DivX encoded AVI, so you’ll need DivX to play it. But being an Internet movie thief, you no doubt have it already! This isn’t the first time something like this has happened, but it’s the first one I’ve got on video.

Click HERE for the footage!

I don’t know how fast we were going, but it seemed to take an age to be over, and it was fast enough to warrant an apology and some new underwear…..

(think of the music from the “Take Hart” gallery while reading this….)

Two brief things. Firstly, I have a picture of the remains of my mirror after the Smeatharpe Chicane Incident. Not exactly big cred or anything, I just wanted a picture of it, so here it is!

Secondly, a tribute. It has been my great fortune and pleasure to make the acquantance of Mr. Steven Colville while I have been attempting to learn to drive a rally car. Steve’s help and advice has been invaluable from the first time we took the Skoda down for him to take a look at, through getting my licence and of course the events that we’ve done. Steve’s really quick, but unlike some people who are good at what they do, he doesn’t have an attitude about it, and is helpful at all times. Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present, Steve Colville.

No, Neil, we haven’t got a video. Except we have. I’ve just got a new toy, an Archos AV340, and I’ve just recorded the video of Stage 2 onto it, and I’m posting it here. It’s around 10MB, and you’ll need DivX to play it, ‘cos it’s an MPEG-4 encoded AVI, for you tedious cretins out there….

Video is actually a great tool, ‘cos it shows me just how early I was braking, and backing off – I know what to work on now…. Better luck next year….

All the documentation, maps and route details have arrived this morning for the Sunseeker – at 7:30am, ‘cos they were special delivery. Well, it’s really happening, isn’t it? Of course it is. At least I’ll have a bit of time to check out stage entries and exits and so on, and what to look for. I note that there’s a piece from Dorset Police saying they’ll be out with speed guns and so on, so I’d better watch it!

Hopefully the car should run for the first time with the Megasquirt on today – it’s all systems “go” on that front. Well, it could be, anyway. We’ll see if the carb ends up back on there by the end of tomorrow….

Here’s something I didn’t think I’d be writing today – I have a sponsor! Yes, it’s true. We have a sponsor for the Rallye Sunseeker – it’s Alink2.com, which is a site that is a hub for all sorts of information and makes finding official sites easy. Their livery will be on the car for the Sunseeker, and they’ll also be handling our press releases and getting some great photos of us in action on the event, which is a great thing. Take a look at the site if you get a chance…..

The documentation for the Sunseeker has arrived, in the form of the competitor’s bulletin, and I’m in at…. Number 110. I asked to be last again, as I’d still rather be looking forwards than in my mirrors, so that’s a good thing.

This must be short though, as I need to go work on the car. I’ve done some of the wiring for the new ECU, but now I’m off to sort out the return for the fuel, and maybe get some of the wiring put onto the car. Unfortunately, Maplin didn’t have the resistors that I need to power the injectors, so I’ve got to order them and hope they turn up in time. But it looks like the car won’t be running this weekend, for sure. Damn!

Well, I made a big mistake in going to Switzerland. Not that it was a bad time – it wasn’t – just that it’s meant my back is really bad. Ended up being flown home rather than driving. Hopefully that won’t be a long-term issue.

A-n-y-w-a-y, I got my new National A licence back from the MSA. Same number as before, all confirmed to the Sunseeker, so it looks like we’re in.

The Skoda needs to be MOTd, which means a couple of small bits of welding at the end of the sills – everything else is OK, so it should walk through that. That should get done this week, as I’m getting it done by a garage as I don’t have time at the moment, and also I want to give my back a good chance of total recovery!

The next thing is that there are now four cars in B9 (my class), including Mr. & Mrs. Colville. So I think there’s no chance of any honours there – we’ll just be aiming for a finish. But I still want to get the injection working. And I’ve been working on it – I’m about half way through making the inlet manifold which is quite a task – making the plates to bolt to the head took around 3 hours as they’re made from 5mm steel plate, and cutting them takes a long time. And then I’ve had to make pipes that taper from 35mm to 25mm ID, and then weld it all together, which is quite tricky as there’s a lot to juggle. Hopefully I should get it all finished today. After that there’s plumbing in the fuel return which the injection system needs, and replacing the exhaust downpipe with one with a fitting for the oxygen sensor (which needs looking at anyway as I have to make the exhaust more secure to avoid any repeats of the Tempest/Blitz incident), and then the wiring. Oh, and then setting it all up. I reckon it’s a solid week’s work to get it done, and I think it’s just about possible. We’ll see, I guess. If I was totally fit, I’d feel a lot better about it all…..

The entry list for the Rallye Sunseeker has been updated, and number 24….. is me! Just like the Tempest, seeing it in writing is suddenly way more scary.

This is increased because for the last two weeks I’ve been laid up having hurt my back, and I’ve been unable to do anything to the car – the MOT is out, and it needs a bit of welding doing to pass. And of course I can’t do anything on the injection front either, which is depressing, and there is some more work needed to the exhaust before the sunseeker to stop a repeat of the recreation of the blitz that we did on the last two stages.

And I’ve still not had my licence back from the MSA…..