Skoda Rally Blog

Regular readers (with long memories) will remember that I’ve been interviewed before by Brian Driggs for his excellent webzine, gearbox magazine.  Brian was in touch a couple of weeks ago to see how things were going, and obviously it had been a while since we’d last spoken, so I brought him up to speed on what had been going on (or not) at Jones towers, and yesterday the article was published.

Best pun ever!

Brian is currently working hard on getting the magazine in print and while the physical magazine may only be for his side of the pond, it’s still an excellent read for anyone who’s interested in ‘real world’ motorsport stories, and is available digitally for not a lot of money.  We live in an age where content isn’t valued as much as it could be, and good journalism and stories will become a thing of the past if projects like Brian’s don’t get support.  It’s not that we need to fear the Internet or anything Luddite, but it is important that we start to value things financially that we value in terms of consumption, and pay a bit here and there for them.  Sermon over!

I’ve just realised that my earlier post was rather factual, and that I’d forgotten a number of things that happened during the day – probably ‘cos I was miserable at that point!  I’ve cleaned the car up today, so now feel a bit better.  Anyway, here are a few random things that happened.

On SS2 (Wareham Main) there were some spectators crossing a 2R, a fair way off.  We beeped and they’d seen us, and most of them moved, sharpish.  However, there was one bloke who thought otherwise.  He wasn’t young – he looked about 50, and was wearing a sort of cowboy hat.  He was quite fat, and despite the others clearly signalling him to get out the way, he decided to do the opposite, and stand on the apex of the corner, sort of staring us out.  I didn’t back off.  I hope he has learned his lesson.

I have managed to lose the fuel filler cap for the ridiculously expensive ATL fuel filler.  I say “ridiculously expensive” as I’ve just looked on the ‘net today and the whole assembly is about £150. Oh good.  I went back to where I thought I’d left it this morning, but to no avail.  Dammit.

On the way back to service 3, we were pretty relaxed, and had plenty of time.  Being local and the route being the same, Paul didn’t have much to do.  So… he put the TV on.  He has a Sky mobile deal, so on the way back it was quite surreal having Jeff Stelling talking about the day’s football matches.  I know it’s not new technology, it was just weird and not something that I do when I’m out and about.

When being towed out of SS11, we went past a number of groups of spectators.  Nearly all of them gave us a round of applause, and that really lifted my spirits.  It’s nice to see that people appreciate you putting on a show, even if it is on the end of a tow rope.

First up, sorry for being offline the last few days – typically, my hosting company had a broken server, taking the site offline on the busiest week of the year.  I will be brief; I’m 100% committed to doing Rally GB 2012; the car is ready (I’ve been out in it today, in fact), and feeling good.  I have 10 months to improve little bits and pieces and also to save up to do the event.  I’m not sure who will be navigating with me, but it will happen; 2012 is the last year the Skoda will be WRC-eligible (as the FIA surely won’t extend the homologation again), and as said many times I won’t be able to afford a future WRC-eligible car any time soon.  So, the sponsorship page will remain open until next year, and if you want to see your name on the car, go take a look at it and pick the spot where you’d like to see your message on it in Rally GB 2012.  If you have any questions or comments, please use the contact page to get in touch with me.

Apologies to those on RSS – this is basically a repeat of a previous post which the hosting company hadn’t backed up; lesson learned, I will keep my own backups in future!

So, the car is pretty much where it needs to be to use it – it runs well, and everything else on it is pretty much sorted out – the diff is working properly thanks to Steph’s excellent advice, and the car is quicker than it ever has been before.  I’m sure there’s a bit more power to come with some attention paid to the ignition advance, but that will need a dyno session to sort that out; it’s not bad, however, I just think at around 4-5000rpm there’s a bit of a drop off which could be sorted out.

But that’s an aside.  This morning I’ve made a decision.  Well, one which leads into another.  The end result is that we’re not going to be doing the Tempest.  It’s a great event which I’ve done 3 times (twice driving, once navigating), and I’m sure we’d both enjoy it, but the bottom line is this:  To do it will take 3 days (Friday, as I have to get everything loaded up, and go to scrutineering up in Aldershot, and Sunday to unload and clean up), and more importantly will be well over £600 – even if I use some old tyres.  Which is a significant amount of money for a day out, and more to the point, it’s about 15% of the total budget needed to do Rally GB.  Now, I’ve already spent around £1000 on gettting the car ready for Rally GB 2011, and most of that was on safety gear that needed replacing as it was out of date or needed servicing etc.  So the car will be ready and eligible for 2012, and that’s the last time ever.  The FIA won’t extend its lifetime again (after all, it will be 11 years after production stopped), so 2012 really will be the last time I could do a WRC round – short of a lottery win, I’ll never have another car which will be eligible.

So?

The money is going towards doing Rally GB 2012, which I am 100% committed to doing.  I’m hoping that this site will get some traffic this year if people wonder where we are, so I’m opening sponsorship up on the car now, for 2012.  We will be there; the car is already as well prepared as ever before, and I now have 10 months to do all those little things I’ve always wanted to improve; the kind of things that don’t cost a huge amount but take time and effort to get right.  More to come on this, but at the moment if anyone’s interested, we’re game for 2012.

It’s been a while since I’ve done any updates, but that doesn’t mean I’ve not been busy.  I’ve just mostly been busy doing other things, although there was some chance of a drive at Ypres but this fell through last week; in anticipation of that I’d got the car back on the road and ready in case, so it’s actually in good shape – the suspension is all back in place having been reassembled and lubricated, and the car ran 100%, which was good of it.  But it wasn’t to be as the deal fell through, sadly.

Today has seen the publication of Rally Guide 1 for Wales Rally GB 2011, and having had a read through and looked at the stages and timings, it looks like it would be a real challenge – the event starts in the North of the country, and has service in Builth Wells for the duration of the event, with lots of new stages and it would be a massive logistical challenge to undertake for someone like me – there’s a fair bit of movement in terms of sleeping and so on both for recce and during the event.

But of course this is all largely theoretical; while the car is eligible for the event and I have my 2011 International Licence, I am short of two things:

1) A Navigator.  Paul isn’t able to do Rally GB again unfortunately due to family commitments, so that’s a huge blow – it’s not just the navigating side of things that he’s excellent at, we also have a good laugh in the car, and on long road sections that’s important.  Plus he’s about the most organised person I know, and totally unflappable, which has been very useful in the past on many occasions.

2) Money.  To do Rally GB typically costs about £4000, plus any damage and repairs and so on after the event.  It obviously means a lot of time to be committed by me as well to get the car and everything else ready, but that’s an aside – the event is about £4k to do for the week, all in.

So, I’m really not sure what to do.  I’d love to do it again, especially as the event is once more completely different, and it would be a huge challenge.  But I’d need to find a navigator who sees the event in the same way I do, and is willing to put in a significant amount of money to do the event.  And I think that will probably be as much of a challenge as the week in mid-November.  Answers on a postcard…

A few people have emailed me recently mentioning the amount of work that goes into competing in a rally car, having been surprised at the amount of work that is needed to get the car ready and so on.  So I thought I’d cover the other side of the coin – what needs to be done after an event, in terms of work on the car.

Before that, a quick summary – after Rallye Sunseeker, the car was pretty much unscathed – we’d hit a few things here and there, but there was no ‘proper’ damage – everything that happened to the car was run-of-the-mill.  So the first thing to do (and this was done the day after the event) was to clean it – here’s how it came home:

Post-event muddy car - seems quite clean.

And the engine bay looked like this:

Muddy engine bay.

So – certainly doesn’t look too bad in the pictures (although I think they make it look a bit cleaner than it actually was), but it needs to be clean, as the car will probably be stood up for some time (possibly until September, if not longer).  Up on some ramps it went, and then it was time to jetwash the underneath – under the wheelarches, under the floor, round the suspension and brakes and so on.  This took two hours of solid work – it really was that bad, and local mud is pretty sticky stuff.  This left the road looking like this:

Muddy Road!

Which again may not come out too well in the photo, but after I’d moved the car, I used a spade to get as much as I could into a wheelbarrow, and it was over half a wheelbarrow full of mud!  It really was dirty; the car also got a ‘normal’ clean with hot water and a sponge too, as the top needs to be clean as well, and at this point it looked OK.  However, there was a lot more to do – the reason being is that the most expensive part on the car is also one of the most vulnerable in terms of corrosion, the suspension.  Those with long memories will know that I bought it as part of a job lot of parts, and it was wrecked when I got it; it cost £1350 to get it reconditioned, and it’s transformed the car in the process.  However, it can’t be left on the car; OK, it could do, but that would be a really stupid thing to do, as the mud and water would do it no good long-term, and I really need to avoid the expense aside from anything else.

This weekend’s job has been to get the suspension off and cleaned up, so the car was put up on axle stands all round, and then front struts and rear coilovers removed, which is a fairly quick job as all the bolts have been off recently so nothing is rusted in place, and as soon as they get pulled off the car, you realise why jetwashing isn’t enough; the wheels and the car body get in the way meaning that you never get it completely clean.  Here is one of the rears having been removed from the car and then having the spring removed:

Dirty shock!

Clearly filthy, and the mud would lead to lots of corrosion problems.  So, half an hour’s work on the rears left them looking much better:

Clean shock!

Once this was all done, everything could be checked properly (all seemed well), dried off and then sprayed with ACF-50 which is an anti-corrosion spray which I’ve heard good things about; typically used on motorbikes etc, I’m sure it will help keep everything looking good and working well.

It was much the same story with the fronts – they had a lot of grit and mud stuck between the springs and the strut bodies, so that was all cleaned out, and then the bottom of the struts was removed and the bushes checked; the oil that you put inside them when you assemble them (user-replaceable, as it were) looked to have done a fair bit of work, and it took quite a bit of work to get them all clean, but again once they were they looked good as new.  They are now stored safely out of the way, ready to go back on the car when needs be – there’s no need to put them back on the car when it’s not going to be used, I think.

One thing struck me – the amount of damage that is done by stones to parts of the car; everyone who has seen the on-board footage has commented on the noise as we go along, which is of course stones hitting the underside of the car.  And this was shown really clearly by the bottom of the one shock – it was brand new before this event, and looked a bit like this:

Shiny shock bottom

And after just a day’s use in the forests, this is what it looked like:

A bit of stone damage

So you can see just how much abuse the underside of the car gets – it really is a harsh environment!  However, the other bottom (which is much older) looks much the same, so I guess once the damage is done to a certain depth then that’s it, it’ll stay that way and not degrade too much more.

Overall, the straightforward post-event work means a weekend to clean the car up and then to give the suspension a once-over and clean it properly.  I’ve made a point of making lists of things that need fixing after events (as rose-coloured glasses can so often mean you forget what was wrong), and here’s the current one:

• Rattle under floor – towards the end of the day, something was hitting which shouldn’t have been, so this needs to be investigated.
• Gear lever sealing – the rubber seal round the gear lever expired and was leaking water (and mostly steam) when going over any puddles.
• Sumpguard sides attachment – these proved troublesome during the service when I fixed the gearbox mounting, so will need to be made quicker and easier (and not cross-threaded, now!)
• Drivers door handle/fitting – it became harder to get out of the car as the day went on – the mechanism is tired….
• Passengers door handle/fitting – much like mine!
• Extinguisher Foam – I made a temporary foam cover for the plumbed-in extinguisher to stop my helmet/HANS getting damaged when putting them into the helmet net; this needs to be done properly.
• Water Leak – the car was losing water towards the end of the day from the tank cap.
• Starter Terminal – this just needs a new connector fitted, but it’s a really important one and is on/off a lot so needs to be top quality.
• Squeaky front suspension – the right front squeaked by the end of the day; this may have been fixed having checked the whole load over now.
• Floor protection – the floor is getting damaged, so I need to make up some kevlar guards to protext it and give the car a longer lifespan – same goes for the sills.
• Sumpguard mountings – the lack of adjustment in them nearly led to us being late or even excluded when leaving service on the Sunseeker, so I have come up with a better mounting system for them, which should give adjustment but also good strength.
• Exhaust leak – the manifold appears to have cracked, and needs replacement, really.
• Clock adjustment switch – a minor point, but the switch to adjust the minutes on the clock on the dash has failed, and I’m sure Paul was sick of me asking him the time!
• Damage to wing edges and seams under rear arches – there’s quite a bit of stone damage to the flanges of the wheelarches, these need to be straightened, cleaned and then painted.
• Welded areas in inner wings and towing eye (paint/rustproof) – some damage here too, which needs to be cleaned, rustproofed and painted.
• Replace fuel pipes in engine bay – they were the same age as the tank connections which failed, so this is preventative.
• Paint bumpers – cosmetically the car is looking a bit shabby because of the bumpers having lost their paint, so they need to look much better; not a big point but it makes a real difference to the car’s appearance.
• Fix windscreen water leak – if it rains the passenger’s side fills up with water – I removed half a bucket from it before Rallye Sunseeker.
• Re-route fuel tank pipes properly – the fuel tank pipe routing isn’t ideal so I want to address this.
• Extinguisher Service – they were last serviced in August 09 so will need to be done again if we are to compete in Rally GB.
• Replace driver’s Seat – The seat expires in June, so will need replacing if we are to do Rally GB.
• Check rear wheel bearings – these have been checked and are OK!
• Replace joint in gear linkage – the gear change is getting a bit sloppy as the joint in the linkage is wearing, so this needs to be sorted to stop incorrect gear selection.
• Gearbox check/rebuild – the loss of the three bolts led to some issues with the transmission so the diff bearings will need replacing and re-shimming, and the rest of the box needs a check.
• Engine rebuild – the bottom end of the engine is very tired, so this will need rebuilding, possibly using the 1400 crank which Skoda homologated in 1999.

So, as you can see, there are a fair few things to do!  Obviously some are smaller than others, but they still mean a fair few evenings and weekends taken up with it all, and on top of that at the moment I’m not sure what I’m going to be doing in the future given the lack of a navigator for Rally GB and also having some problems with work (a long, regular contract which is about 35% of my work has ended),but I figure the best thing to do is to plan ahead and get as much as possible done so if the opportunity presents itself I will be able to take it.

Last time out on the Sunseeker (2009) we had a very short rally – it was going well on the Friday night (indeed we were amongst the lucky few who managed two runs on the last event to involve Bournemouth Gardens), and stage 3 went really well – well enough for me to put the wind up Paul, in fact!

Then, the death of the diff on SS4 meant game over and first DNF on the Sunseeker, which was depressing.  And expensive!

Unfortunately being ill over the weekend has left me with very little energy or strength, so I’ve not got as much done as I would have liked – a couple of days have meant nothing at all has got done, and that combined with other obligations (in the shape of a Porsche 944 that I needed to scrap, don’t ask!) meant that I’ve not got too much done on the car, but the things that I have done have been important:

Firstly, wheel bearings – the rears needed adjusting before the MOT and that’s never a good sign with them, so I got some new ones; good job that I did as the old ones wouldn’t have lasted too well as although they felt fine, they looked terrible, and I’m sure 200 miles of the event would have meant a DNF.  So they now have nice shiny (well, under the grease) bearings in there, and with the practice I’ve had I’ve got them down to about 30 minutes a side start to finish.

Secondly, wishbone – the front one was replaced with a spare because the ball joint was worn, but the pattern ones are nowhere near as strong as the Skoda OEM ones, so I’ve replaced the balljoint on it, and put it back on the car.

Third, sumpguard – it’s always been an absolute PIG to fit, so I’ve slotted the rear mounting holes to make it easier (read: possible) to fit, even single-handed.  I have an idea for a stronger rear mounting that will do this better, but that will have to wait.

I’ve been out in the car a few times and it’s been performing fine – there’s been no sign of the misfire that happened at WRGB, but no doubt it will turn up at some point; I’m going out for a drive in it in a bit, so hopefully it will either show up or get out of town.  Either way, next up is documentation on Thursday night, and then we’ll know our start times and so on; there is a ceremonial start at Poole Quay on Friday night, so if you’re in the area pop down and say “Hi”.

Well, on Friday it was time for the Skoda’s annual MOT, so I had it out a few days before just on a quick test drive to make sure everything was OK, and on the face of it it seemed to be.  But the day before, I tried the wipers (which worked on the Tuesday) and they didn’t work at all.  Some quick tests showed that the motor had seized, and fortunately I had a spare one in the shed, and it’s a quick and easy fix, so nothing too much to worry about, but on the day I got home at 1:30 with the MOT booked for 3:30 and thought I’d just do a final check, to make sure none of the wheels had dented rims (I wasn’t sure which ones I’d fitted), and a quick check that everything was bolted up properly.

And it’s a good job I did check it, as the front offside ball joint (on the wishbone) had about 2mm of play in it!  Handily (a) I had a spare in the shed and (b) the bolts were easy to get out, so it only took 10 minutes to swap over, but it was a tense 10 minutes.  The rear wheel bearings had a bit of play too, so I adjusted them, and set off for the MOT.  And it all went well, which was nice, as it’s the least pleasant thing, like scrutineering, but stretched out over about an hour!  Had tea and clearly ate something bad as I felt sick after it, and was completely knocked out for all of Saturday, unable to eat anything at all.  While I didn’t have anything desperate to do on the car, I’d rather have been able to change the rear wheel bearings and replace the worn balljoint and put the wishbone back on (the reason for this being that it’s an original Skoda wishbone and they are a LOT stronger than the pattern ones that I have as spares).  Plus there’s lots of cleaning up and little bits and pieces to do to get it all ready for…

Rallye Sunseeker!  Yes, it’s this Saturday, and it’s looking interesting; we are seeded last (not sure why, but I guess I’m as slow as I’ve been told), and there is the Skoda of the Beckett Brothers plus a 1275 Mini in our class, so we should have some competition.  It’s looking like this will be Paul’s last rally, which I’m gutted about, but I will worry about that after Rallye Sunseeker, as it should be a good event, and with two same-direction runs of the longer stages of the event, it will be slightly WRC-like in that respect (this is because it’s part of the BRC and they have to do recce for the event, and re-arrowing the stage for the recce wasn’t practical).  Anyway, hopefully we should be able to do well in our class, and actually finish as 2009 wasn’t a good year at all, and 2010 was spent with me unable to even walk at the time, so hopefully this will see us do all the stages and make it to Bournemouth Pier for the ceremonial finish, having started in Poole on the Friday night at the Ceremonial Start.

This week I have a few things to sort out, but in particular I want to track down the poor running that we had on Rally GB – I don’t want to spend the day fighting with the car between stages and worrying about reliability, so I hope that the cause will present itself as it was rather elusive in November in Wales!

Once more after Rally GB I’ve been interviewed by Brian Driggs for Gearbox Magazine, a brilliant on-line magazine (I think it’s well worth checking out generally if you’re into cars and rallying in particular, as the magazine has several different topics it covers), and it’s been a real pleasure speaking to Brian recently, and his enthusiasm for the subject and the magazine should be richly rewarded.  Here’s the link:

http://rally.gearboxmagazine.com/2010/12/darren-jones-on-wales-rally-gb/

And don’t forget you can subscribe to the magazine easily in a number of forms!

As anyone who knows me (and indeed anyone who will listen) will tell you, I have loved doing Rally GB.  It’s not only been achieving (in a sense) a boyhood dream, but the experience itself has been a brilliant one for me; from the highs of just being there in 2006, to the horror and hell of 2007 (which was hell at the time but taught me a lot), having a great run in 2008, and of course the truly rollercoaster experience of 2010, I have managed to finish 3 times, and do something that very few people will do.  But the FIA’s rules are rules, and that meant that the car would be ineligible as of 31st December 2010.  The original rules gave a car up to 7 years after it went out of production (the Felicia stopped in 2001, I believe), so 2008 was supposed to be the end.  A change (in rules, I assume, I never got an answer from the FIA) led to the car being allowed in until 2010, but then the writing was on the wall.  As a result there was probably far more interest in us than you would expect from such a low-budget, low-achievement team, but it was, after all, our swan-song.

To that end I finally bit the bullet a few days ago, and sold the Recce car, something I regretted almost instantly as soon as the snow came down again.  But there was far worse to come; I got a message from someone telling me to go check the FIA’s website out;  one thing to be said for the FIA is that all documents and regulations are published on their website, so you can usually find an answer to technical issues (or rather, information as answers are usually a little more oblique).  One of the many documents that is of interest is on this page:

http://www.fia.com/en-GB/sport/Pages/Homologations.aspx

This is the list of homologations – i.e. the vehicles which are currently certified for International competition such as the WRC.  And as I’d been told, I checked the document, and found that….

… the Felicia has been extended for another 2 years.  According to this, we could enter Rally GB another 2 times.  That would be fantastic, as far as I’m concerned.  There are obviously bridges to cross before then, both in terms of finance (although I have been careful this year with money, so I can’t see that being an enormous problem), seeing if everyone else is up for it again, and also to get the engine quicker in the car as well (as there are other parts of the new homologation which I could take advantage of to do this), but if I can, I will be there next year.