Skoda Rally Blog

As anyone who’s ever competed in Motorsport will know, it’s expensive.  Formula One cars cost millions of pounds to develop, and millions of pounds to run.  Rally cars are not cheap either – you won’t get any change out of £600,000 for a WRC car, and then you have to run it, which costs a lot too – hundreds of pounds per mile if some are to be believed.

Anyway, that’s the same, even for us, although at a different level (minus a couple of zeros!).  I really don’t think it would be possible to do a WRC event for less money than us, and that’s clearly been part of our appeal over the years.  But this year we want to raise money to compete in Rally GB via sponsorship, so I have put together a guide which shows what areas of the car are available, and what benefits come with them – larger areas on the car will come with time in the car at September’s RallyDay at Castle Combe, but will also give maximum exposure for your company or product.  I have started advertising the car in a number of places, and so far the results have been positive.  So if you have a business or product you’d like to see advertised at the largest sporting spectator event in the UK in November, then please have a look at the Sponsorship page, or download the PDF.  If you have any ideas how we can help your company with the car, then please get in touch.

I’ve recently been interviewed by Brian Driggs of Rally Gearbox Magazine, and today it’s gone live on the site – the rest of the site is a good read too, so fill your boots!  Big thanks to Brian, too.

Read the Article Here

So, R477 KRU is a bit tired after WRGB and the Sunseeker. Nothing major, but the front panel of the “reinforced” bodyshell on later Felicias is nowhere near as strong as the older model; the lower section is just single thickness steel, and mounting the sumpguard to it and then doing a few front-heavy landings on WRGB and some big hits on the Sunseeker has meant the front needs fixing – it’s a couple of inches back from where it should be and obviously needs to be stronger. In addition the engine is a bit tired (and let’s face it, given the state of the cars owned by the guy I bought it from, it needs to be looked at as a matter of urgency!), and the box needs the diff sorting out as it’s really not locking up any more.

Which isn’t major work, but the problem is that since the intense part of the build of the car the garage has become somewhat of a dumping ground – there are all sorts of bits in many boxes, and also I stripped a LHD donor car when I got the new shell as well, so it’s a real nightmare. Add to that the fact that the garage hasn’t really had much done to it in 15 years, and it was time to get serious. If you’re going to build an engine, it needs to be done in the right environment if it’s going to work well. And work well it must! So I’ve spent the last week clearing out, sorting things out, fitting new (yes, NEW) cupboards to the wall, etc. I’ve got to wait for the paint to dry on the walls before putting the shelving back, because it took 5 coats to cover the oil – it’s really that bad there. But it’ll be worth it in the end as there will be a nice clean room to work in so I can do a top job on the engine.

But something far more exciting than that has happened. I’m the webmaster of my local car club – Bournemouth and District Car Club – and got an email on Monday which was saying that a member needed a navigator for a one-off event at Longcross. This, it transpired is a Quattro Turbo, and a quick one at that. I told Ray (the car’s owner and driver) that I’d done a season navigating as well as some other stuff and also drove a bit, and went to see the car last night. It’s awesome. Ray’s a really nice guy, as is his navigator Stuart, so I’m really looking forward to April 20th at Longcross. It should be fantastic. Pictures will definitely follow as this is a really awesome car – it snarls and chatters, and goes like a rocket. Wonderful.

I’ve never been fit, really. Since starting rallying I have been going to the gym – well, at least since doing the first Sunseeker and being totally done in by the end of the day. Thankfully physical fitness wasn’t an issue on WRGB, and indeed since. But I’ve been doing it cycling and cross-training – running doesn’t agree with me. But somehow (don’t ask, bravado had a lot to do with it) I’ve entered the Bournemouth 10k run, on April the 1st. It’s a sponsored event, which is raising money for the British Heart Foundation. Most of my Dad’s side of the family have died from Heart Attacks. My Dad was only 43 when he died, all of 8 years older than me. Hopefully I’ll make it a little longer than that, but Heart Disease is real killer, so if anyone does feel generous, please visit my sponsor page on the BHF site.

Any amount is greatly appreciated.

Back to the rally stuff soon – I promise!

About a year ago, I saw an article about the Plymouth-Dakar challenge, which involved buying a ?100 (or thereabouts) car, and driving it from Plymouth to Dakar, in 21 days. This was to raise money for charities in the Gambia by handing the cars over at the end and letting them be auctioned off. Sounded like a good idea to me, but I was too late to get an entry for that year (entries close in April, but the cars don’t set off until around Christmas). But I’ve been keeping an eye on it this year (although it’s now changed to the Plymouth-Banjul Challenge), and I’ve put an entry in. Probably even more stupid than entering the Sunseeker, but there you go. I read an article in a bike magazine when I was 17 about a guy doing a similar trip on an XT600, and since then I’ve dreamed of doing something like that. OK, it’s not on a bike, but that would be crazy. This is just silly. There is one problem – Gambia is a Left-Hand drive country, so if I get in (and apparently it’s over-subscribed by 10 to 1, so that’s not guaranteed, especially as it’s not first-come first-served), then I’ll be needing an LHD car, preferably something like a sierra or granada estate – something old-school and reliable, and big enough to make the journey comfortable, with lots of extra provisions with us!

Anyway, enough of this crazyness! Next event is the Somerset Stages, and there will be a change for this – Kev is no longer navigating as he’s too busy to do it. So I’ve managed (somehow) to convince Paul to give it a go. He thinks that I drive too slowly on the stages (as I’ve not crashed yet), so we’ll see about that, won’t we. It’s on the 23rd April, so I guess I’d better fix the front dampers on the car, hadn’t I? Hmmm….

Yeah, good. So, another red-bull-tinged Sunday morning. Nice enough weather to consider getting the bike out, not actually nice enough to do it though; it’s still wet outside, and there’s no way I’m riding when it’s wet. Yeah, I’m not a “proper biker” for doing that, but most people who say that don’t happen to own a car. And smell of wee. And besides, I’ve done all the “proper biker” bit, and it was deeply unpleasant; I ride now because it’s fun, not because I’m trying to prove I can endure arctic conditions and torrential rain while risking my neck on a vehicle that has two patches of rubber the size of a tennis ball between me and ultimate doom….

But I think I’ll get the rally car out instead, as it’s only 7 days until it will finally be used in “anger”. Although I think bewilderment will probably be more the order of the day, given that both I and Kev are complete novices. Steve Colville (rally guru and generally helpful chap) used the phrase “the blind leading the blind”, which I guess is just about accurate. I would like to think that I won’t be totally incompetent, but I think that’s probably a little far fetched. Anyway, in 7 days, Smeatharpe will be upon us (hopefully we won’t be impaled on anything), which i am really looking forward to. I’m nervous already. And I’m a bit worried that I’ve heard _nothing_ back from them, so I guess I’ll see what the deal is there…. I need to know what number I am (obviously the last one in the field, but that’s no surprise really, is it?), so I can get some big old numbers for the doors. And stuff like that.