Skoda Rally Blog

Today sees a couple of important things for tomorrow’s Rallye Sunseeker 2011 – having got documentation out of the way last night, scrutineering needs to be done, and then there is the ceremonial start at Poole Quay this evening.

I woke up reasonably early and got all the stickers on the car – this was not to my usual high standards, and I’m blaming thin vinyl for my poor efforts.  Next up was getting some tyres changed, and the chaps at Kinson Tyres were as obliging and efficient as ever, so after that it was time for noise test at Canford Arena, which was passed easily enough, but I noticed that the throttle was sticking – it was difficult to get a precise opening, which is really crucial when trying to get the engine at 4500rpm, and obviously will be when driving the car in anger as some precision is needed in mid-corner to avoid either going hideously slow or off the road!

Scrutineering was down at Oops! near Poole, and I followed Craig Breen’s fiesta most of the way down there until he went in completely the opposite direction, so either he was lost or he wasn’t going there anyway; either way I got there in plenty of time and got the car scrutineered, which went OK apart from the electrical cutoff T-handle breaking when I tested it (I’d removed it all last night and oiled the cable, checked it all worked fine and again this morning, and then it breaks THEN.  Typical!), which I’ve now replaced.

So, technically all ready to start, but still a few things to do – sort out the idle speed (which had risen due to the throttle stop screw working loose), sort the throttle pedal/cable, and also the intercom extension which got broken in Rally GB – handily the UK importer of the connectors is in Poole, so that was easy enough – thanks to Claire at Pambry Electronics for her help today, much appreciated.

I got back, got the idle speed sorted, and found that both throttle pedal and cable were to blame, so lubrication seems to have helped there a great deal, and the intercom was fixed soon enough.  Time for lunch and CRACK!  I’ve broken a tooth.  Which isn’t ideal, but at the moment it doesn’t hurt too much, and handily I have the dentist this afternoon anyway (rated right up there with scrutineering and MOTs for me in terms of dislike), so hopefully he can patch it up.

Just about ready to go...

This evening’s start is at Poole Quay, and we are due at 18:54 and will be out of there by 20:06; hopefully the weather will hold up as it was nice earlier but is looking increasingly grey; I don’t fancy standing about in the rain for an hour, but apparently tomorrow is looking good.  We start at a rather relaxed 10:12am so should have a nice easy morning setting up at Canford Arena (well, what there is to set up, anyway!) and hopefully a smooth and rewarding day on the stages.