Skoda Rally Blog

After having had a good think about it (and a few inspirational conversations), I thought it was worth giving a serious go at taking on Rally GB again this year; the car won’t be eligible forever (will it, FIA?), and there is precisely zero chance I’ll be able to afford a homologated car in the future; there look to be fewer and fewer options for affordable rallying at International level in the future, so this really could be it.

So, I made use of Bryan Hull’s excellent RallyMatcher website to see if anyone was interested in navigating with me this year.  And fortunately after some further discussion it’s looking good, as I have Brynmor Pierce sitting in with me – he’s got loads of experience and is really keen to do Rally GB, and handily is from North Wales and knows a number of the stages like the back of his hand.  He also lives near Llandudno which will make the logistics of the start of Recce and the start of the event much easier to deal with, something which I thought could have been a problem.  In addition, he has a car which we can use for the recce, so it’s all looking good really.  Just so you know who he is, he’s handily sent me “the cheesiest image possible”, so I shall put it here, with no comment other than that!

However, standing between us doing that in mid-November is some work on the car.  As it stood at the beginning of the weekend, it wasn’t actually that bad; it runs and drives and I’d probably be happy to take on a one-day event in the car with a bit of minor re-prep, but I’d rather get the car just right (plus there’s one thing that definitely needed fixing as you will see in a bit).  So, I’ve spent the weekend doing the car (in between the rain showers).

First issue was the exhaust, or more precisely the exhaust manifold.  This has been a hideous bugbear since the car was built in 2007; it was bought from “The Idiot”, and as such was a badly-beaten and bodged-back-together collection of tubes that never fitted particularly well, and which leaked – from a couple of places that were inaccessible due to the way the four tubes met, plus the joint to the system was always a terrible sliding joint that both rattled and leaked.  Really not good, but always the kind of thing I tolerated and never got round to fixing.  However, a while ago I bought a nice ex-kit car manifold from James Johns (who is rebuilding his Felicia and has gone for a very nice stainless replacement for it), and now was the time to fit it.  This may sound straightforward, but it’s not for two reasons; firstly removing the old manifold meant fully removing the old system and loosening the engine mountings and swinging the engine forwards to get enough room to remove it (it’s  a large single piece of pipework), and then the system needed to be modified slightly to fit the new joint (which has a proper flange instead of a horrific sliding affair which leaked like a sieve).  This meant I needed to get my TIG welding kit out (as the system is stainless), and to make a nice job of it took most of a day, with measurements,modification and checking it all on the car before final welding up and refitting.  And that’s a day’s work which in between the showers meant it didn’t get fitted until this morning.

Nice leak-free manifold.

Dutifully as soon as it was fitted, the car fired up, and it was definitely a case of good and bad; the good news was that the exhaust didn’t leak at all, and didn’t rattle – it’s spot on. The bad news is that this now meant I could hear just how rattly the engine is!  The bottom end was already down for a rebuild as it’s sounded very tired towards the end of the last two events that it’s done, so right after this everything will be ordered to rebuild it, hopefully to be fitted in a couple of weekends’ time.

Next up was the issue that definitely needed doing – the left rear Proflex shock has sprung a leak!  It has leaked oil while the car has been stood up, and it looks like the union from the reservoir to the shock body is leaking, so that will need to be sent off for a re-oil and gas; not hugely expensive, but probably north of £100.  So that was removed and stripped ready to be sent off, and a standard one refitted to keep the car rolling.

After that I replaced the old Terratrip 303 with a 404 that I got cheap on eBay which seems to work OK (and better than the 303 which was at best erratic!).  Again, should be straightforward but as the mounting holes are in different places meant an hour rather than 10 minutes.  And then I just went round the car to make a list of things that need to be bought, serviced or replaced.  The list at present looks like this:

• Rebuild spare bottom end and fit to car
• Replace Driver’s Seat (as it’s now out of date)
• Replace Plumbed-In extinguisher Mountings (FIA rules have changed on this)
• Get both extinguishers serviced (they need to be done every 2 years)
• Get rear damper re-built

On top of that there’s a bunch of cosmetic stuff, but that’s not too bad a list – Aside from the bottom end rebuild everything else is a straightforward “pay for something and then bolt it back on in very little time” – obviously there’s a fair bit of money to spend there (about £700, I think), but it’s not too big in terms of hours aside from the engine rebuild.

So, all systems go, I think!  More to follow as soon as I know more details, or have taken some pictures of something.