Skoda Rally Blog

… of a sort has happened.  Not as much as I’d have liked, but some.

So, the deal was this; I’m waiting for engine parts to rebuild a bottom end to put into the car, and for plates to allow me to set the diff to the correct torque.  Despite being told that they’d all been posted by both suppliers, it now transpires that they hadn’t.  I was told that the engine parts had been sent on the 13th September.  Turns out they were actually only posted (in the Czech Republic) on the 23rd (i.e. Friday just gone).  No wonder I’ve wasted time waiting for parts to turn up.  I have no idea when they will turn up, as the tracking number I’ve been given doesn’t work and the supplier in question has gone quiet.  There are also some technical concerns as one part has been substituted so I don’t know if they’ll be the right clearance anyway.  So, I needed another plan, and it should be arriving on Thursday, in the shape of an ex-dealer stock engine which is apparently rebuilt and unrun.  It will need a new cam on it anyway (as I have a works cam I want to run in the car), and the head changing, so most of it will be inspected as a matter of course.  It’s also an opportunity to get a new oil pump and a number of other parts into the bargain.  Hopefully.  All will be revealed on Thursday when it arrives and I have some time to check it all over. Yes, it’s out on a limb, but at this point I’m not in a position to go ‘all in’ given the delay that could happen with the parts I’d ordered.

As for the diff, it turns out the parts were only posted yesterday (as opposed to last Wednesday, which I was told they would be going out on when I ordered them), but they are at least here, so it should be a couple of hours’ work to get the diff set up to an appropriate breaking torque, and then get the box back together.

In the meantime, some suppliers have been good to their word.  The ever-efficient Larkspeed have delivered the replacement driver’s seat (a Cobra Imola Pro, replacing the previous Imola S), on the day they said they would, bang on 9am.  This is now bolted into the car, a 5-minute job which left me hoping everything else would be that easy (it won’t!).

Spot the difference? £400, that's what!

Lifeline have serviced the 4.0ltr plumbed-in and 2.4ltr handheld extinguishers, and they will be back on Thursday too; another item which is just bolt-in and forget, which will be pleasant.  Having to have perfectly good extinguishers serviced at a cost of £90 every two years isn’t (for FIA events they need to be tested and stickered by the manufacturer).  I’ll check up on the rear shock rebuild status tomorrow, although I know Proflex were busy when I phoned them, and I’m not in a hurry for it back, but it’s another thing to not worry about.