Skoda Rally Blog

No rally car looks complete without stickers.  And having removed all the blue ones from before, it was time to get some nice ones back on there.  I don’t have much in the way of sponsorship, so it was time to do some self-promotion, as well as promote Xtreme Outdoor, who sell kayaks, skate and scooter gear and whose owner Mark has lent me his van on a number of occasions!  In addition the car was looking quite drab and dull as the paint has faded a fair bit, so I spent most of the day polishing it and then applying the stickers which Andy has as ever provided in next to no time.  Removing old sticker goo takes ages – even more so when it’s on a plastic window that you don’t want to scratch.  But I think the end results are worth it:

From the front.

I’m hoping the TOW sticker isn’t too inconspicuous.

New domain name.... still the same blog!

Titon harnesses – both an advert and a gravel rash cover.

And from the side.

Eagle-eyed readers will note that the tyres are not the right ones – these are road-going winter tyres, which I’ve been shedding about while I get everything sorted out on the car.  These have now been swapped for some more suitable gravel rubber which will do the trick.  While I was playing about with the car I decided to clean the interior – it looks nice and clean in there now, as clean as it can be without a paintjob, and I’ve also reprogrammed the dash and cleared its memory; it’s an Aim MyChron 3 Plus, which is about £500-worth.  At present it’s being used as a rev counter and speedo only, so it’s a bit under-employed.  The speedo bit works fine when on the go, but when at a standstill it comes up with spurious figures, so I’ll need to check this out at some point.  However, I have calibrated it correctly so it reads the right speed when on the go – previously it was miles out.  I’ve turned off the gear display as while I like the geekiness of it, having a red digit flashing on and off on the dashboard is not conducive to a relaxed drive – I spent half an hour or so repogramming the dash to try to get it to work, but ultimately it clearly needs a better speedo signal than the one it’s getting at the moment, and if I need to look at the dash to know what gear I’m in when driving a car with an H-pattern box then I have more serious issues than that anyway!

So that really is it.  The car is ready to rally as it stands right now.  I’m going to have an entire weekend off from doing it or anything to do with it.  Well, I say that, I bet something pops up that I think I need to fix.

This morning I was visited by a couple of students from Southampton Uni who wanted to interview me; they brought a camera over and interviewed me in the drive while in front of the car; when I get the footage I will post it here (providing I didn’t babble too much).  I’m hoping to get a new tracking device fitted to the car in time for the event as a friend runs a company doing these systems, but I’ll have to get hold of him. And then spend the weekend working on the car!