Skoda Rally Blog

… is everything in rallying.  The handling of the car had been a bit of a concern to me on the Sunseeker, and I had put it down to the diff.  However, I had missed something (predictably) – the camber of the front wheels wasn’t even.  The driver’s side checked out OK, but the passenger’s side wasn’t right, it was slightly positive, instead of the -0.5 degrees that it should be.  Easy enough, I thought – it’s adjustable on these.

Except it’s not.

On the standard setup, there is the provision for some movement with a top “camber bolt” – effectively a cam which changes the relationship between the hub and the strut.  But with the bilstein front legs the Seat is wearing, there is no provision for movement, so some modification was needed.  Having measured everything else up, it seemed that the problem was this, and I set to work modifying the hub bolt holes; the cheapest part to replace in case of error and because of the direction of adjustment needed, it would mean the weight of the car would be resting on it anyway.  Half an hour’s work with a carbide burr got it all in spec (checked with my nice new camber gauge), and therefore problem sorted – certainly the car now leapt about a lot less, but it still doesn’t give me complete confidence, so something is still not right.  But there’s not enough time to sort that out as tomorrow sees Abingdon Car-nival, a tarmac rally (no, really!), which I will be accompanied for the one and only time by my girlfriend, Tammie.

Off with the lamp pod, time for a quick final test drive.

And then, disaster!

I had been distracted and forgotten to put the bonnet pins in.  It’s a windy day, so despite going relatively slowly, a gust of wind gets under the bonnet and smashes it into the windscreen.  I pulled over and made it safe and drove home, cursing profusely.  Looked like we’d not be going at all.

After the red mist had cleared, I phoned a few places for a quote, and while on the phone to the second company who could fit a screen, I remembered something – I got a heated screen with the car, and it was in the loft and ready to fit.  For the sum of £55, a fitter came and removed the old screen, allowed me to make the necessary mods (a few body clips needed grinding off as the screen is for a facelifted 6K2 Ibiza which is wider but fits on the same basic shell), and fitted it expertly.  Once I’d ‘straightened’ the bonnet, I had a driveable car.  3 hours from error to fixed (ish) – not too bad, although clearly I need a new bonnet!