Skoda Rally Blog

I’m not sure if I mentioned this….but the Ibiza is bent.

It always has been.  The camber on the front left wheel is positive – that means the top of the wheel is tipping outwards – which has a really bad effect on the car’s handling.  Or rather, it was that way until I modified the hub to allow it to be at the correct camber, but the problem with that is that the wheel is not in the right place.  My rough and ready calculations showed that the wheel was about 5mm “in” from where it should be, and that pointed to two areas – either the upper mounting was out from where it should be, or the lower one was in.  As the engine and gearbox are out of the way, this seemed the ideal time to investigate, as it’s actually possible to measure between strut tops and wishbones without there being a lump of metal in the way, so I made some measurements and found that the diagonals (i.e. top left strut mount to bottom right wishbone, and vice versa) were different.  By about 5mm, and in the “right” direction for the error I’d seen.  The top mounts are massively strong on the Ibiza – they were fabricated from thick steel sheet, welded to the cage accurately (Simon told me that this was a major pain to get right when the car was built) and they looked unlikely to have moved much; inspection didn’t reveal anything untoward.  The lower subframe, however, would be susceptible to loading from the side (such as sliding into a kerb), and was relatively weak as the subframe hasn’t got a direct line between the two mounts (as the engine is there).  There is an OMP brace fitted, and looking at this showed…. that it’s bent, and on the side where I think the car got hit.

It was all pointing toward the front subframe being bent, but it’s difficult to assess – there are no easy points of reference, and its shape and construction mean that it looks sort of bent anyway – it’s quite an organic, flowing shape and is not symmetrical.  I’m sure with an accurate 3D measuring jig it would be possible, but I decided to get it off the car anyway to see what was what, and when I undid the bolt nearest where I think it’s bent… it moved quite a lot, and I couldn’t get the bolt back in, so I think this confirmed it – the rest came off pretty easily; once the steering rack was unbolted, it was only another 5 bolts and off it came….

Is it bent?

It had been strengthened and seam welded, but it was still not possible to see if it was actually bent.  A bit of research showed that as many people have said, the subframe is the same as a Mk3 Golf (GTI/VR6), and this has a massive upside – they are cheap and availability is good – I managed to get one for £50, delivered, including steering rack, anti-roll bar and wishbones, which should be arriving today.  I can then measure the differences between the two (which I hope are present!) and if that all checks out, then get welding!