Skoda Rally Blog

In case you didn’t already know, before you start a rally, you have a number of things to do – the car needs to be noise tested, and then scrutineered to ensure a) that the car is safe for you to compete in and b) in some cases ensure that your car is eligible for the event.  In the case of this year’s Sunseeker, it’s only a) that is needed; there are no requirements in terms of car specification, other than ones that everyone has to comply with.

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again.  I hate scrutineering.  It’s the last obstacle before you start an event, and it means having your work examined closely, which I shouldn’t be worried about – I’ve never had a car fail scrutineering as I check everything before I take it – but I always find it unpleasant.

This year, it’s doubly so.  The last event I finished as a driver was Sunseeker 2011, which was 30 months ago.  In that time I’ve had a fair few mechanical issues, not only with the rally car, but also with everyday cars; over the summer I spent a lot of time doing up a van for everyday use, and it turned into much more work than I thought, and a little problem with a driveshaft bearing caused me a lot of scratching of my head, sucking air through my teeth, and generally thinking that I’m mechanically incompetent.  Getting the Ibiza MOT-ed was a big step forward, but there’s still the ghost of inability lurking on my shoulder, and those nagging doubts were there all the way to the service area.

This year sees big changes to the event, notably that the service area is now at Creekmoor park and ride instead of Canford Arena, so it’s a fair bit further away from my house (boo!), but it’s fully tarmac covered (hooray!).  Hopefully the weather won’t be too windy as it’s a bit exposed in places down there.  Noise test is down there, so it was my first visit to the area, and it’s well set up with some of the top teams already in place and working away as their cars will have been doing recce and shakedown.  The noise test was at the end of the service area, and passed easily (92dB, the limit is 100dB, which anyone who knows will tell you means my car seems nearly half as loud as it could do), and then it was off to scrutineering with just the tiniest bit of excitement and feeling that I belong once more starting to grow.

Scrutineering was at “Bump!” a body repair place, and once there (over an hour early, which is OK in this event) there was the usual queue of cars – a mint-looking Mk1 Escort behind me, it looked like a show car, plus some other cars that you don’t want to hit:

Trying not to hit the Ferrari.

There were of course some marshals and some people who’ve come to have a look.  Had a chat with a few of them, got everything ready, and after about 10 minutes, in I went.

The Central Scrutinizer will see you now!

With everything unloaded ready for scrutiny, there was a delay – the scrutineer’s online identity was being stolen, and he had an important phone call to take, so I now had a wait which seemed like eternity, with everything ready to go – a bit like going to the Doctor, taking your clothes off to be examined and being left in the room.  It was probably only 5 minutes, but it seemed like an age!

Thankfully, the next scrutineer (who does the event every year) took over, checked everything out and all was OK.  Phew.  Closed the bonnet, double-checked the pins and off I went, nice and slowly.  On the dual carriageway, gave it some beans, it felt lovely, so I said that.

Out loud.

What happened?  Yes, of course – the car started to misfire badly.  I couldn’t believe it; you couldn’t write something like this; it works fine for ages and then THIS. I limped home slowly, and thought the worst on the way.

Thankfully, what had happened soon became obvious.  When checking the car over (as he should!), it looked like one of the HT leads from the coil to the spark plug had come loose, and come out when I gave the car some beans.  Pushed it back in, and it was perfect.  Took it for a little drive just to make sure.  All is well.  The car is ready to go, and Paul’s on his way back from work so we’ll go down to Poole to do documentation and then we’ll be ready for tonight, the ceremonial start at Poole Quay.

Ready to go…