Skoda Rally Blog

Scrutineering is one of my least favourite parts of rallying. Not that I’ve ever had a car fail it, it’s just that it’s the final hurdle between you and an event. This morning we got to service for about 8am (after some left hand/right hand not knowing directions from the security who’d told us to use a specific entrance last night which was now closed, wasting 10 minutes), and did the final few things needed before scrutineering – fitting the WRC tracker was one of them, but this went reasonably smoothly as the mountings were already there…. and didn’t line up! The plate that the tracker box sits on had different alignment (only a couple of mm, but still), so that needed work, and the plate I’d made up for the console also didn’t line up. I wasn’t arsed to measure it, but I’m sure their diagram is wrong. Anyway, two bolts and a cable tie saw that sorted out. Stickering the car up also had to be done, and this is the one thing Paul isn’t good at (he earlier said if he was good at stickers then he “would be considered a God”), so I did all of those, and not as well as I’d like – the high vis numbers for the rear doors are always really poor quality vinyl and don’t stick well if there’s been water even in the same postcode in the last 24 hours.

After packing everything else into the car (protective clothing, homologation papers, etc), we set off for noise test. Which wasn’t where it was on the diagram. Asked a guy at remote refuel, and he looked at me like I was an alien. He spoke English (and sounded to be a native) but asking him where the noise test was may as well have been in Serbo-Croat. Glad we’re not paying 5 euros a litre for the privilege of his company then!

Finally we found out noise test had been moved to scrutineering, so we set off down there, and passed the noise test. One of the orange suits opened the bonnet, and told me the drilling i’d made (which was according to the diagrams and also precisely as instructed last year) wasn’t adequate and I’d have to re-do it, this time through the block only. Which wouldn’t have been so bad, but he didn’t put the bonnet pins back in (despite closing the bonnet and looking like he had done) and fortunately someone unconnected told me that they weren’t in properly!

Having gone back to the van and made the drilling, we returned and got through OK, to the check for radios “We don’t have any, mate”, and the WRC tracker. If you don’t know, this is a GPS-based transmitter that has two purposes – crew safety (as we can flip a switch if we’re in an SOS situation) and also for making the TV coverage cheaper – this is where the Virtual Spectator bit gets its data from. We have to put down a credit card with enough to cover the cost of the gear (around ?3000) if it gets damaged by us, and I’ve previously found the ISC staff mostly miserable to deal with; when Paul collected the tracker he asked if he should check it and the guy said “No need, I’ve checked it myself”. Clearly he hadn’t checked it as it didn’t work. Many reasons were given, including that we might be too close to a building (!!!), but it didn’t work and after a delay they gave up and in we went to scrutineering. Firstly the car was weighed (safely over at 990kg), and then into a scrutineering bay. Paul took care of the clothing and helmets while I did the car. While the clothing was being checked, he was asked if we had a HANS device, and of course we don’t (hence not doing Rally GB next year as they’ll be compulsory). The guy went on to ask another competitor, saying “HANS”, and the guy got his gloves out. He asked again – “HANS” and the guy waved his gloves again. Turns out he thought he was saying “Hands”…

Scrutineering of the car was fairly straightforward – a young female trainee was doing it, and I feared over-zealous checking of everything, but fortunately that wasn’t the case – a couple of ‘queries’ were pointed out, but it was all OK, but it did take a long time – nearly an hour in total – although some other cars seemed to be there all the time we were there. So we were ready to go…. except the tracker, which was checked again on exit and guess what? Still not working. THey promised to come visit us ASAP as we said we were heading off.

While we waited, I took the opportunity to make the most of the ?750 pass we were each wearing and get closer than the public are allowed to Loeb’s car which was just back from shakedown. The difference between these cars and the road ones is absolute – just removing the back wheel showed the bespoke suspension and enormous brakes, and that was just on the back. The underside of the car is all guarded and very smooth, and of course nearly every mechanical part is only from the WRC car. While this might seem fantastic on the surface (and in an engineering view, it definitely is), is it any wonder that the sport is becoming too expensive to compete in? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying for a moment that I think I have the talent or ability to do anything like that. But there are people out there who could who will never even think about it because it’s a million miles away from a normal car, and aside from ours and about 3 others, there are no “normal” cars in this event. Yes, these cars are incredibly capable, but they are almost TOO capable – they aren’t as spectacular to watch as an over-powered car with not enough grip (although this week, I think more grip and less power would be a safer way to go, but in normal conditions it’s a bit boring). And with the way things are financially at the moment and massive costs to run front-running cars, is it any wonder there’s little interest? I can’t see why Ford or Citroen do it, really….

Once I’d had my fill of this, we sorted out the tracker. They turned up and unplugged and plugged it in several times – this hadn’t worked earlier, so I wasn’t surprised when it didn’t work now, and then they came back with TWO replacement boxes. And a good job too, as the first replacement was also duff.

Finally we were ready to go, so we did – took the recce and rally cars back to the house, ready for a relaxing afternoon until about 4:30 or so, when it’ll be time to head off to Cardiff for the ceremonial start. Ian should be here by then…