Skoda Rally Blog

This weekend was a bit odd. As you may know, Canford Arena (the place used for servicing on the Rallye Sunseeker) is just down the road from my house (just over a mile away), and this weekend it was host to the Outdoor Lifestyle Show which featured a variety of activities, including Rally Car Rides. Gary from Ebblake was organising that side of things, and the promise of being able to get a bit of time in on gravel was tempting, so I said I’d do it.

It meant firstly sorting out the exhaust on the car, which wasn’t too painful – a bit of TIG work on the new stainless pipe I’d had made up (one of the angles was wrong) and about a day’s work meant I had a running car once more, and sounding sweeter than ever. Even looks shiny!

Friday was the first day of the show, but I was working, so I went on Saturday morning to see a neat course set out in what it usually the service area, and as well as Gary’s Impreza there were a couple of BMW E30 cars there, a Mk.2 and Kev Rowledge’s lovely N4 Impreza, which he’d never driven on gravel before. You’d never know from the way he was driving it though, for sure. I had a few laps as practice, and then spent the rest of the day taking people round – I even made pace notes up for some to read if they fancied it, but few did. One girl who did was excellent, she read it spot on all the way round, all 4 laps!

When people get fat, they do so slowly, without noticing, and it’s only when people who haven’t seen them for 5 years see the sudden change that what’s happened becomes clear. And I had that sort of thing happen this weekend. When I first started out on gravel (Newton Abbot Audi stages, 2004), I was terrible, hence falling off the road at zero mph. But I’ve stuck at it (thanks Steve), and although I may not be quick, I’m OK now. But when you get someone sat in the passenger’s seat who’s never done this sort of thing before it becomes clear just how out-of-the-ordinary what you do for fun is – I’d expected people to say “that was slow. You’re rubbish”, but everyone who got out of the car loved it, and there were several comments (including from one woman who said she was a ‘speed demon’) about my driving, being able to control the car like that (i.e. a bit sideways), and after a while I was thinking that maybe I had got it together. Not great, but not rubbish. What was funny was seeing people’s reactions – one woman was constantly reaching for the navigator’s footrest, trying to push an imaginary brake pedal – it was great watching her down the back straight, as we got to the end I could see in the corner of my eye her right leg extending involuntarily, trying to stop the car! One girl videoed the whole lot, and chuckled, and one man asked questions for most of the time, meaning my answers were punctuated wherever a tight corner came up.

What was funny was the Skoda actually went round the course quite quickly. Gary’s Impreza was running on tarmac tyres (to avoid wear to the gravel and also to avoid tyre wear, ‘cos he only has soft tyres that wear quick and cost a lot), but he was lapping in 24 seconds. I did it in 22 consistently, which is something he’ll never hear the end of!

I also got a chance to drive Gary’s Subaru – I’ve never even driven one on the road before (never even sat in one), and once I’d done a lap to warm things up a bit, gave it some. It was a revelation – having that much power is wonderful, being able to steer the car predictably on the throttle, and have it do exactly what you tell it to was just fantastic. The car felt far more competent and smooth than the Felicia (no offence, Skoda!), and I think I could really have some fun in one of them. But given that Gary’s gearbox alone cost more than building my car AND entering Rally GB then I think it’ll have to wait until at least hell freezes over, alas. Nice to know I could drive a 4WD car OK though.

On Sunday it was more of the same, but overnight rain and the day’s use left the track very cut up and we’d moved it as many times as possible, so the last runs were a bit more ‘improvised’ than before – nothing dodgy, just making your own lines. The last few people loved it (one woman said she couldn’t walk!), but then the old bugbear of the left front strut-top coming loose reared its ugly head, and given how rough it was getting I thought discretion was better than destruction; We didn’t get paid anything significant for doing it, so the money I did get wouldn’t have covered even slight damage, so I quit around lunchtime.

The show was hit by bad weather and therefore poor attendance, and I think it was a real pity as those who did come had a great time, and for ?15 got a chance to go in some real rally cars – everyone was surprised at how rough and visceral an experience it was (and we were hamming it up a bit, getting over-sideways for fun), so hopefully when they watch rallying on the TV in future, they’ll see it in a different light…