Skoda Rally Blog

So, today was hideously cold. So cold that I had to put a heater onto the car I was taking the bits off of just to make it bearable to touch them! The plan was to remove the entire hub assembly, complete with driveshaft, and transplant it into the car. Reason for this? Because it worked OK in the banjulmobile, and therefore there was less opportunity to be at home to mr. cockup, who has been paying me weekly visits of late. However, this did mean it was quite heavy and also meant I had to fit the terratrip sensor to the new hub, meaning it took a couple of hours to get all done, including a bit of a scare with the hub not clamping up on the strut properly (just needed hoofing up), and then after a test drive…..

One noise removed (two including noise #1), but a new one instead – turns out after yesterday’s replacement of the spherical bearing there was something not sat right, and I ended up having to remove the lot to fit it properly. That done, I finally got to drive the car with Paul in it as well, and it finally drove without any rattles or anything else that you’d not want on a rally car. Especially one that is supposed to be doing a 3-day event next week!

Paul was busy preparing everything for the move into the service van, sorting and tidying everything, and I got on with the car, fitting the sumpguard and a few small things as well, and then onto fitting the sumpguard for the recce car (which is my daily driver, hence me being so keen to make sure that it doesn’t get minged as I’ll need it on the Monday afterwards), and that meant removing the old mounting, which had been cut after the last mounting bar got bent meaning we couldn’t undo the nut. Fortunately Paul volunteered to do this to save my back (which really doesn’t like lying on a cold concrete floor), but he was beginning to question that half an hour later, but he eventually got it off (with a bit of help from me at the right time), and then it was ‘just’ a case of making up a new bar which will hopefully make the back of the guard sit a bit higher this year – the crowns on the roads were catching it quite badly last year, meaning several raised eyebrows.

Picked up the van, thanks to the legend that is Steve Colville, and tomorrow should be stickering, final bits and pieces (including a new nav lamp, and terratrip sensor and checking a couple of other things), and loading up. Hopefully nothing else will go wrong, as there really isn’t time now, is there?

Something occurred to me yesterday – this has totally consumed my life for the past couple of months. I’ve not been out since mid-September, aside from going to friends houses a total of three times in that period (once to take pics of the rally car, no less, and watch England ‘play’ football). And because of all of this, I’ve kind of forgotten about the fact that next week I’ll be living a dream. Again. Doing for the second time something that I never thought I’d ever get to do at any point, let alone twice. Except this time I’ll be doing it in a car that I’ve built myself. In my drive. For not a lot of money. Anyway, I think that once I get there (maybe tomorrow, although I think I may need to wait until Monday to travel up) it’ll all start to make sense again. Last year it was when I picked up the stickers from the Milennium Stadium. I have no idea when it will be this week, but hopefully it’ll happen sooner rather than later!