Skoda Rally Blog

OK, so there are a lot of things to do to the car for WRGB. Some of them are to make the car ‘legal’ for international competition:

• New drivers’ seat and subframe
• New extinguisher system and handheld
• Window Film
• Rollcage padding
• Driver’s Name on rear windows
• Driver and Navigator names on front wings

Some of them are improvements to the car

• New gearbox
• Limited Slip Differential

And some things are just repairing things or renewing stuff to make it more sturdy or reliable.

So this week I’ve been off work (as it’s half term and most of my work at present is in schools) and so I’ve got the opportunity to work on the car. Except the new seat and subframe hasn’t arrived, the diff guy has gone quiet on me, and it’s been raining. But I’ve made some progress – I’ve put the window film on, so now the windows won’t cover us in pieces of glass should one shatter. If you’ve ever been unfortunate enough to apply this stuff, you’ll know what an exercise in disappointment it is. I’ve not done a bad job, but it’s not perfect. And the edges! Oh the edges. Let alone fitting the rear quarter lights which is always a nightmare.

I’ve removed the old seat, and also taken the chance to fit the treadplate floor ‘mats’ that I bought from Chris Bennett back in 2004 – as the Felicia is basically a Favorit, the floor is the same, which is handy. Once they’re fitted properly they’ll make it much nicer inside and give a consistent feel under my feet – the original floor is a bit random in places.

And i’ve fitted the extinguisher, at least trial fitted it and put the new pipes in. There are now four nozzles (two inside the car, two in the engine bay), but I can’t fit them properly as I don’t have the right size holesaw to make brackets…. and neither did Allfix, so that’s been ordered. G-reat.

Having said that, fitting the seat shouldn’t take too long as the seat rails make it a straightforward job, just drilling four holes once I’ve lined things up. The car will look a lot better than it has done for a long time (probably since I’ve owned it!), and maybe even go better. However, I still need to source a couple of gearboxes, a rev counter and a few other bits and pieces as well as get the new bumpers painted, and 4 wheels that are silver painted yellow to match the Felicia Fun ones I have – the car looked quite natty in my photoshop mock-up.

There has, however, been one big piece of progress. All the forest rallies we’ve done in the past have been using route notes, which are made by driving over the stages at low speed and then reading them back when competing. These have been supplied by someone who does them for many of the rallies in the UK, Brian Patterson. However, on Wales Rally GB they are not available – you need to make your own. And in addition, you can’t do it in your rally car, you have to do it in a ‘recce car’, which can be a totally standard car (many, apparently use hire cars!), or can be a group N rally car, providing it’s quiet, and looks inoffensive (i.e. it’s not stickered and the interior looks fairly standard). I thought it would be a good idea to do the stages in a similar car to the rally car as it’ll give an idea of how they’ll look (otherwise I’d do them in my Pajero!), and today I managed to bag a nice, well looked after Felicia for ?400. It was in Devon, and there lies a tale. Paul was working there today, so the plan was to leave at 5 (he had to be there for 7), and drop me off and I’d get the car and be back early enough to do a day’s work on the car. However, TomTom had other ideas. Parts of Devon are rather ‘rural’, and we were taken through a road which was a bit narrow. And it had rained buckets last night, the result of which was one section of road that was rather flooded, but it looked OK – we made it through, but it became apparent at the half-way point that it was very muddy under the water, so there was some sliding and wheelspinning. We then came to another section that looked to just be a bit muddy. But it wasn’t. Not even close. It was actually about 6 inches deep in mud, just it looked like a light covering as it was so smooth. Stuck. Very, very stuck. It took many goes of going back and forwards, and of course Paul was dressed for work, and eventually the clutch said “no more” (this is in his 55-plate company Focus!), and wouldn’t engage reverse. I said it just needed to cool down (it reeked as only a cooked clutch can do), and ten minutes later it was OK, and with that and a heavy push from me, we got out, but of course had to go back through the watery mud we’d just been through. The alternative route TomTom said had a road sign on it saying “road liable to flooding”.

Which given what had just happened, you’d think we’d heed. Oh no. Two blokes, a bit of bravado (which usually ends up in a severe hangover), and there you go. It really looked OK to me at first, ‘cos the water looked shallow – you could see the kerb/grass and it was OK for about 100 yards. Then we rounded a corner, and two things happened. Firstly, the water on the right looked deep – there were waves and stuff. Secondly, I noticed that there was a river on the left of us. And it had burst its banks, and was draining into the road. Oh, actually, three things happened – we kept to the left-hand ‘kerb’, and the right front corner of the car dropped alarmingly and the headlights seemed to go dim. I think this may have been because it was splashed, which is quite deep when you think of a Focus. So into reverse, sharpish, and back we went. All this time I was thinking it was amazing that no water had come in as it was definitely over the door line. But it didn’t! We got out unscathed, and then TomTom took us a sensible route, and I picked up and drove home a lovely little Felicia. Even had half a tank of petrol, Tax and MOT to April 2007 and a CD player that worked!

Burley’s car was a bit messy though. This was the clean side.

So, for this all I need to add is a sump guard, some plastic guarding for the fuel and petrol pipes, a trip meter (I have a spare terratrip, handily) and a few creature comforts, and we have a recce car. Excellent. Now I just need to get my act together and sort out the rally car!