Skoda Rally Blog

So, the final event was upon us. The new Scafftex Stages at Longcross, which was looking like a Mk.2 Showdown from the entry list. We got there in plent of time on the Sunday morning, despite it being my birthday the day before (spent the night in – how dedicated am I?), and found, well a whole load of very hardcore-looking cars there already. Parked up next to Gary Hayter (in his lovely Mk.2) and got all the usual scrutineering, etc, out of the way. No problems, which was nice.

If you don’t know Longcross, I’ll just set the scene (skip this bit if you do). It’s a military test track, and the outside is really a large, banked oval. There are some other tracks inside that, one of which is the ‘snake’ which is a series of large-radius 180 degree bends, which go up and down hill as well, and some of it is off-camber. Add to that the ‘tank hill’ which is a set of parallel, steep hills (about 100 feet high, and the one we use is 1 in 4, I believe), you have the ability to set up some interesting tracks.

The weather, however, was a bit of a problem. Longcross can be quite slick early on as there are trees in a number of places (including in the infamous ‘snake’ section), and it was a bit damp – threatening to rain, and because of, er, budget restrictions (i.e. being towards the end of the summer I’d run out of money, basically), we didn’t have any wets. So I took a gamble and put some road tyres on the back, and some ‘inters’ on the front and headed off to stage 1.

Oh dear. Dear, oh dear. Note to self – don’t skimp on tyres. We were all over the place, not helped by my poor navigation on the first splits (which were closer together than they appeared when I’d looked at them before), and Paul was having some moments. Every corner. I consoled him by telling him this is what the car feels like on gravel all the time, but we got round OK, but with neither speed nor style. I was glad to just get out of the car in one piece after that. But the weather had dried up a bit, so we went for the usual setup and also re-set the pressures as the front had got quite high when warm, so dropping them down a fair bit and putting decent rears on, we headed out for Stage 2. This was infinitely better – much more like it, and we started to have a laugh. And went up the steep hill a little too quickly, got airborne and took out a few cones and scattered the photographers! It was probably only 6 inches off the ground, but when you’re doing it it feels like you’re miles up! The end of stage 2 was a square right bend, and Paul was getting a bit OTT at this point, and nearly span it. Most amusing.

Stage 3 was a slightly different layout, but there was a problem after the first chicane – the rear right strut had punched through the rubber mounting (bad design), and was effectively useless – the spring was still working, but no damping so the car was bobbing all over the place. But we got round (taking it a bit easy) and fixed in in service using a massive square washer and a bit of filing. Stage 4, the re-run was much better. With the car behaving itself we just had fun all the way round, really.

Stage 5 was a reverse of the previous stage, which was ‘interesting’. Partly because the corners are totally different when in reverse, but for me as much because the big uphill became a big downhill, and the top of it you almost jump off of – it’s a sudden break from flat to incline, and that was a little hairy and always leaves you will ‘that’ feeling (only owners of male reproductive organs will know what I mean – a sharp drop is often felt there). But apart from that, it was all good fun again – Paul was driving well, although he kept lifting on one part of the snake (a blind crest) and I told him not to – you could do it without, for sure. But throughout the day, he’d just do a little confidence lift there, and unfortunately for him, I could see his right foot, so no excuses there! Stage 6 was a re-run of this, and the main point of note was someone had destroyed their lovely Rothmans Mk.2 Escort – one of the chicanes around the outside was now in fragments the size of matches, and his car looked like it had been crumpled up by a giant. They were OK though, and it meant one less chicane to worry about! Oh, and the legend that is Billy Coleman gave us the thumbs up when he passed us, which was nice.

Stage 7, another ‘reverse’ stage, but someone had dropped oil at the top of the steep drop – there’s a long left hand corner leading into it, and it was right on the line. Paul hadn’t noticed this, which made for some ‘interesting’ sliding about. All good though, and the snake was getting better and better – each time we were quicker through it (I use ‘quicker’ as obviously it’s relative!), although there was a stroppy driver in a Nova who was impatient when lapping us – we’re not going to jump out of the way, for one, and secondly, he was beeping the horn way before reaching us. One time we were behind him in the snake, and over all that time he only made about 10 yards on us. The skoda may be slow on the straights, but it’s good in the corners. Stage 8 was a straight rerun of 7, and was an immense amount of fun. We got the snake spot on every time, and had a huge laugh. Even more so at the top of the steep hill as there was a marshal who was already packing up, not realising we were still running. So when we appeared at the plateau, she was suprised to say the least! Down we went, over the finish, and, well, that was that.

We did it. Six events, six finishes. I’m sure by hardcore rallying standards we were just pootling about, but we drove the car pretty quickly, all things considered.

Total cost:

Entry fees: 6 events – ?1200
Fuel for car ?150
Fuel for tow car ?250
Tyres ?200
Gearbox ?50
Brake Pads ?80
Miscellaneous ?150

So, to get Paul’s International licence has cost around ?2000. Which sounds like a lot, but it’s six days on which we’ve had a really good time. And cheaper than most would do it I’d think – the Skoda may be slow, but it’s been very reliable. God, I sound like an old fart!

Now, we have to get everything for WRGB!