Skoda Rally Blog

At the start of the week, things looked bleak. I’m physically a shed (dodgy back), and there were LOTS of things to do to the car. Change the gearbox, remove and check the front suspension (there were some rattles towards the end of the Tempest), move the nav seat back (Paul is a big chap, and he really wasn’t comfortable in the car at all), fit the new harnesses, and a whole load of little things that just mounted up enough to fill a sheet of A4, even in 10pt writing. Oh dear.

But somehow, now, most of it’s done!

I changed the gearbox with the assistance of my dear mother, back to one that’s actually Group N legal, instead of the diesel (diesel!) gearbox that was in the car when I got it. It now does 40 in second, instead of the 50 that it did before. So much more responsive, it really is. I have no idea whatsoever what the previous owner was thinking of when fitting this to a rally car. Maybe it was fuel economy, or maybe all the stages he did were downhill. Anyway, that’s the big thing done.

Suspension was all removed, checked and refitted. The noise was actually from the sumpguard touching on the catalytic converter (which looks to have seen better days, despite only being one bloody event old!), but it’s always good to check wishbones for cracks, etc. There were none, and the bushes and joints looked in good condition, so it all just got a clean and then was refitted with new bolts and copper grease. It’s actually nice to work on a rally car most of the time, because it’s rare you come across a seized fastener, as most things will have been off recently.

Then, the seat. Now, as I’ve said, Paul is a big chap. He’s 6’4″, and, er, shall we say built for comfort? He’s not fat, but he’s not a rake either. Way back when he started out I had to buy a new seat to fit him, a GT-width (read “pies”) Cobra Imola 2. A really nice seat, but a tight fit in a little Skoda. But in this car, the seat rails were way too far forward, and he was very cramped, and quite high up. This has now all changed. The seat is 5″ further back, and 3″ lower, courtesy of new mountings. This being the real world, and seat mountings being important (i.e. they have to be strong enough to withstand a big off without letting go) coupled with the uneven nature of the Skoda’s floor meant that it took about 6 hours to make the mounts up. The seat is as far back as it can realistically go, and being so low to the floor it made doing the bolts up a bit of a chore, but it’s really neat now, and very easy to get into/out of. For the navigator, being a bit low isn’t a problem, and it should help the car’s centre of gravity. Although I doubt I’ll ever be good enough to realise the benefits of such a modification, I can still wow the crowds with it. If there are any crowds.

So, some more finishing off with little jobs not worth mentioning, and finally fitting the white mudflap material I bought all round the car has left it looking more like a rally car.

Another day’s work should see everything finished off. Now I just have to hope that the nightmare I had last night (of breaking down on Bournemouth seafront) doesn’t come true. It was bad enough to wake me up at 5am, so I’d better make sure the real thing doesn’t happen!

Apart from the technical issues, it’s really exciting to know that it’s all going to start happening in a few days – I can’t describe how excited I am about the whole thing. I know it’s only “another rally”, but there’s something special about doing it, and driving through my home town!