Skoda Rally Blog

There have been several disappointing moments in my life – finding out that I’d never marry Sarah Greene (when I was about 10), realising that I’d never be an astronaut (at 15), realising I’d never play Glastonbury Festival (actually, that was only a couple of years ago, but you get the idea). And not finishing the Somerset stages was one of them. So, I’d done a fair bit of work on the car to prevent another driveshaft breakage this time out. I’d replaced the water pump/engine mount with an uprated one, and also the engine steady bar, and this meant that the engine wouldn’t move a great deal, even under the harshest of acceleration and braking, and therefore not stretch the driveshaft to its limit, and stop the problem happening again. To not finish once because of a problem is one thing, but it happening again is simply unacceptable to me.

This weekend, it was time for a return visit to Caerwent, the army training facility in South Wales which offers (as far as I know) the closest thing to closed-roads rallying in the UK. It’s a great venue, offering some really varied, exciting road layouts, and as it’s tight and twisty with some very large kerbs, you have to be precise, and being in a small car isn’t the massive disadvantage that it is on large airfield-type events. It’s quite a trek, but we thought it was worth the effort as it gave good stage mileage.

First up was scrutineering on Saturday. Now, I know it’s a bit infra-dig to moan about scrutineering, but the one thing I find annoying is inconsistency – there were several (extremely minor) things I was pulled up on by the scrutineer that other people weren’t. One of them led to me spending ?140 on new front tyres, so to find out that a couple of other competitors were running on tyres that were far more worn than the ones I’d been forbidden to use was a little annoying.

However, Sunday came, and we got set up. And the car started reasonably well, but running down to the stage start it ran horribly. I’d tested it the day before, and it’d felt really good – revving strongly, lots of power, and no problems with knocks, bangs, or the engine moving about; in fact it felt better than it ever had done. So this wasn’t good news. I hoped it would clear out, and just be the result of a fouled plug or two from ticking over too long. The stage started, and we were off! Reading from the map was tough for Paul as it wasn’t detailed enough to show some of the corners – local knowledge of Caerwent is an important thing, especially when you come over a blind crest and cross a railway track you had no idea was there. However, crossing this, the left front suspension felt ‘loose’ – there’s no other way to describe it. I hoped it would hold together. As we went round, we passed an RS200 kit-car which had already broken down. And then the engine started to run really roughly – not wanting to rev above 4500rpm, and not pulling at all well. Over some more rough tarmac, and then it felt loose again. Another couple of turns, and then the engine died and came back. And BANG!

The driveshaft had gone. And when I revved up (from the shaft being broken), the engine let out a huge plume of smoke and also blew up. We coasted to a halt, and I, er, vented my anger, shall we say. I just couldn’t believe that the same problem had happened again, and only a couple of miles into the stage, if that. Got out, had a look, yes, same shaft broken – the inner joint had pulled out, and the front suspension wasn’t right any more – there’s some play there.

So, we had to sit around while Stage 2 was run, and got to see everyone else going by – some looking smooth (especially those at the front, or in modern 4wd machinery), some looking a bit lairy (mainly Mk.2 escort drivers!), some looking to be taking it easy (which is never a bad idea at Caerwent), and a couple really going for it. Unfortunately one guy in a Nova (who was really going for it, and had the car well sideways into the bend before the Skoda’s final resting place) was going too much, and side-swiped the kerb, meaning he’d bent the rear beam on the Nova – he got going again, but the wheel was around 10 degrees from vertical, and rubbing on the wheel arch – I don’t think he’d have got far.

So, the now-familiar routine of being towed back to safety, and then loading the car up, and buggering off. I’m really not sure what to do with the car now – it needs a new engine, and the driveshaft issue needs to be sorted, or else it’s curtains for my rallying, really. I felt really bad for Paul as he’d had a short rally because I’d not sorted the problem 100%. So that all sucks. I guess I need to put a nice, reliable engine in there, like a Felicia MPi one, and then find out whatever is causing the problem with the driveshaft, and fix it properly, once and for all. I don’t expect to never have a problem, but I don’t expect to retire from three events in a row. I took this up to enjoy myself, not bankrupt myself to drive single-figure mileages…..