Skoda Rally Blog

First thing this morning, the post man brought me news that (as predicted), we’re running dead last on the road in our first rally. Which is obvious. What was a surprise was that there are only four cars in our class! Now I’m not sure if that means that we’re at some kind of big-boys fest, just a statistical improbability or something more sinister, but at least we have a chance of coming third in class! I don’t know if the others are novices though, but one of them is running at number 59, so maybe we have a chance.

Yesterday’s drive showed me several things about the Fav, one of which was that the synchro on third is knackered; unless you take about 2 seconds to change gear, you get a little grind when changing up – down is no problem. Which I could live with, but then a five-speed C/R box appears on the britishrally.com forum, brand new and unused. But for ?900! The guy has a lot of other things for sale, and I spent a handy 20 minutes on the phone to him, finding out all sorts of things, such as the engine should be good to 7000rpm (so my self-imposed limit of 5500 seems a bit tame, especially as it’s just getting going at that speed), that the C/R box is a Good Thing for the Fav, and that weight is everything. He has lots of bits, and I’m going up on Wednesday to see him, and probably spend way too much money on it. But you’re only here once, and why not, eh?

Needless to say, this has led to me looking around the house for things that I could sell to pay for such stupidity. The box is totally out of the question – if it was ?500 I could just about go to that, but ?900 is half the cost of the car so far…. I know that transmissions are expensive, but this is just ridiculous. I could have a 6-speed box for “under ?2000”. Er, yeah, OK then. He has some other lightweight bits, like a fibreglass bonnet, lightweight doors, and other bits, so I’m really not sure just how full the Focus will be on the way back. Hmmmm….

Otherwise, it’s all going to plan. The car is all done, and the stickers will be with me on Wednesday morning; whether I’ll be putting them onto a new lightweight bonnet and doors remains to be seen…..