Skoda Rally Blog

Today was one of the biggest rally shows in the country, Rallyday, which is at Castle Combe race circuit.  I’ve been before (in 2005, I think), and it’s a rally-based car show; there are lots of rally cars there, and owners of the rally cars who book time can get a number of runs on the track and also on a short rally stage as well; a chance to see a lot of rare and classic rally cars as well as some road versions of rally cars too.  I’d booked the clubman package which gave four runs round the track, two runs on the stage as well as parking in the main show area.  But it also meant getting there fairly early, so a 6:20 start was called for.  The trip up would give a chance to do more map logging as well, and went fairly smoothly for the most part.

Until the gear lever fell off!  Was stopped at some traffic lights, and I went to put the car in gear, and the lever dropped about 6 inches.  Oh dear.  I got it into first, pulled over and watched the passing traffic run over the bits that had just fallen off – a bracket and a bolt.  Got them back, and got the car to somewhere safe down a side road and then put it back on with some pliers and a bit of deft cable-tie work to cover where the other bolt should be.  Worked well, and got to the circuit only 10 minutes later than I wanted to, but suffered the usual traffic queues there where there are people trying to get in the wrong car parks, etc., but this year the entry to the paddock was much better organised and we went almost straight in, and found where I should be with the Bournemouth Car Club people, including Ray and his Audi.

As soon as I parked… I moved as I wanted to get noise tested, and handily that went smoothly, and parked up again.  Then it was time for the drivers’ briefing, which was… a little wearing.  It went on WAY too long for what needed to be said (keep left, don’t overtake on braking or in a corner, don’t straddle the pit exit line, and what the flags mean), but thankfully got hurried up by one of the women there who knew we’d be late for the session.  Got back to the car, got in and went round to the queue for the course entry.  You have to have covered arms and legs for this, so I had to put on my coat.  And also something that I treated myself to (partly money from my Birthday presents) – a new Peltor G78 Pro Rally helmet.  This is quality – it’s so quiet compared with the old helmet, there’s really no comparison.  You’d never get away without an intercom with one of these on, it’s that good.

Waiting to go on track.

A couple of minutes’ wait and we were on the track.  Now, I’m still running the engine in, and in addition it’s got very short gearing – it’s geared for about 95 in top at 7000rpm, which makes for a very frenetic drive on long straights of tarmac – you’re in top very quickly, and then just revving along, although I’d set a rev limit of 5500rpm, so that was about 70 or so.  Obviously everyone else was quicker, but interestingly not in the corners, aside from Ray and Dean in his GTM Honda.  I’d put forest tyres on as I didn’t want to kill the only tarmac tyres I have (and they’re needed for the full 3 miles of the Sunseeker stages 1 & 2 each year), so I had a very un-grippy car.  The bonus of this is that it made the corners good fun – as if you were going 20-30 mph quicker.  And I was having a good time; keeping an eye on the gauges as we went, it all seemed fine, and 5 laps went quickly – back to the paddock to park up.

Like Babylon 5, really.

Had a chat with the guys from Bournemouth Car Club who were there, and soon enough it was time for the next session; someone asked if they could sit in with me, and once I’d told him it would be very s-l-o-w he was still keen, so he went to sort out his helmet and I picked him up in the queue where I saw Chris Morford from Rallye Sunseeker – he looks after their website amongst other things, and it’s always nice to meet someone you’ve had contact with, but never met; it’s also sometimes weird as you have no idea what they’ll look or sound like.  I also finally got to meet Jon Price from the britishrally forum and Cymraeg Scoobie club, who have been kind enough to sponsor me, and arranged to meet up later.  Chris wanted an interview, so I gave one, although I talked utter drivel.  The reason for this was because the car had started to run a bit lumpy, and I feared that the head gasket was a bit dodgy; the car had suddenly got hot and then cooled down, as I’d found out that the fan wasn’t cutting in.  Not good, but went out for the session anyway; it went much as the first; I’m not sure my passenger was getting the ride of his life (quite the opposite) but he seemed pleased enough to have blagged his way onto the racetrack, even when Ray, Dean and Mike Stewart came past at light-speed.  However, on one of the corners I actually had to brake as a Subaru was going so much slower than I was (worrying), and Geoff Bennett’s escort looked to have expired (later found out to be a short as the starter had come loose, and the battery wasn’t happy!).

Back to the paddock, the car wasn’t ticking over like it did before.  This wasn’t a good sign, although it wasn’t running that badly.  The water level was fine, and everything else checked out so I just left it and went for a wonder.  Saw lots of cars, some old, some new, some classics, some up-to-date stuff, and in another field a whole load of show cars – all sorts of Fords, Subarus and Evos, amongst others – many of them with very clean engines and polished bits here and there.  Not my bag, but the crowds were massive, so clearly I’m in the minority here.

The weather was really good; probably too good as it was getting a bit too hot.  The next track session wasn’t booked until 4:30, and I didn’t fancy waiting that long; although I’d had a lot of people come and speak about the blog and the car and so on, only had a few people sign up, although it was good to meet Mark after such a long time, and Jon and the Cymraeg Scoobie crew came over, stickered the car on the boot and took a few pics – it’s always really nice to have such support from clearly nice people, so that pretty much made my afternoon!

I decided that I’d do one run of the Sparco Rally Stage, which was just a little stage set up for one car at a time (finish where the start was, with a few interesting corners on it), and also decided to put the “helmet cam” from the snowboarding on the roof to get a different view.  This went well.  But the car didn’t – by the end of the stage it was overheating.  I was not happy; got back as soon as possible (no thanks to someone in a Subaru blocking the road and having a chat for a minute), to find a very hot car, and… no water in the tank.  Oh dear.

A quick check found that the hose that comes off the water pump at the back of the engine had…er… come off – not sure whether this was due to pressure building up, or operator error.  I got it back on (not easy as it’s really inaccessible), and then re-filled the engine with water.  Left it for a few minutes to settle, and then started it.  It seemed to be running on about 3 1/2 cylinders – it’s definitely missing, but not completely.  So I thought it was time to make my excuses and leave.  Got as much water as I could in my Tesco’s bottle, and headed off.

The car ran as well as I could expect; in fact aside from it feeling a bit rough and not wanting to tick over, you wouldn’t think there was anything wrong with it; got home without any problems, and despite having the advance timed out of the top end, it’s willing to pull up hills and overtake without problems.  But it’s definitely in need of some attention, probably a new head gasket if not a complete sort out of the liners (which would mean sump off and pistons out) – but I won’t know until I do some testing, and tomorrow I’m navigating at Longcross in an Audi, so that means nothing will be found out until then.

Given that Rally GB entries close in a week and a half, this is…. not good.   Not unachievable (there is another option in the form of a spare, running engine that I can re-cam and re-head), but not ideal.