Skoda Rally Blog

OK, so this weekend was never going to go that smoothly. But what didn’t help was that on Friday the heavens opened. What I can only describe as rain of biblical proportions threatened to put a stop to any work on the car, and the forecast was for bad weather all weekend. So out with the trusty gazebo, set up in the drive in front of the garage to provide a sort of tent car-port. Which worked reasonably well once I’d finally got it all up with help from Mother! The big problem with it is that it tends to fall apart until you’ve got the canvas bit on, but then it was only ?20 from B&Q and it’s remarkably waterproof.

So, with that out of the way, it was time to get on with the work. Which was a bit of a trial in itself. Many little things to do, like wiring for the map light (re-doing that so the LED one I put in works properly), steering wheel (a nice Momo one, very rally style-eee) which involved some bolting and making everything fit precisely, fitting the new front bumper (amazingly the silicone-fitted indicator was easier to remove than the other, standard one whose clip was clearly designed by the Marquis de Sade) which involved welding as the captive bolts that hold it on at the side self-destructed so then needed to be replaced. And so on. You see, the problem with a rally car is that most of the things you want to do don’t involve a simple remove/bolt on a new one job, they mean making something up or making it fit. So that took hours instead of the 30 minutes you’d expect.

Then it was a case of getting the rest of the car ready for the seats, so making up the new sumpguard mounts was next (although these were just improved with big washers and new rubbers), and then the treadplate ‘mats’ to fit. However, these rattled a lot so big fat beads of sealer were left on there to damp them down and left overnight so they wouldn’t stick to the floor. Then countless little jobs and Stu arrived to put the new stickers on. Only to find out that the Union Flags I’d ordered were for the inside of a window, so no use at all! Idiot! However, the rest went well.

Finally, fitting the seats, which is always a trial as you have to make everything fit properly which means lots of readjustment, but they’re in and they’re spot on – precisely placed and with the new steering wheel it feels like a rally car now.

But driving it was a nightmare. Nothing less – it was hideous. The steering was imprecise, and putting power on made it lurch to the left then straighten up, and backing off a similar thing. The steering geometry was miles off, and I don’t trust Kwik Fit (they made a pig’s ear of the Favorit ages ago), so I adjusted it by eye and got it better, but it was still horrible. After some desperation on the Internet and to the guru (Mr. Colville) I was told that you can set a car up with two pieces of string running parallel to the wheels and measure from that. Which led to make a crucial discovery – the tyres were slightly different, despite being nominally the same size. I put a pair of nice new forest tyres on (with yellow wheels no less), and could make accurate measurements again. But far more importantly, driving it was not scary at all – it was the tyres that were the problem. Further adjustment improved matters, so I put an old pair of Yokos on and it was all good. A test drive showed no problems, other than having to put more steering effort/angle in when on the power, and removing that extra angle when backing off. When driving ‘with gusto’ it’s fine though, just have to remember to back off when, er, backing off!

There was also work to do on the recce car! Let’s just say that most of it went smoothly – the spare ‘tarmac’ sumpguard has now been fitted to it, and it has a map light that works, and a set of forest tyres. But the tripmeter was a disappointment – after fitting the probe and wiring, and Paul making up the mounting for the glovebox lid (second time lucky, shall we say?), it doesn’t bloody work! Paul dropped it at one point, and it would seem that it was a bridge too far. So no tripmeter, which is annoying, to say the least.

Other than that, and a few little things to do on Friday to the rally car (rollcage padding, a service, various little bits and pieces, then stickers when they arrive!), I think we’re mechanically there. Now I just need to

• sort out all the stuff we’re taking with us, spares, tools, gazebo (got a bit one on ebay for ?90)
• somehow manage to drive fast enough on the recce to get it all done in time
• learn to drive properly
• be more lucky than I have been over the next two weeks

Oh, we were interviewed for the Fire radio station on Saturday morning. I went off on one about how cheap the car was, and that we have half the power of anyone else, and about 1/5 of the ‘proper’ cars. Probably sounded like an idiot. It’s being broadcast in bits and pieces over the next 2 weeks, so that will be “interesting”. And we’re going to be in Motorsport News this Wednesday! Excellent! Pity our Sponsor didn’t come through – he’d have had a fair bit of cheap advertising. Bummer.

This weekend has involved a fair bit of work on the car. Last weekend the gearbox and suspension were all removed, leaving me with a Felicia up on axle stands looking quite sorry for itself.

As mentioned the other day, the LSD arrived, so first task was to put it into the gearbox from the estate I sacrificed the other week. Now, I’ve never been scared of ripping any part of a car apart, except one – gearboxes. Dunno why, they just seem to be a bogey item for me. But this went reasonably well – removed the 5th gear (which is outside the main casing in its own little house), and then pulled the cases apart, and even managed to get the old diff out without having to remove everything. Undid bolts, removed LSD and as the Haynes book of lies says, reassembly is indeed a reversal of the removal. Took about an hour, which isn’t too bad.

Fitting it, though! I’d fitted a new clutch plate, and it was a very tight fit in the centre of it, and it took three profanity-filled attempts to fit the box before it went in place. After that, everything else seemed quite easy – fitting the new wishbones, new struts, new discs and the hideously expensive (but very good) Mintex M1144 pads.

And then I got a phone call from Gary Hayter, who’d been sorting out my wheels and bumpers, ‘cos I want the car to look spanky for the start, if nothing else. In the time I’ve had it, the front and back bumpers have had a few knocks, with Mr. Burley taking the blame for most of these. So I have some new parts to put on the car –

This picture alone is good reason to never buy a car on eBay without seeing it in person. Photos can lie. The bumper at the top has been on my rally car for several years, possibly even 10. It is, in person, really, really scrappy, and looks fit for Trent’s. The one below is immaculate, shiny, and green. And yet in the photo they only look a bit different!

Here’s the new front bumper – again, looks lovely compared to the old one which will be a trial to remove from the Felicia as it means removing the front grille. Which you can only do by removing the headlights. Which, in turn, can only be removed after removing the indicators. Which would be fine, had I not used silicone sealer to hold the right-hand one in when it lemminged out of the car on the Tempest last year! Oh good. Another Jones bodge comes back to haunt me!

Finally, the wheels – chunky and yellow. Resprayed to match the Felicia Fun ones I also have, although they’re only “both yellow”, no more accurate than that. Never mind – they still look ace.

So, I went for a quick test drive in the car, with the LSD fitted, mostly so I’d sleep tonight if I knew it was OK. OH. MY. GOD. What a transformation! Er, I’m going to have to learn to drive all over again! The big bonus is there is no wheelspin – coming off the top roundabout up the road from me, it’s very easy to wheelspin in an FWD car as the camber means the inner wheel is unloaded and will just spin. Not any more – it just went f-o-r-w-a-r-d-s, nice and quickly. But it’s a bit of a handful in places. Hopefully I’ll adapt to it. I’d better do!

Other than that, welded up the seat rails 100%, welded up the old holes where the harness mounts used to be in the floor, and then painted. Which means at least the car might be driveable for next weekend, so i can do a really long road test, and so on. Nearly on target, sort of.

Tonight’s exciting task? Make a new set of clocks out of the three I have – one has the original speedo, one has a rev counter, and one has a better housing. Between the three lie clocks nirvana. And it’s a clean job I can do indoors with some music on, instead of outside in the cold with some numpty on the radio!

Oh, one more thing – here’s our “moody publicity shot”. Or something.

More things have arrived! First up, the diff! The diff! Yes, the holy grail of rally components. To me, anyway. The Limited Slip Diff that should give us a lot more traction just about everywhere (so everyone tells me) has arrived. ?400, second-hand, as opposed to over ?800 new, if you can get one. This, of course, means that I have to dismantle the gearbox I’ve just got for the car, and fit the diff to it. Which will happen tomorrow, shortly followed by me putting the ‘box into the car, and then everything else back together.

Secondly, I have stickers! All the stuff I need for the car (big name in the rear window, just like the WRC. Oh, hang on, this is the WRC!) is here, as well as some replacement Skoda stickers for the side and bonnet, etc. Excellent.

Thirdly, Fire have been on the phone, and they want to interview us, and possibly get some reports during the event as well!

Fourthly, we may have a sponsor. No details at the moment as I don’t want to jinx anything, but we could have a sponsor for WRGB which would be excellent.

However, today I’m very short of time so I’m off!

… so, I actually managed to get up and start on the car nice and early, and got the car totally stripped, and then started on the rally car. Removed the gearbox, sumpguard and mounts, and the front and rear suspension. So now I’m waiting for the LSD to arrive so I can put it in the new gearbox, then put the front end of the car back together, complete with the new strut tops, struts, wishbones, discs and pads, with rebuild driveshafts. Mechanically that should be it for the front end. The back end is looking good too, with just the rear struts to go back in place once the new top mount washers have been made (which I should do during the week, one evening).

There are still a lot of niggly litle jobs to do, but I’m hoping that by the end of next weekend the car will be basically done, and ready for a week’s use as road-testing – that still gives 2 weekends to work on little things and sort out any problems.

That’s the plan anyway.

Oh, the scrap Felicia has gone – might be a record, I only owned it for 34 hours!

So, yesterday all the paperwork arrived for WRGB – road books (3, one for each day), Rally Guide 2 (you can download that from the Wales Rally GB site if you want to have a look), and some other stuff. It’s getting very real – like Jim Lovell says in Apollo 13 – “The Earth is getting very large in the window”. It certainly is.

As for the car, well, some progress has occurred:

Strut tops at the machinist’s – done
Spanky new yellow wheels – tyres fitted
Other wheels and bumpers – being painted
Seat – arrived, and I fit it, and it fits the car!
LSD – will be arriving on Tuesday
Fireproof underwear and boots – Arriving Tuesday
Spare discs, pads, etc, already here.
Stickers – ordered

And also, I’ve managed to get a bargain – a ?35 Felicia Bohemia Estate, which was disappointingly an Spi one (so the engine electronics are no use to me), but it had had lots of money spent on it before he stopped driving it 2 years ago, including a new clutch, recon gearbox, new alternator and starter. I picked it up this morning (on the trailer), and thought I’d like to drive it to see if the gearbox really was OK. And guess what? Yup, fresh battery and a bit of effort led to a perfectly-running car that actually drove OK all things considered.

So, naturally, I got Paul round and we ripped it to bits! Engine and box out, lots of other little spares, and at long LONG last – I have a REV COUNTER! Yes, it had one, so that’ll be going in the Rally Car tomorrow. Paul even had his first time using an angle grinder. So, splendid, just need to find someone to take away the shell tomorrow, and it even has nice seats I can put in the recce car when I sell it, and electric windows too, although I’m not sure I’ll bother fitting those as the wiring will probably be a pain to do, unless it just plugs in (unlikely).

There was another “idiot” moment today. Wanted to start the rally car, and no joy – firstly the battery was almost dead, so left it on charge, but then later it just wouldn’t start. Turned out the fuel pump wasn’t working, and we discovered the fuse box was FULL (and i mean FULL!) of water. Swapped it, still no joy. Out with the circuit diagrams, cursing, only to find that I’d disconnected the rear loom of the car to re-tape it and never reconnected it. Plugging it back in sorted it out instantly! D’oh!

So, tomorrow there’s lots to do – publicity photos to shoot for the Echo (and here and anywhere else), and then the rally car needs the gearbox removed, and all the front suspension, and the sumpguard mounts. Should be doable tomorrow, but I’m going out as I’ve not been out in a while, and I have a nasty feeling that I won’t be in bed by 2am….. No, I will do, ‘cos I’m, super-keen to get it all done.

I was watching QI the other night, and Stephen Fry was describing a manic depressive, who took a car completely to bits during a manic phase, putting every part on a sheet with a drawn outline on it, meticulously laying out the entire car. And then he had a depressive phase and smashed everything up. I’ve had several moments like that this week, some self-inflicted. Like buying a seat using someone’s measurements that I didn’t check, and then finding out those measurements were wrong, and then having to try to get the seat returned, etc.

And then finding out my old seat rails need to be removed again and some better ones welded in place, which meant I’d been an idiot not planning the first ones properly.

And so on. The latter part of the week has involved muchola frustration, as nothing seems to be fitting. The tools I need to finish jobs off need to be ordered, and everything is a mess. There have been delays finding parts (still waiting for the Limited Slip Diff), and I don’t have a spare gearbox or the strut-tops machined to fit.

Or, in short, the week is summed up with the following equation:

Progress = 0

OK, so there are a lot of things to do to the car for WRGB. Some of them are to make the car ‘legal’ for international competition:

• New drivers’ seat and subframe
• New extinguisher system and handheld
• Window Film
• Rollcage padding
• Driver’s Name on rear windows
• Driver and Navigator names on front wings

Some of them are improvements to the car

• New gearbox
• Limited Slip Differential

And some things are just repairing things or renewing stuff to make it more sturdy or reliable.

So this week I’ve been off work (as it’s half term and most of my work at present is in schools) and so I’ve got the opportunity to work on the car. Except the new seat and subframe hasn’t arrived, the diff guy has gone quiet on me, and it’s been raining. But I’ve made some progress – I’ve put the window film on, so now the windows won’t cover us in pieces of glass should one shatter. If you’ve ever been unfortunate enough to apply this stuff, you’ll know what an exercise in disappointment it is. I’ve not done a bad job, but it’s not perfect. And the edges! Oh the edges. Let alone fitting the rear quarter lights which is always a nightmare.

I’ve removed the old seat, and also taken the chance to fit the treadplate floor ‘mats’ that I bought from Chris Bennett back in 2004 – as the Felicia is basically a Favorit, the floor is the same, which is handy. Once they’re fitted properly they’ll make it much nicer inside and give a consistent feel under my feet – the original floor is a bit random in places.

And i’ve fitted the extinguisher, at least trial fitted it and put the new pipes in. There are now four nozzles (two inside the car, two in the engine bay), but I can’t fit them properly as I don’t have the right size holesaw to make brackets…. and neither did Allfix, so that’s been ordered. G-reat.

Having said that, fitting the seat shouldn’t take too long as the seat rails make it a straightforward job, just drilling four holes once I’ve lined things up. The car will look a lot better than it has done for a long time (probably since I’ve owned it!), and maybe even go better. However, I still need to source a couple of gearboxes, a rev counter and a few other bits and pieces as well as get the new bumpers painted, and 4 wheels that are silver painted yellow to match the Felicia Fun ones I have – the car looked quite natty in my photoshop mock-up.

There has, however, been one big piece of progress. All the forest rallies we’ve done in the past have been using route notes, which are made by driving over the stages at low speed and then reading them back when competing. These have been supplied by someone who does them for many of the rallies in the UK, Brian Patterson. However, on Wales Rally GB they are not available – you need to make your own. And in addition, you can’t do it in your rally car, you have to do it in a ‘recce car’, which can be a totally standard car (many, apparently use hire cars!), or can be a group N rally car, providing it’s quiet, and looks inoffensive (i.e. it’s not stickered and the interior looks fairly standard). I thought it would be a good idea to do the stages in a similar car to the rally car as it’ll give an idea of how they’ll look (otherwise I’d do them in my Pajero!), and today I managed to bag a nice, well looked after Felicia for ?400. It was in Devon, and there lies a tale. Paul was working there today, so the plan was to leave at 5 (he had to be there for 7), and drop me off and I’d get the car and be back early enough to do a day’s work on the car. However, TomTom had other ideas. Parts of Devon are rather ‘rural’, and we were taken through a road which was a bit narrow. And it had rained buckets last night, the result of which was one section of road that was rather flooded, but it looked OK – we made it through, but it became apparent at the half-way point that it was very muddy under the water, so there was some sliding and wheelspinning. We then came to another section that looked to just be a bit muddy. But it wasn’t. Not even close. It was actually about 6 inches deep in mud, just it looked like a light covering as it was so smooth. Stuck. Very, very stuck. It took many goes of going back and forwards, and of course Paul was dressed for work, and eventually the clutch said “no more” (this is in his 55-plate company Focus!), and wouldn’t engage reverse. I said it just needed to cool down (it reeked as only a cooked clutch can do), and ten minutes later it was OK, and with that and a heavy push from me, we got out, but of course had to go back through the watery mud we’d just been through. The alternative route TomTom said had a road sign on it saying “road liable to flooding”.

Which given what had just happened, you’d think we’d heed. Oh no. Two blokes, a bit of bravado (which usually ends up in a severe hangover), and there you go. It really looked OK to me at first, ‘cos the water looked shallow – you could see the kerb/grass and it was OK for about 100 yards. Then we rounded a corner, and two things happened. Firstly, the water on the right looked deep – there were waves and stuff. Secondly, I noticed that there was a river on the left of us. And it had burst its banks, and was draining into the road. Oh, actually, three things happened – we kept to the left-hand ‘kerb’, and the right front corner of the car dropped alarmingly and the headlights seemed to go dim. I think this may have been because it was splashed, which is quite deep when you think of a Focus. So into reverse, sharpish, and back we went. All this time I was thinking it was amazing that no water had come in as it was definitely over the door line. But it didn’t! We got out unscathed, and then TomTom took us a sensible route, and I picked up and drove home a lovely little Felicia. Even had half a tank of petrol, Tax and MOT to April 2007 and a CD player that worked!

Burley’s car was a bit messy though. This was the clean side.

So, for this all I need to add is a sump guard, some plastic guarding for the fuel and petrol pipes, a trip meter (I have a spare terratrip, handily) and a few creature comforts, and we have a recce car. Excellent. Now I just need to get my act together and sort out the rally car!

To get your International Rally licence, apart from all the other hoops you have to jump through, you have to have a medical. This isn’t a really in-depth thing (unless you’re over 45), but it does involve getting a form signed by your doctor. I booked mine a couple of weeks ago (been mega-busy at work so not had the time until then), and took it yesterday.

I don’t know about you, but whenever I have anything happen that is potentially a deal-breaker, I get nervous. I’ve always been like it, so on the way to the Doctor’s I was a little worried. Not really badly, but you know how it is – I had a couple of old issues that I thought might be a problem, plus my eyesight isn’t bad (I don’t wear glasses, or need them, but I know I’m a tiny bit short-sighted in one eye, although this is allowable). Plus I’d not asked how much it was going to be – Paul had paid ?70 for his medical, and my Doctor can sometimes be a little, er, abrupt.

So I was pleasantly surprised when he seemed to be in a very good mood – he asked about what it was for, having never done one previously. I’d printed out the FIA’s guidelines for him, which he had a quick look at, and then checked my blood pressure, and eyesight. I was surprised that I came out fine on that test too. No problems anywhere, really.

But the punchline? He asked if I’d been told how much, and I said ‘no’. He looked at me and said “Twenty Quid?”. I got the cash out! Nice. A phone call to Paul was due after that bargain!

So, I’m ready to get my International Licence. Now I need to order the bits for the car – seats, extinguishers, window film and rollcage padding. That’ll be ?1000 please, Mr. Jones……

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!

This week is a bit of a busy one. Firstly, it’s (hopefully) out last of 6 events so that Paul is ready to upgrade to International. So far, the record has been Start:5 Finish:5. Let’s hope that this weekends shindig at Longcross maintains that record. I liked Longcross when i went there before (although I was on the world’s worst tyres at the time), so hopefully it’ll be that good again.

Secondly, on Wednesday the regs come out for Wales Rally GB. I’m hoping to get my entry in the same day (well to them the next day), so with any luck we will actually get in. To fail in that would be a disaster. But there are many other things to prepare for WRGB, the first of which was that the Felicia’s MOT will run out in November, and having to MOT a car is always a pain. So I’m pleased to report that it passed today without any issues at all. So that’s the first hurdle cleared.

All I have to do now is find ?4000, a service crew, a van, a recce car (and prepare said car), get used to note making, buy an LSD for the car, fit it, rebuild the car almost completely, get all the spares we need, buy and fit a new seat, fire extinguisher system and window film, and providing we hit the wire with the connecting hook at precisely 88mph at instant the lightning strikes the tower….. everything will be fine!