Skoda Rally Blog

Last time out on the Sunseeker (2009) we had a very short rally – it was going well on the Friday night (indeed we were amongst the lucky few who managed two runs on the last event to involve Bournemouth Gardens), and stage 3 went really well – well enough for me to put the wind up Paul, in fact!

Then, the death of the diff on SS4 meant game over and first DNF on the Sunseeker, which was depressing.  And expensive!

Unfortunately being ill over the weekend has left me with very little energy or strength, so I’ve not got as much done as I would have liked – a couple of days have meant nothing at all has got done, and that combined with other obligations (in the shape of a Porsche 944 that I needed to scrap, don’t ask!) meant that I’ve not got too much done on the car, but the things that I have done have been important:

Firstly, wheel bearings – the rears needed adjusting before the MOT and that’s never a good sign with them, so I got some new ones; good job that I did as the old ones wouldn’t have lasted too well as although they felt fine, they looked terrible, and I’m sure 200 miles of the event would have meant a DNF.  So they now have nice shiny (well, under the grease) bearings in there, and with the practice I’ve had I’ve got them down to about 30 minutes a side start to finish.

Secondly, wishbone – the front one was replaced with a spare because the ball joint was worn, but the pattern ones are nowhere near as strong as the Skoda OEM ones, so I’ve replaced the balljoint on it, and put it back on the car.

Third, sumpguard – it’s always been an absolute PIG to fit, so I’ve slotted the rear mounting holes to make it easier (read: possible) to fit, even single-handed.  I have an idea for a stronger rear mounting that will do this better, but that will have to wait.

I’ve been out in the car a few times and it’s been performing fine – there’s been no sign of the misfire that happened at WRGB, but no doubt it will turn up at some point; I’m going out for a drive in it in a bit, so hopefully it will either show up or get out of town.  Either way, next up is documentation on Thursday night, and then we’ll know our start times and so on; there is a ceremonial start at Poole Quay on Friday night, so if you’re in the area pop down and say “Hi”.

Well, on Friday it was time for the Skoda’s annual MOT, so I had it out a few days before just on a quick test drive to make sure everything was OK, and on the face of it it seemed to be.  But the day before, I tried the wipers (which worked on the Tuesday) and they didn’t work at all.  Some quick tests showed that the motor had seized, and fortunately I had a spare one in the shed, and it’s a quick and easy fix, so nothing too much to worry about, but on the day I got home at 1:30 with the MOT booked for 3:30 and thought I’d just do a final check, to make sure none of the wheels had dented rims (I wasn’t sure which ones I’d fitted), and a quick check that everything was bolted up properly.

And it’s a good job I did check it, as the front offside ball joint (on the wishbone) had about 2mm of play in it!  Handily (a) I had a spare in the shed and (b) the bolts were easy to get out, so it only took 10 minutes to swap over, but it was a tense 10 minutes.  The rear wheel bearings had a bit of play too, so I adjusted them, and set off for the MOT.  And it all went well, which was nice, as it’s the least pleasant thing, like scrutineering, but stretched out over about an hour!  Had tea and clearly ate something bad as I felt sick after it, and was completely knocked out for all of Saturday, unable to eat anything at all.  While I didn’t have anything desperate to do on the car, I’d rather have been able to change the rear wheel bearings and replace the worn balljoint and put the wishbone back on (the reason for this being that it’s an original Skoda wishbone and they are a LOT stronger than the pattern ones that I have as spares).  Plus there’s lots of cleaning up and little bits and pieces to do to get it all ready for…

Rallye Sunseeker!  Yes, it’s this Saturday, and it’s looking interesting; we are seeded last (not sure why, but I guess I’m as slow as I’ve been told), and there is the Skoda of the Beckett Brothers plus a 1275 Mini in our class, so we should have some competition.  It’s looking like this will be Paul’s last rally, which I’m gutted about, but I will worry about that after Rallye Sunseeker, as it should be a good event, and with two same-direction runs of the longer stages of the event, it will be slightly WRC-like in that respect (this is because it’s part of the BRC and they have to do recce for the event, and re-arrowing the stage for the recce wasn’t practical).  Anyway, hopefully we should be able to do well in our class, and actually finish as 2009 wasn’t a good year at all, and 2010 was spent with me unable to even walk at the time, so hopefully this will see us do all the stages and make it to Bournemouth Pier for the ceremonial finish, having started in Poole on the Friday night at the Ceremonial Start.

This week I have a few things to sort out, but in particular I want to track down the poor running that we had on Rally GB – I don’t want to spend the day fighting with the car between stages and worrying about reliability, so I hope that the cause will present itself as it was rather elusive in November in Wales!

The next job to get done was the tank guard – the last one died rather a death on the last day of Rally GB, although given that it was made in haste during Rally GB 08 after excellent scavenging by Ian Bowler (it was a piece of an Army toolkit!), it didn’t really owe us anything!  I had one here which was part of the job lot of bits I bought years ago (and the only part I’ve never used), but it wouldn’t fit straight on; partly because of my handbrake cables (the car it came off of didn’t have a cable handbrake), and partly because my exhaust mountings are a bit different, so a bit of modification was needed at the front, plus making up the front mountings.  The rear is also mounted to the body (unlike the last ones which have been axle-mounted), so those brackets needed sorting out, which isn’t straightforward when you’re trying to juggle two things at once that you can’t hold properly or see, and when you’re getting facefulls of dirt from the underside of the car – there were several “blind” moments, but eventually the rear brackets were made up and fitted, so they needed to come off and be painted and left overnight.

This morning it all went back together and then was put onto the car, and that part went pretty smoothly (barring several gritty eye moments), and the back of the car was looking pretty good.

Then it was time to look at the front – a new gearbox mounting has arrived, having been made by Jim Jones who is a Skoda legend and all round good bloke – if he doesn’t know it about Skodas, it’s not worth knowing.

Lovely new mounting

This uses a Skoda bush from a Fabia to significantly improve this lower mounting, which had given up the ghost on Rally GB, mostly down to the on/off throttle problem giving it a hard time.  That was a fairly simple job to fit, although different bolts will be needed for a permanent fitting.

Typically, though, it’s time for an MOT for the Felicia, and a quick check showed that one of the inner CV boots was a bit split.  Closer inspection showed that the inner joint had got some grit in it and was worn, so it was time to change driveshaft, thankfully I have a few stored in the shed, but it does of course mean getting the strut out the way, so that all takes time, and then draining the gearbox oil out (which needed to be re-used as it’s the very good Bardahl stuff which worked a treat and would cost about £40 to replace!), etc….  Easy enough, but all takes time, so by the time this was all done, it was time to stop for the weekend.  The car is pretty much ready for the MOT which I will book this week, probably for the week after – it’s quite difficult finding time at the moment, so I’ll need to get it done on a Friday afternoon as I don’t have any other time when I can get there.  Hopefully it’ll all go smoothly!

Sunday was left with the car back on its wheels, but not running because of a major fuel leak.  The hose between the tank outlet and the fuel pipe that goes through the car had a leak, so it needed replacing.  This wasn’t something I was looking forward to as it’s really awkward physically both in terms of access and also getting the job done as the pipes are really jammed in there, and I remember how much I disliked doing it before, so I decided to make it a bit easier by dropping the tank down a few inches – this needed to be done anyway as the new tankguard mountings need sorting out, and it will attach where the front mountings for the tank are.  Getting them off wasn’t too hard, but a bit awkward as the exhaust mounting is in the way and the studs were considerably extended to let the old tank guard mount there, so lots of messing about was needed to get it off, but once it did, it moved down about 4″, and then from inside the car it was actually possible to replace the hoses, which took a lot less than before – even taking into account taking the tank mountings off it would still be quicker this way than the “struggle” method.  Once they were done, I thought I’d have a laugh and see if the car would start, and amazingly enough it did – fired up pretty easily and sounded reasonably healthy.  Things seem to be looking up!  I left it there as it was teatime and pitch black by then, but that’s good progress for a bit of time after work.

In other news, my entry for the Sunseeker has been accepted, which is good, although the entry levels look pretty low at the moment – there are only 43 entries as I write this, which is really disappointing.  I’m also not sure if Paul will be doing it, so that’s another hurdle to cross….  Anyway, it’ll all come together in the end, I’m sure!

After a few weekends where I couldn’t get anything done on the car, I’ve had a bit of time today to get the car back together in one piece.  This meant fitting the front and rear suspension as the first task, and that should be simple enough, but there has been a bit of a problem, and that is the location of the rear shock remote reservoirs; the hoses aren’t long enough to put them in the middle of the beam where they will be safe from (most) harm, hence the breakage before.  To route the hose correctly meant the reservoir would be in a very vulnerable place on the rear axle, so it needed to go elsewhere.  After asking about and trying a few things out, I’ve come to the temporary solution of them being secured along the rear chassis rail, behind the shocks and near the rear bumper.  There’s a convenient slot in the chassis rail already, meaning they could be fitted using a jubilee clip with no drilling, so that was fairly straightforward.  What wasn’t was finding several small missing parts from the upper mounts (which use the standard car parts), but after an hour’s searching in the garage I found the bits I was looking for, stored from another car I broke.  There was also a bit of guidance needed for the rear shock hose to keep them away from the tyre, so this all took a fair bit longer than I’d have liked, but is all looking good.

The front end needed just refitting, which still takes a bit of time as the angles of the struts needs to be right – they need to be in the right place in relation to the hubs so that turning the steering doesn’t make the hoses foul too much, and they also need a fair bit of effort to get them in place as the proflex strut bottoms are slightly bigger than standard so they’re not a straight fit.  A few attempts got them all lined up and fitted, so the car should be ready to go back on its wheels for the first time in a couple of months, aside from…. the front brakes.  Which were in need of new pads, as inspection after Rally GB showed the Mintex 1144 pads had broken up quite badly, so handily I had some EBC GreenStuff pads knocking about (again, after a fair bit of searching), and these didn’t take too long to fit and clean up the calipers, so the brakes should be a lot better than they were.  Wheels back on, sumpguard off, and I thought I’d try to start it up.

As soon as I did, I could smell petrol, and the hose between the tank and the rigid line on the car has broken, leaving a pool of fuel on the floor, and a disgruntled owner.  I don’t have any hose, plus I was feeling pretty sore by this time so I decided it would be best to leave it for the day; the tank needs to come off anyway to let me fit the new tankguard so it’s no big deal; it can be done next weekend, and then the car should be ready for an MOT and then a week of prep before the Sunseeker.

With a rather long layoff since Rally GB, it’s time to get going on getting the car ready for Rallye Sunseeker, and that meant getting the rear suspension fixed.  This has actually been at Proflex since the beginning of December, but a busy workload and the Christmas holidays meant I didn’t get them back until Friday.  However, they needed more than just a new hose and a rebuild; the damage on Rally GB meant the bottom of one of the rear units meant that it needed to be replaced (the threads had stripped), so when I was told this I was expecting a huge bill, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this housing only cost £64, so the total was a very reasonable £225 or so, and I got them back next day.  Needless to say, Proflex UK’s work has been excellent once more, and it’s really fantastic to find such a good product (i.e. Proflex) with such excellent service and support; I have heard that some other makes of rally suspension cost a massive amount to be serviced.  I’ve not been able to get them on the car this weekend, but they will be going back on next weekend, so in the meantime, here’s a picture of some lovely suspension!

Lovely Proflex.

Once more after Rally GB I’ve been interviewed by Brian Driggs for Gearbox Magazine, a brilliant on-line magazine (I think it’s well worth checking out generally if you’re into cars and rallying in particular, as the magazine has several different topics it covers), and it’s been a real pleasure speaking to Brian recently, and his enthusiasm for the subject and the magazine should be richly rewarded.  Here’s the link:

http://rally.gearboxmagazine.com/2010/12/darren-jones-on-wales-rally-gb/

And don’t forget you can subscribe to the magazine easily in a number of forms!

As anyone who knows me (and indeed anyone who will listen) will tell you, I have loved doing Rally GB.  It’s not only been achieving (in a sense) a boyhood dream, but the experience itself has been a brilliant one for me; from the highs of just being there in 2006, to the horror and hell of 2007 (which was hell at the time but taught me a lot), having a great run in 2008, and of course the truly rollercoaster experience of 2010, I have managed to finish 3 times, and do something that very few people will do.  But the FIA’s rules are rules, and that meant that the car would be ineligible as of 31st December 2010.  The original rules gave a car up to 7 years after it went out of production (the Felicia stopped in 2001, I believe), so 2008 was supposed to be the end.  A change (in rules, I assume, I never got an answer from the FIA) led to the car being allowed in until 2010, but then the writing was on the wall.  As a result there was probably far more interest in us than you would expect from such a low-budget, low-achievement team, but it was, after all, our swan-song.

To that end I finally bit the bullet a few days ago, and sold the Recce car, something I regretted almost instantly as soon as the snow came down again.  But there was far worse to come; I got a message from someone telling me to go check the FIA’s website out;  one thing to be said for the FIA is that all documents and regulations are published on their website, so you can usually find an answer to technical issues (or rather, information as answers are usually a little more oblique).  One of the many documents that is of interest is on this page:

http://www.fia.com/en-GB/sport/Pages/Homologations.aspx

This is the list of homologations – i.e. the vehicles which are currently certified for International competition such as the WRC.  And as I’d been told, I checked the document, and found that….

… the Felicia has been extended for another 2 years.  According to this, we could enter Rally GB another 2 times.  That would be fantastic, as far as I’m concerned.  There are obviously bridges to cross before then, both in terms of finance (although I have been careful this year with money, so I can’t see that being an enormous problem), seeing if everyone else is up for it again, and also to get the engine quicker in the car as well (as there are other parts of the new homologation which I could take advantage of to do this), but if I can, I will be there next year.

Well, it’s been just under a week since the end of Rally GB, and this has been the first time I’ve had a chance to do anything on the car – after all, I got back at nearly midnight on the Sunday, and went to work on the Monday for about 8:30, and have been working since then!  Obviously there was housekeeping to take care of, such as getting Mark’s van back to him (which I didn’t manage until late yesterday), taking the trailer back, etc., but today I got a chance to actually look at the car and give it a clean-up.  And that took quite a while; despite the jetwash that was done at the end of Resolfen and Margam, there was still a LOT of mud and mess on the car, meaning it took about 2 hours of jetwashing to get it near clean.  Then the suspension needed to come off the car – the rears because they will need to go back to Proflex to be rebuilt, but also because they really need to be kept clean to look after them – the reason they were in such poor condition when I got them was because they hadn’t had simple maintenance done, post-event; when you’ve got £4000 worth of suspension (yes, really!) on a car, it makes sense to dedicate an hour or two to removing them and cleaning them up after they’ve done some work, really.  So the rears came off and apart easy enough, and they cleaned up perfectly; I hope that the 2 miles or so of driving without oil in them hasn’t damaged them…  The fronts came off and have been cleaned (although not dismantled yet because of a lack of space, that will have to wait until tomorrow at best), and then the task of cleaning up all the spares and tools started, and this is a BIG job – there was a LOT of water when we were in Wales, so everything needs drying and cleaning, and that’s still in progress, although the spares have mostly been done, there’s still a lot to do, plus all the tools.

So, what was the damage done to the car?

Rear suspension – that will need rebuilding, which will probably be about the £200 mark.  A fitting or setup fault – both hoses had problems, so there’s clearly something wrong, although I thought I’d got everything in the right place.

Front suspension – top mounting spherical bearings were both worn out, they will need replacing at about £50

Mountings – the gearbox mounting needs replacing, about £20

Tankguard – this took a LOT of damage on the Sunday, meaning it will need replacing.  As you can see from the pictures below, it’s had a hard time, mostly because of the low (and bouncy) rear suspension we had to fit on Saturday night to get us through Sunday.

A fair bit of damage taken here...

Long view from the front, see how low it's hanging...

This is about £100 or so for a new one, although there is a fuel leak, so I think the fuel tank has a split in it too, so that will need replacing if that is the case.

Brakes – the front brake pads had started to break up; unusual for Mintex pads, and not cheap at about £80 per set.

There are a few other bits and pieces as well, plus of course replacing the tyres – we wore out 8 tyres completely over the course of the event (at £80 per throw, new), so they will need to be replaced for the next event, which hopefully will be Rallye Sunseeker.  After that the car will need some engine work (again), as the bottom end still has some more improvements to make, which will hopefully allow a higher RPM limit and therefore more power.

It’s not all doom and gloom.  I was privileged to be featured in BBC Wales’ coverage of the event, with about a minute of coverage of us in the car and then a short bit of an interview with me.

Felicia on WRC! © North One Sport and BBC

Round the hairpin, second run; the first run was terrible here so I’m glad that wasn’t shown!

Felicia in the watersplash - © North One Sport and BBC

Through the watersplash in Margam – brilliant fun!

Me on the TV! © North One Sport and BBC

It was really great to see the car on such high-quality video (albeit slowly!), and to have my name on-screen with a Union Jack and a Skoda logo was something I won’t forget!  Huge thanks to Mark James and the team for their excellent coverage of the event (much better than the usual stuff we see), not just because of me being in it!

So, what’s next?

Monte Carlo 2012. It’s an iconic event that would be an immense challenge (both in terms of logistics and driving-wise), and is part of the IRC series, so the Felicia will be eligible for it.  It will require a LOT of saving up, some specialist parts (particularly the tyres, where I’m drawing a blank at the moment, as studded tyres will be necessary), and some real commitment, but I’m determined to do it.  Somehow.

After a rather stressful Saturday night service and having booked the car in 20 minutes late to try to get it running better, I didn’t have a very good night’s sleep, and only got 6 hours in bed anyway (I think I was awake for about two of them, plus I had the weirdest dream about getting a dog (Rufus, from the place where I keep my trailer) to the finish of some kind of event!

Sunday morning was reasonably good, in terms of weather, and we all set off in Al’s car to service, as of course the Recce Felicia which Paul and I had been getting about in was currently up on axle stands with no rear suspension.  Paul was his usual positive self, and said that we’d see how it went – essentially, it is what it is, and what will happen will happen – and was once more a perfect foil for me fretting over what would happen.

We got to Parc Ferme and started the car up, and it ran roughly for about 30 seconds, and then played ball, behaving perfectly as we went to service to load up and set out on what would hopefully be a full day’s rallying with 4 stages; Resolfen which was long at 30km, and Margam which was about 8km with a final section out in the open in the park itself with a big watersplash right at the end.

The road section out to Resolfen 1 was much shorter than Friday or Saturday, but still a reasonable distance, and long enough for the car to break down or play up (but then I guess 200 yards would be that!), but it was fine until we stopped for petrol (filling up with some 99 from Tesco), and then for a mile or two it really stuttered, and nearly stopped completely, with us stuck on a roundabout for a bit… but then it cleared, so I took to thrashing it and then coasting to slow down rather than trying to keep a constant speed, which seemed to work well; it didn’t play up again on the way to the stage.  We arrived about 15 minutes early, and parked up on the forest access road, and it was interesting to see the different approach methods used by different drivers; some were just driving up, while others were really warming the car up as they went, weaving and left-foot braking as they went.  When we got going, Paul said it would probably be a good idea to do the same, to see how much grip we now had from the lower and much softer/bouncier rear end, so I weaved until the back went out, which was a lot earlier than it would with the Proflex on.  We got to the start and then it was time to go into the stage, so we lined up and away we went.

The stage layout meant that after an initial downhill section there was an open hairpin left, and when we went round that it was apparent that there really was a lot less grip than before – the back end was all over the place, which was a bit worrying as the next section was along the side of the mountain, with some fast (for us!) 1 and 2 corners, but I thought we’d see how it went, and bouncy is the first word that sprang to mind.  For the first time I really knew what proper rally drivers were talking about when they talk about needing to back off a bit; I think I needed to take a few mph off on corners, and whenever there were some bumps then it definitely needed to be taken slower as the back would be up in the air, having bottomed out first and then rebounded skywards – not confidence inspiring but after a few goes I think I’d recalibrated enough to get on with it instead of worrying about tumbling down the mountain to my ultimate doom!

Paul was as ever being spot on during this, commenting on how the car was behaving and being positive about how it was going, and once we’d got over the first bit it was going well, all things considered!  The engine spluttered a couple of times, but this was while I was being tentative round a series of bends, so I gave it a good thrash to stop that happening again, which seemed to work.  We got out to the open section up top, and there were lots of spectators there, who probably wondered why we were going so slowly, and particularly down the 700 yard run to the square right, but there were bumps about and I really didn’t want to ping off of the track to a DNF because of a bouncy back end!  We got caught by Nick West again, and got out of his way, and it was interesting to follow him for a bit (until he got away on the longer straights and rougher stuff) and see what lines he was taking and where he was braking as well.  There was a huge rock in the road that I couldn’t avoid and hit with the left front, leading to a dent in the wheel – you could just hear it knocking on left-handers, but we’ve done that before and it soon gets worn away as it wasn’t too bad, so we kept going, hoping it wouldn’t go flat; the next big right-hander showed it was still up, so that was the last we thought about it. We got to the end of the stage pretty happy really.  As Paul said – “One down”.  He also showed me the time card and said “We’re going to fill this all in”.  I said I hoped so!

We had a car wash, and then out onto the road section, where the car played up again – it didn’t want to run at all at one point, but we kept it going thanks to a long downhill section, and that seemed to be the technique – if possible just run on a closed throttle for a while and then it would behave.  Through a town and back onto the road, and then up to Margam, where we parked up on the road outside and got ourselves ready, then drove up to the start, taking care over the bumps we’d noted on recce on the way into it, which had got worse – we thought we might get stuck at one point…

Margam was rough to begin with – the car just didn’t want to get going on the first section, but once it opened up a bit, we finally got some speed up, taking care over the 5 left we’d spun on during the recce, and taking some “interesting” lines through the pair of hairpins (OK, I got it pretty wrong, with the car pointing all over the place, and Paul saying “well, that’s one way to do that”), and then round the back section down to a gap in a wall where I lost the car momentarily, stalling the engine and heading straight for one of the posts; I saw Paul tense up and brace for impact, but managed to get round it – I bet it looked interesting from outside!  Then there was another fast section and into a 6 left through some woods where I’d said on recce that someone would stick a car in, and lo and behold, there was a triangle out, marshals saying keep left, and then an Evo which had been installed at a rather interesting angle shortly after the corner….  We carried on to the open section at the end and tried not to make the same mistake as on the recce run, and it went well, other than backing off over the bump (but still having the back end bump up), and probably braking way too much for the watersplash which almost stopped the car anyway.

Two down, two to go.

The road section went OK – the car didn’t play up at all, and we were back at the service in point in plenty of time, and got out and had a chat to several people, including Rob Pike about next year’s Rallye Sunseeker, although the Skoda will need a LOT of work before then…

We got into service, and there wasn’t anything to do, really; all the issues we’d been carrying were still there; rattling top mounts, a knackered gearbox mounting and so on, but I gave it a check over anyway, and then we had some food; by this time Ian and Al had gone home so it was quite quiet; we saw that Duncan from BRF’s car had a transmission failure, and was looking unlikely to get out for the final two stages, and it always seems so cruel to have got that far and then not finish, but then it’s probably better than going out on the first day and doing next to no stages….

Sunday Lunchtime Service

We set off again, and repeated the same road section, although this time while I was filling up Paul went to McDonald’s to get a Big Mac, which he ate on the way, and then produced a Hamburger as “dessert”…We waited in the same place again, watching people come by….

Skoda sat ready for the last long stage of 2010

.. and then set off one the course closing car turned up behind us, and soon enough we were into the stage.  I’d noticed that the car felt even more bouncy on the road section on the way to the stage, and this was soon confirmed as I “warmed up” the car on the way in – it had even less grip, which would be fun as the National rally had also run through the stage by now, so it would be pretty cut up, I thought.

I wasn’t wrong – there were a lot more bumps and areas of real roughness as soon as we got going, and this carried on throughout; the car felt quite dicey in places and again I didn’t want to chuck it off the road, having had so much trouble and come so far, but I still wanted to give it a good go.  About half way in there was a long straight with a bank on the left and trees on the right, and we were going pretty quickly down it (nearly flat in fourth) when we hit a bump, which chucked the rear up in the air and we went right – left – right as I tried to get the car back under control – I was convinced we were going off as we only narrowly missed a big pile of rocks, but somehow we ended up with it pointing in the right direction (I remembered to try not to over-correct and do an unintentional pendulum turn), and off we went again, although for the next couple of K I took it easy, probably too easy as we got caught by Nick a lot more quickly this time.  There was a LOT of noise from the back of the car, which I thought would be the tankguard dragging because the back of the car was so low, plus the rocks that the FC seem to think are a repair to the road as well!  In the end I think we were only slightly slower than the first run, so it wasn’t too bad overall, and we’d done 3 stages of the 4 of the day.  If we didn’t finish now, at least we’d have had most of the fun, if not the glory.

The final run to Margam went fine, with the car behaving aside from sulking a bit in the run through one of the towns, and it was difficult to clear it as the only way is a flat-out thrash so I did some left foot braking to work the engine hard while not speeding, and this seemed to at least keep it going… and then, into Margam for the last time; one way or another this would be my last ever WRC stage, and the last for a Felicia too.

Margam had really cut up in places too – the beginnning was mega-tough and the now-slaughtered tankguard was dragging on the floor for much of this part of the stage, but it only had 5 miles to keep going through, so we got on with it; on the stage there was a narrow section through posts over a cattle grid where Krudda’s S1600 Swift was firmly buried (with an OK board out though, thankfully), so the next posts were taken a bit gingerly, but at least I made a better job of the next hairpin combo, and even got to overtake Al-Shamsi on stage (admittedly with a problem), handily I he moved out of the way very neatly for us, just before the Evo deposit point in the woods where it had already been removed from!

Finally, out into the open, I gave it a good thrash, trying to take the square left as quickly as possible but it wasn’t spectacular, I’m sure.

Margam - pic by Steven Millband

But more so than stalling the engine in the watersplash (my fault, not the car’s), and then over the finish.  We’d done the stages, I couldn’t believe it and celebrated with gratuitous horn beeping!

So, out into the road section, and we waited around for Nick West to come out of the stage, and then followed him very, very closely until we got to Cardiff, where a problem developed – the engine just stopped, completely.  We’d hit a bump just before this and the mapping box for the ECU had fallen off the dash and then the car just stopped.  A quick check showed that none of the sensors were reading at all, and it looked like the ECU had failed.  So near, yet so far, but we still had a chance – if we got the car to the controls in Cardiff then we could still be classified as finishers, so we pushed the car the 300 yards to the regroup in control and spoke to Gary and Johnathan the Competitor Relations Officers who told us that officials of the event (such as Marshals) could assist, but members of the public or our team couldn’t do, and then helped us push the car round to the Service In control along with another official whose name I don’t know (but am indebted to!) and then the half mile or so to the service out control – James Attwood from Motorsports News offered to help but was advised that it may be illegal so it was best not to; we had 10 minutes to do this, and we managed it in 6, by which time I was rather hot and tired, but at least we’d made it.  We quickly got the WRC tracker out (and were helped by one of the ISC staff who was very helpful), and then got the timecard signed as we were in time then.  We had actually finished, and had only to get the car to Parc Ferme “in a reasonable time”, which would be possible with a bit more push work, but we couldn’t go over the finish ramp without the car, and pushing it there was NOT an option (too far and too many inclines), but I wanted to take another look at the ECU with the laptop, so plugged it in, and started the software.

When I saw what I saw, my heart jumped, and not because of the exercise I’d just done.  The software said “Engine Stopped” at the bottom.  This wasn’t it stating the obvious, it was that the stop button had been pressed on the mapping box we had attached so we could diagnose the problem during the day, and it had killed the engine, but interestingly it was a latching one – Paul had tried it, but possibly twice therefore re-setting it again.  I pressed it again, and it said “Engine Run”.  I walked round to the driver’s side of the car and told the guys who had pushed us that there may be a punchline at this point.

I turned the key.

The engine fired up.

Amazing – OK, we hadn’t missed out on anything as a result of the car stopping running, thankfully, but we could now go to the finish ramp, without which I think our rally wouldn’t quite have felt complete.  I unplugged, thanked the chaps and then set off for the ramp holding area, which involved us driving through the Priority 1 area in the bay, and then along the waterfront.

Done it!

We parked up and I really felt elated; we really had done it, with all these ups and downs.  We spent a fair while talking to other competitors and Marshals (including Paul from BRF trying to convince me to go to Barbados next year), and Andrew Kellitt once more – it’s really good to know that key officials from the MSA take an interest in normal Joes like us as well as the works teams (who were still on the podium celebrating at this point), and after quite a while we got down to the finish ramp – here’s Nick’s Fiesta in front of ours, with a Swift on the ramp…

Ready for the ramp....

… and soon enough it was our turn.  While there wasn’t a massive crowd by now, there were still quite a few people there, and they were really enthusiastic about us, which was great – big thanks to them for their reception and we tried to give them a clap too after I’d been interviewed on the podium, and we’d got our finisher’s awards as well as the Class A5 trophies, which again are beautiful crystal ones with the trophy and event logo inside them in 3D.

We now had to put the car into Parc Ferme for the last time, with it parked up with all the other finishers, most of which looked pretty tidy; I did my last bit of tourism and took a few snaps, but really needed a much brighter flash, alas!

Final Parc Ferme

Fabia S2000 - if only!

We then had a 90 minute wait until 7pm so we could get the car back after the results had been declared final, so we went to Pizza Express in the bay and got the van ready for going home and tools ready for the suspension swap – before Paul could get home we’d need to put the broken suspension back on the rally car, and the suspension coming off the rally car back where it belonged on the recce car so he could drive it home.  This was done reasonably quickly, but it was still 8pm before we left Cardiff…

Ready to go home at last..

The drive home took about 3 1/2 hours, partly because I was taking it easy, partly because I was really, really tired by this point, and partly because Paul called me and said the recce car was making a knocking noise or two, so he stopped at Magor services and I caught him up and checked it out – there wasn’t anything wrong, it’s just a noisy old car that’s got a knocky sumpguard on it, and he’s used to driving a 2-year old BMW!  Still, better to check than have an accident!

So, that was it.  Rally GB 2010.  My summary?  For me, I think it had everything – highs and lows.  For the first time I really think I actually drove well throughout – I openly admit I was really all over the place when first starting the recce, but I got it together reasonably quickly, and Paul was often commenting that I’d done something well, and that we “didn’t want to be going any faster than that”, etc.  Obviously I’d have been happier had the car not played up, but it all turned out OK in the end, and certainly added some drama and spice to it, and we got through it.

I have to say a few thanks – Ian and Al for being a brilliant service crew and really keeping our spirits up and looking after us; it really wouldn’t have been the same without them.  They got everything changed over on Saturday service with seconds to spare, and we would have got into Parc Ferme on time had it not been for the engine playing up suddenly again; top marks to both of them for that.  To Paul for again being a brilliant navigator and always being pragmatic and positive throughout the event, even when things went horribly wrong, and for suggesting solutions to problems, most of which worked out.  Plus providing some interesting road section banter, including the theory on sheep in Wales amongst many other things.  To Nick and Simon for being really great guys as we had a good laugh til the very end, and for helping us out when we really needed it.  To everyone who marshalled and attended the event, it was great to see people clapping and waving at us as we drove past, even when slow and bouncy!  To Tammie who has been great throughout all the build-up and the event – she doesn’t understand half the things I’m talking about (she says this, not me), but listens and helps anyway, and to my Mum for as ever sorting things out for me when I’ve not got time – she’s taken bits here there and everywhere as well as stayed in for couriers to deliver last-minute parts to get everything done in time.

It’s been brilliant doing this, and as I sit here writing this on Monday morning (at work, but thankfully there are benefits to teaching, such as setting tests!), I’m really pleased that we did it; it’s not something that I’ll ever forget, made more special by all the difficulties we had and overcame in the end.  I know that in the future I’ll be a little sad that I’ll not get to do something like this again, because there’s just no way that I can afford a newer car that’s still homologated.  I’d love to do an IRC round or two before the car is not eligible for that any more, and Monte Carlo really appeals, but it would mean a solid year of saving and even then it would be an incredibly difficult thing to do, both personally and financially.