![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.skodarallyblog.fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/radnor-1-waiting.jpg\" "\\"radnor-1-waiting\\"")
<\/a>These were NOT the cars that ran into each other!<\/p><\/div>\n
The stage itself went really well – the car was running well, although it wasn’t happy on part throttle (misfiring) it was revving out OK, and the stage was good as it was bright and sunny, with LOTS of spectators about, and the condition of the stage was good. \u00a0I got into a good rhythm pretty much straight away, and I felt it went really well all over, aside from the very end of the stage, which was really muddy, and I ended up totally off the line in the field instead of on the track, but I don’t think I was alone in that from the tracks I saw.<\/p>\n
The road section to the next stage, Monument Hill 1 was fairly long, during which Paul came up with a theory that there aren’t actually many sheep in Wales, most of them are plastic dummies as they never move. \u00a0He also renamed one of the towns we went through as “Pillow”. \u00a0We had a bit of time spare when we got there too, and again watched the big boys pass us by, before going into the stage – here we are on the stage start:<\/p>\n
<\/a>Monument Hill - thanks for the pic, Simon!<\/p><\/div>\n
Again this went well, with the car running OK, and the downhill sections getting it pretty much flat in top gear; gripping stuff aside from the shadows we went into making it hard to see where corners started. \u00a0But again, it went well, and we had a few “moments”, but nothing serious; it just felt like I was getting something like the most out of the car.<\/p>\n
Next up was Four Ways Crychan – here we are on the start line again:<\/p>\n
<\/a>Crychan start - thanks again Simon!<\/p><\/div>\n
This stage had worried me before, being half tarmac and then the classic forest stage (one I really like), but I needn’t have worried too much; yes, the tarmac was really slippy where it had mud dragged onto it, but for the most part it was pretty much as you’d expect, despite being on gravel tyres and suspension.<\/p>\n
<\/a>SS10 pic by Rob Lees<\/p><\/div>\n
It was certainly LONG though, and then we were into the gravel section, which I loved; I was really getting confident and happy to keep the speed up on the longer sections with 1 and 2 corners, some of which were pretty slippy, but the car went where it should do, once you told it to!<\/p>\n
<\/a>SS10 pic courtesy of Andy Wort<\/p><\/div>\n
We got caught by the Swift (2 cars behind us) towards the end, but it worked out OK for both of us, and again I felt I’d done a good job; most of the corners had been taken at decent speed and again lines round slower stuff were improving as was the speed.<\/p>\n
Finally in the loop was Halfway, one of my favourite stages which has a great forestry section to start, and then open army range roads to finish; while the car could definitely do with more power for them, it was great, most of the time the speed was kept up, and sections which I’d had problems with before went well; the middle bit with some difficult corners and rally-finishing rocks nearby was taken with some caution but still with a reasonable bit of speed. \u00a0Again, I thought I’d done a decent job and so did Paul.<\/p>\n
The weather was good, the stages were going well, and for the most part the car was too. \u00a0The only issue really was a part-throttle misfire which came and went; sometimes it would be OK, other times it would be quite bad.<\/p>\n
Lunchtime service was at Builth Wells again, and we got a good spot, having arrived nice and early allowing consumption of a fine hot dog while waiting to book in, and comparing stories with Nick West in the Fiesta while we were in the regroup. \u00a0Service went without any real issues, and we were back out again soon enough.<\/p>\n
The re-run stages were much rougher than usual as the National B rally had also run over them, leading Radnor to be a bit cut up and very slippy at the very end; it wasn’t as bad as we’d been told, but certainly in a few places it was hard work and hard on the car, although it seemed OK about it!<\/p>\n
Monument Hill 2 was also fairly cut up in places, although the change of sun meant that some of it could be taken quicker and with more confidence than before; a bit of cloud meant that there wasn’t the bright sun\/shade leading to a bit more confidence from me, and some good fun had while out there.<\/p>\n
Crychan 2 was quite testing; as soon as we started there was a nasty “knock” whenever on\/off the throttle, which I thought was a gearbox mounting, and in addition I thought the gearbox had broken, but this was from someone else’s smell in places! (Not Paul, I hasten to add). \u00a0Got some of the corners really good though, and although we got caught by Nick towards the end of the forest section, I still think it went well; its quite difficult doing the tarmac section in the dark as a lot of your information comes from peripheral vision, etc., but I still enjoyed it.<\/p>\n
And then Halfway 2. \u00a0Again, this was in the dark; before we went in I just checked that the gearbox wasn’t broken (it wasn’t, so I think it was just a mounting having given up), and then in we went. \u00a0I think this went really well; I decided that I needed to properly commit to the notes as they had all been good and trustworthy beforehand, and the end result was a run which felt good, and was confirmed by the time we got – the marshal at the end said we’d done really well!<\/p>\n
Then it was time to head to Cardiff, and a long, long road section. \u00a0And here things started to go wrong; the part throttle issue became an issue in all situations at one point; about 60k out I had real problems keeping the engine going at all, but then it suddenly seemed to sort itself out, firing up OK and running perfectly again. \u00a0But with about 10k to go, it died again on the A4232, and I was convinced we wouldn’t make it even off the road; at one point we were doing about 20mph with no power from the engine, and only a lot of frantic effort got us to a petrol station. \u00a0I checked everything over while Paul got some WD-40 and we cleaned up all the connections we could, and I checked that the throttle body pot was working (as I thought this may be the problem) – it was OK. \u00a0Went to start the car up, and it ran perfectly – no problem at all. \u00a0We got to the stage arrival without incident and then booked in, and waited for the stage which was about 40 minutes as the normal 1 minute gaps became 2 for this stage.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Waiting in the dark for Cardiff 2<\/p><\/div>\n
Eventually we took to the stage, and were off; the start went much better than Thursday (due to having decent fuel in the car), and so did the chicane – partly due to commitment and partly because someone had already taken a fair chunk out of it. \u00a0We had decided to give it a bit more of an effort over the jump as we’d be flatter, and we did this – not crazily fast, but with a bit of speed.<\/p>\n
BIG mistake.<\/p>\n
Now, I don’t think we went quickly over it, but when we landed the back of the car bounced really high into the air, and although I controlled it (or Newton’s laws did, more like), it was quickly apparent that something was wrong – VERY wrong. \u00a0The back of the car had no grip, and was just bouncing up and down; Paul kept calling the notes, but I said that a) something was wrong and b) I was an idiot for not taking it easy; I really don’t think we went mad over it, but it had broken something really badly.<\/p>\n
<\/a>In the cardiff stage, bouncing about...<\/p><\/div>\n
We bounced through the rest of the stage and then got to the car wash near the service check in, and I got out to have a look (while a Japanese lady took pictures of the car). \u00a0It was soon obvious what had happened – one of the hoses on the rear suspension (which hold all the oil and pressure of the damping) had broken – it had just burst! \u00a0I’m not sure what happened, but the right-side one had come loose – I didn’t think that anything could foul them (and there’s no other way to fit them), so I guess I’ll have to analyse that further later on….<\/p>\n
<\/a>Broken Proflex....<\/p><\/div>\n
I was devastated. \u00a0Game over. \u00a0Or was it? \u00a0Hopefully not; a plan was hatched to rob the rear shocks from the recce car, and carry on with that setup – it had done 4 recces of Rally GB, so why not? \u00a0The boys soon had them off of the recce car, and it reminded me of when C3PO offers his parts to fix R2D2…<\/p>\n