Red 5
23rd March 2016, 07:17 PM
http://www.mr2mk1club.com/
Well we didn't do too well in the end. We were doing OK to a point where the back wheel came adrift a bit. We were just outside the top 20 bearing in mind the car is still in circuit race mode with lowered suspension and what are basically cut slicks and the route was a lot rougher than we had been led to believe with lots of rough tracks and tests on gravel and in forests.
We'd opted not to fit a multitude of navigational equipment, trip meters, timers etc on the basis of it being our first event and I didn't want to waste the money in case we didn't like it. When we turned up and everyone had a couple of Brantz tripmeters and a row of clocks and stopwatches mounted to the dash we thought we might struggle. I had taken the liberty of replacing the broken speedo cable which I thought would come in handy, and it did.
The engine overheated for some strange reason about half way through so we pulled up next to a man who was spectating outside his house and he provided us with a watering can full of water and horse hairs which we managed to get into the engine after 10 minutes of geysers and Flying Scotsman impersonations. We dropped a bit of time in that section otherwise we'd have been nearer to the top 10. A friend was out spectating in his service van and he gave us a gallon bottle full of water (and aircon cleaning fluid) which we used to top up with from time to time so had no further problems with cooling.
We started to develop handling problems just after lunch which I chose to ignore as I knew I didn't have the gear to sort it out but on a tight 90 left at the top of Sutton Bank the car stepped out wildly as the suspension "moved" and this alerted Simon the navigator to the problem so we were then forced to have a look. We had lost a bolt out of the rear right ball joint and the hub was moving about. I told him that if we took it steady it should be fine and we soldiered on.
The last straw was a ridiculously rough track near to Easingwold which must have annoyed it as the hub moved a lot and the driveshaft popped out leaving us stranded in some mud.
https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t34.0-0/p526x296/12443020_10153640096164613_679329024_n.jpg?oh=2b9d 194bb65da30a096f292e90b38494&oe=56F4C25E
We fastened the tow rope to the front and a nice man in an L200 gave us a drag to some tarmac where we jacked it up and managed to get the driveshaft back in. I borrowed a bolt from the door bar and fastened the ball joint back on and we cut and run to the next open control, missing four en-route gaining 30 minutes penalty for each amassing 2 hours altogether. But we did make it to the finish and were placed 48th out of the 60 starters so there were 11 that did worse than us; one noted retirement was due to a vibration. (Big Jessies)
Planned improvements for the next one are to raise the suspension and fit loads of clocks and dials, but the car might be out at Rockingham so it needs returning to race trim for that one.
DH
Well we didn't do too well in the end. We were doing OK to a point where the back wheel came adrift a bit. We were just outside the top 20 bearing in mind the car is still in circuit race mode with lowered suspension and what are basically cut slicks and the route was a lot rougher than we had been led to believe with lots of rough tracks and tests on gravel and in forests.
We'd opted not to fit a multitude of navigational equipment, trip meters, timers etc on the basis of it being our first event and I didn't want to waste the money in case we didn't like it. When we turned up and everyone had a couple of Brantz tripmeters and a row of clocks and stopwatches mounted to the dash we thought we might struggle. I had taken the liberty of replacing the broken speedo cable which I thought would come in handy, and it did.
The engine overheated for some strange reason about half way through so we pulled up next to a man who was spectating outside his house and he provided us with a watering can full of water and horse hairs which we managed to get into the engine after 10 minutes of geysers and Flying Scotsman impersonations. We dropped a bit of time in that section otherwise we'd have been nearer to the top 10. A friend was out spectating in his service van and he gave us a gallon bottle full of water (and aircon cleaning fluid) which we used to top up with from time to time so had no further problems with cooling.
We started to develop handling problems just after lunch which I chose to ignore as I knew I didn't have the gear to sort it out but on a tight 90 left at the top of Sutton Bank the car stepped out wildly as the suspension "moved" and this alerted Simon the navigator to the problem so we were then forced to have a look. We had lost a bolt out of the rear right ball joint and the hub was moving about. I told him that if we took it steady it should be fine and we soldiered on.
The last straw was a ridiculously rough track near to Easingwold which must have annoyed it as the hub moved a lot and the driveshaft popped out leaving us stranded in some mud.
https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t34.0-0/p526x296/12443020_10153640096164613_679329024_n.jpg?oh=2b9d 194bb65da30a096f292e90b38494&oe=56F4C25E
We fastened the tow rope to the front and a nice man in an L200 gave us a drag to some tarmac where we jacked it up and managed to get the driveshaft back in. I borrowed a bolt from the door bar and fastened the ball joint back on and we cut and run to the next open control, missing four en-route gaining 30 minutes penalty for each amassing 2 hours altogether. But we did make it to the finish and were placed 48th out of the 60 starters so there were 11 that did worse than us; one noted retirement was due to a vibration. (Big Jessies)
Planned improvements for the next one are to raise the suspension and fit loads of clocks and dials, but the car might be out at Rockingham so it needs returning to race trim for that one.
DH