it is what works for us in the car, hard to explain why we use the system but if two people sit side by side looking at one cone or obstacle and the co-driver says left at cone do you drive to the left of it i.e. the cone passes the drivers door or do you go to the right of the cone so it passes the passenger door i.e. left side of the car. gets even more complcated if the test diagram is not exact and you have to bear to the left after the cone etc, and the speed these things come at you you need short concise calls written in your own developed short hand on the diagram. trust me haggis can get to the end of a test and say he never looked up to see a cone as there is not time to call look at cone look back down at notes call look up at cone etc.
Next event 18th Oct Solway classic run by Wigton motor club, having had to miss the Doonhamer due to the broken piston ring and work getting in the way preventing a fast rebuild we will be looking for maximum championship points o nthe Solway. And we will be out with an upgraded engine thanks to Andy Jones at Shrigley !
Got back from rally IOM yesterday, i was there working for Geoff Taylor. I sailed out on the 02.15 ferry thursday morning and arrived in IOM 06.15 had a bacon bun at the cafe and walked up to the TT grandstand as this is where the service park is. Geoff and co-driver Steve Greenhill arrived and we collected the car from the storage facility that one of Geoff's friends has. I took the car to scrutineering whilst Geoff and Steve went and completed some more passes for Recce. Recce is where the driver and co-driver travel the stage in a road car making the pace notes that will be used to get the car through the stage flat out later on in the week when the roads are closed. The car passed scrutineering with no issues and i set up the service park and mounted the spotlights, fitted some better bulbs from Alan at Questmead. The difference from a standard bulb to PIAA is dramatic, Geoff and Steve returned from Recce and we had some dinner and a discussion about weather and car set up in particular the tyres. The night stages got off to a good start with a blast for the crowds along the promenade, Geoff returned to the service park mentioning a noise from the back of the car this turned out to be the long bolt holding the alternator on had fallen out, i fitted a new one with an extra nyloc nut to act as a locking nut, i am still not sure why this happened but luckily i have fitted an uprated adjuster bracket to the car a while back and this supported the alternator thankfully. It was then onto the proper night stages. All was going well until the last of the night stages SS3 2 miles from the end the the headlights and spotlights went off at high speed Geoff kept the car on the road and slowed down enough to use the co-drivers torch out of the window to see where they were going, brave stuff, the first i knew about this was the dreaded phone call "we have lost all the lights and need something to work to get back to service" whilst messing with the wiring using advice from me over the phone they just turned themselves back on ! This allowed them to get back to service without going OTL (over time limit) we had free service i.e. no time limit so i set about the wiring to find the old fuse boxes were crying enough, some by pass wires were made and the lights tested, then a quick once over to make sure we had no major drama to sort and i was confident that all we needed was a routine service spanner check in the morning so it was off the Peel to the accommodation and bed at 03.00. A reasonable start time allowed us to get up at 08.00 and return to the service park where i checked over the car to find no issues and then they were off again for the day stages Geoff and Steve returning with smiles each time at the service halt. the service times were 30 mins or 45 mins at the end of the day, you have to work flat out to get a spanner or torque wrench on every nut and bolt on the car to ensure nothing is coming loose. During service i check brake pads adjust rear shoes after cleaning all the dust out of the drums, inspect donuts and torque check the bolts, oil level, check coolant and a good visual inspection of everything. There were stage cancellations due to accidents during he course of the rally and on friday night they were due in service 00.15 so really now into saturday, the boys got to service approx 01.30 (not too sure as i was tired and the days were blending into one) a check over of the car and a decision to check gearbox oil in the morning. Sunday morning and a later start at 09.00 to allow me some time on the car, the gearbox took about .5 of a litre, the rest of the car was checked as per normal and all was good. Sunday was going well apart from a few more cancellations and when last service was done i told Geoff and Steve to bring it home, the last stage sees the cars blast past the TT grandstand so i took a good position to actually see them in action and try to catch some video footage on my phone, whilst holding my phone and practicing on some other cars it rang. Not the call i wanted, the gearbox had made a noise on the road section on the way to the 19th stage, Geoff stopped the car and parked it somewhere safe and i packed everything up and went to recover them, a really disappointing way to end the rally but on reflection the imp had done well, the event is 167 competitive miles with 240 road miles that is a fair test of endurance for both drivers and car. i am sure i have missed more info as lack of sleep and the nature of the event meaning i was in the service park and concentrating on the car for 30 mins and then they were gone again meant i did not have much time to chat to them apart from the end of the day. i am sure Geoff will have a more detailed report to put in impressions. All in all a great rally and one every imp owner with a rally car should do at some point, there were 20 minis there including a few from Japan who come every year to do the event.
So Mike, when are you going to do it in your rally car?
Great report, pity about the gearbox, sounds as though everything else was running well and Geoff on his way to a good placing in the "Old Stager" championship group.
RallyeCallye
Member no. 8, bought first Imp 1971. Owned 7 or 8 lost count!
Well done, Geoff, Steve and you, Mike! It sounds as though you came very close to finishing the event. Any idea where the car would have placed, if it had finished?
IM
Paul Harrison
imp: a small demon : FIEND : a mischievous child : URCHIN
maniac: Raging with disordered intellect: affected with mania: MAD
go here and tick the box for show cars. leave the drop down as last stage.
so to start with you are looking at the left side the stage times in fastest first order on the right is the overall position on the rally.
click on the button previous stage and you will get SS19 same format on left stage time fastest first.
so for SS12 Geoff was 89th fastest 18 places Moved Up on that stage class H1 5:51.4 is his time this is from left column everybody below was slower so look at the cars he beat.
the right hand column is overall So 102nd 2 places Moved Up In class H1 8th 1:35:17.7 this is total rally time 0:26:54.5 this is how far behind the guy winning it Geoff was. The front runners were in Fiestas so a bit embarrassing that Geoff could not match their times
engine and box coming up to me soon for a valve clearance check on engine. I will report back on the box findings but to me i suspect a broken crownwheel tooth or sun and planet wheel failure, this is based on, i can select all gears the, car drove off the main road making a clunking sound, no oil loss on the sump guard.
Steve and Geoff's times were good there were quite a few moderns struggling to match the pace.
well a late update it was a missing tooth on the crown wheel on Geoffs imp that caused the problem in the IOM, good result on the AGBO stages with no issues at all on the car very easy day servicing.