After competing at the Pendragon Stages the
Previous Sunday, there was a lot of work to do on the car including removing the engine and inspecting the bottom end as the DTA X-dash was indicating erratic oil
pressure. The differential also came out to inspect the mounting points.
The sumpguard had taken a lot of abuse on the rough section on the Pendragon Rally and took a lot of flattening – note to self if we do the Pendragon Stages next year, we must fit
the longer springs and raise the ride height…
After previous alternator and power
steering pump issues we decided to fit a smaller 3 groove pulley to
the crank which was CNC machined from billet. This new pulley reduced the
speed of the water pump, power steering pump and alternator by 20% to aid
durability at continuous high RPM.
The front lower suspension arm was also
bent and needed replacing – not a drama as it is a standard Lotus Excel item.
What should have been a straightforward swap became a major panic as the new
polyurethane bushes for the inner bush from SJ Sportscars only arrived on the Friday morning
despite being ordered weeks ago. When we tried to assemble them, we found they
did not fit! We had to rush down to FivePen Engineering to have the bushes machined
to the correct size. Even more frustrating – We could not even vent our anger
at Steve from SJ’s as he was on honeymoon…
Ben spent Thursday and Friday putting the
car back together and by 6pm on the Friday everything was completed and the car
road tested! It was nice not to have a late night, before the rally, working on
the car. We even had time to load all the kit into the van on Friday. This gave
us a relaxed start on Saturday to head off up the M6 to Lancashire. We arrived
at the venue, just after Howard Potter in the Red Lotusbits Sunbeam, in time to
leave the car in the service area overnight.
At 6am on the Sunday morning we were back at
Weeton unloading the car in the dark and rain as our scrutineering time was
6-30am – we went straight through noise and scrutineering with no issues. It was time for a
bacon butty and a cup of tea and think about tyre choice. We plumbed for Dunlop
X22 slicks as it was wet without too much standing water. After a chat with
Slick Tyres we followed their advice and went for cut X22 wets for Special Stage 1.
It was Cathy’s first time back in the
co-drivers seat after having our second son Alex 10 weeks ago, so she was a
little nervous (and very busy as she is still breastfeeding Alex)!
Ben could not join the crew this weekend
due to family commitments, so Sams friend Tom came along with Ally and Dave, Ally
on Babysitting duties and Dave to get some good photos if time permitted.
The car performed well in the treacherous wet conditions of SS1 until we went over the jump. We started
getting erratic oil pressure readings as we previously had on the Pendragon Stages. We
immediately slowed down and the readings normalised. Then after the next bend
we had zero oil pressure indicated on the X-Dash but the oil pressure light had
not even flickered on. We decided to continue on cautiously listening carefully
for a change in engine note which would not take long with zero oil
pressure! We made it to the end of the
stage and decided to swap the fuel pressure transducer with the oil
pressure transducer as the engine sounded OK. Unfortunately we only had 11 mins in
service between SS1 and SS2, so we could only check the levels and go back out
as we were. On SS2 we pushed a little harder with the engine still sounding OK but we overshot through the gate at the bottom of the venue and stalled when
reversing - losing at least 10 seconds.
After
SS2 we found we were 8th overall and Howard was in 11th
in car 14, the Red Lotusbits Sunbeam. Our Fellow Wallasey MC crew of Keith
Douthwaite and Tony King were ahead of us by 4 seconds despite being seeded 15th.
On SS3 the oil pressure transducer failed completely and we started to get reported fuel pressure errors – I guess the VDO transducers don’t like hard
landings….
We started to up the pace on SS3 confident
that the engine was OK, but spun over a wet slippy concrete base in front of
the service area – at least it entertained the service crew! Fortunately we
missed all the kerbs and barrels so there was no damage. On SS4 we started to get a loud
clunk every time we went on and off the power. We assumed it was coming from
the differential, so we got the car up in the air and went over the back end with a fine tooth comb but could not find the cause.
After SS4 I went over and had a chat with Keith
Douthwaite who was praying for the rain due at midday. Sure enough at
lunchtime his prayers were answered and the heavens opened! This was good for
us as the wet tyres were starting to overheat. We were considering X22
slicks for SS5, but remained on wets. The heavy landing
over the “bump” before the ramp on SS3 and SS4 had taken its toll on the sump
guard, ripping off two of the mounting bolts.
On
SS5 the concrete bases of the Army Barracks were much slippier due to the rain. The tight
hairpin before the merge became a mudbath with everyone cutting it. On the first loop we spun on the concrete
base entering the merge. On the Second loop we caught Car 8 the yellow
Millington engined Mk2 Escort of Tom Morris and Colin Harkness. Car 8 did not
see us and closed the door when we tried to pass under braking. On the next
bend we were right behind him when he starting braking way before we expected and
had to take evasive action to avoid hitting him. (See the video). We had to follow car 8 for the
next series of bends to the back straight where we tried to go up the inside
but could not match the acceleration of the Millington engined Escort on the straight, so then had
to follow all the way to the split where we went left to the finish – very
frustrating. It probably cost us 10 seconds. We had a quiet word in service
with Car 8 who had not seen us. After this we caught car 8 several times and
every time they moved out of our way immediately even to the point where it
cost them time – what a gentleman!
Unfortunately for Howard in the red Lotusbits Sunbeam, he misjudged how slippery a corner was and slid backwards into a big
kerb, shattering his rear wheel and breaking a rear hub carrier. As neither of
us brought a spare Lotus Excel rear hub assembly with us, it was the end of his
rally.
After SS6 we had moved up to 4th
overall and were taking significant time out of two of the cars in front – Car
4 the Group A Escort Cosworth of Ian Joel and Car 6 the Yellow Mk 2 of Trevor Smith. The
wet weather was working for us !! On SS7 and SS8 the rain got heavier and the
standing water on the concrete got deeper, making any change of direction rather difficult, so we had to adapt our driving style accordingly and
do all of the braking and turning on the tarmac.
On SS9 the rain got heavier again making
conditions worse and we had a near miss catching car 8 again on a concrete base
deep in water. With our bow wave and the spray from car 8 we could not see the
gate way we had to slot right through – guessing was not nice!
We were about to go out to MTC10 for SS10
when all drivers were told to report to Rally HQ to be told the remaining 3
stages were cancelled due to dangerous conditions – a wise decision considering
the amount and depth of the standing water. People even struggled to exit
the venue as the road was flooded.
A good push on SS9 kept us ahead of cars 4
and 6 and moved us up to 2nd overall – our best ever result!
The conditions clearly suited the car, but
I am not sure about the service crew – Sam, Dave and Tom looked like
drowned rats at the end of the day.
Watch the (very wet) video here.
