Preps for this rally started late last year with the full rebuild and re paint. The idea was to have the 1600 at spotless show room condition but as always plans dont work, here are some of the reasons why.
Two weeks out with a mate pushing me at the gym, I over strained my lower back which put me out of action for two days flat on the floor and the following 3 were very limited in what I could do
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I had ordered some new springs and the courier had dropped the 1 infront of the 6 so they were delivered to No 6 Lightwood Dr not 16 where we live. After 4 days and some ringing around Sheps located them and I could put them in. Next problem was they didn't suit my spring tops (not suppliers fault) so on the laythe I spent about 8hours making some new ones.
Next was the youbeautis pads that were the same cut but the next size up, so out came the file to make them fit.
In between all of this we also had to fit the new engine and get enough Kms on it so it could go on the Dyno. The week leading up to it had 230am'ers every night
not a good thing but also a good thing. Yeah the spotless show room condition thing didn't happen!
The trip down was mostly uneventful but our arival was a little late which set off the next 14 hours of havoc starting with a very late to bed time followed by an early rising dad 530ish
then I found out Rus n Ryan had got lost on the way down and had run out of fuel and where about an hour away. Off went Trav to the rescue with some fuel. This left Matty and I to do the rest. For me it was land the Chopper at the rotunder then purchase all of the events fuel and finish off any last minute jobs, like tyre change fuel up ect. Matty had to put all of the stickers on the car, clean it out remove the lights and all of his nav jobs. Some how all was achieved with ten mins left over.
The start location is what every rally should be trying to achieve, promoting the cars, crew, and the rally in a positive way, full points +++++
First stage,
Started un known, as I had never driven on dirt with the new engine and this area. I started cautiously and this was a good idea with the loose surface. Not much to add but by the end we were happy we had completed a stage in the Alpine.
Stage 2,
Still learning the car, and learning that now I could just leave it in third and power around corners. It is so much easier and faster to drive
Stage 3,
Drop the clutch all good then go for second and nothing, then no third, ARRRRRRRRRR, crunch we have a gear, Oh no whats happened. We pushed on struggling to select any gear which this stage needed lots of. So not happy Jan, at the start of the biggest rally event of my life and we were almost out.
As we took off from the control on the transport the gears were as normal and very easy to select, Huh what the???
Stage 4,
Start again and still very hard to select gears, some time up to 3-4 seconds to select a gear but I started to work out what position the clutch pedal needed to be in to make it decent.
Wow from the spectator point to the finish was fast. Running a 5.1:1 on 14's gets to top speed fast but at 160kph thats as fast as she goes. It would have been great in Yrallys Commo on that bit of road.
From here on the stages become a bit of a blur other than the wide forestry road 30km one with the red clay. That stage ='d Bonnie doon's stage it was just longer, so I now have a new favorite, only problem was the incar was not on for this one.
On the transport to the 3hr service break it all fell into place that it would be the pressure plate that was causing our troubles. So to service and we chose to check it out.
At this point the service crew + More sprung to life whipping the clutch out to find one of the straps had broken. This explained why under excelleration it had excessive vibes and would not fully disengauge, as the centre plate would twist off centre.
After finding another (thanks Car 28) it was all refitted and as good as new. In this service there was also tyre change, rear pad change Driving light fit and suspension adjustment, even time for tea and a kick of the footy Thanks for the top work guys.
Tar stage,
car was back to normal so my idea was to push as hard as I could. Matty told me to take it easy and see how we went, sorry dude I had different ideas.
Wow what a stage and how good are Advans. I could not get over how much grip they had, and how well the new DS2500's keep stopping. Its easy to see why Tarmac rally has the problems they do as some of those corners were coming up very fast.
By the end of the stage we had caught up to the Robinsons as they had brake troubles. Pulling up to the stop control we had a bunch of guys all pointing at the front wheels. One of them took a photo and showed our front rotors glowing red hot. I hope this stage is used again in 09.
Sorry must sleep, I will finish this off tomorrow night
think we set a coupe of fastest times in the first 3 but i hit a small log on the 4th sunday stage which caused a flat front, but only 2km's from finish. only having a drive tyre as spare, meant the car was a real handfull for the next 2 stages and a few very close calls was enough reason to back off til service. some fresh fronts went on and we knew it was close between us, kari and stewy, so no choice but to give it heaps. fantastic stages to finish the rally off, and we had a ball. also won the last stage just to cap off a very memorible weekend.
[/David Attenborough]
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