An unfortunate series of events

It has been quite some time since my last report, this has been due to missing the third round at Down Ampney airfield because of a pre-booked holiday, after this event was scheduled as a late replacement for Rally Midlands.

Andrew O'Hanlon won at Down Ampney

Well done to Andrew O'Hanlon for claiming maximum points, and now has taken the lead in the championship with three scores. Quite a lot of the Minis failed to finish so it did not affect me too badly, and I still lie 2nd in the championship.

The next round at Sweet Lamb was due to run at the beginning of August but was cancelled. This was disappointing as I was looking forward to getting back out in the car.

This lack of events has not stopped the work on the car though, with the car converted to gravel spec - raising the ride height, and a change of sump guard etc. I had also fitted underfloor guards, these are fibreglass floorpans that bolt onto the underside of the floor. These, I had fitted to try and protect the damage sustained when being used on the gravel stages, and with an eye on the car being more robust for Rally GB later in the year. BL Motorsport had made these for me several years ago when I was building Charlie ( White and Black Cooper S ), but it has taken me this long to get around to fitting them.

With Sweet lamb being cancelled all this work was completed in vain - so it was back to tarmac spec.

I had needed to change the gearbox after our last rally, due to it jumping out of 4th gear, but had elected to leave until after the Sweet Lamb stages. With the event not running I took the engine and gearbox out of the car, and replaced the 'box with one that I had rebuilt. There had been a change of differential to a Salisbury limited slip diff and a change of final drive from 4.3 to a 4.1. This was changed as the 8-port has more pulling power, and will be able to make use of it. 

The underfloor guards have been left on but should not be needed with the next event, the Manx Rally in September, running on tarmac.

Jobs left to do are new front discs and pads. as the front pads will need to be 'as new' for the Manx. I hope with the break that I will find time to work on Bernard too (my original grey/White Cooper S ).

Epynt Mini rally stages

The second round of the HRCR Mini Cup took place on the Bank Holiday weekend at the beginning of May.

Nine Minis had entered on the very demanding roads over the Eypnt army ranges near Brecon mid Wales. These tarmac roads are full of blind crests and no hedges or trees to follow.

My car had had everything greased, a lighter sump guard fitted, but the engine had been OK so I had left it alone, apart from changing the plug leads after the problems we had had on the first round.

Five of the Minis stayed overnight in the same hotel, and guess who got up with a thick head after a night putting the world to rights.

By 6.00am we were on the Eypnt ranges ready to have the car checked at scrutineering, and as with all bank holiday weekends it rained horizontal.

The first two stages ran in heavy rain and fog, and to make matters worse a car running in front had dumped loads of oil on the road - this made the roads like ice. I had backed off but still went off at a 90 bend, having to reverse before proceeding.

A quick service and we were out for another two stages (repeats of the first two), to my surprise I had been quickest of the Minis and we were leading our Class with 29th overall.

The stages started to dry when the rain finally stopped, but the rain kept coming throughout the day in showers.

I increased my pace as the roads dried but so did everyone one so it was nip and tuck on every stage.

At the finish we had managed to extend our lead and finish 1st in class and 20th overall.
 
Eight of the Minis finished with only one retirement due to driveshaft failure.

There's a video above if you want to see what it’s like to drive over the ranges.
 
Next round I am away on holiday so will miss it.

HRCR Rally North Wales report

 

Photos copyright KPB PHOTOGRAPHY (www.kpbpotography.com)

We have just finished the Rally North Wales, the first round of the HRCR/Mini Sport Mini Cup. Just to re-cap; I had fitted my 8-port engine and had a new co-driver with Anton Bird sitting with me for the first time.
 
Six Minis had entered the event, we had expected eight cars but as with every year, not everyone's car was ready in time.
 
RULE CHANGE
The MSA had also issued a rule change just prior to the event starting, telling the organising team that they had to seed the Minis at the back of the field instead of running first on the road as normal, this meant that I would be running at car 92, following all the modern cars around.
 
Scrutinering was on Friday evening and passed without any dramas and the organisers had re-seeded me at car 73 on the road, which meant we would at least start further up the field and have better roads to drive on. I had arranged for all of the Minis to be left at a fellow competitor's farm overnight, which meant that they would be safe out of harm's way.
 
Craig my long suffering son and service crew had the added task of looking after four of the Minis, so would have his work cut-out to keep on top of all of the cars. Mini Sport did have a service van full of spares should we need it and Rob Eastwood was on hand to help.
 
We started the day with a full breakfast, as we were starting later than normal, then headed to pick the car and straight to the start ramp.
 
Anton seemed switched-on and had us at the start with plenty of time to spare. He was amazed that the heavy rain overnight hadn't filled the car with water, and that we had headlining and carpets fitted.
 
STAGE 1
We drove to the first stage which was the longest stage of the rally, and were soon on the start ready to drive through. The starting lights went to green and we were off. The roads were very slippy but we drove through at a safe pace and crossed the finish line to set a time that was fastest of the Minis and quickest in our Class that included the up to 1600cc Class.
 
Anton was good on the pace notes, the only problem had been the car kept jumping out of 4th gear on lift off.
 
The second stage was soon tackled and about a mile in the car went onto three cylinders. My first thought was that the engine had let go yet again, but looking at the gauges all seemed OK and I pressed on, trying to keep the momentum up. The stage had a lot of mist but I tried to keep the speed high.
 

Photos copyright KPB PHOTOGRAPHY (www.kpbpotography.com)

At the finish we had set equal-fastest time out of the Minis but had dropped time against a 1600 Avenger to move 2nd in Class. We drove to the start of the next stage still with the engine running on three cylinders. At the stage-start I had a chance to look to see what the problem was and found that a lead had come off the dizzy cap - this was quickly replaced.
 
We attacked the last stage, prior to service, and managed to set quickest time in Class and out of the Minis.
 
Back at service we found that we were leading the Minis and our Class. Craig checked the car over and everything seemed OK with no oil needed or water. The car was still jumping out of 4th gear but there was nothing we could do about it and would have to put up with it.
 
The last three stages were repeats of the morning stages and I was concerned how they would cut up.
 
The first stage in the afternoon went without a problem with another fastest stage time, but the second stage, at the same place as the first run, through, the plug lead came off again. This stage had cut up on the bends and we were on the sump guard a fair bit. All of the good work went out of the window with the Avenger taking time out of us.
 
On to the last stage and with the plug lead put back on we attacked but I could not hear Anton through the intercom, after searching to find the problem I discovered that in getting out of the car to put the plug lead back on, I had not pluged my intercom in.
 
THROWN IT AWAY?
Anton held the steering wheel while I plugged myself in, once sound was resummed we set off as fast as we could, had I thrown the Class lead away?
 
We finished the stage and did the road section back to the finish to be told that we had indead won our Class and the Mini Cup. Four Minis finished the rally which was good news, but the two that failed to finish will need engine re-builds.
 
This is the first time the 8-port engine has finished a rally and not need a re-build, lets hope it continues.
 

As we were travelling back home I recieved a call to say that we had won a free entry to Rally GB, our World Rally Championship round at the end of the year, so it looks like I will be competing with the big boys - they may have quicker cars but I know which car will attract the most attention!

Photos copyright KPB PHOTOGRAPHY (www.kpbpotography.com)

Plans & preparation

Having looked at several championships for 2015 I have decided to compete in the Historic Rally Car Register championship, which includes the Mini Cup.

The rounds are Rally North wales 28/03/15 starts Dollgellau.

Historic Mini Epynt 03/05/15 over the Epynt ranges.

Rally of Midlands 20/21st June MIRA and Mallory.

Sweet Lamb Historic Stages 19/07/15 at Mid Wales.

Isle of Man Rally bases around Douglas, 17th/19th Sept.

Cambrian Rally 17/10/15 based at Llandudno.

I have also had a change of co-driver with Anton Bird agreeing to sit alongside me. This has come about not because we have fallen out, but Bob wants to reduce the number of events that he wishes to compete on. He has offered his services as a member of the service crew on some of the events.

I intend to run the car with the rebuilt engine - now a 1340cc 8 port engine with lower compression - hopefully with it fully reliable.

There looks to be a great deal of interest from other Mini drivers and we are hoping for at least 8 Minis competing on the first round, so if you're free come and have a look, seeing the cars racing through the woods.

My car has been in demand since Christmas, I did a day testing with fellow Mini driver Paul Price, then it went on display at the HRCR open day at Gaydon. Two weeks later it was at the British Mini Club show at Stafford.

I have finally got Bernard (my 1965 Cooper S rally car) back to the state that I can start putting him back together. See the photographs before and after. Stafford allowed me to buy those parts that I needed to start the job. 

Engine testing at Buith Wells

Following our trip to the Manx International where another engine let go, I decided to put the 8-port engine back in.

I had rebuilt this since the first event of the year as a 1340cc, with lower compression 11.0 -1 and hopefully some reliability.

I wanted to put plenty of running-in miles on the engine which I managed over the next few weeks. The difference with the 8-port engine against the 5-port, both fitted with race cams, is the 8-port runs like a road engine, pulling from just over 1000 RPM, this makes it a joy to drive on the road.

I wanted to try the car on a smaller event to make sure that I had reliability. With this in mind I put an entry into a small single venue modern rally. I entered the up to 1400cc class and to my surprise I was seeded car no 26.

The venue was the showground at Buith Wells and was a mixture of Gravel and Tarmac. We could only use tarmac tyres, and I had decided this would be a good opportunity to use all of my worn tyres.

The day of the rally arrived and scrutineering went without any hitches. The first stage started on the gravel roads which were wet and muddy, there I was, on nearly bald tyres, but I was there to check the engine not to set the world alight.

We flew off the the start line with the engine reving away and the tyres spinning to try and gain some grip. 

The stage went quickly and we drove from the finish directly to the start again for stage two, all the gauages were reading OK and we were away through the second stage.

We then went into service to check fluid levels etc but had nothing to do as all seemed fine.
The day continued in the same format with two stages then into service, until the last batch of stages which were run in darkness. We were 4th in class and mid-20s overall, which surprised me as the cars in our Class have not only lots more power but had brought new soft compound tyres. I think if I had used good tyres, or ones that would had at least passed an MoT test, we may had been even further up the leaderboard.

The car had ran well with no problems with the engine so we fitted the spotlights for the last batch of stages, and ran the car to the start of the stage.

The next stage went without any drama and we went to the last stage. With less than a mile to go a Hardy Spicer joint broke, and we started to crawl out of the stage to the finish. We came to a hill and the limited slip diff would not pull the car up the hill. With the spectators' help we continued through the stage letting cars overtake us.

As we approched the finish I cut through the tape to miss a small 100 yard loop out and stopped at the marshal to get our final time. It was then I was told that the loop that I had cut, had the finish beam so would not be able to have a time.

The result was I did not get a finish again, but I was competing to try the engine out and we had done that, with no oil needed or water needed.

To top the day off the tow car a Ford Focus (the wife's) burnt a valve so we towed the car back on three cylinders.

The car was checked over and all seems OK, the plan is to change the gearbox as the diff needs tightening so will drive with a broken driveshaft if needed, and it dropped out of 2nd gear a couple of times, so will need to be re-built.