Initially we thought things would be traumatic as we were thrown out of scrutineering for being too noisy - we are allowed 100dba at 0.5M and we were 103 on the drivers side and 101 on the passenger side (engine mechanical noise makes the difference). Scott changed the silencer for our spare which has restrictor/deflector on the end of the pipes and we then had 99 on the good side which was deemed ok.
We then needed to rejig the battery carrier which was loose (it's a sealed Red Top mounted in front of the PAS pump) and a few cable ties did the job to get us through.
The stages were fairly well suited to the car and I was pleased with how the car behaves, particularly on the tighter, twisty bits. We experimented with tackling hairpins in 1st and 2nd, settling on sticking it in 1st to launch out with the engine on the cam. In 2nd it's unsettled carrying more speed in and then labours to get the revs up on the exit.
The biggest area that we need to work on is the long 5th & 6th gear sweeping corners where you can see in the vid that I'm holding back for what seems an age. What you can't tell is that at that point we have almost no front grip and the steering has taken on the "sneeze" factor and a touch more throttle provokes the tank-slapper. Some of the other in-car has a few scares and some run-out-of-road-brown-trouser moments (I'll try and edit some up if anyone wants a laugh)
Later in the day we had a graphic illustration of WRC technology when we were behind Peter Lloyd's S8 Subaru. Around the tight bits there was very little in it and the gap stayed the same, onto the straight and he's still not pulling away, into the long 60 left and we get left for dead by 300 grands worth of active diffs and computer trickery while I'm praying that we don't start spinning like a top.
Still, by the end of the day we were pleased to end up 13th overall and 3rd in class - one place behind the Prodrive Aston Vantage - and winning a pot for our troubles.
Realistically there were probably 9 or 10 cars that we'll never challenge so for our second time out, not bad all round.
Having run special cars for years, I have to say that SG Motorsport has been the best I've encountered. Scott's workmanship is spot on and that's proven in that, apart from bleeding the clutch a little at lunchtime, we didn't lay a finger on the car all day. Contrast that with some of the running repairs on much more expensive cars and the mechanical carnage amongst the field. We are of course doing preventitive maintenance in between events but really based on Scott and I having an educated guess. So far, so good and well done Scotty
We have got the tyres worked out now and overall we used one set for the day which again isn't bad. The only unscheduled damage was caused by our unscheduled exhaust change where the restrictors also restrict the flames that shoot from both pipes on the overrun. Our rear bumper is toasted
So, here's the download link to Rally In-Car Video where you get to see Mike's semaphore signals which he has expertly developed to make an impact on my ageing brain! Right click and Save Target As to get it on your pc - its 43mb so dial up is a long time coming
Photos on this one courtesy of Tony Large
Next time out, we are hoping to see an improvement as we've coughed up for MoTeC and also bought another Trophy car (bad month expense wise!). What this gives us though, is a way to develop particularly the front suspension, without immobilising the rally car. Current thinking is that we will extend the front turrets to allow a longer damper and also play with the subframe mountings to allow extra wheelbase. All ideas welcome!