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Events - 2009
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19 May, 2009 |
Sachsen Rallye - Day 2
Day 2 turned out to be a lovely day - somewhat un-characteristic
weather for Germany in that it was warm, dry and sunny. The first
stage (SS7 and 11) of the day started at a road junction in a small
village. The cars would set off from one branch of a tee junction,
go straight through said junction then wind around the village to an
uphill tee junction where on arriving the first time we turned left.
This brought us back into the village, but first was a long straight
with a tight detour through a layby followed immediately by an
almost unseen hairpin left to take us back amongst the houses and to
the starting point with what was now noted as a square left. Back
out to the uphill tee junction and right this time. From here it was
fast and flowing to the finish.
The second stage (SS8 and 12) was unique in a tarmac rally given
that it started on gravel. A couple of sweeping corners and crests
and a square left took us under a bridge and onto tar...briefly. A
short straight and then over a sharp crest into a square right and
we were back on gravel. Another sweeping corner and downhill into a
square left onto gravel and on the second pass with a little more
gungho...kodak moment!!
The rest of this stage was on tar and generally tighter sections
and combinations including a diversion around a tree that Jonathan
completely missed in the notes.
SS9 and 13, the third stage for the day was one of the longer
ones. After a keep left uphill junction there was a medium left that
Jonathan missed in the notes the first time through causing him to
loose his place and leaving me to drive by sight for what seemed an
awfully long time. The stage included a hairpin right that was
caught on video (check the video
section) and a very tight chicane at the end of a top of 5th
gear straight over a long crest that we brushed on the way through.
The fourth stage (SS10 and 14) of the day was the longest, and
was after a very short transit from the second longest. I was
smelling the brakes and the pedal was not quite as positive as I
would have liked at the start of this one. This stage was fast and
flowing, much more so than the previous one, and I could see where
local knowledge and the lack of doing pacenotes myself could result
in loosing lots of time. This stage demanded commitment and with our
notes this just was not happening. It had everything from a very
fast downhill section that leveled out and dodged around a farm
house to a square right at the end of a long straight, from a very
tight twisty bit through a village crossroads to a detour through a
triangle graced with a huge boulder on the inside (don't cut) to a
blast round a lake and through some trees. All in all, a very
energetic 20kms.
After doing these stages twice each we were very pleased to reach
the finish. The car had worked very well apart from the broken CV
joint on Day 1 - this a combination of full lock, full welly and an
inordinate desire to catch that bloody Honda... The new seats were
very comfortable, and the HANS device seemed almost not to exist
after the first few minutes. It seems that most people put the HANS
on with the helmet. I found it too awkward and wore the HANS
constantly and resorted to putting on the helmet separately. The
finish itself was fantastic. The crew were ecstatic as were we, and
on arriving at the finish arch, were promptly doused with champagne
compliments the AutoSharf crew (check the
video section). What a finale!
Fantastic.
So, what have we learned?? Always do your own pacenotes unless
the rules don't allow it. The car is definitely not as quick as the
N3 cars at the cutting end of the group, but we can keep up on the
twisty bits. The HANS device is far more comfortable than I imagined
it would be. The new seats are very supportive and comfortable over
long periods. My seat is too close to the wheel and I can't reach
the handbrake without a double jointed right arm. My existing single
jointed right arm has got the hang of right handed gear changes. My
left arm has resisted the urge to change gear with the door handle,
and finally, rallying with Jonathan is always exciting and above
all, fun. We had a blast doing this rally and would definitely do
something like this again given half a chance.
Adrian Linton
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18 May, 2009 |
Sachsen Rallye
Update
More photos are up
here. Videos are up
here.
Day 2 report coming soon...
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14 May, 2009 |
Sachsen Rallye
- Photos
Initial photos are up
here.
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09 May, 2009 |
Sachsen Rallye - Day 1 After leaving Barbados at 8:30am on Thursday morning
and transiting via Puerto Rico and Washington DC, I arrived in
Frankfurt on Friday morning (german time) shortly after 9:00am. I was
met by the brother of Bernd Knuepfer, the person who Jonathan co-drove
for last year in the only homologated FWD group N4 car, who also races
motorbikes.
We then had a 350km 3-1/2
hr drive to Zwickau, where the rally was based. Autobahns are
nice! On arrival at the service park, which happened to be in the
environs of a Gothic-inspired church (called the "Dom"), I met up with
brother Jonathan and the rest of the team. We completed the necessary
administrative checks (driving licence, etc.) and I was then introduced
to the car. It sported new competition seats (this as a result of the
FIA banning standard seats in WRC events - a quick review of our WRGB07 site will show that the last
people on the planet to use standard seats in a WRC event were no other
than...). Sitting in the car for the first time, I found the seating
position to be alot closer to the wheel than I normally sit and I found
that the seat shoulder extensions made it a bit awkward to select 2nd
and 4th and made pulling the handbrake darn neigh impossible.
With the start of the rally less that 2 hours away, and ergonomic
redesign was neither practical nor possible, so we would have to drive
the car as is was. I instead spend some time getting accustomed
to wearing the newly acquired HANS device. After some last minute
fiddling with the lamp pod wiring, we were on our way to the first
stage of the Sachsen Rallye.
Sitting on the start line of SS1, a 9.75km test, it struck me
how crazy this escapade had been so far. The pace notes were written by
Jonathan while being driven his wife Alecia, and here I was a scant few
hours after an extended 24hr Trans-atlantic trip in a less than
perfectly fitting car, which I actually drove for the first time across
the start line. Ohh well - thats rallying! The roads are very
narrow and the stage quite technical with lots of fast over-crest
sections into tighter corners and similar combinations. There is
very little room for error, with most of the roads having cat-eyes
vertically-mounted on posts at the sides. The stage also went
through at least two small villages, and close enough to houses that
you could literally knock on their door. Although being car #58, we
were actually 32nd of our 59 starters and at the end of the first 2
stages, we were around the same position.
SS2 was a shorter but in many places quicker stage and had
some interesting bits in it, like for example exiting what could only
be described as a maintenance access ramp from an industrial estate
onto a major road, as well as having a section where the road literally
bent around a barn-like structure (we think the barn was there first!)
SS3 was supposed to have been 5-1/2 circuits of the ultimate
town stage, but was unfortunately cancelled due to an unrelated
accident on a public road nearby.
SS4 & 5 were repeats of SS1 & 2, with the exciting
addition of twilight conditions, rending the foglights almost useful,
and lovely wet roads for our slicks. Fortunately there was practically
no standing water, and the tyres held surprisingly well.
We returned to Zwickau for SS6, the second running of the
super-special town stage. Cars were set of at approximately 1
minute intervals for the 5-1/2 laps required, which meant that there
were about 5 active cars on the course at any given time. There were
huge numbers of people, very reminiscent of the Bridgetown stage used
in the Rally of the Sun and the Stars. It consisted of (in order), a
very wide square left, an open 90 right into a light 90 right, followed
by a 5th gear blast through a tunnel followed by a handbrake-turn (not
for us!) out of the mouth of one tunnel and into the mouth of another
in the opposite direction, then a sweeping left and right combination
followed by a 3rd gear straight ending at a tight hairpin right (again,
not for us!) in front of the starting point. On the first lap, we
were caught by (and made room to allow to pass) a demonic N3 Honda
Civic and promptly tucked in behind him. Although he pulled away
us on the straight sections, we closed right back up on him on the
hairpins, showing that handbrakes are not always the fastest way around
corners. Unfortunately, we broke a CV joint after completing lap 3, and
had to give up the chase. We exited the stage very slowly on one axle
with the LSD barely inching us along. The car came to a stop a
little way before the Stage Stop control, and in an effort to finish
under our own steam, Jonathan pushed while I nursed along the car with
LSD and grinding noises at walking pace. The crowd went wild,
literally, and there was much blowing of air horns, clapping and
chearing. Who says German spectators aren't enthusiastic.
We managed to get the car into to service, about a kilometer by
the same means, and in no time at all, Tobias and the Autoscharf team
had checked, diagnosted and replaced the offending axle. Due to
not completed the stage correctly, we received fastest time in class
plus a 5 minute penalty as the time for SS6. The car was placed
in Parc Ferme on time, and ready for day 2, and after some German
meatballs (they are very good!), some German Sausage (they are very
very good!), and a cup of coffee (which was positively sublime), we
then retired to the Guest House some 20 minutes away for some much
needed rest. This was just after midnight.
Day 2 - Coffee, hard-boiled eggs, cured meat, and a
laptop meant that the world could read this. More to come...
Adrian Linton
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05 May, 2009 |
Automotive Art Shakedown Stages Rally
With the
knowledge of how the Toyo 888 tyres worked (or didn't) at
Luke Hill, we wasted no time picking out the best of our
Toyo RA 1's for re-grooving into wets for the shakedown
rally. I went for a slightly wider and deeper groove on the
existing pattern since a new RA 1 is pretty good on wet
anyway. With that out of the way, the radiator fan promptly
packed up. Investigation showed a cold solder joint on the
fan. Out with the soldering iron and....where the heck is
the solder? Eventually found it and re-soldered the
connection. Next up - having knocked off the left side rear
view mirror
on the first event of the year, and not having an interior
rear view mirror, it was time to fit one of the other. Since
we had no spare left side mirror the windscreen mounted
mirror that had come off at the end of last year was
modified to fit on the panel over the windscreen. Also on
the agenda was to finally fit the roof scoop. With the
weather looking very ominous for Sunday in terms of rain, we
thought it was the best way of keeping the screen fog free.
Some measuring and drilling later along with a quick trip to
the local gas station for some clear silicone sealer, the
scoop was installed, and to
quote Robin Bradford the car now has "a little white
pimple". On to the rally.
The morning of the rally looked very wet and overcast making
the choice of wets to start with seem quite good. SS1 was
Canefield, albeit a bit shorter than used in Rally Barbados,
and apart from a bit of mud on the long straight past
Vaucluse it was dry. The road did not seem quite as grippy
as I remember it from previous rallies, but the
RA 1's held OK. On SS2 which was Bawdens to Rock Hall our
rally almost came to an end. Jackie (wife and co-driver)
wrenched her back going over the first crest on the stage
when the car landed awkwardly and was in pain for the rest
of the day. This stage was incredibly bumpy throughout and
did Jackie no favours at all. Canefield was smooth by
comparison, and having changed over to the molded slicks for
the second run through - we were finally able to see how
they worked. The tyres were probably marginally on the
narrow side at 180/580 X 15 but they worked well and were an
improvement over the RA 1's we had been using for the past
couple of years. I tried as
best as I could on the second run through Bawdens to pick
through the worst of the bumps and backed off substantially
to nurse her through it since she was adamant she wanted to
continue the rally. A third Canefield marked the end of the
morning session.
The afternoon stages were Pickerins (run twice) and a
reverse of Bawdens finishing a bit earlier than the morning
starting point. Pickerins is a lovely stage - quick and
above all smooth, and apart from a slightly mal-positioned
chicane that was able to be taken flat in 6th, the times
were good. Turners Hall (the reverse of Bawdens) was not
quite as bad as the morning run in terms of bumps, and
Jackie now had a pillow stuffed behind her back to cushion
things a bit. We finished the rally 13th overall and 1st in
group, but kudos must go to Jackie who literally gritted her
teeth and stuck with it. The injury seems to be muscular and
two days later she is a bit sore and stiff but otherwise OK.
The car worked faultlessly as usual, and I am quite pleased
with the grip that the molded slicks offer. The roof scoop
also works well and although no rain fell to test its
defogging ability, it certainly helps to cool me down on the
transit sections.
Looking
forward now to King of the Hill and Rally Barbados 2009 but
first - the Sachsen Rally!!! Germany here we come!!!
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30 April, 2009 |
Rally Sachsen - Entry List
Issued
While Adrian is making
preparations for the Automotive Art Shakedown Stages Rally on 3
May, the Kickastra Team have been confirmed as start #32 of
59 entrants for the Sachsen Rallye, the 4th Round of the
German Rally Championship. The rally entry list can be
viewed
here.
The major competitor is
expected to be car #31, a Renault Clio Ragnotti driven by
Mark Muschiol of Chemnitz, Germany. This car is much
better prepared and much better suited to Tarmac, as the
Kickastra's OPC will be running on gravel suspension, and
has not been developed to its ultimate BHP potential.
The team is looking
forward to the event, as it is more to get "seat time" in
the car, try out the new HANS devices, and to shake the car
down for further possible events.
Roll on
the warm-up rally!!!
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21 April, 2009 |
Luke Hill
Speed Event
Photo from
www.justbajan.com
After a
week of bright sunny weather, the day before the Luke Hill
speed event was overcast with light sprinkles of rain and a
40% chance of rain the day of the event according to one
weather source. With this event marking the beginning of the
tarmac season, and having taken the decision to run on
molded slicks this year, we were presented with a minor
challenge that I hoped would show up much, much later -
wets. I had a choice of cutting either some part-worn Toyo
RA 1's or Toyo 888's into wets. I picked the 888's due to
the width and depth of the existing grooves (wide and deep).
This event would also be the opportunity to try out the new
radiator. On the Searles loose event the car had been
bordering on overheating after each run and we had made the
decision the upgrade the radiator for this event. We had
twin core unit built and were eager to see how it worked.
Although
the night before the event was clear and starry, the morning
was wet and miserable. The sky looked a bit clearer towards
the north west which was where we were going however, so all
was not lost. On arrival at the service area the road was
damp, but the rain could be seen in distance and we quickly
put on the wets. On the way from service to the start of the
stage for the practice run I could smell rubber burning, but
put it down to the car ahead (and now out of sight) "warming
up" his tyres. I smelt it again immediately after the stage
but again put it down to another car since we had no
clearance problems or issues I was aware of.
The
practice run itself was taken with an abundance of caution
as the road had standing water in some areas, and mud in
others. The tyres worked surprisingly well considering they
were re-cut pre-loved tyres from two years ago. It was
waiting at the start of the first official run that I had
another good look at the car trying to figure out the
burning rubber smell that I found the cause. The 888 tyres
were 215/50 x 15 size - wider than anything we had used
since putting the Proflex on the front at the end of last
year. This extra width was just enough for the inside edge
of the tyre to rub on the lower spring. I had used the RA
1's with the Proflex, but these were 205/50 x 15 and had
cleared the spring platform. Anyway, the rubbing was slight
and we continued.
The first
official run was taken a bit more aggressively, but still
feeling out what the tyres could do. I locked up the front
coming into the wide corner by the big trees on this run but
got round OK. After this is a kink right and a fast left
hander. It was on this corner that the back came out a bit -
something to look out for. On the second run I did not lock
up on the approach to the trees, but had a huge moment
exiting the corner - full sideways with the front left on
the embankment. It was all caught on camera for posterity -
both incar and outside. I still went quicker than run 1 but
it definitely cost time. The last run was clean, but the
tyres showed their limit. We definitely need to look at some
decent wets for the upcoming events this year. On a good
note, the engine temperature was right where it should be,
and although Luke Hill is a short stage, with the other
radiator the temperature would have been much higher -
mission accomplished.
Roll on
the warm-up rally!!!
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02 April. 2009 |
Kickastra Team Enter 4th
Round of German Rally Championship
The Kickastra Team have officially entered the AvD Sachsen-Rallye,
the
4th round of the 2009 German Rally Championship to be held
on 7-9 May, 2009. Based in Zwickau, in the South-East
of Germany, the all-tarmac rally will be the first event for
the team's Opel Astra OPC since the Wales Rally GB in 2007.
The Rally consists of 14 Special Stages over two days, with
150km of very technical tarmac stages with a nice mix of
high speed sections, blind crests and tight corners.
Invaluable to
facilitating the event, the team's German engineers
AutoScharf located close to Lauter will be providing all
on-event support. Also invaluable, the organizers have
graciously agreed to allow Adrian to arrive at the event
within a few hours of the start, meaning that he will be
driving the rally without doing a recce. Pacenotes
will be done by Jonathan prior to the rally - a good test of
Jonathan's ability to write pace notes!
This rally will give
Adrian plenty of seat time leading up to the SOL Rally
Barbados 2009. The rally will be opportunity to test
HANS devices, that the Kickastra Team will acquire for this
event. Finally, it will be also be a good shakedown
for the car following a full top to bottom refresh by the
German engineers AutoScharf, as the team is planning a major
rally in the near future...
Check back on
our
website for updates on our progress and preparations.
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26 March, 2009 |
Searles Loose Event
We were
looking forward to the Searles loose event with great
expectation. Not only had the problems been sorted from the
last event and required testing, but the new Proflex rear
suspension was now installed.
A good
portion of the course was renew for me, having missed the
event when it was last run in this configuration. At 5.3km
it would be a very interesting test. The course offered an
good mix of challenges, with the first corner being a medium
fast left with a drop outside and the rest of the course
included among other things a nice jump, a road that dropped
sharply away, a couple of fast sweepers and a high speed
kink - it was a joy to drive, especially with the
preparation that had gone into it - it was smooth for the
most part.
And as
for the car - gearbox mount was rock solid, fan belts stayed
put and above all the rear suspension now felt like it
actually stayed stuck to the road. The disconcerting hopping
up and down from the rear was gone. The times reflect the
potential the car now has as we move into the tarmac season.
What a difference!
Some
further testing will be needed to fine-tune the suspension
for tarmac, and this year we will be running molded slicks
for the first time so it looks like we will have an
interesting time. Next event is the Luke Hill sprint on
April 19th.
The Kickastra Rally Team
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16 March, 2009 |
Update
With the
first event under our belt, some work was needed. Also, the
new rear Proflex (thanks to Ravensden) had arrived and
needed to be fitted. First up was the gearbox mount. Closer
examination showed that the failure was metal fatigue due to
excessive flexing. The chassis rail in this area was plated
and a new mount fabricated, this time completely boxed in
and and with gussets. Over-engineering at its best. Next was
the belt issue. The power steering pump bushes were found to
be worn allowing the pump to flex and move on the bushes.
The bushes were modified for the upcoming Searles
event after which they will be ditched and solid bushes
machined.
Finally the Proflex. The bottom rose joints were a perfect
fit and bolted straight up to the standard mounting point.
The upper ones were slightly wider than the AVO mounting
that the car had been built to accept. In order to fit the
Proflex, one of the side plates had to be cut off and moved
outward by about 3mm and rewelded to accomodate the rose
joint. The remote cannisters were cable-tied to the rear of
the beam out of harms way. Interesting to note were the AVO
shocks that came off. One was wet with oil and offered
little resistance, the other was dry, but not much better.
No wonder the back of the car hopped around so much. A short
test drive across a very bumpy and rutted road close to home
immediately showed the difference proper
suspension can make. Some adjustments will undoubtably be
needed at the Searles event, but the car now feels so much
more settled and controllable.
Looking
forward to a good event...
The Kickastra Rally Team
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09 March, 2009 |
BRC/MCBI
Loose Event
With the
engine in the car and everything set and ready, we were
looking forward to the first event of the season with
anticipation. It would be the first time out for a long time
with the big engine, and we wanted to do some suspension
testing as well. The event was originally carded as a speed
event but was changed to a double header, the afternoon
course at Guinea being a reversal of the morning run.
The practice run went fine and although the time for this
run did not count towards the championship, it was on par
with the front running 2WD cars. The first official run was
also a good one and again, the time was right where we
expected. The course was interesting but had a number of
sections with sharp undulations and bumps which was quite
hard on the car. On the second run the power steering belt
came off and took the alternator belt with it. The ecu
apparently did not take kindly to the lack of voltage that
and this resulted in what felt like and sounded like a
misfire. Also, with the power
steering the car was a real handful and we ended up with a
slower time than the first run. With belts replaced it was
off for run 3 and ... same again. Threw the two belts and on
the road section back to service there was now a worrying
vibration in the left front wheel.
Investigation at service showed that 2 wheel studs had
sheared off and the other two were finger tight. Fortunately
we were able to "borrow" 4 studs from a fellow competitor's
car after they had retired from CV joint failure. Having now
got the car back together in time for the afternoon runs,
the salt gremlins kicked in. I had cramps in my entire arms
from fingers to shoulder, and sent Dominic on an urgent hunt
for salt. The belts again came off a few corners into the
stage, and with no power steering and bad muscle cramps I
had to back off. I literally could not move the steering
wheel fast enough to control the car. I opted not to do the
second run in an effort to ease the cramps and absorb the
salt I had eaten. With all the power steering
belts used up, the third run would be without power steering
from the word go. This was a better effort, but still a good
way of the potential of the car. The result - in spite of
the challenges a class win on both the morning and afternoon
run, a belt tension/alignment issue to resolve, a gearbox
mount to refabricate where it had ripped out of the chassis
during the day, and some useful information from the
suspension adjustments.
The Kickastra Rally Team
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03 Feb, 2009 |
The
engine is in!
We had a productive weekend and now have the QED engine back
in the rally car. The car was propped up on jack stands on
Friday night and work started on disconnecting everything in
preparation for dropping the engine out on Saturday. Once
out, we had to transfer alternator/starter/oil filter
sandwich plate/throttle bodies/crank sensor and the
flywheel/clutch assembly over to the other engine with new
bolts/gaskets and Locktite as required. Everything went
smoothly as well as the refitting of the engine which took
place on Sunday evening. We fired it up for the first time
late Sunday night. No puddles of oil, no drips of green
fluid, just a slightly more raspy (and dare I say exciting)
engine note on part throttle.
Just
need to put a few miles on it and then we can open her up
and see and hear what's really happening. One thing we plan
to do is to check/sort out the fueling. I still think it is
running a bit on the rich side, and some testing will I
think improve things a bit more. Looking forward to the
first event....
The Kickastra Rally Team
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27 Jan, 2009 |
The problem with the QED
engine, and the reason it was taken out was overheating. In
Rally Barbados 2007 the engine had run progressively hotter
and hotter during the course of the event to the point that
the ECU had gone into "safe" mode on one stage late on the
second day loosing us a lot of time. The engine had been
taken out of the car after this event.
Some investigation and consultation with a few people with
experience with the XE engines indicated that the engine
problem was probably not terminal. Based on this advice, the
head was stripped and sent to a local machine shop to be
re-faced. As was suspected, the head was not level and
required a 5 thou skim to rectify it. The head was then
carefully rebuilt. Ports and chambers were all thoroughly
cleaned, valves re-seated and new valve stem seals fitted.
The block also had to pay a visit to the machine shop to
install helicoils in two of the head bolt tapings. The
engine had been put together with the incorrect type of
cylinder head bolts (the shorter ones) and two of them had
pulled through the threads in the block when the head was
re-torqued. Finally, after some additional prep work, the
head was reunited with the block, torqued down with the
correct bolts and timed. The plan now is to pull the
existing engine out of the rally car this weekend, swap over
a couple of essential things like the flywheel, oil filter
sandwich plate and throttle bodies among others and then fit
the QED engine. Michael (intrepid pit crew person) has been
put on alert and we are set to go.
The Kickastra Rally Team
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14 Jan,
2009 |
End
2008 Update
Quite a bit has happened
since the Sun and Stars Rally. Most notably, two loose
rallies. The first was a one day single venue rally. A class
win here
navigated by wife Jackie set the stage for the final event
of the year, the
two day Winter Rally.
The Winter Rally promised something a bit different for a
loose rally. It
was slated to start at night with 4 runs thru Searles and
then continue on
Sunday with 4 runs thru Guinea and ending with another 4
runs thru Searles in the reverse direction to Saturday
night. The car was shod with some Michelin hand-me-down
tyres for this rally, but they seemed OK and were the least
of my worries. Much more important was the left seat
occupant, or to be more precise, the lack of one. Jackie had
been conducting a training course for the past two months
that was scheduled to finish....on Day two of the rally,
rendering her unavailable. Brother Jonathan was some 4500
miles way and also not available. Son Dominic was under the
minimum age for National rallies and we really didn't want
to break our treasured tradition of being a family team.
A bit of grovelling and a few one-sided counter-intuitive
arguments secured a suitable person in none other than
Jonathan's wife Alecia who happened to be in Barbados at the
time. A bit of hurried membership and licensing ensued and
she was duly entered as my co-driver. Pace-noting was the
morning of the rally and done without episode. Alecia seemed
quite comfortable with the task at hand as we suited her up
and checked helmet, intercom, shoes etc. On to the start
then...
Sitting on the start line of the first stage with fog lights
on, windows up
and an apparently penseive first-time navigator
was...interesting. The good thing was that whether she read
the notes correctly or not, or in German or Spanish matter
little since I knew the stage quite well, it was more of how
she would feel as a passenger. Well, the little red lights
turned yellow and then green (as they do), and off we went.
Alecia actually called the notes quite well, and had already
added managed to add a few comments here and there like
"faster" and "haul your ass". The fact that we caught the
car that started ahead of us two corners before the finish
due to a spin added some additional colour. As we passed
thru the finish, I flicked off the fogs, slowed and asked
Alecia how she felt about the whole co-driving thing and her
first stage. Suffice it to say that there was a whole lot of
un-printable stuff, but the general gist of it was "wow,that
was awesome, lets do it again!". We finished the rally
without incident although we did have a few Kodak moments.
We learned two valuable things in this rally. First the new
front Proflex
suspension is great. Second the old rear Avo suspension is
crap. We
definately need to upgrade the rear to Proflex in 2009. Also
on the cards
for 2009 is to rebuild the QED engine and put it back in the
car.
This rally was a fitting end to a most enjoyable year. We
finished 1st in
our class, M7 with the prize being a plane ticket to England
courtesy of
Championship sponsors Virgin Atlantic.
And speaking of sponsors, we could not have done what we did
this year
without the assistance, encouragement and support of our
sponsors:
Barry and Susan at
Ravensden
James at Crane and Equipment
Mr. Jordan at Garbage Gobbler
Mark at Morris Straker
Alan at Subzero
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