These two stages were again great to drive, with us slowly getting faster and faster after each KM that we completed.

Photo courtesy of Artline Media (https://www.facebook.com/artlineonpoint/)

Up to 10th place in the state after Ellis, and 2nd 2wd.  Moving in the right direction 🙂

Healthway was next, again no issues, I seemed to like this stage, had a flow about it.

Photo courtesy or Motor Sport Photo’s BJP  (https://www.facebook.com/motorsportphotos.bjp)

Up to 8th place in the state now, getting faster slowly.

After only 6kms of stages, there was not much to do, check the wheels are tight, that the engine is still under the bonnet, have a drink and get back in for the next loop.

SS4 was cancelled, for obvious reasons……

Photo by Alan Bird (http://alanbirdphotography.com.au/motorsport)

To take a phrase from one of my old mates “How much fun can a Koala bear!”

Photo courtesy or Artline Media (https://www.facebook.com/artlineonpoint/)

First stage on the dirt with the car without a sticking throttle.  Happy that I’ve fixed that little issue – not a fun one to drive with!  While at the start for this stage we learn of a car on fire in the Ferndale stage, a great way to up your confidence before the first gravel stage!

Enjoyed the stage a lot, nowhere near the limit of what I or the car can do, but had a lot of fun doing skids again!  Listening to pace notes is going to take most of this event to get used to again, and fully trusting that I got them all right is going to take a couple of events.

Gained two places on the first gravel stage, onto the next one.

After the transport from Busselton to Nanup, it was time to swap over from the old rally tires that we used on the tarmac, to a nice new set ready for the gravel.

After Cody the superstar wheel changer (6 yrs old and on the rattle gun – thats my boy) helped us change tyres onto our new MRFs, we had about 5 minutes to go before we needed to leave service, so I went around and checked the tyre pressures – 15psi in the right rear – oops.

No problems, start the air compressor and put some back in it.  Get air compressor, and something has hit it in the back of the truck, and the meal pipe connecting to the switch/regulator has been snapped off.  Time for plan C then.

The only other MRF that I have fitted to a rim is a left side tire.  Plan D then.  Grab two of the Dunlops that I have fitted up, and pop them on.  3 minutes till we are due out, better make this tyre change one count.  Cody rattled the MRFs off and we got the Dunlops on and made it to the out control just in time.

Nothing like a bit of a rushed tyre change to settle the nerves before the first stage….

The first two stages of the Rally are run on Friday night, around the foreshore in the middle of Busselton.  It’s a full tarmac stage, something that a car setup for gravel doesn’t enjoy a lot.  The last time I did laps around this course, I was in my old Tarmac S13, with well over twice the power, 9″ wide slicks, super low and hard suspension – this time was very different!

A picture from the parade lap, thanks to Dean Knowles for the image!

We had a good two runs, nice and smooth and clean, too much understeer, and as fast as the little motor would push us down the straights, and a bit of handbrake action at the hairpin for the spectators.  Our lack of power down the straights was so evident in the car, leaving us 19th in the state.  Not a great start, but that’s all she had on the tarmac – the gravel will tell our true rally pace.

Ok, I’m exaggerating just a little.

We did however manage to win the 2 Wheel Drive State Championship part of the event!

I still have some more speed to find in myself – trusting my pace notes, but considering our major rear damper issue on Saturday (more on that later), an awesome co-driver that was on her second ever rally, and first ever pace noted rally, and that I haven’t driven a full rally competitively in 14 years I’m fairly happy with the weekend :).

I learnt so much about what I need in my notes, what tweaks I need to make to the car and how I need to drive for this new car to work.  Our next event is only a couple of weeks away, so many these car tweaks are going to have to wait, but I’m excited to get out there again and push a  bit harder.

All ready to race, time for a test drive home.

On our way to scrutineering!

One week to go until scrutineering, at least I’m nearly ready…..

Once the above wiring is complete, have a few bodywork things to finish.

The first being taking a mould of the front bumper.

Then painting panels, like the bonnet.

Once the mould had set, time to make a bumper (the other one was full of body filler where I repaired it)

The new bumper, out of the mould.

More soon, I’m still out in the shed!

One of the items on the list for the next event is some more under body protection.  The rear A-arms were completely striped of paint, and peppered with marks from rocks.  Time will tell how long these stay on for – may need metal ones if these mud flap material ones rip apart.

Been busy collecting tyres, got three different brands that I’m going to try over the rally weekend.

New pedal box is finished and reassembled.  Painted the floor last thing on Sunday night, so now that it is dry I can refit the pedals and hook up the lines.

The switch panel was rushed before the last event, and I wasn’t happy with it.  So it was time to make a new top plate.  Laid up a new piece carbon and as soon as that was set it was time to start cutting things out.

The centre console now has all of its switches, and most of the wiring under it is done.  I’m just waiting on a couple of electrical plugs to arrive so that I can finish this off.

Also milled out the end plates for the plugs to fit into.  The bottom plate is awaiting its plugs.

Got a bunch of body work done,   fuel pump, filter and reg all refitted, old pedal box floor mounts removed and the area repainted, got most of the fuel tank vent system finished, plus a whole load of little odd jobs.  I need to remember to take more photos!

Spare toe arms are finished.

New castor arms 1/2 finished, pedal box pieces cut out

Dash has been covered

Rear subframe and fuel tank are out.

New pedal box is tacked together, ready for fitting checks inside the car.

New throttle pedal in the background about 70% complete.

Easter long weekend this weekend, so should be able to get a lot of it finished off!

Managed to get a bunch of things done on Saturday with my uncle’s help, dash, pedal box, passenger door trim and boot lid all removed.

The dash is getting covered, the linkage in the passenger door has been reconnected and tweaked and the pedal box is getting some throttle pedal mods and a different sized master to get me more rear brake bias.

Another set of rims prepared for painting, and spare sets of suspension arms are being built, rear toe arms are complete and have been painted and the castor arms are almost finished.  The end cups have been machined for the lower a-arms, so most of the hard part is done.

The rally in Nov last year was on a 40 degree day – and it was HOT in the car, despite the all of the extra air vents into the cab.  I had already wanted a cool shirt system in the car, but this day confirmed that I NEED one.  So I spent a couple of hours machining up the fittings that I needed and glued them all in place with some underwater capable silicon glue.  Its a home made special, but its come up all right 🙂  All that is left to do it put in a shield of some sort to stop the large ice blocks that I will be using from smashing into the pump, oh and all of the electrical and pump speed control…….

Sunday was another sunny 38 degree day, so didn’t get any shed time, instead spent some time designing the new pedal box parts that I need to make in order to strengthen the throttle pedal.  That same throttle pedal did 5 or 6 years on the tarmac with no issues, but bouncing around on the dirt I bent it sideways – so this new version is out of thicker material with a different style of throttle stop.

It’s been a while since the last event last year, its taken me that long to clean up the shed!

But seriously, we’ve started working on the little tweaks to the car to make it even better again, with a few more surprises coming for the competition :).

Next is the hunt for tyres, which ones to run for the season is the current project.

More soon!

On the trailer slightly early unfortunately…  Although we learnt a lot and its good to have the cars first run completed.

Funny how a tiny piece can end your fun

If you look closely, the bracket that holds the fuel rail has snapped in half…..

We’ve made a new bracket for it, so we won’t see this happen ever again.  I’m a little bit annoyed, one of the few parts on the car that I bought off the shelf, and I get a throttle that won’t return properly, and a part that breaks.  On a positive note the 100 other parts that I made all survived very well :).

So, the story – We made it to the mid day service, albeit with a sticking throttle causing more than a few issues, then on our way back to the 5th stage the motor coughed, spluttered and then stopped – all the fuel was leaking out of the fuel rail.

With the throttle hanging when the engine was hot, it made driving ‘interesting’ to say the least, we never got to attempt a fast stage time because of this, but it was good to see that none of the things that I had built broke off.

Some images courtesy of BJP Motorsport Photography

Starting our drive down to the event, let’s see how she goes…..

Now a couple of days to go to finish off all of the car setup, plus a bunch of little bits.

Been far to busy thrashing to get it done to take enough pics, but we’re getting to the last of the items, like the door trims etc.

Door trims done, with special navi pouch and pen holder – spoilt navigator 🙂

Got the last of the bodywork finished – rear flares mounted.

Scrutineering is in a few days, still so much to do…

It runs!!!!!!!!!

Now that the weekend is over, got just over a week to go before the event, so figured I had better get it painted and running…..

Finished up the alternator mount and got that fitted.

Then a splash of paint