congratulations Volvopaul

Well folks after 4 days and 3 nights it’s been a long haul.
300 competitive miles on stages in mid wales, Scotland , Harwood and the big Kielder Forest , 18 hour days of pure magic driving on the edge , half of it in the dark .
Liaison mileage around 750 between stages, we have used surprisingly only 14 rear tyres and 4 front tyres, normally the car will eat up a pair of rears after 14 miles but as we have done most of it in the rain and thick fog tyre wear was very easy ..

For those of you that don’t know me this is a sport I took part in around the early 80s then gave it a miss for 26 years when my interest in boating took over , then 5 years ago I bought the car which was professionally built by an ex Ford rally mechanic.
I do run and maintain the car myself although as the engine is a version of the old Ford Cosworth BDA engine that will see 10,000 rpm between the corners I leave the rebuilds to a well known specialist .
Thanks for watching , I am sure there will be more on Utube now , we are car number 40 .
We finally finished 11th overall and 6th in class, this rally due to the cost, availability and organisation only runs every other year , it’s named the RAC Rally after the UKs famous Roger Albert Clark , who once sold boats from his Leicestershire garage .
 
Well done! Though I cant help thinking that jumping from boats into competitive racing is not so much jumping from the fire into the frying pan but rather the fire into a lava pit. Kudos :encouragement:
 
Congratulations Paul .
A lot of hrs I bet prepping the car ?
I’ve done a couple this year , not as arduous as yours but quite challenging.
One had 15 timed stages in 300 km on the first day , in the Alps - hard on the brakes in decent and hard on the LSD diff plates in ascending hairpins we started at 8am ish and finished 8 pm one day .Following day was 200 km with 10 timed stages .

The two hobby’s are a good fit , but the car ones pleasure is in the prepping .
 
volvopaul said:
Well folks after 4 days and 3 nights it’s been a long haul.
300 competitive miles on stages in mid wales, Scotland , Harwood and the big Kielder Forest , 18 hour days of pure magic driving on the edge , half of it in the dark .
Liaison mileage around 750 between stages, we have used surprisingly only 14 rear tyres and 4 front tyres, normally the car will eat up a pair of rears after 14 miles but as we have done most of it in the rain and thick fog tyre wear was very easy ..

For those of you that don’t know me this is a sport I took part in around the early 80s then gave it a miss for 26 years when my interest in boating took over , then 5 years ago I bought the car which was professionally built by an ex Ford rally mechanic.
I do run and maintain the car myself although as the engine is a version of the old Ford Cosworth BDA engine that will see 10,000 rpm between the corners I leave the rebuilds to a well known specialist .
Thanks for watching , I am sure there will be more on Utube now , we are car number 40 .
We finally finished 11th overall and 6th in class, this rally due to the cost, availability and organisation only runs every other year , it’s named the RAC Rally after the UKs famous Roger Albert Clark , who once sold boats from his Leicestershire garage .
Click to expand...

Its def a tough one and getting to the end is a feat in itself. I did it in 2008 and 2011 and have just started preparing a mk1 shell for 2021 ! ( hopefully)
 
SEARANGER ANCASTER said:
Its def a tough one and getting to the end is a feat in itself. I did it in 2008 and 2011 and have just started preparing a mk1 shell for 2021 ! ( hopefully)
Click to expand...

My one and only claim to rallying fame was as an entrant in the historic category of the 2007 Rally of the Lakes in Ireland in a borrowed Mk1 Escort

killarney-rally-of-the-lakes-303.jpg


The car was owned by an Irish customer of mine who was also campaigning a Group N Mitsubishi Evo in the Irish rally championship at the time. The Escort had a BDA engine with a Cosworth head which reputedly put out about 220hp mated to a 4 speed dog box with AP brakes and trick suspension. My customer found me a local co driver for the rally who had such a strong Irish brogue that I probably understood 1 word in 3. I had to learn Patterson pacenotes from scratch for the rally and we had 1 day's recceing of the stages in a rented Volvo. I didnt sit in the car until the night before the rally and the first time I drove it was on the way to the first stage. To say I was shitting bricks before the start was an understatement! Anyway we managed to bring it home 15th in the historic category and 5th in class. One of the proudest moments of my life especially when my co driver announced at the end of the rally that he'd competed 6 times previously in the Rally of the Lakes and never finished! The car was an absolute peach (except for the dog box) with really sweet handling which flattered even me
 
Deleted User said:
My one and only claim to rallying fame was as an entrant in the historic category of the 2007 Rally of the Lakes in Ireland in a borrowed Mk1 Escort

killarney-rally-of-the-lakes-303.jpg


The car was owned by an Irish customer of mine who was also campaigning a Group N Mitsubishi Evo in the Irish rally championship at the time. The Escort had a BDA engine with a Cosworth head which reputedly put out about 220hp mated to a 4 speed dog box with AP brakes and trick suspension. My customer found me a local co driver for the rally who had such a strong Irish brogue that I probably understood 1 word in 3. I had to learn Patterson pacenotes from scratch for the rally and we had 1 day's recceing of the stages in a rented Volvo. I didnt sit in the car until the night before the rally and the first time I drove it was on the way to the first stage. To say I was shitting bricks before the start was an understatement! Anyway we managed to bring it home 15th in the historic category and 5th in class. One of the proudest moments of my life especially when my co driver announced at the end of the rally that he'd competed 6 times previously in the Rally of the Lakes and never finished! The car was an absolute peach (except for the dog box) with really sweet handling which flattered even me
Click to expand...

excellent story
 
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