Monday 31st July 2000
The 205 GTI was a nail. It all looked OK until I started the engine. The full Janspeed system sounded brilliant, but when I revved the engine over 1000 RPM, there was the most awful knocking sound. Little ends, or maybe even the main bearing caps? Either way, it sounded expensive, so I switched her off and walked away.
Sunday 30th July 2000
The Sun came out this morning, so I took the opportunity to wheel the Fiesta outside on to the drive way for a few pictures in the daylight. She's wearing the standard Mk2 XR2 13" wheels at the moment, and will look a lot sexier when the OZ SuperTurismo's arrive at the end of August.
Saturday 29th July 2000
Had a quick look at the Peugeot 205 GTI 1.9 that's for sale, near to where I work. Its an F-Plate (1988), in black, with 120K miles. A bit tatty, but nice alloys, disk brakes all round, and theres even a Janspeed back box on it. The blokes desperate to sell it, and he even came down from £750 to £600 without me even starting to knock him down. I'm going back tomorrow to have a thorough look. It'd make a great road rally car. Just fit a cage, a sumpguard and a couple of spots, and away we go. 130BHP!! Yeehaa...
Friday 28th July 2000
Tidying the car, spraying a few bits I'd missed. Cleaning the inside of all the dust. Scanned the pictures in from the MSA Rally the other weekend.
 |
| MSA Rally, Grantham, July 15th 2000 |
Sunday 23nd July 2000
Yesterday lunch time I went over to Jeff Fowkes Wheels at Ibstock for a 2nd opinion. They confirmed that what Ripspeed have ordered is what I need for my Mk1. ie Peugeot wheels with a 20mm adaptor plate, and 60mm long bolts. I'm a bit happier now. I spotted a yellow Mk2 Escort for sale on a forecourt in Ibstock. DFE 111T is on the number plate, which for some reason seems very familiar. They want £2500 for it! Ouch.
Saturday 22nd July 2000
The good news today is that Beccy is now booked in for the 7th of August for the respray. She'll be Ford Sunburst Red all over, once more.
Bad news is that the wheels aren't going to be ready until the end of August! But whats the hurry, so I'll just have to be patient. And if they don't fit when they finally arrive? Who knows.
Changed one of the rotors (disks) on the Mondeo. After last weekends little blast round the lanes on the MSA Rally, I've melted the surface of the rotor. Theres a pad shaped mark where the metal has pitted. This was causing the brakes to snatch, making the steering wheel wobble really badly. I went to my local scrappie, and he's now trying to source me some V6 brakes and wheels. The 1.8 brakes just aren't up to the job. I'll see if the V6 brakes also fit on Beccy. That'd be a cheap upgrade.
200 new Zetecinside stickers have been ordered, and will be in stock next week. If you've not ordered yours yet, read the home page.. (cos I know some of you bookmark this page)
Thursday 20th July 2000
Photos and results arrived from the Dukeries Rally. Both pictures are pretty similar. And yes, thats me in the passenger seat (red crash helmet)
Tuesday 18th July 2000
Called Ripspeed to confirm the measurements on the order. Spotted last night that the starting width on the 15's is 6.5", and I couldn't find written down anywhere that I ordered 7" wide rims. Ripspeed cant even find the order! So they cant confirm whats been ordered. Here we go again!!
Monday 17th July 2000
Bottled out on the 17" wheels. I've bought four 7" x 15" SuperTurismo's instead. The 17's would fit, but there'd be just too much daylight underneath the car. I'll call BMTR this week to see what options are available for tryes. I may be able to squeeze some 7" or even 8" wide tyres in to the arches.
Sunday 16th July 2000
The MSA Rally report
The MSA Rally was graced with pretty good weather yesterday, as 63 crews gathered for the start in Grantham. I watched the first 10 cars off the start ramp, at the new sports complex, close to the city center. Then headed off to watch the first two stages (SS1+2) at Barkston Heath airfield, just north of Grantham (MR130/958410). The Astra kit cars were really flying. The sequential gearboxes working hard, as both cars made short work of the 2.47 mile stages.
Next, I went down to SS4 Morkery Wood, just off the A1, south of Grantham (MR130/954193) This was listed as a no-spectator access area, but where theres a will... Unfortunately the stage had to be shortened, because of slippery conditions through the wood. So I then headed off to Belvoir Castle for SS6. Parking at MR130/837330, I managed to bypass the queues, and the £5 entry fee, and watched 40 cars take a chicane at very high speed. Here are some pictures from the start in Grantham. The action pictures from Barkston and Belvoir were taken with my Minolta, so I've got to wait for the pictures to be developed before I can post them here.
A new Halfords/Ripspeed center has opened in Leicester this weekend. They're offering 20% off everything, so I headed down to see how much I could get some alloys for. They've quoted £582 for four OZ SuperTurismo's in 7"x17", which is a saving of around £140. The bloke that served me, said that I need Peugeot wheels. These have a 37mm offset (normal Fiesta is 17mm) which gives me an extra 20mm offset, with the same inset. ie the wheels stick out 20mm further. I'm going to make some 20mm spacers this morning, just to see what she looks like with the std 13" wheels on with that offset. If the wheels look like they're going to fit, I'll order a set. I'll then pop down to BMTR at Birmingham for a set of ultra-low profile 7" wide slicks.
Friday 14th July 2000
Is that light at the end of the tunnel? Have I nearly finished preparing the shell for the sprayjob? And have I lost my sanity completely in the process? Almost.
No luck whatsoever with the wheels for Beccy. So I'll go to Geoff Fowkes wheels for a chat about what options are available to me. Roadrunner has some Cossie wheels, but they've GpA inserts, so they wont fit on my hubs. Time to get the chequebook out methinks.
Off to Grantham tomorrow morning for the MSA Rally. I now know it runs through Stoke park, Morkery wood, Exton park, Belvoir castle and Barkston heath, but I dont know the stage times yet.
Look at these pictures of one of only two Focus WRC 2.0 Turbo 4x4 Road Cars in the whole world. This is owned by Stephen Finlay from Ireland. He runs a Works Focus WRC in the Irish Tarmac Championship, and Malcolm Wilson Motorsport have supplied him with this wicked looking car.
Thanks to Andy Howdle of Rallymodels.co.uk for the pictures.
Wednesday 12th July 2000
Went to the car club's new meeting place last night, and met Tim Sturla, whom I've not seen for about five years. He now navigates for Pete Doughty in an Escort WRC, and Andy Pawley (lives just round the corner from me) in the Ford Ka Rally Championship. He's moved on to bigger and better things since co-driving for me in the East Mids Road Rally championships, and is proving very successful.
Didn't get any photo's of the car on Sunday, cos its not stopped raining in this country since January! But this morning the Sun is out, though the skies are still cloudy, so tonight after work, I may get the car out the garage.
These photo's are from Sunday. The headlamp assembly is for reference, to show the four components that each side uses. The lamp pods are shot, as the silver coating on the inside has rusted away. I'll get the metal frames shot blasted and powder coated before refitting them, and I should be able to get some H4 pods from Butts in town for a good discount
This weekend see's the first running of the MSA Rally, on my old stomping ground, the Vale of Belvoir. Starting at Grantham Leisure Center on Saturday. I'm going to be out and about taking photo's. Hopefully there'll be some tasty GpA machinery competing, though I've heard the entry is only 56 cars at present.
Finally, check out www.tarmac-rallying.org.uk An excellent web site
Sunday 9th July 2000
Finally sussed out why the new site looked crap in Netscape. I'd specified the font size in the style sheet, for Anchor tags. A CSS no no. Removed the font size and it now looks identical in IE5 and NS4.6, much better. I'm going to push the car outside today to get some photo's before she's resprayed. A little bit more work to go. I've some priming to do round the windscreen, where I've repaired the rust bubbles using Jenolite.
May get some new mice today, we've found a breeder in Cannock.
The Emillionaire show starts on telly (C4) tomorrow. Don't know if I really want to watch, after getting so far, but not making the program. Their ideas are bound to be shite.
An article in this weeks Motoring News says that Dukeries Motor Club have received several complaints about the surfaces in Clipstone, Blidworth etc, on the Dukeries Rally. So it isn't normal practice to drive like you want to des**** your car then? I see. Apparently Dukeries are considering dropping one of the stages, unless the Forestry Commission regrades it.
Its the Motor Bike GP at Donington today, so we're being buzzed by all sorts of exotica on their way to the circuit. Standing outside sounds awesome as some very nice machinery zooms past..
Saturday 8th July 2000
My birthday. 34 today! D'oh!! Went down to London today, to see a show (Fosse) at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Great day out. Went to the London Eye, on the off chance that we could get tickets. Not a chance. Sold out for the entire weekend! Book well in advance if you want to go on the eye. Its an impressive bit of engineering. I'd love to go on it, so we're going down again in a month especially to get a ride.
Friday 7th July 2000
Sprayed the front spoiler and GRP arches again, 2nd coat of plastic primer. Rubbed down the filler on the doors, and sprayed with Zinc primer. Took the sheets off the car, and gave her a good clean. Bloody white dust everywhere!
Wednesday 5th July 2000
Sprayed the passenger side front GRP wheel arch extension, with red plastic primer. My copy of Exchange 2000 Beta 2 has arrived. I'll get it up and running at work in the next few days. Still no sign of any Escort Cosworth wheels yet, disappointed with the response.
Monday 3rd July 2000
Second mouse died today. She'd developed a tumour over the last three days, and the vet advised against surgery. She was put to sleep and buried next to Zelda, over by the roses.
Ripple R.I.P. (Dec 1998 - July 3rd 2000)
Sunday 2nd July 2000
Filled the seam between the grp and frontwings/front valance. Cleaned the gearbox up a little. Attacked some rust along the bottom of the passenger door.
One of my two pet mice died today, from a respiratory illness.
Zelda R.I.P. (Dec 1998 - July 2nd 2000)
Saturday 1st July 2000
Howdy! A whole day in the garage! Wohoo! Wifey is off at Skegness for the weekend on a hen party, so I've been outside since 8:00 AM. OK heres what I've done today. 1st, bought a superb album in town this morning. Eminem "The Marshall Mathers LP". Buy it, track 3 is just so funny. Love it! Loads of decibels on the hifi in the garage. Surprised the neighbours haven't complained.
Finished the sills today. Primed with Zinc primer. Almost finished the front arches and spoiler. Been rubbing down and using knifing putty to complete. Cleaned one of the doors, removed the rust, waxoyl etc. Blimey, when you write this down it sounds like I've done sod all today, but I've been outside for 7 hours! Does anyone know of a set of Escort Cosworth wheels I can borrow for a few days? I want to make sure that they fit OK before the car goes for the respray, so's I can make any last minute mods. They must be 16" diameter, with standard tyres. Can anyone help? I wont get them dirty, and I'm hardly likely to drive anywhere on them.