(1997) (1997) 20th December 1997
Sanyo renew for 98.
As major advertiser of MRT, Sanyo have again come on board for the teams defence of the title in the 1998 Championship. "We are extremely happy with the way MRT both promote themselves as well as the professional image they present at every event" Guy Houghton commented. Instrumental in the teams involvement, Guy also played a major role in bringing an additional advertiser to the team for 1998. However this will not be announced until early in the new year.
"The renewal of Sanyo and the additional budget through another advertiser will our job easier with added resources" Driver Brett said. The first round of the series starts in Coffs harbour on the 20th of February.
2nd December
Canberra Rally event update: A sad result for the final year's event. A DNF!
Details: There were approximately 32 entries and the event started with a publicity start in the middle of Canberra Friday lunchtime. Thousands of people were there to watch. The rally then centred in the forestry area East of the city.
HEAT ONE Friday was fine and very hot The roads were very slippery and very dry, typical of the area. We started car 15
Competition was again close with this event; with the added entries of Wayne Bell Hyundai Coupe Kit car and "Monster" Tajima in his Suzuki Baleno wagon kit car.
This again left the battle between the orthodox F2 cars, the Hyundai Coupe, Daihatsu Charade, Toyota Corolla plus Rick Bates, brother of Neal in his super light Charade. Ross in the Charade was quick closely followed by Dean and us. I had confidence in the Honda; we had done a lot of work ensuring the car was very reliable. This event was double a normal Super Series event. Falken tyres come up with some softs' so we were confident
Three major stages made up Friday, with a super special in front of 10,000 people in Kings Park on the edge of Lake Burley Griffin.
We lead Dean and trailed Ross by 2 seconds, Rick DNF'd with a damaged gearbox, whilst Simon again rolled his car. We were happy to start day two, the longest, in this position so we could track the times of Ross.
HEAT TWO Saturday. A little cooler, but still uncomfortable in a triple year fireproof suit! SS1 and we ripped 6 seconds off Dean and 3 off Ross, heading into the longest stage of the rally. 35km Oakey Creek.
Our plan was to press ahead at a fair pace expecting Wayne and Tajima to fight their own battle, and knowing Ross had no spare, (he got a flat in SS1 Hyles Block) he would have to be careful.
This stage starts with a VERY rocky road, so we planned to make the best of this. 2.5km in the stage changes to typical Canberra roads, 500m past the hairpin the road swings into three successive sweeping corners after a fairly long straight, the first (for us a right 5) (7is fastest on our scale) was a "can cut" with overgrown blueberries, this I cut too early, putting us even earlier for the apex of the next, a Left 5 (that should have been "caution bump on apex") as this whopper of a rock embedded in the road pitched us up on two wheels at about 100km/h tearing the steering wheel out of my hand and turning hard left into an even bigger rock that we hit head on embedded in the side of the hill.
The result! We did a full 240 degree spin in the air and at about an angle of 45 degrees, (how we didn't roll amazes me!) we ended up facing down the hill 3/4 off the road with the only thing stopping the car sliding 50 feet further, a well placed stump!.
The next problem was to get the car out without it falling further, but that's a longer story for the web site.
It needs a new front end ahead of the struts, thanks to a strong Bond cage, the car still runs!
Congrats' to Dean Herrige and crew, no value should be taken away from their result, they got to the finish, good driving and good reliability! Well done from all at MRT
Only 10 cars finished, and of this only three f2 cars completed the event!
RESULTS: 1st Dean Herridge Hyundai Coupe, 2nd Abe Tuckett Daihatsu Charade.
OUTRIGHT: Neal Bates Corolla WRC, Michael Guest Subaru WRX, Mark Haybittle Mitsubishi Lancer Evo3,
Next, Currently our plans are wait for Baby and fix car! The first round starts on Feb 22nd in Coffs Harbour. Only 10 weeks away!! We look forward to Keith and the Premier Panel team to fix the car better than it was.
21st November
Time is drawing near for the last two major events in 97, Canberra International rally AND our new baby.
By now entry list should be posted to the Canberra web site, see MRT page for link. Only 34 entries a bit of a pity. We are 15, the first of the orthodox f2 cars, with Tajima in his kit car baleno wagon and Wayne Bell in the kitted Hyundai in front. Behind is a gaggle of cars, Rick Bates, Ross, and Abe all in Charades plus Simon and Dean of course.
We tested the refurbished gearbox and hope all hangs on for the "long" event, hey we even gave the old Ambo Auto gearbox a late recce' it started to make "bad" noises wed and a quick removal by the MRT P guys saved the day. "Ozzy" is just bolting it back in now.
Sunday is the last work day on the car so we have a few last minute things to do, no major hassle though. So with 40 brand new Falken tyres we look forward to the event knowing most items are "new" !!
CREWS
Held on the weekend of the 28th to 30th November, the rally seems set to be a
battle of the F2 cars. Only a limited number of Turbo 4WD crews have entered, but almost
all the top F2 teams have, plus more. Rick Bates will give his new (superlight) Charade
its Eastern State debut, Monster Tajima will run the Suzuki Baleno Kit Car, and of course
there is Ross Mackenzie, Dean Herridge, Abe Tucket in the Gp N Charade and Simon Evans.
ROADS
The roads have had a major improvement of over $50,000 worth of work, to bring
them back to the previous standard long remembered. Teams will have limited recce' this
year in line with world stds, to reduce costs. Only Tues, part Wed and Thurs.
MRT
We expect to have a new found reliability in the Hewland gearbox, after
exstensive redesign buy Guru Peter Hollinger, this will be the biggest test yet for the F2
winning car! Over 300 km competative is a long rally these days compared to the Super
Series, we have freshend' the car in readiness, plus in preparation for the 1998 series
that starts on Feb 22nd, (not far away).
Being an International several changes had to be made to comply; new "fire bomb" Aust Flags on flanks, rear hatch holders, PLUS a fine check of helmets, belts and seats, as these MUST all comply to latest rules on "special designs" with stickers to comply!
Our biggest hassle is still weight, the bomb will add 7kg this on top of 1050 kg dead, compared to Ricks Charade of 830kg!
Our only unknown is Lisette Middleton, due to have a baby 2 weeks later, if she books in early Brett will surely set a fastest time, directy to Sydney!
TV
With most motorsport events now finished expect to see a lot on TV, especially Ch
10 stay tuned.
It seems ages since we won the Championship, but we have progressed a lot! The car has had a lot of work done. We prepared it for a special day at Oran Park for Sanyo and on the second day, Webstart, Falken Tyres, Whiteline Suspension and Rick Damelain Honda.
We did over 160km of the 2km track and passed on the enjoyment of a ride in a REAL rally car to many new people.
The car took a punishing, with the gearbox being reliably unreliable and stuffing 2nd gear early in day two! Thankfully the course was %70 third gear! Now we have r/r'd the rear suspension and gearbox, its down with gearbox whiz, Peter Hollinger, whilst a temp fit of the std box allows us to display the car at Eastwood this weekend. (The Granny Smith Festival).
Our planned event FAI International Rally at the end of Nov comes close to Lisettes birth of our child so fingers crossed she does not have it early!
I travel to API Rally Oz to look after 555 Subaru Clients at langley park and enjoy a stress free rally!
We WON both days and the Championship
There were approximately 80 entries and the event started with a publicity start in the middle of Melbourne Friday evening. Thousands of people were there to watch. The rally then centered in the Healesville forestry area.
HEAT ONE Saturday was fine and sunny the roads were very rocky, typical of the area. We started car 19.
Competition was again close with this event; Simon Evans (a local) in his Corolla was well on the pace, however his bad run of reliability again let him down, he DNF’d again with engine problems. Lee Peterson also did not make SS2 with gearbox failure, in the Nissan.
This again left the battle between us, the Hyundai Coupe and the Charade. Dean in the Coupe was quick closely followed by Ross in the Charade. I had confidence in the Honda, we had done extensive testing on the Thursday and also at the MRTP Bay Stages Rally, several weeks prior. The Falken tyres made all the difference, a special hand cut groove developed for the Honda proved to work well.
Ross went off the road on SS2 and dropped 23 sec's, (with brake bias problems) whilst Dean pegged back our 3 sec gap gained on SS1. SS3 and 4 suited us, very rough and rocky, whilst we were pushing hard we also had to be careful. A slip could mean disaster!
This happened to Dean on SS 6, he got sideways and hit a tree with his drivers door. Allowing us a win by 25 seconds
HEAT TWO Sunday. Overnight rain and intermittent showers made the roads hard to "read". From the outset we again pushed the Honda hard. We were only 1 second slower on SS1 than the day before, even though the roads were slipperier. We again were quicker. The long, fast SS2 gave us a worry, with intercom troubles again. We were concerned as Dean and Ross are often very fast on these roads, adding to our intercom troubles. In retrospect we only dropped a few seconds. This was again pegged back on SS3 and 4 were the rocky roads were now extremely treacherous. Extremely fast, twisty, downhill runs on rocky roads made difficult driving, it was here we expected to win or lose based on a puncture. Thankfully our Falkens proved extremely good, noting that many other crews had punctures. Following this stage we extended our lead from Ross and Dean, even though SS6 and 7 were fast, it was also very slippery and in some places very twisty, we added more time to our lead.
The final stage at Domaine Chandon winery had thousands of spectators, the Maroonda highway was blocked for Km with us having to get police escorts to get into the stage! Only 1.6km long we could loose all and gain nothing, but, not to be outdone we had some fun, dropped second and flew across the finish line (a 90 deg corner) in front of the service crew clipping the timing marker and tearing off the rear bumper bar. A fitting way to complete the championship, flat out!
RESULTS: SATURDAY Honda 1st Daihatsu 2nd Hyundai 3rd . SUNDAY Honda Hyundai, Daihatsu
F2 CHAMPIONSHIP: Honda, Hyundai / Daihatsu equal
OUTRIGHT: SATURDAY Neal Bates Celica GT4, Possum Bourne Subaru WRX, Ed Ordynski Mitsubishi Evo4 Gp A,
SUNDAY Possum Bourne Subaru WRX, Ed Ordynski Mitsubishi Evo4 Gp A Neal finished in Front wheel drive only.
A special thank you to all who have passed on support and encouragement through the year.
1 week to go!
The start list has been announced for the Melbourne rally.
We are 19 and Dean 20 and the others further behind! This is good and bad. Good as we get further up the field (at the "pointy" end) and the roads are less chewed up. Bad as we do not have an easy way to compare our stage times to our opposition.
So we will have a dedicated crew at the end of every stage radioing times back to us as we drive to the next stage or service. Critical to know how we are doing!
Tomorrow we reinstall the gearbox and the rest of the parts to the car. Steve has spent time rebuilding it after we found several parts were badly cracked from the crack testing we got done. All the helical gears in the diff were stuffed and the crown wheel and pinion were in poor condition. We tried to source new gears locally, no luck so we tried to get some from Mugen, no luck (Japan was on holiday for 1 week, "Golden week") so we tried to get them from the UK, not available, By this time it was last Friday and I was starting to panic. So I had to purchase a whole new diff! So we can use the parts we need and replace them later and hopefully sell it later!
The diff arrived and we then found we could get the parts locally after all !!!!
Any way, the C/W and pinion did not leave UK in time, so we have had to take a risk and use it one last time, (fingers and toes crossed). The rest of the car is looking great, new web address on the windscreen (very trendy!) plus newly approved names on the side windows, (like the V8s)
The car has rebuilt shocks with some new tricks, courtesy, Murray Coote, and a whole heap of tyres to choose from our great supporters Falken. Unfortunately someone sold the soft tyres so we have the usual medium compounds.
Roll on Melbourne, (I am nervous) refer points page
General Update
Last week we removed the suspension, gearbox, seats etc. from the car. This is
our most serious preparation time yet! EVERYTHING gets checked!
The gearbox was dismantled and reassembled with the special housing with
'windows" this way we can see the parts as they should be without this all the gears
etc. flop around supported at only one end. Steve Bijok checked and learnt more as he went
and I called on an old friend, John Holster to come in and have an "independent"
look.
John used to be a rally driver now he designs gearbox's for mining companies etc. and has
a wealth of experience. The two guys with Scott's input believe they have found (and
since) fixed the faults.
It was refitted with the std suspension, (this having been sent to Murray Coote in QLD for
checking).The car was run around the streets of RYDE (!) for 15 - 30 minutes to see if the
mods worked, then Scott and myself stayed back late to remove the Gearbox (again) so Steve
could strip it (again) before he went to NZ, so it can be crack tested.
This will be done tomorrow.
The seats were refitted after we patched up all the holes in the floor, where its wearing
out from the rocks and stones! Our plan next Tuesday night is to check everything else and
see if we can save some more weight. We have ordered over 30 tyres from our sponsors
Falken so we have the best chance to win.
Less than 3 weeks to be ready!
MRT Performance Bay Stages rally.
Monday evening, the MRT crew swapped positions last weekend. Linda helped with
the servicing and Scott navigated. We were the "0" car. This means we were the
first car to travel at "almost" rally speed over the course 5 - 10 minutes
before the car 1.
This gave us vital information on testing tyres, shocks etc. in readiness for the final
ARC event next Month.
Scott did a great job, as did Linda, both learning new ways and
benefits to improve the team. As usual the rest of the crew were there, with their
unending commitment.
As the driver we had fun and set some "respectable" stage times to show how
quick the F2 cars are, against the NSW State teams.
Miles Sandy in his WRX won followed by John Long Mitsubishi Evo 3 and Peter Taylor 3rd,
same car.
The event, as usual was well run by Dave Pearsall and team, a credit to all.
We now start to strip the car, in preparation for the final ARC.
SAXON SAFARI TASMANIA. Its now Tuesday night, the first one I have been at home for over many months, the reason, normally we are working on the rally car, BUT, hopefully its on the Ferry from Devonport (Tassie) to Melbourne.
The guys (Nathan and dale) will catch an early flight to collect it and drive to Sydney tomorrow. THEN, we will work on it Thursday, ready for the trip, (back south!) to Batemans Bay on Friday!!
The rally....
Where do I start, I arrived Wednesday to see Tassie covered in Snow!!, Afternoon it even snowed in the main street of Hobart.
Thursday, we attended to Media day then went testing trying to find the edge we needed to gain those important points for the coveted F2 crown! This proved valuable but risky, too much snow, and many spins and near offs!! Three hours later and we had a better idea of what tyres and "cuts" to use. We specially groove the tyres for , a combination of "turn" and "traction".
Friday was recc'e' we had a 4WD Mitsubishi Prado, thankfully, and we needed every bit of the 4wd system to travel the many snow covered roads. Other crews with 2wd had to wait several hours to get through.
Heat 1
We believed Lee (Nissan Pulsar 2000cc) was going to be the person to beat, and he proved this from the outset, several seconds consistently faster than Ross, Dean and ourselves.However, his plans came unstuck with a recurrence of previous problems where his driveshaft "pops" out of the diff. He DNF'd, Ross in the Charade set some hot stage times but got too hot with another fire from a faulty factory fuel line that burst. He completed the famous "Styx" road stage (34km) but used a complete fire marshals 20kg extinguisher to put it out.
Dean was consistent and finished heat 1 first we had a blast on the last stage where we finally got our tyre pattern and "cut' right but the race was "run" and we ended 2nd.
Tragedy struck 3 km into the final transport and we broke a selector mechanism and the gearbox was stuck in neutral!! We had to tow the car back to Hobart and except exclusion for the tow. Any other gear and we would have made it!
Heat 2
The crew worked until 1 am on the 'box, ensuring we could attack on Sunday. We did, and all crews had offs or problems on the first stage. Mackenzie stopped mid stage with a miss, from damaged wiring from the fire (heat 1). Herridge went off and continued We had a spin and a "big" overshoot on a corner. Peterson went off and got stuck. Simon Evans was close to the pace and a worry!
The next three stages proved crucial. Styx road and Mackenzie stopped again, and re started only to withdraw. We attacked to be only 2 sec's off the pace of Herridge (Hyundai).
The final proper stage and our Falken tyres proved crucial, Dean was on "open" rears and "closed" fronts. We started on totally "closed" tyres with special hand cut grooves. The twisty stage suited the civic, and we took an amazing 20 seconds off the Hyundai drivers time.
The final 1km super special stage at the Derwent Entertainment Centre added a further 2 seconds to our lead. A great way to finish, what on Saturday night was a very dismal rally.
See F2 results for latest points.
The next event is car 0 at the MRT Performance Bay Stages Rally this weekend, followed by the final round of the super series in Melbourne, 7 weeks time.
Extensive further Dyno testing late last night, has further improved our chances at Hobart. Close to 100km was traveled on our new Dyno, and many times we had to pause whilst the poor thing had a rest to cool down!!
Steve and myself stayed back, (very late!) full of enthusiasm and this allowed us to fully adjust all fuel mixtures across both RPM’s as well as 0 - 100 % throttle. As these settings are all adjustable through the Motec ECU. We gained a minimum 1 - 3 kW per "load site"
A load site is the position on the chart where the ECU controls the parameter, (Fuel, ignition etc.) this site is based on RPM and %throttle. So on our car we have a load site for every 500 RPM from 0 - 9500 revs Plus every 10% of throttle, meaning every 500 rpm there is 10 load sites (every %10) multiply this by the rpm increments and you get about 190 sites to adjust!!!
And this is for every variable!!
So for those even wanting more info…..The same table is for Fuel, again for ignition timing etc. . Last night we "only" did two tables, Fuel and Timing so we did about 380 load sites!!
The car has now heaps more mid range and torque.
Its 12pm as I write and I have just returned from a 20k round trip up the new M2 freeway.
The reason? To put some Km's on the fresh gearbox, plus check that our heated screen is working properly (it is raining at present!). Chances are it will be VERY important in cold Tasmania next week.
The team put in a good effort installing the main parts last night. Steve Bijok and myself stayed back late to complete the installation of the engine and Gearbox, finishing off wiring and fitting the new DBA Sport disc rotors.
These were only "cad' plated as late as today and look great, hopefully they will work as well as they look! Cross drilled and slotted, they should improve the braking on the car.
We "ran up" the car on the new Dyno for a few runs ready for tomorrow, we don't want any problems with the TV crew present. Good Hp was created with the car generating well over 100 kW. More news and copies of the graphed HP charts soon!
A long day on the car on Sunday has us well prepared for the installation of the gearbox and engine tomorrow night. Diff Trans. Spares have again ensured the Hewland gearbox is ready, after we again air freighted a new 2nd gear set again to be fitted. The team expect top have the car running Wed night at the latest so extensive Dyno time can be spent testing and looking for that elusive HP improvement.
ALSO Channel 10 want to take some footage for the TV of the "new" Dyno in action.
New advertiser for MRT.
Australian manufacturer, Disc Brakes Australia, have joined with MRT to further
enhance their reputation and promote their new "sport" range of disc rotors.
Managing Director Phillip Joseph, announced the deal and quoted "we have been
involved with MRT in the past and this new venture allows us to further promote DBA Sport
discs"
Obviously MRT will have the new discs fitted for the next round of the Australian rally Super Series, in Tasmania. "This edge will help us bridge the gap on our opposition who have an advantage on us with engine capacity" Middleton said.
For further info refer http:\www.DBA.com.au
Follow the rally we were selected to a scrutineers inspection of the engine, alas we had to remove the head so they can check the bores for correct capacity. At our cost, at the local Toyota Dealer. All was OK, so we pushed the car onto the trailer for the trip home
Back at MRT we decided to make the best of the costly inspection, (the head gasket alone costs $165!) so we removed both the engine and gearbox. The engine was sent to long time friend Graham Wilkins for a look and to see what he thinks can be improved on the engine, whilst the 'box was sent to terry at Diff Trans. Spares for a precautionary inspection.
Three days later a call from Terry and we again have evidence of failing drive dogs on 2nd gear. These are the parts that caused all our hassles in earlier rallies, so a new set has been ordered from UK, again
Meanwhile back at MRT we look for more areas to save weight, Ross does more work on the heated screen in readiness for Tassie's (the next event) cold weather!
Matthew strips all the worn tyres from Coffs in readiness for new ones to arrive from Falken in the coming week, and Scott, Dale and Nathan, fix the heater (and other important bits!) on the tow car.
Graham has advised "sorry no more HP for Tasmania" but we are confident that our newly acquired Chassis Dyno will bring benefits in the coming months.
Coffs Harbour. A WIN, finally, well equal first was our genuine result! For detailed results - click here.
DAY ONE
The Coffs Harbour event was very competitive starting with a publicity 300m stage in the Coffs Showground the rally headed west for the event proper.
On the first stage Dean Herridge had a wheel bearing fail and wear out the 4 spot AP caliper, forcing him to run the rest of the rally with Group A brakes on one side and Std on the other!
We were well on the pace, most cars in the category were only seconds apart, with the tight twisty stages suiting our Honda. The more powerful cars, (all the rest) were faster on the open hill stages later in the day. Lee Peterson DNF'd (did not finish) after clipping a bank and pulling a drive shaft out, whilst the more competitive entry of Simon Evans (with a new 1800 engine) was on the pace until he blew it up.
Finally we beat Dean for first, followed by old rival Justin Barham in third.
DAY TWO
Knowing we were all closer this day would prove even closer. Dean still had dodgy brakes, Ross (in the Charade) was faster and Lee had repaired his Nissan. We all swapped times, and finally after several stages it was a run to the finish between us and dean. The Charade suffering LSD failure with poor traction, and the Nissan a suspected twisted shell.
We were within 13 seconds up to the last stage but our times in the twisty stages were not good enough to make up for our slower times on the fast ones.
Dean earned a well deserved win.
The next event is the Saxon Safari rally in Hobart next month
The rally has been run and almost won!
The pre event recc'e was VERY wet, with one stage forced to be canceled as too much damage would be done with 76 cars traveling the course three times taking notes, PLUS then the rally.
We had mixed results, Heat one we missed winning F2 by 1 second, it was not helped by running three stages with not intercom, hence pace notes, added to this we had to hold the car in 2nd gear as it was jumping out in some conditions.
Day two we ended up 5th, disastrous with 2nd gear not being used at all (it would not stay in) so on the stages that were quick we were on the pace, but slower ones where 2nd gear is critical we very slow.
Results, Heat one, Peterson Nissan, Middleton Honda, McKenzie
Daihatsu, Herridge DNF
Heat Two, McKenzie Daihatsu, Peterson Nissan, Herridge Hyundai, Evans Toyota, Middleton
Honda.
The gearbox is stripped and we have found the fault, as well as located a faulty diff centre causing the car to wheel spin, hopefully Coffs Harbour will better!
We have refitted the renewed diff to the Tow vehicle, (Ambulance Ford F100!) reset springs, and thought about other needs for the old thing. the 9,000 km trip to Perth and back gave it a good test.!
The rally car also has had a diet, and a new set of lungs fitted!! We have Fitted the Cams and will Dyno them on Monday night, as the car has to be loaded to go to Brisbane on Tuesday, for departure Wednesday. We have also pulled out (we hope) about 50kg of weight. This is in a bid to gain 1 second per km, all that is needed to win F2!
A new heated front windscreen has also been fitted, this will allow us to totally disconnect and remove the under dash heater and demister.
We unloaded the car from Perth and Dyno'd the Chassis, this way we can use a base comparison after we have fitted the new camshafts for the Qld Falken Rally. HP was satisfactory for a standard engine!!
Tomorrow we will remove the gearbox to check the selector problems we had in Perth as well as giving the car a good diet as we also weighed the car at 1090 kg. Not good when compared to others who are under 900kg!!
18th April 1997
Forest Rally PERTH, Western Australia. Our first event in the new Super Series, was a big learning curve for the whole team. Brett and Linda had to work with each other adjusting to each other's skills and the team had a new car to run.
Dale and Scott, arrived in Perth Tuesday night after leaving Sydney the previous Friday lunchtime! Yes Australia is big! $1000 in fuel and $400 in odd accommodation and food costs and the 6 tonnes of Van, trailer, car and equipment were in WA.
Wednesday was spent preparing, Thursday, was the Press Day, Friday Linda and Brett pace noted the event to take notes of the course. Friday night was a gala start in the Middle of the city followed by Saturday and Sunday's separate heats.
Saturday we started a little rusty, gaining momentum as we settled into our new roles. Dean Herridge in his new Hyundai Coupe was quick, lead by Ross McKenzie in the Charade (ironically this was the car we helped design and develop!). We lead Lee Peterson's Nissan Sunny and gaggle of other Corolla's etc.
We completed Heat One third in F2 and 14th overall. Sunday's Heat Two, and we were more on the pace only a bout 1 sec per km slower than the well developed Charade and .25 sec behind the 2litre Hyundai.
Third stage and we followed the Hyundai by one sec, ready to take second. A new set of closed tread Falken tyres was a risk I willingly took, however too much grip at the front and not enough at the back proved a deadly cocktail. 10kms into the stage we crested a hill and corner too fast and I chose to drive off the road to miss possibly hitting a tree. heroes may have made it but experience told me to bail out!
We narrowly missed a Pine tree and came to rest gently hitting another..The big problem was we were now well and truly bogged in WA's notorious ball bearing (Bauxite) gravel. 25minutes later and a tow from team mate Denise Collins's Honda Civic and we were back on the road. But our race was run..A finish, but last!!
The next event is Qld. we plan to check a faulty gearbox, fit some new cams for more HP and drop some weight to match the leading cars.
2nd April 1997
MRT announce new tyre supply contract with Falken Tyres (Australia).
The agreement is for one year, for the whole super series as well as the Manufacturers Championship. Managing Director, Spencer Grammer said. "we are please to be involve with MRT, their profile and commitment will provide a solid base to Falken Tyres growing popularity as a performance tyre"
18th March 1997
SECOND outright! Yes, after many months of hard work, it all paid off. Over a total competitive Km's of racing we emerged 2nd overall, only a bit over a minute behind Father and Son crew of John and Damien Long.
A very dusty rally with extremely fast roads. Often flat out in fifth, with an AVERAGE speed of 110km/h.
The only incident of the event was a smashed rear side windscreen. The car ran without a hitch and devoured several sets of Rally tyres as well as about 100litres of high octane fuel. Next we fully strip the car, crack test the gearbox and prepare for the main event!
The next event is Perth Super Series.
13th March 1997
2 days to the real test, we compete in the small club rally at Tumut, about 5 hours drive south of Sydney. This week we fitted the modified steering rack, after Honda got us a set of seals in from New Zealand, seems we are the first to pull one apart in Australia!
The modified rack has larger inner tie rod ball joints, to cope with the high loads. We also fitted the new stronger drive shafts that we got from England last year. This is after about two months of investigating the correct parts to match our Aussie' model.
We start the rally at car 2 behind close friends john and Damien Long in their rapid Lancer Evo 2. Stay tuned for results next week!
24th February 1997
STRIP DOWN After the rigorous test session we pulled the car apart.!!! This allowed us to check any faults with the car. We found the cause of our steering rattle was from failed inner tie rod ends. These were sent back to Honda for testing and new ones fitted. We will also investigate alternative ones if the originals seem to weak.
The drive shafts were removed and prepared for fitting the new bigger units. As well as we searched for the elusive dust leaks!!
All in all the car came up well and we expect to have an enjoyable rally at Tumut next month, a REAL test of the car!!
17th February 1997.
TESTING, The team traveled West to the forests, close to Oberon, (100km East of the famous race town of Bathurst). Here we rented the Pine plantation and natural forest of "All Flats" We only had one flat tyre too!!
Arriving late Saturday, (it takes 2.5 hrs from Sydney) we locked up the Forest with Chains and signs to stop unwary public. Then fully into testing the car. We had 16 tyres with 8 different brands and tread patterns to test. These had to be continually swapped on the front and back of the car.
At the same time we logged important info on PC lap top computers as well as internally on the Motec EFI computer. These were:
Saturday night we camped in the forest and enjoyed the peacefulness, after a hard days work.
Sunday again more testing and at the end of it we drove the car in rally type flat out conditions for 250 solid km, over three courses that varied from 5th gear straights to 1st gear handbrake corners.
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