Awesome read!

 

Love the backyarder/DIY approach, clever mods. :y:

 

Cheers

Thanks Doog- onto it again this weekend ! I have a blast up to Kingaroy and back to get some stuff sorted out before Easter ruins the driving. Another 2500km on the KE70, 550km to Walcha on Sunday, assemble the rally car suspension, 550km up to Coolangatta Monday, 300km to K'roy Tuesday then reverse it all.

Well, with the rally calendar being postponed after the rain earlier this year, Steve hit the pacenote practice rally in Oberon yesterday. A shock hit us when the scrutineer in Armidale failed the seat mounts on Thursday night, so it was all a panic to 'fix' something we had used in the past. With a new navigator this year, the recce was abandoned and all they had was time to drive through stage one without taking any notes. As it happened, I don't think it mattered.. I was busy soldering up the intercom with a 240V inverter in The Girl's KE70 cigarette lighter plug!

 

Steve just drove what he saw, and most importantly didn't hit anything, nothing broke and nothing mechanical failed! Actually, most importantly he had a ball!! The car handles great, turns in well, drifts under power easily and is simple to drive, just like it should be!

 

They started car 23, at the back of the field, and came 13th of 19 finishers, without pacenotes!

 

There was a KE70 in there too, using the 4K motor and the mighty Weber 32/36. They were having a fun time until the fuel line pulled out of the Weber and it died.midstage., They finished 17th, and I hope to see them on here with a build thread.

 

We are finally getting it to squat with springs off some tiny Toyota hatch at the wreckers, and raising the front has stopped stuff hitting the sump guard. It looks quite different to the first photos in the build.

 

Next up is a night rally in Taree NEXT WEEKEND! No spotlight mounts at the moment, Steve has a week of Uni and I'm in Orange with the car in Walcha...

Where's the rally in Taree? I'd like to come spectate and say hi :)

That would be great! This saturday night, 13th April, School of Arts Hall, Nowendoc Rd Mt George. 5.30pm to 9.30pm, car #1. I don't know what number we will have.

 

http://cncscc.com.au...t Supp Regs.pdf

 

I thought I'd take this photo at the start in case the car didn't look like this at the finish... and the other is the KE70.

So the tiny Toyota that sacrificed it's springs, what was it? Do you know how hard? I need some lower but still softish springs in the back of mine.

This one- some GT Corolla hatch with a 4AC in. I didn't check the rate, but Steve said about 70lb/in.

Sweet, cheers, I'll check it out. If they're the free length I want that'll be ideal :)

hi mate

 

what diff is it running/ centre?

Sno those springs are harder than that- we checked them today after last night's rally and they're about 120lb/in, compared to the stock Celica of 160. It all depends on how many free coils there are, which is hard to determine.

 

That's a 4.8 Weir Performance CW/pinion in the stock T series with welded spider gears.

 

Up next! Report on last night's rally after pub dinner!

Well, that was fun! The night before we were fabricating a spotlight bar to mounts spots, and on the morning of the rally we were still welding sump guard mounts onto the crossmember.

 

The rally was one main forest road from its start at Mt George up the mountain to the peak. With State forest land cutting it into three parts, they had a 25km stage, a little open section to an 8km stage, another gap and the final 8km to the top.

 

Then when all the cars were up the top they turned around and ran the stages downhill!

 

There was another road coming into the middle stage so that was a spectator spot, but after the last car ran down we all drove down the stage behind them. We caught up with the competitors as they were queued up to start the last stage then followed them down that 25km too!

 

A magic, smooth tight highly cambered road that got very slippery for a muddy section towards the bottom. It all started about 6pm and finished about 11pm, so we were driving the 3hours back over the same sort of roads to Walcha at 2am!!

 

He came 9th overall and won his class, but the funniest was listening to him complaining as we met him on the downhill stage start... "The first stage was too slippery, I couldn't get traction, everything was really slow and we're doing terribly..." Then after dropping the tyre pressures he was rapt with the blast downhill! Of course the results showed that he was slower coming down than going up!!

 

Anyway, the car is fine & nothing fell off or broke, although a decision between a tree or a very large rock (neither of which were actually ON the road) resulted in a stiff strut on one side, so the Bilsteins are off to Sydney today to be checked out.

 

Then its all go for Oberon in two weeks!!

 

So long as we can find a ditch or a ramp somewhere....

Edited April 16, 201313 yr by altezzaclub

Glad to hear everything went well! Always love reading your race reviews :)

Man I want to get back into the forests. Thanks for the write up, it's help me with my vicarious living :)

Ah- they have posted final results that are different!

 

He WAS quicker going downhill, and ends up 7th instead of 9th. In some good company too, Evos and rotaries..

Edited April 16, 201313 yr by altezzaclub

There was an RX8??