A week up here saw the rally car running, it was mainly just bolting on panels-

The colour was quite random, it was purple, then we figured white, then cbf...

Steve took it over the road to the long driveway and gave it a good caning, which of course showed little leaks and teething problems. Then he took out Mao and ran that as they have the same running gear.  A long discussion about how the rally car had much better traction but Mao was smoother followed, and after he cleaned them both we found out why..

The whole panhard mount had been torn off mao's chassis, probably ages ago and finally let go in the testing!

Of course other things were happening, with the rain there was sowing and harrowing to be done. The 'new' harrows came from a clearance sale last year and they had been lying up against a gum tree for twenty years.  It was a big enough job to cut the branch off the tree to remove them, now we had to get the stump out. The wood had encased the steel completely!

once we had that sorted he was off to the paddock!

Meanwhile Richo was rebuilding a new head for his 200B wagon, the water jacket had eaten under the head gasket-

Matt was waiting for parts to fit to the KE70 wagon so he started on his RA65 paint-

I had Leone to fit a repaired ignition barrel to so it could go for a pink slip-

 

 

 

 

Edited March 8, 20206 yr by altezzaclub

Yesterday we dismantled the panhard mount and re-shaped it. Of course it broke just at the end of the heavy "C" section that hides inside the cross-brace, there are 3 layers of steel there.

The problem was only 3 spot-welds along most edges, something we rectified. A bit of reinforcing and now I better get up there to put the diff back in!

Then we need a Terratrip probe out of Mao as the ones in the rally car are playing up. Rallysprint this coming weekend!

 

Well, amazingly enough the Purple People Eater was ready on time and the gang headed out this afternoon. 3Hrs down to the coast for the Love Motorsport Rallysprint, there's only one job left to do. Apparently Bunnings plumbing insulation foam tube at $2.50/M is no longer good enough to cover the rollcage, and we need FIA-approved foam tube at $70/900mm !!  WTF! No wonder motorsport is full of rich wankers poncing around in their tailor-made driving suits having never held a spanner, and meanwhile no working man can afford to enter!  When we asked which part of the regulations said that, we were told it wasn't in the regulations, but we will need it to compete... There is plenty of non-FIA approved padding for sale on the web and it a lot less to buy! So, which official hold the import licence I wonder?

Edited March 13, 20206 yr by altezzaclub

Motorsport aint changed in the 15 years since i hung up my helmet then.....

I notice the Motorsport Australia office has relocated to around the corner from our place in Canterbury. Only high end real estate for CAMS who previously were in Camberwell

Just a big bureaucracy, like they all become. Why doesn't the FIA issue reports of the hundreds of rally crashes with analysis of what failed and what didn't? That should be their real job. Anyway, the $140 of foam turned out to be as hard as the cage tube, it would dent your skull if you were on an open section with no helmet.

The day went well, nothing broke, nothing fell off, people were impressed by how quick it was.  Steve was running 1st in class B, & harassing the leader of the 2litres when the inevitable happened, and it came home like this-

That was a short life! By this evening it looks like this-

and by lunch tomorrow it will be out in the paddock and the next shell will be in the workshop!  Rallying... 

Ouch

Got some good photos...

Now it a matter of grinding & welding..  I came back to Orange today for a dental appmt, and 50km out they ph'd and said the University is cancelling all the clinics.  So, we should be back into it this weekend!  Nothing unexpected broke, everything we manufactured worked well, especially the suspension, so its a case of copy it over and improve each piece a little.

Great read, ah bugger, shame it turned out with an acco, hope the neck isnt too sore.

Damn that looks like fun. 

Well, the months are racing past!  I went back up in April, and the first job was re-building the disc harrows. They've seen a lot of work since we replaced the discs 6years back, and there was more ploughing coming up. All the disc gangs and bearings off, we had new discs and some replacement bearing-

the axle & brackets came out to try and take up some of the slack that has developed.

It all went back together fine and its done a lot of hectares since then!

This time I was staying up at the top farmhouse where the woolshed & workshop are to look after the black and white army, those two lazy cats. 

Steve was down in Tamworth staying with his Mum, he'd gone down soon after I left last time. After breaking the rally car, he broke up with his girlfriend, broke up with his navigator and broke two bones in his hand, all at once so he couldn't live by himself.  That left me at a loose end in the house that hadn't been touched in decades, so I found some paint laying around. It was so old that the tin rusted through as soon as I started stirring it, but it turned out OK after filtering. I started painting ceilings and doors and varnishing window sills, and asked Pete to bring the Mothership up so we could clean out a truckload of rubbish.

That evening Steve came up and had a big go at me about taking over and moving his stuff and making decisions over his head, which is fair enough, but in the ensuing clash of giant egos it became clear we could no longer work together the way we have for the last eight years.

So I finished what I was painting and came back to Orange.

Maybe we'll sort out something when he's well again, or maybe we'll never build that 2.2L 3SGE Escort-beating KE70!

We'll have to wait and see.

 

Thats a shame i always enjoyed the woolshed rallying post!well more woolshed than rallying !!but it was great .

maybe a come back soonish.

look after your selfs both Steve and Keith

cheers Rob

Have just finished reading part 1, which I had missed entirely. There’s some good stuff in there, with a younger Steve. Hopefully it will sort itself out. 
 

As I’ve got older, I have become more intolerant, and would probably just say f#%* it. But clearly you have had some good times together.  

Hope you are doing ok

On 3/13/2020 at 4:47 PM, altezzaclub said:

<snip> Apparently Bunnings plumbing insulation foam tube at $2.50/M is no longer good enough to cover the rollcage, and we need FIA-approved foam tube at $70/900mm !!  WTF! No wonder motorsport is full of rich wankers poncing around in their tailor-made driving suits having never held a spanner, and meanwhile no working man can afford to enter!  When we asked which part of the regulations said that, we were told it wasn't in the regulations, but we will need it to compete... <snip>

 

Late to the party, sorry to hear about the unfortunate ending and parting of ways.

Surprised you weren't aware of the padding, it's been required for the last 3 years or more, for CAMS/MA events at least.

Part 11 of Schedule J

I haven't been up to the farm for a while, but with the Armidale rallysprint on next month I'll catch up with everyone.

Meanwhile I've been working with Josh on his rally car down here near Orange, that's all in here-

https://www.rollaclub.com/board/topic/79949-the-orange-cake/?tab=comments#comment-728027