Re: Mk2 Astra Rallycar - from bare shell upwards
Rockingham Stages Update...
Saturday - Day 1 started OK, I was very rusty and we had way to high a pressure in the rear tyres on the first stage so didnt get any heat into them resulting in a shitty time and 2 spins on stage 1. Stage 2 was better, 3 was cancelled and stage 4 were fine. Lying in 4th in class at this point by around 15 seconds. Then 2 night stages and had an issue with the relay for the outer pod lights so they were coming on and going off randomly and I just couldnt make out the corner apexes at all.. Lost 30 seconds but was still 4th in class with 3rd place 45 seconds ahead and 5th place 12 seconds behind.
Sunday - Day 2. Wet, slippery and much more fun for us. Found a braking issue on the rear as the car was a little weird on Day 1 under braking with the back end wanting to step out - the drivers side caliper wasnt working at all as I had trapped the rear flexy - and that helped. We fitted a decent set of wet tyres to the car and appropriate pressures and took 34 seconds out of the car in front on the 1st stage and 37 seconds on the 2nd stage of the day taking us into 3rd in class and we increased our margin on 4th throughout the day to finish 55 seconds ahead of it.
The cars in 1st and 2nd in class were simply untouchable - Novas with highly tuned 1400 16v engines, the winning one has a sequential box and theyre also much lighter than the Astra with its 1400 8v engine too and they can both drive them well as well but we didnt have a chance of keeping up with them.
So 3rd in class (from 10 starters / 9 finishers), 29th overall (from 67 starters / 49 finishers) is the best we could have hoped for with "Old Faithful" the 1400 8v fitted and we managed that. I have the old 2.0 8v engine being rebuilt and may fit it for a little fun in the car but by the end of next year, this car should be running a 1600 16v smallblock engine on throttle bodies with some SBD cams so will hopefully be a little pocket rocket and hopefully competitive in the 1600 class as well.
Paul..
Rockingham Stages Update...
Saturday - Day 1 started OK, I was very rusty and we had way to high a pressure in the rear tyres on the first stage so didnt get any heat into them resulting in a shitty time and 2 spins on stage 1. Stage 2 was better, 3 was cancelled and stage 4 were fine. Lying in 4th in class at this point by around 15 seconds. Then 2 night stages and had an issue with the relay for the outer pod lights so they were coming on and going off randomly and I just couldnt make out the corner apexes at all.. Lost 30 seconds but was still 4th in class with 3rd place 45 seconds ahead and 5th place 12 seconds behind.
Sunday - Day 2. Wet, slippery and much more fun for us. Found a braking issue on the rear as the car was a little weird on Day 1 under braking with the back end wanting to step out - the drivers side caliper wasnt working at all as I had trapped the rear flexy - and that helped. We fitted a decent set of wet tyres to the car and appropriate pressures and took 34 seconds out of the car in front on the 1st stage and 37 seconds on the 2nd stage of the day taking us into 3rd in class and we increased our margin on 4th throughout the day to finish 55 seconds ahead of it.
The cars in 1st and 2nd in class were simply untouchable - Novas with highly tuned 1400 16v engines, the winning one has a sequential box and theyre also much lighter than the Astra with its 1400 8v engine too and they can both drive them well as well but we didnt have a chance of keeping up with them.
So 3rd in class (from 10 starters / 9 finishers), 29th overall (from 67 starters / 49 finishers) is the best we could have hoped for with "Old Faithful" the 1400 8v fitted and we managed that. I have the old 2.0 8v engine being rebuilt and may fit it for a little fun in the car but by the end of next year, this car should be running a 1600 16v smallblock engine on throttle bodies with some SBD cams so will hopefully be a little pocket rocket and hopefully competitive in the 1600 class as well.
Paul..
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