Richard Burns Memorial Rally 15-16th August

[rearwheelsteercompact]

Dropping like flies - 1/3 of the entry retired after 4 stages.

Not many to start with

Walk round in a pair of slippers and you'll get a top 10 finish

Not much satisfaction in such small fields.

Should've put my specs on............................ Only looked at one page
Twice as many entries than I thought..........D'oh!

[rearwheelsteercompact]

Thanks M3C for expanding on the Astons' Logbook saga. Alan Thistlethwaite (who owns the other two identical Astons) had paid £200K to David Appleby who had receipts isued to him by the scrutineer when he had them inspected prior to the deadline, but the MSA said there was a late rush so they had not been able to process all the logboog applications. Coincidence maybe that these two cars are over the 3.0 ltr limit now applied for this years logbook applications. I was presuming it was common knowledge about this sorry MSA episode.

Disgraceful behaviour by MSA.............again

[hsr2.6]

Fairplay Chris now at 18.....keep her going son.............

[eddiee36]

Been over to watch notax today. It was a great day out and a brilliant event. Chris was performing very well and posting good times. Sadly he had a puncture on the 7th stage and lost a fair amount of time. i have some pictures of the event i will post up tomorrow when i get to work.

[rearwheelsteercompact]

Been over to watch notax today. It was a great day out and a brilliant event. Chris was performing very well and posting good times. Sadly he had a puncture on the 7th stage and lost a fair amount of time. i have some pictures of the event i will post up tomorrow when i get to work.

Puncture = Bummer. look forward to the photo's

[Spaceman]

Looking at he results he lost 7 mins with the puncture and changing it based on that 7 minuites he would have been on for 7th or 8th place

nice to meet you eddie

[eddiee36]

Here are a few pictures from yesterdays rally.

[eddiee36]

few more

[miss notax]

Great photos and nice to meet you

And Spaceman - looks like you got home before us then! We were still unloading the van at about 1am

[jonnysprinter]

Thanks M3C for expanding on the Astons' Logbook saga. Alan Thistlethwaite (who owns the other two identical Astons) had paid £200K to David Appleby who had receipts isued to him by the scrutineer when he had them inspected prior to the deadline, but the MSA said there was a late rush so they had not been able to process all the logboog applications. Coincidence maybe that these two cars are over the 3.0 ltr limit now applied for this years logbook applications. I was presuming it was common knowledge about this sorry MSA episode.

Disgraceful behaviour by MSA.............again

Just noticed that Alan Thistlethwaite was also entered in the (other logbooked) borrowed Aston and took the honours for Class D with Notax taking 2nd in class D. Shame about the puncture Chris, but at least you got to the finish, which Martin Stockdale didn't do Just don't expect a call from any F1 teams for pitlane crew

[bruvs1]

good photo's eddie, well done to team notax and co for getting to the end, shame about the puncture, both cars lookin good!!

[notax]

Rally report! Although you've seen the results already I'll give you a bit more info about how we got there...

This was the second year of the RBMR and as you may know we met up with M3 Compact and Sunbmw at last year's event. Sadly neither could make it this time but we were looking forward to meeting Martin Stockdale and his E46 M3 compact.

First disappointment was our accomodation - same price as last year but tiny Very little available as event now in school holidays... anyway, to the rally...

Stage 1

I drove steadily and in spite of the complexity of the course Paul's co driving was very good from the outset The stage was FAR better than last years - the organisers really had taken on board our comments Now a good mix of perimeter roads, roads through built up parts and runways and small access roads too. Even better the organisers realised that you can use something other than a series of 90 rights and lefts on the runways Really enjoyed ourselves and no incidents.

Stage 2

I decided to up my pace and had a BIG scare when a weird camber launched us high on two wheels Didn't see it coming and Paul lost his place when we landed (not surprisingly) - and as a result failed to call the next hairpin BIG lock up but just avoided going off. I started over driving and locked up again The car then developed a horrendous steering shake which was especially violent on left hand bends - and even in a straight line 100mph was very unpleasant

I was unsure whether shake was due to a bad flat spot or whether something more dramatic had failed. Either way it slowed us down. At one point we were eventually caught by two front running cars (being 13 mile stages there were a lot of cars out there at any time) but in spite of pulling over they didn't have the speed to pass us

After stage we saw the cause of the shake - will post photo later...

Stage 3

Fitted another set of tyres, RX7s - not new (to Spaceman's disgust!) but far better than those we removed...

Another very enjoyable stage - especially when we found ourselves behind one of the Astons and were able to stick to him until we reached the next split

We also managed to catch the Mk2 which had started 30 seconds ahead of us - pretty pleased about it as he was running a 290bhp Duratec. His car also weighs in at 908kgs whereas ours is 1260kg!
tbc

[notax]

Rally report! Although you've seen the results already I'll give you a bit more info about how we got there...

This was the second year of the RBMR and as you may know we met up with M3 Compact and Sunbmw at last year's event. Sadly neither could make it this time but we were looking forward to meeting Martin Stockdale and his E46 M3 compact.

First disappointment was our accomodation - same price as last year but tiny Very little available as event now in school holidays... anyway, to the rally...

Stage 1

I drove steadily and in spite of the complexity of the course Paul's co driving was very good from the outset The stage was FAR better than last years - the organisers really had taken on board our comments Now a good mix of perimeter roads, roads through built up parts and runways and small access roads too. Even better the organisers realised that you can use something other than a series of 90 rights and lefts on the runways Really enjoyed ourselves and no incidents.

Stage 2

I decided to up my pace and had a BIG scare when a weird camber launched us high on two wheels Didn't see it coming and Paul lost his place when we landed (not surprisingly) - and as a result failed to call the next hairpin BIG lock up but just avoided going off. I started over driving and locked up again The car then developed a horrendous steering shake which was especially violent on left hand bends - and even in a straight line 100mph was very unpleasant

I was unsure whether shake was due to a bad flat spot or whether something more dramatic had failed. Either way it slowed us down. At one point we were eventually caught by two front running cars (being 13 mile stages there were a lot of cars out there at any time) but in spite of pulling over they didn't have the speed to pass us

After stage we saw the cause of the shake - will post photo later...

Stage 3

Fitted another set of tyres, RX7s - not new (to Spaceman's disgust!) but far better than those we removed...

Another very enjoyable stage - especially when we found ourselves behind one of the Astons and were able to stick to him until we reached the next split

We also managed to catch the Mk2 which had started 30 seconds ahead of us (car 46) - pretty pleased about it as he was running a 290bhp Duratec. His car also weighs in at 908kgs whereas ours is 1260kg! Apparently an engine like his is £14,000 makes our 286bhp S50s look good value

Unfortunately we caught car 46 just as he caught a Pug 205 on a wide open fast S bend section. It was difficult to work out who was going to overtake who - and where! All this was at 90mph... I ended up with both my offside wheels on the grass - and on a left hand bend kept my foot down and the car barely seemed to notice (neither did Paul!)

Now that I had upped the speed we were suffering from high speed hopping at the rear around some very quick bends, didn't slow us down much but a bit disconcerting...

Stage 4

Spaceman backed off the suspension at the back and the hopping virtually disappeared Everything working well, Paul's co driving superb Caught the Pug mentioned above a bit earlier in the bends and at 70-80mph I was alongside him with the engine screaming and wondering why I wasn't getting past - I thought the clutch was slipping - but it was wheelspin Soon passed him and again caught car 46.

As mentioned in a previous post one of our class competitors Mark Higgins in an Aston was out after a coming together with another car, but we still had a very fast Mk2, Stockdale in his lovely E46 M3 compact and another Aston in front of us... Position overnight up from 47 seeding to 20th OA and 4th in class - and with no damage...

Day two to follow...

[notax]

Day Two

Stage 5

As with everyone else we had to pick up our start time and assumed we had been reseeded to 20th place. Not so - we were now in 40th It seems someone forgot to get MSA approval to reseed so we could only climb by the number who were out of the running ahead of us.

Day started warm and sunny and we did consider asking car 46 if we could start ahead of him. We decided that as these stages were a mile shorter there wouldn't be a need to. In spite of the shorter stage we still caught them - but not quite close enough to pass them. I had my second scare of the event (which was now running the opposite direction) when I badly miss judged one of the open S bends. Quite hairy as I rapidly ran out of road at about 90mph - just stayed on the tarmac, but very, very close to a big off at what is the most dangerous part of the stage close to trees etc

Paul didn't notice the above incident (just as well) but we did both clock an Aston that had pulled off later - and hoped it was the one ahead of us rather than Mark Higgins in the Trophy Rally...

Stage 6

Feeling confident now and started quite fast - braked for first corner and...nothing I recognised the problem from Smeatharpe - glazed brakes. They were perfect at the end of the last stage but had somehow gone off in service time Came back after a few more bends - phew. Caught several cars and had an enjoyable time chasing a Mk2 droop snoot RS2000 - he held me up but the spectacle made it worth while The more I chased the wilder he became and it was on a narrow section so I couldn't pass. Not long before he slid wide at a hairpin (his Dad later claimed he pulled over for me - he was on full opposite lock on three wheels when I passed him )

Position 18th OA still $th in class D

Stage 7

As with the previous stage this one started with a merge straight into a 90 right. Very hard to see if anyone is coming down the merge. I set off, checked for a car - couldn't see one and the next thing I knew Martin in his white compact was flying past righ by me in a huge cloud of smoke - initially sideways and then backwards I just managed to avoid him. This would have been bad enough with any car - let alone my fellow BMW compact I was very worried that I'd cut him up and maybe caused him to miss a gear... he seemed in no hurry to rejoin so I feared it wasn't just a spin...

I carried on and realised I couldn't see much trough the screen, used wipers. BIG MISTAKE! Now really struggled to see through the white film and was cursing the idea to use Rain X. Had to give up cleaning screen but soon had a bigger problem. The wheel shake was back. I guessed I had lost tyre tread but also thought I may have a slow uncture as we started understeering wildly in right hand bends. We drove around 4-5 miles like this and lost a load of time - about 2 mins, although I was still pedalling hard on the straights and left hand bends (and hanging on!)

TBC... Miss Notax is dragging me to bed

[notax]

Stage 7 cont...

Neither Paul nor I could see any smoke so we assumed the tyre must still be largely ok... Eventually a marshall flagged us down - I'll post a photo when I can, but it was the most destroyed tyre I've ever seen Absolutely no sidewall left - just a few wires. I didn't now what the max time allowed was, but I did know I didn't want to miss out on a good result...

Paul and I sprung into action (thanks for the photos Eddie) needless to say, we had never practised and I found to my horror that the jack wouldn't fit into the correct jacking hole Paul meanwhile tried to remove the extremely hot wheel but found the socket barely fitted the wheel nuts due to the style of wheel we were running

Eventually I managed to get the car high enough by jacking the rear and then blistered my hand, thumb and forefinger with the heat of doing up the wheel nuts by hand to help Paul.

We abandoned the wheel, jumped in, got belted up and then had to work out where we went next. Time card shows we lost about 7 minutes overall The spare we were using was a supersoft wet and this immediately went off so I continued to suffer bad understeer... At one point we came very close to hitting a chicane when the understeer almost got the better of me - I saw Paul fling himself into the middle of the car as best he could ut of the corner of my eye, but we just missed making contact.

Stage 8

Excellent stage I struggled to find speed on the fast open sections as the massive understeer of the previous stage spooked me a bit, but we caught some cars and enjoyed it.

Result

24th OA and 2nd in class Our second pot of the year! I haven't had a chance to check, but without the puncture we would have apparently been in the top 10!

Must dash to work now...