Jonny-Jimbo

I should have put more detail in... when i say 'modern' I mean a 1994 BMW. I have not fiddled with anything, as AJ has only just bought the car - and decided she wanted a V8. I checked it with the multi-meter in series, with the battery disconnected, and it showed no draw even down to the milli-scale. It's a brand new battery, 2 week old Yuasa 110 Silver.

Hi all, One of 'moderns' has developed an electrical drain... What is the best way to try to identify it? Disconnect the battery at the -Ve lead and use a voltmeter to see what the draw is (if any), then pull fuses until it drops to zero? Or leave the battery on and use a voltmeter across all the fuses to see what's flowing?

Mike, did you get my email about food and Joe's email address?

I have also just found out my MOT expired at the end of September!! oops... Best get booked in for a test next week then!

Water leak now fixed! I forgot that I'd made the thermostat gasket out of a cornflake packet as a 'limp me home' fix after RBRR... (Yes, I know that was a year ago...)

Food order made for me - I'll give Joebro a prodding this evening to order his too... May not be Michelin star though so he may choose to decline.

My thinking being that single track roads round here aren't always quieter - so with the potential for a higher average speed it would be safer motoring to use wider roads. Also, round here most of the narrow roads are absolutely crap to drive on and are little more than rutted tracks, but then all the other roads are wider as they're quite busy. This is very much still in the formative stages, so I'm open to ideas etc and if any I have are bad then fine. I'd rather organise an event people will actually enjoy than one I THINK they will enjoy.

Ah, gotcha. Yes, probably use a higher average speed, but use less single track roads etc. Would have to come up with a different means of tie break though as the 'question and answer' method used on the daylight events wouldn't work.

I've got some wheels with tyres on that hold air - not suitable for getting it on the road, but would get a car rolling fine. PM me if of use to you.

I'm not sure, but probably run it the same as our normal 12 cars initially.

Well, as I'm proposing it, then it will probably be run in my stomping ground around the midlands, Coventry, Warwick etc. It would probably be run instead of the Warwickshire Winter rally, maybe as well as depending on how the calendar would work out. Maybe the winter rally st the start of the year, the summer treasure hunt in the middle and then the night event at the end. If I did run three events then it might end up being a mini-series in itself, best aggregate score pics up the Canley Cup or something like that...

Hi all, Just gauging general opinion etc to see if there would be any interest in a night time 12 car rally? Probably run in the midlands area, and would most likely be either early or late in the year to make easier use of the hours of darkness. Proposed time frame would be 6pm to 10pm on a Saturday night - dinner provided at the start, finish venue may be a hotel or similar so teams can have the option of staying over or a drink after to recover. No real plan beyond this yet, just seeing if there is likely to be a 'market' for it in the club. Ta.

Hopefully you won't have to pull us out of a ditch this time...

Just don't go near the radiator when finding the leak - had enough headaches on RBRR with that sodding thing. Probably the most expensive single component on the whole car!

I guess if I'm going to do this I need to finally sort that coolant leak on the Lemon. Can't quite work out where it's coming from either which is most annoying...

Shows how much they know if they think a bit of muck is going to stop a rally car!

When I was up at the Phil Price rally school two weeks ago he said there used to be a local school teacher that would go and stand in the middle of the stage, on the track,  which meant that the whole stage had to be cancelled, and that was in a woodland miles away from anywhere. It doesn't surprise me that locals get all funny about it - I think a lot of people don't realise the potential benefits that the sport can bring to the locals, even if it does mean a road near them is closed for half a day. I'm not sure how the Mercian Road Rally (the one that me and Steve Raddley did) managed to be successful, as that went very close to some properties.

News just out - CMC have been awarded a permit to run the first closed road rally event in the UK! https://www.motorsport-news.co.uk/news/new-rally-becomes-first-to-use-closed-road-laws/

There are a few creeping into the market now, but I think the most popular, well engineered solution is the Canley Classics kit. I believe there are variations though depending on if the car is Herald / Spitfire / Vitesse / GT6. https://www.canleyclassics.com/suspension-steering-and-brakes/trunnionless-front-suspension-kit The main differences are the hub bearings and caliper carrier, but the actual geometry of how they bolt between the upper and lower wishbones are identical between all 4 vehicles. GT6 and Vitesse are probably most sought after due to the larger hub bearings.

You don't need to raise the suspension Nathan, you just need a sump guard!

Entry in the post this afternoon for Team Fallowell and Falafel.

Feel a bit short changed by OS. Couldn't they have drawn some sea monsters on there etc as well to liven things up a bit?

I got my copy of the map through the post today (found a brand new one on eBay for a few quid with free postage!), and the area we'll be covering is going to be somewhat limited being as half the map is water!

Haha, no, she's got a family engagement thing.

My report of the event, if anyone's interested; We finally finished getting the AX prepped for the Mercian Road Rally a few days before the start of the event, rather than the usual last minute thrash. We set off to Southam at 7pm for noise test, which we passed without issue - 75dBa from memory. The limit was 98, so we were fine. Then a short queue into Scrutineering, which we also passed without issue. We then had a long wait until the drivers briefing at 10.30pm. At 00:05 we were finally away, and straight into very dense fog. After a short while we caught up with a pack of other cars, with a tidy Vauxhall Nova heading the pack - although going a little bit slower than our time cards allowed. After twisting through the lanes a bit, we arrived at the first special test, which was tight and twist but good fun. We found some of the tracks very rough for the little AX - maybe a car with bigger wheels and a longer wheel base would have fared better. We were making good time during this section, with Alex Joslin's navigating perfectly, with no wrong slots or major diversions. Unfortunately I was distracted as we approached a corner that I read as a left kink, but it was actually a 90 right. With so much mud on the road, by the time I knew I'd misread the bend we were on the mud with no chance of stopping. We hauled the speed down, but the nose of the AX still went into a ditch quite hard, although the sump plate took the brunt of the force and saved the radiator. Damage was limited to a broken light lens, and various trim clips broken. Two cars passed with us in the ditch, although both stopped to check we were okay - which we were thankfully. After assessing damage and trying to find branches to stick under the front wheels, I heard a very distinct noise - could it be that there was a powerful Triumph 2000 coming our way?? I waved it down, and there was Steve and Colin - with the tow rope already on my car the grunty straight six pulled the AX straight out of the ditch. Steve and co left us at this point. I quickly checked over the car, and the steering was fine, as were the tyres etc. Nothing more than dented pride and a bit of damaged trim. The lights even still worked! We probably dropped about half an hour in total, which put us OTL for that time card, and unfortunately, for most of the rally. But we did continue, last car on the road (we were 4th from last when we left anyway). The roads used on the rally were very rough in places, with a lot of 'whites', including one that felt like we were driving through someone's garden! Towards the end of the first half we entered special tests 2 and 3, on an airfield at Hinton - again, very rough and muddy, but we use the handbrake to good effect a few times. After this we went for the half way fuel stop at Banbury, before continuing through the lanes around Gaydon to the finish point in Fenny Compton. We came across a few unlucky people who'd have smaller 'offs' than us but with much worse consequences - smashed alloys, bent steering etc. Anyway, I had great fun on my first rally, even if it did go a bit wrong! We had issues with filling in the time cards correctly too which gave us a much worse score than we had anticipated, but it's all a learning experience. Alex did a fantastic job of navigating, with a first attempt at tulips and plot+bash style naving. I'd recommend anyone to give it a go, it's great fun, and really not expensive either! We will return!