Aussie ae86 rally car

[mc68]

Half Yearly AEU86 season report

Where I left off in April, Feeling very happy about the car, and in a good spot - leading clubman in the mid season.

The next rally (Lewana Stages) was done by roadbook, so no pacenote (which i hate)
Made some very bad mistakes - lots of overshoots, came 11th overall or something. And to top it off, an ageing oil pump meant the motor had a knock at anything below 3000rpm...so, i never let it idle for that stage!..Also bent a stub axle badly hitting a tree on the road..








Time came to rebuild a motor for my favourite rally in Collie, The Expert Cup. This Rally follows a dam, running along the water side then turning back into steep hills constantly...
With a new Navigator I was looking to try and hod onto 2nd place in the clubman championship...

but..9 km's in to the first stage a brand new motor split a coolant pipe...causing it to over heat...and melt itself apart.
Watch the vid, and follow the smoke from about 3 minutes in..

It was now June, and tore the car down again to try and make it better for the remaining rallies in the later half of the year.

I Bought a fwd Impreza to compete in autocross/khanacross...1.8 NA, STI lsd. 50mm shocks. Its ALOT of fun, and very hard to beat now . And much cheaper than the sprinter to run!



So new plan, new motor again with wiseco pistons, 288 kelford cams, shotpeened and lighted rods, balanced and blueprinted bottom end, silvertop throttles with 60mm trumpets



But. the biggest thrill was getting asked if i wanted to compete in Rally Victoria (an Australian Championship Rally) more than 3500km away.
Never given these chances before, I Jumped at it.

So with our two car team we packed everything up in a truck and carted the cars to the other side of the country.




I was seeded 14th on the road...which was scary, as they considered some evo's and imprezas slower than me!

But as my year of terrible luck followed me. 6km into the very first stage, the fuelpump half-failed...Leaned out another motor, And I had to shut it off. Came all this way for 6kms...But the locals heard of what happened to me. One guy recently pulled his standard bigport out of his road going ae86, and asked if I wanted to use it..
So me and two good friends, and several other competitors who were rallying the next day, all changed a motor overnight till about 4.30am

Running on 15 minutes sleep (yes, 15 minutes is all i got) we started at the back of the field in a much slower but still lively car to some of the muddiest roads I have ever seen.

Me and Tammy - my nav..were catching one car every stage. We posted a 12th,11th,12th fastest times out of the box, in heavy fog and pissing down with rain..
But it was a day I should have just stayed in bed!.

I hit a bank/rockface very hard on the left hand side. on the 4th stage of the day.
car was undriveable! But, Im still happy I went out. I got on national TV too






And our tv coverage

So the car is slightly bent, but not unfixable.. It was a hard hit, just see how much my head swings sideways..

I have 4 months to get it rebuilt..I mean really rebuilt. Gbox is very tired, motor blown up, diff is bent...car is bent!

report back in another 6 months