For those who have just come out of hibernation, March is an extremely busy month. We start on the 12th with the Lee Holland Memorial, for which we still need marshals. Entries at the moment have only reached 20, most probably due to the first Three Sisters event (which is also ANWCC and SD34) running on the 5th (a week before). We remain confident that we will get a break even entry however. Volunteers for marshalling please contact me, or Ian Mills at any time.
On returning home on the 13th we have just 24 hrs before the SD34 MSG presentations. Guests include Alain Menu and Neil Simpson, and tickets are £1 each from committee members. As well as the Forum we have got the 1994 Tour of Mull and other films plus a raffle to which each SD34 club provides a prize (16).
A short break then until the annual 'Bun Fight" at the "Asherton Arms" on the 25th. For details, menu etc. please see last month's newsletter. If you intend to go please give your name/s to Ian Mills together with a deposit of £5 per person. Please give your support to all our events, we really are getting into dire straits with membership numbers, I should rephrase that to read ACTIVE membership numbers. As an example of this, Bill Chadwick has done an excellent job on the Navigational exercises, but has only had 2 or 3 regularly competing crews.
The last of these is scheduled for the 28th March, when the o/all winners of the champoinship will receive their awards. We now really need some ideas for future evenings, one suggestion is that we book the local indoor Karting circuit for PDMC members only with the possibility of a discount (to bona fide members). We can investigate this to get some idea of cost etc.. Anyone with ideas will they please come forward and the committee will be pleased to consider them.
Membership fees are now overdue, so if you haven't yet paid please forward your fees to Ian Mills ASAP.
I would like to welcome Peter Wright and son back to the club, having been working away, he has now decided to rejoin.
Of future events run by the club the next is in May, an Autotest held at Rolls Royce car park, details in later newsletters.
The August 20th Hillclimb, suddenly leapt upwards in stature, not only a round of the ANWCC and SD34 championships. It is now confirmed as a counter towards the "Mid Cheshire Motor Racing Club Hammonds Bedroom Furniture" hillclimb championship (Tom Hammond of Audi Quattro Sport fame), also the Porsche Owners Club championship and now the AWMMC B.M.T.R. Speed champiomhip. This should ensure that we get a full entry for this event.
Hot news now on a venue to be available for two Stage Rallies later this year. The venue is Aintree and Alan, Les, Ian and myself visited it together with representatives from Knutsford and District, Potteries and District and one other club who I can't remember. Two dates were available and it was mooted that two clubs combine for each date. We opted to go with Potteries for a date on the 2nd December, this is still to be confirmed. Then are still lots of questions to be asked, but if we do go with this we will need all the manpower we can get to put the event on. Again watch this space!
In winding this chat up, may I thank all club members who came to Diane's 40th Birthday Party. We certainly had a Good Do! Looking at the state of some of us on Saturday morning we weren't thc only ones, especially "Twinkle Toes" the Dancing Queen - Ian Mills.
Bye for now
Rod
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Flat Battery, Split Exhaust, Empty Fuel Tank, Melted Rear Bumper and Sheared Rear Brake Calliper.
I managed all this in one day, although it required two cars. I do seem to have a certain knack for killing cars. With all these breakages and mishaps you may well think that my day at 'The Forest Experience Rally School' was a complete disaster. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Abigail and I set off after waking up mid-day Saturday (well on a Friday night one does like to over-indulge at the "Dancers and Langroyd"). Our first port of call was the Midland Motor Museum at Bridgenorth. I had to be dragged away from the small but exotic displays. An early BMW 3.2 CSL (Batmobile), Ferrari 512 BB and also one of the first Yamaha TZ 250 racing bikes were basically sex on wheels! Abigail decided that I should buy her one of the new MG V8s, fat chance when in the same room there was a RS500.
After stopping just over the border to ask a few of the Yocals if they had any comments on the rugby scores, we eventually got to Carno. We stayed in the Rally School itself and were shown to our room by Mark and David Higgins' Mum (incidentally the room was called Billy Coleman). After a lovely steak (Abigail had a rare fillet that a half decent vet could've had running around a field in ten minutes) at the local inn and a thorough thrashing of the Yocal pool team just to show them that us English can play rugby, cause football riots and play pool. It was off for an early night.
After breakfast we signed on. There was four of us in total, which included David Higgins' bird. The first thing was a briefing on the basics of what we would be doing that day, given by our instructor for the day Mark Higgins (star of the British Open in his giant killing 1.6 Civic) then we set off for the forest. ( My spelling is not so hot so I just checked whether forest has one or two 'r's in it and the word above just happened to be foreskin, ho-hum) The track was approx. 2 miles long, with a large quarry area mid course. This was where we practised our hand brake turns and pendulum (under braking or under power) turns. The next thing we did was to drive round at our own pace with constructive criticism from Mark. The car was a 2.0 ltr Escort Mk 2 with close ratio straight cut 4 speed box. It was a bit shabby but well enough sorted for what we required. My first problem was my lines, I was treating the corners as if I was on Tarmac.
I was in good company though because the late Ayrton Senna attended this very same forest back in 1986 for an article in CCC, and his lines were wrong at first as well. Next up was the Pendulum Turns or Scandinavian Flicks. One thing that took me some getting used to is how different the technique for driving on loose is against driving on Tarmac. Also how different the car set up is. Especially the amount of rear brake bias. It was very useful though as I did not require too much lock, instead using my feet to steer.
Mark set out the cones and as with Autotests I promptly forgot the route. So I just made up my own this of course involved the maximum amount of time spent going sideways. I was pleased to say that I didn't knock any cones over and all that childish boy racer behaviour meant that my handbrake turns were spot on. Thank you very much Mr Asda for the use of your car parks. Then we had another run on the course which finished with a slalom in the quarry. I was still not quite right with my lines, exiting the bends too sideways but I was a lot quicker than I had been earlier on. It was during my drive of the car that I ran out of juice. A quick jog back to the quarry and all was ticketty boo. Then after my run I selected reverse and it was putting up a lot of resistance. Mark jumped out and announced that the rear nearside calliper had snapped off and was jammed between the disc and wheel hub. So that meant that the other Escort was required. Once that arrived, Mark took us out for a flying lap. He made it look all so easy.
My Peugeots exhaust has been blowing for some time now and whilst on the M6 it finally gave in. It snapped just ahead of the back box, trailing the mid section on the Tarmac, a very preUy display of sparks. Although the car behind me didn't look too happy. Whilst on the hard shoulder the broken silencer melted its way through the bumper. Then it wouldn't start because having the parking and hazard lights on, had flattened the battery. It is now running on a straight through exhaust which encourages blips of the throttle whilst changing gears. I'm just a school boy at heart. It just remains for me to thank Abigail for such a brill present.
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28th Feb 1995
Well what can I say? There I was, sitting at the Bar
on my own wondering if it was worth putting the event on. It takes over 12
hours' work to put on each event. Including two round trips from Morecambe,
plus two runs on the route, one to set the clues and one to put out/retrieve
the code boards. An application to the RACMSA for a waiver of permit
and a tracing sent to rally route liaison office plus a couple of hours typing.
Please don't get me wrong I don't mind doing it but it all goes to waste if
nobody turns up. Anyway 8.20 and in walks Neil Bye and his
girlfriend/navigator Abigail, "Sorry I'm late, has every one else set off?".
Surprised to find that they are the only crew, they plot the route and set off. So
a win for Neil again!
Next month's event, the last of the series, will be on March 28th. I will be pleased to hear from any members with ideas for events in the future.
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Let's hope Aintree are more amenable to us, we are looking now at a date late Jan/early Feb between the Oak Leaf Stages and Morecambe Bay Stages at Flookborough.
Insider Gossip: It would appear that the landowner at Flookborough is getting the "jitters" following complaints about the roughness of the circuit. The bottom line is that he ain't going to do anything. He's happy to keep taking the dosh from the Parachute Club. Oh dear, not another venue lost.
Last word, Ian and I went to that s--t 'ole 3 Sisters, trying to get some Lee Holland entries. Guess what £5 a person plus £2 a car parking charge!!! That's more than the forest stages on the RAC.