1.3 Stage / Road Rally Micra [was Enduro Rally Car]

I will clear it out now, sorry!

Finished The Drystone last night / this morning, just tired now.....!
 
You dont know a chap from Hastings called Darren do you? He mentioned a friend who Autotests in a Micra. He asked me about a fault you had a while back?
 
I know a few Darrens from competing.....drop me a PM if you want to be more specific about who he is, rather than posting in an open forum! :) I do know a Darren who is from very near Hastings and double drove my old Micra at an autotest once.
 
Yes, thats him. He mentioned he drove it in an autotest once, really rated it! He used to compete in a Visa but now drives an Integra type R. I bought his old Clio if you remember it?
 
he popped in at lunch and I mentioned your name, thought I was correct! How does the Micra hold up to the punishment? I remember him asking me about a fault you had a while back, but cant remember what it was.
 
Holds up well! Could have been it jumping out of gear? Car did that when he drove it. Doing an Autosolo this weekend in the red Micra.
 
Did a sprint in the car on Sunday, finished 0.05 secs off 3rd in class....frustrating! Was another K11 Micra. Class finished 1st 205 Rallye, 2nd Rover 214, 3rd K11 Micra, 4th K11 Micra [me], 5th Clan Crusader, 6th Corsa. Was v close between 1st / 2nd, 3rd / 4th and 5th / 6th - the other Micra and I were closest but only a couple of tenths between the others.

This weekend is my first Endurance rally as a driver - a long awaited one! It's The Bullnose based around the Oxford area, have been seeded 36th out of 55. Fingers crossed....
 
Wow what a weekend! (Y)

So, our event....what a mix of emotions! Gutted, happy, worried car was broken, over the moon, etc!! It was my first Endurance driving, the car has just been finished [thanks Matt!] and it was all a bit of an unknown. I am really happy with our result, 2nd in class and 22nd overall, 16 secs off the class win so the pace is there. Would have paid good money for that at the start of the day!!! Need to build confidence on the loose stuff as it was really my first event driving on loose stuff bar a few miles on an event in July.

I had 3 aims yesterday - beat the seeding, top 3 in class and to beat the other Micra. Managed to acheive all 3 so happy days! It was close with that other Micra though - half way through the day we were on the same time...! Impressed with how Muriel ran, although she gave us a bit of a worry during the day as after the first test it seemed we had a fuel leak somewhere as the car was absolutely reeking of fuel. This continued for the day unfortunately but we couldn't find anything and didn't seem to be losing much, if any, fuel so not sure what that was.

Next Enduro is in October, can't wait! Few other events before that though :grinning:
 
Done a few events since I last posted, including getting a 2nd in class on an Autosolo in September [my best Autosolo result to date and really had to work for it!] and my first time in the woods on the Exmoor Endurance Rally in the middle of October. I finished that event 3rd in class and 15th overall which was great. Last round of the championship is on Saturday.

Have updated my website with videos, reports and pictures:

http://www.suzeendean.co.uk
 
It was the EACS yesterday, the last round of the Endurance Road Rally Championship. I needed to finish to get 2nd in class in the championship.... I finished 3rd in class and 17th overall, which was enough to secure 2nd in class in the championship by 9 points or so, 5 points behind the class winner [awaiting official confirmation!].:grinning: Pleased with that, it was a mixture of tarmac and gravel tests and good to learn more in the car again. Going testing in a month or so which should be good, but no time for a winter rebuild as events most weekends at the moment!

I've added some more pics today to my website from the last couple of events, and an event report for yesterday will be up later today and photos in a week or so when I get them.
 
Couple of pics from last weekend.

One of my favourites at Woodbridge:

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Love the thread.

Im hoping to do a few Enduro's in my 1 litre Micra in 2011, starting with the Britvic.

Out of interest, what springs do you use?
 
We fitted the Spax coilover (at front) and OEM position SPAX at the rear.

We are both entered for the Britvic (me in my Rover 200) so will hopefully see you there. Get your entry in !
 
Please do the Britvic, more Micras = good :grinning:

The car has just had a full cage fitted within the last few weeks [custom made weld in job] which needs painting now. Also bought some new FIA spec bucket seats. Matt [Superuno] bought me some more bits for Christmas, including all the stuff for the electric cut off and window film, so hopefully it will be going staging soon too. The Spax I've found to be great, really happy with it.

I've found a nav for the Endurance Championship in 2011 so hopefully build on this year's results, finished 2nd in class and 11th overall in the championship.
 
I am using Sportways as you have to for the Championship in 2011, however you can use any off the Endurance tyre list - not got the blue book to hand so can't point you fully in the right direction. Before the Sportways I was using Colways I still had, some people use Firestone van tyres off the Endurance tyre list.
 
There's a pic of the car at Autosport on the ERRC stand [part of the Gaz stand] - stand 7665.
 
No I'm not, car isn't stage legal yet - few more little things [safety film on windows, fuel sample point] to finish.

Instead I am out co-driving at Goodwood! But in a Rover 214....

Updated my website recently with some more photos and events etc. I was at the TRS Brands Hatch Stages a few weeks ago "looking after" media people, and there were quite a few Micras out which was good to see - official photos at http://www.mandh-photography.co.uk/events/TRS/
 
So the 2011 ERRC season is underway, last weekend was the Britvic Revival. 47 entered / started including me, we finished 23rd after a long and challenging day. Had a puncture, got stuck in mud, lots of things - really felt like an Endurance.

Fair bit of damage picked up BUT nothing that stopped the car doing an event last night, so nothing money and time won't fix [exhaust, bent wheels, etc]. Next event is a couple of weeks time, spent today cleaning out all the mud from the inside of the car from last weekend [didn't have a chance before last night!].

Website updated with results and will have reports shortly and photos when I get them.
 
Decided it's time to resurrect this thread.... There's been quite a few changes in the 18 months since I last posted.

The main one is that the car became stage legal back in July time 2011. At that point it had the necessary safety mods to become stage legal but fundamentally was still an Endurance car ie relatively standard. I did my first stage rally last September, the Hutton Kitchens Woodbridge Stages, and then did the Longmoor Loco which I DNF'ed on - wheel / concrete incident made for an unhappy front suspension.

In February of this year I competed on the Goodwood Stages and finished, and in April did the Cadman Construction Honington Stages which was my best stage event at the time - 5th in class, out of 13, in a standard car and running A048's as couldn't afford out and out rally slicks. Since then the car has done a few Autosolos and things but not really turned a wheel until The BGM Carfax Stages two weeks ago where Matt drove her for the first time and I co-drove.

Between the April and November stage events the car went through quite an overhaul - down to the work of Matt [superuno on here] and with a big thanks to Matt Humphris for his help and advice. We decided to take the car away from Endurance spec and spend more money on developing it and making it more competitive for staging etc. A key thing is also to keep it road rally spec though so I can still do road rallies and gymkhanas and things. The other thing is that Muriel [as my car is named] is no longer just my car and Matt and I now share her after he sold his car.

So the current spec is:

Standard engine and gearbox
1600 injectors
Group A exhaust manifold and system
Group A airbox
Uprated whiteline ARBs
Hydraulic handbrake and bias valve
Spax fully adjustable forest spec suspension

Plus the other bits and pieces you'd expect from a rally car eg has a sump guard fitted etc, and she's still being run on the Renault 5 GT Alloys. I've also made a carbon fibre lamp pod for her as we used to use Spots for night stages.

Next event is next weekend, The Rockingham Stages, a two day stage rally of around 95 miles at, as you'd guess, Rockingham circuit. This time it's my turn to drive so I'm looking forward to driving her "properly" for the first time since the changes.

A couple of photos:

Out on the Carfax last weekend:

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And the "new look" engine bay:

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As always I try and keep my website up to date, http://www.suzeendean.co.uk and I am also on Twitter, https://twitter.com/racer09 - although I don't just Tweet about cars! :)
 
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