My new rally car sat on its wheels and moved under its own power for the first time in a very long time today. It's not "finished" (are they ever?) but it is perilously close to being MOT'able.

Some pictures...

The "MSA Log Book" shot!

Looks almost mean for a shopping trolley...

Inside...

I'm quite pleased with these home-made, carbon-effect door panels...

Another interior shot...

From the rear...

In through the driver's side slider...

And under the bonnet..

There were times when I wanted to set it on fire. There were times when it set itself on fire. But I'm really quite pleased with it. Another couple of years and maybe I'll be able to bring myself to enter a rally in it...

Looks good that does mate, Finished to a high standard

Interesting!..

You should enter it into the rainworth skoda rally around sherwood pines

Looks very good

very nice

looking good mate, you might want to waterproof the ecu a bit tho as ours is in the same place and gets wet easily (its inside a sarnie box now lol)

is that a fabia 1400 engine in there?

i wonder if you can get plastic wings and tailgate/bonnets for a felicia?

Probably not, but (quite by accident) I found there's a lot of tutorial videos on YouTube that give detailed instruction on mould-making and then on to fibre-glass construction (even vacuum assisted!). I thought they could be useful to make a mould or two to do Fun bumpers (without cracks and holes ), but it could be done to almost any shape I suppose, just needs a good example to make the mould from.

Edited 27 March, 201115 yr by RainbowFore

You will be giving Tom ideas now...

is that a fabia 1400 engine in there?

i wonder if you can get plastic wings and tailgate/bonnets for a felicia?

It is a Fabia engine, yes.

Jorily used to list plastic tailgates. And you can certainly buy plastic replicas of the "kit car" wings. But I haven't seen any plastic "standard" bonnets and wings - even on the Czech websites.

Thanks for all the nice comments, everyone. It's been a labour of love and hate, I can tell you!

Very nice....brings back memories when i built a vauxhall nova rallycar a few years ago! There were times when i wanted to set that on fire to!!

Very nice indeed

Looking good, James!

How's it looking for things like sump and tankguard, etc?

Are those the sill protectors your mate made up? How far under the seam at the bottom of the sill do they go? Is he selling any more?

What are the inner door handles off?

Oh, the roof vent - is that legal, with all the hoo ha about homologated bodywork/silhoutte I've seen recently?

Top work though, I felt exactly the same about setting fire to mine when I was building it, for sure.

didn't you actually set fire to yours darren?? i seem to remember somebody mentioning trying to burn off the sticky tar-like sound proofing pads from under the carpet in the front footwells and the thing actually went on fire

You will be giving Tom ideas now...

Sorry. :rofl:

Nice work James. How 'direct' was the 1.4 to physically fit? Am liking the bonnet intake too. Can I ask where you got it?

Edited 28 March, 201115 yr by RainbowFore

didn't you actually set fire to yours darren?? i seem to remember somebody mentioning trying to burn off the sticky tar-like sound proofing pads from under the carpet in the front footwells and the thing actually went on fire

No, aside from the usual "minor fires" when doing the seam welding and welding the cage. But there was a point during October 2007 when I'd had the gearbox in and out SIX times in the space of two days during a soul-destroying 9 solid days working 12 hours+ a day on it when I would have cheerfully burnt the damn thing, and I remember the look on Paul's (my navigator) face when I said it! I don't think he'd seen anyone as ****ed off as I was at that point.

Looking good, James!

How's it looking for things like sump and tankguard, etc?

Are those the sill protectors your mate made up? How far under the seam at the bottom of the sill do they go? Is he selling any more?

What are the inner door handles off?

Oh, the roof vent - is that legal, with all the hoo ha about homologated bodywork/silhoutte I've seen recently?

Top work though, I felt exactly the same about setting fire to mine when I was building it, for sure.

The self-same sill protectors. My friend Tim from Yorvik Engineering (YES)in York laid them up for me using a pair of brand new sills that I bought on ebay for buttons. He still has the sills in his workshop, so I'm sure he could lay up another set really easily. They basically follow the shape of the sill and overlap (but not tuck under) the bottom by a few mill. Tim did the dash flocking and refurbed the alloys for me too. I'm in the process of trying to acquire a felicia floor pan so he can make up some similar guards for the rear footwells - which as you'll know, get bashed a lot. He's a good chap - give him a bell and mention my name.

The front sumpguard mounts are all welded up - a big bit of angle iron with captive bolts attached through the bottom of the front crossmember (under the radiator) and then with some 3mm plate braced up the sides to join the chassis rails. The rear I haven't yet finished, but it will be some big Landrover engine mounts and the remains of the old sumpguard mounts salvaged from the old car. Fibreglass tankguard is fitted, but I'll probably fit a big alloy "skid" too.

Interior door handles are nicked off a Renault Clio that we used to autotests at one of the Motor Clubs I belong too, until it died, and was abandoned at the club house!

I'm not sure about the roof vent - so many cars have them that I can't imagine anyone would get excluded from an event for having one, but we'll see. THere's two bloody big holes in the roor to fill if it is a problem!

Rainbowforce - Fitting the Fabia motor is a bit involved. I ended up fitting a felicia flywheel to the fabia crank and making an engine mount for the water pump end (Fabia Water Pump is different to the felicia one, and when I fitted a Felicia pump, the belt didn't line up with the crank pulley). I think there may be easier ways of doing it. I suspect the Fabia flywheel would mate with the Felicia box OK but it's more shallow than the felicia one, and wouldn't fit the Felicia competition clutch I had already bought. Apparently there's a trick using a PAS water pump pulley that allows you to use a Felicia water pump and integral mount, but I've not tried those out.

handles look peugeot 205 poss?

renault clio! thats what i meant. there very french looking door handles all the same

Looking good, James!

Oh, the roof vent - is that legal, with all the hoo ha about homologated bodywork/silhoutte I've seen recently?

Looks very nice also from Finnish poin of view :yes:

Great job, I think I know what it is, to love and hate that stack of scrap and still to see it as a becoming beauty of a gravel roads...

I was wondering this Darren´s worry about roof vent: maybe it is not the major problem when the whole engine is out of the homologation? If you have in UK some class for this kind of "outlaws" is it really so that roof vent is anyway not allowed?

I was wondering this Darren´s worry about roof vent: maybe it is not the major problem when the whole engine is out of the homologation? If you have in UK some class for this kind of "outlaws" is it really so that roof vent is anyway not allowed?

The MSA (UK sporting body) is becoming increasingly insistent on body modifications being only homologated ones, regardless of the age/homologation status of the car. I've seen stories of a number of people being forced to remove non-homologated spoilers on old cars that are way out of homologation (such as Peugeot 205s), although the enforcement of this seems to be patchy.

Sounds like more jobsworths trying to justify their excistance. I blame this stupid sue culture we are living in. Looks a tidy motor to me...New to my old neck of the woods in WY, so would guess either a DMK or Barkers motor :p

Might be worth having a chat with the scrutineer who is going to do your Log Book about the roof vent, before you take it for him to finally "sign it off".

Hope I'm going to see you in the Welsh Forests soon.

I think the issue is more with wings and spoilers. Non-homologated wings are definitely outlawed (And a wing is defined as something that has airflow both above and below it, as I understand it, unlike a spoiler, which just has airflow over the top). I've yet to hear of anyone being asked to remove a roof vent. But given the perfidy of the MSA and unpredictability of some scruitineers, I'm not saying it hasn't or wouldn't happen.

I've never ventured as far as Wales to rally yet - just the North of England and Scotland. Which event do you suggest, Llanigraham? (preferrably North Wales, if only because it's closer!)

Well, on the bodywork front, look at the problems that Dave had building his Puma - he had to get proof that his wings were not only a homologated option, but the specific ones he fitted were a genuine S1600 set, not just copies. Insane.

Did you get the problem with the hydraulic handbrake/bleeding sorted out? What was it?

As far as rallying is concerned, how about doing the National event on Rally GB this year, if they run it? Some good stages in there, for sure!