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Having aquired a 1.6 GTI Peugeot 205, and having an old low mileage Citroen BX 16valve car that was scrap yard material it seemed logical for the engine to go into the Pug! But it never stops there does it? Four months of part time work on it including a full strip, full seam welding and strengthening, roll cage and seats, extinguishers, RAC log book, joined my old club again (Trackrod motor club) and lets do some events!
16 valves, 160 standard horespower, loads of torque and it all fits, JUST!
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The Pug looks OK here, but after 6 rallies and a couple of very small coming togethers with some bails both front wings have dents now.
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Our first event on April 2000 was at Melbourne Airfield near York, the Lookout Stages rally. We finished 1st Trackrod motor club crew, 32nd overall and 9th in class. Yes we have all standard suspension, wheels, brakes and road rubber taken from my old BX Citroen!! which didn't do much for grip.
The next rally we entered was the June 2000 Elvington stages Near York and finished 22nd overall and 10th in class.
Then the July 2000 Binbrook stages in Lincolnshire. We finished 12th overall and 4th in class! If only we hadn't run out of front brakes on the last stage!
The Rally Yorkshire was next in September 2000 and was the biggest event to date taking in some classic Yorkshire forest action. It was different in being our first multi venue event and we went wrong missing a service control so although we finished we were OTL and didn't get a result. For this event I fitted Bilstein adjustable suspension and borrowed a forest sump guard, some wheels and second hand tyres! I rebuilt the gearbox to use the 1.6 3rd, 4th and 5th ratios thereby giving me a lower than 150mph top speed from the valver box to about 130mph and kept the 4.4:1 crown wheel and pinion for acceleration purposes. This allows the engine to actually pull at over 100mph but keeps a high 1st gear to stop wheel spin off the line. No Limited Slip Diff yet! Whilst I was there a recon clutch plate (£15) went in. You want budget rallying? well here it is.
The next rally was the Premier in October 2000, another multi venue around the forests of Nottingham. We got our timing right on this one but the event was very wet (understatement) and we had all on keeping the engine from misfiring due to water ingress. We managed a 41st overall and 13th in class but still another finish in a car that has not cost alot to prepare.
The Riponian stages multi venue came next in February 2001 and it snowed! At last I have fitted a ATB LSD to the car which helped in the snow. Still on borrowed sump guard, wheels and tyres we set off on an event I really wanted to compete on because they use Boltby forest which I used to marshal on when the Lombard RAC was running. The only thing was that Boltby was cancelled as the marshals could not get in the stage for the snow! Shame really, but we finished again with a 48th overall and 12th in class.
With Foot and Mouth disease now hopefully retreating rallying has started again. June 23rd saw the Dukeries multi venue forest rally run and we were entered for it. The entry was full with top notch cars and we managed an 88th O/A 13th in class. A bit disappointing but another finish and 51 cars out of 150 didn't!
June 8th saw us out on the Armstrong Massey single venue event which is usually a multi but due to foot and mouth it was held at Leconfield airfield this year. The venue hadn't been used for several years and the entry contained some top notch vehicles and drivers. We took a maximum on 1 stage as the throttle cable snapped. This dropped us 6 minutes and we ended up 70th and 24th in class. Another finish from the car but we could have been around the 40's without the maximum.
June 21st we were out again at Manby airfield. A nice event which was more like a club rally at last. (No Metro 6R4's) It makes me laugh sometimes when you come up against £100k upwards of car at CLUB events. Wots all that about then? Driving skill? Any way we finished again, 17th O/A 6th in class. But for a loss of brain on the last corner of the last stage and dropping 30 seconds, a lifetime in rallying, we would have come further up. The clutch slipped on this event so out with the box and a new one in only to find the diff crown wheel had worked loose and chewed the box casing a bit. Air gunned up and thread locked that bugger won't come undone again!
August 12th saw us returning to Binbrook, sleeping in the van and the weather was very windy and wet. Next morning I decided to run intermediates with disasterous results. Needless to say we didn't finish for the first time in our rallying.
August 19th and we are out again at Leconfield Army Base on the Sea King stages. A changeable weather day meant a load of tyre swapping but another finish.
September 9th at Melbourne airfield for a second visit. A very rough surface meant forest suspension and tyres.
October 13th and we were at Manby again trying to keep position in the Championship and with it being the last round of the single venue part we needed a good result.
Harold Palin Memorial. Manby Stages Report
December 1st back in the Forests, this time Grizedale now to be known as Grimsdale!
The last round of the ANCC championship and we needed to finish higher than 14th in class. Doh! Just missed it with 15th! Leaving us 6 points off Jon Neale and John McNichol, well done lads at least we are all Trackrod members. We finished 5th in the Multi venue challenge, which, seeing as we are totally new to forest type events isn't that bad after only finishing 2 of the 3 rounds. Just need some financial support now, loads of advert space on the car, any offers??
Association Northern Car Clubs AWARD WINNERS - 2001 ANCC web site
Driver/Navigator
1st Overall Peter Dickson/John McNichol
2nd Overall Jon Neale/Emma Bain
3rd Overall Graham Steggles/Plug Pulleyn
1st Class 1 Steven Crowther/David Atack/Terry Greenall/Robert Ellis
1st Class 2 David Duff/Paul Oliver
1st Class 3 Chris Leeming/Liz Jubb
1st Class 4 Craig Dykes/Howard Turner
1st Single Venue Challenge Graham Steggles/Emma Bain
2nd Single Venue Challenge Chris Leeming/Matthew Whattam
1st Multi Venue Challenge David Duff/Paul Oliver
2nd Multi Venue Challenge Jon Neale/Plug Pulleyn
Trackrod Motor Club Awards 2001
Graham Steggles
1st TMC Boxing Day Autotest
1st Larkspeed League Driver
1st Multi Venue Driver
1st Single Venue Driver
1st Overall Stage Rally Championship Driver
Emma Bain
1st Larkspeed League Navigator
1st Single Venue Navigator
1st Lady Competitor
Newman Cup
1st Overall Stage Rally Championship Navigator