Prepping for the Mull Targa 2020
Discussion
Hello everyone,
I've entered the Mull Classic this year with my Father as nav. We are both first time entrants having never done this before. I have an MG ZR that I am using to do a varied calendar of grass roots motorsport this year and I was hoping you could give me some advice as to prepping it to pass scrutineering.
I have serviced the engine and brakes so far and it is going and stopping fine. The suspension is standard (therefore old and 80k tired) and i've had it up on a ramp and all bushings are fine, no play, no leaking from the shocks. I don't intend to change anything there now so I will be taking it easy on really broken up surfaces. I have put the car through its paces a few times and the suspension only seems to bottom out on really big hits at 40-50mph so I think I know roughly where my limits should be on the forest tracks. I haven't got any guarding underneath so I'm going to have to take it easy on the really rough stuff anyway, obviously the sump is the most vulnerable bit but the fuel tank and brake lines all look like they could come in the firing line if the car is bottoming out. The winter tyres give an extra 15 or 20mm extra ground clearance so that'll help.
What things in particular will the scrutineers be looking for:
Battery firmly secured and a yellow negative; Yellow tape on Key or Ignition?; lights working, I have the standard ZR 'double' lights with two standard fit fog lights, I think these are OK for the fog light rule?
Tyres - I have road going Michelin Alpin M+S tyres on the car - I think these are OK?; I'm going to fix two spare wheels to the original spare mount with ratchet straps and my toolkit inside, is this ok?
Spill kit; V5 & MOT (can they check the MOT online or is the certificate required?); no livery/advertising, etc.
Noise: I have measured my exhaust at 45degrees to the tailpipe at approx. 0.5m. At idle it is roughly 90-92dB and at 4500rpm it is slightly less, say 88-92dB but I did get a peak at 95dB. It's not ridiculously loud or anything, are they very strict on this?
Interior: all interior trim to be present, seats and belts ok (I have some harnesses fitted), my drivers seat back is a bit wobbly but the seat is secure - likely to be a problem?; no loose items.
I think these were the main things I can see. If anyone has any other advice I would appreciate it, especially on the following:
1. Toolkit & spares: I was going to bring a basic toolkit (1/2" set, 1/4" set, screwdrivers, breaker bar, pliers, crimping tools, allen set, blowtorch, wooden chocks, bottle jack, cable ties, jubilee clips, amalgamating tape, etc). Is there anything else that will come in handy? In terms of fluids I was thinking just 5L oil & 5L coolant, maybe a little gearbox oil or brake fluid?
2. Rally equipment: I've ordered a clipboard and stopwatch, and the special map of Mull. Anything else required? A compass or roamer thing? I believe the etiquette is to bring lots of sweets for the marshalls?
Thanks in advance, getting really excited!
I've entered the Mull Classic this year with my Father as nav. We are both first time entrants having never done this before. I have an MG ZR that I am using to do a varied calendar of grass roots motorsport this year and I was hoping you could give me some advice as to prepping it to pass scrutineering.
I have serviced the engine and brakes so far and it is going and stopping fine. The suspension is standard (therefore old and 80k tired) and i've had it up on a ramp and all bushings are fine, no play, no leaking from the shocks. I don't intend to change anything there now so I will be taking it easy on really broken up surfaces. I have put the car through its paces a few times and the suspension only seems to bottom out on really big hits at 40-50mph so I think I know roughly where my limits should be on the forest tracks. I haven't got any guarding underneath so I'm going to have to take it easy on the really rough stuff anyway, obviously the sump is the most vulnerable bit but the fuel tank and brake lines all look like they could come in the firing line if the car is bottoming out. The winter tyres give an extra 15 or 20mm extra ground clearance so that'll help.
What things in particular will the scrutineers be looking for:
Battery firmly secured and a yellow negative; Yellow tape on Key or Ignition?; lights working, I have the standard ZR 'double' lights with two standard fit fog lights, I think these are OK for the fog light rule?
Tyres - I have road going Michelin Alpin M+S tyres on the car - I think these are OK?; I'm going to fix two spare wheels to the original spare mount with ratchet straps and my toolkit inside, is this ok?
Spill kit; V5 & MOT (can they check the MOT online or is the certificate required?); no livery/advertising, etc.
Noise: I have measured my exhaust at 45degrees to the tailpipe at approx. 0.5m. At idle it is roughly 90-92dB and at 4500rpm it is slightly less, say 88-92dB but I did get a peak at 95dB. It's not ridiculously loud or anything, are they very strict on this?
Interior: all interior trim to be present, seats and belts ok (I have some harnesses fitted), my drivers seat back is a bit wobbly but the seat is secure - likely to be a problem?; no loose items.
I think these were the main things I can see. If anyone has any other advice I would appreciate it, especially on the following:
1. Toolkit & spares: I was going to bring a basic toolkit (1/2" set, 1/4" set, screwdrivers, breaker bar, pliers, crimping tools, allen set, blowtorch, wooden chocks, bottle jack, cable ties, jubilee clips, amalgamating tape, etc). Is there anything else that will come in handy? In terms of fluids I was thinking just 5L oil & 5L coolant, maybe a little gearbox oil or brake fluid?
2. Rally equipment: I've ordered a clipboard and stopwatch, and the special map of Mull. Anything else required? A compass or roamer thing? I believe the etiquette is to bring lots of sweets for the marshalls?
Thanks in advance, getting really excited!
Drumroll said:
Not a scrutineer, but I would definitely get the seat back fixed. You will need to concentrate on your driving, having a loose seat back won't help with concentration.
I should have phrased this a bit better. It's a 5 door car so not a reclining front seat but if you grab the seat back and waggle it then it maybe moves a cm or two at the headrest. Not noticeable whilst sitting in it or driving, I don't consider it a problem but equally don't want to turn up and find I can't compete.Thanks sungsam, velocemitch, thepawbroon and sjabrown.
Plenty to be getting on with. I will kit my nav out with a headtorch but I think it’s supposed to be finished by 5pm so hopefully not required. I’ll have a look at the seat but I’m not convinced I’ll be able to remove the play. I think this is a single headlight behind the bumper so I’ll keep a photo in my phone, but apparently daytime events don’t use this rule anyway. I will have a scout about and see if I can find a flat sheet of steel or alu to bolt onto the bottom, will a road sign really do anything if it bottoms out on a rock? Any that I’ve seen are about 2/3mm steel, not much. I would have thought a bit of 18mm marine ply would do more. I’ve bought a tube of aluminium epoxy putty in case the worst comes to it and I’ve got to make an emergency repair.
I have bought a special map of Mull and have an A3 clipboard here. I have also got a stopwatch and the car trip meter to work with, plus an additional wristwatch with stopwatch facilities. I just ordered up a Romer – does anyone know any good online tutorials for doing the navigation part? My understanding is that there is a route which you get in advance that you can plot on your map, and that you have to complete that route between tests to a set average speed for which you get speed tables (perhaps this isn’t between every test, just a few?) and at certain points you need to show your time card or note down some things that might be on code boards. At each test you have to carry out the test route in as little time as possible whilst following the route exactly and not hitting any cones. If you go past two cones incorrectly in a row you get max time. Is that roughly it? Where are the greatest chances to make a real mess of it for a complete beginner?
Plenty to be getting on with. I will kit my nav out with a headtorch but I think it’s supposed to be finished by 5pm so hopefully not required. I’ll have a look at the seat but I’m not convinced I’ll be able to remove the play. I think this is a single headlight behind the bumper so I’ll keep a photo in my phone, but apparently daytime events don’t use this rule anyway. I will have a scout about and see if I can find a flat sheet of steel or alu to bolt onto the bottom, will a road sign really do anything if it bottoms out on a rock? Any that I’ve seen are about 2/3mm steel, not much. I would have thought a bit of 18mm marine ply would do more. I’ve bought a tube of aluminium epoxy putty in case the worst comes to it and I’ve got to make an emergency repair.
I have bought a special map of Mull and have an A3 clipboard here. I have also got a stopwatch and the car trip meter to work with, plus an additional wristwatch with stopwatch facilities. I just ordered up a Romer – does anyone know any good online tutorials for doing the navigation part? My understanding is that there is a route which you get in advance that you can plot on your map, and that you have to complete that route between tests to a set average speed for which you get speed tables (perhaps this isn’t between every test, just a few?) and at certain points you need to show your time card or note down some things that might be on code boards. At each test you have to carry out the test route in as little time as possible whilst following the route exactly and not hitting any cones. If you go past two cones incorrectly in a row you get max time. Is that roughly it? Where are the greatest chances to make a real mess of it for a complete beginner?
Thanks thepawbroon, mitch, nick, avenger and delica for all the great advice. We are leaving in just a few hours to catch the ferry this afternoon and get to scrutineering this evening.
Car prep has gone ok in the end. I took the car out on a few hard runs over mixed broken/undulating surfaces to see how the suspension coped and the answer was not that well. The front shocks bottomed out pretty quickly on the bumpy stuff and ground clearance was limited. As I don't have a sump guard I reckoned the easiest (and cheapest) option in the circumstances was to replace the struts with a set of low mileage Rover Streetwise struts (£50 for the set!). These have raised the ride height by approx 50mm + a bit from the big winter tyres. Ride is much better, rides the bumps with easy and you could probably lie underneath the car now! It also gave me a chance to go over the suspension and the rest of it seems fine.
Everything else has gone to plan so hopefully scrutineering will pass without incident.
My nav and I have looked over the pre-plot navigation and are going to do the plotting this afternoon. Do we get the test diagrams when we get there?
Thanks again, hopefully have some good photos for you next week.
Car prep has gone ok in the end. I took the car out on a few hard runs over mixed broken/undulating surfaces to see how the suspension coped and the answer was not that well. The front shocks bottomed out pretty quickly on the bumpy stuff and ground clearance was limited. As I don't have a sump guard I reckoned the easiest (and cheapest) option in the circumstances was to replace the struts with a set of low mileage Rover Streetwise struts (£50 for the set!). These have raised the ride height by approx 50mm + a bit from the big winter tyres. Ride is much better, rides the bumps with easy and you could probably lie underneath the car now! It also gave me a chance to go over the suspension and the rest of it seems fine.
Everything else has gone to plan so hopefully scrutineering will pass without incident.
My nav and I have looked over the pre-plot navigation and are going to do the plotting this afternoon. Do we get the test diagrams when we get there?
Thanks again, hopefully have some good photos for you next week.
Safely home now, and just put the child seat back in!
First of all, a massive thanks to Duncan and everyone on the organising team for putting on an exceptional event, and to all the marshalls that braved the rather moist weather! Everyone was really friendly and helpful, and the whole event was lots of fun.
The car was brilliant, didn't falter once despite taking quite a pounding. The last minute suspension change made all the difference and the car didn't bottom out at all. I've got a loose exhaust heatshield (which I'll have to rip off) and one of the rear brakes was slightly binding yesterday morning so I freed off the caliper sliding pins in Oban and now it seems fine again. As everyone said beforehand in reality with M+S tyres on the wet forest tracks you can't really get the power down and actually a small 1.3 or 1.4 is probably optimal for FWD cars.
The rally itself was challenging but the route and navigation was fair and not likely to catch out the participants. The forest stages were awesome, with more grip around corners than I expected but less under braking. My biggest problem was inability to execute a proper handbrake turn around the 270 and 360 cones, especially the really tight ones. I'm going to do some autotests to work on this skill. The regularities actually went pretty well, I think we were about 3 minutes out over the 5 sections which was better than I expected and I think with another stopwatch, a more accurate trip meter and a bit of practice we could improve on that. Overall, I'm really pleased to get around the course with no navigational errors and doing every test without any maximum times.
The winners in their Rapier were very impressive, but they were too far away from us to see them in action. I did however see the 2nd place finishers in the MX5 in action and they were really, really quick.
I would like to do the Berwick Classic in May but my gut feeling is that we won't be able to compete due to worldwide lockdown, so will try to get out in the summer at some point, and definitely will compete in the Saltire in November.
Thanks again everyone for all your help.
First of all, a massive thanks to Duncan and everyone on the organising team for putting on an exceptional event, and to all the marshalls that braved the rather moist weather! Everyone was really friendly and helpful, and the whole event was lots of fun.
The car was brilliant, didn't falter once despite taking quite a pounding. The last minute suspension change made all the difference and the car didn't bottom out at all. I've got a loose exhaust heatshield (which I'll have to rip off) and one of the rear brakes was slightly binding yesterday morning so I freed off the caliper sliding pins in Oban and now it seems fine again. As everyone said beforehand in reality with M+S tyres on the wet forest tracks you can't really get the power down and actually a small 1.3 or 1.4 is probably optimal for FWD cars.
The rally itself was challenging but the route and navigation was fair and not likely to catch out the participants. The forest stages were awesome, with more grip around corners than I expected but less under braking. My biggest problem was inability to execute a proper handbrake turn around the 270 and 360 cones, especially the really tight ones. I'm going to do some autotests to work on this skill. The regularities actually went pretty well, I think we were about 3 minutes out over the 5 sections which was better than I expected and I think with another stopwatch, a more accurate trip meter and a bit of practice we could improve on that. Overall, I'm really pleased to get around the course with no navigational errors and doing every test without any maximum times.
The winners in their Rapier were very impressive, but they were too far away from us to see them in action. I did however see the 2nd place finishers in the MX5 in action and they were really, really quick.
I would like to do the Berwick Classic in May but my gut feeling is that we won't be able to compete due to worldwide lockdown, so will try to get out in the summer at some point, and definitely will compete in the Saltire in November.
Thanks again everyone for all your help.
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