Wheel Bolt to Stud and Nut Conversion

I started this job about a year ago and got it half done but then I crashed the car which put finishing the work on hold. I finally got round to finishing the other half of the car last week.

I had bought a full kit of bits from AG Motorsport along with got some permanent Loctite 270 threadlock to hold them in place. A quick clean of the threads with a M12x1.5 tap and I was ready to get stuck in.

There isn't must involved in putting in the studs, just a drop of Loctite and lock two nuts together so than I can wind the studs into the hubs.

AG do a 60mm or 80mm long stud and I went for the 80mm ones. That was the wrong choice!

They stick out so far I couldn't tighten up the wheel nuts as they fouled the socket. So off came the wheels and out came the hacksaw. It was a real PITA having to cut the studs on the car but that will teach me to not measure things up correctly.

As I didn't want to repeat the same mistake when it came to doing the other side of the car I measure up correctly and trimmed the studs in the vice taking about 23mm off. The shorter studs made it a bit tight to get the 2 nuts on but I got them installed easy enough. I'm really pleased with how they turned out and should make changing the wheels much easier. Just for reference, the Haynes manual says to torque the wheel nuts to 90Nm.

AG Motorsport
I bought my studs and nuts from AG but that is just where I found them at the time, I though the price was ok and the service was good. I have since been told that Rally Design are cheaper so that might be a better bet if your looking to source some for your project.

Circuit of Ireland Rally 2012

We got a proper treat this year with the Circuit of Ireland being included as the 3rd round of the IRC. It's easy to get sucked into thinking that our local drivers are some of the best in the world and that our stages are so specialised that our local guys would be able to match the professionals but that idea was totally blown out of the water over the weekend. The top IRC drivers are truly a level above our home grown experts. The total time for Hanninen in the S2000 Fabia over the 15 stages was 1:58:21.9 and the total time for Gass in the Impreza WRC was 2:01:59.5. So Hanninen was 3:37.6 quicker in a lower class of car, that it totally amazing. Our local men don't hang about and their in car footage is very impressive but the in car from Hanninen and Mikkelsen over the weekend was like nothing I've ever seen before. It's was terrifying to watch, they looked completely out of control, all of the time! I don't know how anyone can drive that fast. It looks like corners are coming up faster than it is possible to react to them, mind blowing.

The Circuit did a great job of promoting itself this year and the whole country seemed to know about it. I hope that other events will now see the benefit of more promotion and rallying can come back to the levels of popularity it enjoyed in the 70's and 80's.

Eurosport Coverage, Day 1, Circuit of Ireland 2012

Eurosport Coverage, Day 2, Circuit of Ireland 2012

Circuit of Ireland 2012 International Results

Circuit of Ireland 2012 national Results


Karen Swanston helped Rachel and I helped out with our passage control at the end of the Lisburn Powerstage on Saturday. It's pretty handy as it's all over in a couple of hours but it is crazy hectic for those 2 hours. They were trying to streamline things this year by having us working directly beside the stop control but it didn't really work out because we just ended up getting in each others way, but we made it through without too many problems. The biggest drama of the day was Mikkelsens crash which cost him 40 seconds, a perforated ear drum and any chance of winning the rally.

Hilary Autotest 2012

Last Saturday (31 March 2012) was QUBMC's annual Hilary Autotest. Rachel and I took on the event this year as we wanted to leave the student members free to concentrate their efforts on the Summer Lanes Rally in July.

Autotesting is a fairly easy to organise event and as we were being allowed access to the same bit of ground that we used in 2011 there wasn't a lot to do. Rachel organised the regs and paperwork, and got Paddy to do results. Then all I had to do was to drew up the tests and do the scrutineering on the day. I took quite a long time to draw out the tests as I haven't really autotested before but I think they turned out ok. Our bit of ground is very long and narrow so that makes things a bit easier as there are less options, there was only one bit that the competitors asked to be changed so my diagrams can't have been that far away. The 2011 event was well received so I think we were repaid for that this year and got 15 entries, which we were delighted with.

The Hilary is a beginners autotest so I took the chance to try out the Nova on it's first proper autotest. It meant that on the day I was pretty busy between scrutineering, setting up the tests and trying to compete. Luckily Phil, James and Peter were on hand to help out or I would have been totally stuck without them.

In autotesting the max time for each test is the fastest time in each class plus 20 seconds. With that being the case it's not surprising that I didn't set any actual test time all day. From watching the experienced guys it was easy to see how they were so much quicker than me, their car just never stops moving. Even with my lack of talent being taken into account I think the Nova also held me back. I struggled with traction when getting the car moving and the handbrake wasn't tight enough to bring the back end round, I had to try and press the foot break and pull the handbrake at the same time which requires more coordination than I've been blessed with.

I really enjoyed my days autotesting and would be keen to give it another go but not without making some changes to the car. I think the main things I would need are a LSD and a hydraulic handbrake. My arm and shoulder were near pulled out of me yanking on the standard handbrake all day! Nice skinny tyres on the back would make life a bit easier too. Paul Blair says all the FWD autotesters use a Quaife ATB LSD so that makes things more straight forward as I wasn't sure whether I should be looking for a platted diff or a geared diff. The geared diff suits me better as it is a fit and forget item, happy days, I just need to save up the £600 now for a new one or find a good second hand one.

I tried out some new camera mounting positions and I was really pleased with how they turned out. Unfortunately my autotesting was embarrassingly bad so I don't know if I'm brave enough to put them up on YouTube but hopefully I'll be able to edit something together that doesn't make me look too bad.

Results
Really Mean Sounds Report

1st Overall, Paul Blair



Donaldson Fuels Rally 2012

Friday night (30 Mar 2012) was the 3nd event of the NI Night Rally Challenge and this time we where up near Cookstown with the rally running out of the Braeside Bar. Paddy McCollum again showed off his Powerpoint skills and did a great job of talking everyone through the final navigation rally school. All new competitors should now have all the information they need to work out any route instructions they receive on a navigation rally. The next step is to teach them how to correctly judge their timing which will be covered in the rally schools after the traditional navigation rally summer break.
Rachel and I were out manning a couple of secret controls so didn't get to drive the route but the feeling from everyone back at the bar was very positive. From our controls it seemed like the crews had a much better handle on things than they had the first night out on the road and almost everyone was close to being on their minute.

 It is very interesting to see that the top 3 crews all had lady navigators. In general women are under represented in motorsport so it is great to have such an influx of good lady navigators at our grass roots level, hopefully they can encourage some lady drivers to come out too.

With this years beginner rallies going down very well with all the competitors I don't think that the sport itself has anything to worry about in the future. I think that the biggest thing that is keeping the entries low is that not enough people know about the sport so with a few big motorsport events over the summer hopefully we can get out and raise awareness with the wider public.

Results

1st Place, 0 Penalties, Andy Hughes and Kerry Moreland.

2nd Place, 0 Penalties, Neil Anderson and Kathryn Vaux.

3rd Place, 3 Penalties, Laura Fletcher and Neil Fletcher.