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LION MOTORSPORT GALLERY
(MARTIN EADES & CHRIS WELCH)
At the end of the last episode Lion Motorsport (aka Martin Eades and Chris Welch) had narrowly clinched 3rd place in their class in the 2004 BTRDA Forest Rally Championship. The championship had gone to the wire with 2nd to 4th places undecided until the final stage of the final round. A broken gear linkage dropped us valuable time and the chance of 2nd place. We vowed we would be back and back to win….
What follows will be the fun and frolics, and woe and worry of building a new rally car from scratch. We vowed we would never do it again but the old adage – “if you want it done properly….” certainly is true of Motorsport. So dear reader, be prepared to follow us as we build a Peugeot 205 GTI Rally Car to a standard capable of winning the 2007 BTRDA B10 Forest Rally Championship or more aptly:
“How to build a rally car in 23,597 easy steps!”
Diary Entry: 2nd June 2006
Well the day has come and the shell is due back today. A fellow Motorsport enthusiast has offered to drop the shell off for the price of a diesel - an offer too good to miss given thieving gypos permanently borrowed my trailer in the spring.
Excitement is building and everything seems to be pointing to the first rally build weekend for 2 years. Text message from trailer man, "can't make it will collect Monday". Several frantic phone calls later and the weekend is still alive.
Leave work a little early but thwarted by a, Bakerloo line being up the creek, and b, Chiltern Railways unable to find a driver for our train (it was a sunny day after all).
Finally get home to a rather less than gleaming, 3 wheeled whitish shell in the drive. A quick look around the car reveals the sprayer obviously spent too long in the gold plating industry. The paint is only a micron thick and some seems to have simply blown off while being towed. Worse was to come as one side of the car looks like it has already been attacked by the Grizedale trees. That's going to be an interesting call to the engineering shop.
First priority is to get the car onto 4 wheels and up onto the drive. The wheel bearing has collapsed (no drive shafts!) And after some judicious jacking and tightening we have 4 wheels on our wagon. Next is how to get it up a steep drive, on a bend, on my own. The faithful Land Rover is pressed into service. A short tow rope, low ratio and diff lock prove to be the answer. The car is now at least on the drive.
A further check around the car reveals the bonnet is missing and horror of horrors the rear jacking points are the wrong size – they are smaller than the front points. How can that happen?
All a little disappointing, primarily due to the fact this will all have to be redone and repainted. However, given the paint job it may all need respraying if the paint comes off in the wash. On the upside the newly powder coated cage looks fantastic. And for some unforeseen reason they have powder coated the sub frame too - better than paint I guess! No time to work on the car tonight, so clear a space in the garage and put her to bed.
Diary Entry: 3rd June 2006
Oh yes, after several weeks of 30+ degree heat it is raining! Thank god I didn't leave the car out overnight; the rest of the paint may have washed away.
Chris arrives surprisingly early after I’ve had a pretty ropey night with both kids up several times. Target time to beat: York to London 2h 29m.
A quick breakfast and time to get cracking. Chris surprised at poor quality of paint and damage but reassures all can be made good - maybe the fair hand/paint gun of our faithful Mr. Hornby can be brought to bear again (repairer of multiple roll and crash damage in 2004).
First job is to get a lick of paint around the engine bay as the engine will be going in first to free up space in the garage.
Air tools and brute force see the front sub frame and suspension off the car. Then we hit the first hurdle. The under seal has bubbled and blistered near the welds. This will all have to come off to prevent the shell rusting. Once again the flap wheel and grinder are in action spraying the drive and Chris in a shower of Peugeot's sticky finest.
In the meantime I get on with cleaning up the power steering rack borrowed from my road car. This is one luxury we are affording ourselves along with central locking. We will work out where the subwoofer and neons go later in the build.
Next step is to find all the front suspension components that have hidden in boxes the last few years. A good and precarious rummage through badly stacked boxes yields the parts and these are also thoroughly cleaned. Much to my shame some parts are still liberally coated in welsh mud and stripping down a front strut is a nightmare. The locking ring has to be drifted off every turn of the thread. This was not quite the workout I was expecting. The front suspension comprises Peugeot Sport Gp A Forest struts and bodies with forest springs. To prevent the strut tops punching through the bonnet we invested in some serious top mounts from AB Motorsport – far stronger (but heavier) than any standard item.
With the front suspension finally built up it is time to get them on the car. A little relieving of the top mount holes is required to accommodate the larger 8mm bolts. Next the sub frame, complete with steering and wishbones is offered up. Some deft wiggling and encouragement and the front suspension is in. The whole lot looks great with a gleaming engine bay, powder coated sub frame and spotless steering mechanism.
The challenge will be keeping it like this!
Diary Entry: 4th June 2006
Today is engine day. We sourced an old Longman engine from a farm near Cheltenham which will be mated to an original pug sport challenge gearbox. An AP paddle clutch will act as matchmaker between the two.
Given our quest for reliability we will be swapping the timing belt, tensioner, water pump etc now. A lot easier before the engine goes into the car!
Stripping away the covers reveals nothing untoward and everything appears to be in very good hardly used condition. Something seems odd when the timing belt is fitted. When the tensioner is released it is pushing the belt against the engine casing - very strange and glad we spotted it before the engine had an opportunity to lunch on itself.
A quick comparison of the old and new belts reveals that the new belt is too long. Note, if using an aftermarket Adaco belt (114 teeth, labeled for 205 1.6 GTI) it will not fit.
A very rapid trip to Halfords in the Italian Express (Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo) delivers the goods and the timing side of the engine is complete.
Now for the other end of the engine. We are fitting a lightened and balanced flywheel to replace the standard item. It's only 500g lighter but given it has been removed form the outer edged of the flywheel we should see some improvement as the engine spins up through the revs.
Next on is the AP paddle clutch - a key component given the stresses that will be passing through it. From past experience we would expect this to easily last all season so a great investment. Finally it's on with the box.
The previous owner had done something rather strange with the gear linkage levers on the box so we replaced these with standard items off an old BE3 box. Before fitting the ball joint was ground off and punched through to accommodate the rose jointed linkage.
And that brings to a close weekend one. It has been a vivid reminder of building a rally car and the number of referrals to the Haynes manual shows the memory is not what it used to be!
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