Got Distracted

Team DWR tactics changed a little since the last post, with some difficulty in sorting Tasmanian registration soaking up available time, and work committments taking priority. We decided to keep the car on tarmac for a while, and re-tuned it to 102 octane fuel, back from the 110 it was used to. While this has dropped some power, it now has a more useful power curve, and is more pleasant to drive. Big thanks to Andy at Pro-Automotive for his trouble. We purchased underbody protection from Possum Bourne Motorsport, such as sumpguard, body protectors, and rear suspension panels, and have fitted these to test for size.

The team entered and competed in the recent 2 day Tasmanian Tarmac Challenge event in the North-West, with the view to learn the car's many different characteristics. I will report on all that next blog, but can say that we were happy with our performance after a few hiccups, and now have a baseline with which to improve the handling package. 7th Outright on each day was much better than expected for a new car, and some pretty awful wet weather.

Raise the bar.

The new ride arrive's. After much deliberating the team has acquired a new toy to play with. David had been on the hunt since Targa 08 and after looking at the options has purchased a 2005 Subaru Impreza WRX Spec - C. The car is ex Subaru Aus and was built by Possum Bourne Motorsport NZ. The car has spent it's time playing on the tarmac only and is in pristine condition. Now to get it dirty!!!

The job at hand now is to convert the car to a gravel beast. Preparations are underway with a new engine to be built at Source Automotive. The turbo recquires a restrictor and then a retune of the Motec engine managment to suit. Also recquired is the necessary underbody protection and other item's recquired for the dirt.

The Team is very excited and re - enthused, looking forward to some excellent competition around the state.

Day 2 - The Money Day

The crew were all a little lethargic for our start today, but a good finish yesterday gave us a later start time of 8.50am, so a MacAttack was pursued for breakfast.



The first stage was the fantastic TS10 Sideling, with a long transport from Launceston out to the foothills for the start. The WRX kept trying to turn up forest roads, and it took both Catty and I to hang onto the wheel to stop it from going GRAVEL on us!! Being able to have a red-hot go at the long Sideling was the major reason for doing this event, and it also fitted our strategy to give this a big dip. We figured that if we could rein in the Rookie leaders as little here, then we would attack for the rest of the day. But if we made no ground, then a consolidation of position would be the plan. And ATTACK we did! Drift King was the style as the surface was dusty, and lots of people spectating everywhere. Towards the finish we found someones oil for a heart-stopper moment, but otherwise it was great. There seemed to be a lot of triangles, and crews without cars on the roadside during the stage, so I figure you don't want to crash over the edge up there.



On to Ledgerwood for a quick splash of fuel, then a short run up the Lane. This is all horsepower, so we just let the car flow, prepared to loose a little time. With no updates of results for our major competitors, we were left to guess what to do at the 3 stage run down to St. Helens.

Moorina, Weldborough Pass and Pyengana all follow the main road and are similar in character. We chose to steady our progress, as the carnage continued and oil was about everywhere. We were also having a few understandable issues getting the notes to flow, and this led to a couple of bigger skids than usual.



Lunchbreak at St. Helens was a refuel and regroup, with Rob and Adam giving the car a quick once-over. Lunch is provided each day in the form of a pack of sandys, apple and juice, and this hits the spot. Then a run down to the base of Elephant Pass for a 12km climb. Still no results to compare, so we thought that attack may be the answer. Unfortunately that all changed on the start-line when the left-rear driveshaft snapped. It took the first few kms to work out which one was broken, and whether the broken end would flail about and smash an arm. Then a few more to get use to a psycho front-wheel-drive, before going the BIG DIP. A WRX is a nicely balanced car, until you remove a shaft, when it becomes truely evil and random drive. Backing it into corners proved to be the only quick way, and this seemed to work. It would break into wheelspin in 4th gear, so the right foot was working hard to control it.



After the stop control, Catty stuck his head underneath and confirmed the issue. A frantic call to the service crew got them ready for us at St. Marys, and 6mins, 11 secs after stopping, the shaft was changed and we were moving again. For anyone that knows cars, this is nothing short of legendary work by the boys, with arms and legs and tools going everywhere. This meant we dropped no time and headed to Rossarden for the last stage that counted. Big Cheers to the boys.



Rossarden is a strange piece of road in the middle of nowhere, and very fast to start then a big, exciting drop downhill. We fired through this OK and headed back towards Longford for the last town stage with the crew in tow. Last go for us and we threw the car about for some skids and giggles.



Back to the Silverdome for a Gala finish, to find we grabbed third outright! So we got to spray champagne and act important for the cameras. The WRX from Vic won the event, followed by the very trick Commodore ute. Yeah, I know , a ute! Trust us, this thing is fast and the guy can steer, so more power to them! Or maybe more power to us. As for us, a dirty old PRC gravel car with a restrictor fair flogged some trick cars, and we figured that we were running in the early 20s outright by the end of the day, so we are pretty pleased with ourselves.



Big thanks to Scott, Rob, Adam and Kai for a top job. Also must thank the Luscombes at Legana Tyre and Auto, the Vandenbergs for noting assistance, and our little list of sponsors who help it happen.

Day 1 - Dialing In

Just drying off after a fire-housing by the crew, as payment for a sly-dog trick Catty and I pulled tonight. More of that later!

Today began with a ceremonial start at the Country Club Casino and then a gentle pass over the first three stages. These are designed with an easy base time, so as to allow competitors to warm up without any pressure. The stages proper started with TS4 Paradise and this passed without any major incident, other than the odd overly-quick corner arrival. The gelling of driver/co-driver takes some time, and we were still settling back into this after a couple of years.
TS5 Nookville was downgraded to a transport after the untimely meeting of Porsche and bank.
This lead us into the lunch-break and re-fuel at Sheffield, and then on to Harford. A bit of a wait there while the roadshow got back underway, and then a blast over the stage. This one was covered in oil dropped by something very smoky, and quite slippery. A transport to the Frankford Highway, and the start of TS6 Harford. We settled into this one and set a respectable time, even with a couple of broken cars on the stage, and a misheard call on the finish call. Interesting!

The cars cut through the back of Beaconsfield to go to Kayena. This is a fast stage along the waters edge, and we gave this a big dip. Catty had to work pretty hard with the calls in here, and tried to steer me into the river, but luckily I am "perfect", so we lived to tell the tale! Back to Beaki for a fast little town stage for some skids, and then into the Silverdome for service and Parc Ferme.

The early results have us in 4th for Rookie Modern with maybe 20 secs covering those four. And tomorrows stages hopefully will better suit the car, with the North-East stages tight and technical. The setup changes made for this event have transformed its handling, and allowed us to push much harder than before.

So a trip to Glengarry for a barbi-up with Mick and Leanne Luscombe, and it was exceptional.
A very cruisy way to wind up the day, so many, many thanks to them for the hospitality.
The trip was made with both vehicles to carry all six crew, and the ensuing horse-play on the return led Dave and I to undertake a cruel but effective con. The Cruiser, packed with Scott, Adam, Rob and Kai fired away ahead, jibing at us on the radio. So we called them up with a fake breakdown, and hid down a side road, lights off. As they sailed-by looking for us, the Transit rocketed into town, crying from laughter all the way. By the time it clicked, they were back in Exeter, and we were close to town, discovering that the room keys were not with us. So we sat outside to wait, giggling like schoolkids.
Meanwhile the boys hatched their own revenge, parked the car down the road, and performed a stealth attack to the hallway near us. Add fire-hose to this and you get the picture!!

So now we look forward to a fearful, sleepless night, one eye open for protection from more pay-back. Some guys can't take losing!!

Waldo

Day 0 - First Blood

Time to update after a very long couple of days.
Monday saw the convoy head to Legana Tyre & Auto to play on the wheel-aligner, and do some housekeeping with the Landcruiser brakes, and a new tyre on the trailer. Then into the Silverdome for Documentation, Scrutiny and "1st Timer" briefing. Illustrious fly-in co-driver, David Catt, hit the tarmac at Launy airport after 4pm, and made it in time for this, and his doco. The Subaru was positioned amongst the other 300 competitors in the Silverdome, and we hit pizzas and XBox back at the Penny Royal penthouse.

Tuesday (today) was an early start with a long briefing at 7am. This was followed by the drive to Georgetown and a sighting run around the 5km street course. This was the 1st time here, as we missed it during recce. Panda Man and I had not competed together since 2005, so there was some dialing-in to be had as well. After an extended wait in the sun while the field was regrouped, we hit the track and slipped and skipped around for a reasonable time. This stage doesn't count towards the event, only to define a running order, but it is a good guide as to your relative speed. 4th in Rookie was better than expected, but on the transport back to town, a problem raised its head. The new gearbox internals had been a little noisy under load in higher gears. Scotty put this down to the quickly-acquired 2nd-hand crown-wheel and pinion, but after the Georgetown stage, it became a very loud vibration.
After some head-scratching at the Silverdome service, the hard decision was made to pull the gearbox out. We carry a spare box, but both needed to be opened to swap the centre and front differentials over. The crownwheel attaches to the front diff, so this was swapped. This is no easy job on a tarp in a carpark, but the boys went at it with a vengeance. The deadline was 2 hrs away, and this was a very tall order.

With 2mins to go we fired up to discover a jammed selector!! Words cannot describe the next few moments, and Catty was dispatched to bargain for more time. He came back a winner, and gave the boys the breather we needed. Exhaust back off, oil out, the back of the box off, and she's all good again. The oil we use is very thick, and it alone takes about 20mins to put in, so to do it all again was a little heartbreaking. But once booked in, we were able to bolt on the various shields, etc. in the Parc Ferme area. Targa is certainly a different form of rallying, and it may take us a while to learn how to use its rules effectively, but I must praise the scrutineers who have been very helpful.

Squeezed it back into the Silverdome where the public expo was in full swing, and were reminded how loud the car is indoors. Children and old folk dived for cover!
We are now fed and fueled, and thoroughly knackered, but ready for a big day tomorrow. Hopefully we have used up the crap luck quota, and can get on with the job.
Big thanks to the crew for a monster effort today!

What makes it Quick?

Got our chance to test on Thursday arvo, after the Source workshop had cured the gearbox ills, and gave it some drivetrain again. Scotty and Rob have been busy playing with fiddly stuff too, adding an external isolation kill-switch that operates the usual dash-mounted switch from outside the car. This is to allow the battery to be manually isolated from the ignition in case of an accident or fire. Hopefully we will never use it!
Scotty hit the track to bed in the new two-piece front discs, and heat-cycle the tyres. The car looked settled, and he was able to easily reel off high 63 second laps. Back in the pits, the tyres were consistently scrubbed and at an even temperature. Out with the old pads and in with new, evened out the tyre pressures and sent him back out. Another five laps saw mid-low 63s, and Scott played with different lines to unsettle it. Back in, I pumped the pressures up to 40psi (from 35) and gave him another run. High 62, then low 62, then mid 61secs, and the car still looked at ease. I felt no need to drive it, as I was gaining more info from watching it around the track, and Scott Schumacher was making it look pretty easy.
This is the fastest time for this car so far, and on medium compound tyres, with weight in the boot. The gearbox performed fine, and the tyres and brakes are settling in OK. This is now some 2.5 secs faster around Baskerville than proir to Rally Tas, and whilst that doesn't necessarily apply directly to a rally stage, the car is infinitely easer to place on the road. So we are much more confident in its improved pace.
This weekend will be spent tidying up the little things, and loading up for Mondays drive North.
And how to make it Quick? Let the mechanic drive it!!!!!

Here Comes Targa

Quite a lot has happened since the last report, and as Targa is only a week away now, this is a good time to catch up with the teams progress.

The WRX has been back to the track to test more changes, mainly wheel alignment, ride height and pressure settings, based upon Scottys studious approach to suspension homework. With the car back at gravel height, and a little front toe, it was instantly easier to drive, and showed more even temperature across the tyre face. This allowed me to position it more freely, and as a consequence, the lap times dropped again. After several 5 lap runs, mid 62s were consistently achieved with ease, and Scotty also reported the same feel with his 5-lapper at the end. (Only a matter of time before he beats me out there, so I quietly restrict his quota of track time.) The car now feels back to its old self, and instills confidence.

Zara's work commitments have prohibited her attending Targa, and as regular co-driver Rosco Ferguson is already competing with Lightning Leigh Finlayson (as a direct combatant in Rookie Targa), an old favourite has been called upon to fill the silly seat. David Catt co-drove for the team in 2003-05 before moving to Townsville. Some say that was as far away as he could get in a hurry, but a subsequent move to murky Melbourne has put him a flying bus-trip away from the hotseat, and the calling is still strong. He gets no time to adjust back, as the recce was completed on Saturday with the venerable Rosco reading the notes, and Catty will only fly in on Monday evening before the first day of competition. The team has no qualms about his ability to cope, as he is famous for a high-fear threshold, and take-no-prisoners attitude.

Rallying was never meant to be easy though, and sure enough, some curly problems have arisen.
The preparation plan included an overhaul of the sorry gearbox, with its 4th gear issue still playing havoc. New gears, shafts, and all the other spinning metal devils were ordered via my north-western friends, and Scotty extracted the box whilst I was driving the course on Saturday. Unfortunately the new crown-wheel (installed prior to Rally Tas) came out with a detached tooth, with another similarly cracked. The considered opinion of all shown is this may have been a manufacturing problem. In the 5 gearboxes apart in the workshop, we did not possess another 4.44, and cracking open Johnnos gracious loaner (from my original car) surprised us with a 4.11. It had been a long time since we had been in that box, and much confusion had set in, so Scotty and I both cursed our crappy inability to recall this info. A quick check of the data revealed the original surely was a 4.11 to account for the extra low gear ratios.
Bugger!
A major ring-around found little until Pete O'Reilly, Subaru Guru sitting at the right-hand of Lord Brooks, sourced a matching crown-wheel and pinion in Melbourne, and has dispatched this with the night-flyers. Many thanks to all those who tried to help, including Tony Horsham, who happily offered a whole gearbox to the cause. Scotty has set about piecing the gearsets together while awaiting the bits, and I am dutifully attending to the accommodation, event requirements, and all the other little stuff that has to be done.
The team plans to test again as soon as the car hits the ground, with some adjustable rear strut-tops to be sorted, and new tyres to be heat-cycled, before the final pack-up on the weekend, and Mondays trip to sunny Launceston for Scrutiny.

In the middle of all this, we have sat out the first State Series gravel round, and watched the Orange Osmosis take a points lead for free. I write this with gritted teeth, but fully aware that you can't have it all, not yet anyway.\

See you soon,
Waldo

Lick wounds, re-evaluate and get on with the game.

With Rally Tas done and dusted and the results set in stone the Team is in full swing on our path to Targa Tasmania08. We spent the week after Rally Tas going over the results and looking at all the places were we can find improvement in the Subie's pace on the tarmac. After spending a bit of time looking at photo's and video of the car I believe that I went to far with the ride height of the car which resulted in it being to soft in the suspension causing the car to be difficult to keep set on a clean line through the corners. It also highlighted some excessive body roll making change of direction difficult in the tighter stages.

OK, time to have a good hard look at oneself!!!
I sourced some Whiteline sway bars which we fitted without any hassle. Baskerville raceway was booked for Sunday 24th Feb and under dark skies we headed out with a bag full of tools and other bits to attempt to sort the car out. The track was dry but dirty after some serious rain overnight. With a gaggle of helpers, Kai, Adam, Olivia, Rob, Streety and Breno the car was wheeled off the trailer and some pre-test checks caried out. It was my turn first and after some warm up laps I was up the thing and immediately noticed the difference from the sway bars. The car certainly sat a lot flatter through the corners but was still to soft. It was also a bit tail happy which was great fun but not good for quick times, best I could get was high 64's. Back to the pits.
Now it was Waldo's turn. It was good to watch the car from the outside and it certainly looked better especially through the last turn which is a long lefthand sweeper onto the pit straight. Dave's best time was mid to low 64's. Back to the pits.
With the car jacked up and on the stands we set about cranking the ride height back up to gravel spec's. This is done by raising the spring platform up the strut leg. Dave was sent back out and improvement was made straight away with the car able to sit better on the tyre's and not roll around anymore. It was also a lot more stable and predictable under brakes with much better weight transfer and more front end stability. Best time for five laps was now in the mid 63's. Back to the pits.
After some discussion it was confirmed that the car was much better, but we still had more to try. The car had developed some more hopping in the rear end so we set about adjusting the bump and rebound on the struts to dial some of this out. It was also tending to be a bit pushy (understeer) so a toe adjust was performed on the front. It was good to see that the tyres appeared to be operating a lot better with the whole tyre showing even wear patterns and also showing that the car was able to use them a lot more effectively as opposed to before when they showed that they were not able to direct the car effectively and were graining quite badly.
Dave was sent back out and after a further five laps the times were coming down with the best time being a 63:09s. Improvement made!!
That was enough for now and the decision was made to go away and start on the rest of the cars preparation before Targa. We have a bit to do especially in the gearbox area. Sourced a gearbox from Japanese Wholesale (Darren Windus's import business) from a late model WRX with a broken 2nd gear so we now have our gearbox case's ready for a fresh Version 5 STi RA gearset to be fitted so that Adam can have his case's back for his road car. With that caried out we will reset the suspension corner weights and re-wheelalign the car ready for a final test at the track.

So after some positive results at testing the Team is looking forward to some good results in Targa.
Cheers Head SOURCE.

All Good Things Must End - Day 3

With grey clouds greeting us this morning we were half keen for some rain on today's stages. We'd been praying for some slippery stuff in the hope that the gravel experience would see us have a bit of an advantage over the regular tarmac drivers. Gods were against us however, and the day fined up to another scorcher.

So we set off to Oldina first up. A classic Rally Tas stage - fast and flowing, but a bit shorter than previous years. We bedded in the new discs on the first transport and after checking pressures at the start, stopped to put some more air in the Yokahama boots. Without an accurate pressure gauge at the servo however, David just "put a fist-full" in each tyre, planning to adjust them down at the start of the stage. Transport time was tight and we only just made it into control in time, so we had to run what we had. Made for in interesting stage, but surprisingly we made it through unscathed and in not bad time either! A short transport and we were back at the Yolla South stage which we ran yesterday. David made a quick tyre adjustment and we were in full attack mode for a stage that we both love.

All went sensationally well until we got to THE spectator point. Allow me to paint a picture. The call for us is "Small Crest, Left 4 tightens into Turn Left 4". That is to say a blind entry to a left hander which turns into a tighter left-hander at a junction. Worked a treat yesterday, so there was no reason to suspect that maybe today it needed to be different. Anyhow ... it did. Did we go in too hard? Were the tyres playing another game? Did the rally car see gravel and just go there? To be fair, we nailed the entry to the corners ... it was the exit that proved a problem.

Coming out of the second left the back slipped out a bit. Not much ... just a bit. But then it swung back the other way, and then the right hand side of the cabin got busy. We "tank slapped" big-time down the road a-ways before turning back the way we came and proceeded down the stage backwards. Not ideal. Then we came back the right way, had another look at a fence and came to a halt. Roll start ... Left 6, 100 Chicane. Nice work. Spectators loved us, as did the media and the documentary crew that were on the spot. Nothing to show on the car for all the action ... just a bit of grass hanging off the back mudflap. Well we had to do something to get on camera! We were 14 seconds slower than the run on the previous day. hmmmm

On then to a final run through Hellyer Gorge. All fingers were crossed for a good run through and it was certainly smoother than the previous day's run. Only 1 second faster though. We then met Head Source at the remote refuel at Fingerpost before tackling the Highclere Hill Climb, then into Service. Even after the rough treatment, the service crew didn't have anything beyond their standard service procedure to work through. It's interesting to watch the different approaches to servicing at Rally Tas, and it's really easy to tell which crews are more oriented towards gravel rallying. Crews like ours and Les Walkden Rallying are all over the car as soon as it arrives. Jacked up and jackstands in often before the crew are out of the car, shortly followed by all wheels off and crews under the car checking every little thing. Then there are the others .. have a chat, kick the tyres then (maybe) throw some fuel at it.

Anyhow, 30 minutes later were were off to the second last stage of the rally. This was Hampshire - an 11 km new stage that's fast but tricky, and we both loved it. Lots of cresty stuff with superfast sections - not long enough though for the e-Home Subaru to threaten the 200km/h speed restruction. Upper Natone was the last stage of the rally. Twisty and rough, our car revelled in the conditions much more then the more delicate Porsches around us. We certainly put the ol' gravel rally sump guard to the test.

And so to the finish. An easy transport to Burnie for a brief assembly before the short journey to the Finish Arch on North Terrace. A good day topping off an excellent rally. We started today 21st and finished 19th, which suits us just fine. Scotty (aka Head Source), Rob and Adam did a sensational job preparing and maintaining the car, allowing David and I to just get on with our job of getting it down the road. Now we're back at "The Ranch" to shower, relax and make ourselves beautiful before heading off to the Presentation Dinner. Might be a big night!

Cheers, Co-driver White

Hot Work - Day 2

The day began in earnest with our early arrival at "parc ferme", the council carpark that housed the vehicles overnight. The service crew were dispatched to Waratah, and Zara and I motored out towards Wynyard to the start of the Calder stage. The gearbox fix unfortunately did not work so we were resigned to holding the gearlever when in fourth. This adds a new dimension to the workload when driving, so it takes a while to do it subconsciously. Although the tyres were cold, the first stage flowed well, and we set a top 15 time. Pretty good for an old nail! Then over to Yolla, with another fast road, and a couple of big stop chicanes. The vibrating brakes started playing havoc, but otherwise it was also quite smooth and fast.

A run down to Hellyer, and a punishing 19 km stage south was next. We had trouble finding a rythmn, just as we had done on Friday, and dropped some time to our nearest rivals. The car felt unsettled under brakes, and took an aversion to stopping. 4th gear also featured a lot, so much of the stage was driven one handed.

Off to Waratah to service the car, and the crew had set up shop in a prime spot at the sportsground. The boys had an internet link, and were watching the stage times as they happened. In fact they knew how we had fared before us! The tyres were swapped front to rear,

and the brakes bleed, and more fuel poured in. The Subaru drinks 102 octane, and is quite thirsty unfortunately. I downed an apple and a cold drink, and tried to cool down a little. The outside temperature was rising, but inside the car with nomex suit, balaclavas, gloves and helmet was stifling. Lots of fluid was the order of the day.

Then the biggest stage of the event, Savage River. This is 25kms of a mixed bag of surfaces, styles and altitude, and is an arduous and daunting test. I actually enjoy this one, and so pressed on as quick as possible. The brakes were still difficult to manage, and the tyres became a little useless in the last 6kms when they overheated. The front tyre pressure increased from 36psi at the start to 44psi at the finish, and this makes a significant difference to grip levels. Still, skids are king, so we did a few.

The provided lunch was excellent, but with little respite from the searing sun outside, it was a harsh wait for the stage to reverse so that we could race back out to Waratah. Eventually we lined up, and waited for our shot. On the start line, the nifty electronic timing units count done from 30secs, with display at 10secs, then 5 to 1. A great idea when it works, but it failed for our run, and in the ensuing confusion, we were waved off after our time, and maybe lost 5secs. Hopefully the officials will sort that out later. We had a great run back out, and slotted back into to service for another brake bleed. This time the master cylinder required quite a top-up, so we may have boiled some fluid away,. This is a fact to life when your brakes are tiny, and the job is big. More fuel, and on to Hellyer to do the rest of the morning stages in reverse. This stage worked much better this time, but the results were still not great. I feel that there are some aspects of setup that need to be worked on , and Scotty has already pointed to the sway bars as a source of improvement. The car has been tending to roll about, which works well for gravel, but not so good for tarmac.

The final two major stages were without incident, and we were again suitably quick. Next was the high-profile Burnie street stage, with the event pulling off a major coup by holding a short blast through the town centre. It was fabulous to see the size of the crowds, and after a quick fisrt run, we (I) decided to get adventurous 2nd time out. This partially worked, with some big slides, but also some ugliness attempting to turn at a couple of the 90degree corners. This is not something to do in front of crowds, and definately not in front of the crew. I did both, so will now wear their wrath for some time. Bugger!

A 2 hour service has given us time to change front brake rotors for new, and tomorrow we will try to bed them in with the old pads on the first couple of stages, before swapping to new pads.

This should be an entertaing day as a lot of the stages are new in some form.

Cheers

Waldo

Friday 15th Feb Day 1

We are under way in Rally Tasmania 2008.
After a bit of a sleep in all crew were up and at 'em ready to join the "black stuff" fraternity. The morning was spent doing some final prep to the car which involved fitting the new Yokohama boots, bleeding brakes and changing the diff oil to dial out some chatter from the KAAZ LSD by adding friction modifier to the oil. The diff chatter is usually not much of a problem on the dirt but has been a bit annoying on the tarmac. A final polish of the car and she was as ready as it was going to get.
11:15am saw us leave our northern residence for the Ceremonial start location in the city of Burnie. A section of the main strip was closed off and it was great to see all competiton vehicles in the same place at the same time, quite a spectacle.
1:30pm and off to drivers briefing. After the usual introductions it was onto business with the organising crew detailing various factors to do with the running of the rally. On a serious note we were briefed by members of the Tasmanian Police on what impact this event has on the region, especially poignant considering the numerous road fatalities in the area in the last 18 months. It was quite an awakening for all crews and it certainly left me with a greater understanding of our responsibilty to send the right messages to the general public in regards to road safety and to show that under the right circumstances and in a controlled environment we can safely participate in motorsport and also that we are very privileged to be able to compete in these events.
With briefing all sorted it was back to the start location for some banter with fellow competitors and a bit of a stir up aswell. David and Zara disappeared to suit up and at 3:45pm the first car was away. The field is lead by the Classic section with fastest first followed by the Modern's in reverse order. Our departure time was 4:26 and with the Subie disappearing to SS1 us crew gathered our stuff and headed on to the days refuel location at Fingerpost approximately 60k's South of Burnie. The Trannie crew of Rob and Adam headed straight there whilst I duct down the Highclaire hillclimb route to catch D & Z between stages 1 and 2. The big thumbs up was all I saw, PHEW!!! I was then on my way to Fingerpost to catch the boys ready for Martini juice to be added to the Subie. Before we new it she was there and it was great to see D & Z after 3 stages. Not all was rosy however with David reporting that the gearbox had a small gremlin namely jumping out of 4th gear on lift off which had created some uneasyness in the cabin. Not much we could do at this stage so they were sent on their way and the boys and myself packed up to return to Burnie for the major service before parc ferme. This gave me a good chance to think about all possibilties as to why the gearbox was playing up. After much thought I decided that rather than remove the box and spread it all over service park that it would be better to attempt an adjustment on the 3rd, 4th gear detent. A detent is a device which consists of a ball and spring which allows positive engagement of the shift rod. It also has some effect on retaining the shifted gear in its location. With a bit of a retension of the spring by adding a shim the engagement felt a lot more positive, bit of a Clayton's fix but we will see tomorrow if it was a success.
With the rest of the crew taking care of the other service requirements we were all done with 20mins to spare of service time. Onto the final refuel for the day before tomorrow's early start.
After a quick pack up Adam and Rob were sent on food duties and David, Zara and I went around to event HQ to await the next days start time. With the time in hand we left Burnie to head back south to ou wonderful retreat for the evening.
Our allocated start time had us in 26th outright (provisional), not bad but we are all looking forward to tomorrow stages including the legendary Savage River sections. On analysis of the days times it was discovered that D & Z had not had a stella run in Hellyer short dropping some extra time. This was put down to just needing a bit more time to really get a feel for the car and to dial out some dirt habits. From my perspective it ain't to bad considering how difficult it must be spend all day waiting for the event to start in the afternoon when you are used to being ready to go early in the morning as is the case with our gravel rallies. Tomorrow is a new day and should feel more normal to David and hopefully he and Zara can gel really well and find a good sustainable rhythm for the rest of the event.
One more thing sorry for the delay in this post but I am currently roaming the yard to find the best internet service to make this happen, very difficult to type and walk!!
Cheers all
Head SOURCE

Sticky Moments

Thursday was a fairly lazy day, with the car due at scrutiny around 11.30am. Scott and I headed to Total Alarm Services to get a couple of spare keys cut, replacing some missing in action. Derrin kindly whipped those up quickly, and after a quick carwash, we proceeded to the underground carpark for Pre-event scrutiny. (Subarus are very loud in confined spaces!) This is usually held to check for basic safety compliance (helmet and apparel), as a pre-start safety check had already been completed in Hobart earlier in the week. We passed OK, but were asked to reduce the size of our top of windscreen sticker strip. A 120mm rule was quoted, and whilst it didnt't sound correct, we duly headed off to a signwriter to get it changed. Much thanks to Todd Rogers Signs for dropping everything to help us out. An run up and down the highway to a pre-determined distance allowed the terretrip distance meter to be calibrated. That is once Scott and I remembered how to set it #@$^$!!
Back at the ranch, Zara was busily finishing her notes and roadbook, and on return we checked the sticker ruling, to find that we may have been right all along.
With nothing to do but wait for Adam and Rob to arrive in the service bus, there were "nanna naps" all round, until Ross Ferguson and his driver Terry Warren dropped in for an ale on their return from recce. I ran out of things to clean and tidy, and Scotty cooked up a storming pasta for tea.
The transit cut a path from Hobart to arrive at 10.45pm, and we unwound the boys with hot cuppas and pizza remnants. Then off to bed were I (alledgedly) snored all night, causing unrest amongst the masses. Adam departed to the downstairs couch, but I have my own theories on his reasoning.
We are all now up and about on Friday, and ready to do a tyre change for the new Yokohamas. We also have a diff oil change to do, and then get the car to the staging area where the public can view the field. The event starts proper this afternoon with four stages, the first of which is untimed. This idea gives competitors the chance to warm up without the initial pressure of timing, and is a top feature of this event.
Now to get into it!

Another Day in Paradise

Today Zara and I headed out early to cover some stages close by, passing by Guide Falls (stopped for a look later on), and heading through Tewkesbury and on to Talunah. These are great stages, and quite fast. This event is using several methods to calm the average speed of competitors, one of which is the old favourite of chicanes on fast straight sections. Whilst I am not a great supporter of this, it is an apparently necessary evil if we are to stay safer and socially acceptable. Most of the stages have at least one chicane, and the ability to negotiate these cleanly without impact will be a big part of a successful and penalty-free run.
We then headed to Hampshire and Upper Natone, and these are pretty exciting roads. Targa has shared some of these with Rally Tas for several years, but this is the first time competing here for us, so we are looking forward to slapping this road.
Meanwhile, Scotty dragged the Cruiser and trailered WRX to Legana, and spent the day fettling the car on the wheel-aligner. The new tyres were fitted up and after much (aledgedly) involved discussion about the correct angles to point everything, it was finished, and re-loaded for the continued trip to Burnie.
Back in the North-west, we dodged and weaved around the animals, other competitors, trucks, and the wildest of all, the locals, until late afternoon, when we ran out of things to check. A pitstop for dinner was quickly organised with the illustrious Craig Brooks, my northern gravel nemesis, and one of the many clerks of course for the event. Afterthe usual friendly banter, and a trip to the Vandenburg garage to oggle their very fast EVO9, Scottys roadtrain arrived with a very tired mechanic at the wheel.
We are now tucked up at Ridgley for the night, with Vehicle Scrutiny to deal with tommorow. With 60+ competitors, I am hoping for a smooth, swift and painless passage through this!

West Coast Wanderings

Zara and I found our way to Burnie and checked into Rally HQ to collect roadbooks, and register for recconaisance. A trip to Oldina, Yolla and Calder stages to write pacenotes was next, and the countryside was picturesque as always. A little refresher run with our old notes, and we were away. After a few hours of noting, we retired to our accommodation for the week, the fabulous Hide-away Cottage at Ridgley. A beautiful spot in the country with all amenities provided by our most accommodating hosts. The crew are going to love this place!
Tuesday morning started with an early run south to Hellyer Gorge to start noting again. My enthusiasm with Zaras car earning me some penalty points for her personal "Bad David" tally. She has devised a scheme to keep me in check during recce, and this has been only partially successful. Unfortunately with a couple of days left, I do not have much room for error, and may have to behave.
Savage River was predictably wet and dry, and grippy and slippery, and full of big trucks (they win) but lunch at Waratah was very cruisy. The trip back up Hellyer was punctuated with many tourist vans and campers, but the notes flowed well.
Back to HQ to do our documentation check, and to generally annoy the jovial officials, and then a quick call to Scotty at Source Automotive to get an update on the car. All Good was the report, with the car well sorted, with its new gearbox housing firmly contained in the car, and everything working as it should. The van is packed, and the crew is pumped for the trip!
Scott will tow the Subie to Legana Tyre & Automotive tomorrow, and spend a few hours pointing the wheels in the right direction with the tyre god, Mick Luscombe. Mick is a past Tassie state champion, current state event checker, president of the Motorsports Club of Tasmania, nutter trials bike rider, and general motorsport know-all, and therefore the teams car never attends a rally without being "Godwadded" at LTA. He and his "boss" Leanne, are an integral part of the DWR package, and have helped make the step from crasher to contender.
Tomorrow will be another day of noting, so an early barbi tea, and some subtle alcohol intake are next in line. He he!

There's Always One Thing!!

Things were going far too smoothly for the team on Sunday. After a couple of minor tweeks, Scotty attempted to back the car out of the workshop, only to search furiously for reverse gear to no avail. The quick diagnosis had the reverse switch screwed in too far, and with time passing, we decided to take the car to the track anyway, and solve it later.
Baskerville racetrack was hot and slippery, and a warm up run of 5 laps was done to get everything up to temperature, and Zara settled in her seat. The car was a handful, with some very 2nd hand tyres, wheels pointed where-ever, and about 120kg more weight than last time here (co-driver, spare tyre, tools and full tank). After a couple of big angles, the crew set about making some changes to the rebound settings on the Drummond 50mm struts. Another 5 laps and things were better. Same again, and some pressure changes, and we were getting a better car. Another quick run, and we decided that was the best we could get without a full wheel alignment.
So back to the workshop, and I scarpered home to pack, and regain some brownie points with the family. Unfortunately for the guys, they were in for a long night!!
After careful checking, it appeared that the original prognosis was wrong, and the gearbox had to come back out. Once out, Scotty found an issue with the housing that had not shown up as it went together. A number of hours of cursing the gods, and much nashing of teeth, and the realisation that the housing had to be changed sunk in!
In a classic case of making good out of bad, Adam, one of our tireless crew had a gearbox drama with his own roadcar on Friday, and was already sulking from the iminent cost of a rebuild. His casing is the one we needed, so a decision was made to pull his out and swap all the internals for the rallycar. (This may be something he will regret later, but he has taken one for the team! Cheers)
Plans for our travel to Burnie changed a little with this news, and my Cruiser was seconded to Scott for tow duty on Wednesday, leaving Zara and I to travel north for recce in her Mazda 3.
The rest of the boys will travel up with the service gear in the mighty Transit on Friday.
Now to Recce!

Under The Pump

With the days numbered before heading North for recce, the team has been working furiously to complete the car preparations. First there was a gearbox to fit back in its hole, then a refit of the rebuilt struts, brakes and driveshafts, and exhaust and sump-guard. We decided to refit the mudflaps, as this is a rallycar and thats how it should look! Zara needed a seat placement adjustment, and date-complying belts had to be fitted. Corner weights were done, and the front to rear, and left to right balance sorted. The intercom was re-routed, and a rough camber setting and brake-bleed done. PHEW!

Andrew Morris from Signworks showed up with lots of stickers, and set to task making the WRX look battle-ready.

Tomorrow, after a couple of little tidy-ups, we will go out to Baskerville Raceway, and have a shakedown run to see if anything falls off. Then it will be on the trailer ready to head to Legana Tyres & More on Monday, for Mick Luscombe to do his alignment magic, and slap on the new Yokohama boots. So far, so good.

Last minute maintenance!!

Boy doesn't time fly, 16 days to the start of Rally Tas. Progress on the car is now well under way with a new crown wheel and pinion having just arrived to replace the unit that exited stage left (literally, smashing the g'box case in the process) during Auspine rally 07. Along with a stack of new bearings and a rebuilt front KAAZ diff the gearbox should be in the car by the end of the week. We also have to replace all wheel bearings, rebuild the brake calipers and clean and repack the suspension strut legs. We will then be performing the necessary suspension set up changes which will involve changing the ride height and then balancing the corner weights with crew onboard, then onto reseting the struts for damping and rebound to dial out suspension bounce/hop which we experienced on our last track outing.
Once the general maintenance and set-up changes have been completed we will be onto the last fiddly bits before the event. We hope to be able to re-install the intercooler water spray system which we have not run on the car for a while. Then we are onto the final touches like co-driver seating position and fitting new harness belts. We have also got to remake the camera mount to suit the tarmac rally specs.
Thanks to Rob Honey of Reflection Panels the car has been resprayed below the door centre line to cover a seasons worth of stone chips from the gravel. With some new signwriting and a fresh set of wheels and tyres the ol' gravel pig should be in a very presentable condition.
I must say that I am very much looking forward to this event. It has been a number of years since I attended Rally Tas (with Andrew Murfett in the GTi-R Pulsar) and with some unfinished business with DWR we all hope for a reasonable result but more importantly to gather some data so we can ensure the car is spot on for Targa Tasmania 08.
Thanks all, talk soon Scott
Head SOURCE

There's more to this than racing the clock !

Hi all, Zara here.
Yes, David's finally talked me into climbing into a rally car with him again. So as co-driver I've been frantically sorting out the logistics of getting the car and crew up to Burnie in time for the start of proceedings.

People don't usually associate mountains of paperwork with rallying, but believe me I've been filling a heap of forms ... strangely enough mostly with the same information, but whatever keeps the event happy !

Accommodation has been sorted. It's been a bit of a moveable feast with trying to plan when we need to be there and who needs to be there on what day. I think I've nearly got it close - at least everyone's got a bed at the end of the day.

Finalising the recce schedule has been a major part of determining when David and I need to go up. That took many hours of studying maps and the event itinerary and putting the two together with my general knowledge of the area. Fortunately I've been over this event many times, so it's not as tricky as it could be. I wouldn't like to be a brand new competitor doing this - the event's keeping the actual course pretty close to their chests in an attempt to stop competitors going over the course and annoying the locals. They've restricted recce so you can't start until Saturday 9th Feb and the last day is Thursday 14th.

We're writing our own notes and doing a couple of check runs so it will take around 3 days to do it properly without spending all day, everyday in the car.

All I've got to do now is keep an eye on the event info to make sure that I'm up to date with any changes or updates.

Oh ... and get fitted into the car to make sure I can reach the footrest and the seat is in the right position etc. Scotty's got that pencilled in to be done once the rest of the car is back together ... probably the week before we head up.

Stay safe ...

Influenced by the DARK SIDE

Team DWR has stepped over the line, to the grippy black stuff, for a change of scene. It's been eight years since we last competed in a tarmac rally, and aside from some club-work at Baskerville racetrack, and a very entertaining hillclimb at Collinsvale, the Subaru has not seen a bitumen special stage.

The car is currently sitting on stands in my shed, sans gearbox. The broken cog-swopper needs a new casing and a few bits after the front crown-wheel tried to elope with the pinion during the final state round last year. The last 10 kms of that stage were completed in random-wheel-drive. Got my attention!!

Team chief Scotty is dropping the ride height, and playing wheel angles, but otherwise the car will compete as a PRC car, with its restrictor in, and 15" wheels, and little brakes, etc. This will leave us at a bit of a disadvantage for power and stopping, but we figure if we don't try to slow down too much, it won't be a problem!

The rally-seasoned Zara has been coaxed (bribed, backmailed) to call notes. This has only taken me eight years to pull off. So we will spend the next few weeks playing in the sheds, before journeying north to Burnie to recce the roads.

Will keep you posted.

DWR go live!

Coming soon, words of wisdom from David & Zara live from Rally Tasmania. Might even be a few pics as well!!!

Here's some incar from the 2007 Tas Rally Series to start with :-