Matt Endean Rallying

Final post

2012-10-31T16:28:00.001Z

As many of you will already know, I have sold my rally car.

Trying to maintain, use and run two rally cars in the family is becoming to costly in terms of both money and time. So the sad decision has been taken to sell the car, and she has gone to a fellow endurance rally driver, and the car will continue to be used for lots of events.

So this will be the final post of this blog, i will be starting a new blog for the next venture in rallying which is running the Micra which i will be sharing with my wife Suze, and we will be sharing the driving & navving duties on stage events. There will be a new blog for what i have coined '#ProjectMicra' and this will follow the cars development from an endurance/stage spec car to a much higher Grp A stage spec car.

You can follow all the action at www.mattendean.co.uk. The new blog will be live soon, hopefully before my first stage rally driving the Micra on the Carfax stages.

At last.....

2012-07-11T09:31:00.004Z

At last a decent result and a decent handling car....

Last weekend was the 7Oaks MC Autosolo at North Weald with new organisers running the event, the tests looked different and harder at first. However once out on to them they followed well and the day ran very smoothly, even if the rain was incredibly heavy at times.

Many many thanks to the marshals and organisers for getting wet on our behalf :)

After a making a few small changes to the shocker settings, the rally car is now finally not understeering even in monsoon conditions and has a nice bit of lift-off oversteer. Just the way it should be. The loss of the rear ARB had caused a real in-balance in the car, which required a bit of thinking to remove. But with the handling sorted, it then allowed me to worry less about what the car was doing and think more about my driving :)

This resulted in me finising second overall and taking first in class by quite a big margin. Throughout the day it was good to be battling with other top crews trading times throughout the day.

On-board videos from the day will follow soon.

Gymkhana Fun

2012-07-02T17:23:00.003Z

It turned out to be a mixed day at Chelmsford motor club's gymkhana at MoD Woodbridge. It was good to be back out at Woodbridge and the test were well designed, especially the long final test. However i ruined a good result (10th overall & 2nd in class) by going the wrong side of just one cone. This dropped me to 18th overall & 4th in class, but the rules are the same for everyone, and it was my fault..... Still it was a good fun day, and I had good fun navving for Suze who double drove the Rover rally car, Suze enjoyed the fact that the rally car now hads a very effective handbrake, so we spent a lot of time going sideways! Next Sunday is the 7Oaks autosolo at North Weald airfield, again the Rover rally car is being double driven.

Events in July

2012-06-22T11:30:00.002Z

The begining of July is shaping up to be busy for events, as we are entered to double drive the Rover ally car in both Chelmsford MC's Gymkhana at MoD Woodbridge and Sevenoaks MC's Autosolo at North Weald airfield.

However before those events, the rally car needs a boit of tlc, as the alternator has stopped working. I think it is due to the wiring for the alternator has become fried due to being located close to the exhaust manifold. Although I am not writing off the fact that the alternator could also be be at fault too. So this weekend will see me out (in the rain probably) re-wiring the alternator......

Karting & Car 00 Duties

2012-06-22T11:30:00.000Z

Last weekend was rather hectic, with a 2 hour endurance kart race, which was through a Vodafone VIP event competition.

We started the team event (4 drivers, ended up being 3 for the race) on pole, with my lap time being the fastest. This meant that I started the race following the pace kart waiting for the green flag to drop, which was waved by Gary Paffett who is the McLaren F1 test driver who was present to do PR duties.

By the end of the event we were 4 laps down from the winners in 2nd place overall, and although we lost a lap or two from a snapped throttle cable, i suspect we wouldn't have been able to match the pace of the winning team who were very consistent throughout the race.

2nd Place Trophy & signed cap

Then it was a dash of to Norwich for Chelmsford MC's East Anglian Classic rally, an event I used to be Clerk of the Course of. So it was good to be back out and involved with the event. I was driving Car 00 which opens the courses and gets to 'check' all the tests and bogy times. Which in reallity means driving the route and having a play on the tests. This was a great day out, luckily the event stayed dry and there were some great tests. This picture shows one of the more gravely events, and my road car being thrown sideways. I was running in the road car, as the rally car's alternator failed just before the event.... :(

Is Ted to blame.... ?

2012-06-02T16:33:00.002Z

During a visit to my Mum's and sorting through the loft, I came across Ted, my childhood teddy bear. Being a sometimes sentimental sort, it seemed harsh to put him back up in the cold loft. So he came home with us, and I thought he would make an ideal rallying mascot, and he fits fine into a drink bottle holder keeping him secure.

However, since bringing Ted along for the ride, luck has seemed to elude me on events, so for the next event (Chelmsford MC - Debden Gymkhana) I think Ted will being staying at home to test whether or not Ted really is to blame.....

In other event news, this month I will be taking part in a 2 hour endurance race, at MK Daytona Circuit, and then the following day I have been asked to run as course opening car on Chelmsford MC's East Anglian Classic. This is an event on which I have been Clerk of the Course before, so it will be good to get back out on this event and catch up with people.

Silverstone Autosolo

2012-05-28T15:51:00.002Z

Sorry for the delay in posting about the Silverstone Autosolo, last week was very manic at work and with having to write a 3,300 word essay for my OU MA Course. So back to cars....

After driving the rally car to work on the previous Friday, I used the drive to/from work to adjust and set-up the handbrake, and managed to get it working perfectly, so that it had a little bit of movement and yet it worked very effectively.

However the downside of this became clear on the day, it has been ages since I have had a working and effective handbrake.... So on the first tests I was enjoying using the handbrake a bit too much and although it felt good, the times were slow. After a bit of effort to tidy things up a bit by lunch, I was lying 7th in class and behind father-in-law Andrew.

However just after lunch, saw my best man Dave Leadbetter roll his car, and although he was a little shaken and sore he escaped any real injuries luckily. However running over to see how he was and then helping clear away the damaged car seemed to play on my mind. As when I lined up to drive the third set of tests my mnd went blank even though i had read the map and walked the course.... This led to a wrong test, reversing to get the right route and a cone on that set of tests. This ruined any chance of a decent result. So on to the final set of tests, I went out with the intention of having fun and being as sideways as you can get a FWD Rover 200! This didn't help with the overall result, but was great fun. In the end I finished 34th overall & 10th in class.

Resullts : http://www.oxfordmotorclub.co.uk/autosolo/

Here is a video of one the more sideways tests...

Silverstone

2012-05-18T19:54:00.000Z

Sunday it is the Oxford MC Autosolo at Silverstone, the last time we were there in 2009 there was heavy rain all day, given the recent weather I'm hoping the weather will be kinder this time !

The entry is full with 60+ entries :-
http://www.oxfordmotorclub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Web-entry-list-May-12.pdf

Service Kit

2012-05-12T18:42:00.000Z

Over the past few years the service kit which is carried to events in a variety of old boxes, has slowly grown in size and accumulated a lot of old rubbish.

So I had a good sort out, and organised the kit into a more logical system, and a full log of where everything is.

After a recent visit the Gratnells factory to discuss some work projects, I got talking to Murray the boss who is a fellow Motorsport fan and he very kindly donated the new boxes to us, so since they are all matching they can stack up and they are much stronger than previous boxes which even had holes in them, and held together with tape....

A bit of TLC

2012-05-04T17:24:00.003Z

It was time to give the old girl a bit of TLC and get the handbrake sorted for the upcoming autotest/solo, as the handbrake wasn't working well at all....

So a recent trip to the Rover Centre of St. Albans for Owen Turner to replace the handbrake cables and set-up the rear brakes, not too hard a job, but I have never been able to work on drum brakes so i leave those jobs to others...

However it turned into a bigger job.....

Due to the rear drums being very worn, and the fact that the rear beam was already bent, it made sense to replace the rear beam with a 2nd hand one, with good brake parts, decent cables (saved the cost of new h/brake cables) and a new wheel bearing.

Whilst the car was on the ramp a few other little jobs were done as well, so the grand sum of work done was...

- 2nd hand rear beam fitted, complete with decent cables
- Rear brakes set-up
- Fix fuel tank mounts, after the dent from the Exmoor Rally
- Replace the bottom bush in the NSR shock
- Fit a 2nd hand diesel exhaust mid-section, which has no centre silencer.
- Bled all brakes, with new fluid

All in all although more expensive than I bargained for, it is good to get some of the 'to-do' list.

As you can see in the picture the exhaust needed replacing, due to it being almost half its diameter this is from to damage from recent rough events.

VK Rally Pictures

2012-04-29T13:09:00.000Z

A lovely long exposure shot on a muddy white

Second lap of the test at Chez Perez - en route to =10th fastest

Same corner as the first picture, showing just how muddy it was.

Catching up.....

2012-04-28T20:16:00.000Z

Well it has been as while since i last blogged, but things have been busy in the last few weeks...

At the beginning of April we had the VK Rally held up north in Derbyshire based in Chesterfield

I met Elliot my nav for the night in Milton Keynes on the way up, and we headed to the start and after the usual noise and scrutineering, we had dinner which could be best described as 'basic but filling' at the start - Robinsons of Chesterfield.

After some food and waiting around and catching up with people, we got the pre-plot info and Elliott got to work plotting the route, and got everything needed to get us to petrol.

We then headed to the first part of the event, which was a 2.4 mile test around the stately home and woods of event sponsor Steve Perez (VK Drinks) - this was a real wake up call and a real blast with a lot of mud and very slippery in places. We managed to set an equal 10th fastest in here, beating many more powerful cars and took the top 1400cc time, even with a horrid noise caused by the bonnet prop wedging its self between the sumpguard and the OSF wheel. This cost a few seconds.

The rest of the first half of the event was going well and getting in to the swing of things, however we lost time getting a bit lost, so we cut to petrol to give us plotting time.

Full of fuel we headed back out and had a really good thrash on some very good and fast lanes, and whites one of which you can see in this ace new back ground picture from Andy Manston of M&H Photography (scroll down to the bottom of the page see the full picture)

However we ran out plotted route, and with time being tight we decided to cut to the finish to a) get our breakfast and b) ensure a finish by being within OTL.

A very very well run event, making very clever use of the rules to provide a very competitive event. We achieved our aims (if not the result) of a finish, having fun, and having a damn good thrash in the lanes.

At this point i want to say thanks to Elliott who is a young and up coming Stage and Road Rally navigator, who did a great job of coping with my driving and i'm sure you will see him rising the ranks on stage events in the future.

In May there are a couple of events planned, a small grass autotest run by Thame Motorsport Club in a local field, and Oxford MC is running their first Autosolo at Silverstone.

Found.....

2012-03-08T11:04:00.001Z

By the powers of the internet I have found a navigator for the VK Road Rally.

Elliott Edmondson - a young and up and coming navigator in road and stage events has agreed to do the event with me.

The entry list for the event has filled up in record time, with plenty of reserves within days of the entries being open.

I have now ordered up some knobblies from e-bay, as Derbyshire is known for its whites and rough lanes, so hopefully these part-worn Michelin's will be up to the job.

VK - Wanted....

2012-03-04T17:45:00.000Z

After chatting to Sasha at the BWRDC awards yesterday held at thw BRDC clubhouse at Silverstone, and hearing about the VK rally, i have put in an entry managing to grab the last entry spot.

So i'm on the look out for a nav, anyone who is willing get in touch (use facebook, or the rally forums at the moment - as my e-mail is down at the moment).

At work at Goodwood

2012-02-26T13:07:00.001Z

Here is a pic of us at Goodwood showing us both a work.....

Practical Performance Car - Magazine

2012-02-22T17:15:00.000Z

As you may have picked in previous posts, my rally car was featured in PPC (Practical Performance Car) magazine last month. It was part of the Dave Walker (CCC & Emerald ECU fame) section. He featured the car, and how the rolling road / mapping session at Emerald went last year.

Here is the short article and pictures of the car in the magazine.

For more about the magazine see http://ppcmag.co.uk/

Video - See how wet it was !

2012-02-19T11:41:00.000Z

Rainy Coombe

2012-02-18T21:51:00.001Z

Well it was certainly wet today and at times not much warmer than last weekend !

This was to be my first autosolo which is part of the CMSG (Cotswold MotorSport Group) championship, plus it was the first event driving for me since the end of November last year !

The day started off well - although there wasn't a lot of grip around, but the weather although windy was dry and a dry line was appearing. However after our marshalling slot the weather changed and the rain came in and it was heavy !

This didn't help with the grip levels and at lunch i was well down the order and lying behind Andrew (father in law) and plenty of others in 19th overall.

After lunch the rain continued on the 3rd test, but luckily on the final test the sun came out and the rain stopped. During the day I slowly got my mind around the tests and back into competitive driving.

For the final runs of the last test i was nearly 4 seconds adrift from Andrew and thought there wasn't much chance of catching him up. However after a couple of slower runs for him, i knew i had made up about 2 seconds on him, so it was all down to the final run of the final test. It had to be quicker than him, luckily although it was slightly slower than my 2nd run (you get 3 runs at each test) I had made up more than enough time to take a class place from Andrew and win the 'inter-family challenge'

At the end of the event I was 11th overall and 5th in class - not too bad from 45 entries.

Full results can be seen here

Videos from the day will be up on YouTube and here soon.

A picture from the middle of the day - showing how wet it was is available here :-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scott_boulton/6905154031/in/set-72157629390838483

Sunny Goodwood

2012-02-13T13:58:00.002Z

Although the temperature never really got much above 0'c the sun along with clear skies made it feel a lot warmer than it really was at times.

We had a good run and finished 32nd overall and 6th in class.

Suze drove well and got her confidence back after the little 'moment' at Longmoor last time out. The Micra behaved it self and performed well all day.

The fast and flowing stages suited Suze's neat and tidy driving style well and she did well to pull back nearly a minute to take 6th in class on the last two stages. Obviously doing road rallies in the dark does help !

It was good to do a 'real' night stage this year, often on events you get to run in dusk to almost dark, but not fully dark. It was great to get to do a fully dark stage, and you can see this stage in my previous post. There are videos from the whole day on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/SuzeEndeanRallying

For more photo's see http://www.mandh-photography.co.uk/events/south12/index.htm
Copyright M&H Photography

Goodwood Stages 2012 - Night Stage Video

2012-02-13T12:00:00.000Z

Glorious Goodwood

2012-02-09T11:52:00.001Z

Well hopefully it will be a bit warmer than that last few weeks

We are now all set for Goodwood, i will be out again navving for Suze in the Micra, at the Southdown Stage Rally at Goodwood - which provides a high speed challenge and very different to the tight and twisty stages at Longmoor.

The Micra has been making good use of the newly kitted out garage, having a new wishbone fitted (see Longmoor entry) oil & filter change, some shell bracing around the wishbone mounts, new thicker front ARB, and new engine mounts. This was done last weekend with the tracking being sorted this week the car is now all back running and handling very nicely with the new ARB :)

Video cameras are allowed at this venue - so hopefully I will have some on-board video up soon after the event.

The weekend after Goodwood we are both entered for a Autosolo at Castle Coombe - this will be the first round of the CMSG Championship. I will be driving the Rover Rally car at this hopefully. Before that there are a few jobs to be done.... :-

- Remove sump-guard
- Remove spots
- Change engine oil & filter + gearbox oil
- Fit new ducting and air-filter (clean K&N air-filters)
- Fit new tyres to the front & scrub in - Yokohama A539's 185/50 R14
- Fit new front strut top mounts and check condition of all front suspension mounts / joints
- Check tracking
- Adjust engine map 1 to give a slightly higher rev limit - 7250k

So plenty to do before then !

Garage news...

2012-01-10T22:24:00.005Z

Three posts in one night !

Recently i have been working on getting my garage sorted. Its almost there now. Just got about a dozen or so boxes to unload / put in the loft / sort / take to the tip...... But with new lighting, shelfing, and tool boxes - i should be organised for at least a few days !

Sorting through all my tools, i never knew i had so many sockets - sad but true....

First bit of motorsport will hopefully be at Daytona Karting at Milton Keynes this week as a good way to celebrate getting yet another year older.

Final news for the night is that i'm on the search for a copy of Practical Performance Car, as the Dave Walker (of CCC & Emerald ECU fame) wrote about my rally car when i had it mapped at Emerald last year. Anyone got a copy ?

Longmoor

2012-01-10T22:15:00.001Z

In between the excesses of food and drink of christmas and new year a small stage rally at Longmoor camp is run, and provides a great day out to a) have a play and b) get away from all the festivities.

We (Suze driving the Micra) were entered and drove down early that morning, making good time to get there for 7.30am. Scrutineering was easy and at noise they wanted us to be louder (we only made 81dB !). Longmoor only gets used once a year, as it is an active MoD base so photo's are hard to come by. But this also means the roads are very slippery, the first two stages were just that very slippery. Suze did well to hold on to many slides and as the stages progressed we were improving in speed. By the 4th stage of the day the course was drying out and Suze was finding her feet with more speed and aggression behind the wheel.

However during lunch the rain came back, and so did the lack of grip. This lead to a moment on the last corner of stage 5 where we ran wide and hit a curb. It pushed the OSF wheel back into wheel arch. We limped across the finish line, but the damage was done.

Luckily we managed to bend the OSF wishbone back to almost where Nissan intended it to be, due to hard work of many people who helped out from the service park. This was helpful as we had driven the car to the event and needed to drive it back..... So a DNF to finish the year, which was annoying as Suze was really beginning to find her speed. Lets hope 2012 fairs better :)

Thanks to RallyOnline for the picture - see here for more http://www.rallygallery.com/2011_LOCO.aspx?Page=51

2011 Review

2012-01-10T22:01:00.002Z

Obviously taking the CMC Gymkhana Championship ranks as the rallying highlight, as does finishing 5th O/A on the Britvic.
Lows...... dropping from 4th to 9th o/a on the Bustard due to one marshal..... other events have always ended up feeling like a case of what if i.e the 20/20, Bustard, Bullnose come to mind errors on my part on the Bullnose cost us at least two places.... :(

The Rover has done well though, with class wins - although time (and my driving) is taking its toll. After 5 seasons of events - it does look a bit battered now ! But with the new Emerald ECU and a diet it seems to be going better than ever. Just need to re-build the front suspension atm.....

Thanks to my navs for their hard work, patience and telling me where to go.

Best events for me as a driver were Goodwood; a good battle for 4th in class and some very high speed driving, the Gaydon autotest and the last Gymkhana - i think it was the best i drove all year, that and the afternoon tests of the July 7Oaks autosolo when fighting hard for a class win.

As a nav Woodbridge stages sat with Suze on her first stage rally - a great first stage rally and the CSMA 12 car where we finished far higher than i expected!

Not sure what 2012 will hold events wise, a move to doing the local Autosolo championship, more navving for Suze on stages events in the Micra and a few other bits and pieces.

Quiet but busy times......

2011-12-17T18:27:00.001Z

Its been a bit quiet recently event wise since the 20/20 road rally.

Mostly due to spending time finally getting the garage in our new house sorted, as it was converted to a part study / part store by the house's previous owners. So there has been lots of removing walls, painting etc... and I still have shelves and lights to install before unpacking all of my garage stuff (read mostly horded junk....).

There is still one event left to do this year - where I am navving for Suze in the Micra on Longmoor Loco stages between Christmas and near year. Based at an active army training camp it is a great way to get out during the festive period and have some competitive motorsport fun.

However once the garage has been finished the Rover rally car will be one of the first things to be worked on in there - as the front suspension strut top mounts have collapsed and I suspect the ball joints in the lower wishbones may be worn too. So the front suspension will be stripped down to be re-built.