Since the end of last season my racing activities have been more like a series of Wheeler Dealers and not much racing, well none at all in fact!
The first to go was my Subaru Impreza WRX, a completely standard blobeye model in a rare metallic green and it really was an excellent example. I never got on with the handling though; it always felt nervous and snappy with no feedback through the steering. The road noise was intrusive as well and in the end I thought I’d see if it would sell and put I up for sale along with our long-term tow car; the Jeep Grand Cherokee. There was little interest in the Scoobie so I decided to get rid of the Jeep and put it on the Bay of Temptation. Typically, a couple of days after it was listed I had one enquiry on the Scoobie and the guy bought it there and then! So then there was just one vehicle left that I could use…my VW Camper that was away being painted after it’s 12 month bodywork restoration.
I chased the camper up and got a garage to put it through the MOT, no mean feat when it required nearly £2k of parts to get it through….ouch! It was a few days before Xmas during the severe cold that I travelled to Kettering to collect the van. It was an interesting drive back up as the prat that sprayed the van hadn’t refitted the door seals, window seals or retaining trim. It was the coldest, noisiest trip up the M1 I have ever experienced! For the next few months any spare time was spent putting the van back to some kind of order and it turned in to a real time vampire, not to mention a money pit!
The first race car to go was the Formula Vee Mk2 that I raced at the end of last year. It was a well sorted car with a strong engine but it was a bit tired and I wanted to improve the aerodynamics and induction system. Around the same time another Mk2 came up for sale that had all the improvements done to it and was in much better condition. So I put the car up for sale with the intention of moving in to this other Mk2. I received a lot of interest from Europe and the car eventually went to a very nice chap in Belgium.
The next car to go was my long-term project, the Peugeot 106 Rallycross Stock Hatch car that has been on the go for the last 10 years! It was eventually finished to a very high standard and was a superb car. I never got the chance to try it as I didn’t want to risk pranging it so it was sold for a ridiculously low price to Sean Smith, completely untested and he is due to race it in this year’s championship.
By this stage the campervan was nearing completion and by using it as a daily driver I managed to get the reliability and driveability to a satisfactory level. The camper really needed a new interior to complete it but by this stage it had already cost me far too much money so I decided to cut my losses and run before it cost me even more money. I had loads of interest in the van and it has now found a new home in Weston Super Mare.
The Bay of Temptation struck again and I soon became the proud owner of a Rally Opel Manta with red top XE engine, quaife 4 speed straight cut box and LSD rear axle. It was a potent bit of kit and I had grand plans of restoring it back to its former glory.
Reality soon hit home after the birth of number two son, Harvey, born on 18th May. Since then I haven’t seen the inside of my garage or a spanner! All plans of car restoration and racing weekends soon went out the window and the acceptance that this won’t be on the cards for the next few years.
So next up on the forecourt was the second Formula Vee Mk2 Scarab. Again the enquiries were from overseas and this time it went to Portugal. Second up, and with much regret, was the Opel Manta. Much like the camper I could see this being a money pit if I didn’t carry out the work and there was no chance of this so to avoid the temptation it too had to go. Because of the condition of the car I decided to sell it to a rally specialist to avoid the countless questions about the car. It now lives at Fuzznagg rally in Hull; Gavin is a really nice bloke and I can highly recommend them.
In between all this was a flight to Scotland to collect my current daily driver, a Mitsubishi Pajero, and a car trailer. There was also the purchase and sale of no fewer than 5 car trailers too!
There is still one more car left to sell, a Fiesta RS Turbo, and no doubt there will be a race car of some description back on the drive soon.
So it has been busy behind the scenes but not much happening on track. I will try to rectify
