Crazy Dave
01-08-2011, 09:14 PM
We had a blast, great event, great roads, well run. Unfortunately Kris may be looking for a new shell after certain sides of the car that don't have wheels coming in contact with the ground.
After coming second in the under 1600cc class of the Austrlaian 2wd Rally Masters at Forbes, we decided that the poor little excel was close enough to being competitive to warrant a little help so prior to the event, we swapped motors out. Installed an engine with some mild porting, a little more compresion, reground cams, a twin throttle body set up and 4-1 extractors. And it looks like it helped. The car felt like it was pulling to rev limiter in third much quicker than before and even slightly pulling up hills :wtf:.
Anyway, we had our competition in our sights (a sprinter with a 4AGE etc) and we managed to get him on the first stage by 22 seconds, but we did have a few issues in their, especially to note the accelerator sticking open (2nd throttle body binding up as it got warm) and hence no back off in power as you come into corners plus no brake boosting as no vacuum from throttle still open) :eek:.
Next few stages were very even and then came the issues as we went into the night stages. Started by losing the oil filler cap and then about an hour of time before we fitted a commodore one and got back out there. Then we had trouble selecting gear which was happening a bit in third earlier but now difficult to get first and then we got stuck in a creek on a transport between stages and not able to get first. Got it started and slipped the clutch up the hill. Then we had water in the electrics after flying through the next creek so we didn't have to drop out of second. Next stage was a bit of a struggle and nearly got stuck in a creek in stage but managed to get first luckily and crawled up the hill after it.
By now we were around 30sec behind. With some heavy reving against rev limiter for long periods in second and other periods when third would be dropped right back to about 60km/h so we didn't have to change gear, we pushed as hard as reasonable, also noting we were running way down the field and catching cars dust. We made up about 20 seconds on the second last stage and then another 30 on the next giving us the win and putting us into equal first going into the final round at Bago in October. Wish I had of gone down to Victoria and competed in the first round of the series.
Just an idea but they are hoping to move up to Queensland or close to it if they can find a good quality rally that meets their requirements and it would make a perfect National Series for excels if people wanted that.
Anyway we had a good time on the roads. Shame about Kris but hopefully he will get it all fixed and be back out again. Its good to see with limited changes (and it is only about 4 hours work to put it back to excel specs) how quick the cars can go.
Have some youtube footage as well if anyone wants to see some roads. Taken with ipod and stagelogger app which is being built by Fazz.
SS 3http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k2DaCqVjFw
SS2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5QZ1m49pbc
After coming second in the under 1600cc class of the Austrlaian 2wd Rally Masters at Forbes, we decided that the poor little excel was close enough to being competitive to warrant a little help so prior to the event, we swapped motors out. Installed an engine with some mild porting, a little more compresion, reground cams, a twin throttle body set up and 4-1 extractors. And it looks like it helped. The car felt like it was pulling to rev limiter in third much quicker than before and even slightly pulling up hills :wtf:.
Anyway, we had our competition in our sights (a sprinter with a 4AGE etc) and we managed to get him on the first stage by 22 seconds, but we did have a few issues in their, especially to note the accelerator sticking open (2nd throttle body binding up as it got warm) and hence no back off in power as you come into corners plus no brake boosting as no vacuum from throttle still open) :eek:.
Next few stages were very even and then came the issues as we went into the night stages. Started by losing the oil filler cap and then about an hour of time before we fitted a commodore one and got back out there. Then we had trouble selecting gear which was happening a bit in third earlier but now difficult to get first and then we got stuck in a creek on a transport between stages and not able to get first. Got it started and slipped the clutch up the hill. Then we had water in the electrics after flying through the next creek so we didn't have to drop out of second. Next stage was a bit of a struggle and nearly got stuck in a creek in stage but managed to get first luckily and crawled up the hill after it.
By now we were around 30sec behind. With some heavy reving against rev limiter for long periods in second and other periods when third would be dropped right back to about 60km/h so we didn't have to change gear, we pushed as hard as reasonable, also noting we were running way down the field and catching cars dust. We made up about 20 seconds on the second last stage and then another 30 on the next giving us the win and putting us into equal first going into the final round at Bago in October. Wish I had of gone down to Victoria and competed in the first round of the series.
Just an idea but they are hoping to move up to Queensland or close to it if they can find a good quality rally that meets their requirements and it would make a perfect National Series for excels if people wanted that.
Anyway we had a good time on the roads. Shame about Kris but hopefully he will get it all fixed and be back out again. Its good to see with limited changes (and it is only about 4 hours work to put it back to excel specs) how quick the cars can go.
Have some youtube footage as well if anyone wants to see some roads. Taken with ipod and stagelogger app which is being built by Fazz.
SS 3http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k2DaCqVjFw
SS2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5QZ1m49pbc