TRR Motorsport News Motorsport

Find out what we've been up to and what we're about to be up to.   All our action shots are produced with the kind permission of www.rallyaction.eu   5th July 2009 - Bramcote Barracks, Nuneaton - Charity Rally Rides with Loughborough Car Club & Motorsport in the Midlands We had a great day giving rally rides and distroying tyres, right up until about 3pm when i broke a half shaft. Unbelievably it was our first mechanical DNF in 7 years! I think that goes some way to proving the high standard of preparation on the Sunbeam. On the upside, the rallying antics of about a dozen cars made about £1560.00 for Charity in addition to being a most enjoyable day. :-) 30th November 2008 - Drifting trackday at Barkstone Heath Well what a day we had playing with Javlin motorsport on this active RAF airfield. Plenty sideways on the abrasive concrete surface and lots of passenger rides to friends and fellow Coalville Car Club members. Superb. And just to prove we got our moneys worth, we used up several sets of tyres that were past competitive miles. :-)   6th September - Promenade Stages      Once again the great british weather throws a curve ball! We needed a powerboat to get up the M53 to scrutineer on the Friday night and everyone appeared to be throwing their repmobiles at the Armco in an attempt to make matters worse. The event was wet to start with and the 'wets' we were on just wouldn't warm up at the front and cooked too early on the back so the handling was interesting to say the least. Note to self, next year buy some X22s and cut them for days like this as this is the third event this year when we had poor results due o not having the right tyres. In the aftenoon when it dried and we could use the right tyres we flew but it was too little too late in the company of such strong opposition. Even when the rain stopped the weather had it in for the competitors, the waves were crashing over the sea wall onto the service area! No doubt mt Land Rover will soon be disolved into a pile of powdered rust and aluminium. 3rd September - Pre-rally spanner check It's a good job we always cvheck the car thoroughly before an event as the drivers side front brake disc was heavily cracked! Luckily Rob's Sunbeam (the one that I've just converted to XE power) has the same Wilwood setup but with non-drilled disks. He kindly lent me the disks so we could do the event and Colin and I are VERY grateful to him for his act of kindness. 20th & 21st June - Rally of the Midlands      Umm, Sometimes I wish the weather would be on our side. We had Michelin full wets and Kumho/Dunlop slicks in our armoury but no cut X22s, which were the order of the day for Saturday. Mind you, Our knowledge of MIRA enabled us to take 1 minute out of the Nova in front of us on the road AND catch, out brake, overtake and pull away from a Delta Integrale! I never thought we'd be able to do that. We struggled on the short stages like Merevale but overall enjoyed the new format of the event. - Photos to follow. 12th April - 18th Overall & 5th in class on the Horiba D'Isis Stages, MIRA Not a bad result given the class of field on the event and two wet stages. We were seeded well at 26th and had a good all round day, punching above our weight at the shape end of our class. The video footage is great and we were even quicker than on our last rally. The car is great and confidence continues to grow. I'll add pictures when they arrive. 23rd February -8th Overall on the Bill Cammack Rally What a Monster!  The engine is better than ever and we could catch almost anything on the straights and as a result we bagged 8th overall and 2nd in class, embarasing more than a few class 5 cars in the process.       Photos displayed with kind thanks to Rallyaround Photography. We had two slight offs. On stage two it rained and we slid into a bale stoving in the front corner. then in the afternoon my hand slipped on the wheel and we hit a sign post. See the clip below for some in-car action of the event.  At the end of the day we came in behind Rob Hall in his awesome Mini, a car we were never likely to beat and to finish in the top ten is proof of what the car is now capable of.  Shame about the driver then! In-car footage from Stage 5 of the Bill Cammack Rally 16th February 2008 - Rolling roaded & ready for action! The new engine is fully run-in and the car has been set up on the rollers at Peter Burgess's workshop. All the hard work on the engine has paid off. We had an initial gain of 8 bhp just by taking the sock filters off the carbs! After Peter had finished we had a maximum of 198bhp at the wheels! The big gain is from 5000rpm upwards. As we've lost the sock filters I've made an alloy airbox with a Pipercross filter (good to 500bhp) fitted to the front. This is linked to a cold air duct at the front of the car. This should ensure the engine fets the air supply it needs. We're out on the Bill Cammack rally on the 23rd February so if you're there come along and say Hi! We've also fitted a camera inside the car for the first time so the footage should be good. 12th January 2008 - New livery unveiled The 2008 livery is now sorted and on the car fresh from it's visit to the signwriter, looks good doesn't it? The door squares are too high and will need to be replaced as there is not enough room for the event stickers over the door square but our new sponsors logos work well and give the car a clean look to the livery.  For 2008 our main supporters, C.V. Lane & Son, Auto Tanks and Lockmasters Mobile are joined by Elmhurst Energy Systems Ltd.   30th December 2007 - It's Taxed, tested and being run-in (again!). Well if sounds are anything to go by, then Superbeam has regained it's bark.  It sailed through the MOT, was taxed the same day & driven 60 miles to & from work, all in the same day.  Boy, did the drive make my left knee hurt!  Since then I've een pottering around in the Sunbeam adding miles to the engine and seeing what falls off.  So far, apart from re-adjusting the clutch at Kev's after the cable outer settled there hasn't been any drama (yet!).  The car looks odd with no stickers from the A-pillar back but we should soon get that sorted ;-) 6th December 2007 - Plenty of thumb twidling but things are moving forward I'm very grateful to my good freind Kev for coming over today and setting up the cam timing on the Superbeam. It's a job that is so critical I'd rather leave it to an expert. Besides, I can't do an aweful lot at the moment following a knee op, doing a very good Douglas Barder impression. As soon as my knees can bend again I'll be back working on the old 'beam. 25th November 2007 - We've found the missing power!!! It's been a while since I've posted a progress report on here, We've been busy on the car but just not had the time to update the web-site.  Not being able to stand the lack of power any longer I dismantled the old engine to find it's secret. A pair of Piper BP285H 'Ultimate Road' cams  and Omega pocketed pistons will be responsable for the extra 25BHP then!.  With having to swop pistons it ment a complete rebuild of the 'new' engine, effectively ending this year's season for us. The opportunity to do the winter re-build now was grasped and we have rebuilt the axle with a new LSD from Mal Stuart, a complete repaint of the underside (now an annual event) and we've taken 200grams out of each door for good measure. We fitted the GRP dash and saved another 3.5kg and we've lowered the crossmember, allowing us to lower the engine another 20mm! As I type this my friend Max is re-spraying the rear half of the car, a direct result of removing the stickers prior to our new sponsor's decals being fitted. With any luck it will be run-in by the end of December ready for a rolling road set up prior to the First rally of 2008 (either the North West Stages or the Bill Cammack memorial rally).   8th September 2007 - Promenade Stages What a great venue! just like MIRA but with kerbs is the best way to describe it. The rally takes place on New Brighton sea front (Near Birkenhead) and atracts some serious rally cars. There were 4 6R4s, 4 Darrians and more MK2 Escorts than I've seen at once. I had a crap night's sleep in the hotel and was coming down with a virus so was not up for a full days rallying the next day. Photo by Paul Jennings We tried really hard all day and the long straights really highlighted the power that this new engine is missing! (The old head & cams are going back on in the next few weeks.) As usual our brakes were fliping stupendous. we caught several cars including A Saphire Cosworth & an Impreza so with the missing 25 BHP we could have been a lot quicker. We finished a creditable 9th in class (out of 23) and 27th overall (from about 95 starters). To be on the pace in our class here I recon we'd have needed another 80 BHP! 21st July 2007 - The Opposite Lock Rally (Cancelled!) Sadly the event was cancelled. We trudged up to Manby on Friday evening in horendous conditions (for anyone not in a 4x4!) and spent the night in Colin's caravan listening to the constant heavy rain on the roof. Next morning the airfield was even worse than the night before with whold areas of the venue impassable. After scrutineering the rally was cancelled. So we trudged back, sodden and totally depressed at the whole episode.                  The image was taken on the day of the rally. As you can see, not what you'd want to be doing 100mph around! 12th July 2007 - Construction Racing Open Day Awesome! I was lucky enough to be asked by one of our sponsors to attend an open day laid on by Construction Racing, a Power boat team competing in the Honda HF4S 150BHP powerboat series. The boat owner and driver, Marcus was kind enough to take me out for a run in the race boat. A great ride and a lot smoother than I was expecting. It picked up well on the throttle and my word does it turn in the corners. Superb! I also had a run in a huge ski-boat with a massive sound system in it. Blue skys, fast boat and Miami Sound Machine blasting away! just great! I didn't want it to end. A big thank you To Marcus and the team and Graham for asking me along, it made a nice change from the world of rallying. 22nd - 24th June 2007 - Rally of the Midlands I can highly recommend a days testing before an event. just before the rally we took the Sunbeam up to Manby Motorplex for a play. After a day loosening the new engine up we were happy to sign it off ready for action. The rally itself started well with the 400 yard autotest around the council offices car park! not to be taken too seriously but good for a bit of showboating. After this the car was put into parc ferme for the night and the next day we went out around MIRA for the first blast. It was quite noticable that the engine run out of steam at high rpm (the result of not having time to rolling road it before the event) and at the end of the stage the car was not well, lumpy and it wouldn't tick over. There was so little power that we couldn't overtake anything we caught, very frustraiting and it did blunt the event for us. We had a massive spin at Mallory park (sorry Paul) its worth typing Rally of the Midlands into U tube to have a look at it. The rest of the event was made up of good stages but inconsistant marshalling. some very good and professional and some just plain incompetent. Naturally the stages where Rugby & Coalville were in charge ran very smoothly but Merevale and Bramcote were comical to say the least! (Women Marshals that won't shut up at 5 seconds to a stage start, time travel due to numerically dislexic marshals, men walking their dog on stage and squadies trying to drive onto a live stage) just plain crazy!!! Anyway we finished 17th overall & 6th in class, not bad given the engine. And the engine problem? after the event we found water in the plug lead of number 4 pot. No wonder it woundn't run properly, it was trying to spark under water. 6th June 2007 - The engine is now fitted At last! The new dry-sumped engine is in the car and we are busy putting as many miles on it as possible prior to a test day and rolling road session before the Rally of the Midlands at the end of June. The engine has been re-built 'in-house' with the cylinder head ported & polished by Peter Burgess, standard cams, Competition lightweight hydraulic lifters, Kent Vernier pulleys (Cam timing set up by Kev - Thanks Mate), lightened flywheel, lightweight front pulley & timing wheel and most important of all. an SBD/Pace dry sump kit. There has been loads of fabrication work to get the engine fitted & the Ali' welding has been done by Nigel at Altiss (some of the best specialist motorsport fabrication work I've ever seen!) As you can see from the picture it is necessary to mill the three fins off the bottom of the sump to clear the Sunbeam rack as it sits higher than the crossmember. 31st March 2007 - D'Isis Stages, MIRA As a last outing for the old engine (now completely knackered) we were looking forward to giving it the berries around MIRA. The old Sunbeam is probably 100BHP less powerful than the front runners so we were amazed to find ourselves giving half reasonable times (mostly down to the superb brakes, me thinks). The old lump was not happy and the bottom end grumbles were not getting any quieter. We were about 12-15MPH slower on the longest straight than last year! To our utter supprise we finished the day in 16th O/A and 7th in Class. In all not a bad day & I didn't spin it once.     Images reproduced with the kind permission of Rally Action Photography   29th March 2007- Preparations for MIRA This last few weeks has been just so hectic ("Stop the ride, I want to get off!") The new XE engine is sat complete with the dry sump & pump awaiting a ported head, the New 9 1/2" rear springs fit a treat and lower the back end of the car nicely. On the road it seams to be much more planted at the back but no doubt all will be revealed on Saturday.  The car was sat all turn-key ready and then yesterday we got the sponsor's new logos (Thanks Dave). Last night at about midnight we got back from Car Club (a few pints of Bass inside us) and Alan & myself with the aid of a hairdrier removed the old stickers. Luckily we did it last night as they fetched off half of the paint under them. This ment I had to run into Leicester this morning to get some paint & with the help of Max we prep'ed and sprayed the rear quaters tonight. Not what you want two days before a rally! It loocks like the stickers will be applied when the car is on the trailer and probably even at MIRA on Saturday. If you see us there give us a wave. ;-) February 18th 2007 - North West Stages Well we got the second DNF in a row. I stuck it in the Mud on SS14 and we couldn't get out.                                             We serviced with our very good friends, Kev & Al. They compete in this lovely 'works' replica. The smart Yellow 'Beam is Philip & George's ride. Thanks to George & Paul for kindly allowing me to use their images on our website. January 20th 2007 -Electric-trickery comes to the Superbeam A big thank you to David for spending the day with Colin & I on the Sunbeam. The main aim was to wire the spotlights ready for the next event. David did an amazing job of the presentation, looking good enough to be on a 'works' car! We also fitted a map light for Colin and moved the air-horns from the engine bay to under the wheel arch in preparation for the dry-sump tank. We gave up trying to get the fuel gauge to work as we found the sender to be duff. Oh, The block and crank for the new engine are now with Simon at Midland Engine Services (Leics) being cleaned, honed & polished :-) January 8th 2007 - Back on four wheels The rear axle has been re-assembled with a borrowed CWP from our friends Kev and Al. With all new bearings the axle (fingers crossed) is as good as new and is now re-fitted in the car. Thanks to Martyn also for his help with the CWP to replace the borrowed one :-) Everthing has had a once over and aside from the new engine the car is almost ready for the first rally of 2007. Oh, and we've fitted an quick release lamp bar in preparation for the night stages on the North West Stages whilst the lovely Harriet fashions TRR Motorsport's 2007 junior team clothing collection. December 20th 2006 - New Engine? Whilst we're waiting for axle bits we've completely stripped down the spare engine (the other spare we sold to Practical Performance Car) Its not going to be ready for the North-West Stages in February but should be installed in time for MIRA in April. The engine itself is a fine base, Coscast Head, Mahle Pistons and a '93 block. Overall condition is good with no supprises yet. The small parts have been cleaned in the wash tank prior to being steam cleaned etc... December 5th 2006 - Doh! In dismantaling the rear axle we found the pinion had a tooth missing. It looks as though this has happened very recently. Currently we are trying to find a replacement 4.4 axle or CWP. in the mean time we'll crack on with removing the engine & gearbox. November 2006 - Let the re-build begin                        After the abuse the Sunbeam has endured over the 2006 season its time for the winter once-over. As well as the usual checks several tasks need doing that due to cash limitations had to be left during the re-shell last year. Rebuild the axle. Currently there is a bit to much play in the pinion and the outer bearings are showing signs of wear. Re-build the engine. The engine is still wet sump & during the Rally of the Midlands the hot weather and the long, fast stages around MIRA ment we couldn't keep the engine oil on the bearings and since then the bottom end has had the death rattle, however we've done a charity day and another rally since then and the engine still keeps going. Fit a SBD Dry-sump system. This is new territory for us so we'll do a bit of a write up on it on the site when it's finished. It'll save the engine when hooning around places like MIRA and it'll give us a few more horses at the wheels as well. October 2006 - Future WRC star signs with TRR TRR Motorsport have been lucky enough to sign Harriet Worth as a driver. The young star has been tallent spotted after lapping the living room on her 'My Little Pony' roam-around in an amazing 12 seconds. Harriet has been put on a retainer until she can reach the peddles of the Sunbeam but that didn't stop her insisting on a seat measuring.                     July 2006 - The Opposite Lock Rally The event started bad when on the first stage we had a missfire at high RPM. This turned out to be the earth strap flexing and work hardening. We found this out when it came off in Kev's hand in service. After a quick fix we we're out on stage two. The event is mixed surface and we didn't have a set of anything other than moulded slicks so we just drove it and enjoyed it (and not too slow either!) Stage 5 and we thumped a bloody great hole and buggered the rack! We missed stage six and so went DNF but got a spare rack fitted and were out for the last two stages. This is the first DNF we've ever had and so we were a little disapointed but hey, thats motorsport! Bramcote Barracks open day We gad been very kindly asked by Loughborough Car Club if we'd like to take passengers rides on a specially made stage in aid of the Army's Charity. We hammered the Sunbeam around all day with folks sat in the co-driver seat. there were about 8 cars giveng rides and it bagged the charity 640 very sideways, action packed pounds! June 2006 - Rally of the Midlands Our first ever multi-venue rally and our local 'big' event. We did our usual first stage trick of putting tyres on that would usulally be considered too soft. the first two stages were short blasts around Mallory park (I've been round there 100s of times in the back of a St. John's Ambulance, many years ago so I kind of know the circuit).  Not saying our cunning plan works but we caught and passed several cars including a G3 escort! Then onto the Mickey Mouse stage around the Council Office Car Park (About 400 yards long!) I worked there for two years so know the car park intimately. Colin & I were 14th fastest through there including a spin!                             Saturday and we did MIRA three times and in the heat cooked the bottom end of the engine. We still managed to be relatively quick and at the end of the day we had another final blast around Mallory. On chatting to a chap in an ex-BTCC Alfa 147 with 274BHP he was amazed that he couldn't catch us and around Gerrard's we apparently we walked away from him! I can't say I'd even noticed the Alfa in our mirrors!                             The Sunday was a mixed bag of 1 mile Mickey Mouse stages through parkland with speed bumps! Stately home stages, Cool! and Bramcote. An Army barracks which is one of my favourite places to play with a car anywhere. All our family, freinds & service crew were there to spectate so Colin let me showboat, Plenty sideways! :-)  In the end we finished a very creditable 8th in class & 16th overall. not bad for a first attempt. May 2006 - Hot Hatch race, Donnington Our first involvement in the world of roundie, roundie racing. Our friend David Darlington wanted to go racing for his 40th birthday following a sabatical of several years.             TRR helped prepare the car for the race at Donnington and provided race support. One hell of a learning curve and totally different from stage rallying. Hopefully David will be out again soon, TRR will be there to ensure the Fiesta remains a Fast Ford!  April 2006 - MIRA D'Isis Stages We were really keen to do MIRA for the first time. The event is local for us and suits powerful cars, more powerful than us but worth a go anyway. First stage and we caught the 309 GTi in front of us, taking 30 seconds out of him in 2 miles. wouldn't move over and I broke the golden rule of rallying. Listen to your co-driver! I got caught up in the 309's red mist and when he made a mistake and cut the stage short through a hole in the cones we followed. by then it was too late and we took a stage maximum, 12 minutes and dead last! from that we caught and passed EVERY car we started behind and at the end we finished 42nd overall. not bad but if I hadn't had buggered up on the first stage we'd have been in the mid teens. On several stages we were 12th/3th fastest overall dispite only 200bhp! Fabruary 2006 - Bill Cammack Memorial Rally WOW! We're still pinching ourselves! We chose to do this rally instead of the North West Stages as we needed a venue we knew and a single venue event so we could shake down the Sunbeam after her re-shell. Most things on the car were new including the brakes so we were going to take things easy.               Well after the first stage we had a class lead of 35 seconds! After the end of the second stage we were up to 1 minute 10 seconds and when we got to 2 minutes it was time to back off & start using the time as a test session. Unbelieveably we finished the event with a class lead of 1 minute 50 second!