As January was quickly coming to an end, the date of the rally was approaching, initially set for the 24th, it was moved to the 31st of January.
The car had a blown engine, a never fitter skidpad, a yet to be modified and installed suspension, no snow tires, no rims to install them on, no passenger side seat, no seat rail and no passenger seat belts. The date was the 13th of Juanuary, rally date 31st of Juanuary, days left available for work: 5.
In November 2014 I made a skid plate to protect the engine and steering rack form any damage due to running on gravel and snow, I intended to make it even longer to cover the gearbox as well, but never got around to do so.
Me and my friend Artan worked the next 40 hours with little to no sleep to install a fresh 2.5 liter engine in the car, my friend Robert of Cyclon motorsport made the parts for the seat rails then my father set about a welding the passenger side seat frame rails. My friend and co driver Cepelin set about installing the raised stock suspension, the skid plate which miraculously fit, I purchased a set of winter tires with a few studs in them and a set of rims. Then on the 23rd the new race seat, belts and intercom arrived from Italy and by the 29th thank to my friends help the car was done.
The next day we faced a 5 AM wake-up call to go to recce for the Covasna Winter Rally 2015, we made it... We were there, both me and two of my friends, Artan Sergiu running a 320i E30 and Vlad Perscaru with a 1.6l Renault 5.
Me and Cepelin, my co driver, had 0 rally experience, close to 0 snow driving experience. As we set about the recce we realized that there was a very short time to travel the 180km of the rally TWICE. My Fiat with KW street suspension took quite a beating, but we managed to cover the distance once. As neither of us had experience, the pace notes we made were... less than perfect and bit lacking in detail.
Next day was race day, we woke up at 6 AM and got the two cars, the Fiat and the BMW to the service park, the Fiat was to be the service "truck".
We took to the start of the first stage and it was on! The snow was good, the car was great, I was very cautious as the main objective was to finish the 60 km of stages. Quite soon we caught up a competitor, we were doing good, in spite of a spin.
We still had to do about 20 km of special stages when a one of the rear bolts holding the rear shock in place came undone, so we covered the 20 km left to the service park like that, without a rear shock.
I partially spun two more times and due to a spin I was unable to climb a steep incline without backing up and we got overtaken. The car had plenty of power, around the 180-190 mark, but I had very little grip and coupled with my lead right foot the engine was on the red line constantly while I was trying to keep the car going strait. Even so all the ice tire guys including the 100hp Dacia Logan were all over us...
When we arrived at the 30 minute service stop we scrambled to find a replacement and a fellow competitor kindly gave us the bolt we needed.
The very next stage after the service park I entered a 4 Right a bit too hot and ended in the ditch and unable to get out. We waited for rescue in the form of a 4x4, they got us out. We lost about 13 minutes there so we raced on even on the connecting roads not to get a time penalty.
The next and final two stages I started to get a bit more comfortable with my co driver, the car and the snow and the times really started to improve.
In the last stage which was a quite more open one I managed a 8:52, fast enough for 19 out of 32 still running, beating most of the guys running snow tires and even a few 4WD guys running ice tires. By the time I got used to the concept of rallying on snow it was over...
It was a wonderful lesson for me, I learned that I am quite far from being able to run the car at it's true potential, but I won't stop here...
I'd like to thank the photographers for these wonderful snaps and for braving up the cold!
Some videos and extra pictures:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asL1iuZ2V-M&list=PLzsFupPWg9KofBrH3_kGGbctqhL4vQFmd&t=471
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6dW4QN07Fk&list=PLzsFupPWg9KofBrH3_kGGbctqhL4vQFmd&t=312
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXTH5NXCe7Q&list=PLzsFupPWg9KofBrH3_kGGbctqhL4vQFmd&t=337
The car had a blown engine, a never fitter skidpad, a yet to be modified and installed suspension, no snow tires, no rims to install them on, no passenger side seat, no seat rail and no passenger seat belts. The date was the 13th of Juanuary, rally date 31st of Juanuary, days left available for work: 5.
In November 2014 I made a skid plate to protect the engine and steering rack form any damage due to running on gravel and snow, I intended to make it even longer to cover the gearbox as well, but never got around to do so.
Me and my friend Artan worked the next 40 hours with little to no sleep to install a fresh 2.5 liter engine in the car, my friend Robert of Cyclon motorsport made the parts for the seat rails then my father set about a welding the passenger side seat frame rails. My friend and co driver Cepelin set about installing the raised stock suspension, the skid plate which miraculously fit, I purchased a set of winter tires with a few studs in them and a set of rims. Then on the 23rd the new race seat, belts and intercom arrived from Italy and by the 29th thank to my friends help the car was done.
The next day we faced a 5 AM wake-up call to go to recce for the Covasna Winter Rally 2015, we made it... We were there, both me and two of my friends, Artan Sergiu running a 320i E30 and Vlad Perscaru with a 1.6l Renault 5.
Me and Cepelin, my co driver, had 0 rally experience, close to 0 snow driving experience. As we set about the recce we realized that there was a very short time to travel the 180km of the rally TWICE. My Fiat with KW street suspension took quite a beating, but we managed to cover the distance once. As neither of us had experience, the pace notes we made were... less than perfect and bit lacking in detail.
Next day was race day, we woke up at 6 AM and got the two cars, the Fiat and the BMW to the service park, the Fiat was to be the service "truck".
We took to the start of the first stage and it was on! The snow was good, the car was great, I was very cautious as the main objective was to finish the 60 km of stages. Quite soon we caught up a competitor, we were doing good, in spite of a spin.
We still had to do about 20 km of special stages when a one of the rear bolts holding the rear shock in place came undone, so we covered the 20 km left to the service park like that, without a rear shock.
When we arrived at the 30 minute service stop we scrambled to find a replacement and a fellow competitor kindly gave us the bolt we needed.
The very next stage after the service park I entered a 4 Right a bit too hot and ended in the ditch and unable to get out. We waited for rescue in the form of a 4x4, they got us out. We lost about 13 minutes there so we raced on even on the connecting roads not to get a time penalty.
The next and final two stages I started to get a bit more comfortable with my co driver, the car and the snow and the times really started to improve.
In the last stage which was a quite more open one I managed a 8:52, fast enough for 19 out of 32 still running, beating most of the guys running snow tires and even a few 4WD guys running ice tires. By the time I got used to the concept of rallying on snow it was over...
It was a wonderful lesson for me, I learned that I am quite far from being able to run the car at it's true potential, but I won't stop here...
I'd like to thank the photographers for these wonderful snaps and for braving up the cold!
Some videos and extra pictures:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asL1iuZ2V-M&list=PLzsFupPWg9KofBrH3_kGGbctqhL4vQFmd&t=471
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6dW4QN07Fk&list=PLzsFupPWg9KofBrH3_kGGbctqhL4vQFmd&t=312
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXTH5NXCe7Q&list=PLzsFupPWg9KofBrH3_kGGbctqhL4vQFmd&t=337
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