Moray Phoenix Rally Team RAF Lossiemouth

Well I have a lot of pictures and quite a bit of info, but there are a lot of blanks that need filling too, hopefully you will be able to help with some of that.

So a bit of context then, the car has been an RAF rally car for longer than the 2 years that we, the "Moray Phoenix Rally Team", have known it. The problem has been a lack of continuity, Audrey was team Co driver in 2012 and driver in 2013. A lot of the personalities have changed and with it some of the cars history has become hazy. Now we have a core team of 5 that will be with the car for 2 full race seasons (Audrey the driver, Myself co-driving, Jon, Craig and Jake our engineers), from here the only way is up.

What we know

This isn't just a Nova with mudflaps, it is a ready to race rally car, in so much as it has all the electrical isolators and map lights and rally trip computers you need. The car was once a stage winning car. But it has spent 6 months in a dusty hangar with the drive train out for repairs.

The engine is a 1400 Nova engine with balanced OEM crankshaft, shot peened balanced rods, "fancy" pistons and a Kent 0 63 competition cam.

looking at it it has some pretty sporty induction on ITBs or twin carbs, sorry I'm a turbo EFI man usually still have stuff to learn.

It has discs all round with twin master cylinders and a hydraulic handbrake.

A probably overkill 4 puck clutch.

What looks to me like a front LSD pictures to follow, very exciting.

Gaz coilovers on the front and I think ARB upgrades.

Roll cage, race fuel tank, fire extinguishers.

I thought a fairly well designed mainfold into a larger exhaust.

The problem

The car was rallying at Otterburn in June when the clutch let go. It had a competition Clutch 4 puck paddle fitted that has really badly failed. We were trying to do a little post mortem today and found that it had taken a big chunk of gearbox bellhousing away and that the Input shaft??? that should float to enable clutch changes was siezed in fore/aft movement and had quite some wobble side to side.

The other problem is that while it worked the hydraulic handbrake was used and locked the rears, but then they stayed locked!

Can I post pictures before the 15 posts?

Now we have 3 gearboxes, one is knackered so we can forget that one. One of them is a RWD gearbox so would mate to the engine but would stick out the wing of the car and the third is the replacement, it can be seen here on the left next to the broken one.

http://imgur.com/a/0qNtJ#34
http://imgur.com/a/0qNtJ#35


We believe it to be off a more powerful engine, the numbers cast into it read

GM 90 288 855
760
6

whereas the old one read

GM 90522089
780
22

http://imgur.com/a/0qNtJ#33
http://imgur.com/a/0qNtJ#32

Is this going to be an issue?

Hi Tom. Great to see another nova rally thread. Please some more pictures of the build and work in progress (and hold the camera steady!). What events to you expect to be using the car in next?

Awesome looking rally project. Can i just say tho, if you rear brace was bolted/welded to the turrets it would work alot better then being on the struts.

Once I have 15 posts I can post pictures in the thread.

The front brace looks rubbish I don't think it's doing anything at all.

Yours looks beautiful mate, it must be great to build from the ground up the way you have. We have to start somewhere in the middle. If I have my way at the end of this season I will strip the car and seam weld it. Wobbly camera yeah haha, that album is a bit of a photo dump atm, I was losing patience with clumsy technology.

Right action shots,
http://i.imgur.com/y4BMtN6.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/c1Fmt6p.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/upbPhEI.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/AumDf2E.jpg

As you can see last season started well.

Then this happened
http://i.imgur.com/DnWsPAa.jpg
The clutch failed and took with it the gearbox housing
http://i.imgur.com/BHuTvoK.jpg

It also damaged the radiator and took out a water pipe, this is not an issue and we have replacements.

However!

This might be an issue
http://i.imgur.com/IkBk70N.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/f3HE9a8.jpg
the flywheel got some real heat by the looks of the clutch friction plate and there is distortion around 3 of the stud holes, quite hard to see on the photos but is about 1.5mm in towards the centre of the flywheel.

Looks a good car mate :) replacement gearboxes can be picked up for £25 or so, so that shouldnt be too big an issue.

Id suggest taking the flywheel to an engineering firm to see if they can skim the face up. If not then another flywheel will be required.

Just ask questions on here if you get stuck, plenty of friendly knowledgeable folk :)

Thank you rich, I had a look at a few different forums before settling on this one, I liked It's vibe lol, seemed a good bunch :) I just hope that you guys enjoy the nova pics and that we can put on a good show and report back here with it. First stage is in April :d

Well I will show you our gearbox situation, hopefully without the accidental massive pictures like the ones above :wtf:

http://i.imgur.com/CtWDGPu.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/qPlPiKt.jpg

The one on the right is the one that came off and had to take the stresses of the failure and so is being treated as broken. Also the floating shaft that the clutch friction plate sits on doesn't float, but does jiggle side to side more than the new one does.

Jesus that clutch really did let go in a big way eh?!

Yeah it really suprised me too, what would have caused that?