History
We bought our first rally car in September 2002 from a friend within Devizes and District Motor Club. It was a mid 80s Talbot Sunbeam. It had already been rallied and came complete with an RACMSA Log book. Before rallying it’s history is a little unclear. Once when renting a trailer, our first trailer having been half inched, the guy behind the counter told us his Dad had built the car originally and competed, although it was not rallied.
We knew the car had been rallied because the guy we bought it off had been navigating when it was parked in a Welsh ditch. It had a Fiat / Lancia twin Cam, 4 Speed Ford Type E box, Bent steering rack and no front brake pads, but was otherwise complete and sound. Over the coming 4 months brake pads were identified and sourced, I can’t remember what happened to the steering rack but assume it was changed, and then we entered Brean.
Year 1 2003
After Brean it was obvious a few changed were required. Firstly we had no brakes for most of the event, and we mostly lost momentum at corners rather than braked. The clue here was that the front pads went from brand new to completely worn out in 80 miles. So a new set of front calipers were sourced and that problem went away. It is easy to put here that new pads were bought, or Calipers replaced, but it must be remembered that we had no idea what brakes were on the car. We were pretty certain they were not Talbot original fit. Anyway I know know they are Ford M16 from a MkII Escort. The other problem was a marked lack of power. We took the head off the engine and had a look around. Nothing too serious but a rebore was on the cards. On putting it back together we needed a head gasket, cam belt etc. These were sourced quite easily, after all we knew the make of engine, but when the Cam belt was fitted it was massively too long. It turned out the 2.0 engine was actually a 1.8, the only difference being the stroke.
Anyway after all this was corrected we entered our Next event The Tour of Cornwall. This was based as Newquay but took you down close to the Lizard, over to Truro and involved 100 stages miles and 200 road. On one stage we were heading down a straight at one of the airfields with one eye on making sure the engine finished the event when a white Nova went by as though I had engaged reverse by mistake. I now know this was Richard Egger, of Competition Car Insurance fame. Although Carolyn didn’t say anything at the time she did later admit, “I wish we could go a bit faster” and she wasn’t the only one. Time to look for more hp. Having said this, it remains our best result to date with a 4th in class finish. One of the stages was through Hendra, and the car in front was an Impreza. This was both the navvy and driver’s first event and they were going well until they entered the roundabout, when instead they crashed into the chip shop wall. This was just about the moment we were going to take off, and in the panic the marshalls knocked over the timing light, all a bit confusing and not good for the nerves.
I had met someone at Brean who was talking about the Vauxhall Redtop he had put in, so that was a line of thought, rebuilding and tuning the existing was another, other contenders were the Cosworth NA, Rover K Series and probably others I can’t remember. After some research it seemed to me that rebuilding the existing engine was out because the technology was old, and for a couple of thousand pounds in tuning costs I could expect in the region of 150 bhp and we were giving away 200cc. For those who don’t know Rally classes are by cc, and we run in the 1601-2000 class. The Vauxhall seemed to give good power, parts were readily available, and I new it could be done so the decision was made. In the meantime there was rallying to be done and Chris fancied some Forest work so we entered the Red Dragon based at Port Talbot in South Wales. The first stage was very wet and muddy, but we did OK, then on the second stage, downhill into 90 left became downhill into welsh ditch. No major drama, although we did return walking some months later and found some of our rear sill still there, we obviously had a puncture but decided to carry on to the end of the stage, then suddenly not much power and the temperature gauge went to zero. Pulled over quickly and discovered that the impact of going into the ditch had caused a coolant hose to jump and was now resting on the alternator which had worn a hole – end of rally. Lessons learnt – Ty Rap everything to everything, carry spare water, a spare hose and hose repair bandage.Our disappointment with this made us find another rally which was the Mid Wales, based at Newtown in, well, Mid Wales. I seem to remember it was only the 2nd or 3rd year this had been run, but it was well organised, sociable, and most importantly we got a finish.
This was the end of competitive driving for the season, as the next thing that happened was the engine swap and then the start of the 2004 season.
Engine Change
Changing the engine was a new experience. Taking one engine out and replacing it with the same model etc is all quite straightforward, but changing manufacturer, and fastening it to a gearbox from yet another manufacturer is fairly obviously a different kettle of fish. John, who we had met through DDMC but only lived 5 doors away, and I parked the sunbeam up, took out the engine and gearbox and all ancillary parts such as fuel lines, exhausts, coils until we ended up with an empty engine bay. I had found that someone was making Vauxhall to Ford bellhousings, so that part was easy. The whole lot was bolted together and lowered into the engine bay. I had borrowed an engine crane from Shelly, which had obviously had a hard life. When it was parked with the outriggers in the “up” position the crane would fall over. Even though I have owned my own none falling over crane for some, I still park it in a “safe” position. Shelly’s crane is responsible for flattening the patio heater and also putting a sizeable dent in the welder, in seperate incidents. Once the engine and gearbox was in position we chocked it up on bits of wood until it looked about right and then tried to figure out how to hold it in position. We manufactured some engine mounts out of thin sheet steel, which I then had copied using much thicker plate. I had bought the engine from a breaker nr Melksham. He assured me the engine ran fine and without smoke before he removed it from the donor car. I think the reason it didn’t smoke was there was no Oil in it to smoke. One of the mods that is needed to fit the Vauxhall in a sunbeam is to change the sump with one from a 2l Carlton as the deep part is at the opposite end. During this change we noticed that the engine was not quite as fresh as I had been led to believe. The shells on the big ends were worn out, the crank was so deeply scored you could cut your fingers on the bearing surfaces. So the whole lot was stripped down and the relevant parts taken to Zebbedee and Pownee in Calne for boring, grinding etc.
Zebedees rang after a few days and said that whilst the pistons are standard the bores are so worn they are already over the upper limit for boring. The conclusion was that re-sleeving it was the best bet, with a set of new rings in the pistons. The pistons were sent for balancing when the next problem arose, they was too much difference from heaviest to lightest (10g) so I needed a new set of pistons anyway. The engine was all re-assembled using ARP High tensile rod bolts.
The nice new freshly painted engine was now installed and all other parts installed and connected. This was all new territory, finding out about hydraulic fittings, how to plumb a fuel system for injection, how to plumb a cooling system etc. Chris has also investigated the various merits of Carbs v Injection. The only downside to injection was cost, and this was relatively minor. After buying the throttle bodies, pumps and filters a second hand ECU was found and the whole thing installed.
Just before Christmas 2003 Chris attempted to start the engine. It didn’t seem to want to start, but a squirt of Easy Start soon had it running. It ran OK but made a tremendous amount of noise. A quick blip on the throttle had some oil pressure and after a few seconds the engine was stopped to check for OIl/Water/Fuel leaks. Nothing was apparent and the engine re-started. It was still reasonably noisy, and idling high. Whilst adjusting the idle the engine stopped, which is not unusual Chris carried on working and at some point noticed the timng looked wrong. Turning the engine over to get to TDC resistance was suddenly felt. I took the plugs out and dropped a long screwdriver down each hole, hitting the piston in No’s 1 & 2, but disappearing in No 3. Right, holed piston, engine out again. I pushed the car back ready to position the engine crane and stood on a piece of gravel off the drive. Reaching to kick it back on the drive I noticed it was bright red, the same colour as the engine block. Closer inspection revealed new ventilation in the block adjacent to No 3. I sat on the back of the ‘Beam debating whether to play CM Rally on the PS2, where such incidents involve the reset button, or take the engine out, when Carolyn came in, knowing just by looking at Chris’ body language that all was not good.
Stripping the engine revealed that the ARP rod bolts had all come loose, and No 3 had come out with consequential carnage. What I found out is that it is neccessary to relieve the holes in the cap with a hand turned countersink, just enough to remove the sharp edge. Expensive lesson as the engine was now bin fodder.
I found another one in Stoke and drove up in the transit to pick it up. This was checked and installed. Somewhere during all this, and I cannot remember when the ECU was changed for a modern version that allowed user changes. Everything installed and wired and the engine started straight away and ran quietly, although it was hesitant and back fired. It was hard to diagnose as we couldn’t run it on the road as the MOT had run out. I took the car on the trailer to Clive’s in Chippenham (Member of DDMC) for an MOT. It failed due to high hydrocarbons, off the scale actually, but otherwise OK. We tried making the mixture weaker, but everytime we did it the engine stopped. The car was booked into Circuit motors who have a rolling road. We ran it and found the mixture weak across the board. This surprised me until I found that if the mixture is too weak then the petrol cannot burn correctly, hence the high hydrocarbons. After a while on the road, where we set many parameters we ran out of fuel. Talking with the operator whilst re-filling we thought we were now going in circles. We had increased the overall fueling, but were now reducing them individually. We decided to go back to the original map, and everything was OK. What transpired was that the injectors were sticking or dirty through inactivity, and couldn’t inject enough fuel.. This happened at every MOT and I had to drive the long way to the MOT station every year to get the injectors running properly.
The car was now running brilliantly, and going like steam, but the gearbox didn’t like the new power and started to whine after a couple of days. I bought a Type 9, to replace the Type E (The Type 9 is essentially a 5 speed equivalent of the Type E). Once fitted the propshaft would not go into the back of the box properly. It turns out that the “immaculate” box was bent. I needed a gear stick anyway, and the local scrapyard had a complete box in so I bought it and got Gearmaster in Melksham to build me a good box out of the two. This lasted well, and was still in the car when I sold it.
Year 2 2004
First event for the 2004 season was the Tour of Cornwall again. Back to the same airfield where we had been not fast the previous year, and now we were fast. Carolyn looked decidingly concerned as we drove off the first stage. I seem to remember trying very hard to think where and if I could get a new Navvy within the next 5 minutes before the next stage started. However to her credit she picked herself up, recovered and she completed the day until the second to last stage. After the first two stages was service. This had been the first event with the new Engine and Chris was of course concerned having installed the engine, gearbox, fuel system etc. After the first two stages we had service and I asked the crew to spanner check under the car. “How many bolts should be holding the gearbox in ?” was the question. My answer was 4, his reply was that the remaining 2 were going to be busy then. Bugger. I didn’t know what he was doing but he asked for assorted bits and pieces, and for the car to be jacked up and down at various times. What he had done was to use the weight of the car to force a length of stud iron into the hole where the bolt had been. The thread failing being the reason that the bolt was not there any longer. This lasted most of the day, but wasn’t good. The Tour was based at Hendra and Saturday night was 2 stages around the caravan park, mostly for the spectators. In the middle is a roundabout which we were taking the wrong way, entering at 6 O’Clock and leaving at 9 O’Clock. Coming up the hill ready for RWD fun there was a not small bang and no drive. The diff had decided that Vauxhall power was too much and thrown in the towel. Shelly’s crew had agreed to weld the gearbox stud iron in place for security, which due to our retirement was not completed.
Back at home I looked around and best Value for Money seemed to be a Quaife ATB (Automatic Torque Biasing). Some people say these are poor because if you snap a drive shaft you loose all drive. My argument goes, if I snap a drive shaft I’m out anyway because they are not a 30min job to change. I had an alloy bracket made to stiffen the axle, discovering in the process that it was already slightly bent. Lucklily the spare was not and that was built up, again by Gearmaster.
Next event was Keevil, and we were cooking. At the finish of the first stage smoke was pouring from the front wheel arches. That will be the brakes then. About halfway through the event Carolyn came running back from checking the results to tell me we were well up the leaderboard. With the Fiat engine we normally finished very close to the bottom, but here we were in the top half – WOW. Starting one of the stages as Chris pressed the clutch pedal it came loose in some manner, and did not have sufficient movement to disengage the clutch, meaning we could not get any gears when stationary. We did not have much time, and nothing was obviously awry. We had to start from where we were, as opposed to the start line, which confused the start officials. Lucklily the starter and battery were healthy and the car lurched off the start line as it fired up. Chris can drive without a clutch, but it only takes one missed change to make the whole thing go pear shaped, so we drove the stage in second, and only did one lap taking a stage max, but allowing us to keep going. At service it transpired that the pin that the brake and clutch pivot on had come loose from the pedal box, and that was why it moved. We couldn’t repair it properly, but managed to make do for the rest of the event.
Did Sweet lamb.
Collerne was entered. On one stage we were catching a green Astra, it went hairpin left and out of site. As we took the left the Astra was now on outside of the airfield, on the other side of a tall chain link fence. The Astra looked fine, and both occupants were out, but bizarely the fence also looked OK, with no apparent damage! We nearly crashed as Chris could hardly drive for laughing.
Year 3 2005
We entered the Tour of Cornwall again as our first event of the year. We had a reasonable day, but noticed that the water in the radiator needed frequent replenishment, and then more regularly, and then you could watch the level go down as you stood there. We scrounged some rad weld, even though the water was coming out of the water pump, but it didn’t really work. We carried a spare galllon of water with us, put it in before a double run through Penhale, then filled up again at the end (from a stream) then again before Hendra, and still it had none at the end. Starting Hendra this year we faced down towards the roundabout, behind which is a group of tall trees. As we took off our loose headlight flipped backwards, as was it’s want, and I could clearly see the top of the trees, not very usefull but interesting. Dave Taunt (Dad of Shelly) mentioned later that we looked quite spectacular with the light going everywhere and the Sunbeam’s penchant for backfiring and throwing flame. We managed to get the car to parc ferme to allow us to consider our options. One problem was that we didn’t have a spare water pump, the other is that the pump is driven by the cam belt, so changing it is not a trivial task. As a result the decision was made to retire, and in the morning we handed our time cards in, and registered as marshalls instead.
Quite often on rallies you see cars parked up that are perfectly serviceable, but have fuel pump failure. Since pumps are relatively cheap I decided to install a second pump. Asking around everyone told me just to have them in parallel with independant switches. This was done, and we entered “The Fat Albert Stages” at Keevil. About halfway around the first stage it started to hesitate coming out of corners, and then got better, and then worse. We got back to Service, plugged in the laptop but could find nothing wrong. Since the car was running fine, and there was plenty of petrol (I think we added more to be safe) we went out for stage two. At the same corner is started again, but this time stopped as we approached the flying finish, and we coasted to the finish. We pushed it back to the crew, aided by various service crews, and started to investigate. We checked fuel pressure and there was none. Dave Boden came over to check, and offered to loan us one if neccessary. Chris reasoned that since it had been OK before messing with the pumps, it mus be related. We quickly removed the covers and plumbed one of the pumps on it’s own, and presto we had fuel pressure again. After that, no problems.
At Collerne (With JR servicing) the end of the stage was flying finish, then 90R to Stop. As we came out of the 90R Chris selected 2nd gear, but no drive. Had another go at 2nd, then 3rd, 1st all no drive. Still we had finished the stage and were back at service. We pushed the car in, which luckily was down hill, and put it on axle stands. The car was started and gear selection investigated. Random is the only word to describe gear selection. We handed the time cards in, Chris changed and we set about removing the gearbox. Once out the problem was quickly identified, the Selector block was loose on the selector shaft. Problem was, I couldn’t remember what it was supposed to all look like. Rally folk came to the rescue, and Dave Boden’s service crew came over and figured out what it was supposed to all look like. A roll pin had fallen out, so a split pin was put into service, and we had gears. JR was very happy as he felt like Des O’Dell. Luckily the organisers had seen fit to run a Trophy rally, so we could re-join for the afternoon. Apart from the various helpful comments about “Oh Yes, they always do that, you need to wire them in” the afternoon was good and we won the Trophy event, although there was only 2 entries. We also nearly got fastest time on stage because as the stage started a local monsoon drowned the track, and all the front people in the main rally were caught on slicks, but because we were running at the back of the field we had time to change to wets, even so we still aquaplaned.
I need to add a little more here. I will have to look back through the records as I can’t remember what other events we did in the Sunbeam.
