The Rally Maestro project

[Guest]

As several members have advised or helped with bits I will report progress on this rally-car project from time to time.

The story so far: The Maestro is going to Cape Town in January against the clock in the World Cup Rally. Can it beat Peugeot 205s, Rover 25s with a champion rally driver at the wheel, and a Renault 4L?
(More on www.londoncapetownrally.com and also the Rover entry on www.worldcuprallydrivers.com )

The body is coming along a treat with lots of strengthening, Ive sent some photos to one or two on here but alas just cant hack the technology to put them up myself.

The ex-one owner, 15,000 miles from new car has turned out to be totally rust free in remarkable condition. We sourced new front wings, and a front bumper from the van/City, to change the front end as part of the ruggedising process, (plastic ones are vulnerable belting through Africa, alas, the rear is being retained but will get some strengthening on the mountings). The bonnet has been raised at the back to let air out, given its going to get a sump guard which might inhibit the flow-through of air.

A Mini Van petrol tank lives where the back seat used to be, this increases range, a sort of long-range tank if a Mini tank can ever be called that. The rear C-post window on the right side is now a metal panel and houses the filler cap. Seams have had massive attention, and steel plates welded to the inside of the sils joining the floor, the spare wheel well has been eased out a tad to take 175-14 van tyres (80 profile). Countrydude's strut brace is about to go in. Corbeau recliner seats have beefed up seat frames and due to go in.

The head is with Peter Burgess of Derby and he reckons his mods plus taking out something in block, to go to the edges of the head-gasket, (this baffles me but he reckons this mod alone is worth 4 bhp) will give the car 100 bhp on its single SU. A new SU H6 from Southern Carburettors is replacing the more modern unit as this older model has a seperate float chamber on the side, easier to remove and knock out water and muck, (but still 1.75ins).

Coil Springs of Sheffield are making two front springs, variable rate but 10 per cent stronger near the top end. I am talking to Gaz about putting Rover 25 rear springs/dampers on the back retaining the Maestro spring seats and mountings. (Ive seen what Owen Turner at the St.Albans Rover Centre is doing to his Rover 25 for this event....nice! Owen is something of a giant killer with his Rover 25s and wins events outright, check out www.worldcuprallydrivers.com ).

A Member on here is sending a new downpipe (Russ10) and we are going off to Jetex later today at Banbury to shop for a load of custom exhaust pipes. My idea of runnng the exhaust up and over the roof has been out-voted by the committee working on the car but its going to be tucked up well and mounted with lots of flex.

It will be red with a white roof and the paint shop at Tony Fowkes Automobiles near the Ace Cafe is hopefully going to see the car repainted in a week or so.

Its sitting on Minilite wheels and will look rather good, hopefully, a tribute to the BMC/Leyland competitions dept, we have some elderly ex-comps dept mechanics living near to us eager to see the car and offer their advice. The finished car will be on display at the NEC Classic Car Show in November, and you can cheer it off from Big Ben on Jan lst, (thats if it actually makes the start!). I suppose you will now say "why cant we see the photos".


P.Y.

www.londoncapetownrally.com

[E_T_V]

For a few ideas worth a look at some photo galleries

http://www.maestro.org.uk/forums/album.php?albumid=224

http://www.maestro.org.uk/forums/album.php?albumid=74

Also depending on the cars age you may want to pack a spare wheelbearing or two.

[Guest]

The Rally Maestro project

The bodyshell of the London to Cape Town World Cup Rally Maestro has received around 200 hours of careful, creative, engineering - bigger wheel-well, strengthened seams, Mini van extra fuel tank, raised rear edge of the bonnet to let air escape etc. All done by Tony Fowkes, who took 4th in a Lombard RAC Rally in his home-prepared Escort before becoming a works Mercedes driver (2nd, London to Sydney, 1977).

Hopefully some pictures of Tony at work on the Maestro will go up on this thread.

[countrydude]

Looking forward to some pics. I thought the works rally colours in the gallery that dan (ETV or RTV or HRT as he is otherwise known) posted a link to would be my choice they would look great.

Cut and paste the info of the other thread on here so the background info is on one thread as time goes by the 2 threads could end up way apart from each other within the forum. Plus the other thread has a sour taste that this car shouldn't be tainted with as you have literally thought about every last detail so it should be epic!

[Captain Slow]

Having seen pics, this looks interesting. Philip, was the car originally HL spec?

[Guest]

Having seen pics, this looks interesting. Philip, was the car originally HL spec?

The car is a 1986 1.6L, it was advertised on this forum, and I bought it blind, the only time I have ever done that... the Belfast dealer specialising in low-mileage cars sent some good photos and what seemed an honest enough appraisal. When it arrived just before Christmas, (£200 to send it by transporter), I suddenly had second thoughts about the whole idea - it was simply too good. It did seem on the one hand terrible to cut up a mint car, but then we needed a totally rust-free shell.

The car had a full service record over its 15,000 miles, the back seat appeared never to have been sat upon, with Leyland brown paper in the footwells behind the front seats, and letters to the Essex dealer from its 80 year old owner in copperplate beautiful handwriting saying she was laying up the car for a while...Several on here assured me there were quite few similar cars about in as-new nick, so I started to collect the bits. Just about everything has been cheap - the biggest single item has been going to Southern Carburettors for a brand new carb with seperate float chamber.

Club members have been terrific with support and encouragement and I don't think we could have got this far so easily without some of the harder parts offered by club members.

Originally, the idea was for the Oxford Motorsports Foundation, a charity-status set up of fostering interest among university students to get into motor-sport engineering, to rally the Maestro. They looked at it, drove it - and said the driving position was terrible, it drove "terrible", and all the research they had done suggested it would break drive shafts or do in the VW gearbox, but it would be a lot of expense to put a K-series into it, so, on that basis, turned it down. They had arrived for their road test in a VW Golf. Trying to get the Maestro down the length of Africa to Cape Town, against the clock, suddenly seemed really daunting, a project too far.

By the time they turned down the offer, work on the body had started. There was no going back, a different front end was being welded (and brazed) onto the car. Tony Fowkes has proceeded, a bit of of hobby for him (although he runs a body shop!), and a labour of love, as obviously it would be mega bills if there was no sponsorship in kind in this. At first, the idea was for Tony to put some spot welds around the suspension areas and paint the car...he then stripped it totally and lots of round circles suddenly appeared in areas like behind the door rubbers, (additional spot welds that look very similar to the Cowley Robot ones), he then just got carried away.... (see the photos!). He likes brazing, less heat means less potential of distortion in the adjacent area of the panel, we are clearly looking at the work of a very dedicated craftsman. Hours and hours have just run away with it all.

The Maestro might end up being one of the best prepared cars on the event, and, the cheapest to have put together. Its now attracting interest from a few drivers capable of giving it a good result, and giving the likes of Owen Turner in the Rover, and others, a hard time...a lot to do in the coming months. The event is very hard-driving, and includes a lot of terrible terrain, the desert of northern Kenyan might only be a day, but is the roughest track Ive ever seen (and Ive done one of the original Paris Dakars).

A diary of the project will pop up here now and then of what might well turn out to be the strongest Maestro ever made...it will also be a unique two-door coupe model!

[Captain Slow]

Posts should have been moved here now. I've got copies of the photos, and I'll upload a few later today.

[Captain Slow]

Pics...

[mgdavid]

Rally prep pics

[E_T_V]

Looking good.

Is this the right place to make a couple of suggestions?

1. Rear strut brace. A simple bit of box between the turrets (using a suitable load spreading plate) should add a bit of structural rigidity.
2. I see you've already plated the rear strut area for re-inforcement and this is a good idea as several examples exist where struts have punched through the top of the turret (often corrosion assisted I must say)
3. The front headlights are very vulnerable to stonechips even in normal use. so some protection may be needed for these to ensure they survive.
4. Front strut brace may also be an idea, but would need to be removable to allow engine access.
5. Gear selector rods are prone to damage (take a spare set). Also prone to popping off so zip-tie these to something so that if they pop off they don't get lost (or run over).
6. Front anti-roll bar bushes at the front can break off (where the rubber bush is welded to the bolt). Take a spare, or beef them up (I had some polyurethane ones made).

[Guest]

It is looking very well prepared, I must say. Have you raised the spare wheel well?

[Guest]

Thanks for that - a most useful steer, some good tips there.

Today the workshop popped some extra spot-welds around the roof area, and then got down to the job of putting the roof lining back together. First of all, a giant tin of evostick type adhesive from Car Builders Sollutions has gone on the ceiling, and while that had everyone getting high as a kite and turning into instant glue-sniffing addicts, a giant roll of silver foil was unrolled. Stick with it, it gets better...

This is the double-sided silver foil that comes in large rolls for insulation, you see it in Focus, B&Q, Do-it-All etc. Between the two layers of baco-foil like substance is a layer of thin bubble wrap, good stuff and really cheap... this sandwich is then stuck to the underside of the roof, and then the roof-lining goes up in place. The idea is that this will help keep the heat off...well, stop the roof which is going to get seriously hot from transmitting all of its heat to those inside.

Car Builders Sollutions was started by a bunch of guys who decided that the kit-car industry was crying out for a place for one-stop-shopping, as the big bugbear every kit-car builder faces was ordering parts from people who didnt actually keep them in stock, but held everything up by then ordering it from some other specialist. So, they filled up a barn with useful stuff - the result is that when you order, they have it on the shelf in front of them, and post it off that day. The service is excellent, the trouble is, if you look at the front of the catalogue on who they all are....they have all gone bald in the process. I dared to ask the question, how come you lot have gone bald? Back comes the reply:" If you tried doing this job, you too would be soon tearing your hair out." You can find them on www.nfauto.co.uk

[E_T_V]

I know it is a bit "chav" but some reflective window tint may also prove useful to keep the heat down. Fortunatly the Maestro has award winning (at the time of launch) fresh air ventilation in the front, but you may want to put a dust filter on the intake in the scuttle panel (I suggest thin foam stretched over some mesh), if you are in really dusty conditions.

[countrydude]

What space do you have for a spares kit?

I would have:
1. 2 complete front hubs with fresh bearings. As the front can be prone to damage.
2. 2 rear wheel bearings as these are easy enough to roadside fit with a few tools.
3. Anti roll bar bushes as per Dan's suggestion
4. Ignition spares, rotor arm, cap, and coil. I'd possibly look at 2 sets of rotor arm and cap (but that is because I have a t16 turbo dizzy!) and one spare coil. Especially if you are going through really hot areas, as heat will break them down.
5. 10l of oil and a spare oil filter.

I can't think of anything else at the moment.

I like the look of the hoop you are fitting, where did you get that from? I need to fit some extra beams into my maestro as it is quite low and has strong power so it will take it's toll on the bodywork if I don't sort out the chassis. I don't really want a full cage though.

[Guest]

We have not got round to thinking about the spares kit, but electrical gubbins makes sense - on the Peking to Paris we saw a bloke in a '38 Chevvy with two coils side by side, and one packed up - as you say, the heat can lead them to breaking down - but when he switched to the spare, that was duff as well!

Some good tips in the above, thanks for that.

Latest work has been to weld up the holes in the floor. There are rubber bungs all over the place, and these might vibrate and fall out, letting in water in river crossings and dust, of course. So, they are being welded - bigger ones requiring a plate - and so far we have counted no less than 32 holes. While doing this labourious job, we punished our backs a bit more with yet further bending down to chisel off several pounds of bitumastic sound-deadening gunge, so, what has gone onto the car with lots of extra metal is at least partially off-set here and there where we can.

While we are welding the inside we ought to attend to the front-strut turrets. Mention was made in a helpful email we received of this being a weak point, coming away from the chassis rail on vans and then a rust-centre. Can someone do a picture with a pen pointing to the bit that needs reinforcing or put up a drawing with an arrow? Ive mentioned this on the phone to Tony Fowkes, (welder in the other hand) and he says "where do they mean exactly?"

We have not done away with the spare wheel well (see enlargement process above for 14 inch tall profile 175 van tyres), but its now stronger and the centre has been welded as well. I then noticed that the Rover 25s all carry their two spare wheels well forwards, and between the rear turrets, a bit late for me to suggest that to Tony now he has spent over a morning doing the wheel-well.

py