Arwel

Hi guys. This is my first proper post on this forum. Im totally new to the world of Fiestas having previously rallied a Peugeot 205 with an MI16 engine fitted. I had that car for around 7 years and earlier this year decided it was time for a change after competing in a few rallies with the future father in laws Proton Satria.

I drew up a short list of cars which included the Fiesta, Proton, Civic Type R and one or two others but the decision was made to go for the Fiesta due to having a good reputation in the rallying world and the gaining popularity with the recently created ST Trophy.

The basic plan will be to create a road rally car. For those of you who don't know, road rallying is massively popular here in Wales and is slightly different to stage events. The events run from midnight to the early hours of the morning and are made up of different sections held on country lanes and farm yards with each section timed to an average speed of 30MPH, sounds easy doesnt it but its not... trust me. The car can't have a bigger engine fitted than what was produced by the manufacture, it must be no more than 4 cylinders and turbos are only allowed for petrol vehicles under 1400cc so there'll be no fitting a 2.3 turbo from a Focus RS. The engine must retain its orignal inlet and intake system so no Jenvys hanging out the bonnet either. The driven wheels must remain the same so no RWD or 4WD conversions. The major trim components of the interior must also remian so carpet, headlining, rear seats, door cards and door trims must all remain and be of the same manufacturer however there is always some rule bending going on here. A roll cage can be added aswell as harnesses and a full cage but their not compulsory. Noise limits are enforced and noise cant exceed 90DB which is tested from 2m before the start of the event and sometimes during the event.

Our car will be based on road rally spec but will be built to comply with MSA Stage rally regulations so we will have the bucket seats, belts, cage etc.. as we do plan on having a go at stage events aswell as road rallies.

Think that just about covers our initial plan for the car so I shall leave you for now with a quick pick

massivewangers

iTrader: (1)

Will be keeping an eye on this, love any kind of rally car

Arwel

Its been a bit quiet on the car front the last few weeks due to lack of time and the house taking priority. Last night I managed a few hours though and started stripping the interior as it'll hopefully be going in for a cage to be fitted in the next couple of weeks. I must say that coming from being used to building and prepping a Pug 205, stripping this was simply fantastic. All the panels came off without bending or breaking and none of the clips broke so its a case of so far so good with the little Fiesta. Quick pics of progress are here

_Jimmy_

Nice canvas to start with, would the regs for the road rally be similar to Group N?

I've seen a few of the M-sport prepped ones for sale recently and wondered about having a go at something.

Arwel

You could use a full M-sport prepped car providing you put the major interior trim pieces back in. So, rear seats, roof lining, door cards, rear cards and carpet and it would be good to go pretty much. The engine would be fine as they retain the standard inlet manifold and thats about it really.

JayCC

So if you use the original intake and outlet, you could still change cams, exhaust, air filter and map it?

PaulinhoT

Looking good so far, can't wait to see more updates

Arwel

Yup, you can change the exhaust manifold too so there is some power to be freed up.

Arwel

Little more done today. Passenger airbag removed, radio removed and some more sealer removed from the floor where the cage will be mounted. Next big update will more than likely be when the cage is fitted.

Arwel

Got sent through some photos last night from the fabricator. Its not quite finished yet but it gives you the idea of what it's going to look like.

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Cool project. At least you wont have to worry about finding any rust cause normaly mk6 fiestas are ok.

Arwel

That's alright then as after playing with Peugeots for the last few years I'm sure I've had more than my fair share of rust haha.

Not much more to update other than the car will be back in the next day or two all done so we can move onto the rest of the interior. Main things that need doing next are to fit weld in seat rails, paint the cage, move fuel lines and brake lines inside, convert the handbrake to a fly off hydraulic one and fit a kill switch, few other aux switches and the pull cables ready for the extinguishers and kill switch.

Arwel

Not had a little update in a while. We had the car back form the fabricator a few weeks ago but with lack of time we haven't had a chance to do much untill last weekend. We took the cage back out to paint it so thats all been done. Here is a sneak pic of the rear part of the cage.



Next job is to weld in some seat rails for the bucket seats and make a bracket for the cylinder to convert the handbrake to a hydraulic one. Before we re fit the interior we will also fit new fuel lines and brake lines which will run inside the car so their nice and protected.

Rowe

cage looks spot on

gjh

You're not too far away from me (near Aberaeron) Big road rally fan, (we do have the best area for it). I'll be watching this with interest.

gjh

Similar in some ways yes, but you must have a full interior (you can get away with sound deadening mind), the engine can be modified, as long as the inlet stays stock (that includes throttle body and injectors), but headwork, cams, bottom end work, dry sumping aftermarket ECUs, higher compression pistons etc is all permitted. Long storke cranks are permitted, but you wont be able to enter some championships (the welsh one for example) with them, although you will be able to enter the rallies. Transmission wise straight cut and bog boxes are allowed, but no sequential shift (not any more, you were allowed 5 or so years ago), suspension is fairly free, as are breaks, just no carbon ceramics, bonnet and bootlids are fine, as are windows (but leave the stock ones in, its a pain for marshals to sign time cards with those little slider things! The car must be one colour but stripes where fitted from the factory are ok (fiesta ST, escort mk1 RS2000 etc), no big arches and only 4 forward facing beams (so stock lights plus one pair of spots, apart from the some of the Midlands which don't allow spots at all). Wheels are fine provided they fit in the standard arches, tyres in Wales must be E marked but elsewhere you don't need to worry. Hope that clears things up a little.

Arwel

Yes of course. The area where we are is truly fantastic for the sport isnt it. Ah right, The car is closer than you think as its currently in Betws just outside Lampeter and me and Helen live in Cefneithin. Im in the process of planning my shed to go in the garden so it can come down then.

gjh

That is close! Ye cant beat the road rallying round here, got a debut event in mind for the car?

Arwel

We're not too sure yet. It depends on how quick it comes together and what route we want to go down. We may go stage rallying first and then go from there but February would be a good month to start with as there are a few events on in that month.

Arwel

It's been a while since the last update but we are still plugging away at it slowly. This weekend we've put seat rails in and the roll cage is back in loosely for now but we're going in the right direction.

gjh

Ah cool, you'll have to stick an entry in for the bro caron then! (I was meant to be the entries secretary but I think they're changing the system so the ones who are really good with computers are sorting it)

Arwel

That is one option if we start with road rallying. Although the event wasn't kind to us in 2015 as we rolled our Peugeot 205 just outside Ciliau Aeron

sgracing

i have a sadev plate diff from a msport group n st rally car , new never been used

would go nicely in this

gjh

Oh bugger! I'm in Dihewyd so that really is more or less on my doorstep!

Arwel

Managed to get a few hours on the car this morning. Got her in the air, wheels
Off and gave everything a check over. Few little niggles to sort on top of what is getting
changed anyway but nothing major. Hydraulic handbrake has been put in
Place but will be properly fitted later. Also dropped the fuel tank ready to re route the fuel lines inside the car. Progress should speed up in the new year now as we are sourcing the replacement parts required.

gjh

Coming on good!

Arwel

There has been a fair bit of progress lately. No photos as of yet as its all been boring stuff really. Fuel and brake lines are now running inside, fuel tank guard has been made and fitted, sump guard is in the process of being made, dash panel for switches and master switch is taking shape along with all the wiring that goes with it. Windows have had the safety film applied and there has been some weight saving going on too. I bought one set of 15" wheels which will be re painted when i get round to them and we have bucket seats, belts and other rally related things on order from Nicky Grist which should be here soon. The only dilemma I have is suspension. As the car is going to be used for both tarmac and gravel I am in need of something that can cope with both. My two realistic options are some fixed Bilstein B8 shocks which are similar to what I had on my previous Peugeot 205 gti which proved to be a good all rounder on all surfaces or I go for the new Avo R1 coilover kit which has multiple damping settings as well as being height adjustable. A decision is to be made on this at the moment.
Our first rally in the car is hopefully going to be the Tour of Epynt on 12th of March so we have a lot of work to do as I want the car finished to is phase 1 spec by the end of February so it can have some mileage put on it.

Arwel

Plenty of work been going on the last few days. We were hoping to do Tour of Epynt but we wont be ready for that one. Progress so far is the new Bilstein suspension has gone on, the dash panel and all wiring is nearly complete, cage is all bolted in place permanently and the interior has started going back in. Sump guard mount has been fabricated and fitted to. Next job is to get the seats in place so we can see where to mount the nav foot rest and the plumbed in extinguisher.

_Jimmy_

Good progress.

I don't know much about rallying but would have thought Bilsteins were a bit on the firm side, mine is quite crashy with them. I know I have seen a few rally ST150s with them on though.

Rowe

Mint event Epynt is! i love going there to watch/marshall
why don't you just have two suspension setups? swap to the coilovers for tarmac events?

i can't imagine a set of b8's costing a great deal second hand

Arwel

I opted for Bilsteins as its what we've used previously on other cars and it was very much a case of "if it aint broke, dont fix it". They've proved to be great in the past so I'm sure they will do the job for us.

Epynt is a fantastic place, gutted to have to pull our entry for the Tour but we shall do one or two later on in the year up there.

Arwel

Last night the car was given its competition log book. This involves it being checked over by an MSA scrutineer to ensure it complies with all the relevant regulations. With the car now log booked we are one step closer. Finishing touches are being done and it will be out of the garage at some point over the weekend ready for an MOT in the week and a few little test runs ahead of the first rally on the 9th of April. Couple of quick picks of the interior coming together and the first set of wheels that we've had done by the Wheel Specialist in Swansea

Arwel

Competed on our first rally in the new car yesterday. After nearly 18 months away from competition we were aiming to just get around and get a finish. We managed to finish 15th overall and 3rd in our class which was fantastic. Had one or two "moments" as I started getting more confident with the car and finding its limits and finding my feet again after some time away from competing but other than that it was all good.
Our only issue was that the engine seemed to like oil and we found ourselves topping it up after each stage so I think the engine will now come out for a freshen up and have a few tweaks made for some more power. Couple of images below of it all done and I'll hopefully get some in car footage up later on. :thumb:

M K

iTrader: (9)

nice work

Arwel

Here is SS1 from the rally at the weekend. First event in nearly 18 months and first competitive run for the car too.

Here is SS3, I started pushing a little more and finding my feet with the car on this one

Arwel

Last stage from the rally on Sunday. Think this was our quickest run of the day as we properly started settling into the car.

PaulinhoT

Some cracking videos, thanks for sharing them, I enjoyed that

Arwel

Awesome, glad you enjoyed those.

We'll have a little break before the next event now but plenty to keep us busy unitl then.

PaulinhoT

Sounds good, I subscribed to your YouTube channel, and have enjoyed watching them. I like the big push on the last stag of the event

Arwel

Thanks Paulinho, For some reason I had to set up a new account with you tube but if you search for Arwel Davies then my old channel is there somewhere with more in car from the Proton in Wales Rally GB and other tarmac rallies in the Peugeot.

The rally was a non speccy event and there have been very limited photos from the photographer who was there but here are a quick couple.