RE: Pat Richard - what happened?
here is more info (you should feel lucky - no one else is gettin the low down _ i am tired and beehatchy at the moment!)
no comment on the gearbox, however it does have 5 speeds and go clunk
this morning, we were on a cracker (passed 2 cars by the halfway point of the 60k-ish stage) AND THEN TOTAL AND COMPLETE BRAKE FAILURE. All the fluid peed out. I kept going, but then we couldn't stop (obviously) after the hbrake wore out. We still had 30k to go. Then the final time I tried to slow for a muddy 1st gear corner, (maybe 1km after total brake loss) I puntured a front. Stopped, changed the wheel, kept going, lost a lot of time, most fun was the road section (not). No brake fluid at all.
Then we ran 2 stages, first 2 in the rally that we could try on.
Then we bent the hub and lost all the brakes again. This time I had to stop as I thought "if i dont, we will DNF for sure" since every time I turned left the left rear locked up and bent itself more. We talked about it at the time. We decided to continue and get some seat time instead of retiring on the spot, but it meant sitting there and fixing it onsite. I plugged the brake line (took ages) and struggled to get a wheel back onto a bent hub. Lost more time. also failed to plug the line, but made it a bit better (i.e. was a smaller hole, so the pedal still goes to the floor but does it in a second instead of immediately). Had enough fluid for about 8 or 10 stops. Good enough to make it back to service.
Tonight at the Superspecial I tried a different setup, didn't work, but will try more stuff tomorrow.
So now, with the indignity of starting last, and being last for sure in the results, we will continue. But to set any times we will have to pass a lot of cars. Oh well.
-Pat
