Fabcar

I thought I might put up a series of posts on the Fabcar 1-Day Rally over the next few days, as there's a l0t to say. So to start with, an overall review, then I'll chuck in a few bits and pieces (hopefully with videos) on the various stages later on. I can also provide the results once they get posted on-line.

Overall the event was excellent - good stages, well organised, good volunteers etc. Getting between stages did require some long drives (top to tail, the two furthest events were 50km apart) but this is Perth - everything is far apart.

What was also really good was the variety - the recent Dutton seemed to call out every man and his dog who owned a Nissan Skyline, Mitsi Lancer Evo what-ever, or Subaru WRX. This event at least had some older (i.e. much older) muscle cars, the odd Jag, Fiats, even a nicely sorted (and well driven) Proton Satria. We had a Suzuki Swift GTi, a few MX-5's (supercharged, turbocharged and NA), an MGB, a Porsche, plus a few Commodores and Falcons to provide the V8 tyre smoke that makes it so much fun. But at least it wasn't a processing of cars that all looked the same, sounded the same and drove the same as each other.

I think that was the result of the 1-day format - older (and maybe more fragile) cars (and drivers?) felt they could participate in 1 day event without risking too much through over-stressing the car, or if something did go bang on the first run, they hadn't paid thousands in entry fees and setup. Plus reduced wear on tyres, brakes and other consumables made it a more affordable event. Apparently there was some surprise at how quickly it sold out (a week) - personally I'm not surprised at all. It seems an ideal format for those who want to have a bit of fun, but don't have their own pit crew and sponsors.

For a day with 17 stages, there were only a few hiccups - a few stages where the queues to run ended up being quite long (say, 15-20 cars), and the final stage had to be cancelled as we just ran out of time. Nothing serious, and certainly nothing to spoil the day.

Most importantly, there were no injuries or major accidents (at least that I'm aware of). We did lose one of the Birkin brethren when Blair's right-hand half-shaft snapped going down the drags - no major damage and a relatively easy fix. It just failed at a weld - can happen, I suppose. The effect was that drive was only going to one wheel, and the LSD simply let go and basically provided no torque to the one remaining shaft - which is probably a good thing otherwise it may have snapped as well, or at least seriously stressed it for a later failure.

One of the Jags also re-arranged the landscape somewhat on one of the stages at the Motorplex. What was interesting was he managed to shift a fairly chunky concrete curb some distance, and kick up a lot of dirt, yet when I spoke to him later (as he was queuing up for another stage) he said he may need a wheel alignment. That's what you get with an older, all steel car - do that in a Birkin and you'll be re-building your front end ;-)

All of the stages were on good quality road surfaces - apart from one. I (and the other Birkins) piked on this, which was held in a paddock laid with straw. Looking at the way the other cars (particularly the heavy, rear-wheel V8s) were cutting up the ground, the amount of dust and sand being thrown up, and the obviously rutted nature of the ground, we made a decision that 50mm ground clearance and open cars weren't really set up for this, and bailed out for a DNS. It looked like it would have been a lot of fun if you were in something a little higher, and little heavier, and a little better sealed (ie with windows). Quite a few entrants made it to the next round with large chunks of the local lawn embedded in various bits of the car.

The electronics all worked well - I have yet to review the PerformanceBox output, but we noted a fastest 0-100 time of 5.4 seconds, which given the two people in the car wasn't bad. I'll have to give that a go on track later with just me in it. The camera also did OK -except I think it was having problems with the white helmets in front of it, so the white balance is way off and everything looks blue. Occasionally it recovers, but most of the footage looks like it was shot underwater.

So, overall I'd say it was a damn fine event and if they run it again, I'll be there.