Yesterday the Taupo Classic was run in the forests out of Taupo. It was the first event for the beige sunny I've been building up over the last few months as some of you know. It was also the first rally for both myself and my navigator, and were very happy to finish 3rd in class and 14th overall!
The car performed well all day and we managed to keep it on the road to finish without incident which was my goal for the event. To get a class placing was a bonus!!!
I have to say a big thanks to my girlfriend/navigator Sarah, and crew Andy, John, Gail and Rob who all pitched in on Friday to finish the car at 7pm!! and then on Saturday servicing and supporting us. An awesome day and I can't wait for the next one although the bank balance needs some time to recover first!

Well done Morgan, I'm glad all of the hard work and long hours paid off for you.

Have any "moments" you want to share with us

Morgan I have posted up Robs pic's...........

nice pics nzdatman. excellent achievement just finishing your first rally, let alone a result like 3rd in class! top stuff. the roads look nice too...

cheers guys.
Gary, we started out pretty conservatively as I have had very little experience on gravel and had finishing in mind! By stage three we started to pick it up a bit and Sarah was starting to get a bit nervous. No real moments until the last stage- had a couple of tankslappers- the sunny really needs quicker steering, and after that we decided to back off a bit and just take it to the finish.
We found a few things that the car needs doing to it to make it a bit better, and when I get a bit more experience up and learn to keep the boot in a bit more, we should go alright. hopefully!
the roads were quite rough in places and a lot of cars didn't finish, which no doubt helped us achieve the results we got.
The best part for me was the finish straight on the last stage, we were flat out in 5th, I think we saw 165kph on the terratrip which feels pretty quick on a gravel road! With the 4.9 diff the speedo in the dash is way out, but it was funny to see it pointing down to the 'k' in km/h!!!

Like I said before Morgan... well done to you and your partner, that really is impressive for a first outing.

Any plans for how you are going to quicken your steering, I can send you a photo of how I did mine.

Cheers Gary, for the steering, I have had various ideas, myfavourite is finding one which fits that is shorter, like S12 silvia P/S arms, but they bring the strut in relative to the balljoint and I don't want t lose any negative camber or track. I want to check out 280ZX ones, but this is all a bit of a long shot.
A common method here it to cut and reweld them, not strictly legal but the people who recommend doing this say they have run them for ten years and have never heard of them breaking.
The other method I am considering is to make some new ones from scratch. Get the profiles cut then machine them.
I would be very keen to see how you did it, photos would be great!
Also I really need to stiffen the body shell expecially in the strut tower areas- after the first stage the strut tops were mushrooming up and there are signs of panels moving at the joins...

#### hot mate.
Well done.
i navigate for a friend of mine. But we do grouse stage times but keep having breakdowns.
We havnt done an event for about 2 years now
Well done again
Coops

Great stuff Morgan, First event and first finish, a lot of us longtime rally boys cant say the same
I'm glad the "rally car in 7 days" made it through the rigors of its first competitive run Good stuff.