Northern Rally

[acshortt5]

Originally Posted by TheJoyOfSix

I don't actually remmember trying very hard. After all, I did have the Mrs and Brat with me, the A1 was busy and it was raining...... Is there something wrong with your T5 or have you had it re-mapped by HLM..............?

No its just got the standard map on. It took me a while to make my way through all the traffic and then I didn't give it full throttle as I would have lit the front tyres up in the wet.

[foggyjames]

A few pics! Sadly I kept getting rain on the lens, so I gave up...and I spent a fair bit of time judging...so pictures are a bit 'selective'!






Gratuitous 740 content. Possibly the only two 740s with this bodykit in the country, and they both show up...








Coronas...too clean to be true. I was right...they'd been refurbed a couple of days before, apparantly. If you've ever tried cleaning a set, you'll know what I mean


One of those nasty anti-social moderator types objects to his forum browsing / ECU mapping session being interrupted


A certain blue thing (which missed out on a prize by a couple of percent...the 200s were a harsh class yesterday...)



I skipped the prize-winning moderator mugshots...due to concerns for public safety

cheers

James

[1stRaven]

Anyone posted these over at turbobricks?

[dan 244]

can we see the results of the scoring sheets for the 200 class to see how close they were, mine was the other blue one like steves. Just interested to know as I know my wheels need a re-spray, and what effect that may have had on the result. I have to say it must have been a hard thing to judge, as they were all high standard.

Great day out, despite the heavy rain on the journy home, first time my car has been wet in the three years I have owned it! Still it had a good wash and leather the folowing monday night, and a 10 mile drive to circulate some air to dry out the creses before putting back in the garage alongside the other one.

[Steve and his 244]

Hi Dan, me being me, I found this out about 5 minutes after the awards were given out!

The 200 series results went:

1st: Pete in his yellow '78 244
2nd: Greg with the red '89 240GL
3rd: Me
4th: You
5th: Roger with the silver GLE.

Personally I think those are rediculous results though, Your car is wayyyyyy better than mine - most engine bay parts on my car have been resprayed and polished so they might look better at first glance than yours, but yours is completely original and unrestored. Also my car has the non original features like the virgos etc etc. In my opinion You should have been 3rd and me be 4th, but nevermind.

Your wheels DEFINITELY brought down he score you got on your car. If your wheels were resprayed and the engine bay was a bit more "detailed" you would have got at least 2nd IMO.

It was sooooo close though for the 200 series class. I think there was one point between my car and gregs GL (2nd place) and one of the things they marked my car down on was 2 scotchloks near the indicators in the engine bay. Thats how close it was!!

Steve

[foggyjames]

I was one of the two judges who had the difficult task of deciding between the 200s. 80% is "as new", and all of the top four were around 90%. That should give you some idea of the standard. I don't have the numbers to hand, but if memory serves correctly there were around 6 points spanning those four cars. In almost any other class that day, all four would have been winners. Roger's car may have come last, but it again would have done very well in almost any other class.

It was very, very close between the two blue cars. IIRC, the *only* thing which put Steve's ahead were the slightly rusty wheels. I'd hate for you guys to take it too seriously, though. It's just supposed to be a bit of fun, and we were admiring all five cars. I take my hat off to the lot of you!

The red car surprised us a little. Being a late model, it didn't grab our attention quite like the older ones did, but we struggled to find anything much wrong with it.

The yellow 244 did have some minor faults at the rear (touch-up pen on the OSR, plus bumper trims that didn't quite fit)...but the overall standard was so good (particularly under the bonnet) that we felt it deserved the win, given its age.

Having said that...in my opinion...anyone scoring over 80% seriously needs to get out more Nothing I own would get close!

cheers

James

[1stRaven]

Originally Posted by foggyjames

.... Nothing I own would get close to getting to the event

cheers

James

Fixed it for you James.

[TheJoyOfSix]

And I was the other poor sod who had to do the judging.....

As I recall Roger's car scored 79% which is as near as dammit saying it was 'as new'. It was high enough to win 1st place in many of the other categories. However, in the 200 class 93% was needed to win, with the other three cars being 92, 91 and 89% (according to my addled memory). To be honest all 5 cars should have got a prize as they were seperated by petty issues that are peculiar to the judging system. as Foggy says there is a mark for 'as new', but it isn't the highest possible score - for that you have to improve on Volvo's factory efforts. With paintwork it isn't that difficult - polish out the 'swirl' marks and create a babies bum smooth finish and you've got full marks, but how do you improve on the interior?? Foggy and I decided to accept 'pimping' or the upgrading of the interior by genuine accesories as the only way an interior could be improved. Likewise engine bays got extra points for such things as polished carbs or rocker covers as they are 'better' than factory finish. These small nuances were the only way we were able to differentiate between the 5 cars. As Steve said we got to the stage where the fact that his rocker cover breather hose had been cable-tied on and that his rear light loom had scotchlocks in mean that he lost the points that would have gained him second place. Yes, we were that sad in our judging..........!

[dan 244]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the coments, it was a great day out and was glad to see 5 such good standard 200 s in a row. It was very close and thank you both for the hard task of judging. I must clean up my wheels, and look forward to seing everyone at the next show.

I know exactly what you mean about gregs car it is so detailed, and the red paint is a good colour to deep shine, and so it seams are the plastic bumpers that you can see your face in, but the older ruber bumper models atract your atention more (alough I have some of each).

[foggyjames]

It seems I made a slight error...90% is "as new" in all categories (body (metal), trim (plastic, lights, wheels, etc), engine bay, interior, boot)....in other words, 18/20 in each category.

14/20 (in each category) is "normal for this age"...and particularly in the engine bay it's easy to lose a lot of marks quite quickly. Anything above 14/20 average (i.e. 70%) is a good result if you ask me.

cheers

James