Author: Geoff Wade (FDMC Media)

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Steering Column – FDMC Members at CAR-nival 25 – Roger Lane

Roger Lane writes:

Well, this year’s Abingdon’s Carnival Rally has taken place successfully for, would you believe, the 30th time and again enjoyed by all right down to the later runners. And mentioning later runners, here’s a summary of the stories of their day from crews who proudly entered under the FDMC flag.

Car 44 – Tom Eckett and Olly Wilkinson, BMW 318Ti
Tom spent the event regretting a lack of power for which he tried to compensate by super late braking and frequent use of the handbrake. Unfortunately, the handbrake cried enough on stage four resulting in the classic use of the Scandinavian flick!  There was no doubting the crew’s push as Tom is quoted as insisting that he could have improved his final 37th place overall if only the driver in the Alfa Romeo in front of them ‘ hadn’t been in the way ‘!
 
Car 51 – Chris Penny and Jude Penny, Citroen C2VTR
 
Chris insisted that his junction error on Stage 3 was a result of his co-driver calling right when, in fact , it was left. But that’s a driver’s classic and it was only Jude’s second event. Car suffered a mystery misfire on the last two stages leaving them finally 55th overall.
 
Car 56 – Dave Hockaday and Steve Frost, VW Golf GTi
This was Dave’s 10th Abingdon about which he was complimentary saying that, unlike many other venues, the tarmac surface was really good. Not that that helped on the first stage where they got a stage  maximum as a result of a fuel feed problem ( he had hoped that their failing to  complete a second lap would go unnoticed as the slow time suggested a correct stage ! . Otherwise had a drama-free run to finish 43rd.
 
Car 70 – Kevin Ambrose and Daryl Ambrose, Vauxhall Chevette HSR
Disaster – the car was leaking oil where it shouldn’t have done so retired to the imaginary bar early on before further damage was done.  
 
Car 82 – Jon Hunt and James Prowting, Honda Civic
Jon’s face couldn’t have beamed any wider as the rebuilt gearbox with different gears changed the driveability of the Honda ! No longer able to blame the car, he then criticized himself saying that his stage five was scruffy but lessening the fault as cold tyres were to blame! It was James second stage rally and now he just wants to do it himself! Finished with a smile 45th overall.
 
Car 83 – John Rutter and Lorraine Nixon ( blonde bombshell it said on the side of the car ! ), Opel Manta V6
With a rebuilt engine enjoying it’s maiden outing, John’s fingers were crossed. He started the day bright and breezy following a sleep in a tent overnight!  The gods weren’t smiling as, after a steady run  and on just  the last stage, the head gasket blew! Not a happy man.  They did nevertheless record a finish with 64th overall.
 
Car 98 ( so seeded as those were the numbers already attached to the doors ! ) – Dave Benjamin and Harriet Bennett, Escort RS2000
This was Harriet’s first rally and a test to see if her relationship with her boyfriend survived ! Well Dave gave it everything on his first event since last year including a spin on stage one and mega-late braking!  However fate took a hand again and on the very last stage, the engine said enough. Such a shame as it would have crowned their almost 4 weeks off work including having just returned from the TT on the Isle of Man!  
 
So this summarises infectious Club motorsport with its ups and downs but always a story to tell. And there will be yet more stories in the future to recount….
 
     

 

Posted by Geoff Wade, FDMC Media

 

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Steering Column – Membership Report Summer 2025 – Paul Prescott

Those of you who received the December 2024 magazine will have seen that I am looking for someone to replace me in the role of Membership Secretary. Well, encouragingly, I have had an expression of interest from a long standing and active member who I feel would be ideal to take on the role. However, should anyone else have been thinking they might enquire further, please let me know. You never know when circumstances might change, and there’s always the possibility to share tasks or help out in other ways. As I said in the last magazine, I’m not walking away from the job, but we need to identify someone to step into these shoes before the end of 2025. We finally managed to move house in March, and that continues to stretch me further, as downsizing is quite a traumatic process! Where am I going to store all those car parts and 50 years’ worth of trophies!!!

The sooner someone steps forward, the more time there will be for me to help with the handover. There’s plenty of scope for new ideas on how the job can be done, and certainly how newer technology can be incorporated to make the job even easier. In fact, the Committee have been considering adopting a managed membership package that can generate new memberships and renewals automatically on receipt of subscriptions with minimal oversight from Club officials, and issue electronic membership cards just like MSUK do with the basic competition licences. The aim is to trial the new system alongside the current during the latter half of this year. Again, if you want to know more, without commitment, please contact me at (almost) any time, by email, text, WhatsApp, Messenger, telephone (land line or mobile!) or even face to face. Challenge repeated!

Hopefully, you should all know when your membership is up for renewal and take action to ensure that you hold a current membership card and remain on the contacts list. This will ensure that you continue to receive notifications, such as when entries open for any forthcoming events. Of course, the easiest way to be sure that this happens is to set up a Standing Order with your bank. When I see that the club has received your subscription, I send out a new membership card to the address we hold for you.

Please have a think; do we have the most up to date address, email address and mobile number for you? Worth checking if you have changed any of these recently.

Those who choose to continue paying by cash, cheque or direct credit need to make the payment, and inform me in good time. I will do my best to get a new card out to you by return. If anyone needs their new card before I have seen their Standing Order or Direct Credit payment, please give me a call.

So, to remind you, the Farnborough District Motor Club Limited (Ltd.) Metro Bank account number is: 50856739 and the Sort Code is: 23-05-80.

The annual subscription remains at £20 for single membership, and £25 for joint membership with a “partner” from the same address. This has remained the same since around 2007!

Here’s the list of those I’ve not seen payment from yet through the March to June 2025 renewals period (as of 15th June 2025):

Due in March ’25: Daryl Ambrose (3040), Stephen Bowers (3450), Chris (+ Ian & Evan) Kent (3458), Jonathan Mason (3460).

Due in April ’25: Gerry Pennell (2263) We need an email address that works, please!, Simon Taylor & Katherine Tipple (2603), John Hoskins (3227), Mac Robinson (3362), Dan Young (3364), Bethany & Luke Frox (3416).

Due in May ‘25: Steve Wallace (2600), Mo Kader (3035).

Due in June ’25: Gordon & Elizabeth King (3370), Stuart Leach (3371), Dean Grimes (3427) Steven Hitchcock (3464).

You will need to send me your subscription soon, to ensure you remain on the mailing list, and get a new membership card.  After 3 months without renewing, your details will be removed from the mailing list.  If you have decided not to renew your membership, please send me a message to let me know.

We have signed up 24 new members since January 2025, so to them all: Welcome to FDMC; we hope to see you soon at a club social meeting or the next event.

Paul Prescott (FDMC Membership Secretary)

Posted by Geoff Wade, FDMC Media

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Steering Column – Sprinting the 1.6L EcoBoost Darrian – Mark Straker

Mark Straker writes:

After 12 months spent rebuilding the Darrian after a minor ‘off’, it was decided to compete in a couple of Sprints, before returning to rallying in Ireland.

First off was FDMC’s Rushmoor Sprint, with some very well organised weather by the club!

Running in ‘rally spec’ with the 34mm turbo restrictor fitted, the Darrian set fastest time on every timed run, ultimately setting FTD by nearly 2 seconds.

However, we had a few electronic niggles during the day, such as the radiator fans not working correctly, several instances when engine power was totally lost and then immediately reinstated, and also possibly a problem with engine boost.

So it was decided to enter the Abingdon Sprint, to see whether these issues had been resolved between the two Sprints.

The engine power loss turned out to be a faulty wheel speed sensor, causing one wheel speed reading to spike, resulting in the ECU seeing an instantaneous front/rear wheel speed difference of 160mph. This caused a massive traction control event, hence cutting the engine power very aggressively. This issue was easily resolved.

The radiator fans issue was present at the Rushmoor Sprint, but not at home either before or after the event – a strange one, so it was decided to attend Abingdon without any further investigative work.

The boost issue was initially thought to be related to a sluggish electronic wastegate, but with three of these having been tested in total, and with all three providing the same boost readings, this was then ruled out as being the cause.

After a lot of head scratching, two conclusions were drawn:

  1. |The further beyond 5,250rpm that the engine is revved, the more the ECU backs off the boost, to prevent the turbo from overspeeding – this is a feature of running the restrictor ahead of the turbo. What can happen is that if the air through the restrictor goes supersonic, then the turbo will spin out of control and disintegrate, so the ECU has to reduce the boost from a certain engine speed (approx. 5,250rpm), in order to prevent this from happening.
  2. If running a high target boost value of say 1.9bar, then the step up from perhaps 1.2bar (with the engine revved to maybe 6,000rpm) to 1.9bar is quite large, and sudden, with the restrictor preventing the turbo from drawing in enough air quickly enough to enable it to achieve the target boost. This turns out to simply be a feature of having to run the restrictor, and revving the engine too high, combined with a high target boost setpoint, resulting in significant fluctuations in manifold pressure.

So, onto Abingdon, and we were met with a dry day to start with, with slicks being used on both the practice and the first timed run.

The rear tyres were not in the best condition, with poor traction and poor lateral grip, so we expected to have sacrificed a few seconds as a result. However, we were surprised to see that after the first timed run we were sitting 8th Overall (from around 100 starters).

But then the rain came – and with it an opportunity to test various different boost, launch, traction and anti lag settings, to try and optimise the setup in wet conditions.

At this stage we swapped to Michelin MW1 tyres, which turned out to be excellent.

With a less aggressive anti lag setting, and with a lower target boost setting, the car was superb to drive, with the engine feeling very strong, with our wet fastest time only being 4 seconds slower than our dry timed run. Others had been much slower in the wet (or chosen not to run at all), and looking at the wet run times alone, we set fastest time overall on both.

The ability to vary launch, traction, boost and anti lag settings via dials within the car proved to be very useful, and apart from needing to find more suitable rear tyres for the dry, the car and engine now appear ready for a sterner challenge.

In terms of the issues encountered at Rushmoor, the radiator fans behaved perfectly all day at Abingdon (not sure what was going on there), and the wheel speed sensors worked perfectly, so we had no loss of engine power.

And in terms of the boost issue, as an experiment it was decided to run a lower target boost setting of 1.5bar, and to change gear at 5,500rpm in all gears. This resulted in hugely improved boost delivery, with an absolutely flat line of 1.5bar being achieved right through from corner exit in 2nd gear, to flat out in top gear, something we have never seen when revving the engine higher and when running a higher target boost setting.

It feels like this lower boost / lower revs combination provides more stable boost, but we shall continue to investigate whether a higher boost level may still be beneficial.

We were running with the 1.6L EcoBoost engine in rally spec at both Sprints, with the 34mm restrictor mounted ahead of the turbo, providing around 325bhp & 510Nm.

Straker Performance Engineering Ltd. was established to develop the Ford 1.6L EcoBoost engine for stage rallying, but we can in fact supply this engine, or kits of parts, for unrestricted road, sprint, hillclimb, or race use (currently providing around 400bhp in this spec).

Please find us on Facebook if you would like more information on this engine, which is proving to be on a par with the factory R5/Rally2 engines, and also reliable, with high mileages between planned rebuilds.

Posted by Geoff Wade, FDMC Media