Astra GTE 16V REBUILD

A few more pics in no particular order

He does know how to pilot a car. Fair play to the boy. I am also a bad passenger, aswell as a bad navigator. There’s not way I would have wanted to do this event.

Looking at the speed of some in-car footage on YouTube, I don’t think I would want to drive it either.

I did do an in depth report on the Gilberns too but the internet ate it 😩. I may try again tomorrow

👍. The bottom end was only rebuild last year. I think the main issue was the sump leaking onto the exhaust after the yumps.

Yesterday was the West Wales Rally Spares, Jaffa stages. I was once again in the Astra in the navigators seat



We were seeded 16, and with some quick cars out we were praying for rain. Which we fortunately did get.

All ready to go with new Hoosier wets on the front.



Due to the amount of standing water, some alterations to the stages were made to cut out the flooded areas. The main issue with the standing water was that the access road to the spectator parking was flooded. I don’t think it was impassable, but there are deep drainage ditches on either side of the road that you could no longer see. Obviously this would make it quite dangerous so at the last minute the rally was run with no spectators sadly.

Stage 1

It was wet, but not as wet as we wanted. First loop went really well, but on the second loop we caught a mk2 Escort that wouldn’t move over and let us past. We caught his bumper as he slowed to a virtual stop to let us past. We ended the stage in 6th overall and first in class but had lost a lot of time.

Sean is quick from the get go, where other people take it easier to check the lay of the land. We had lost our bonus time as next stage they’ll all be going quicker.



Stage 2

A repeat of stage 1. Still not as wet as we’d like. Pretty uneventful run. We caught a 106 kit car, but he pulled over at the first available spot so no real time lost. I think we dropped to 8th overall and were now 2nd in class.

Stage 3

Again uneventful. We caught a road rally Escort but he pulled over so no time lost. Sean struggled to get 4th gear at one point so he adjusted the linkage back in service.

I think now we were down to 9th overall and 3rd in class

Stage 4

This was a repeat of stage 3. First loop was good but half way through the second loop we lost all gears with only 4th remaining. We drove as quick as you can whilst stuck in 4th taking all the slow speed corners as wide as possible to keep the speed up.

We lost a bit of time but not as much as you’d think. At the finish control we found the linkage had fallen off completely but could select 1st by hand on the linkage to get it back into service.

We put the linkage back together and I gave it a big boy tighten to stop it coming loose again.

Stage 5

Shorter stage no incidents, but the guy 2nd in class had issues so we were up to 2nd in class.

Stage 6

A repeat of stage 5 but it was tipping it down with a lot more standing water. We’d finally got the weather we wanted but by this time the 2 new wet tires that Sean had bought were shot. They were basically slicks with no tread to disperse any water. We had nothing to gain by going for broke but everything to lose if we binned it. The decision was made to just get it home so a sensible drive ensued. The car was still all over the road as it aqua planed on the water but we finished with no incidents.

So a wet but thoroughly enjoyable day was had leaving us with our first top ten finish!! 10th overall and 2nd in class.

Thanks Mr Price.

Sadly it seems that Michelin have stopped making wet tires for some reason. They are getting difficult to locate. Sean reports the Hoosiers are really god also. It there £250 per corner.

I don’t think the car is good enough to attract any real sponsorship. He’s also hoping to get the V8 Viva out this year.

Saw a few clips of this on the Jaffa rally on YouTube earlier. Looked go be going better than the "fast" cars on the twistier bits.

That video does show how Sean attacks every corner. It’s like that from the first corner to the last. No warm up.

Sean and the Astra were out again on Showground Stages at Builth Wells. I was not. I didn’t fancy it as I thought it would be just driving around a series of car parks. But it looks like I was wrong. He had a navigator who could navigate in the silly seat.

As can be seen, another front bumper (and a rear too) died in the effort to finish 10th overall and 1st in Road Rally class. I don’t know any details of the day, but here are some pics I took off FB.