What a shame, the Jersey Bounce is over for another year.
For those that do not know, The Jersey Bounce is very brisk, 300 mile
tsd rally run on forest fire trails in NJ.
For the 3rd year, I decided to run the Midget, and boy did we have FUN.
I had spent the week before, trying to check everything on the MG,
but work dictated that I did not have time to check the front
suspension, although it had been totally renewed before the MG 1000
rally in August this year.
We got to the start and after resgistration, I decided to jack the car
up and just quickly check the front suspension. It's lucky that I
did, because I noticed that a couple of bolts holding the front anti-roll
bar were not as tight as they should be. After fixing that small problem,
I noticed that there was a very small crack in the a-arm, just where the
front tube shocks attach to the a-arm. I decided that the crack was so small
that it probably would be okay.
Anyway we set off on the odo-leg peacefully, checking the gauges, listening
for any unusual clocks and felt that the car would last (this rally is a
notorious car breaker).
After setting off at very brisk 39 mph through narrow, sandy trails,
we felt good. However it was not long before we encountered our first
problem of the night. We were car 43, and by the time we were on the
course, most of the corners had been chewed up by the first 42 cars.
The corners were so chewed up in fact that there was at least 5-8 inches
of loose sand on each corner. Well we got stuck !. I tried to take a corner
wide because I saw that the inside of the corner would be impossible for
the MG, however taking the corner wide, left me with little space to complete
the corner. I hit the banking on the outside of the turn and when trying to
reverse out, found myself in 6 inches of loose sand, well and truely stuck.
Luckily the next car to come around the corner was a pick-up truck, to
which we attached our tow rope, and hey presto we were on our way again
within 4 minutes.
We hit the next few controls with good accuracy (a least for us, our standards
vary !), and then came problem number 2. we hit a YUMP fairly hard and
landed on the other side even harder. I heard a distict KLUNK and by the
next corner I found out what it was. It looks as if the gearbox mount snapped
and the gearbox had moved slightly sideways, leaving me with 1st and 2nd gear
OR 3rd and 4th gear. By moving the gearstick sideways, I could physically
move the gearbox, so at least I had all four gears, but maybe not all at the
same time !!!!.Due to the conditions of the roads, we decided that having
1st and 2nd gear was the best combination, after all I can get almost 45 mph
out of 2nd gear.
The next few controls also went well, we took a couple of time allowances
to help a couple of other contestants, one car was totally lost and
was looking at mileage instruction 69 when they should have been looking
at mileage instruction 89.1 !!! The other car had lost their exhuast
and we stopped to give then some bailing wire and string.
Because of the overnight rain, most of the water holes were full,
and from experience we found that the only way to go through them and not get
stuck, is to floor the accelerator. Well this worked for all the water
holes, except one. Hidden to the right side of one of the water holes was
a piece of a tree, and upon hitting it at about 35 mph, I heard a rather
large thump from the front right side of the suspension. Seeing as the half way
point was only a few miles up ahead, we decided not to stop and find
out if we had broken anything.
At the rest break, we found out that under certain circumstances,
wood can be stronger than steel. Remember that small crack in the a-arm ?
well the shock absorber had been totally ripped of the a-arm and
bent about 6 inches backwards. Surveying the damage, we decided that
we would not give up and continue on the second half. If how ever the
a-arm was getting worse, we would call it a day. Luck was on our side
and things improved on the second half. I had this do-or-die mentality
and really did not care if I damaged the car any more. The fun factor
went sky-high !!!! We had no problems to worry about, and managed to do
slightly better on the next few controls, except one. We stopped to
help someone out and took a 4.5 minutes T/A, except at the next control
my navigator forgot to hand in the T/A slip so we maxed out that control.
Unfortunatly the end of the Bounce came too soon, and we would have to
wait another year for it to happen all over again.
The following day, I started dismantling the front suspension and found that
the front a-arm is completely trashed and unsalvageable, luckily I have
3 spare one at home. As a caution to those who have the front tube conversion,
have a piece of thick steel welded into the the a-arm where the shock
is bolted to it. This seems to be a weak point and from past experience,
the a-0arms always seem to crack here (I have had to replace 3 a-arms
in 4 years)
It maybe that the Midget will get promoted (relagated ?) to the track in
the forcoming future. I just bought a Pro-Rally car, with which I hope
to do Pro-Rally next year. There was a talk recently about "Speed Costs Money",
I suppose I shall find out all about it very soon !!!!
Gerry
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