Circuit of Ulster over. Must say it was one my favourites, which I'm kinda surprised to say. Road miles where grand (apart from the odd cyclist) Some great roads for the kinda driving these mx5s are designed for haha. Weather was unbeatable and tests were mostly good. Hopefully an annual event. Good to get out again!
Lanes/Targa Rallies
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Gaz86
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Over?? Didn't know it had even started!! Awh man! Why are these never advertised? I'd definitely have gone 
Over?? Didn't know it had even started!! Awh man! Why are these never advertised? I'd definitely have gone
Over yes but there was no shortage of advertising. Plastered all over Facebook, few radio interviews and adverts and promo video on YouTube and Facebook. Nothing in the papers that I know of though.
Great event. 121 cars, 18 tests, 200 road miles and t-shirt weather. Over 13 grand raised for Air Ambulance in the end.
As @cauld1 said, ANICC website has info but facebooks the best place in my opinion.
FM155
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Yeah, was a good event overall but we didnt do that great compared to you or Davy! No hydro again as i threw the head up with the brackets i had bought to put the willwoods on the rear. Not keen on them at all and ran out of time to do much else so it was cable only. Me and the son were rusty too as we havent been out since the a29 last year. I wasnt keen on some of the tests but that was probably because the cable handbrake wouldnt pull us round on dry tarmac. The best tests were the ones at toome by far. We only started to get our sh1t together towards the end of the day but really enjoyed it overall.
FM155
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What's wrong with your handbrake? I have the same wilwood setup and is very good. Only thing I would change is the Taiwan engineered master cylinder for something that would pass EU standards lol.
I liked most of the tests. Didn't like the 360's on the road in bombradagh and springwell. Lost a good 20/25 seconds in springwell because of them. Didn't like the wee short 25 second test in ballycastle. Just too short. The rest I thought were all good, even the ones that looked hard on paper.
Hopefully doing Dungannon and Cookstown before a few months off to repair the damage to the bank account lol
I liked most of the tests. Didn't like the 360's on the road in bombradagh and springwell. Lost a good 20/25 seconds in springwell because of them. Didn't like the wee short 25 second test in ballycastle. Just too short. The rest I thought were all good, even the ones that looked hard on paper.
Hopefully doing Dungannon and Cookstown before a few months off to repair the damage to the bank account lol
Gaz86
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Facebook is very hit and miss, unless you have come across the ANICC facebook page before you likely won't see anything. I've bookmarked the ANICC calendar and will go looking for a Facebook page
I never listen to radio, they play too much garbage for my liking lol and YouTube is similar to Facebook in the same sense so unfortunately I didn't come across any of that either Ah well, now I know where to look FM155
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I had a rally design cylinder connected up to the main circuit but it just didn't work properly because we couldn't get the lever ratio's right on the standard lever. Looked great and installed very discreetly in the centre console but just didn't wok out of the box. I'm pretty sure that with a bit of development it could be made to work but after seeing that none of the clubs or scrutineer's seem to have a problem with vertical lever's, that's just simpler so I'm going with that. I bought the willwood calipers but they foul on the standard wheels with the smaller rear discs and I'm not super keen on the brackets. So, short term, I'm going to put the vertical lever in and tee it into the standard system for dungannon and see about doing something different bracket wise for the willwood calipers as I really want to have a separate handbrake circuit..
Yeah, we struggled with some of the 360's on benbradagh and springwell too. The ones down the bottom end of benbradagh were much easier though where there was a bit more room. Lack of practice / skill on my part for that sort of test but still enjoyed it. I could have had a whole day made up of the tests in Demanse and been happy. Good event and if they can pick up more test locations, all the better.
Entry in for dungannon so hopefully get a run out there.
Aye, we thought it was a very good event for a first running. Tho I think that small Ballycastle test was for the view more than anything. We were dreading the pits test after seeing the diagram but it turned out to be great.
The only problem I had with brakes was running out of them on that Benbradagh test!.. just about got stopped at finish with smoke wafting out through the wheels and lovely blue discs all round!
We were amazed at 2nd considering 2 or 3 major blunders on very simple tests (Demesne 2 & cochranes).. Definitely threw away a rare chance at the win there as some of those slaloms would've suited the MX5 more than the MR2.
Back to handbrakes, whilst our standard lever on the master cylinder has been great, I,m still tempted to go for the vertical lever too, mainly because I can't trust the car sitting parked on the hydraulic... and on a steep hill 1st gear can't really be trusted to hold it either.
@Liam Shaw , get a link up of your 'chicken shed' test!..
The only problem I had with brakes was running out of them on that Benbradagh test!.. just about got stopped at finish with smoke wafting out through the wheels and lovely blue discs all round!
We were amazed at 2nd considering 2 or 3 major blunders on very simple tests (Demesne 2 & cochranes).. Definitely threw away a rare chance at the win there as some of those slaloms would've suited the MX5 more than the MR2.
Back to handbrakes, whilst our standard lever on the master cylinder has been great, I,m still tempted to go for the vertical lever too, mainly because I can't trust the car sitting parked on the hydraulic... and on a steep hill 1st gear can't really be trusted to hold it either.
@Liam Shaw , get a link up of your 'chicken shed' test!..
FM155
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No times were posted for Benbradagh or the Chicken Sheds in the end. I guess a lot of people went off in Benbradagh on the first 360 left cone going down the hill, we saw three go off there while we were waiting our turn. The chicken sheds test ended up being a bit of a staging session so I guess they just abandoned the idea of timing it properly. See if this works for Liam's Chicken Shed run..
Yes I also made quite a few mistakes but think that's normal for first event of the year.
Yes there were problems with the clocks in test 3 and 18 unfortunately. Probably benefited from not having test 3, maybe lost out on 18 though. Swings and roundabouts.
Yes there were problems with the clocks in test 3 and 18 unfortunately. Probably benefited from not having test 3, maybe lost out on 18 though. Swings and roundabouts.
@FM155 Can't think of anyone who has used Wilwood callipers on an mx5 with the standard lever, so can't give you any cylinder sizes. Vertical though, as far as i know, everyone uses a 0.7 (assuming the levers about a foot long). Seems to be perfect for that setup. Don't be afraid to have the lever on the driver side of the tunnel, plenty of room in a mk2,
FM155
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Was good craic alright although we failed the second test and lost 20 places in a heartbeat. We had pretty epic clutch slip on the third test heading down the straight with clutch smoke coming out the back of the bonnet but it calmed down a bit after that only to return on the last loop of tests. Rear brakes wouldn't bite on the first loop, better on the second and back to being a bit poor on the third. Bloody slippy in places and super grippy in others.. Who cares, was good craic anyway.
Who cares, was good craic anyway. @John_MK5 ...HALLION!!!... lol. That steering rack wont seize any day soon anyway!
Wasn't a bad rally. Could've kept going round tests 2 and 3 all day and been happy. Few wee blind crest yumps were class. The fast lane was good for a bit of excitement but everyone was beating the bogey by the end of the day. Lot's of bogeys meant anyone with one of the harsh penalties had no chance of climbing back up results, tho that worked in our favour on the day I suppose.
Bit of a break on the Targa calender now but there's the Autotest Drivers Club's Lee Lucas Trial in June which is a great event!
Wasn't a bad rally. Could've kept going round tests 2 and 3 all day and been happy. Few wee blind crest yumps were class. The fast lane was good for a bit of excitement but everyone was beating the bogey by the end of the day. Lot's of bogeys meant anyone with one of the harsh penalties had no chance of climbing back up results, tho that worked in our favour on the day I suppose.
Bit of a break on the Targa calender now but there's the Autotest Drivers Club's Lee Lucas Trial in June which is a great event!
FM155
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I'd be keen on doing the lee lucas again this year but I have a lot of plans for the car which may take too long to complete in time for that. We'll see.
Actually just noticed that we were down as getting the bogey on Eagles Rock too, the one with the slalom in it but I didn't think we were that tidy through there. If we could just keep clear of mistakes, we'd do ok.
Actually just noticed that we were down as getting the bogey on Eagles Rock too, the one with the slalom in it but I didn't think we were that tidy through there. If we could just keep clear of mistakes, we'd do ok.
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John_MK5
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haha its all about the entertaining for me, i cant afford to make it go faster so ill make it go sideways instead lol
RallyCiaran
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The Dungannon Moonraker rally is on Friday night 22nd September, so less than 2 weeks away. It is a navigation rally with a few special tests thrown in for fun. The navigation will be kept very easy so should be no problem to any of the targa crews. It's not very often that you get to do special tests at night so it will be a bit of new experience. Entry is only £25 so an evening out rallying for very little money, a standard road will do spot on, no need for expensive equipment. Navigation rallying is a fairly small group of people so feel free to ask any questions about it and I'll try and answer them for you, it's not scary and it's a great motorsport to get started in.
Club page:
2017 Moonraker Rally
Facebook event page:
Club page:
2017 Moonraker Rally
Facebook event page:
RallyCiaran
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You would want to be there about 7pm, first car will usually start at 9pm, should be all wrapped up by midnight.
RallyCiaran
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Just one weeks to go now before the Moonraker on the 22nd, still time to get your entry in if you want to join in the nights fun. http://www.dungannonmotorclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Moonraker-Regs-Entry.pdf
big_pete
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Thinking of getting back into this, might buy a puma?
I'm not a good enough driver for rwd lol
I'm not a good enough driver for rwd lol
RallyCiaran
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You need to be quick with your entry these days, the next targa sold out in 4 hours!
just get an MX5 dude, you'll be fine