Last modified: 14/07/2002

No 83 Crew Service Crew

Peugeot 309 GTi 16v Aron Brown Andrew Mitchell George Cooke / Lawrence Fowler

It's that time of year again. The time when Aron and Andrew decide that it is time that they ought to do a rally together again. Time for George to make sure that he has a great supply of spare parts. Lets just have a quick recap of this duo's track record; the last event they did they slid sideways into a fence and tried to keep it quiet, their previous event - they snapped a drive shaft. Just note the date of this event: the 13th.

We arrived at Abingdon airfield in mid afternoon sunshine. We were immediately impressed with the size of the venue and ampful tarmac perimeter tracks. We found a secluded part of grassed area and set up camp.

After a brew, the car was presented at noise and then scrutineering. Once through scrutineering, George and Lawrence hijacked the car for a spot of autotesting. The two autotest stages were there just for a bit of fun, so we "had a bit of a play". On the way back to the tents we noticed a clicking noise coming from the front of the car. "that'll be grass wrapped round the drive shafts" suggested Lawrence.

Back at camp, the car was jacked up - no grass! Furter examination revealled a knocking vibration from the gearbox end cover. This was removed, but a visual inspection revealed nothing untoward.

Over a barbequed supper and a couple of beers, we could only think that the clutch release bearing had gone in some way. There was nothing we could do about it now so we'd let it be.

After a  breakfast of bacon butties and coffee, the service barge was moved to the Service Area, and the car given a final once over; adjust harnesses, clean windows, tape up lights...

Aron and Andrew joined the queue for the start of stage one and George and Lawrence relocated to better spectationg positions (George on the roof of the van, Lawrence up against an enclosure with the camera).

The car came through the complex obediently, the low profile rubber doing an excellent job of steering the car to where Aron was pointing it. A few seconds later, they were on their second lap of the tarmac stage.

Apparently, whilst Aron and Andrew were out of sight of the service area, a conversation inside the car car went along the lines of:

Aron, "I can't get second gear".
Andrew, "Yeah, sure".
Aron, "I can't get third gear now".
Andrew, "Oh ****"

George and Lawrence saw the car come through the complex for the second time, much slower than the first. They crossed the flying finish and stopped at the stop line and stalled. The car would not start. It would appear that the gear box was locked in two gears at once. The only way to move the car was to jack up the front and carefully tow the car with a recovery vehicle. Our rally was over, the gear box was seized.

The journey home was a sad affair.

Its been a week now since the event, and the gearbox has been removed from the car. Second and third gear have no teeth, and the selectors are mangled. The diff at first sight looks like it may have survived.