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Before the race...

There was a lot to do between Bilsington and Bovington. First of all, I had a list of accident repairs that I had to sort after 'ditching' the RAV at Bilsington. Bovington was on my list of ‘must do’ events for 2026, so I had to make a plan to be ready to race.

 

First, replace the windscreen. This was not going to be straight forward as the last screen had been stuck in with no seal (by the previous owner) and the seal gap completely filled with PU. This mean't the only way to get it out was going to be with a hammer and chisel, and there would be a lot of mess to clear up. Two and a half hours of my life I won't get back!

 

 

I had to straighten the driver's door so the window would wind all the way back up. As we fell on that side the mirror snapped off but in the process bent the door frame. I managed to tease it back into shape with the same hammer but a different chisel and then fit a spare driver's side wing mirror. I popped the worst of the dent out of the driver's side wing so the driver's door would open without rubbing, then re-glued the wheel arch extension as it was partially detached by the wing bending. I also had to repair and refit the passenger side rear wheel arch as my brush with the trees mostly knocked it off. Also refit the seemingly indestructible passenger wing mirror that had now had 2 unplanned excursions into the car.

 

Looking over the rest of the car, I found the driver's side shock was actually bent. We'd noticed the tracking tweak that we adjusted out after we were recovered, and this was the source. I was able to easily source a replacement from Tayna (who do vehicle parts and not just batteries) and it was delivered in less than 18 hours from ordering. 

The final job was to fit a new sun strip to the screen and get some more decals from Paul at AUTOGRAFIX.

 

I was now sort of back where I started. In addition to that list of new 'self generated' work I had a bunch of things I already wanted to do to the car.

 

First on the priority list was the exhaust. I knew there was a small crack in the downpipe before Bilsington, and I'd patched it temporarily with a repair band. It was now time to fix it properly. I removed the guards to straighten them out and give access to the exhaust. Whilst the guards were off used I the opportunity to change the engine and transmission oil. It's done a year of racing, which is pushing 500 miles in total, plus a few road excursions, so it was timely. 

 

Next I wanted to address the heat soak issues that we experienced at Bilsington. After a lot of chatting, googling, and a bit of a dicussion with AI, I decided to add 2 vents to the bonnet, more or less where I'd found the only practical place to fit them was due to the bonnet support structure. I'd had these vents in a box in the workshop for at least 25 years. I think they orginally came from the rear quarter panel of a Nissan Bluebird. A bit of templating and a session with the crazy mains powered Lidl nibbler and I had a vented bonnet. 

 

 

Whilst I was rebuilding the front suspension again, I decided it was time to add some check straps to the KYB setup. I ordered a pair from https://www.demon-tweeks.com/. They needed a bit of modification, as the holes were slightly too small for the RAV front strut bolts, but they were soon fitted and should reduce the downward forces the strut top bearings experience.

 

In the 'gap' between the 2 events, I also decided to refurbish the second set of wheels I had. I had them blasted by AB powdercoating and painted them with 2K satin white for the retro rally look! I then fitted them with INSA Turbo Ranger AT (all terrain) tyres. Although not mandatory with SCOR for the Bilsington event, I thought I should get a set as I may try and do Walters Arena with the AWDC later in the year. Also, some wisdom seems to suggest a small light underpowered car light the RAV4 is better off 'floating over the top' of the sand it will experience at Bovington rather than digging itself in with mud terrains. We will see.

 

 

I noticed a small crack in the rear cross member near the differential mount some time ago. It hadn't really got any worse, but I decided it was time to repair it.  That was the last of the must do jobs, until on the Wednesday I went to restart the car and the battery was dead, only showing 6.1v. Luckily it was covered under warranty, but it was just another thing to sort out with only a few days to go until the race.

 

There was one further thing I had on my mind, but as it was now Friday it was a can of worms I didn't know if I should open.  A few XA10 RAV4s were fitted with an optional Torsen rear differential. Not an LSD in the truest sense but something that would make a noticable difference to traction in some scenarios. Ever since seeing this video from Rav1 gen1 legend Lab Coat Paul, I'd been on the lookout for one. 

 

 

I got lucky, in fact doubly lucky as not only had I found one in the UK, but less than 25 miles from home. I'd had it for a couple of months, but had not had the time to fit it. As the rear end of the car had never been apart since owning the Rav, I could forsee some issues. Eventually I decided to go for it, but working on the car in the workshop in the hottest June days ever recorded wasn't going to be fun. 

 

Removal and refitting of the differential itself was not too bad, only one chassis mounting point gave some concern and needed a bit of attention to the thread. Once mounted I filled it with oil before refitting the driveshafts as suggested by Lab Coat Paul, and then set about regreasing the driveshafts and changing the cracking boots. I eventually finished reassembly about 4pm on Saturday. My shakedown and test drive consisted on a slow drive to the farm gate and back. Fingers crossed. Time to load up!

 

 

The race

I'd always wanted to race a Bovington. I'd watched the AWDC race there in the past, and put my name down for the SCOR event in 2025, but it was cancelled due to low entry numbers. It was on my list of ‘must do’ events for 2026. The weather in the week preceeding the event contained the hottest June days on record (over 36 degrees C) so the temperatures on race day were going to be a concern. As it turned out the weather broke the day before, so on the day it peaked in the mid 20s.

 

Bovington is the closest event to home on the 2026 calendar so I could get up at a fairly normal time and head down to the site. I parked up next to number 56 again, and as I was flying solo this weekend they helped me unload. At the driver briefing they told us the lap was 6.4 miles and it would be a 1 minute start interval. It was unlikely that this would be reduced to to 30 seconds due to the dust. After the drivers briefing there was a very short window until the look-see lap, and once I'd sorted out my helmet and HANS I was one of the last out on track. I was so far behind the main group when they set off for a moment I thought I wouldn't be let out to catch up.

 

 

I was a few hundred metres in, checking the car, how it felt with the replacement suspension, the all terrain tyres and the new diff, when I looked in the mirror for the first time to see if anyone was behind me. I was immediately shocked by the clouds of what looked like white smoke coming from the RAV4. I slowed down and opened the door to see if the smoke was coming from the exhaust and was immediately overtaken by an enormous dust cloud.  What I'd thought was smoke from the exhaust was in fact super fine dust being blown up from the road surface by the side exit (and downward pointing) exhaust.

 

I pushed on, exploring the circuit. Bovington is mostly hard packed sand and gravel, surrounded by a concrete range road. None of the tracks are flat. Most are fairly rutted and use by the army has scultped them into a never ending stream of soft peaks and valleys, ... like waves on the ocean. Great for making you travel sick, even when driving! Some of the tracks span wide open spaces of sand intersuprsed with gorse bushes, others twist through pine tree woodland. Despite the recent dry spell and the topography, there were a few persistent patches of water and sandy mud. The dust was something to behold.

 

About 1/2 way around the course the steering on the Rav began to feel heavy and I wondered if I'd already collected a puncture. When the course transitioned down a bank onto the concrete range road I stopped to check the car over. All 4 tyres were up, so I popped the bonnet and found the power steering belt was absent. As I was checking out the Rav, car 56 pulled up next to me. Their problem looked more serious, a broken radius arm. I headed back to the pits to investigate. 

 

 

Looking at the power steering belt back at base it hadn't broken but had been popped off, probably by a 'lucky' stone getting trapped between the belt and the pulley. After about 45 mins of messing about it was back on and I was ready to race.

 

Lap 1

I lined up for my first run at 10:38, so I was already running behind time. Realistically I needed to complete 2 runs per hour to get all 10 in before the 4 o'clock finish. I set out at a reasonable pace, and started to learn the circuit. Overall it seemed rougher than I exepected. Some of the rocks on the track were large. The wet bits were very wet and a couple were fairly deep. The dust was OK if you kept moving, accelerating and chaging direction. But as soon as you slowed down it engulfed the car. By the end of the first run there was dust everywhere. I posted a time of 17:36.

 

Lap 2

Back at the pits, I spoke to the crew from car 56 and they confirmed they were out. They hadn't been able to source a suitable replacement arm so it was packing up time. I headed out onto the course at 11:18. Although it was pretty warm and sunny there was a reasonable breeze so the dust cleared quickly from some sections of the course, however where the course ran with or against the wind the dust hang in the air massively reducing visibility. My time was only a fraction faster than lap 1 at 17:34 .

 

Lap 3

I headed for the pits, gave the car aquick look over and headed back out, it was 11:44. After a few miles I started chasing car 389 (the class A freelander) and eventually caught him up. With the dust and the small speed differential there was no way to challenge to pass. At one of the wet spots I hit the mud far too hard, covering the car in slurry. It took what felt like about a minute of crawling along to get the windscreen clear enough to see and contine at any pace. As we broke out onto the range road for the last mile sprint to the the finish I was gaining fast and at the last chicane they out braked themselves and went through the marker tapes around the cones. All the excitement had produced what would turn out to be my quickest lap of the day at 17:12. 

 

 

Lap 4

After lap 3 I took a short refreshment break. In the days running up to the event I'd been feeling fairly unwell. After the exitement of the previous lap my cocktail of adrenalin, paracetamol and ibuprofen was starting to wear off. I reloaded, grabbed a bite to eat and headed back out. it was 12:33.  A couple of miles in to the lap I was physically struggling. and I was caught and passed on the range road mid section. I followed them back onto the gravel and sand, suddenly out of the dust loomed the stationary rear end of another competitors can stopped on the course. I managed a lap of 18:16. 

 

Lap 5

Was the worst lap of the day. I pushed on to maintain the lap count and was back out by 13:10. On this lap I was caught twice by faster drivers,  and the second time I had to completely stop and let the dust clear as couldn't even see the track infront of me. I posted a lap time of 19:19. I joked if I got any slower I'd be slower than the maximum.

 

Lap 6

When I completed the lap I stopped at control and told them about the broken down car. They had an OK board out, but I felt it was in a potentially tricky position and needed to be moved. I needed break, so headed for the pits. The car had started to struggle to idle and was running a bit rough on part throttle. I had a bit of a poke around under the bonnet and a rest. I checked with race control, I needed to start 75% of the laps to get a finish. so 2 more. I headed back out at 13:58. I pottered around the lap feeling progressively worse, and managed a time of 18:31. Did I mention the dust? It was everywhere.

 

Lap 7

I headed back to the pits for what ended up being a break and a powernap on the cool concrete under the van. The car running really rough. I was feeling really rough. One of the team came round and told me my last start time would be 15:23. I left around 3 and getting round really was a struggle. I managed it in 19:40.

 

Lap 8, 9 & 10

I finished run 7 and immeditately looped round to the empty start line, it was 15:22, I was just able to make my latest start time of 15:23. So run 8 was to be a final run. In fact with the car running as rough as it was, I had no intention of completing another lap. All I needed to do was start it, and then retire. So when the time came, I drove onto the course and immedately looped round and retired. I had my 8 starts, and I was finished. Literally. Laps 9 & 10 would be taken as maximums.

 

 

 

After the race

Mainly due to the misfortune of others, I finshed the event 2nd in class A, 3 mins and 5 seconds behind car 389, the v6 freelander. I was generally lapping faster than the freelander, with the exception of the one lap where I had to stop on the course due to zero visibility.  The 2 maxiumums at the end tipped the balance in their favour. The way I was feeling there was no way I could keep to time and complete all 10 laps.

 

If car 73 had not retired, none of the 'tin top' production cars would have stood a chance. This car is a very fast, 2 wheel drive, scratch built, long travel independent suspension car. There are a couple of these that run with the club, and they are also put in class A.

 

The day started fairly well (if you ignore the fan belt popping off). The bonnet vents worked well and despite my generally slow pace there were no overheating or heat soak issues. It was quite pleasing to see a bit of steam venting out of them in a couple of the water splashes. The AT tyres were actually great. The grip was good on the sand, the gravel and the concrete. The car only bogged down on one climb where there was a lot of deep loose sand. The Torsen diff is one of those things you can't really tell it's working, but I did notice more drive in the corners and a lot less understeer.

 

We won't be competing in the August event, so we now have a reasonable gap, not only to get the car clean, but to get it running right again for the Plurenden.