Sam Glover
Sam achieves the impossible on a rally in France
Sam achieves the impossible and breaks a Lada 1500.
Christmas and birthdays I can take or leave. The two indelible dates in my diary are the Beaulieu International Autojumble and the Autumn Sun Run. The latter is a four-day rally in classic Monte Carlo territory that my friend Paul Johns and I have patronised for five years. We never think to question whether we should rebook, thanks to the rally’s winning combination of fine scenery, amazing roads, excellent company, salubrious evenings in bars and an itinerary that’s engaging, but not inconveniently challenging.
Paul and I have more cars than sense and we’ve set a precedent of never making it to the start in the car that we put on the entry list. This year was no exception. I failed to get my Turkish Tofas Serçe Uk-registered in time, so plumped for its Russian doppelganger: a Lada 1500. The Lada is functionally the poorer of the two Fiat 124 clones, with a Heath Robinson steering box arrangement in place of the Serçe’s rack and a less revvy but more tappety overhead-cam engine. It squeezes only six extra bhp from its additional 155cc, thanks to an Ozone carburettor calibrated by Soviet scientists to deliver a uniform level of misery under all conditions. It is still, however, a brilliant car.
The Lada in question was already in a fine state of fettle. Preparation called for nothing more than a routine titivation session and presenting it with a set of 165 HR13 tyres from Blockley. It’s the first time, incidentally, that I’ve tried anything from Blockley’s relatively new range of radials – and we found them to be spectacularly good.
That sinking feeling…
Paul and I cruised easily to signing-on at Brienne-lechâteau in France’s pretty Grand Est region.
The only inconvenience was a depleted rubber O-ring causing the carburettor’s idle mixture screw to repeatedly undo itself: arrested with a tiny blob of Araldite Rapid. The rally commenced the next morning and we hammered south across beautiful autumnal Champagne vineyards, the Lada snaking lithely through sweeping bends and skipping gaily past sports cars at 6500rpm. On the second leg, however, the impossible happened: it broke.
The engine developed a worsening flat-spot when applying the accelerator on the apex of a corner. We stopped to probe. The carburettor body had fractured around one of the screws that secure its lid. The other screws had worked loose and the weight of the air filter housing was causing the lid to shift about. The fracture was in an unimportant place, so I tightened the other screws and declared it fine. Two miles later, we ground to a halt. Petrol was cascading down the carburettor chokes. Removing the lid told us that the wayward movement had fractured a soldered joint fixing the brass float to its arm, causing it to fill with petrol and sink.
We emptied the petrol from the float, administered first aid with a cable tie and another dose of Araldite Rapid, then enjoyed a two-hour picnic while it cured. Sadly, this proved 100 per cent unsuccessful. After some experimentation, though, I found it possible to adjust the needle valve to stem the flow just enough to allow the engine to run under heavy load or above 4500rpm. This didn’t require a significant change in driving style, so we revved 50km to Dijon Gestion Moteur – a classic tuning specialist that Paul located via smartphone. Driving in traffic was entertaining and our fuel consumption was highly impressive, but we made it.
I extracted the recalcitrant float and presented it for inspection. As luck would have it, I placed it straight into the capable hands of chief engineer Thierry Ciccardini, a former rally driver who fully understood our situation. Within half-an-hour it was drained, soldered, adjusted, refitted and floating. We rejoined the rally route via the nearest petrol station, where our 39-litre tank took 39.5 litres.
This left us a solid 75th of 75 entrants. Freed from delusions of competitiveness, we simply focused on enjoying ourselves for the next three days – and the serpentine roads through Parc Naturals and ski resorts in the Auvergne-rhône-alpes region gave us much to enjoy. The Lada gave 2000 miles of reliable high-speed service. I wonder if I should stray from my general principles and award it a Weber?