M-Sport service park - Welsh Rally 2017

[Darren S]

Managed to get a couple of passes into the M-Sport section at Deeside over the weekend - mainly to support my nephew in WRC2 (Gus Greensmith) and to get some idea of what goes on behind the scenes.

Inside the hospitality place...

Ogier's service bay...

Much effort needed to transplant to a 182?

Gus and Craig ready to head out Sunday morning...

Half my age but fifty times my driving ability!

The costs involved were mental. Like £10k per corner for one of these. Steering racks a mere snip at £7.5k??

£30k for a front bumper

£5k of rubber to get chewed up?!

Great watching the mechanics rush about and getting stuck in. These guys put in a shedload of hours - proper committed to the team...

Went out later Sunday morning and headed to the stage. We kind of knew before we even set off that the chances of actually getting to the stage were very slim - but we tried it anyway. When we got close, we were told by marshalls to leave the car and walk an hour & ten across moors and fields to the stage. I doubt we'd even get there in time!

 

[adamlstr]

Were they spitting at you for wearing that jacket? :tongueclosed:

 

[Darren S]

...Instead, we backpedalled up the route and found a random lay-by to watch the rally cars traverse between the stages. Even though they weren't a full chat, they were still impressive to see and hear.

The 182 was really well suited to these north Wales roads. :smile:

Plenty of non-WRC 1 or 2 stuff out between the stages - including some lovely Evos...

 

[Darren S]

We're they spitting at you for wearing that jacket? :tongueclosed:

Haha! I even said that I felt uncomfortable in a sea of people wearing blue! :smile:

 

[McGherkin]

Nice work. I managed to get to Deeside year before last, but only just half an hour before they all packed up! It's a huge setup and really impressive.

Mikkelsen pics haven't appeared yet 😧

 

[Knuckles]

Thirty. Thousand pounds. For a bumper?!

I feel like I should pull my finger out and get to this one year. Living and working 5 minutes from Deeside lol. Letting the team down

 

[Darren S]

Uploads going weird - will try to finish off again tomorrow!

 

[McGherkin]

I feel like I should pull my finger out and get to this one year. Living and working 5 minutes from Deeside lol. Letting the team down

Yes, you bloody well should.

CS does WRCGB. Would be epic.

 

[BuCkLeY...]

i was there sunday saw a couple of other clio sports too

 

[shiftspark]

I was at shakedown and the cars are getting like the old group b stuff but quicker, they sounded epic. I managed to get to watch Toyota getting the cars ready and had a long chat with the service guys some who used to work at M sport. They told me they would get to bed around 3am on sat the back up at 5am for 1st service.
The money it costs now is mind boggling, your nephew must be well connected or rich lol
Did you see Hyundai's set up ? It looked like it was a local Asda store it was mega in size !

 

[Pauleds]

I had a guest pass from hyundai so went to Dyfi for both runs and Dyfnant for the evening run on Saturday.
My other claim to fame is that Gus's codriver Craig navved for me on a road rally 19yrs ago!

 

[Darren S]

Couple of Mikkelsen and co-driver rotating the tires.....

Briefly chatted to the bloke who owned the GT3 RS, who was following Mikkelsen down the hill too. Stunning colour of Porsche - especially with the yellow calipers. Even with the mud and crap all over it, the photo really doesn't do the colour justice.

All in all - a great weekend, even with the failure of the poor 182 on the way home...... the indignity of being put onto a flatbed!

Hopefully it will be sorted this week - EML flashing, sounding like a Scooby and the code reader pointing to a coil failure on Pot No.2. Swapped the coil pack over yesterday, but still the same. Could well be an injector, but I'll hang fire until the garage has had a look.

 

[Darren S]

A couple more that I forgot to add...

 

[Turbo steve]

R5 front bumpers are only £7k not £30, its the WRC ones that are £30k. One of my friends brother works for Msport in cumbria (No he cannot get parts for anyone) we are going up for a factory tour next year with some ford RS guys

 

[Darren S]

R5 front bumpers are only £7k not £30, its the WRC ones that are £30k. One of my friends brother works for Msport in cumbria (No he cannot get parts for anyone) we are going up for a factory tour next year with some ford RS guys

My bad - I did put the wrong picture up. It should have been the graveyard of knackered parts behind Ogier's trailer with the WRC 1 bumper at the front. Still, even R5 bumpers at £7k aren't exactly pennies! :smiley:

Apparently such parts are classed as 'expendable'. Not on par with the insanity of F1 running costs - but a world away from the daily running of cars for the rest of us.

 

[Turbo steve]

Bumpers are made by another company at the moment but next year everything will be made in house, malcom is spending another £30 million here in the uk and in Poland, the new test track here in the uk is going to cost over £20 million when its finished

 

[Turbo steve]

http://www.m-sport.co.uk/pages/mec

 

[JamesBryan]

£30k for a bumper, have a word!

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

I was out in the forest on Saturday. The crowds were crazy. We couldn't get to one stage and were told you couldn't park within four miles of it. It seemed to really draw the crowds this year. Looking forward to next year already!

Did Gus Greensmith used to drive an R2 Fiesta run by Simon Mauger?

 

[Turbo steve]

I was out in the forest on Saturday. The crowds were crazy. We couldn't get to one stage and were told you couldn't park within four miles of it. It seemed to really draw the crowds this year. Looking forward to next year already!

Did Gus Greensmith used to drive an R2 Fiesta run by Simon Mauger?

We arrived at 4am for the Dyfnant stage got straight in and was parked at the top, was a good day all round, cars sound epic now

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

We arrived at 4am for the Dyfnant stage got straight in and was parked at the top, was a good day all round, cars sound epic now

4am? f**k that 😂 We got to Aberhirnant at about 6:30 and managed to park fine, we weren't far outside the "car park" at all. We tried to go to Gartheiniog for the second run but were turned away. There were cars just dumped all over the place next to main roads, but it was apparently a four mile walk to the stage so we just went to Corris and caught a bit of the regroup and watched a few go by on the road, then went to Dyfnant for the evening run. It was a great day, the atmosphere was really good with Evans leading. On reflection, I think we would have been better to get to Gartheiniog super early and watch both runs, then gone to Dyfnant for the dark. Live and learn though!

 

[Darren S]

I was out in the forest on Saturday. The crowds were crazy. We couldn't get to one stage and were told you couldn't park within four miles of it. It seemed to really draw the crowds this year. Looking forward to next year already!

Did Gus Greensmith used to drive an R2 Fiesta run by Simon Mauger?

He did indeed - I met Simon a few times myself.

 

[RDH]

We parked in a random field and trekked for an hour and 30. No idea the stage but we were pretty close to the action. Can’t upload images to the forum from my iPhone for some reason.

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

He did indeed - I met Simon a few times myself.

Yeah I've had some dealings with Simon in the past. Nice bloke and can really pedal too.

 

[RDH]

Gives an idea of how close we got.