Rally - Change of use

 No. These are not rally boots, they are spectator boots. Following a successful application to the DPLA (Dept for Pedestrian Licencing Agency) this change of use has now been processed and licenced. This weekend offers the first opperchancity of seeing if this transition has been successful. Recent attempts to sell the boots failed when the process to sanitise them was curtailed abruptly. Apparently the charcoal filtration system was unable to cope with such well worn rally boots and the process ground to a sudden and expensive halt. The owner was immediately and forcibly requested to leave the building forthwith!

Rally - Auction? Nae chance

It has been suggested that a certain bunnet be auctioned off for charity. That is a quite outrageous suggestion. To deprive a long serving rally reporter of the comfort and protection of his napper warmer as Winter approaches is a despicable act of thoughtless selfishness. Have you any idea how long it takes and how hard it is to run-in a new Harris Tweed bunnet?

For the first 1,000 paces, the wearer should not exceed a walking pace in excess of 3mph and for the next 1,000 paces, certainly no more than 4mph. Similarly, when dealing with breezes, winds, gales and gusts, one has to exercise care as the bunnet is very likely to take flight into the nearest trees or wet ditch. One also has to allow for wet weather shrinkage and warm weather expansion. However this process does help to ensure a snug fit as the bunnet gradually and naturally adjusts to fit the wearer's head snugly and therefore able to withstand anything that the Scottish climate can throw at it.

This particular bunnet has survived the extremes of weather right across the globe, from crossing the Rocky mountains in an open air Jeep 25 years ago to everything that the Mull weather could throw at an intrepid reporter standing by the roadside in the horizontal rain, legs and feet braced against a howling gale, and hanging on to his reporter's notepad which is gradually disintegrating into pulp in his frozen mitt.

As a result, the peak is now threadbare where it has been tugged in deferential acknowledgement of sporting superstars, and even royalty, over the years and also has a wee hole at the rear from being constantly tugged down at the back to face the storms of controversy endured in the pursuit of downright fibs, tall tales, legends, gossip and the (occasional!) truth in times gone past.

This bunnet has a history all of its own including an interior infestation that would defy a nuclear decontamination team never mind a scrubbing brush and two bottles of Domestos - and yet you'd have the thing auctioned off?

That is a step too far. Nae chance, but haud oan jist a wee minit.

Someone might have been found who is willing to help an auld git break-in a new bunnet after all !!!!

Rally - Mull Rally Preview

2022 Beatson's Mull Rally, 14/15/16 October ... Preview and full Entry List, see links below.

Although 'JaggyBunnet.co.uk' will feature a full Preview and Entry List there will be no follow-up comprehensive rally report. Instead the online mag, which is in the process of closing down, will publish the post-event Press Release from the organisers to bring things to a conclusion.

And yet, Mull is such a magical and mysterious place, who knows what sights, sounds and smells might assault the senses and trick the minds of those who travel across the sea? This is a land, isolated by the Atlantic Ocean, where strange things can happen and wondrous sights beheld. What might be perceived as a figment of an over active imagination could in fact be whigmaleeries, ghosts and ghouls going about their relentless other worldly business whenever and whereever the mood takes them.

Bear this in mind, if you do see what you think is mist, fog or low lying cloud on the horizon, it may well be the breath of a 'baobhan sith' rising from her nocturnal resting place to feast on the blood of innocent spectators. Or, it might just be pipe smoke as the Silent Spectator high above Dervaig casts his appraising eye over the proceedings which he started 53 years ago. I wonder if he ever envisaged what his idea would become.

Mull is not just a rally, it is an event, an adventure, a stimulating, adrenalin pumping, nerve tingling, spine chilling challenge unlike any other event in the British rallying calendar. A motor sporting pilgrimage for the true enthusiast.

And if you are standing in a lonely or desolate spot as night falls, just be careful if you ever feel a tap on the shoulder. Very careful!

http://www.jaggybunnet.co.uk/2022/10/09-oct-mull-rally-preview/

http://www.jaggybunnet.co.uk/2022/10/09-oct-mull-rally-entry-list/

 

Road - The BatKidmobile

 ... and now for something completely different. The mutant offspring as begat by Batman and Catwoman. After Citroen's latest show of futuristic excess, here's one from the Ariel Motor Company.

Their latest electrically driven Arial Hipercar will be available in either four wheel drive or two wheel drive variants with a mind blowing  880kw/1180bhp. This will be good for a nought to 60 mph buttock clenching 2.09 seconds sprint and blasting through 100 mph in 4.4 seconds.  With full torque vectoring, sub 2 second times to 60 mph and sub 4 seconds to 100 mph are possible.

The lightweight aluminium, bonded chassis structure with aluminium front and rear subframes and full carbon fibre body will tip the scales at 1500 kilos for the 4 wheel drive car and dip under 1400 kilos for the two wheel drive car.

Power comes from a Cosworth 800 Volt, 62kWh lithium-ion, cooled and heated battery pack. Electric range is 150 miles on WLTP cycle although there is an option to have a Cosworth 35kW CatGen (Catalytic Generator) turbine range extender to charge the battery on the move.

Drive is by inboard Equipmake APM motors, one per wheel, with integral inverters and single speed step down gearboxes direct to driven wheels.  Each individual motor develops 220 kW (295 bhp) and 450 Nm (332 ft lb) of torque.

The car will ride on 265/35 x 20  Michelin Pilot Cup2 tyres (front) and 325/30 x 21 rears with Michelin Cup 2R semi-slick track and road tyres as an option!

And the price? Before last week's mini-budget, or maxi-bodgeit as things turned out, the car was expected to sell for under a million. That's pounds not dollars! And then you have to pay for the electricity to charge it.

Which makes one wonder who it was who reckoned electric motoring was the green and inexpensive future?

 

Road - Eggbox meets Duplo

If France is the home of design fabulosity with functionality, haute couture and extravagant practicality, elegance and elaboration then methinks that reputation may well be under threat.

Take Citroen for instance, once the automotive equivalent of style and glamour, they used to be known for manufacturing endearing, quirky and functional modes of personal transport, but now, like everyone else they just seem to be manufacturing tin boxes with mass appeal and little in the way of outward distinction.

However, their latest 'design concept' the Citroen oli, seems to have been inspired by giving a bunch of students a few empty eggboxes and a large box of Duplo bricks and instructed to take the word ‘unconventional’ to a new level. They've done that, eh?

On that basis, no chance of a return to rallying any time soon then!