Events
7 December 2011 - Club Awards and Christmas Buffet
The club held its Christmas buffet evening at the Pipers Inn Ashcott which was as always very well supported by our members. The evening included a brilliant Ford related quiz put together by Dougie which caused great banter between the members with Colin coming out the winner with 56 points.
The evening also included the annual awards for best members car from each show attended throughout the year voted by other non club members at the show.
The winners were: Castle Coombe Paul C (Escort 1600 Sport), Sherborne Castle Colin (Escort Cosworth), Ford Fair Martin P (Sierra Cosworth), Fordsport Martin D (RS Focus Mk2), RallyDay Andy (Escort Mexico) and National RS Day Dougie (Escort Cosworth).
24 September 2011 - RS Somerset club members experience a WRC Fiesta
Following preparing and treating the M Sport WRC Fiestas with Permashine at their headquarters at Dovenby prior to Rally France, RS Somerset club members Trevor Hawkins and Andrew Hicks were priviledged to experience passenger rides in the M sport Fiesta at the tarmac shakedown test at a nearby airfield following his passenger ride.
Trevor Hawkins commented “ I was just getting use the mindblowing acceleration when we were on the brakes and my body was subjected to braking forces I have never experienced like before, it was truly one of the once in a lifetime days”
Thanks to M Sport’s Miguel Cunha for arranging the rides
11th July 2011 - Classic Cars in aid of Air Ambulance
Somerset RSOC members participated in the Andy Simms Classic car run recently organized by Burnham on Sea Motor club which supports fund raising for the Somerset & Dorset Air ambulance charity. The tour started in Glastonbury and took a 94 mile route through Somerset and Dorset to its destination at the East Somerset Railway.
During the route it stopped off at the base of the Somerset and Dorset
Air Ambulance base at Henstridge airfield which lies on both counties
borders, and the crew showed the tour around the airbase and also the
specially equipped helicopter.
21st March 2011 - Take it to the next level
The
Team was happy to announce that the team will be competing in the BTRDA
Asphault Championship, which is being covered on TV by Special Stage and
is shown on Motors TV.
The first round of the BTRDA was the Tour of Epynt 2011, As the Team had only competed on Epynt once before the pair was seeded at car 86 out of 90.
Being their first rally and relying on their own pace notes, the main aim of the weekend was to learn more about developing this new discipline over the very fast Epynt Ranges.
The Team Andrew Hicks and Richard Bliss started well and after the first two stages found themselves 62nd overall and 9th in class.
As the day went on the team progressed getting faster and also working very well together. The team ended the day in 56th overall and 7th in class. A good result as it was their second time on Epynt and first time writing their own pace notes.
Andrew commented:” It has been a good weekend myself and Richard have learnt a lot as a team and also really enjoyed the first round of the BTRDA.”
The crew would like to thank sponsors Permashine, PIAA, Bliss Mobility and National Mobile Windscreens.
The Tour of Epynt 2011 will be on Motors TV,on Special Stage Saturday 9th April at 22:35
24th January 2011 - Brean stages Rally 2011
On
the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd of January, Stuart Bliss began
his 2011 rally championship campaign at his home rally, The K&R
Mitsubishi stages Rally, in Brean. Stuart and co-driver Richard
Marsh, began the weekend seeded 22nd out of 85 entries, of which
the top 20 were particularly strong.
The weather for the first stage was good and Stuart set out on cut Dunlop x22 tyres. Despite an impressive performance matching the quickest time in the class on Stuart wasn’t happy with the set up. Back in the service area the ride height was changed and the tyres switched to Dunlop x12's making for an even better stage.
Never happy until he feels he is getting 100% from the set up, Stuart still wasn’t happy with the front set up. Stuart’s career as a mechanic must have given him a sixth sense with car as in the third stage a tyre split causing a puncture and a 1 minute 20 second loss. That forced another change of tyre, this time though the result was better and a more responsive front meant Stuart was able to come in with a superb time for stage four, despite getting held up at the split!
Things continued to go well for Stuart as he made another good time in stage five. During stage six a slight hay bale clip resulted in a bent track rod but luckily nothing too serious. That brought an end to the first day of the rally with Stuart laying an impressive 2nd in class and 19th overall.
Day two started off well for Stuart, who having been known for his ability to drive well in wet conditions relished on the damp tarmac during stages seven and eight.
Stuart’s outstanding performance continued through the shorter stages of nine and ten with Stuart even pulling quick times when getting caught up behind slower cars. Come the last two stages of the day Stuart’s car was performing just how he wanted and together Stuart and Richard were making exceptional times. At the end of the day Stuart collected his first piece of silverware for the 2011 season coming 17th overall and 2nd in class. A position he was particularly proud of given the line up at the start of the rally.
Stuart would like to say a big thank you to Permashine, Bliss Mobility and his service crew for all their hard work over the weekend; and also to thank all of his friends and family who turned up to support him at his local event.
19th April 2009 - Corinium Run
A Somerset RSOC team of Trevor Hawkins and Andrew Hicks in the Permashine Ford Focus RS joined the other 74 competitors to compete in the Cirencester Car club’s Corinium road run following a tulip style road book through the stunning cotswold country side taking in such delightful places as Stow on the Wold , Chipping Campden and Bourton on the Water with the aim of returning the closest MPG to their pre event stated figure ensuring economy was the aim of the day. The Permashine team achieved 26.60 mpg over the 116 mile route just 4.73% outside their pre event stated figure.
