Since the last event at Harewood, the Metro is still being used for Ilkley & District motor club events, it seems to lend its self well to auto testing and production car trials.
17.05.08
On the 10th May the Metro competed at Harewood Hillclimb, the times have now improved to 77.39, still behind the 106 Rallye of David Medley and Paul Howard which managed a time of 76.70 with David Medley behind the wheel.
In order to get Nick into the hillclimbing scene, it was decided that this 1991 Metro GTI which had come in at a friends garage as an MOT Failure would be used. After putting in the work to get the car on the road, some minor modifications have been made. This season for Nick really is on a strict budget, so preparation on the car has been kept down to a minimum in terms of modifications.
The brakes were sorted, this just included the discs being skimmed and new pads, along with the rear drums being re built.
A metro has gas filled suspension, which did prove to be a problem, the car had problems in this area which was sorted by re gassing and replacing valves which was quite a big job!
We felt the steering wheel was on the large side so went for a slightly smaller suede covered Sparco wheel to help counter the slow steering rack.
The Metro was driven at Harewood by Nick at the practice day to get used to the hill. A time of 77.75 was recorded, roughly 3 tenths of a second slower than the 106 Rallye driven by David Medley.
Here is some in car footage from one of the runs in the Metro -
See here a video of the Metro on track during its first outing - it was taken to Teesside Autodrome in the North East of England for Nick to get used to the cars handling in preparation for the first event at Harewood Hillclimb. watch the video...
