The CX Rally Car.

[CGATCX25GTITURBO]

Unfortunately, I am led to believe that the original car was sold to a local farmer and used as a "basher" to round up the animals!

Hopefully that wasnt true, what a waste. Surely that would have been collectable!

or a group could have RALLIED round to get the cash together for it.....
I'll get my coat

[Citroening]

...just thought I'd update this thread as I've created a website for the Rally Car - Link.

Also, keep an eye on the 'Blog' Section as I'll be hopefully doing some work on the Rally Car soon.

[Citroening]

Rightio, for info, I've posted the following back in February on the CCC Forum but forget to post it here. See next post for the update.

Some of you may remember that we have a CX Rally Car, a replica of the 1977 London to Sydney Rally driven by Paddy Hopkirk, Bob Riley and Michael Taylor...

After a long time I decided to wake up the CX Rally Car which has been hibernating for a good while and it was starting to show. I must admit that it was quite embarrassing to see the state it had got into through sitting there, especially seeing that it was outside too. It was, however, under a cover for most of the time but instead of white it was mostly green. It would normally have gone inside, but things had got so hectic that it stayed where it was.

I am pleased to report though, that a brand new battery and a gallon of fuel in the tank and it fired into life! This car really is one of the most reliable CXs ever, testament to the immense simplicity of this 2000 Carb engine. I had it running for about an hour, fan cutting in and out and running like a dream. During this time it got a well deserved spruce up and it certainly looked a different car altogether!

I'm resisting posting pictures up of the green/verdigris that was on some areas, however here's some pics after a spruce up:





Suffice to say, I won't be letting it get that bad again and work will be commencing on it. There's a few areas that need a bit of attention with the welder however nothing serious at all - it is, overall, a very solid car. I've decided that I will be fitting the twin morrette headlamps seeing that we've got two pairs here. Admittedly it's not 100% accurate as the original car had a large single lamp but will look near enough, and smarter IMO that our admittedly a bit rushed effort.

Also, having managed to get in contact with a few people including one of the drivers, Bob Riley, I have now got pictures of the interior of the original car meaning that the interior recreation can begin too.

We certainly had some fun with it before Roger passed, although since then it hasn't been used much. This will change though...!

I think that this car is probably the car that has been with us the longest and still with us - suffice to say, it will never be sold. I would like to see it at some events soon too.

If you're not familiar with the CX Rally Car, then here's a website full of info and pics of it - http://cxrallycar.webs.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Citroening]

Rightio - today's update!

Time for a proper progress report re the Rally Car.

A couple of weeks back we dropped it down to the welders and fabricators to get the work done:



I went around the car with our bodywork man and in the end basically got him to go around the whole car, chopping out any mouseholes of rust and replacing with metal. The usual CX areas needed attention, however bar a little bit of work on the end of a sill, the underneath (floors, longerons and subframes) are all sound. Called in today and he's made excellent progress.

This was the door that had been damaged by the rogue van driver that so kindly backed into it, now pushed out and new door bottoms let in. Funnily enough, three of the four doors needed new bottoms... The same three doors had been treated with waxoil, however the one that is sound was undersealed inside and out...!





Underneath the lights and grille area (also underneath where the original indicator units go, not pictured):



Bottom of the front wings:







Also a little bit on the sill, not pictured:



Under rear screen:



Around the fuel filler:



There were a few more areas that aren't pictured, however it should be ready to pick it up soon, these are a few work in progress pics.

As it's a Rally Car it's never going to be concourse as it's not that sort of car. I suppose in an ideal work it would have a full respray, but that would entail new graphics needing to be fitted which would be a pain. Also since the graphics have been on for a while they've got a nice patina. Once he's finished, the areas will be appropriately finished off, including necessary cavity waxes, underseal etc to preserve it for the future.

[Citroening]

So since the last update on the Rally Car, I got it back from having all of the welding and fabrication done and I'm pleased to report it's solid again. Hopefully that'll be the last of the welding it will need for a good while yet. I can't seem to find any pictures of the repairs however the repaired areas have now been painted too. Not perfect or concourse but it's not that kind of car - it looks like a "weathered" and repaired Rally Car, which is good...!

The next stage that I was looking to start was the recreation of the interior - here's what the original car had...



Back when we started this project to create the replica, we just could not find any interior pictures - luckily, though, I have managed to get in contact with Bob Riley (one of the original drivers) and Jim Reddiex (who prepared the cars back in the day). Thus I know exactly (to the best of their memory!) what it should feature. Of course, as with the entire replica I remember Roger saying describing it as "pretty faithful" to the original, but not 100% accurate - quite right. Making it 100% would be quite interesting to say the least... As well as being costly - those original Halda meters can make over £1000 each...!

As you might notice from the picture above, the replica's "rally dash" was in place of the original dash so that had to come out...

Centre console out:



Speedo and steering wheel off:



Entire dashboard out:



Centre console, speedo and steering wheel back on.



Since those pictures I have replaced those awfully brown centre console, speedo and steering wheel with black ones that look much better. No pics but will get some...

Today saw a bit of progress in that I started the doorcard replacements - the original car didn't have the original doorcards, and this first attempt at covering the door went well in my opinion.





Finally, a few bits and bobs for the dashboard...



I have made and fixed into place the main "shell" of the rally dash and I'm just waiting on the aluminium to arrive. Once this has arrived then the components can start to go onto the dashboard.

More to follow once progress has been made with the rally dash - I've got around 80% of components I need ATM...