| After a gruelling two and a half months in the workshop RBE 839S had been rebuilt as a full "space-frame" race vehicle with new cage and a much lower roof line to improve the handling.The chassis is now immensely rigid as it incorporates three full box sections. The overall effect of this rebirth is a vehicle with vastly reduced body roll, reduced weight, greatly increased strength and performance with no detrimental effect to the off-road capability of the vehicle.
During the rebuild a great deal of thought and effort went into ensuring that the vehicle would be reliable and that any minor component failures could be rectified easily at the event in the time allowed. Most of the components of the vehicle being "off the shelf" parts. The old phrase, "to finish first, first you have to finish !" being at the front of our minds. This philosophy paid dividends as we finished every event we entered. 1997 saw successful bids for the Association of Northern Car Clubs and Yorkshire Rover Owners Club competitive safari championships, consisting of a total of seven events spread across ten months. The first few events were used to develop the vehicles handling characteristics, including several modifications to the suspension geometry and the centre of gravity. This cured some earlier problems with vague steering and rear end stability. These initial changes were reflected by our increased competitiveness and a number of well placed finishes and trophies. In the ANCC Championship we were placed 3rd in class C7 and in the YROC Competitive Safari League we were placed 1st in class 9 and 2nd Overall. |