TG mag drives the Cambrian Rally

It was the Cambrian Rally this weekend – the final event for our Hyundai i20 before Top Gear magazine takes to the stages at Wales Rally GB in mid-November. It was also the first event we’ve done with the car in its full livery and, more significantly, the 1.6-litre engine in situ. That makes a difference. Oh boy, does that make a difference.

North Wales was windy, wet and wild. The stages around Betws-y-Coed and Penmachno were utterly mega, but also slippery, challenging and, in places, borderline terrifying with some huge fresh air drops and super-rough sections. The attrition rate was huge – 1 in 3 cars didn’t make it to the finish.

Unfortunately, we were one of them.

It was the alternator that did for us in the end, and, now I look back, had been doing for us since stage 1 when the newly-fitted change up light started flashing constantly. After stage 2 we found the alternator belt had been thrown off, which the team from 586 Group managed to replace at a quick remote service stop before stage 3. Unfortunately, it looks like the alternator had started to cook itself by then, failing to recharge the battery, so the electrics gradually went off line – not fun when you’re driving balls out through a Welsh forest.

The rev counter stopped, the fuel gauge dropped, the gear indicator display failed, and then, midway through stage 4, the power steering packed up. Luckily the intercom kept working, allowing me to inform Jack Morton, my co-driver that I thought I had a puncture…

I didn’t, but the car felt odd, the steering was unsurprisingly absurdly hard work, and we had to back off. Then, coming out of stage, the engine died. We bump started, got going, stalled again. And again. And again. And several more times. Each time we had to be bump started as the starter motor had no juice in it. Thank you, spectators. Since the fuel light was one of the few things left alight, I assumed we’d run out of petrol. We coasted to a halt.

So I started banging on doors in the village of Penmachno. Door one loaned me their phone (mobile signal ain’t strong in these parts), door two gave me the petrol from his lawnmower to get going again.

To cut a long story short, none of it was enough. It turned out the belt had broken and we ended up having to get towed back the 21 miles to Conwy behind a spectator’s VW Transporter (Jason, I owe you a pint), while the team dashed to a motor factors to buy a replacement belt.

We made it into service on the end of a tow rope just one minute after the time limit. We persuaded the organisers to let us back in after the lunchtime service, but on the way to the start of stage 5 the electrics went on the blink again and we discovered it wasn’t just the blown belt that had done for us, but the whole alternator.

It’s a big disappointment, but we’re all trying to be philosophical about it and hope that we’ve got the bad luck out the way before Wales Rally GB itself. It would be a minor miracle to put a whole new engine in the car, almost double the power and not have any issues with it at all.

And you know what? When the car was running, it was magnificent. We were running third in class (out of 17 entries in the B10 class), the i20 1.6 sounds mega and looks awesome. Strong brakes, properly potent engine at the top end, really good handling balance and suspension set-up. The stages were a blast to drive and there were good crowds out everywhere. I’m completely hooked.

Image 1 credit: Gritpicsrally