1979 Opel Monza "Rally Car Ex Austin McHale"

[bigrod]

Haven't gotten much further with the investigations, (I know, progress is slow, but I didn't promise anything did I?!?!), but in the meantime, here's a few photo's..............

Y'know how there's always the little niggle that it might not be the same car as we think it is, well, here's the underneath of the off-side rear arch. I reckon that's fairly well battle damaged as we'd expect!!



Lightweight flywheel...............(I assume!)



Nice Leda suspension............




Interestingly, some of the filler was very loose, so I thought I'd have a look. I thought everyone gave up lead loading in the 70's!!



And finally, dig the 'Jack-up' '70's stylee!! Just need to point a fog light at the diff' and job's a good 'un!!

[bstardchild]

Looks like the stripdown is going to plan - does it smell any better???

I'd better get on with searching for a Manual GSE to act as a donor then ;D

[bigrod]

bstardchild said:

Looks like the stripdown is going to plan - does it smell any better???

Well, no and yes.

As you already know BC, I had a bit of a blonde moment a few days ago.

For the benefit of the other readers...........

As I'm quite respectful of the car, I wanted to remove all the necessary parts as sympathetically as possible. The first job is to remove the diff', so using my new set of long hex sockets, I set about undoing the CV joints from the hubs. To my surprise, given that the car's 30 years old, they came out without any fuss. Just shows that the car's been worked on over the years.

In order to loosen the diff' bolts, I had to position myself at a 'jaunty' angle to get good purchase on the bolts and so set about them. They weren't so keen to give up, but still relatively easy nonetheless. That was fine until I went to remove the bolts completely.........

It seems I'd been tightening the bolts rather than loosening them and have managed to knacker four captive nuts. DOH!!!

So on BC's approval, it's grinder time tonight!!

It doesn't smell quite as bad now, but maybe that's just because I'm getting used to it.

[bigrod]

So, I think this is about where my involvement with the shell ends.

Went out to the garage last night, removed the diff' and the engine and that's about that.

The ball, I think is now more or less in BC's court.

BC, there're two, (well four really!), things I want off the car after you take delivery; 1) the front shocks and springs, (even though I'm doubting the integrity of at least one of them and, 2) The rear trailing arms. (Not interested in an exchange, I want the one's off the rally car.

Anyway, a couple of pic's...................

'POP!' Out it comes...................(Easiest engine I've ever removed!! )



First time I've used my new engine stand. Wasn't sure it'd cope with the SS, but it seems to hold it up quite admirably...................



Now here's something that'd been niggling me for a wee bit. I'd noticed that the isolator switches on the old pictures of the car were on the panel below the windscreen on the drivers side. On this car they're on a recess in the wing. I appreciate that things change, but as I said it was niggling me.

But what do I find hiding under a bit of filler.............



That settles that then!!

And one final one. Go on BC, just laquer it, hoof an engine in it and drive it, you know you want to!!!



I'll keep trying to dig into the history of the car and update as and when, and I'll open up a new thread for the work I do on the other Monza, (which I discover now resembles and indoor swimming pool!! )

[bstardchild]

Just bought a donor for it Manual GSE 1985 - £200 with 10 mths tax and test on it

Perfect every single part I could need to transfer in one drivable lump

NB - It is well past it's usable life before anyone gets upset about breaking a good one it's had 10 more years than it should have had on the road as a result of a dedicated previous owner

[CR500Dom]

Result !!! ;D

Whats special about the Trailing arms ?

Do you want to copy them BC, I can put you in touch with someone close by that would do them if they are Fabricated

Be worth making a Jig off them at the very least

[bstardchild]

cr500dom said:

Result !!! ;D

Whats special about the Trailing arms ?

Probably go no holes in em like they normally have ;D

cr500dom said:

Do you want to copy them BC, I can put you in touch with someone close by that would do them if they are Fabricated

Be worth making a Jig off them at the very least

I don'tthink they are fab'd but I guess either Roddy will take picture or I will when the car gets south of the wall

[bstardchild]

bigrod said:

BC, there're two, (well four really!), things I want off the car after you take delivery; 1) the front shocks and springs, (even though I'm doubting the integrity of at least one of them and, 2) The rear trailing arms. (Not interested in an exchange, I want the one's off the rally car.

Talk to you on the other side

[rrv8]

Nice Leda suspension............



Spring seats from memory don't look like Monza
Those front legs look like the ones that were fitted too mine , hybrid between Monza/Leda/Rover SD1
Monza stubaxle
Leda setup in a Rover SD1 leg welded to a Monza stub and Rover springs
Rods and seals are no longer available as they are imperial but had a set converted and rebiult by Leda to metric for £157 the pair
Had mine rebiult then fitted them to the car to find out one of the stub axles was bent , caliper fouls the disc

Is the suspension bushs made of solid nylon ?
If so looks like you may have the same suspension set up as me , the rear bushs that mount the subframe are modded as well to counteract the camber on the rear on mine

[rrv8]

Rear shock absorber mounts look modified as well in the pic

[bigrod]

bstardchild said:

Just bought a donor for it Manual GSE 1985 - £200 with 10 mths tax and test on it

Perfect every single part I could need to transfer in one drivable lump

NB - It is well past it's usable life before anyone gets upset about breaking a good one it's had 10 more years than it should have had on the road as a result of a dedicated previous owner

Reeezult BC!!

[bigrod]

cr500dom said:

Result !!! ;D

Whats special about the Trailing arms ?

They're modded. There's adjusters for toe in/out on the inner arm and there's obviously been some work done to the shocker mount too.

In the grand scheme of things, it's not a biggy, just a bit novel and the fact that they're relatively rot free's a huge bonus too!!

[bigrod]

rrv8 said:

Nice Leda suspension............

Yeah, I figure it's worth keeping.

rrv8 said:

Spring seats from memory don't look like Monza
Those front legs look like the ones that were fitted too mine , hybrid between Monza/Leda/Rover SD1
Monza stubaxle
Leda setup in a Rover SD1 leg welded to a Monza stub and Rover springs
Rods and seals are no longer available as they are imperial but had a set converted and rebiult by Leda to metric for £157 the pair

Now that's worth knowing!!! At least one of the struts needs attention Not sure exactly what's wrong with it, but 1) it doesn't move as freely as I'd expect, and 2) the speing seems to be compressed, but I won't know for sure thill they're off the car and I can inspect them proper.

rrv8 said:

Had mine rebiult then fitted them to the car to find out one of the stub axles was bent , caliper fouls the disc

Poo!

rrv8 said:

Is the suspension bushs made of solid nylon ?
If so looks like you may have the same suspension set up as me , the rear bushs that mount the subframe are modded as well to counteract the camber on the rear on mine

Dunno about the nylon, never thought to check it. I'll have a look and I'll get a pic or two of the trailing arms while I'm at it and we can compare notes.

Thanks RRV8! That's been a great help. As I say, I'll be in touch!!

[kyteler]

That's the heat having it's effect on the spring, you'll not be able to sort that one out. Replacement springs needed there for certain.

A lot of the burnt out cars I've dealt with have gotten so hot that they've allowed the weight of the car to compress them down and then when they cool.. wallah, one solid coil. Not a very soft ride.

[bigrod]

kyteler said:

That's the heat having it's effect on the spring, you'll not be able to sort that one out. Replacement springs needed there for certain.

A lot of the burnt out cars I've dealt with have gotten so hot that they've allowed the weight of the car to compress them down and then when they cool.. wallah, one solid coil. Not a very soft ride.

Well, that was my first thought and it does look like that's what's happened, but the spring in question is furthest away from the seat of the fire and in vehicle fire terms, I don't think it got that hot TBH so I'm at a loss. Still, if the struts are repairable then I'm sure a set of springs won't be too hard to come by.

[kyteler]

Hmm, that is a bit odd. The only thing I can think of is that perhaps the coil had already been heated to lower it, at some stage of it's life and the metal was weaker thusly it not needing that much more to bring it to it's knees? I don't know, it's my theory without accurate knowledge.

[bstardchild]

I've kinda taken on the continuing quest for history on this car as the shell and a few bits will end up with me and I thought I'd try a different tack and look for help from the irish rally scene

Jackpot 8)

From another forum Rally Retro supplied this information

I wrote the article on McHale's Monza and it was for Pacenotes, about 3 years ago. At the time I spoke to McHale, Effe, O Rourke ... and later also Ian Cuddy who helped build the car but that was after I'd written the article. Heres a rundown on the article and a few photos

Up to 1987, Austin McHale had been backed by and part of the team that was Dealer Opel Team Ireland for many years from when he and team-mate Billy Coleman first challenged the STP Tarmac Championship for overall honours, both in Manta 400’s.

As it happened, through the connection of Frank O’Rourke, who had direct connections with DOTI on the circuit racing scene, McHale was able to bring in an Opel Monza which has been used on and won production saloon races in England and Ireland. So because of the spec the car already had, it didn’t take much to adapt it to tarmac rallying specs.

McHale’s mechanics, spearheaded on as ever by Mickey Eiffe soon got down to work, re building the car from ground up in a race to meet the Easter deadline.

Before the event McHale had been quoted to say.."The Monza should suit me alright. It's a bit bigger than the Manta, but we think we can get the weight down to within 50 kgs of the minimum 1050 allowed for the class and quite a few parts from the Manta 400 can be used in the Monza, like the gears, differential and brakes. The six-cylinder engines has 245 BHP and should be smooth to drive "

"It is not going to be as fast as some of these new so-called Group A cars on the rally, but we'll not be far away."

McHale took delivery of the car just the night before the rally and just as he went to take it out for a quick test, it suffered fuel pump failure, and the Dubliner was looking a little unsure of his chances. As he would soon find out on the real stages the following day, the car was more than a handful “It was a tank, very heavy, but reliable”.

He struggled with various problems throughout the event including collapsed front suspension whereby the car was bottoming out and wallowing on the yumps. The mechanics fitted harder springs, but later the front bulkhead and inner wings started giving way under the strain. An ever-disappearing rear windscreen due to its weight and mass was also a major issue for the DOTI team mechanics. McHale also bent a wheel and damaged the car slightly as he hit part of a wall which Sebastian Lindholm and Dai Llewellin had also hit, on the Gortnapeaky stage.

But despite these problems, he and co driver Christy Farrell indeed weren’t “far away”….finishing in 5th position overall, a good result for anyone in a new car. Ahead of them McRae won the rally in a Sierra Cosworth while the Audi Quattro’s of Lindholm and Llewellin lay 2nd and 3rd respectively, with another Sierra of Phil Collins slotting into fourth, although well ahead of McHale and Farrell in 5th. Terry Kaby finished in 6th in his Peugeot 205 Gti, not far off McHales final times.

“Mobile Chicane”

Here is the story of 99 GZJ, an Opel Monza which had its fair share of hits and bangs.
The car had originally been owned as a road car by a General Motors worker, but when they crashed it around 1983, it was unable to be used a road car any longer.

Frank O’Rourke who is an Opel Dealer from Wexford town then bought the car and built it to do Production Saloon car racing.

Frank raced it for about three years from 1983 to 86 up and down Ireland from Kirkistown to Mondello to Wexford and occasional hillclimbs across the country too. He also completed one rally in the car as an official, 002 safety car on the 1984 Wexford Rally.

However he never found it an easy car to drive

“Not only was it a boaty car but at that time all of the Production Saloon cars ran on exactly the same fixed size Dunlop tyres and just as the Alfa Romeo boys found out, tyres with a dimension 16” at 50 psi on a big car meant they were just like balloons.”

“It was no front runner and in ways the old Commodores we raced years before were better than the Monza. In fairness it was a good car on the faster more open circuits like Kirkistown, but found great difficulty steering it through the tight bends of Mondello and the likes. So much so that the car got the nickname “Mobile Chicane”.”

His connection with the big Monza came to a sudden end however, as he once crashed the car into a ditch and hit the stump of a tree. The car was heavily damaged at the front and due to him having a full face helmet he fractured his sternum in the process.

The damaged car lay in O’Rourkes garage for about 6 or 8 months coming near the end of the 1986 season and it was then that the opportunity came up for McHale to buy and use the car.

Mickey Eiffe, McHales chief mechanic, takes over the story from here

“Well after it had been crashed and Austin bought the car we didn’t have a lot of time to prepare the car but it was quite well geared for Group A spec anyway.”

“The only things we used from the Manta which was obviously lying not used were the gearbox and diff setup which were actually Group B spec, and same wheels.”

“The brakes on the Monza were terrible…very small and for the size of the car non-proportioned.”

“The problem with the fuel pump the night before the rally wasn’t with this car alone though….they also went on the works Kadetts which DOTI had running.”

After the Manx Rally which was the only other European qualifying event McHale had down to do in 87, a friend of an RED mechanic who had heard the car would be for sale came and had a look at it…was interested in buying it and so met Mickey Eiffe at the boat where they exchanged it to the Englishmans trailer and that’s the last I can trace of the car.

Photos











And on another rally :wink:



Now there are a few questions regarding the info above (inconsistancy) but I've asked the chap and we shall see what can be confirmed basically I'm not sure that O'Rourkes original car could have been converted to the one McHale drove - way too many changes required - What I think might have happened is the car had it's best bits removed and fitted to another GSE spec Monza (history and pedigree unknown)

[bigrod]

Yeehaw!!!

BC, something else I meant to say........

I picked up the other roll cage last week. It came with a few odds and ends, most noteably a blue series 1 dash. It would seem that the original trim on this car was blue as there's some of the melted remains around the car. (The dash that's in it I think is/was black.) The blue dash has an RAC sticker on it, but no date. There's also a silver bonnet, (remember I found some silver paint on the panel below the windscreen.), and there're quite a number of scrutineering stickers on the cage itself, but none of the dates are legible.

I don't know if maybe some of the car's been replaced with spares from a silver car.

I'll pass all the stuff on to you when the time comes, but I just thought I'd let you know.

[bstardchild]

bigrod said:

Yeehaw!!!

BC, something else I meant to say........

I picked up the other roll cage last week. It came with a few odds and ends, most noteably a blue series 1 dash. It would seem that the original trim on this car was blue as there's some of the melted remains around the car. (The dash that's in it I think is/was black.) The blue dash has an RAC sticker on it, but no date. There's also a silver bonnet, (remember I found some silver paint on the panel below the windscreen.), and there're quite a number of scrutineering stickers on the cage itself, but none of the dates are legible.

I don't know if maybe some of the car's been replaced with spares from a silver car.

I'll pass all the stuff on to you when the time comes, but I just thought I'd let you know.

If I can get all the pieces to fit together one day I'll be a happy bunny!!!

[bstardchild]

bstardchild said:

Just bought a donor for it Manual GSE 1985 - £200 with 10 mths tax and test on it

Perfect every single part I could need to transfer in one drivable lump

NB - It is well past it's usable life before anyone gets upset about breaking a good one it's had 10 more years than it should have had on the road as a result of a dedicated previous owner

It's now on its way to Norfolk

Ian, it's sorted, even Daisy likes it.......



I'm thinking of introducing congestion charging!!



See ya tomorrow.......unless I take a wrong turn and keep going, and going, and going!! You can't break this car, it's way too good!!

Ha Ha we will see - I'm not breaking a car for spares I'm re-shelling a car