Geoff Jones, owner and operator of one of the UK’s most trusted rally preparation garages, has spoken out about the importance of quality in manufacture and design for car components. In his work he sees how easily many road spec components can fail under duress which he believes exposes the ‘that will do’ attitude that may exist in some corners of the industry. He believes that once you find a brand that invests in R&D and product testing it is important to stick with it as there is no room for failures when you’re racing.
Geoff Jones has had a love for rallying since he can remember; growing up around the forest stages of the Mid-Wales Rally, as a boy he has fond memories of hearing the cars howling through the trees. Throughout his school days he spent his spare time helping out in garages and learning how to fix and prepare cars for rallying. As soon as he was old enough he got his race license and began his rally career in 1983, driving a Ford Escort MkII in the Welsh National Championship.
As a driver he has enjoyed a lot of success and still regularly drives in local rallies. He has competed in rallies all over the world, worked as a test-driver for Pro-Drive and even driven in the Nissan and Proton Works teams. However, where his CV really begins to impress is in his technical support and development roles. Having grown up preparing and driving cars of all power transmission persuasions, he is an expert in how to tune and set-up a car for any type of rally.
Speaking about his work in rallying, Geoff Jones comments: “I suppose a career highlight for me was working as a Mitsubishi technician in the 2004 Paris – Dakar rally; that was the year that Colin McRae, Giniel de Villiers and Ari Vatanen were driving. That is probably the most famous rally in the world and they are some of the greatest drivers of our time. What makes it even more special is that all of the support crews have to drive the stages to get to each checkpoint, my driving experience really came in handy then.”
“I believe that my driving experience and work as a test-driver gives me the edge when I prepare a car. I can speak to the driver on the same level and can understand what they are feeling in the seat and know how to resolve it. It also means that I understand the frustration of a good race ruined by component failure. In rallying you can’t really test the components prior to racing so you have to trust that your mechanic is only using the best parts available. As a mechanic I value that trust so work only with proven and reliable brand products.”
Geoff Jones Motorsport has been preparing and developing cars for drivers for over 20 years. In 2010 he started looking after the Subaru of Sara Williams’, the young, Klarius sponsored rally driver who is creating quite a stir in the world of rallying. As part of her sponsorship agreement Sara is given access to the Klarius Group’s wide range of QH brand components as well as technical advice and support from the Technical Development Manager, Doug Bentley. When Doug first met Geoff to discuss what components could be used, he discovered that Geoff had already been using QH products for many years.
Doug Bentley says: “It is fantastic to work with someone like Geoff who has spent his life working around the sport that he loves. When we first started talking with him we discovered that he was already a QH customer and regularly uses our suspension and steering components in his rally cars.”
As Doug discovered, there is a good reason for Geoff’s reliance on the QH brand.
Geoff continues: “It was a number of years ago now; we were on the Jim Clark rally which is tarmac which creates a lot of tyre grip, so the suspension and steering components are really put under high stress. That week there had been issues with delivery so we had to put un-tested components on the car. Less than three stages into the race a ball joint failed and the driver had to retire from the event. This experience led to me to conduct tests on a number of components in a rallying environment as I was determined to find a component I could rely on.”
“During the test I found that the QH components would often last longer than even the OE parts. You can’t put a price on that level of reliability in rallying so I have been a regular QH customer ever since. I am delighted to be working with Doug and the team now, and since I have been working with them I have learned just how thoroughly the R&D team test each component through all the stages of development; now I understand why QH parts stand out from the crowd.”
“I do believe that it is important to find a brand that has pride in it’s components, it means that when you need to use a part untested you can still rely on brand reputation; and reputation is something I know a lot about. I have regularly told drivers to use these products in their cars and if I had been wrong then I don’t think I would have lasted in the business quite so long.”
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About the KLARIUS Group
Klarius Group is the largest European manufacturer of aftermarket car parts today. The Klarius Group operates five high-volume Manufacturing Plants, a Research & Development Centre, four European Technical Centres, eight International Logistics & Distribution Hubs, and eighteen national and regional Stock Warehouses based across Europe. Klarius Group Headquarters are located in Manchester (UK).
The Klarius Group employs 1,200 personnel across Europe, and has an annual turnover of 200 million Euros.
The two current major market brands within the Klarius Group are Klarius Emission Control Products and QH Automotive parts. Both the QH and Klarius product brands represent a range of OE quality replacement automotive products. Klarius Group companies now offer over 100,000 parts, covering the majority of the European Car Parc, supplying over 80,000 parts every day, to over 5,600 delivery points in more than 136 countries.
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