Long Distance Rally Advice Wanted

[Saveit 0]

I was pretty happy with the car, pretty much every car had it's dramas, and lets just say we had lovely sound and light shows each night with welders and angle grinders sending the sparks flying.

 

Quite a number of broken diffs, X-members, and major structural bits. One car they even welded the back doors shut because the shell started splitting across the back and they thought that would help. A Skyline resorted to welding star-picket sections all over the rear suspension to stop it twisting!

 

Hehe yeah i would imagine the shell would have a hard time staying together. But still impressed by a 205 completing such a rally. Would love to do it myself.

[casnell 0]

Hehe yeah i would imagine the shell would have a hard time staying together. But still impressed by a 205 completing such a rally. Would love to do it myself.

That wasn't us with the welder, that was most other cars!

 

Another Pub shot, I know you guys like pubs ( and tea, it's pronounced tea tree)

[Saveit 0]

For how long time dit you race at a time? And how often did you stop to change driver?

[casnell 0]

For how long time dit you race at a time? And how often did you stop to change driver?

Didn't change driver at all, longest day was probably about 12 hours. Shortest overnight break was 6 hours before going out again. We got 15-30min breaks for meals/refuel about each 300 k's and sometimes 1/2 hour break before a stage.

Longest transport was when the bolt fell out of the rear caliper- we jumped over a cattle grid and on landing the rear caliper locked. I thought "thats strange" and investigated- 1 bolt had fallen out and the caliper moved, jamming the handbrake on. Took 30 mins to remove the caliper, jam something in it to stop the piston jumping out, and fix the caliper up under the car. We then had 450 k's to go in 4 hours including refuel/dinner in the dark with 3 brakes on dirt roads(theoretically without going over the 100 speed limit). We made it nicely on the minute! We had 4 HID driving lights which really helped the night sections.

 

Longest stage was 100 k's long, a magic fast flowing stage mostly along a large dam maintenance rd which we cleaned with a 96kph average.

 

I think there was about 900 k's competitive, but the transports had 90kph averages incl meal/refuel often, or an extra 1/2 hour for service sometimes. That meant sitting on 130-140 most of the transports, in fact even the service vehicles sat on 130 a lot. The transports were up to about 500k's long. This made it completely different to the SS rallies I'm used to, the transports were as much a part of the competition as the competitives!

[Saveit 0]

Didn't change driver at all, longest day was probably about 12 hours. Shortest overnight break was 6 hours before going out again. We got 15-30min breaks for meals/refuel about each 300 k's and sometimes 1/2 hour break before a stage.

Longest transport was when the bolt fell out of the rear caliper- we jumped over a cattle grid and on landing the rear caliper locked. I thought "thats strange" and investigated- 1 bolt had fallen out and the caliper moved, jamming the handbrake on. Took 30 mins to remove the caliper, jam something in it to stop the piston jumping out, and fix the caliper up under the car. We then had 450 k's to go in 4 hours including refuel/dinner in the dark with 3 brakes on dirt roads(theoretically without going over the 100 speed limit). We made it nicely on the minute! We had 4 HID driving lights which really helped the night sections.

 

Longest stage was 100 k's long, a magic fast flowing stage mostly along a large dam maintenance rd which we cleaned with a 96kph average.

 

I think there was about 900 k's competitive, but the transports had 90kph averages incl meal/refuel often, or an extra 1/2 hour for service sometimes. That meant sitting on 130-140 most of the transports, in fact even the service vehicles sat on 130 a lot. The transports were up to about 500k's long. This made it completely different to the SS rallies I'm used to, the transports were as much a part of the competition as the competitives!

 

So you drove it all along? Good job. At which place did you finish? I would imagine that you were racing in different classes right?

 

Sadly i live in Denmark (which is okay for the most of the time ) so such a rally could never take place. And to build a car and get it transported to Australia would cost a fortune.

Edited November 20, 2008 by Saveit

[casnell 0]

So you drove it all along? Good job. At which place did you finish? I would imagine that you were racing in different classes right?

 

Sadly i live in Denmark (which is okay for the most of the time ) so such a rally could never take place. And to build a car and get it transported to Australia would cost a fortune.

Denmark would be good, places have their good and bad points...

 

We ended up 41st out of 70, never in it after our first day indiscretion, 3rd in class still though.

[Saveit 0]

And how is the class defined?

[gti_al 1]

So it all went well? It seems like a while since you were so worried about it making the distance.

 

What is next with the car? It is looking great, and can't have too many weak areas left... still needs a proper engine though... Are there any events coming up?