Dakar

[Eco-velocity therapy]

Some rally directors have been quoted as wanting to create an 'epic' event. Character building and full of challange.

We have a way to go to match the Paris to Dakar

- single stages 700km long
- 600 entrants
- re-routes to avoid armed bandits
- no, that is NO re-routes to aviod flooded rivers, and
- a who's who of former WRC champs (Ari, Colin, etc).

To me the most remakable thing .... an AWD bike. Not a quad bike, just two wheels, both powered!! (hydraulics down the front fork to power the front - with a sort of traction control - all for a mere 12kgs!!!)

If you have not seen any of it - tune into SBS at 7pm each night for about another week (also on Fox sports at various times).

[Bogan]

And the service trucks are entered into the event as well

Just imagine something like The Brown Wagon having to pass scrutineering...

T.

[Bogan]

Originally posted by Eco-velocity therapy
- a who's who of former WRC champs (Ari, Colin, etc).

The other night's episode on SBS showed the third Nissan car driver being pushed out of a sand trap by the other 4 crew members, including Colin and Ari. You know you're doing something special when you are being pushed by these two dudes.

And the footage of people who have just finished stages, one Japanese car driver didn't know how long he'd been driving for, one of his team members had to tell him "9 and a half hours". The motorbike rider looked pretty special too, you could tell he'd been wearing a full face helmet for the last 10 hours or so.

T.

[Spac]

The Brown Wagon, new rally-raid mega weapon!

I like it. I like it a lot. Hmmm, so when's the Australian Safari on this year?

[tortfeaser]

My favourite moments from this years event include the 736km stage where a whole stack of competitors decided they'd sleep in the middle of the stage (after running from 9am to like 1am) and continue in the morning, and the bit where Colin McRae was rescued from the 736km stage at 1am by his service truck after breaking a gearbox. I can't imagine that a WRC regular would have to hang around with the codriver for that long to often!

Regs are available on line. You know the BMSC should enter a crew, at 22,000 Euros per crew, plus 7,500 Euros per service crew member.

Anyone got plans for a 3.5l V6 powered 4WD buggy with twin shocks all round, all under a 180B shell? Must have vinyl roof. I'm keen.

[TK]

Originally posted by tortfeaser
Anyone got plans for a 3.5l V6 powered 4WD buggy with twin shocks all round, all under a 180B shell? Must have vinyl roof. I'm keen.

Tort,
Didn't the 2003 NSW Clubman winning 180B come 3rd outright in the most recent "Round Australia" event ?
I think you might have a candidate there with "pedigree" - although, it doesn't have that mandatory "vinyl roof" option (you'll have to get the 2nd placed NSW Clubman vehicle for one of those )

Edit: Assuming Dave King came second - apologies to Michael South if this is (probably) wrong (BTW...have 2003 Clubman final results been published ?)

[Jme]

The second placed vehicle (Silvia/Gazelle) won a few East-African Safari's........ I think????

[motographics]

Originally posted by TK
Tort,
Didn't the 2003 NSW Clubman winning 180B come 3rd outright in the most recent "Round Australia" event ?

Yes, 1998 Playstation Round Australia - third behind the works Jackaroos of Garland and Brock. Originally David Lowe/Robert Gambino but then Robert Gambino/David Lowe after about the second day. They ran about midfield until about Darwin (?) and then found themselves moving up the leaderboard as the roads gradually became more like forest rally roads and not desert. For the last few days down the east coast they were generally third fastest on most stages, I think.

I bought the car a year later and it still felt really strong. Brett has shown its full potential, though. All credit to him....

[Mark]

Good show. It's good therapy to come home from work each day, put the feet up on the coffee table and watch these people survive and rally.

I think it was two days ago when they did a small feature on the a 50 cc mo-ped race in one of the towns. I think about 200 competitors turned out for it. No bunting, no helmets, the track defined by people. Turns out the way to get the speed is lie down on the seat, on your belly, for low drag. They managed to get 70mph out these things - it looked hilarious. There was even a shot of bike and rider meets crowd. You can even hear the professional cameraman laughing! It was classic bogan racing, african style.

I think I heard last night that Ari stuck it into a tree and is now out... and Golin got his first stage win yesterday.
Four days left of racing or something...

Mark

[Bogan]

Colin seems to be coming good now. First in SS13 and second SS14. He's 16th outright in the cars, only 17h 07' 30" behind.



T.

[fro]

Looks like 30 years of development, and Nissan still haven't solved the problem, though...*

Giniel de Villiers reached Nema yesterday evening, having gone through some intense moments … "As well as the problems of the terrain, we had some worries with our wheel bolts, which kept on loosening, meaning that we had to stop frequently."

I didn't know the Nissan Dakar utes were using TRX wheels?

* - Thanks to Tort for the linkage...

[Bogan]

Those of you who've read supp. regs. in your time might like to read these. Too many interesting bits for me to single any out here.

T.

[Bogan]

Ooh, found an interesting bit:

During the race two “Navigation” stages will be organised. During these stages, the competitors’ G.P.S., provided by the organisation, will be limited to “Cape Direction” only and competitors must complete these stages without G.P.S.. If a competitor is lost, he will be able to free the device with a 4 figure code. The use of this function will incur a penalty of 6h.

6 hours. Bugger.

All air assistance whatsoever is forbidden between the start and finish of a Leg, on pain of immediate exclusion on the decision of the College of Sporting Stewards.

I can't believe they had to put this in the regs. I wonder how many people had helicopter support before they included this.

23P3 Administration
1/ Each Crew Member must present the following items at administration (documents must be original and valid at the time of presentation):
§ Passport : valid until July 30th, 2004.
§ Visas : All participants must obtain information from the embassies of the countries crossed in order to obtain the necessary visas, according to their nationality.
...
...
§ Vaccination certificate: yellow fever vaccination compulsory. Recommended vaccinations: tetanus, poliomyelitis, meningitis (meningococcus A and C), viral hepatitis B, typhoid...

T.

[jem]

Wow... They're pretty interesting items for doco.