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36th Overall - In the Worlds Toughest Rally!
- Thread starter hatari
- Start date
mikecart
Well-Known Forum User
Harpal,
There is a nice quote in the EASR write up in Octane Magazine:
"The rally lived up to its tough reputation. Waldegård may have been the champion, but with 2700 miles of tough roads and a competitive distance of 875 miles, each of the 42 finishers was a hero in their own right."
Mike
There is a nice quote in the EASR write up in Octane Magazine:
"The rally lived up to its tough reputation. Waldegård may have been the champion, but with 2700 miles of tough roads and a competitive distance of 875 miles, each of the 42 finishers was a hero in their own right."
Mike
Thanks Mike.
I could not have put that any better. The Safari is an Epic journey and I really could write a book not only on the rally itself but what the team and I had to go through just to get the car to the ramp. I still keep asking myself ..."Did I really do that?"
Attachments
Nigel Brook
Well-Known Forum User
Purely from a technical point of view, have you an idea why the roof parted company from the rest of the shell? Roll cage hitting it perhaps?
Parting company
The cage never hit the roof, everyone that looked at the car had only one thing to say. The Roll Cage was not welded to the body/pillars of the car. Only to the floor of the car. So the body was "flexing" alot more than the Roll-Cage. Also the cage in the cockpit - of the car did not go through to the front suspension towers. The reinforcement you see in the engine bay was from the bulkhead to the suspension tower and then to the chassis rails. Ours was the only car that had this problem. Luckily we had riveted "windscreen brackets" to the body, otherwise that would have popped out as soon as the pillars cracked. We basically lost our "higher" positon because of this problem, we kept on Welding the pillars but the weld kept cracking. Then as we got towards the end - we got cracks in the "reinforcement" in the engine bay, if you look closely at one of the engine bay pictures we had to reweld the bars going to the bulkhead.
The cage never hit the roof, everyone that looked at the car had only one thing to say. The Roll Cage was not welded to the body/pillars of the car. Only to the floor of the car. So the body was "flexing" alot more than the Roll-Cage. Also the cage in the cockpit - of the car did not go through to the front suspension towers. The reinforcement you see in the engine bay was from the bulkhead to the suspension tower and then to the chassis rails. Ours was the only car that had this problem. Luckily we had riveted "windscreen brackets" to the body, otherwise that would have popped out as soon as the pillars cracked. We basically lost our "higher" positon because of this problem, we kept on Welding the pillars but the weld kept cracking. Then as we got towards the end - we got cracks in the "reinforcement" in the engine bay, if you look closely at one of the engine bay pictures we had to reweld the bars going to the bulkhead.
Nigel Brook
Well-Known Forum User
So what level of seam welding did the car have. I noticed it was a bit "belt and braces" on the floors.
Mr Ex
Inactive
hatari you look as though you have had a really great "busmans holiday" there & done what most of us can only dream about, NO most of us wouldn't even dream of doing such an exhausting event as the safari & on such a small budget & hey you have seen a lot the countryside AND have a finishers award to cherish, WELL DONE.
datsfun
Club Member
Lets not forget you get to see some of the most amazing sites in the world!!
Mount Kilimanjaro.
I assume these were not taken whislt you were sat in the navigator seat during stages
SeanDezart
Well-Known Forum User
Is there going to be a DVD (like last year) available ?
Nigel Brook
Well-Known Forum User
It's a great shame the current troubles in Kenya have overshadowed the event.
suzy
Well-Known Forum User
What he said
2005 was brillant and it was very kind of you to sort it out for us all
Kenya Unrest
It is a Tragedy really. We went through all the areas that are now in turmoil. For those that did not know, the rally also has a humanitarian effort. Providing essential facilities to schools, local communities etc. Lets just hope that the politics do not destroy the sport.
Look what happened to the Dakar Rally?!!!
As far as the DVD is concerned. I am not sure when the organisers intend to release it. There will be one but no idea what the cost will be. Depending on numbers I can arrange to get them sent over.
It is a Tragedy really. We went through all the areas that are now in turmoil. For those that did not know, the rally also has a humanitarian effort. Providing essential facilities to schools, local communities etc. Lets just hope that the politics do not destroy the sport.
Look what happened to the Dakar Rally?!!!
As far as the DVD is concerned. I am not sure when the organisers intend to release it. There will be one but no idea what the cost will be. Depending on numbers I can arrange to get them sent over.
Jonathan Savage
Forum User
I agree a really tough and fun rally
Having taken my Z to 9th position in the 2005 event, My son & I really tried to push the car in the 2007 event, and after having a really good trouble free run except for a minor "off " into a river on the 6th day all was going really well and to plan.
The little incident with the river cost us 20min and moved us from 5th place to 7th. We then moved into Tanzania where we managed to get back up to 6th place on the first of the days section, but then all went wrong in a very bad way!!!!!
2.4Km from the end of the 2nd 116km stage, there was an ammendment that had to be made to the notes and the organisers had added an additional single caution drift 0.6k from one of the instructions, and we in the cockpit forgot to deduct the 0.6k from the original 1.31k instruction of triple caution blind concrete drift!!! so after the first drift my son read 1.31k to the triple caution instead on 0.71k, and we were doing about 150kph and hit it very hard, and rolled end over end twice and landed on the rear of the car then rolled over once and landed on the wheels. The rear end was badly pushed against the right rear tyre, and we could not go any further unless we had help and could pull out the part of the body work. ( Using another vehicle )
Lady Luck was with us as the Roll cage was intact and the car was mainly in the air rolling until it landed in the soft soil, so there was very little body work damage, which was a miracle for such a high speed crash.
We were not hurt at all, and as soon as the section was open we got our service car in to pull out the rear and we drove the car out of the section and then 100k to service.
We were not allowed to start the next 2 stages as we had badly damaged the fuel filling system and had to be repaired before we could resume for (saftey reasons).
We managed to find some Gas welding equipment, hammers, jacks and after some 8 hours and some very clever work from my crew (Sebastian Tham in particular ) we managed to get the repair certified.
We started the last day and finished the next stages and also the rally, but unfortunalty having taken maximum penalties in sections we did not do we still managed 25th Overall.
We were very lucky and there was very little damage to the car, which was remarkable, and it is now being repaired, and I will compete in the Sept 2008 "Alice Springs to the Gold Coast in Austraila"
Having taken my Z to 9th position in the 2005 event, My son & I really tried to push the car in the 2007 event, and after having a really good trouble free run except for a minor "off " into a river on the 6th day all was going really well and to plan.
The little incident with the river cost us 20min and moved us from 5th place to 7th. We then moved into Tanzania where we managed to get back up to 6th place on the first of the days section, but then all went wrong in a very bad way!!!!!
2.4Km from the end of the 2nd 116km stage, there was an ammendment that had to be made to the notes and the organisers had added an additional single caution drift 0.6k from one of the instructions, and we in the cockpit forgot to deduct the 0.6k from the original 1.31k instruction of triple caution blind concrete drift!!! so after the first drift my son read 1.31k to the triple caution instead on 0.71k, and we were doing about 150kph and hit it very hard, and rolled end over end twice and landed on the rear of the car then rolled over once and landed on the wheels. The rear end was badly pushed against the right rear tyre, and we could not go any further unless we had help and could pull out the part of the body work. ( Using another vehicle )
Lady Luck was with us as the Roll cage was intact and the car was mainly in the air rolling until it landed in the soft soil, so there was very little body work damage, which was a miracle for such a high speed crash.
We were not hurt at all, and as soon as the section was open we got our service car in to pull out the rear and we drove the car out of the section and then 100k to service.
We were not allowed to start the next 2 stages as we had badly damaged the fuel filling system and had to be repaired before we could resume for (saftey reasons).
We managed to find some Gas welding equipment, hammers, jacks and after some 8 hours and some very clever work from my crew (Sebastian Tham in particular ) we managed to get the repair certified.
We started the last day and finished the next stages and also the rally, but unfortunalty having taken maximum penalties in sections we did not do we still managed 25th Overall.
We were very lucky and there was very little damage to the car, which was remarkable, and it is now being repaired, and I will compete in the Sept 2008 "Alice Springs to the Gold Coast in Austraila"
Jonathan Savage
Forum User
Dear Suzy,
Where did you get your engine for your Z turbo charged, as I am looking to get an engine of mine re-built and turbo charged to be used in some local events in one of my Z's, or can one buy a complete engine??
Thanks
Jonathan
Where did you get your engine for your Z turbo charged, as I am looking to get an engine of mine re-built and turbo charged to be used in some local events in one of my Z's, or can one buy a complete engine??
Thanks
Jonathan