Hi guys
Leaving turkey an moving into Georgia, some would say that this is the start
of the real rally and the beginning of the poor roads and the start of
potential border crossing problems.
The border crossing, apart from the lines that formed when a lot of people
and cars all turn up at once, seemed to have gone by reasonably well. At the
evening diner in Batumi the rally crews were visited by the new countries
President.
Up until now changing money in the more experienced western style hotels etc
has been easy, from now on it seems that 'get it where you can' is the order
of the day when the local gas station (doubles as a semi legal bank) ran out
of local money!
Tomorrow is a cross country drive to Tbilisi. The first problem may be TIME,
in the past 24 hours the clocks have moved forward 4 hours. An 8 o'clock
start may catch some people out.
The Lagonda M45 is down in 5th place behind a 1948 Fiat! the next placed
car is the Fangio Chevy Coupe that is some 2 hours behind. This car is
looking for a gearbox (Just starting to move into the former Russian
territories I do like their chances of finding one!) The oldest car left in
the race is the 1914 Rolls Ghost some 35 hours down on the pace. This car is
nearly 90 years old and so far has had no problems! Is this an indication of
Rolls build quality or just good preparation?
The classic results changed little, but it is worth noting that we have 5
Jaguars still in the event, "Grace Space and Pace" to quote W Lyons still
seems to be doing Ok in the year 2000. We still have 3 Astons in the event,
proving once again how strong and well built these cars are. The Healeys and
the Facel are going strong and are popular cars for historic rallies.
For sheer weight of numbers you have to note that 13 Mercedes Benz car are
still in the running, any of these cars could come in first. Few people
realize it, but Mercedes Benz have a very enviable rally results history.
The MGB continues to hang in there, as is the Morgan and One lone Morris
Minor, Britain's answer to the VW bug! Very reliable old transport Morris
Minors, and a lot of parts are available if it can make India.
Regards
John J Black
Waterloo Drivetrain Systems
http://www.waterloo-dtr.com
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