HI Guys
After the last rest day in the worst Hotel the rallyists have ever seen.
They are told that this was a 2 star Hotel but lavatories backed up and
overflowed, vermin in the rooms that were being fed just to keep them off
the beds, beds that curled up at the edges etc, but worse is yet to come say
the locals and the people who have done the event before! What fun they are
having.
The Chinese version of the Not So Secret Police (PSB) have changed the route
for 3 days, so a long night was in front of the organizers doing new route
maps and book. They then changed the route another twice! The cell phone
will only receive incoming calls. Outward calls are jammed.
The 38 Packard is still in the lead being chased by the 2CV (seriously folks
just how do you chase ANYTHING in a Citroen 2CV?? No offence meant to 2CV
lovers) The Bentley is still third and the Rolls still in 12th position on
the vintage leader board. Reliability is the name of the game.
The classic are dominated by the Hillman Hunter, but the Datsun 410 is
starting to impress in fifth place. It leads the Peking event by a good
margin now, and it seems to have no problems.
The Jaguar XK 140 is in 12th place closely followed by the Aston DB2/4, It
lost a lot of time having the axle repaired with a welding torch. The other
Aston (now in 42nd place) had some welding done of the front suspension
mounting. The Rover 80 blew out the differential but a camera crew on the
event gave up the front diff from their 4x4 (this gave then 2 wheel drive
only) to keep the car in the event. The car is now flat out at 50mph but
comes off the line like a scalded cat!
This rover in still ahead of the Team Healey car of Dyke-Price and Onyett,
so far things on this car are holding together after the last few adventures
with the fuel tank.
The MGB is holding 25 place ands seems to be holding up very well, it just
proves how strong these little cars are. The Hunts in the other team Healey
car are now in 29th position and seem to be ok. At the rate cars are
breaking down Peters plan to save the car in the early days may well start
to pay off when the really rough stuff comes up. (the next few days will
tell if he was right!) It is interesting to see the two Team Healey cars,
tackle the event in two different ways, With the Dyke-Price and Onyett car
being used in an old stage rally way, then you have the Hunts car that is
being used carefully, and on the basis that they need to get all around the
world with the car still in one piece.
The Morgan +4 is now stable at 48th and now seems reliable, after the last
weeks efforts to play catch up these guys deserve to make up some ground but
the terrain is not the best in the world to go chasing times!
Regards
John J Black
Waterloo Drivetrain Systems
http://www.waterloo-dtr.com
|