Thanks to virtually nil Internet access, updates from the 2010 Peking to Paris rally have been scant of late, but I had a few texts from Hayden this weekend which I am happy to relay. I’ve spent a few hours scouting around the blogs, Flickr and Facebook sites to find some pics to go with it – found a few of Lola, with some great general shots too. Here’s one of Lola and Chuck Schwager’s 1949 Cadillac filling up:

Big shout out to Chuck and Lloyd: the Number 86 Cadillac boys (we all know I love an old Cadillac), the Model A crew, the Aston team and Southlands Farm Cottages on Flickr for helping to fill out this post with some pics. Click on the links to hear their stories and see some fabulous images.

Here’s Hayden.

Thursday September 30th (a replacement generator was flown in to Tashkent):

Samarkand is great. Tashkent was great! Will swap the generator in the morning. I did the LH valves this morning, purred along today, will do the RH bank tomorrow, will also change air filters and perhaps even oil again. The oil sure is dirty, so there must have been lot of gunge in the motor after Mongolia and some more dirt roads in Russia and KZ.

Uzbekistan has been a total surprise. I am slightly ashamed to know so little of a nation that has been so highly developed for so long. We colonials always seem to think that the modern world was created in the late 18th century: hard to shrug off. Beautiful place.

Friday October 1st:

Went clubbing in Almaty, late night dancing etc. Girls were super-westernised, most less tastefully dressed than you would see in a Leeds nightclub, major contradiction for a Muslim nation. The whole ‘religion versus globalisation’ is a interesting topic. I am sitting in a glorious park in the center of University Avenue, Samarkand and contemplating exactly that as it goes twilight, no sense of threat or insecurity while wandering around the city on my own.

Saturday October 2nd (08.35 UK):

Made it into Turkmenistan. What was supposed to be the most arduous and potentially most time-consuming border crossing, ended up being one of the most efficient. Looking forward to a beer and swim, assuming the hotel has either.

The Turkish generator now powering Lola’s electrics is working fine, everything is running sweetly. I don’t want to jinx it, so that’s all I am saying.

At the border we heard the 106 VW is limping along with CV issues, so I might be called to the spanners again later to help with that. I am still not in a viable Internet bucket area, so will stick with text.

Saturday October 2nd (12.24 UK):

Hotel update! We have been checked into the local sanitarium in Turkmenabat. Total dive, very very funny, but they do have cold beer. Swim will have to wait – just a muddy fountain.

I have stayed in worse, but not much. Having said that, the absolute worst was in Vallejo, CA. The photos of medical procedures, fleas, ticks and vaporisators on the walls here are also scary!

We are bussing to a dinner, I  am sure it will be one to remember.

Sunday 3rd October:

We are into Ashgabat now, weird city with a lot of new construction. Some is very Euro, some is very Muslim. This is our last night of booze before Iran, and the prices are inflated; to say the least. On the upside, I did pay 36 Turk Menats for 59 litres of fuel. Roughly this translates to about US$14.50 for 13 imperial gallons.

Today we did 630 km on pretty good roads, managed exactly 10 litres/100km. Not bad for carbs covered in mud, and a motor with 8500 very hard kms logged on it. I’ll be interested when you (me – JG) drive it after Paris and see what it feels like; I’ll be much too familiar with all the shortcomings and foibles by the time we arrive.

I can’t see where we can make up lost time without someone else having a problem, but the organisers insist there are enough competitive elements for the results to be reordered before Paris. Regardless, the time lost when the poor 356 could only be pounded across Mongolia at a certain speed is unlikely to be recovered.

We managed to start a good rumour about a secret passage control this morning, after the route book revealed an easy and obvious short cut that many took – but not us. It’s all gaming, my hope is to finish gold. Given Steven’s vertical learning curve and the three cars ahead of us in our class, I think that will be quite an achievement.

OK, back to JG talking.

The cars Lola is lying behind are all fully rally-prepared specials. The leading 1964 EH Holden, run by Gerry Crown and Matt Bryson, is a serious rally saloon chassis and a previous competitor.  Gerry is currently letting Matt drive and resting an injured wrist, but expects to be back behind the wheel from tomorrow. Joint first is another Holden, this one also serious! Greg and Liz Newton’s car is pretty tough stuff. I’ve found some good video of the pair but the link is down at present. I’ll sort it later.

Ahmet Ongun (himself a serial Classic Porsche owner) and Erdal Tokcan in their separate-chassis 1967 Anadol are lying second. The Anadol is a glassfibre-bodied car, built in the team’s native Turkey over five years, supported by UK manufacturer Reliant. The car is powered by a sturdy old 1600cc Ford engine.

The wicked Aston Martin DB5 of Adrian Gosen and Andrew Honeychurch is currently lying third. A&A have had a few technical problems, just like Team Lola Racing, but they are maintaining a solid grip on that third position in class: 3 minutes off the leader and 3 mins ahead of us.

Tomorrow the boys cross the border into Iran, followed by a lengthy 600-kilometre drive to Gorgan. Let’s hope the border guards don’t play silly buggers.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 3rd, 2010 at 5:13 pm and is filed under Blogjack, Events, Rallying. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.