London to Cape Town 2012: End of Day 5
by John Glynn – pics by Gerard Brown
Day 4 of the 2012 London to Cape Town World Cup Rally took the competitors from Florence to Ancona for the ferry to Greece: 300 kilometres, including stages.
Day 5 brings the rally from the port of Igoumenitsa to Kamena Vourla in central Greece: a total day’s drive of just under 500 kilometres, with some stages along the way. No times out yet but I’ve just had a text from Hayden. I’m getting slightly ahead of myself, however. My previous text from the 912 was at the end of Day 2:
Had a good day, was fun and 912 has been trundling along. Have made a few mods to improve cooling, enjoyed a fun afternoon at the Bricolage making some parts on the kerbside and installing them with loaner power from the bulk goods loading bay. Great fun. AC is coming to terms with the 912 handling and I expect his fun will improve with each day.
This was sort of what happened.
Day 1 had three World Cup stages. The 912 scored a 7th, then an 11th and a 27th position. By comparison, the Tuthill 911 scored a 2nd, then a win and a 31st position! Stage 3 was clearly a navigation issue if they were both that far down.
Day 2 was a single WC stage, the 911 taking a win and the 912 coming 10th (I would write this tenth but I’m in a numbers rut now).
Day 3 times show four WC stages: 912 30th, 17th, 14th and 22nd. The organisers say this section was run through very hilly terrain which suited the bigger engined cars. So it would seem, as the 911 was well up: 15th, 10th, 5th and 2nd.
Day 4 times show one WC stage result: Piobbico. The town is 80 km west of Ancona and home to the Festival of the Ugly. I don’t know how that ties with the results, as are they are pretty attractive: 911 won the stage with the 912 coming fourth: its best result of the rally so far.
No info to hand for Day 5, apart from Hayden’s latest text:
Quite a fast pace, we are one day from getting on the Ferry to Egypt already. Car is running well, makes good pace across the stages with AC at the helm. Sorry to say most of the time lost has been avoidable navigation errors. Today was better, top 10 all went the wrong way on the last stage and gave us a bit of a time gift. Have not seen the results tonight, but have been told we are now P13. 6 World Cup stages on day 6, will be a busy day that may cause some reshuffling…..
Day 6 takes the boys and girls from Kamena Vourla to the port of Piraeus, to catch a midnight ferry. Midnight means they will be driving all day. With six stages to do at full tilt and a 490 kilometre total ahead of them, tomorrow is almost guaranteed to claim a few scalps.
The following day is a rest day, as they sail to Alexandria. Then there is no rest until they get to Nairobi in Kenya, 5,000 kilometres and ten days’ hard driving later. Can you believe they paid to do this?!
Other people we are watching: the 964 Carrera 4 was in 18th position at the end of Day 4, with Francis Tuthill in the HiLux right behind them. Hayden/Alastair and Joost/Jacques were fourth in class respectively at the end of Day 4.
