by John Glynn

Well! I’m back and you are right to look worried. Prepare for the tone to slide rapidly downhill, as I tell the story of Hayden and Alastair’s ride through Africa on the London to Cape Town Rally 2012.

Hayden (in background, above) recently shared a few details on WEVO’s preparation of the 1968 Porsche 912 the boys will be using for this event. I’ve now spent quite a bit of time with the car and I can tell you it’s an absolute sweetheart. Very straight, with a ‘be efficient or don’t be here’ philosophy.

This extends to things like a bigger fuel tank, which cuts down on fuel stops and associated time spent in politeness to locals, which saves a lot of downtime over a day: then multiply by 30. Running in the sub 2-litre class means the car can run a smaller cage, which also saves weight and adds to speed and efficiency.

The travel kit will be similarly lightweight: H’s Peking to Paris kit would fit inside a shopping bag and Alastair (above) is of the same mind: all the spares for the 205 Rallye he used to win the 2005 London to Dakar fitted under a seat in the rally car!

The sum total is: I think these boys are in with a good shot, so I can’t wait for it all to kick off on New Year’s Day in Weybridge and then on to London for a 7pm departure from the Houses of Parliament. I’ll try to shoot some video of the day when I’m down there.

Email questions or special requests to me at john@johndglynn.com.

There is a history of World Cup Rally events and my car owner and driver Alastair Caldwell has won two World Cup events in the past and finished well on several others. Alastair’s win on the 2005 London – Dakar is still one of his favorites. Alastair bested a field of modern 4WD machinery day after day in the west African desert and bought his 1300cc Peugeot 205 Rallye to the top step of the podium.

For 2012, the longest World Cup Rally event so far, the field is split into 5 categories.

Alastair and I are running in the “under 2 litre Classics” where we are one of only 3 cars from the 1960′s. Joining the Space Station 1968 Porsche 912, will be the 1966 VW Karmann Ghia, the 3rd being a venerable 1964 Volvo PV544C. The class total of 12 cars includes mostly marathon rally stalwarts – Peugeot 504′s and Volvo 144′s. A sole Mk2 Ford Escort is looking to steal it’s way to the top.

Having considered the route and the fact that January in the tropics is often the wettest month of the year, we figure the rear engine, rear wheel drive and light weight of the Porsche 912 will offer us the least time diggin’ and pushing. Now we have to find out if it will give us the least time fixing and worrying about fixing…… These marathon events are not only about keeping moving in tricky terrain and keeping friends with the timekeeping god’s, the car has to do this day after day with only modest support and options for repair.

Like every WEVO project there are aspects of the 912 that are conservative and reliable, on the flip side there is some experimentation and a little art. An outwardly simple marathon car has hundreds of hours preparation and consideration, normally a few false starts and a few do-overs. The 912 was all of this, so now we get to see how well that time was spent.

At just 1900lbs  (864kg) with 15 litres of fuel. That is pretty light for a competition car equipped with a roll-cage and two proper seating positions in reclining seats good for 1000km / day. There is no way we could have built a 911 at this weight point and been as comfortable with the durability expected from the 912..

OK, so months have sped past and Paris 2010 is already more than a year ago.

The false start on the 2011 Budapest to Bamako Rally left some unfinished business, much like when Steven and I missed the 2009 London Casablanca because of bungled shipping.

 The remedy is my participation in the World Cup Rally 2012 from London to Capetown.

Looking to recapture the vibe is always a risk, the enhanced recollections of good times past etc, etc, risky business.

I am aiming low, for me the fascination of being on the road takes very few extra props, the alignment of very few priorities, but a willingness to surrender to whatever-happens-next. It takes a few days to get there and then it wont last long enough.

This relatively featureless photo sums up all that in an image. A grass field in nowhere Kazakhstan, a bowl of nutritious but ordinary and unrecognizable food on a plastic plate, a barely cool beer and my dining buddy for the night Erdal Tokcan from Turkey. The exhaustion of the past 7 days is cut through with half a smile for the camera, then our bi-nation conversation continues in the middle of nowhere. This is what I hope to recapture, new friends on the road, exhaustion and the need to accommodate everything that comes along, right now! as it comes along. No extra stopping, no resting, no falling behind, stay just on top of everything, managing enough reserves to keep going and see if that makes you a contender.

For those wondering about the blank blog for the last few days, it was due to our withdrawal from the 2011 Budapest Bamako rally.

The event was very thinly described in English – by the Hungarian organizers. The competition element was not explained in any detail. What we discovered as we were handed the race record sheets on Day 1 morning of the rally was a complete surprise. Effectively a long distance treasure hunt, the event results would never record good driving and good navigation unless those were in conjunction with amazing riddle solving and strategy involving much more electronics than we can operate with 2 people in the 205 Puddle Jumper.

So Alastair and I had a nice drive from London out to Budapest, thrashed around the mountains to the south of Modena in the dark – looking for “Ditta’s phone number” then abandoned the Day 1 challenges at midnight and Q14 of 18 when it became obviously fruitless. We arrived in a traffic free Genova at 0200 hrs.

Our decision to withdraw came after receiving the race sheets for Day’s 2, 3 and 4 at the 0630 hrs Day 2 briefing. The myriad of cryptic puzzles, the hundreds of way-points and alternate strategies were more than we could competitively resolve on our hand held GPS. The three and four person teams set to work with their laptops (plural), Google Maps and created their routes. Alastair and I had breakfast……

It became clear that a Minivan with sand tires, a BGan Satellite Internet connection and a three or four man team would have the best chance of remaining competitive. It would take a routine of sleep, navigate, strategize and drive, a two car team sharing data would make that slightly easier.

The veterans of the B2 Rally who have all this at their disposal will have a great event. It seemed like a great crowd and there were a lot of cars. We wish them all safe travels and hope that the whole group arrive in Bamako without incident.

Considering that our goal was to be competitive and show the amazing tenacity of the Peugeot 205 1300cc Rallye in the Africa, we had to reconcile the fact that this was not an option. Rather than downscale to the tourist class, we elected to withdraw. There will be other Rallies in other parts of the world and Alastair and I had time to discuss all sorts of interesting distractions.

So this one is closed for now, but if I can come up with a VW T5 TDi Synchro, some decent tires, 3 companions and a swag of electronics, I reckon B2 2012 would be a possibility.

In reality I hope that in January 2012 I will be competing in the 2012 London Capetown Rally.

Well actually Bam-ako, Bamako, Mali that is.

After a relative blog blackout while we’ve been restructuring activities at WEVO post-Peking to Paris, 2011 has crept upon us with little fanfare, but many new and exciting opportunities, the first of which is another mainline fix of adventure rally adrenaline.

While Steven fills obligations at Yale, I will be tackling the Western Sahara with my new friend, Alastair Caldwell, who we met on the Peking to Paris. Alastair has more than a dozen adventure rallies under his heels and his website makes an amusing read, not least of all his accomplishments in international motorsports.

We will be rallying in Alastair’s 1989 Peugeot 205 Rallye, under 1400cc’s of frog fury. This little car has accomplished much success in the past, and Alastair and I are eager to add to that tally, plus serve some humility to 4WD friends as we make our way across the edges of the Sahara desert in our 2WD mount.

On Wednesday, we start in Maidenhead UK and take the 1600km to parc ferme in Budapest, ready for the off on the morning of Saturday, January 15th.

For the friends who enjoyed our rally blog and Blogjackmaster Glynn, we are going to try this again and see what we can deliver. Follow the rally here on the WEVO Blog, and also at the main Budapest to Bamako rally site.