Pagoda SL Group
W113 Pagoda SL Group => General Discussion => Topic started by: Peter van Es on April 30, 2010, 21:11:11
-
I'm departing on the TulpenRallye (http://www.tulpenrallye.nl/) tomorrow. I'll be unable to check this site until the 9th, possibly the 10th of may. If there are any technical issues, I'm sorry, I won't be able to deal with them.
So please bear with me. If you want to follow my progress, here are our =57&menuitemID[]=100¤tMenuitemID=100]standings (http://www.tulpenrallye.nl/uitslagen/?cat=t&menuitemID[) from Tuesday 4th of may. We're team nr 161.
We are leaving on Saturday to take two days to drive to Vichy, France, where we'll have final papers check and pre-departure reception on Sunday. The rally leaves on Monday and finishes the next Saturday back in the Netherlands.
Peter van Es
-
Peter,
I think that many of us expect a nice write up from the rally, some pics would not hurt neither...
Let us dream...
Stan
-
Peter,
Good luck (and I hope you don't need that!). I agree, please keep us posted.
-
Hi Peter,
Good Luck for the rally. pix for the forum would be good.
Garry
-
Hi, Peter,
Congradulations!!
Super performance.
naj
-
Thanks Naj.... I'll produce a write-up for Pagoda World and upload at least a couple more pictures. To let the cat out of the bag, I came in second place overall, and won two day prizes. The top 5 were so close in points that the decisions were made on the last day... and between 2nd and 3rd place it was determined on a skid-training circuit (you know, with slippery surfaces), depending on seconds of differences after a full week of rallying, 2500 km's, mountain passes, snow, and thousands of hairpin-bends.
How serious this rally is is shown on the picture. About 10 cars out of 200 starters ended up on the trailer, because the weather in France was unseasonally cold and especially wet, leading to slippery roads. Many more cars had damage to bodywork, but were still driveable, and participants managed to finish. Most common mistake made: braking when an emergency situation occurred, yielding cars uncontrollable. Second issue: not having good enough tires.
The Pagoda on the picture is from friends of mine, they ended up in a ditch. The bodywork damage is pretty extensive, but the transmission linkage bushings broke on impact, so that the car could not be driven anymore. The car was already on the trailer before I could tell them they probably could have continued... The Healey on the bottom is probably totalled, as the chassis is completely bent out of shape and the engine has entered the passenger compartment. During this rally people do anything to complete it... drive without functioning alternators, with two batteries, drive without windscreen wipers to save power for the ignition, people with bodywork damage, single headlights, exhausts tied on with wire, and so on and so forth.
Anyway, it was a great event!
Peter
-
Peter, I take it that the car you used was a Pagoda? If so what kind of special equipment was installed? Did it have the 123 Distributor?
-
Actually, no, it is not my Pagoda. I am the navigator, and my driver supplies the car. It's a 1964 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT with a 1600 cc engine and a 1300 rear axle. It has a roll cage, bucket seats and racing seat-belts. Very quick between 0-80 km/h but tops out in all practical terms at 130 km/h. Very agile, and very quick on mountain stages... much more so than the Pagoda.
My Pagoda is rally prepped however, but I just prefer navigating. My Pagoda has a 123 Ignition, fully renewed suspension, springs and coils, bushings, king pins redone and so on, and has very good roadholding, especially on Vredestein Classic Wintertires which I use with W126 rims which have cooling fans on the inside which cool the brakes during a rally.
Pagoda's are much more comfortable at speed, but with the standard seats and no roll-cage nowhere near as good as this little Alfa on mountain stages. The weigh difference is about 500kgs and that takes a lot of horse-power to pull around, and still won't make it as quick in the turns.
Peter
-
Ironically, (sort of) I took drove my Pagoda to work today and lo and behold in the lot where I park is a handsome little Alfa Romeo that looks a lot like Peter's. It says 1600 GT Junior? Anyway, its pretty cool looking. If I wasn't a Huber, I think I could enjoy owning an old Italian sportscar. (then again my wife is Italian....)
-
Hello Peter,
Congratulations for a great job. Navigators are the unsung heroes of this sport. They must forsake their own safety and do their job while all sorts of havoc and turmoil is going on all around, all while hoping that the driver's ego does not cloud his good judgment!
-
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_W4_dgcZsQaw/S2RAQdPJBTI/AAAAAAAABQY/XdsIINdfhyI/s400/m_i_stirling_moss_denis_jenkinson_1955_mille_miglia_05may.jpg)
That's Peter, without the sterring wheel
-
Tosh,
Please excuse my ignorance, but what kind of car is that and when was that picture taken?
We are lucky to have Peter !!! He has many skills !!
-
It's Moss (driving) and Denis Jenkinson in the Mille Miglia. 1955 in a Mercedes SLR based on the w196...
-
This is me in a typical pose "at the office" as it were. Thanks for the kind words, Joe...
-
Silly question... don't you get car sick? I read in the car and get nauseous so assume that I could not navigate rally unless we could stop for me to puke intermittently
-
I don't at all.... which is a really helpful skill... as otherwise I wouldn't enjoy doing it. On the mountaineous roads I have seen many a competing navigator work on "his handicap" on the side of the road.
As I'm getting better at navigating, I do spend less time with my nose in the maps, and more time reading the road. Last year I probably had my nose down 80% of the time, now only around 50%.