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[Peter van Es]

I'm participating in the 6-day classic car TulpenRallye. My daughter and I are driving down to Nice from tomorrow afternoon. The rally proper starts on Monday morning early in Nice, and finishes with a Gala Dinner in Brussels, Belgium, Saturday a week from now.

You can follow our exploits, standings and see media -- including video -- of this classic car rally with around 200 cars here: https://www.tulpenrallye.nl

Before the rally, the car had a full service, motor and gearbox mounts were replaced, as were fuel hoses and a brake hose, and I have new Vredestein Sprint Classics all round (as the previous ones had lots of profile depth but were over 12 yrs old -- and we will be attacking those hairpins in the French Alps).

Sorry, if something doesn't work on the site, just CTRL-ALT-DELETE the server....

Peter & Christine

[Cees Klumper]

Sounds like fun! Best of luck and enjoy the event.

[JamesL]

Yaaay, While the cat is away...

(Hope you have a great time)

[mdsalemi]

I see a great story for Pagoda World!

[Peter van Es]

We just arrived in Nice. We left friday afternoon at around 15:00 and stopped over in Arles (close to Luxembourg). It was very hot (25°C, unseasonably so for May) and in the traffic jam the car did not overheat, but I was worried. On saturday we drove open, in the sunshine, but with a pretty strong headwind, to Montelimar. Sunday we drove on to Nice, but stopped for a nice lunch in Biot and some culture in Maison Renoir.

The car covered the 1397 kms admirably, in France covering the miles on the Autoroute at a clip of 130 km/h (4500 rpm) for hours on end. However, driving at that speed does make for a thirsty car. The car drank 205,14 l of unleaded octane 98 fuel with 5% Ethanol (with a additive to counteract it). That equates to an average of 6.81 km per liter, which I attribute to the high speed and headwind.

To give you an idea of what the fuel costs are for that trip so far, it adds up to € 365.

Further updates later on...

Peter

[Cees Klumper]

Congrats on getting to Nice without any issue. But, that is quite thirsty. As I recall, mine averages around 8 km/liter, in mixed city/highway driving. Consider going to a 3.69 rear differential, sounds like you still have a 4.08 in there.

[Peter van Es]

It is indeed with that gearing... but where to find such a differential? And, in the mountains -- with all the hairpins -- the extra punch in acceleration actually helps in the rallye...

So it looks I'll just have to live with it. But after driving an electric car with all the driver assistance features in complete silence driving a Pagoda fast down the motorway is just hard work.

Peter

[Peter van Es]

So, with my daughter Chis as a first time navigator the first day was tough. We ended up 26th although after a correction of one missed control we were 19th. That's how much a little error can cost you in the standings.

The terrain (the Alpes Maritime) was tough, steep and the schedule was very tight. Time penalties were incurred by many. You had very little time to fix mistakes in your navigating. We did see some beautiful scenery -- but had no time to take pictures.

Here's a link to a Youtube video of the first day:

https://youtu.be/Q6rm7IS_LG8?si=LcEPuWTBSlM8H2ul

[Peter van Es]

The second day was still very challenging... many tiny, tiny roads in the area between Grenoble and Macon. Very hard terrain, difficult to find the correct route.

Many contenders had a really hard time staying within the time schedule, including us, but we did not get penalised. In fact Chris did really well, and we had no trouble keeping up with the Porsches.

We ended up 7th for the day, and 11th overall in the standings. Very pleased with that.

Link to video of the day: https://youtu.be/k2QJpyH9mtw?si=ntSd3Tu2ZyKxhx7p

Spot the Webmaster's Pagoda (and others). All Pagoda's have been carded with the sl113.org official business card...
 

[Jonny B]

Oh yes, Peter I will be waiting for the great story and even greater photos for Pagoda World!!

[66andBlue]

....
We ended up 7th for the day, and 11th overall in the standings. Very pleased with that.

Congratulations, you moved up to 4th place at the finish line! Well done.  👏👏