Hail Baja - Epilogue

So – now that the dust has settled, where does that leave us? 27 vehicles passed scrutineering, and we came 15th overall out of 16 finishers, which isn’t that great. But had we avoided the problems of day one, and kept up the same pace as we achieved on day 2, we’d have been around 5th overall. If only…

Overheating was still a problem on day 2, and although I could keep up with Dave Mabbs for a while, eventually I’d be forced to slow down when the temperature hit 115c. So after some discussions with Peter at Pacet (the fan manufacturer) we’re going for their 16” Profans in place of the 13” units, which were sized to suit the old Patrol-shaped radiator. If there’s space, we’ll also use one of their PowerVent bonnet fans to help extract the hot air from the engine compartment.

New bonnet pins have been fitted and I’m looking for a couple of high-mounted brake lights – it would be nice to get another pair like the existing ones and mount them in the rear doors.

The bad news is that Carwise – the garage that’s looked after my cars – is closing down at the end of February. Fortunately, Rick is staying in Dubai, and will have no problem finding another garage to work for. Since he knows the car better than anyone, it probably makes sense to use whichever garage he ends up at to provide service for the Desert Challenge. The DC is now only 4 weeks away and the clock is ticking.

An interesting conversation took place at Hail with an FIA representative. I was asked why Sheila was not competing, to which I replied that we'd applied and been turned down (again). This came as a surprise to him as (a) SAMF had signed a letter to the FIA confirming that women competitors would be allowed, and (b) SAMF had subsequently told the FIA that no women had applied! I suspect that the FIA may not be too happy to learn that the the Saudis have been economical with the truth.

Here are a few pics of us at the Hail Baja taken by Mohd Al Sultan. Click on the thumbnails to get the larger version.

Hail Baja Day 2

Todays route featured a lot of quick sand tracks and plains, punctuated by some tricky dune sections. Overall, it's a lot fater than yesterday which is to our advantage in view of our cooling issues.

We're 19th to start and we're flying. We overtake the car ahead in the first couple of km, he's clearly over estimated his tyre pressures and gets caught out on the first soft bit. I'm running 18psi, having decided to err on the side of caution, and just hope the tyres will put up with the fast sections at that pressure. We overtake another car, and another - no sign of anyone coming at us from behind.

Temp problems still dog us, but they are manageable. Mabbsy catches us but doesn't really ever get away from us. We both pass the ailing Patrol of Bil Hili (car #1!) on a fast plain where we reach 150kph.

Suddenly the finish is in sight - 188km in 2hrs 48mins! A bonnet pin shears off within sight of the finish leaving the bonnet flapping - thank God it didn't happen before!

We're 8th on the day - another 8 mins faster asnd we'd have been 3rd. Sounds academic, but it would have been possible if we hadn't needed to slow down so often to cool the engine. Overall we're 15th, not bad considering what a crap first day we'd had, and Dave Mabbs is one place behind us.

We're happy with that!

Hail Baja Day 1

I'll make this quick as I have to get to bed.

The engine started overheating early on. The fans were OK but the top hose had chafed and was leaking, so I cut-and-shut it using a couple of spare jubilee clips and a double-ended joiner - but it didn't hold. After the third failed bodge, the service crew from another team gave us a hose which worked, the sweep team doinated extra water and we were again on our way - but much delayed.

Came aross Mabbsy with a leaking rad, stopped but couldn't help and anyway Streaky was almost there. We passed him a couple of km later. We had the option to bail out at the next 'rescue' point, but we were now going well so decided to try and make the 200km to the service point, knowing that if we got that far we would be time-barred, but permitted restart tomorrow.

We made it - but the engine temp was close to the 115c limit and went into cripple-mode a couple of times, necessitating us to take a brief 'time-out' to cool it. We also threw a tyre and got stuck once, and suffered the indignity of being towed out by a police Cruiser! Oh, and the exhaust hanger broke, which I jury-rigged with some binding wire.

Having reached the service point, we exited on a gatch track and aired up. Just 200m from the road, the power steering packed up, a sure sign that the belt had gone. It had - but so had the idler pulley, and while we had a new belt it wasn't much use without the pulley. So we ended up being towed 250km back to Hail by the sweep team's V8 Land Cruiser.

Streaky and I set to work, the main job being to fit the new idler, which fortunately was in the service vehicle. The rest of the bodged repairs will have to suffice for tomorrow.

After this stage, Yazeed Al Rajhi leads in the Mitsubishi Racing Lancer, by a narrow margin from Bakhashab in the V8 engnied FJ Cruiser, with Raed Baker third in the Mitsubishi L200 pickup.

Now - bed.

The Prologue

(Can't help thinking of Frankie Howerd when I use those two words.)

The Jabalain continues to plumb new depths of inefficiency. Breakfast, promised from 0600hrs, is still conspicuous by its absence at 0700hrs, but fortunately our Team Manager has Plan B in hand. Our wardrobe clearly has more food in it than the hotel kitchen, and we breakfast much better than yesterday. (The Jabalain has some impressive brass signs reading 'Arson Emergency Exit'. If there is an alternative egress in the event of accidental fires, we haven't found it.)

But I digress. By 0800 we are back at Maghwat, because that’s when the prologue road book is supposed to be issued. It finally makes an appearance at 0945, and we set off to walk the 6.2km route.

We’re not the quickest on the prologue – 5min 39secs gives us 15th place, 10 seconds slower than 7th-placed Mabbs. But the engine is getting very hot. We divert to fuel up before returning to service, where we find one of the fans is not getting a supply. Streaky and I rig up an alternative feed and the problem is solved, and the car goes into Parc Ferme for the night.

Monday

I'm up bright and early to I get on with some car-cleaning and rally-stickering. Breakfast at the Jabelain is not a culinary tour-de-force, with its cold scambled egg and congealing Arabic slop competing for top honours in the World's Worst Breakfast category. The fact that this establishment boasts exactly no stars is clearly no oversight.

After this uninspiring interlude, I carry on with the car while Sheila and Ian set out on a hunt for suitably-rated 12" tyres, and pick up the GPS, Sentinel and Iritrack from Rally Control. Once fitted, we proceed to Scrutineering for our 1450hrs appointment.

Oh joy. The Toyota Service Centre is heaving with locals and their (alleged) rally cars, and chaos is in full swing. They can't fill in their scrutineering forms properly, and half of their mandatory equipment is either missing or out of date. The schedule has clearly gone out of the window some hours ago, and we finally get through about 1800hrs. We escape with only a minor admonition for the absence of high-mounted stop-lights, to be corrrected before the DC.

We decide to celebrate at a nearby Indian Restaurant, a strange place spotted by Ian. Inside are many colourful murals, fake timber beams, and in interesting menu. It features many previously unheard-of culinary delights, including 'Chicken Jal Freddie', 'American Jobsi', and my personal favourite, 'Chicken Masala Amputation'. (Quite why images of 'Nightmare on Elm Street' run through my mind I am unsure.) However the meal is excellent, and almost as enjoyable as reading the menu.

Sunday

We only lose one more tyre en route to Hail, and I decide to drive the race car the remaining 120km. By 1600hrs we reach Hail's answer to Fawlty Towers - the apalling Jebelain Hotel. They aren't expecting us till Tuesday, and they aren't expecting the four of us to need more than one room. We blag the available room and head out to Maghwat Conference Centre, a.k.a. Rally HQ. After completing our documentation and picking up the rally stickers, and Dr Saleh of SAMF sorts out our hotel problems. By the time we get back to the hotel, we're ready to hit the sack.

On the road again

Saturday
Our convoy of five vehicles - two of them on trailers - sets off from Seih Sheib ADNOC at 0715. By midday we're at the Saudi border and our problems begin. Of the six of us, it transpires that only one has a 'road' visa, and that's me. All the rest are 'air' visas. After a two and a half hour wait and various phone calls, they eventually allow us to enter the magic kingdom.

The short-cut to Riyadh via Haradh and Kharj takes its toll on our trailer. First a tyre delaminates, and we fit the (only) spare. Then I hit something in the dark in Kharj and knacker another tyre and bend the rim. The only available 12" tyre is Kharj is unsuitable, but we buy it anyway, and after attacking the damaged rim with a sledgehammer it is persuaded to fit. But we have little faith in it, and decide to keep it as a spare. That means re-fitting the wheel with the delaminated tyre and praying a lot. Somehow it gets us to Riyadh, where Team FJ have already located a couple of halfway decent 12" tyres for us. The next morning, we fit them and set off again.

The Final (Final) Shakedown

So we're back into dunes this morning, just me and Sheila, to test the revised set-up in the same area that did the damage last time. The on-road temperature never gets above 80c and even on the sand tracks we're not above 90c - so far so good. But the real test is in the big dunes.

There, I manage to get the temperature up to 100c - but not the disasterous 115c of last week. Now 100c is a bit warm, but as soon as I'm on the track beyond, it's down to 90c again.

So what does this mean? Well, the ambient is similar to what we an expect in Hail - mid 20s - and the terrain in Hail is not as extreme as my test area (based on my recollections of last year's route). So I feel reasonably confident that this set-up is good enough to cope with conditions there. However, adding another 15c onto the ambient will probably cause a similar increase in the water temperature, so we will need to upgrade the fans before we attempt the Desert Challenge.

So Mr Pacet can expect to earn some more from me very soon - and if you know anyone who needs a pair of very slightly used 13" fans, let me know!

The Final Shakedown (not)

The fans have arrived, been fitted, been tested in the workshop and on the road and the results look good - they are holding the water temperature at 80-85c. So Friday morning we're back out in the sand to see how the new set-up works in the dunes.

Well, it doesn't. As soon as we hit an HP (off-piste) section , where we're typically in first/second gear and pulling some 4000rpm without a lot of forward speed, the engine overheats. At one stage it reaches the absolute limit of 115c, at which the ECU calls 'time out' and shuts down 4 cylinders. We finish the stage but, considering it's a grey and cool February morning, and we're not actually doing race speed, we're clearly onto a loser. When the DC starts at the end of March, ambient temperature will be around 15c higher than it is now.

So this morning the car's back with Rick at Carwise, and we decide to vent the bonnet and install a bigger radiator. The one we choose is a triple-row after-market unit designed for a Land Cruiser V8. It sits above the chassis rails, unlike the narrower Patrol unit which drops down between them. The change in dimensions will enable us to fit twin 16" Pacet fans, so a new fan-box is being fabricated to accommodate these. But for a first test we'll retain the 13" units we have already. Monday I'll be on the phone to my friend at Pacet, to see how quickly they can ship out a pair of 16" fans.

Saturday morning, ready or not, we leave for Hail.
So no pressure, then....