Patrol holes and a Saluki at the vet's....

Sorry folks but it’s going to be a quick update tonight because I’ve just got in late from Abu Dhabi and I’m dog tired. I’ll try to add more information tomorrow.
Ian and Sheila started the day in 5th overall and were running well until somewhere between PC3 and PC4. Driving on white sand at around mid-day when the sun’s overhead and there are no shadows to define the terrain, Ian came over a crest only to drop the vehicle into what he described as a “perfect Patrol sized hole”. With the front of the car pointing skywards over the next crest but the back doors jammed on the sand behind, it took them 10 minutes just to dig behind the back doors enough to open them to get the sand ladders and shovel out.

Fortunately they had just passed some spectators who turned out to be of the friendly, helpful variety, who drove over and gave Ian and Sheila a helping hand to extract the car. Delayed for a while and with the tyres now down at around 12psi, they then sped off. Ian was thinking to himself “I must stop and reinflate the tyres or I’ll pop one off the rim" but then when he was caught by a couple of other cars and dueling with them in the dunes, guess what? Yep, the tyre popped off. So at that point, after changing one, he thought it best to air up again.....

Eventually they crossed the line in just over six and a half hours and in 6th place. Our friend Fadi Melky finished in in third in 6 hours and 6 minutes. See, I told you yesterday he wouldn’t give up easily! Newtrix will start tomorrow, the final day of the rally, from a position of 6th overall, and 3rd in T1 class.

Other local team news

A bad day for Team Saluki. Running in second place on the day, Mark and Paul were again flying through the stage, but today took that concept just a little too literally. They were still at full throttle when they reached a steep drop off which neither crew member noticed in time. The car dropped onto its nose, very hard and at high speed, then rolled and ended up on its side. Mark and Paul were medivaced to Madinat Zayed Hospital for precautionary checks but I’m pleased to say suffered only cuts and bruises. I asked Mark how he was and he said “I’m fine but the car’s………..”. Well actually, on second thoughts, I won’t tell you what he said. There might be children reading!

Fadi & Mario – had a great day, third place on the stage today, good job guys.

Malcolm and Mark; I heard they’d broken a differential but still they finished 10th overall on the day. That old Rangie seems to be hanging in there.

David & Xavier. Haven’t spoken to them but they finished with several hours penalties so I guess didn’t reach all the PCs.

Fingers crossed that everyone gets to the finish line safely tomorrow.

Right, I’ll take a bow now. Or is that a bow wow? Maybe a dognap?

Tracks, tracking and track rods

STOP PRESS

As of 11.45pm local UAE time the official race website results show Ian and Sheila placed FIFTH overall in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge 2010 and SECOND in the T1, modified 4x4 category. And since this is the first event of the 2010 Cross Country World Cup, that means that an 'old dog' and his young friend are currently, officially, the second best specialist 4x4 drivers in the world. So no pressure tomorrow then.

The trouble with having live tracking of the race on your PC is that it’s difficult to get any work done. When I checked at around mid-day today Ian and Sheila were FLYING round the stage – they were in third place for well over two hours, which was exciting, so I kept checking. Then the signal from the car disappeared! I thought the worst, even thinking at one point that if they were upside down, the GPS aerial would be covered and that this might be the problem. I rang Rick and he hadn’t seen them pass, and I started to worry. So I checked more and more often, despite being rudely interrupted by customers and staff on more than one occasion. Have they no sense of priority!

Eventually the satellite tracking showed me that Newtrix were in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which I must admit surprised me, and I calculated that they’d been traveling at approximately 2,000 kilometres per hour. Or Mach 1.5. Now that’s impressive. I was concerned that at those speeds Ian might have had the usual engine problems but apparently not – 15 minutes later I checked back in and they’d returned to Liwa. Given that most of the competitors covered just 380 kms today whilst Ian and Sheila appear to have covered close to four thousand, I think they’ve earned a drink. God only knows when they stopped to refuel. I’ll have another word with Sheila about calibrating the trip meter more carefully though. To be honest, she really should have noticed that degree of error.

Anyway once normal tracking service had been resumed, it seemed clear to me that something was afoot. It turned out to be the fleshy, toey thing on the end of my leg. Not only that, but Ian had slowed down. And that’s not an expression with which I’m particularly familiar. By now Team Saluki and a couple of the other front runners had clearly retired for the day so I knew if their Dognesses could cross the finish line, they’d be in a good position for tomorrow’s race.

Another call to Rick confirmed my fears, they’d see the race car go past but a bent tie rod meant that the front wheels were pointing in different directions, causing major drag on Ian’s strength, to keep it moving straight ahead, on the power steering pump, the tyre walls and almost certainly, Ian’s patience. He drove the last three hours of the race like this, finishing after a grueling seven and a half hours behind the wheel, and tells me he’s unlikely to go to the gym tonight. No need really.

And here’s another wonderful benefit of satellite tracking. Early in the day Rick called me to say “are you near a computer, can you tell me where they are? Bear in mind that Rick was at the time located around 600kms from my office and staring at a fairly large sand pit in which he was trying to observe a single car. Silly Boy. A quick check on the system told me that Ian and Sheila had passed the point where Rick was stood about an hour earlier. Upon relaying this information Rick was heard to say “Christ, I’d better go or we’ll never catch them back up” and since he was driving a similar car to Ian’s but on flat tarmac, that gives you some idea how fast Ian was driving.

Ian told me this evening that Sheila has now definitely got the hang of cutting corners at waypoints. By turning at the moment the GPS picks up a waypoint signal and tells the co-driver it's been 'collected', which is typically around 250m before reaching the exact point itself, Sheila is able to give Ian advanced notice of 'short cuts' which means not having to slow down, taking wider turns much faster. This can add up to several minutes saved by the end of the day. "Way to go Sheila" Of course she had a good tutor. Modesty forbids me from mentioning his full name. Tim something or other.

The photos above, of Ian and Sheila racing on Day 1 (note - no chicken wire grille)were kindly supplied by The Right Honourable Mr. Craig McAteer, who writes and takes photos for a Dubai based rally team named after a dog. Hang on a minute.......Deja Vu all over again.

Other local team news:

Desert FJ never started the day – they damaged the front diff in yesterday’s heavy landing (a.k.a. ‘crash’) and since they drive the only FJ Cruiser in the country fitted with a manual gearbox, the available diffs are the wrong spec so they drove to the start line, turned round and came back. Failing to start would mean exclusion from the race. They incur maximum penalties this way but can still race tomorrow if they succeed in repairing the car

Team Saluki were on a mission in the morning, driving even faster than Newtrix (only just). But 3kms after the service point the steering pump pulley shattered, leaving them with no way of running the water pump or alternator. Having no cooling and no battery is a bad situation to be in, so they made the smart decision to return to the service point, then to the bivouac on tarmac, thus avoiding getting stuck in the desert. Smart move, no matter how galling it is to pull out of the race day halfway through

Fadi Melki is apparently still struggling through the desert as I write this. I don’t know what the problem is but Fadi is not the sort to ever give up (frankly, no-one who races in the desert would last long if they gave up easily) so I’m sure he’ll be back tomorrow.

Malcolm and Mark’s “Ansell Chassis Racer” completed the stage in a grueling NINE hours. I know from personal experience how hard it is to keep up the momentum driving an old Classic Rangie in the desert and I don’t doubt that they’ll be shattered. But they made it – a creditable achievement on such a grueling stage.

Emile and Patrick pulled out of the day’s stage at PC2 with mechanical problems and I had a call from Patrick, whom I “taught the DC ropes” to along with Sheila and Mark, asking for my advice about race regulations as they drove back.

Isn’t technology wonderful – enjoying satellite tracking and offering regulations advice whilst 600 kms from the race in air conditioned comfort. And I get to have a proper shower and sleep in my own bed. THIS is the way to do the Desert Challenge!

Woooooooooooff, I’m outta here

Dune Roamin'

Having spoken to Ian a few minutes ago, I’m happy to say that he’s in MUCH better spirits than he was yesterday. The modifications to the bonnet (there’s that word again) combined with the goat deflecting chicken wire (no animals were hurt in the making of today’s rally stage) have helped reduce the engine bay temperature, leading to far fewer occasions when the ECU picked up the ball, cut out 4 cylinders and refused to play.

Unfortunately on one of the few occasions when it DID decide to pack up, even though the car was on level ground at the time, Ian described the sand there as being “as soft as silt”. At least, I think that’s what he said - there was a bit of a crackle on the line at the time. Consequently the car immediately sank into the ‘soft silt’, necessitating the use of sand ladders under the front wheels, and a further reduction in tyre pressures. This cost Ian and Sheila 5 to 10 minutes delay but Ian felt the car drove a lot better from then on thanks to the lower pressures, so they soon made up the lost time, and then some.

Sheila unfortunately was feeling a bit under the weather for much of the first half of the day. Speaking from personal experience I know that the particular dunes they were driving early on had a strange effect on my stomach too when I was co-driving. There must be something about the pitch of the dunes in that section because it was from the same area that I was airlifted out in 2006 due to dehydration as a result of constant vomiting. Sorry but that’s the glamorous life of a co-driver for you. Sheila too ‘fed the fish’ a few times today but being a great trooper (as opposed to a State Trooper – different hats) she Percy Veered. No giving up and taking a helicopter ride for her, oh no. I shall never be able to look her in the eye again. I out wimped her.

At one point Ian stopped the car next to long time friend and off roading companion Alan Passmore in one of the Sweep cars, hoping that he might have a medic on board. You’d have thought that with his wife in the car feeling unwell, Ian would be able to resist chatting up the nurses for just ONE morning, but apparently not! Unfortunately there was no pretty nurse on board, but John Tan, bless his little cotton socks, was carrying some travel sickness tablets (he’d obviously traveled with Alan before) and he was able to administer life saving medication to Sheila. Rumours that John was in fact wearing a nurse’s uniform at the time remain unconfirmed at this juncture. That’ll be Dh 500 then John - Thanks.

So with no further ado, Newtrix bid Alan and his Ward Sister adieu, and sped off again. Soon they were in faster sections with some steep climbs and Ian had time to enjoy the massive torque of the 5.7 litre V8 Chevrolet engine pulling the Patrol along at full speed. When you consider the amount of money he’s spent on an engine rebuild and additional components for the block, if he ever tries to tell you that torque is cheap, don’t believe a word of it.

At the service point they stopped to fix a broken exhaust hanger which was causing the rear exhaust can to thrash around violently under the vehicle. After waiting for hours in the glaring sunshine, Rick was delighted to be able crawl under the shade of the car, cover himself in dust and oil, burn his hands on the exhaust pipe and wish Ian and Sheila “a pleasant onward journey”. What a nice bloke. Did he get a tip? Did he heck.

And so their Dognesses pounded on through the desert, occasionally overtaking vehicles which one might have reasonably expected to able to run faster than Newtrix, but with Ian’s ebullient attitude and incomparable driving skills matched only by Sheila’s faultless navigation, they strove forth in search of glory. Damn. This is good stuff!

However their goal of racing across the finish at PC 5 was not to be – for safety’s sake the organisers will sometimes insist that cars which reach earlier PCs after a certain time limit, must return directly to the bivouac by a more direct route, usually on a combination of gatch and tarmac roads. It means that tired drivers do not end up lost in the middle of no-where late into the evening, thus reducing the load on the Sweep and Rescue teams. Unfortunately Ian and Sheila, along with the vast majority of the field, were subject to such instructions at PC4, meaning that they drove back to the bivouac under the veil of receiving maximum penalties on the day. At the time of writing this blog I know that many drivers who were ‘time barred’ today feel that they have been dealt a rough hand in view of the fact that crews who arrived at PC4 in say, 5 hours, will receive the same ‘maximum’ time (typically 9 hours) on their time sheets as those who made it to PC4 in 7 hours for example. This has been put to the FIA adjudicators and it may be that tomorrow we receive some good news in that respect. Fingers crossed.

So a good day for all – smiles all round.

News on other local racers: Team Saluki put on an impressive display today and are currently in second place overall. Their highest ever race position. Mabrook guys. Dave Mabbs managed to somehow plant the FJ Cruiser on its nose so heavily that he rearranged every component on the front end of the vehicle yet amazingly, not damage the radiator. So whilst he drove it back to the bivouac, it’s currently undergoing major rhinoplasty. Nurse, more swabs please. Where is John Tan when you need him?

Emile and Patrick in Emile’s hand crafted err, vehicle, managed to pitch pole it onto the roof. No-one was hurt thankfully, but by pulling the vehicle onto its side using an on board winch, they flattened the battery so were unable to winch it onto its wheels. It has now been recovered and is back at base camp. Malcolm and Mark in their “Ansell chassis Dune Raider” had another strong day and are running well. I’ll take credit for that thanks.

Until tomorrow. “Walkies”

It's been a wrrruuuufff day...

Day 1 and Newtrix Racing expanded from two desert bound members to six, two of whom were heroic in their endeavours, two of whom were frustrated racers, and Rick and Cesar were just stuck. This then, is the story of too much heat, too few cylinders, and no volts whatsoever.

Starting in fourth place on Day 1 brought with it the responsibility of working with many of the world’s media, all desperate for an update on Ian’s relationship with Kate Winslet (he doesn’t know her) and Sheila’s with Tiger Woods (she's never met him) before the dandy duo blatted off into the wild yellow yonder in a trail of dust. Fortunately, the organisers had given Sheila some coordinates for yonder, cutting out much of the guess work. Unfortunately, yonder proved to be quite a long way away through nasty sand dunes (in the ‘Desert Challenge’ – who’d have thunk it?) and after just a few kilometres (that’s the equivalent of a few miles for those of you who drive imperially) the first disaster of the day struck when a tyre was ripped from its rim. This tends to happen when the tyres have been deflated in order to maximise grip in the sand dunes, but on a firmer ‘gatch’ track, the load on the tyre’s sidewall means that occasionally it’s pulled sideways off the rim, usually when cornering. A few minutes of slick teamwork had the car jacked up and the tyre reseated, so Ian and Sheila were hot under the flea collar but on their way.

However, their short lived rapid progress was then halted when they got caught in a ‘nasty stuck’. The more experienced off roading readers will know that there are two kinds of stuck. Those from which you are able to remove yourself within 4 minutes through judicious use of forward and reverse gears, and which are referred to as ‘not very stucks’ . Then there are those which require extensive digging, driving, digging, swearing, digging, dehydrating, swearing, digging and praying. Those are referred to as ‘nasty stucks’ and it was one of those which reached out and caught Newtrix by the paws. A long time later, today’s superheros, John ‘Commander’ Mitchell Ross and Steve “Self Loading Freight" Dessurne of the forward Sweep Team stumbled across our tired and emotional couple and towed them free of the sand, for which Ian and Sheila were ‘two cold cans each tonight’ grateful.

Forced to make up for lost time, our intrepid racers sped off into the rolling dunescapes, but after battling against the forces of nature, friction and gravity for a while, the ongoing problem of an overheating engine raised its ugly and thermally challenged head. Now on the Chevrolet LS engine, as fitted to Ian’s Patrol, when its ECU (Engine Crippling Unit) detects the strange odour of over-ripened exhaust headers, there is unfortunately a ‘safety feature’ which switches off four of the engine’s eight cylinders, which is all very well when you are driving on tarmac in your Corvette, but a right royal pain in the rectum when you are climbing the near vertical side of a sand dune in a Nissan Patrol. Consequently Ian was forced repeatedly to stop the car, switch off the engine and wait for it to cool down, before restarting it and driving on again. Having repeated this exercise a half a dozen times, unfortunately the battery became terminally ill. Battery. Terminal. Get it! (Thanks, I’m here every Sunday, the bar closes at midnight.) Bereft of volts, it sparked no more. In fact, this battery wouldn’t woosh if you put 40,000 volts through it. Mind you, they would have come in handy.

So parked at the side of the road and with apparently no way of starting the engine, Ian and Sheila called for help. Quick as a flash, Rick and Cesar sped into action, leapt into their support 4x4, raced off into the desert. And got stuck. You know, one of those nasty stucks you’ve heard about. So whilst Cannon and Ball attempted to dig themselves free, Batman and Robin, in the shape of JMR and Steve, once again came to the rescue of his and her Dogness. One illicit exchange of battery juices later and Newtrix were on their way. Again. So that’s half a dozen cold cans each owed now.

Rick and Cesar eventually freed themselves (with a spot of assistance from some friendly passers by) and drove back to the finish to await the Patrol. But of course, there’s more.

Once again it overheated, once again Ian had to stop, once again it wouldn’t restart and once again, our caped crusaders, Sweep Team One, Messrs Mitchell Ross and Dessurne, swooped in from upon high, gave the Patrol a kick up the jacking points, and off it jolly well dashed. With Ian and Sheila chasing it furiously. Having regained control, they then shot off to the finish where they made it with just five minutes to spare before they’d have been penalised by several hours for not finishing within limit time. So that’s a case of beer each now owed to the soon to be inebriated super heroes.

Tonight the guys are trying to get more air to flow through the radiators by removing the pretty but restrictive grille and replacing it with chicken wire. Yes chicken wire. Air will go through it, but hopefully twigs, stones, camel droppings and small goats will not. Suitable for kids of all ages. Small goats. Kids. (Thanks, I’m here every Sunday, the bar closes at midnight.)

Then they are raising the bonnet by a few millimetres (bits of inches) which will hopefully allow more heat to dissipate. Now there’s a word I don’t use very often. Bonnet.

In other news, Mark Powell and Paul Richards of Team Saluki are in 4th place, Dave Mabbs and Xavier Caminada (Desert FJ) are about 18th I think (no updates currently on the race website) and Malcolm Anderson and Mark Schofield, in a race car built on the chassis of a Range Rover I wrote off 4 years ago(!!), are roughly 15th.

For live updates each day you can follow Newtrix Racing here.

Tomorrow, "Things can only get better".

Go fourth and qualify...

Just so you know, the Newtrix page has been blog-napped. A certain Mr. Tim Ansell, whose decline into notoriety began when he first accepted Ian Barker’s job offer over a pizza in Tehran High Street, has taken over the page for the duration of the Desert Challenge. This is simply because internet connections can be hard to come by in the desert, and since Newtrix does not as yet take its own team of PR luvvies with access to the media centre’s Broadband LAN WAP Bluetooth dongles darling, he (I) will be putting pen to pixel for the benefit of Newtrix Racing, from the comfort of a single malt whisky soaked desk in air conditioned Dubai. Slainté

And it gives me great pleasure on this, my first Faux Dog Blog, to tell you that the Barkers ‘kicked bottom’ this afternoon at the prologue. Having eventually found my way to the derelict, well hidden and un-advertised building site the organisers deemed a fit location to hold the “Super Special” (what’s so special about a heavily camoflauged sand pit?) I and all the competitors were at least suitably impressed with the layout of the stage, which allowed two cars / bikes / quads to run simultaneously on the same ‘circuit’, in a similar manner to many of the WRC’s Super Specials. Since it was over 40 degrees out there and I was stood in the middle of said sand pit with two heavy cameras slung round my neck, I for one was very happy that it meant the duration of the running of the prologue could be considerably reduced.

Where the routes crossed, a large bridge / jump had been built and I’m happy to say that like most competitors, Ian decided that discretion was more important than a sports page lead photo (I rather suspect Sheila may have had some say in this :-) and he took the jump cautiously, with the Patrol’s wheels leaving Mother Earth only briefly. Even so, I’ll bet he still got a flea in his ear for that. (It’s great being able to write Ian’s blog knowing he gets to read it and say “ooh that bugger Ansell….!”) Hee hee.

Anyway, as an (almost) independent witness I can honestly say that Ian did not APPEAR to be driving the stage particularly manically, in his own words, he was simply concentrating on “keeping it tidy” which was not easy given the amount of dust in the air and litter on the ground. But I digress.

He did indeed “keep it tidy” and by doing so, was able to keep his pedal to the proverbial metal, with the result that he finished the stage with the fourth fastest time of all the auto competitors. Oh yes, FOURTH fastest overall. Which means he beat Dave “To hell with the suspension, gearbox, engine and environment, I’m going to cane this thing into oblivion to get a fast finish” Mabbs in his FJ Cruiser, Mark “I’ll take it easy in the prologue thanks, it’s a five day race you know” Powell in the always sexy looking Saluki buggy, Raed “It doesn’t matter if I break it, quite frankly, I can afford to” Baker and a host of other local and international competitors. The Boy’s done well. And so did the Girl. As everyone knows, in rallying it’s co-drivers who do all the work and make the decisions, drivers just claim all the glory. So well done Shelia. Now take your hands off the roll cage please…

There’s a link here to the Special Stage results in case you don’t believe me (having seen some of the stuff I’ve published in the past, I can understand if you don’t believe me) and above, a selection of incredibly good photos taken by a photographer whom Ian will I’m sure go on to describe as “possibly the most important photographer to emerge from Arabian Ranches in the new Millenium”. At least he will if he wants any more free photos from me of the Patrol.


Finally we welcome back to Dubai / Liwa a man who needs no introduction, so he’s not getting one. Rick Carless, Team Newtrix Racing’s Technical Support Manager. Chief Bottle Washer and G.D.B. I mean, would you trust your rally vehicle to a bloke called “Carless”. For heavens sake. Joining Rick is Cesar “Ian I really should be at work in Al Thika you know” Marquez, whom Ian has once again purloined temporarily from the staff at our office. We’ll cope, we always do. THANKS GUYS. And remember, righty tighty, lefty loosey.

Until tomorrow………………………..Woof, I’m outa here!

And keep the damn Patrol running all day tomorrow, no ‘issues’ please folks.

One week to go…

…so it’s manic as usual. Had The Beast out last weekend with the reinforced wings and the new fans, and the Camaro water pump – the original one was leaking. It was running too hot – however, I hadn’t used Water Wetter in the radiator. This is pretty amazing stuff which reduces the water temperature significantly (10c or so) because it improves the transfer of heat from the water to the radiator. And unlike most of the snake-oil remedies – it actually does what it says on the tin (OK- bottle). So why didn’t I use it? Well, because I was pretty sure the rad would have to come out again, and I didn’t want to waste a bottle of the stuff. Then I found that the connection to one of the fans was loose as well, so the jury is still out on whether I have enough cooling. Weather forecast shows a maximum of 38c in Liwa next week, which is damn hot, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Gareth at A2B has got The Beast back to sort out a few minor problems, and discovered that the annoying whine from under the hood is the alternator bearings on their way out. So we’ll put a new one in and (when we have time) re-con the old one as a spare – no point in trying to ignore it and hoping for the best.

Arabian Automobiles, the Nissan distributor, has very kindly come to the party with a consignment of expensive spares on sale-or-return. So we’ll have spare front and rear diffs, full set of spare half-shafts, spare front hub – basically everything we broke last year and then some.

Al Thika’s trusty VW Transporter is once again being pressed into service as the support truck, and I’ve replaced a dodgy section of the deck with a shiny new section of ¾” ply. I’ve decided that, for once, it would be nice if we could actually find the tools and parts we need, so I’ve splashed out on a proper tool chest with drawers. Trouble is, I can’t lift it once it’s filled with tools, so we’ll have to load it on the truck and then put the gear in. Once it’s there, it stays there.

Today, we’re in the Gulf News – fame at last! Shame they can’t write for toffee, but that’s PR agencies for you.

According the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge website, there are 40 cars, 4 trucks and 75 bikes/quads on the entry list this year – but no works teams, which is good for us privateers. We’re number 224 (24th), which reflects our poor showing in the 2009 event, Dave Mabbs is at 204 and Team Saluki are 209. Novitsky in the BMW X3 is top seed, and the only other female competitor in the autos is our old friend Andrea Meyer, co-driving a T4 truck.

Now I need to go and finish refurbishing the support truck...

3 weeks to the Desert Challenge

Since the demise of Carwise, I’ve been doing more of the work on the race car myself. This weekend I pulled out the radiator and fan-box assembly, replaced the fans with the 16” units, re-sealed the fan-box to the radiator and refitted it. The top hose was also replaced with one that gives a better routing as well. It would have been nice to do some real ‘hot-weather’ testing of the new system, but the weather didn’t co-operate. At 23c it was hardly a test, but I took it out for a blat anyway.

Anyway I did some other jobs that needed doing – replaced the temporary exhaust hanger with something more robust, fitted new mudflaps, and repaired the plastic rear bumper. I then decided to remove the front wheel arch liners which had come loose, with a view to replacing them.

Unfortunately this revealed some extensive damage to the inner wings. The inner wing includes a welded section running across the top of the arch, diagonally braced to a vertical member behind the arch. Where the vertical and horizontal members meet is ‘the weakest link’, and repeated hard landings cause the horizontal member to bend, ripping the inner wing and breaking the weld to the diagonal brace. This is a common problem in rally Patrols, and one theory is that the front body mounts may be too soft (and/or too short), allowing the front end of the bodyshell to flex downwards relative to the passenger compartment. We had the same problem on the old T2 Patrol, exacerbated there by the weight of the battery which hangs off the inner wing. (Since the new Patrol has the battery relocated to the back, at least this is not contributing to the problem.)

So it’s booked into A2B Garage later this week for some reconstructive surgery and reinforcement. Let’s see what solution they can come up with.

With only 3 weeks left to the ADDC I could have done without this...