It seemed such a simple plan. Put suitably emptied and washed fuel cell in large box, send by courier to ATL, ATL test and stamp it OK for another two years, and send it back. What could possibly go wrong? Well for a start, TNT. They picked up the box, stuck in their Dubai warehouse and left it there until I started asking questions 10 days later. No, they couldn't ship it because it was 'too big'. And were they planning to inform us of their inability to perform their fundamental raison d'etre, viz. shipping? No. Customer Service? Not coming in Dubai.
Second attempt with Aramex was more successful, although they decided not to pick it up in advance on the UK bank holiday weekend 'because the UK wouldn't do anything with it over the bank holiday'. No, but at least it would have been in the damned country when UK re-opened, so further delay ensued.
Eventually ATL received it and put in the queue for testing. And tested it. Ans then tried to stick a nice shiny new FIA label on it...but it wouldn't stick, due to fuel permeation through the cell! So they couldn't certify it. So I need a new fuel cell, for which they quoted me GBP4,100. AFter pointing out that I didn't need all the hardware, just the bare bladder, it came down to GBP2500. But by then I'd got a quote from a nice lady at Merin in Italy for Eu2600, which is quite a bit less, so I've given her the order on a 20 day ex-works lead time.
By this time, we'd heard through the newspaper (not through the EMSF, of course) that EMSF would be organising a series of four rallies, the first of which would be on 11th October. Hurrah, we all shouted, because we have had a severe shortage of rallies in UAE since about 2008. Then I had a phone call from Ali Al Shawi at the UAQ Motorplex, giving me the dates for five events they are organising. Thrice hurrah, we all shouted.
However - 11th October is a scant 14 days away and The Beast has no fuel cell. What to do? Well, the only option is to nick the old tank out of the old white race car, and hope EMSF aren't too fussy about scrutineering. Then I discover that somewhere between Saluki and 1000 Dunes they have managed to lose the Beast's transfer box selector linkage - the important bit that joins the shift lever to the box. Bugger. So we need to nick that off the white Patrol as well. So this morning was spent in Richard Bailey's drive, stripping useful bits off the old Patrol. However, a bijou problemette emerged in that the old car has internal pumps, and fuel exits from the top of the tank. The Beast's tank has a bottom exit and external pumps. So a bit of re-plumbing and re-wiring will be needed to get it all to work, which hopefully Saluki can handle.
But we really ought to set up the shocks, which is a Black Art about which I know almost nothing. Whether Ivan at Powertec will have time to assist in this before 9th October (scrutineering day) remains to be seen.
Anyway, for those of you who care about such things, I give you below the schedule of events as we know it today:
EMSF:
11 October
15 November
31 January
14-15 February
Motorplex Umm Al Quwain:
20-21 December Solo Race 1
24-25 January Solo Race 2
21-22 February Solo Race 3
6-7-8 March Pro Race 1
24-25-26 April Pro Race 2
Will there be a rlly on 11th October? (We still haven't heard Word One from EMSF, but mysteriously the event format and regulations arrived in my email yesterday - it will be a 2-hour event over a 20km circuit - somewhere in the desert. If it happens). Will we have the Beast ready? Will it pass scrutineering? These and many other questions, dear reader, will be answered in the fullness of time.
Let me leave you with a quotation which pretty much sums it all up:
'Let's be optimistic
Let's say that we won't toil in vain,
If we pull together
We'll never fall apart again.....'
(Name the tune, singer, and year. And no resorting to Google!)
Second attempt with Aramex was more successful, although they decided not to pick it up in advance on the UK bank holiday weekend 'because the UK wouldn't do anything with it over the bank holiday'. No, but at least it would have been in the damned country when UK re-opened, so further delay ensued.
Eventually ATL received it and put in the queue for testing. And tested it. Ans then tried to stick a nice shiny new FIA label on it...but it wouldn't stick, due to fuel permeation through the cell! So they couldn't certify it. So I need a new fuel cell, for which they quoted me GBP4,100. AFter pointing out that I didn't need all the hardware, just the bare bladder, it came down to GBP2500. But by then I'd got a quote from a nice lady at Merin in Italy for Eu2600, which is quite a bit less, so I've given her the order on a 20 day ex-works lead time.
By this time, we'd heard through the newspaper (not through the EMSF, of course) that EMSF would be organising a series of four rallies, the first of which would be on 11th October. Hurrah, we all shouted, because we have had a severe shortage of rallies in UAE since about 2008. Then I had a phone call from Ali Al Shawi at the UAQ Motorplex, giving me the dates for five events they are organising. Thrice hurrah, we all shouted.
However - 11th October is a scant 14 days away and The Beast has no fuel cell. What to do? Well, the only option is to nick the old tank out of the old white race car, and hope EMSF aren't too fussy about scrutineering. Then I discover that somewhere between Saluki and 1000 Dunes they have managed to lose the Beast's transfer box selector linkage - the important bit that joins the shift lever to the box. Bugger. So we need to nick that off the white Patrol as well. So this morning was spent in Richard Bailey's drive, stripping useful bits off the old Patrol. However, a bijou problemette emerged in that the old car has internal pumps, and fuel exits from the top of the tank. The Beast's tank has a bottom exit and external pumps. So a bit of re-plumbing and re-wiring will be needed to get it all to work, which hopefully Saluki can handle.
But we really ought to set up the shocks, which is a Black Art about which I know almost nothing. Whether Ivan at Powertec will have time to assist in this before 9th October (scrutineering day) remains to be seen.
Anyway, for those of you who care about such things, I give you below the schedule of events as we know it today:
EMSF:
11 October
15 November
31 January
14-15 February
Motorplex Umm Al Quwain:
20-21 December Solo Race 1
24-25 January Solo Race 2
21-22 February Solo Race 3
6-7-8 March Pro Race 1
24-25-26 April Pro Race 2
Will there be a rlly on 11th October? (We still haven't heard Word One from EMSF, but mysteriously the event format and regulations arrived in my email yesterday - it will be a 2-hour event over a 20km circuit - somewhere in the desert. If it happens). Will we have the Beast ready? Will it pass scrutineering? These and many other questions, dear reader, will be answered in the fullness of time.
Let me leave you with a quotation which pretty much sums it all up:
'Let's be optimistic
Let's say that we won't toil in vain,
If we pull together
We'll never fall apart again.....'
(Name the tune, singer, and year. And no resorting to Google!)
