D-Day - Prologue!

Finally we're at Yas for the Super Special stage, which is being run around the north end of Yas Marina circuit.  Not that this is in any way representative of the terrain of the DC, but hey, it's the 25th anniversary of the event, so let's have some fun.

But before we get to that, have a look at the video Rick put together, featuring clips from the final round of the Emirates Desert Championship.

And so to the prologue.  What can I say? To the accompaniment of a great deal of tyre-squealing, we got round turn 7, up through the corkscrew, back through turns 5, 6 and 7, through the corkscrew again and that was pretty much it.   We ended up were 27th fastest, so pretty much as per our seeding.  Others were not so lucky - one car shed a tyre whilst negotiating the first turn, another spun on the first turn, and someone else put their Patrol into the wall, knackering a front drive shaft and shaving off some bodywork in the process.  (I'm sure their service team were thrilled about that.)  Thanks to Geraint Jones for these pix of the event.

But spare a though for the Powertec crew, whose Rage buggy got wiped out by a taxi on the way back from fuelling up at a nearby garage.  No injuries reported, but the buggy looks like a write-off.

For some reason the start order - apart from the top 10 - is as per the numerical listing, and not as per prologue placing, which has caused some unhappiness.  For us, it means that some slower vehicles are now ahead of us, and some faster vehicles are behind, which is not ideal.  Surely the purpose of the prologue is establish a rational start order?  Anyway, we've a 1051hrs start tomorrow and I'm off to bed.

Live tracking is available from www.abudhabidesertchallenge.com - car number 229.

D-Day minus 1 - Scrutineering

So much has happened, I scarcely know where to begin.

The Beast finally emerged from Mebar on Monday evening (D-Day minus 5) and was trailered up to Muhannad at DynoKing, where they fitted the new ECU, and set about dyno-ing and tuning.  Soon aftere Rick arrived from Manchester (Tuesday evening) the call arrived that the job was done, so we finally got our hands on it around midnight on D-Day minus 4.  Al Rostamani, who in previous years had supplied my kit of sale-or-return parts, have changed their procedures and it now seems there is no way to accommodate parts 'on consignment'.  Fortunately, Emil (who works for Al Masaood, the Abu Dhabi Nissan distributor) has come to our rescue and not only arranged the parts, but will deliver them to us at the bivouac!  What a nice bloke, and deserving of as much beer as he wants at Bar Newtrix (tent D-14).

D-Day minus 3 saw Kate arriving from London, and yours truly rushing around Dubai picking up engine oil, spare 6PK-2040 drive-belts and a couple of tyres for good measure. Meanwhile Richard collected the service truck from Al Thika and set about loading it. Rick  managed to finish a few of the jobs on the to-do list that day, including fitting the new oil pressure gauge, and the thermostat.  The following day we  had the entire crew on the job.

D-Day minus 2 is documentation, so Sheila and I drove to Abu Dhabi where ATC relieved us of an enormous wodge of cash in return for some stickers, the nav and safety equipment and a few other odds and ends.  On our return, we decided to risk the wrath of Emaar security by erecting the large Eezi-Up on the driveway outside, forming a kind of tunnel between the garage and the service truck, under which work on the Beast continued apace.  Jason went through the electrics, improving connections and identifying all the fuses and relays which are now labeled.  Richard found time to fabricate a sand rake, which fits onto our jack handle, loctited all the panel bolts, improved the bonnet location and re-fitted the grille.  I kept out of the way of hard work by doing all the stickers, and the ERTF GPS and the Iritrack system with their respective antennae were duly installed.

Temporary Garage Extension

Have you got planning permission for that?

Our ARB compressor (for the rear diff-lock) has ceased to be.  It has ingested too much sand, and despite Rick trying everything (including the kiss of life) it has sadly shuffled off this mortal coil. It is a late compressor.  By the time the last rites had been read, it was dark and despite a last-ditch effort by Richard to substitute another Bushranger unit, that was also clearly knackered and pulling far too much current and melting fuses and relays..  So we have no difflock, and will just have to manage without.  Bugger.

Ready for scrutineering

So...today was scrutineering, and we breezed through, well ahead of our 1100hrs time slot, without anything significant to trouble the scrutineers.  Job done!  For once, we are back at Newtrix HQ with nothing left to do - the Beast, trailer and service truck are all down
at Rally HQ, ready for tomorrow.

Today, Newtrix get an honourable mention in the sports pages the National, as one of the 'entries to watch in the empty quarter'.   Feast your eyes now on the reborn and re-decorated Beast.  Tomorrow we race! - well sort of.  The prologue will take place on the F1 circuit at Yas Marina, and I don't think we'll be risking any heroics.

Sorted!

D-Day minus 7

Having found out that the RTA are now licensing trailers, I decided to replace some broken lights and get it legal. The lighting socket on the car had never worked properly since being installed by my garage, but after some great help from Jason we finally sorted out the dodgy wiring.  Now we only have to find someone in the RTA who knows how to get it registered...   The road car's registration was about to expire, so that's now done.

Dropped into Mebar to check in progress with the Beast.  The air box was being installed while I was there, as was the remote reservoir for the power steering.  The front axle is in, and the oil filter reinstalled.  Word is that tomorrow I can take it to Dynoking for tuning.

Stickers are ready, so soon the Beast will sport our trademark yellow chequer once again.  There's a possible shakedown run on Tuesday, when our old friends Mike and Be hit town.

Meanwhile, the Hail Rally is in progress. My mate Emil Kneisser is currently 7th overall, Yahya Belhilli is out with gearbox problems, leaving Yazeed Al Rajhi's Hummer way out in front after 2 days.

D-Day minus 9

Congratulations to Rashad and Mrs Faraj on the birth of a baby boy!

Which explains why he wasn't at Mebar today, and who can blame him.  Terrible planning though - having a baby the week before DC??  That's always going to be a busy week!

Anyway the guys are hard at it, the axle reinforcement and shock mounts are done, and it was being resprayed while I was there. The air box was at the powder coaters, and all the pipework was done.  The radius arms have new bushes fitted.  The new ECU was ready for fitting.  The oil filter has been re-plumbed.  So there are reasons to be cheerful, and they are working through the weekend as well.

Countdown - D-day minus 10

Only 10 days to go, ladies and gentlemen.  So the car's all prepped and ready for the off then?  Err -  actually, no. 

The Beast is poorly.  It's been putting a brave face on it and carrying on regardless, but once Mebar had it on the operating table, the extent of the required surgery became apparent.  Apart from the rear axle control arm mounts (one rebuilt, the other reinforced), new tierods, sway bar bushes, rear upper/lower arms - all need replacing.  It gets worse.  To install the snorkel means moving the oil filter.  The oil filter adaptor is broken and the pipes are now too short.  Then they discover the reason for the power steering reservoir always being oily.  We'd assumed it was just a poor seal in the cap, but no - the reservoir itself is cracked.  Their solution is to supply and fit a new external reservoir.

So the spendometer is ticking inexorably upwards, and the timescale is moving out.  And that's before it goes to Mr. DynoKing for a new ECU and a full re-map of the software.

Are we panicking?  Well, yes, but in a typically British, low-key, stiff-upper-lip sort of way. If I had any hairs left which hadn't already turned grey, they would be turning grey right now.  Welcome to lastminuterally.com

Every Picture Tells a Story

Race you to the dunes, Emil!

Spot the drop?  Me neither...

Nor did he, apparently... 

Free falling...

The ''Oh Sh!t' moment...

T-bone, anyone?

Turns out I'd broken a top control arm bracket off the rear axle, which is why the back end was misbehaving from that point on.  Mebar have fixed that, and are well on with the front axle reinforcement, with parts arriving imminently for the revised intake system.

A Newtrix Team Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday evening.  This is code for 'four people will drink beer and make lists on the back of an envelope'.  We could even go all high-tech, and Skype Rick in the UK as well.

One item has been crossed off the list - I soldered a new ciggie-lighter plug onto the Garmin.  So at least someone will know where they're going...

Emirates Desert Championship R6

The final round of the EDC was held back at Lihbab, where we'd raced a few months back. Tom 'Sabertooth' Bell and Ben came out to lend their support to Newtrix, and to get to grips with the local rally scene. The venue was a late change from Sweihan, for which permission from the authorities was not forthcoming. So the track was an exact replica of the previous visit, although the sand had changed noticeably in places.

This time out we were joined by celebrities! Marc Coma was competing as a final practice before the Desert Challenge, and our old friend Charlie Boorman was there to flag off the bikes - though he had to rush back to Dubai to take part in the Literature Festival.

Starting 30 seconds behind Emil Kneisser in his T2 Y62 Patrol,I was on his tail less than five minutes into the first 14.5km lap. As we entered the one one long flat subkha I realised that this was an opportunity not to be missed. A straight drag race across the plain saw Newtrix take the lead, just before we reached the dunes beyond. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself, and as they say, pride cometh before a fall. Most dunes give you fair warning that what's on the other side sould be given adequate respect, but not this one - there was no dune, just a sudden drop-off. As I went over it, I saw a broken white buggy lying in a three-wheeled heap beyond, and the driver frantically trying to climb the drop-off to warn oncoming traffic. The Beast landed heavily on its snout, thought about falling on its roof (oh no, not again!) and finally decided to pirouette sideways and land on its wheels. Which was good - except that it was now stalled at the foot of the drop-off, in prime position to be t-boned by Emil. Fortunately, the buggy guy had now climbed up, and was able to slow Emil down while I made my getaway

This, ladies and gentlemen, was a significantly bowel-loosening moment, and I make no apology for driving like an old man (which of course I am) from that point onward. However the car wasn't behaving as well as it had. It was tough to get the power down, the axle kept tramping as though the rear suspension was shot and I even stopped at one point, convinced that I'd broken something. As a result, my speed dropped and I was eventually re-taken by Emil, and by Mark Powell's Predator which had started 30 seconds behind me. Looking back I suspect that maybe the prang had knocked it out of 4WD, and I was unwittingly continuing in 2WD.

The final result was that Mark took the win, I was 2nd and Ammar Moukayed - a finisher in the previous week's event - came 3rd. This should mean that Newtrix retain the T1 Championship for another year.

Ian the Dog, Mark Powell, Ammar Moukayed and co-driver Ayman Soliman, Mohd Ben Sulayem

After a quick check-over, The Beast is back at Mebar for the front axle to be replaced, and for the air intake to be conmpletely remodelled. The steel airfilter canister will go, as will the short 36mm restrictor and the long 4" bend into the throttle body. Instead we will reinstall the snorkel, duct air from that into a custom air-box and filter (modelled on the one built for Emil), then to an extended restrictor and a shorter bend to the throttle. The upshot of all this should be (a) much cleaner air going into the filter (I emptied about a kilo of sand out after this event!) and (b) improved airflow efficiency from a better-designed restrictor.

While this is going on, we're off to Cyprus for a week of intensive de-stress therapy, involving large volumes of Keo beer and mountains of Greek food. As soon as we're back the final preparation for the 2015 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge will commence. We have the Dream Team to support us: Rick Carless, Richard Bailey, Jason Lyness and Kate Stedman - so what could possibly go wrong? Join us again soon for answers to this and many other questions!

UAE Rally Championship R2

After a few dramas in the build-up to this event, I’m happy to report that The Beast acquitted itself well in the second round of the Emirates Motorsport Club’s UAE Rally Championship.

Since the rebuild, we’ve been promising to get the Beast back to Mebar for Rashad to work his magic on the suspension.  Having shed some 250kg, mainly from the back end, the settings were now far too hard.  Rashad changed to softer springs and tweaked the dampers to give a much better ride.  However, in the process the front diff started to disintegrate – the end result of the front axle tube being bent long ago.  So on Thursday night, they worked till gone midnight to cannibalise parts from an existing axle they had, to get the Beast back on its feet.  That is customer service!

Friday morning we were out with the latest conscript to Newtrix Racing, Tom Bell, to recce the gravel stages out near Shawka, where two stages were run either side of the Kalba Road.

Saturday morning, the three of us headed out to Sharjah Corniche for the ceremonial start, from which Tom took the trailer to the service park at Shawka.  At the invitation of Sk Abdullah Al Qassimi, Mohd Ben Sulayem took to the wheel of his 20-year old Ford Escort with Ronan Morgan as co-driver.  Neither had competed for over 13 years, but despite a few problems with the car, they came in a close 2^nd to Abdullah, and actually beat him on 4 of the 6 stages!

So while they were battling it out at the top of the field with two Omani Subarus, the T1 4x4s occupied the next five places, from 5^th to 9^th.  Our time for the first (fast) stage came down progressively from 8:09 to 8:00 over the three repeats, and on the 2^nd (more technical) stage from 9:43 to 9:27, before making two errors on the final stage to end up at 9:38.

In T1, we were beaten into 3^rd place by both Ibrahim Al Mohana and Ali Al Ketbi.  However, we were happy to be ahead of Ali Al Shawi (4^th) and Nooh Buhumaid (5^th), both of whom beat us in the previous round.  Overall this leaves us still 3^rd in the T1 championship after two rounds.  

There is a persistent backfire on the over-run which we need to investigate, and the axle needs to be replaced to avoid further problems.  I’d also like to upgrade the intake system to incorporate a superior restrictor design which I now have, so we’ll see if Mebar can fit this in before the DC – which is now only 26 days away!

Once again, many thanks to Tim Ansell for some excellent pix of the event, and to Tom for all his help - and a short video of us in action!