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!