klaus
April 22nd, 2008, 14:22
4/21/2008 10:08:54
Budapest Hungary
El Chinero off Klaus’ laptop
Day 2
Special Stage 2.1 (of two)
NOTES #4
Back Again.
CULTURL ASPECTS … A LA BORAT.
Border crossing into Romania just like a Grade B Spy Movie: a bald squat jefe a la Michael Chiklas of “The Shield” TV show.
Loads of sidearms.
Lots of time reviewing our pay-PERS
Once across the road deteriorated to the level of the Puertocitos Road after Hurricane Nora. But without center neither line nor shoulder delineators.
Romania is the Mexico of Europe.
The next tow was very dilapidated … like built in 1945 and never maintained. A pretty sorry sight: like, no hope.
DISCLAIMER TIME
a) These noted are typed on a laptop in a movie Fiat.
b) With the sun bearing down on the screen.
c) Spellchecking gets shoved to the back … sorry ... read between the misspelled lines
d) Items written are as-observed generally without any eternal formal input: not to be used for scoring!
e) All inputs are in time-line: first first, last final.
I rote as Klaus rowed the shifter on the Fiat (“Fix it again, Tony) until we reached a dorf net to a derelict railroad siding, where we cruised ... War Driving ... looking for a solid Wi-Fi site. We perched in front of a Soviet Bloc block dwelling and up loaded … then went to the local bakery, ice cream, and pizza shoppe. It was “cone” night so we waited a while but have a “pie” fresh out of El Horno. Not bad. Stupid cheap.
Off to Romania. The route info was not exaggerating about the number of Romaniod police along the road .. a heavy presence but we saw no stops. It was black as a bucket of bungs holes with few electric lights anywhere except on the distant horizon.
The towns featured “Banca Transylvania” … Dracu, Vlad Zee Impaler, CEO. Quite a relief after dealing with Keyser Soze in Hungary.
Te town of Baia Mare (“Mare” apparently means “City”) had its OK parts (damning with faint praise) and REALLY bad side, e.g., south of the tracks where a pack of wild dogs, The Children of the Night”, attacked the Fiat near a industrial pack. We actual hit one and it get up and chased us far into the night. REALLY SPOOKY: ArrOOOOOOOOOOOO!
We didn’t have room rez’ so we hit all the (three) hotels in ton … NFW. Some ultra-too-up-scale for us. Tried “pensions, NFW, Jose. Even the dangerous-dump one with the crowd outside. On those south side of THOSE tracks, once again.
The Special Stage is in the mountains north of town … pine trees, exposed rock, running water, meadows, and snow. BRRR! The course was tight, but with passing ops, seemingly favoring the 4WDs. It was cold to desert rats! The altitude to be 3,000-feet ASL. 36F in the morning. Colder’n a well-digger’s boot sole.
The course was sorta like the upper part of the Rancho Mike’s access road. Or, for Zonies, the back road to Crown King through Oil Pan Alley.
SCOOTERS
The first bike was #2 Marco Comas … took 56 minutes to go 56K. Despres was second. Jumping Jonah Street was 6th, after starting 17th yesterday. Guess tossin’ those hay bales and burying those bodies makes a boy quick.
The loose rock separated the squids from the boyz: the lesser lights were slow and tentative and unsure of themselves. As I would have been, or am. The rears slide out and they dab, or fall. A wide range of skills.
The top quads were ultra-strong. Really tossing stones … much power. The rest were along for the ride, running in groups of pals.
CARS
Phwew .. Carlos Sainz looked at ease and in control .. like a day in the park, a walk on the beach. It was suggested tat this was a hliday drive for him, as the msooth course suited his WRC-cmapionship style . He ran th car as if it were onl rails, using the inside line and never touching the outer berm.
Peterhansel was secod ad RG in line, on time, behind. The start delta of two minutes gave rG some cuhsio to make time … but not today as he lost two positions. The 4WDs were to be te right deal here, in the Carpathian Mtns. ArOOOOOOOOOO!
Be wa tht the drivers had ha no prerun, no GPS and no data, unlike a WRC event. However the course was quite obvous: between trees.
Theis route was unlike Dakar, for sure. Short, tight, well-defined, visually. Like over then mtns in Vegas to Reno.
BJ Baldwin was 19th … looking good but stuck.
Techno Deal: Robby has mini iPods in the center of his wheel, protected by personal protectors.
Q: What’s on Robby’s iPod.
SO YOU KNOW
The Stage Finish dictates the next day’s start starting order.
The OA time is by total combined aggregate time: “low” wins.
So blockers by team members work, and sandbagging is useless. Backing off after a position gain is counterproductive: go, go, go.
TRUCKERS
One MAN peeled a right front tire … changing a tire requires a jack-up wit a air bag run off the truck’s A-Comp. A HUGE air bag. Be advised, a tire swap will not be quick: the afore-mentioned air bag, a bottle jack, tire tires, hammers, and large thick men. Lookie –Lous and cameramen … as they worked they dropped their helmets and .., the spectators … took the helmet, stowed it safely. Then they all tried it on for photos! Then replaced it. Try THAT at Ojos. Took a long time.
The Mike Peterson’s car was back at 1206 ... behind a LOT of cars. Fiberglass awry.
Signing off .. Hand Party in Romania
4/22/2008 1:01:40 PM
@ Desesti
Day Before Conintued
(Ran out of time and energy and Absinthe)
Tuesday AM Catch-up
214 (Belgian) and 231 (Dutch) Jimco-based bodied buggies
V6s , uncompetitive. Look good.
Belgian Audi #265 Mendeola 6-speed sequential w/ Fox coil-over
Were servicing the CVs … gag. Nice cars. Way pokey.
#216 was a Latvian car from Riga.
They made the entire car: All ours except for the windscreen!” And the LS engine purchased over the www.gm (http://www.gm/) from America!
3rd generation car
1st Dakar in 2007
We are 22nd for far.
5.7L, EFI, w/ inlet restrictor.
“How would you like to race it without the restrictor?”
“Yes, very funny.”
They run an SADEV transaxles and Donnere shx (a French firm)
The car was made for Dakar and this course does not suit it. The course is made for WRC cars. If we continue to run rally such as this we will have to change it:
Lighter external tubes, a smaller fuel cell, lose 500 kg …
BFGs which are pretty universal
TAs, no “Projects”
We are a private team but our engineer wants the car to look as good as a factory car … and it is. Well detailed, well built.
Tom Geviss/Jeff Reams Truck Tale:
We were at a bridge where #277 (A “Bowler”? from Espana) went off:, tore the wheels off. We stopped to winch him out. The Trophy T4 has some much, too much suspension that the sway bars are not enough. I almost lad it over onto the mirror: I dieseled it (as opposed to gassed it . .) and saved it. We sliced a sidewall ... they must be sand tires … so thin. The ones we want have all been allocated to the US military .. Michelin has a 15-month backlog. “Iraq” has been good to the French, huh?
Many smaller cars use Watts linkage to center the rear axle. Or the “Axel” if you are German.
SORRY FOR THE DELAY
Tried to find REAL Absinthe last night. Noe .. only fake stuff. If you want a buzz it better be a REAL buzz!
Budapest Hungary
El Chinero off Klaus’ laptop
Day 2
Special Stage 2.1 (of two)
NOTES #4
Back Again.
CULTURL ASPECTS … A LA BORAT.
Border crossing into Romania just like a Grade B Spy Movie: a bald squat jefe a la Michael Chiklas of “The Shield” TV show.
Loads of sidearms.
Lots of time reviewing our pay-PERS
Once across the road deteriorated to the level of the Puertocitos Road after Hurricane Nora. But without center neither line nor shoulder delineators.
Romania is the Mexico of Europe.
The next tow was very dilapidated … like built in 1945 and never maintained. A pretty sorry sight: like, no hope.
DISCLAIMER TIME
a) These noted are typed on a laptop in a movie Fiat.
b) With the sun bearing down on the screen.
c) Spellchecking gets shoved to the back … sorry ... read between the misspelled lines
d) Items written are as-observed generally without any eternal formal input: not to be used for scoring!
e) All inputs are in time-line: first first, last final.
I rote as Klaus rowed the shifter on the Fiat (“Fix it again, Tony) until we reached a dorf net to a derelict railroad siding, where we cruised ... War Driving ... looking for a solid Wi-Fi site. We perched in front of a Soviet Bloc block dwelling and up loaded … then went to the local bakery, ice cream, and pizza shoppe. It was “cone” night so we waited a while but have a “pie” fresh out of El Horno. Not bad. Stupid cheap.
Off to Romania. The route info was not exaggerating about the number of Romaniod police along the road .. a heavy presence but we saw no stops. It was black as a bucket of bungs holes with few electric lights anywhere except on the distant horizon.
The towns featured “Banca Transylvania” … Dracu, Vlad Zee Impaler, CEO. Quite a relief after dealing with Keyser Soze in Hungary.
Te town of Baia Mare (“Mare” apparently means “City”) had its OK parts (damning with faint praise) and REALLY bad side, e.g., south of the tracks where a pack of wild dogs, The Children of the Night”, attacked the Fiat near a industrial pack. We actual hit one and it get up and chased us far into the night. REALLY SPOOKY: ArrOOOOOOOOOOOO!
We didn’t have room rez’ so we hit all the (three) hotels in ton … NFW. Some ultra-too-up-scale for us. Tried “pensions, NFW, Jose. Even the dangerous-dump one with the crowd outside. On those south side of THOSE tracks, once again.
The Special Stage is in the mountains north of town … pine trees, exposed rock, running water, meadows, and snow. BRRR! The course was tight, but with passing ops, seemingly favoring the 4WDs. It was cold to desert rats! The altitude to be 3,000-feet ASL. 36F in the morning. Colder’n a well-digger’s boot sole.
The course was sorta like the upper part of the Rancho Mike’s access road. Or, for Zonies, the back road to Crown King through Oil Pan Alley.
SCOOTERS
The first bike was #2 Marco Comas … took 56 minutes to go 56K. Despres was second. Jumping Jonah Street was 6th, after starting 17th yesterday. Guess tossin’ those hay bales and burying those bodies makes a boy quick.
The loose rock separated the squids from the boyz: the lesser lights were slow and tentative and unsure of themselves. As I would have been, or am. The rears slide out and they dab, or fall. A wide range of skills.
The top quads were ultra-strong. Really tossing stones … much power. The rest were along for the ride, running in groups of pals.
CARS
Phwew .. Carlos Sainz looked at ease and in control .. like a day in the park, a walk on the beach. It was suggested tat this was a hliday drive for him, as the msooth course suited his WRC-cmapionship style . He ran th car as if it were onl rails, using the inside line and never touching the outer berm.
Peterhansel was secod ad RG in line, on time, behind. The start delta of two minutes gave rG some cuhsio to make time … but not today as he lost two positions. The 4WDs were to be te right deal here, in the Carpathian Mtns. ArOOOOOOOOOO!
Be wa tht the drivers had ha no prerun, no GPS and no data, unlike a WRC event. However the course was quite obvous: between trees.
Theis route was unlike Dakar, for sure. Short, tight, well-defined, visually. Like over then mtns in Vegas to Reno.
BJ Baldwin was 19th … looking good but stuck.
Techno Deal: Robby has mini iPods in the center of his wheel, protected by personal protectors.
Q: What’s on Robby’s iPod.
SO YOU KNOW
The Stage Finish dictates the next day’s start starting order.
The OA time is by total combined aggregate time: “low” wins.
So blockers by team members work, and sandbagging is useless. Backing off after a position gain is counterproductive: go, go, go.
TRUCKERS
One MAN peeled a right front tire … changing a tire requires a jack-up wit a air bag run off the truck’s A-Comp. A HUGE air bag. Be advised, a tire swap will not be quick: the afore-mentioned air bag, a bottle jack, tire tires, hammers, and large thick men. Lookie –Lous and cameramen … as they worked they dropped their helmets and .., the spectators … took the helmet, stowed it safely. Then they all tried it on for photos! Then replaced it. Try THAT at Ojos. Took a long time.
The Mike Peterson’s car was back at 1206 ... behind a LOT of cars. Fiberglass awry.
Signing off .. Hand Party in Romania
4/22/2008 1:01:40 PM
@ Desesti
Day Before Conintued
(Ran out of time and energy and Absinthe)
Tuesday AM Catch-up
214 (Belgian) and 231 (Dutch) Jimco-based bodied buggies
V6s , uncompetitive. Look good.
Belgian Audi #265 Mendeola 6-speed sequential w/ Fox coil-over
Were servicing the CVs … gag. Nice cars. Way pokey.
#216 was a Latvian car from Riga.
They made the entire car: All ours except for the windscreen!” And the LS engine purchased over the www.gm (http://www.gm/) from America!
3rd generation car
1st Dakar in 2007
We are 22nd for far.
5.7L, EFI, w/ inlet restrictor.
“How would you like to race it without the restrictor?”
“Yes, very funny.”
They run an SADEV transaxles and Donnere shx (a French firm)
The car was made for Dakar and this course does not suit it. The course is made for WRC cars. If we continue to run rally such as this we will have to change it:
Lighter external tubes, a smaller fuel cell, lose 500 kg …
BFGs which are pretty universal
TAs, no “Projects”
We are a private team but our engineer wants the car to look as good as a factory car … and it is. Well detailed, well built.
Tom Geviss/Jeff Reams Truck Tale:
We were at a bridge where #277 (A “Bowler”? from Espana) went off:, tore the wheels off. We stopped to winch him out. The Trophy T4 has some much, too much suspension that the sway bars are not enough. I almost lad it over onto the mirror: I dieseled it (as opposed to gassed it . .) and saved it. We sliced a sidewall ... they must be sand tires … so thin. The ones we want have all been allocated to the US military .. Michelin has a 15-month backlog. “Iraq” has been good to the French, huh?
Many smaller cars use Watts linkage to center the rear axle. Or the “Axel” if you are German.
SORRY FOR THE DELAY
Tried to find REAL Absinthe last night. Noe .. only fake stuff. If you want a buzz it better be a REAL buzz!