Day 17 of the WEVO Porsche 356 South America rally and the boys are driving from Cusco to Arequipa: around 600 kilometres.
Thanks to Yellowbrick GPS technology carried on board the cars, you can track their progress on the rally home page under ‘results‘. Here are a few screen shots demonstrating what is possible.
Time now in Cusco is 08:22, and here is their current position. Untick everything except the Class C box to see the cars in their group.
This is a wider view of the route so far plotted by GPS: it likes to use a straight line to minimise data points stored. Bit of a pain when map data is overlaid but not much choice here.
Belgian Historic Rally Champion, Glenn Janssens, thanked his lucky stars last weekend after walking away from a huge 100-mph crash in his amazing Tuthill Porsche 911 rally car.
Rallying the opening event of the season at Haspengouw, Glenn had just shifted into fifth gear around a right-hand bend when a hint of oversteer escalated into something bigger, leading to a series of barrel rolls at very high speed.
The landscape surrounding the crash was ploughed fields in usual Belgian style, but the ground was frozen solid. Imagine crashing on rutted concrete and you get the idea. This video shows the damage suffered, and also shows the guys walking away: the only happy news for Janssens fans from this event.
Tuthills have been building rally cars for over thirty years and crashes are part of the world they live in: I’ve got plenty of crash damage pics from the workshops over the seven years we’ve been working together.
It’s never pleasant to see a car bent and broken, but it’s always very satisfying to see a Tuthill Porsche roll cage work as intended. This won’t be an easy repair but I’ll keep you up to date with the rebuild as it unfolds.
News from the Americas! Hayden and Steven have just enjoyed their second rest day of the event, at Puno in Southern Peru, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. This update was from Tuesday night.
Nice drive this morning, 0500hrs wake up to leave La Paz early enough to avoid road blockages by striking workers. Lovely drive and little barge crossing to Peru border, leaving beautiful but contradictory Bolivia behind.
Great hotel on Lake Titicaca makes rest day tomorrow even more anticipated. Lola still faultless, but the Porsche 356 will get a greasing and general spanner check. That said, Lola needs new plugs again, as poor fuel has been hard on plugs in all the old cars. T is bringing three more sets to Cusco in 2 days.
We have run at over 14,300 feet without re-jetting the carbs, so very happy and proud of our sea level work and the choices Brian and I made in setting these up! Our faith in physics continues.
Yesterday on the way into La Paz, we sat at 120 km/h (72mph) for an hours or so at just over 3,900 metres, or almost 13,00 feet. Where else in the world can you do that? That’s like a highway joining all the high peaks of the Rockies. Amazing!
Today rest day, tomorrow Puno to Cusco, in the foothills south of Machu Picchu. Next day is another rest day to allow some exploring in the legendary Peruvian ruins, followed by a 600-kilometre drive to Arequipa, not Aeroquipa as per the rally notes.
Second biggest city in Peru, the historic centre of Arequipa has been granted UNESCO World Cultural Heritage status. The old town’s beautiful heart is balanced by some of the highest levels of solar radiation in all of South America, thanks to the nearby Atacama Desert and local air pollution. Break out the UV sunblock! More news when we get it.
Here’s an interesting read for you: the first feature Jamie Lipman and I ever did in the USA from 2008. Was a minor disaster getting there and making this happen, but the end justified the means. R Gruppe Porsche 911 SWB Hot Rods shot in California.
Interest in the short wheelbase 911 has surged in recent years. John Glynn drives a pair of American beauties that make a convincing case for less is more.
Ah, California. In stark contrast to preconceptions of a concrete jungle, California is a state with personality. Away from the major population centres, amazing light and fresh Pacific air mingles with the blissful aroma of pine trees and vines to create a technicolour environment. No wonder they built Hollywood here.
I’ve come to the Golden State to attend the R Gruppe Treffen, an annual ensemble of early 911 enthusiasts from across the US and beyond. This year, the meet is centred on Cambria, a pretty little coastal town 100 miles south of Monterey. This is the site of the very first Gruppe get-together, ten years ago.
R Gruppe’s raison d’etre is to honour the intent behind Porsche’s Sports Purpose range: factory parts for adding that extra zing to to the pre-’73 911. This is a club for road trippers, not trailer queens. Some of these guys have travelled almost 3,000 ground miles to be here. (more…)
Finally found time last week to get on the road and visit my Porsche 944, which has been parked in a mate’s farmyard for a few years while I get this Ferdinand thing off the ground.
You might remember I bought the 944 for its 911 number plate a few years back. It had been parked up for ten years in a soaking wet garage. I knew it needed a few bits repaired, which then turned into plans for a full restoration.
I subsequently broke two front-engined Porsches – 924 and 944 – for spare parts that might be needed, and the whole lot is stockpiled. I’m not in any rush to do this job, but am certainly glad to have a simple early 944 put aside, as Porsche is not making any more of them. Though this project is not a priority, it’s nice to check up on the car every now and then.
Above is the sight that awaited me – the Porsche being swallowed by a hedge. It’s sitting on gravel, so the underside is still dry, and better it is well ventilated than in some damp garage or barn. Nevertheless, I’m going to drag it back to Porsche rust repair experts Racing Restorations at Pershore sometime soon, and allow Rob Campbell to work his metal magic.
Robert and I have been friends for over twenty years, so have done plenty of projects together. The team of guys there do exceptional metalwork, and the restoration repairs will be invisible.
We’re following the WEVO Porsche 356 crew of Steven Harris and Hayden Burvill as they rally through South America on the Great South American Challenge 2013.
Yesterday was downtime for the boys in South America. They spent the day visiting the nearby waterfalls, pointing me towards other rally resources – the rally website is getting some routes wrong – and attending to Madam Lola’s every need.
Madam is doing well, which is more than can be said for Hayden. “Picked up a GT (generous traveler) flu on the way down from SF to Rio. I’m into the runny nose and hacking cough day and feeling pretty rough, but some spanner work on Lola will distract me and make me feel better.”
Hayden facebooked the top pic of Lola in bits for obvious servicing checks, carb tweaks and wiring in the Yellowbrick GPS tracker. There’s a good pic of Hayden’s rear end on Chuck Shwagger’s blog, tweaking something in the driver’s footwell: I’m sure he’s not backing out the throttle stop.
Today is Day 5 of the rally. They start at Foz do Iguacu (NE of the centre of this pic). The route heads north on secondary roads, skirting the Brazil/Paraguay border, formed by the Paraná River. The river is the second longest in South America, and takes its name from local words for “big as the sea”.
Paraná swallows the Paraguay River on its journey south, then merges with the Uruguay River and forms the vast Rio de la Plata before entering the Atlantic. The scale of the river as they travel north alongside it should be an eye-opener for the rallyistes.
The road continues to their overnight in Dourados on the fertile river plain: 503 kms in all today – about 300 miles. I don’t know what the stage plans are, but no doubt H will fill me in later.
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