The rally highlights video is here. |
Last and Furious
Two crews race to the bottom in the New Zealand Classic Rally 2020
Wednesday, 11 March 2020
Epilogue: the morning after
Sunday, 8 March 2020
Day 23 - Chequered flag
Two last-ditch regularities on glorious Kiwi gravel, with four time checks, on the last morning. Insouciantly despatched by our steely eyed navs and acquiring a paltry nine seconds total penalties between both crews. But would the duo of British everyman sports cars, combined age 106, continue to give their hearts for the final 200 kilometers to the finish? It was never in doubt. An interminable string of traffic lights into Christchurch gave the opportunity for a stately, triumphal (small T) procession through the roaring crowds to the finish. Well there were some friends and family to welcome us in the hotel car park anyway. The worthy winners submitted to their champagne shower, then we all went off to find the bar. Quietly happy with not being last. Peter and Penny had posted very creditable peformances in the MG, which despite being completely non-prepped for rallying failed to deposit any of its British Leyland entrails onto the route. And a late-stage tripmeter upgrade gave Penny a deserved chance to show her reg timing mettle in the last few days. TR4 Daphne continued her mechanical flounces to the end but still provided the platform for SuperMario and Rita to chalk up an eleventh place, on their maiden ERA rally.
Saturday, 7 March 2020
Day 22 - Full throttle towards the finish
Hordes of foul Orcs surveyed us malevolently from the hilltop tors, but we were too quick for them, even the Warg riders. Dauntless we plunged on into the maw of even greater peril: no fewer than five regularities interspaced with brisk road dashes throughout a long day. Still, by lunchtime Penny and Peter had accumulated a confection of three lollipops (zero penalties). After lunch we tackled the gnarly and sometimes vertiginous Dancey’s Pass with pale knuckles but little damage to our scores, before some reversion to basic errors on the last reg of the day; however others had fared worse, missing sneakily placed checkpoints. But all consoled by the majestic backdrop of Mount Cook as we dropped down to Lake Tekapo for our penultimate evening. An awesome day’s rallying.
Friday, 6 March 2020
Day 21 - Rally Fever
The third and final rest day, before the last 48 hour push to the finish. We spent our free time in Dunedin city and tempted further afield down the Otago peninsula - yep more driving - to see the albatrosses nesting and the sea lions.squabbling on the beach. Penelope and Rita meanwhile could spare only half an eye for the wildlife, having contracted severe cases of Rally Fever and now spending every spare moment debating the comparative merits of Monits, Brantzes and Terratrips, with all the fervour applied three weeks ago to Kathmandu, Craghoppers and Macpac. They may never recover, hope PP and Mario.
Thursday, 5 March 2020
Day 20 - Southern comfort
A glorious 385 km hack around the southern tip of South Island, breaking into a working canter and sometimes a full gallop for four regularities high and low. The route included a river crossing on a hand operated cable ferry that looked like something the Top Gear production team had dreamed up but dropped as being too daft. Our circus finally ended up in Dunedin for a gin facilitated post-mortem on the day in which several of the results table places had changed due to route errors and an uncharacteristic suspension failure of the barnstorming 1959 Volvo PV. Teams Rosie and Daphne were quietly satisfied with their performances. Rita Regularity is living up to her moniker with her new-and-improved timing system, which however can’t eliminate the risk of missing a routing slot when under pressure; Mario helpfully counselled the simple imperative of: Not Screwing Up.
Day 18 and 19 - Milford Sound
On Tuesday morning the rally road wound through a version of Scotland, with village names like Atholl and Mossburn, ending up in a Southern Hemisphere edition of Norway: into Milford Sound, a fissure of ocean between 1,600 metre peaks. Rain forest clinging to cliff faces, and cascading torrents. Slartibartfast would have glowed with pride. And penguins! An overnight cruise including small boat and kayak sorties to the shoreline... well those sandflies gotta eat. A coach breakdown on the way out of the valley (closed to cars since recent flooding) meant a truncated Day 19 of rallying but still allowed the track test stage at Teratonga Park - part outer circuit blast and part cones gymkhana - where Peter managed a blistering 2:15 lap in Rosie, humbling some of the rally exotica.
Monday, 2 March 2020
Day 17 - Rest day but the adrenalin keeps flowing
A rest day in Queenstown although not especially restful. We took the option of a 100 kph jet boat ride across the lake and up the almost dry Shotover river, the driver drifting it through the bends like a Subaru Impreza that he’d just nicked. Both our cars got some R&R too, limited to basic checks and air filters cleaned for the MG but Daphne once again found herself hoisted into the air, this time by a willing team at Alpine Autos of Queenstown, to have the remains of two spring bushes extracted like rotten teeth and replaced with fresh ones delivered from Auckland by the marvellous TR Register NZ club.
Sunday, 1 March 2020
Day 16 - Stuttgart supreme
Table leader: the Gillis’s impeccably prepared, piloted and navigated 911 Targa |
Saturday, 29 February 2020
Day 15 - The Kiwi of Shame
A stunning drive today ending at Fox’s Glacier which the L&F joint geospatial historical committee has determined has nothing whatever to do with the eponymous mints. On the morning’s regularity Team Daphne was doing well on timing until a rookie error sent the TR4 several hundred metres the wrong way. Which despite a breakneck backtrack proved impossible to correct in time, so a brutal one minute penalty and the inauguration of the Kiwi of Shame award which we fully aim and expect to pass on to another crew before tomorrow’s out. An early finish today allowed a wander around the gorgeous primordial forest at Lake Matheson. And the sunshine is glorious and the air gin-clear once again after last night’s downpour.
Thursday, 27 February 2020
Day 14 - West coast vibe
The Tasman coast road on South Island is reminiscent of California’s Big Sur, but with less traffic. We shared the tarmac mainly with a dither of rental campervans which were probably a bit discombobulated by two dozen rally cars growling past them in succession on any scrap of straight. This was the second longest day of the rally, at 471 kilometers, so we couldn’t hang about. The gravel regularities were challenging but excellent driver-fodder, the last one through a park-like setting along the water’s edge, so unusually level even though twisty. The lunch stop was at Pancake Rocks, and we also managed to fit in a short and sweet zip wire ‘flight’ (well we are NZ). Now at the evening stop in Hokitika, centre of the 1864 gold rush - more California parallels. Also famous for jade jewellery; but as this blog deadline is deemed due, very sadly readers will have to forgo an in-depth jade retail market trading analysis report from Penny and Rita. Although back copies of ‘Murano 1999: The Ring Cycle’ are still in print.
Day 13 - Rocky roads
Joe 90 retires hurt but unbowed |
Tuesday, 25 February 2020
Day 12 - Hanmer Springs
The open road. Somewhere on South Island. Probably. |
Day 11 - Across the Cook Strait
Daphne and Rosie both had their bottoms felt in Wellington |
Day 10 - F.A.B
A half-day holiday, pip pip! Three regularities then down into Marlborough wine country for a marquee lunch. But no chillaxing afternoon among the vines for our heroes, who zipped on another ninety clicks over the mountain into the charming small city of Wellington ahead of the pack to fit in a late afternoon visit to the Weta studios - makers of stupendous visual effects models for Lord of the Rings and so many other blockbuster movies since 1989. Sadly no photos allowed of the filming stage models of Thunderbirds’ Tracey Island (one-twelfth scale but detailed even down to the sheet music on the piano and real hide on the Charles Eames armchairs), but a memorable visit in any case. Overnight at the Wellington Intercontinental.
Sunday, 23 February 2020
How regular are you?
Even a 1927 Bentley needs the (permitted) electronic nav aids |
Day 9 - Mount Doom
We woke after last night’s storm to find ourselves under the baleful presence of cloud shrouded Mount Doom (actually Mt Ngauruhoe). But we weren’t overawed by the setting: having driven so far about the distance of Inverness to Naples, much of it over gnarly farm tracks and logging trails, we’re settling into a battle rhythm. Morning business starts with re-syncing of watches against rally master time and picking up route book changes that have to be done as ‘plot and bash’ on the day’s first road section. Then a mix of regularity stages between coffee and lunch breaks taken against time control deadlines, and fitting in fuel stops: neither Rosie nor Daffers have long range rally tanks. At the evening halts the drivers do their ‘spanner checks’ to see which bits have worked loose and what needs topping up, while the navs get time cards finalised. Today being a Sunday... we did it all just the same. A grand day for Rita and Mario today, slating the lowest daily penalties of the whole field, a parsimonious five seconds.
Saturday, 22 February 2020
Day 8 - Through the Hobbit Hole
Saying goodbye to the lakeside playground of Taupo (with most of our laundry unwashed, thanks Hilton Hotels) we headed up the Forgotten Highway to lunch in the self declared independent republic of Whangamomona, accessed through the ‘hobbit hole’ tunnel of barely a car’s width. A mix of tarmac and gravel regularities before and after lunch. PP and Penny have wrangled into submission their GPS-powered tripmeter in the MG and scored a very creditable 14 seconds penalties for the day, with Daphne’s crew managing a respectable 20 secs. Daphne threw her now customary daily mechanical flounce, a detached rear damper which meant most of the day was like driving a Renault 4 across a trampoline park. Eventually fettled back into place, in torrential rain, at the overnight stop in Whakapapa, which is a bit like Rannoch Moor but with pampas grass.
Friday, 21 February 2020
Day 7 - The tough go shopping
This was our first rest day, so the furthest the cars had to go was down town into Taupo. But first, some essential maintenance. For Daphne, a speedo cable repair (vital, because it also sends pings to the rally trip meter) and re-wiring the gremlin infested cooling fan. Rosie got her exhaust straightened by a sweep’s size ten boot, leaving just her Rostyles to be burnished. Then some light shopping: Penelope chuffed to find a memory foam pad to firm up the MG’s squiggy seats. No extravagance actually, as we’re in the cars seven or more hours a day and over rough terrain. Rita was equally thrilled to procure bulldog clips for the navigatorial office zone, where hyper-organisation is a match winning strategy.
By the way we just realised comments on this blog were disabled. They should work now so if anyone’s actually reading this feel free to say hello!
By the way we just realised comments on this blog were disabled. They should work now so if anyone’s actually reading this feel free to say hello!
Thursday, 20 February 2020
Day 6 - Get the flock out of here
Today’s 420km took us on tarmac and trail through the rainforests of the Te Urewara National Park, and past large livestock farms. More than 80km was on unsurfaced regularity-timed sections: on the first one Mario and Rita had a teensy oversteered “off”, leaving a spotlamp lens in a gulley, then had to hustle to make up the 15 seconds lost in getting the car back on the track. Other competitors suffered delays of an ovine character - by a 1,000-beast flock it was claimed - and entered special pleading (or was it bleating?) for a time penalties review. The day ended with two laps of the Bruce McLaren race circuit in Taupo; suffice to say, our c-word for today was Cones. The Rally NZ circus wearily checked into the hotel and kicked down a gear - tomorrow is a rest day. But over dinner Penelope and Rita still summoned the energy for a protracted and impassioned, Sauvignon fuelled, tutorial with the current table-leading crew, over regularity precision timing methods.
Wednesday, 19 February 2020
Day 5 - Motu-vation
Chef d’Equipe Charlotte gives moral support |
Tuesday, 18 February 2020
Day 4 - Introducing Rosie
Sweep team helping to ready Rosie for her rallying debut |
Monday, 17 February 2020
Day 3 - Houston we have a problem
Peter and Penelope survey differential detritus |
Sunday, 16 February 2020
Day 2 - Life’s a (Ninety Mile) Beach
Saturday, 15 February 2020
Day 1 under our belts
Ceremonial start in Auckland |
Thursday, 13 February 2020
Funny you never see them together
On the 53rd floor of Auckland Sky Tower international restaurateur Peter Gordon met his Mini-Me, after a slap up tasting menu. Great tucker and it turns out they do make some properly decent plonk here in NZ after all. Someone just needs to tell Majestic back home.
More pics in our NZ Classic rally photo stream:
bit.ly/fandfpics
More pics in our NZ Classic rally photo stream:
bit.ly/fandfpics
Wednesday, 12 February 2020
Ciara to Kia Ora
How many sweeps does it take to change a wheel sensor? |
Wednesday, 29 January 2020
Back in the day
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