Molly Porsche off on another Rally. HERO rally of Iceland 2015

Our 356A Porsche, Molly, got fed up rallying around hot countries like South Africa, South America, Asia and Mongolia. So in April 2015 we are competing in the Historic Endurance Rally Organisation Saga of Iceland rally.
Our blog should be up and running from 17th April. The address is Molly Porsche
Hope you enjoy it.
Thanks

Some stats on our Endurance Rally Association trip.

Longest driving day 12 hours 

Shortest driving day 4 hours

Longest distance day 683 km

Shortest driving day. 270 km

Average moving speed for us  71 kph

Total distance driven 6119 km

Highest point 10469 feet

Lowest - 128 feet

Petrol used 613 Litres giving 10 km per ltr or in English 28 mpg. Not bad at all.

Oil used just under 1 litre

Spare parts used 1 pair of points, 1 condenser, 1 rotor arm.

Known repairs to be carried out - broken speedo.

Furthest distance from London 8349 miles

Population density of London per square  mile is 12,331 

Population density of Patagonia per per square mile 4

Highest temperature on the rally 39.5c

Lowest temperature on the rally -2c

Wind speed recorded at El Calafate airport 130 kph

Ushuaia is on latitude  54.80 degrees south.

Newcastle is on latitude 54.90 degrees north, the same distance from the equator but two different worlds.

4 cars were unable to finish but the crews made it enjoying the luxury of rental cars

31 cars finished the journey.

The oldest car 1927  Oldsmobile 30E

The youngest 1974 Mercedes 450 sl

Smallest car Porsche 356A  - 1600cc

Largest car Mustang - 4735 cc

Circuits raced 6 some twice.

Wildlife spotted  

Sheep 2,367,739. Goats lost count. Guanaco at least 83 . Pig 1

Armadillo 2  (Looked both ways and still alive). Patagonia Hare 2 (and several not so
smart at crossing the road).  Condors lots !  Snake 1. Dolphin 1.   Albastross 12.

Tired rally crews 35

Best hotel - joint 1st Hotel Explora Torres del Paine and Llao Llao Hotel Bariloche 

Worst hotel  - difficult they all tried very hard to look after us but reckon Esquel takes
the prize.

Most spectacular sight has to be the Perito Moreno Glacier, close 2nd volcanoes and
lava fields.

Most frightening experience crossing the Magellan Strait. See video

http://youtu.be/nESXuWJTiHA 

Best experience - Cape Horn Challenge 2013

2973 viewings of this blog :) Hope you enjoyed it. Where next? Well Molly has always wanted to see a real giraffe, so we guess we will have to take her to South Africa in May 2014 

Thank you very much for all your support and kind words of encouragement over the past month, we had a ball.
David Julie and Molly.

Random photos of Molly Porsche on the ERA South America rally

Sorry these photos are not in any order but the Internet connection is giving me a little grief :)

Hopefully they will give you a flavour of what we have been up to.

 Molly has her Christmas decorations on for the rest of the trip, just looking for a long extension lead for the flashing Christmas lights :) hint the decorations are on the roof rack :)

A wind swept Julie, the lake behind is feed from the glacier and does not support any life.

The car park at T

And it's good night from us !

The last few days.
Eons ago we were driving down from Buenos Aires in 40 degrees across desert like terrain.
As we enter the final leg of our epic journey we are hit by snow storms and ferocious winds, the like of which we have never experienced before. We are one of the lucky ones, we are in a hard top car, it must have been incredibly difficult to drive one of the vintage open top cars in those conditions. They all made it to the final check point. Thanks must go to the snow plough drivers who kept the road open.

The last day of the rally began at the Rio Grande race track as the day before. This time the 
organisers had included a very twisty bit of track. Just to add a bit more fun it was
snowing and blowing a gale.

By now we have moved up to start position 10 from 32. Very pleased with that but now we are starting with the big boys in their amazing Chevrolets and Bentleys.  We get counted down and we are off on 3 timed laps. The track is very slippery, Julie is calling out the bend directions for me and we set about trying not to disgrace ourselves amongst the bigger cars and experienced racing drivers.
After a lap we realise we are going pretty well in fact we are catching one of the Chevys, we pass him on one of the long bends, next lap we are catching another Chevy, we enter the hairpin section, 3 very sharp hairpin bends one after the other. We really don't want to get stuck behind the Chevy, try a dive down the inside of the first bend, decide he is bigger than us. Very short straight to next hairpin, he pulls over to take the correct line and Molly has


other ideas, dives down the inside. Scaring the life out the Chevy driver ( he had not seen us due to no mirrors) and scaring the life out of me and Julie. Molly knows what she can do and passes him. We have got arms legs and feet working overtime to stay on the grey stuff.
We finish our session with huge smiles on our faces and clock the 6th fastest time of the day.
Job done.
From there we go to a gravel road race section, this is the shortest section of the rally it is 4 Kms in 2 minutes, those of you with a mathematical mind will know that this means an AVERAGE speed of 140 kph over gravel.
Molly is still on a high from the race track and really goes for the last test of the rally. I have 
no idea how fast we went but I do know we missed the penalty cut by 1 second. Molly is a truly amazing little car, if the driver had been wearing heavier shoes or Julie had less luggage we would have made the required time. 
The rest of the drive was on gravel interspersed with heavy mud from the snow. A Paul Simon songs comes to mind ' slip sliding away' , fantastic.
Going back another day two days and our last post we check into a hotel called Hotel of Dreams in a 'quaint' town of Punta Arenas ( Sandy Point in English). We were given a very nice room in fact a suite. Only problem it was right next to the lift and above the air conditioning for the pool and looked out over the building site. We were lucky our Argentinian guide Alex was happy to swap rooms with us. Great up on the 10th floor, nice views and lovely and quiet. Until 10.30 when the Sky Bar on the 11th floor kicked off, the wind got up and the windows sounded like they were  held in by low grade blue tack.  Those of you who have traveled with Julie and I will no doubt find this set of circumstances familiar and hilariously funny.
Another quote springs to mind ' to sleep per chance to dream etc' no way Jose. We are thinking of suing the hotel for misrepresentation.
At the evening meal we were delighted to be awarded our second medal of the rally, this was based on 3 laps of a very bumpy circuit mentioned before. We did not think we had done that well but the organisers knew different. Couple more medals and we will equal Sir Chris Hoy.
From the so called Hotel of Dreams we take the early morning ferry across the Magellan Strait. This is a particularly choppy stretch of water and probably the bit of the rally which worries me the most.

Off we go onto a rather fragile looking ferry. It's just big enough to hold all our cars.
Sea is quite calm, what was I worrying about. Ah yes,  I remember as the images of the sunami warnings by the roads side flash before my eyes. The sea can get a little rough and just to prove the point we get chucked around for the next few hours or days. 
The old sea legs kick in and we survive the crossing breakfast intact, which is more than can be said for some of the other poor souls.

The roads and scenery on this rally are on a different scale to anything we have ever experienced. It's quite difficult to take any meaningful photos. The landscape is so vast our cameras just don't do it justice. The farms here are measures in 10,000 hectares + some have signs showing the drive to the farm house to be 12 Km plus. All the land appears to be fenced, boy would that have been a contract to win. 
Most of the houses we pass look like they are made of timber frame with corrugated iron roofs. They don't look very substantial but they must be to stand up the harsh weather conditions. 

Having all arrived through the said snow storm of the last day we all get ready for the grand finishing dinner.
There is a hat competition duly won by Pippa in a rather fetching funnel and flags ensemble and various other unofficial but very funny awards.
The big award of the night goes to Chuck and Pam Lyford in their amazing Fangio Chevrolet. They are the overall winners and team Bardel from the USA win the team prize. 
However the real winners were all the competitors who took part in this amazing epic journey.
Thank you ERA team, to those of you back in the UK and those on the rally with us. Great bunch of professionals. ( that's what they told me to say)
Thank you Gantspeed for preparing Molly and all the advice. We think Molly was one of the few cars not to suffer any mechanical problems on the whole trip. We did have to alter the timing due to rubbish petrol but that was it. Fantastic little car.
Most of all I would like to thank the navigator who has now taken Molly and I through South East Asia and South America with no wrong turns. Thank you my darling wife X
That's about all for this post, we will do another with a few facts and figures which we hope you find interesting.
Cheers
David, Julie and Molly.

We have done it !!!!!!!!!

A very quick post to say we have arrived at the end of the world.
We have just driven through very heavy snow and hurricane force winds, but we have made it. Looks like a lot of other crews have made it to. Well done one and all.
Off to the bar for a VERY LARGE BEER.
Full details of two race track visits, gravel tests and amazing country side and weather to follow.
Cheers for a while
Molly and her mates David and Julie
PS we have finished 10th overall, 4th in our class, and with a final flourish we were 6 fastest around the track this morning. Not bad for the smallest car in the entire field and two oldens ;)
Might make that two beers:)

Fin del Mundo

Nearly at the worlds end. Fin del Mundo.
Yesterday was a rest day at hotel Explora Salta Chico. Without doubt one of the best hotels we have stayed at, mainly due to the breathtaking scenery in every direction. Having lunch beside a waterfall watching Condors is pretty special.

Nothing much to say about a rest day except we needed it. I think most people were quite sad to leave this lovely spot. This has got to be one of the best views out of a hotel bedroom.
But back on the road we must go.
The weather so far on this trip had been very good, for most of the days we had clear blue 
skies. Today was a little different, we set off in a very cold wind and grey drizzly clouds, after about 10 minutes this turned snow and a biting cold wind. We were cold in Molly so it must have been awful for the open top crews.  We had about 50 km of gravel and then 200 odd of lovely Tarmac roads. We stopped at Cafe El Patagon.

Highly recommended for its soup, unfortunately we watched the last bowl pass by eyes,with stomaches rumbling we drive onto another race circuit.

3 timed laps, great fun especially trying to avoid the pot holes. Think Bernie needs to have a word with them before its GP standard. We await the times, I don't think it was one of our better efforts but we will see. There is not a lot of tread left on Molly's tyres :)
We are staying at The Hotel of Dreams Punta Arenas, Chile.  Not quite the same as the last hotel but not bad, and the Internet works.
Everyone seems to be a little sad as our great adventure is drawing to a close. I expect a couple of glasses of wine later tonight will help :)
Tomorrow we have to catch the 6.30am ferry (think its still dark then) and cross the Magellan Strait to arrive in Tierra de Fuego and on to The End Of The World.

Titanic moment !

Today we have pretty much recovered from the long hard dusty drives. We are nearly talking to each other and the sun is out.
One of the reasons for coming on this amazing adventure was to visit the Perito Merino Glacier.
This is about a 70 Km drive along Lake Argentino. After the last couple of days this distance doesn't even count as a warm up. Off we go, Molly creaking and groaning (bit like her owners) we arrive at the entrance to the nature park, pay our £10 entrance fee and drive for another 27 km.
Along the way Molly has a bit of a fright, two massive Condors fly over her, they are bigger than her and they seem to think the tyre on the roof may be road kill. (It's quite amazing what Molly thinks)
Anyway we reassure her that everything is ok and continue the drive along beside the blue, blue lake and suddenly we do our first Titanic quote. 'ICEBERG, ICEBERG!!'
We then drive round the corner and the second quote comes instantly to our lips ' 
'bloody hell it's bigger than we thought'
We have come face to face with The Perito Merino Glacier.
It absolutely takes your breathe away. We spend the next 3 hours walking some 4 Km just starring at this majestic sight. It's not just the sight but the incredible sounds it makes. Just think big thunder claps and then there is the sight of huge chunks of ice falling off and causing small tidal waves. 
We are so pleased we were able to see this on a clear blue day.
We arrive back at the hotel and find that the rest of the crews have arrived all safe and sound.
Good to have a full pack again.
We give Molly another thorough check over, yep all four wheels are in the right place, we can see out of the windscreen and just for good measure we check the oil. Molly is still pinking which is slowing us down a bit. We will have a look tomorrow with the help of the expert mechanics!!
We hear that the border guard strike may now just be a go slow, so the good news is that we will continue on into Chile and hopefully the end of the earth:)
What a journey this has been.
PS
I am not a film buff and the Titanic quotes may not be 100% accurate :)
PPS sorry for the lack of photos but the Internet connection is so sloooow, they will not load

1300 Klm and a slight touch of wind !

Sorry no blog yesterday or was it the day before.
Just taking a step back to two nights ago Team Molly won their first medal of the event :) hurrah!
A medal is awarded to crews who win a race stage in their class. A team can only win a medal once on the rally. We have had our moment of glory, well done Team Molly :)

We have just had two very very long days and they sort of roll into one another.
We started day 12 with a visit to the local race track at Esquel to run 2 sets of three timed laps, huge fun and everyone including the ' we are not competitive'  got a touch of the old ' red mist' and went flat out. Molly loved it and did very well, times of 3.22 and 3.19 putting her 11th over all.
Just to put the length of these days into perspective this race meeting was from 7.00 in the morning followed by 600+ Km of hard driving.
Stunning scenery along the way but not the route the rally was meant to take. Apparently there is a strike at the Argentina / Chile border. The organisers were very keen on us not getting stuck in Chile.
The organisers have been working flat out to re arrange the route and accommodation for a 40 + group. Looks like they have done a good job.
The first part of the new route is a 600 Km drive over some pretty bad gravel roads but we arrive at a 'quaint' lake side hotel. The hotel is very clean and tidy and they have tried very hard to look after us. It's not big enough for all so some crews have ended up in not such good surroundings. The only problem is that the hotel is not of the greatest construction and as one competitor put it ' if you try hard enough you can see through the walls' ! Anyway once the guy in the room 6 along from us had stopped snoring we all got a little sleep.
Mutterings were being heard about not having an extra rest day here and instead pushing on to a much better hotel in El Calafate only 680 Km away. 
The rally crews are split on this idea. In the end 13 crews decide to go for it, without mechanic back up.
We decided to join this group and spend an extra day glacier spotting rather than staring through walls :)
This journey is where the touch of wind comes in.
Some of the roads are fantastic. Julie and I don't count goats this time we count cars and in 6 hours we see 7 cars and a bus. We know how to have fun :)
Some of the roads were terrible, may be fine in a Toyota land cruiser but poor Molly has 
been  really struggling. Just to add insult to injury while you are battling along cart tracks there is a brand new shiny tarmac road 10 feet away just dying to be used, but it's not open, how frustrating.
We are driving under clear blue skies and across the highest part of Patagonia. Fantastic scenery again. We decide to get out of the car and take some photos. I can't open the car door. Julie is very helpful by suggesting perhaps I should unlock it. But that's not the problem, the wind is so strong I am physically not strong enough to push the door against it. The wind dies down, I open door and wish I hadn't. Unbelievably cold and strong wind still blowing, I can't hold the camera still to take any shots.
It's the first time we have driven in wind of this force. Imagine a dead straight road, no traffic and the fastest Molly can go is just touch over 80 Km (50mph) flat out in 3 gear. 
This is a 680 Km day on rough roads and 130 Km (80mph) winds, a little tiring but very satisfying when you stop. The winds were so strong the airport here was closed.
The remaining rally crews have this journey to do today. The wind is still blowing. We wish them the very best of luck.
When they arrive the rally will all be back together and the organisers can stop trying to herd cats!
All the remaining cars seem to be running well.
Tomorrow we have our extra rest day and we are going to go to the glacier. This should be one of the highlights off the rally.

A confusing day, and over half way

A very confusing day and a very exciting day. We woke up to clear blue sky with a light dusting of frost, the sun bouncing off the crystal clear lake, eagles soaring above and snow capped mountains as the back drop ( used to be an estate agent, this sort of gush is easy:) )

We headed out of the car park with some very strange banging and crashing going on at the back end of Molly. I got out and checked all four wheels, kicked the exhaust pipes and decided all was well.

Surprisingly my expert opinion was correct and Molly performed well all day.

From the hotel car park, we had a leisurely drive to a go kart track. Here we had 3 timed laps, we tried our best and we await the results. Then a timed section on open roads, great twisting empty roads, Molly clocks her fastest time of 131 kph and we arrive early at the time control.

We have to drive through a river to start the next timed stage, the water did not quite come up to the door handles, but I am sure it was close :)

This next time section is 8.7 Klm in 7 min on roads best tackled in a range rover. We do finish it and again await results, anywhere in the top 32 will be good.

The NEXT stage is again over goat like passes travelling some 17 km in 25 min.

The last one is 14 km in 12 min all on the same gravel ( that's what they call it) roads.

After all that we have a little drive of 265 km to the hotel. This drive is on the main road and is just fab.

The confusing bit is that one minute you are in desert like plains with the odd wild horse charging about and then you drive into a town with a snow man in the middle of it.

Molly is the smallest car ( I know you know that) but she is also the lowest. Some of the rocks we are going over at about 80 kph are nearly as tall as she is. This makes the journey a little noisy. But the rattles in the car are getting quieter as all the bits drop off.

Tonight's hotel is a million miles away from the luxury of last nights.  

If Carlsberg did hotels and views last nighwould have been it. This one is closer to Watneys Red Barrel 

I thought Patagonia was a clothing shop :)

We have arrived in a smashing place called the Llao Llao Hotel, Spa Patagonia AND wait for it, Golf resort. This has got to be one of the most stunning golf courses I have seen.
If the weather is good tomorrow we might get nine holes in, think the clubs are in the back of the car somewhere :)
We started the day in bright sunshine but had to battle through some pretty heavy rain and very strong winds. According to our local helpers the wind will only get stronger as we head south.
A lot of the driving today was on various grades of gravel roads. Some were perfect for Molly and we belted along, others were better for a JCB and not so pleasant, but we arrived on time and in one piece.

Couple of rallying tips we have picked up and are proving very useful are
Always smell the petrol spout the attendant is about to fill your car with. Two vintage cars have ended up with tanks full of diesel!!! Luckily no harm done to either car.
The other is don't let your bag with your passport in it, out of your sight. One poor crew had theirs pinched and that was the end of the rally.

The above part of the blog was written yesterday afternoon, when we were tired, hungry, covered in dust and a bit scratchy.
Last night the true rally fraternity came out to play.
We were introduced to a new game called 'pudding pouters' the rules are quite simple, you line up a creme brûlée  on the table, bend your head over it, suck like hell and eat the pudding in one go.
The undisputed champion was Hugo or 'Hoover' to his mates. Hugo's piece de resistance was to Hoover up his opponents puddings while they were still warming up. I am not sure the head chef was impressed but we all were. Should be on UTube :)
From this we went along for a little sing song with Andy the mechanic leading the way on guitar.  We 

all got the words on our phones or iPads and were in perfect harmony, bit like X factor does 

Patagonia. Highlight of the evening a rendition of a well known ballad, written in 1972 called 'Living next door to Alice' performed by Andy on guitar, Sadie on head gaskets and everyone singing with mighty gusto. Probably the funniest rude version of any song I have ever heard.

It was great to see everyone thoroughly enjoying themselves after such a long day.

Today is a rest day. We have cleaned Molly's windows, shovelled the sand out and cleaned the air filters. Andy has had to re set the points again, but the little girl is still flying along.

We have unfortunately lost 4 crews with terminal car problems. Such a shame and really heart breaking for them.

The hotel we're staying in is stunning surrounded by awesome scenery, the food is great and the sun is shining.  Do we enjoy rallying??? You bet :)

Tomorrow is an interesting day, we get to race around a go kart track. Now let me think, who has got the smallest car? May do OK.

Final bit of news is that Team Tigre is still in the number one spot, bloody amazing (sorry again mum). If we win this team competition I may have to go and stand in the naughty corner for swearing too strongly.

Cheers

David, Julie and Molly.

Desert to ski resort in one day

Very quick post, it's 5.30 in the morning and we are just about to leave on a long drive around some volcanoes.:)
Yesterday was a very long but exciting day. On previous tests we have raced flat out around race tracks, and  amazing roads but today Molly was in her elimiment. Two flat out forest stages. She absolutely flew, beat the first set time, and the got stuck behind a logging lorry on the second but was still only just out of time.
Only one small scream from Julie but we were at 90 degrees to the way were supposed to be going and about 60 mph. Now hooked on forest stage driving :)
A lot of cars are in a bad way. One crew even rolled theirs. Gives you an idea of how hard we are all trying. I think by last night they were all sort of back together, lets hope so.
We are currently staying in a Chile type ski result. Very nice but not quite up to Meribel :)
Off now, will try and post some pictures and gossip later today.
Main thing all is well in Molly world and loving it :)
Sorry for the lack of photos but the Internet connection is not so hot.

Some random photos

 Today's hotel, The super Santiago Hyatt

The height shown on the Garmin 

Julie sorting out the border crossing into Chile

Day 5 from Argentina to Chile

Well we have arrived in Chile, and boy what a road to arrive by.

We left the low grounds of Mendoza and half an hour into the journey you could see this enormous rock wall covered in snow, our first sighting of the Andes. 

                                      

' Wow, look at that snow, that must be incredibly high' I say. 
'You're about to find out' says a slightly nervous Julie.
We start climbing and climbing. The driving is totally different to the long flat roads of 
previous days. These are like lovely Alpine roads with no traffic and views to take your breath away.
It's not possible to put in words the sheer scale of the area we are driving through, absolutely awesome!

We have a couple of interesting moments with lorries (must get some better distance specs)




 and eventually get to the top of the road.
We have a Garmin in Molly, it's not too great at directions but it does have an altimeter.

The altimeter showed 10???? This is almost as high as the highest peaks in the Alps and Ben Nevis is 4409 feet. Molly has driven all the way up without missing a beat. However the driver and navigator were puffing and wheezing something alarming, and that's not because of the fifty shades of rallying :)

Thanks to some excellent organisation we pass through the border from Argentina to Chile without a hitch.
The Chilean customs officer was quite insistent that he looked in the boot and was quite alarmed to find an engine, laughs all round and through we go.

500 metres from the border the first challenging road of the rally.

This is Chile's equivalent of the Stelvio, but it's being resurfaced and the safety barriers are random cones, all good fun, an amazing drive.
We pass through some great scenery to the only test of the day.
Having 'cleared' the test the day before we were quite confident of doing the same this time.
However the organisers had a different idea. The start consisted of a very steep climb, which was  1st and 2nd  gear for Molly, after about 1st Km out of 9 and still going up, it was obvious we wouldn't make our time. When we did get to the top Molly breathed a sigh of relief and then off we went down the other side, maybe we could make the time up. Halfway down the brakes called enough and we had to ease up, but we did have a really good go and ended up 'only' 3 minutes over time. Making us the 11th fastest, which we are highly delighted with, well done Molly.

We are camped out in a ramshackle place called The Grand Hyatt, Santiago. This rallying can really take a heavy toll on your waistline. 
We are having great fun and getting to know more of the other crews and their amazing cars.  Great bunch of people from all walks of life and interesting stories from rallies around the world.
Tomorrow is the first day of the gravel road sections. This should prove interesting, it will all depends on what version of 'gravel' we get.
Tonight we are off to a cocktail party hosted by the Team America in the Presidential Suite, where else :) I've always wanted to act like a rock star, now's my chance.
Hopefully it won't get too messy and I'll be able to drive tomorrow.