What a disaster?

Friday 6th February 2009
Time: 07:00 - 17:26
Distance: 190 miles
Rally Position: 2nd from 41 (2nd in class)
Cairo, Egypt - Soma Bay, Egypt

What a disaster?

A very early start was arranged so that all the cars could be taken to the foot of the pyramids before the gates were opened to the public.



The views were fantastic and without the crowds of touts and beggars the whole experience was a great deal more pleasurable than the day before on foot.

At the drivers briefing an extra two timed stages were listed for the day.
Stage 1 - 4 kms hard sand with later rock-bed.
Stage 2 - 4 kms rock-bed turning to hard sand or in other words stage 1 backwards!

This was going to be interesting because for once on the return journey we could fully open the taps knowing that we weren’t about to drive into a huge ditch.

The run in was in open desert and very uneventful.




Before the stage we gave Colin the once over and apart from the ever present rattling, all was good.

Once on the stage I was determined to make-up for the balls-up on Wednesday, so pushed hard. In summary I am pleased to report that we set the fastest time for stage 1.…

The return was about pushing harder but not too hard to spin etc. So away we went… I am again pleased to report that as we finished stage 2, again we’d set the fastest time! I felt Wednesday was recovered!?!

We turned away from the stages and onto the main road to our hotel. We cruised along at 110kph and all was well with the world. Very quickly we were nearly an hour up on our expected time of arrival window and there would be no penalties for an early arrival, so time for the pool etc…. ( I know it’s snowing in the UK)
Then all went wrong….. Colin nose dived as the power simply fell away…. Huge amounts of back-firing started and thoughts turned to faulty points, spark-plugs etc.

After 10 minutes tinkering by the roadside, Peter and Betty Banham arrived in one of the sweep mechanic vehicles. Peter re-checked the plugs etc, as I had done and then went on to check the cylinder compression levels. He suspected that we’d dropped a valve and that for us the war would be over…..



Once he removed the rocker cover, all became apparent…..





The cam shaft had punched a hole through one of the bucket tops that open and close the valves and was busy working it’s way through the others….. Yum, Yum… This explained the rattling we’d been suffering since leaving the UK, but all advisers had been saying “They all do that”……
The top-end was re-assembled and we pushed on for the hotel on 3 cylinders…. Our penalty free window was now going to be tight…. We in fact made the window with 2 minutes to spare, but now the really hard work began.

Friday in the Middle East and Arabic countries is like Sunday at home, everything is shut!

Here were the options…….

I either pulled out and called it a day?
Got some spares flown out?
Bodged a repair?

Anybody who is following this blog and knows me, will know that pulling-out was not really an option.

We spoke to Steve at Vulcan Engineering (who built the engine) and he was as devastated as us with what had happened. It seems as though the wear is either down to a faulty cam or buckets, but I am sure we’ll have a more detailed report for you once Steve has had the engine back next month. He did not have parts on the shelf to assist.

Andy from RPS the car builders phoned a friend in the UK and as we speak he and his wife are about to have a lovely weekend in Luxor courtesy of Clive and Ces and perhaps Steve (Vulcan) if you’re reading this a contribution from you guys? The friend is bringing some replacement buckets and cam-shafts, so the boys here will repair and allow us to continue… Here’s the tricky bit though….

If we don’t start today at the designated time and compete in an 80kms off-road stage, we’re out…
So the RPS mechanics (Andy and Simon) have bodged the “hole in my bucket” using washers! I’ve test driven the car and it’s about 70% power… If it can hold for the day and stage, the replacement parts will be here tonight at 8pm.. Tomorrow (Sunday) is a rest day, so the RPS boys will have all day to re-build the top-end of the engine……

SO…… What a disaster? Today will tell….. If the blog is not published later today, it’ll be because I am either still stuck in the desert or pissed in the bar!

Today’s car summary:
Faults: Rev counter & speedo, oh and the engine is running on 3 cylinders!
Issues: Will a washer last 247 miles today?


Colin score 2/10