|
Well the Alpine Rally in East Gippsland lived up to the expectation of being a Datsun extravaganza!
The field was simply littered with them, and most were going really well and sounding brilliant all day and especially in the cool forest air last night.
I spoke for quite a while with the crew of the Lancia 037, the most exotic specialist rally car in the event by far, (700KG/350HP). This conversation was in the forest after they retired and walked out of the bush in the first section, after the car broke its supercharger belts. So much for exotic European (read very expensive) rally cars in the Aussie bush. A shame they couldn't continue as the spectators would have loved to see the car in action, but you cant get these drive belts anywhere in Oz.
All the Datos looked easy to drive quickly and seemed to be very reliable, with only 1 retired (out of 45 entered) for mechanical reasons (big end) as at dinner last night. (Randy, from Nissco, will be talking to the driver about fitting a rev limiter?). An '83 Datsun Bluebird had a big rollover (not mechanical), no news on the condition of the crew as I left - hope all ok.
Given the big revs I was hearing in the forest last night, particularly if the driver stuffed up a corner in front of spectators, it's no wonder some mechanical failures happen. Had to admit the only better sound than a Datsun L4 engine being used in anger in the bush, is an L6 on a potent Zed car. All Zeds sounded glorious, on full noise climbing up a tight hill we were spectating at.
A great event for Datophiles. If you get a chance to see a video of the event, grab it - it was Datsun history on display. Too early for results as I had to leave at 3.00am Sunday - still with daylight stages to be run. Check the Alpine Rally web site for results in the next few days.
Drove my 1600SSS to the event (for spectating) and left it parked a couple of blocks away from the starting area. However, my son had to bring it to the starting area to load a competitor friend's service gear in, as his service crew was delayed. When he parked the 1600SSS near the rally start entrance, he was swamped with spectators, rally entrants, and officials, who just wanted to check out the good looking "road going Datsun" (There were plenty of good looking rally versions). I might have trouble getting him out of the car at future events.
I also had the pleasure returning from the Rally of being "pulled over" for what the policeman described as "just a routine check" - at 4.30 AM. javascript:emoticon(':evil:')
Evil or Very Mad
Passing the preliminaries, licence check, car rego check, breath test, the nice policeman then said he was really interested to see a great looking 1600 still on the road. So we had a pleasant chat about the car, then went our on our ways, both happy. javascript:emoticon(':lol:')
Laughing
For information, The (Victorian) Police car was an unmarked Holden Astra? (dark, so I couldn't tell exactly) but it was smaller than a Commodore, had a Holden lion badge in the grill, fitted with red and blue flashing LED lights mounted on the top of the dash.
_________________
RichardC
SSS016
|
Register
Login
FAQ
Search
You making me sad.
Go the datto!!