Once more unto the breach...

(Note: most of this blog entry was written in October last year (2013), but I just realised I never got around to actually posting it.. oops)

We all enjoyed our jaunt into Wales last time, so we decided to go for another run.  Thankfully the weather this time was far better than it was last time, so it was off to the valleys we went.

For this adventure we each had partners in tow, so rather than just the two cars, we had a total of 4.  Myself and Emma in the Smart Roadster, Mike and Isabelle in the Subaru Impreza, Adam and Sarah in the Mazda MX-5 and Gregg piloting the GTO solo.

Some thoughts on the test run

The test run was intended to give us an idea of what the full run would be like, without leaving us stranded in the middle of some random European country without the things we need.  I think this was a reasonable success, and did highlight a few shortcomings, but lets look at the good side first.

The packing stage was relatively straight forward. We loaded the cars up with pretty much everything we would need for 5 days in euro land to get an idea for how packed the cars would be.. the answer... reasonably.

The Cougar of our co-team Axels-of-evil has a cavernous boot; however it was filled half full before even starting with 4 MR2 wheels that Mike J was taking to an ebay seller up north (who turned out to be none other than Team Gavlars brother!) on the way back from the test run.  Ignoring that, they would easily have had enough room for a pile more stuff without too much issue.

The GTO in comparison was a bit more snug.   Not rammed to the gills (we could still see out the back) but pretty well stocked.  We will need to take a bit of time refining what we actually need to take, and maybe drop a few things we don't really need, just to make things a bit more straight forward.

The seating position for the GTO was, surprisingly  "ok" for the long run.  I think it could still do with an extra inch of legroom, but if we can't manage that by moving the seats back, then I think we can cope.

So that's the positive aspects, now for the problems we encountered.

First off... Stuff we forgot.  We need to make sure we do a list of stuff to take and make sure its double checked before we roll on the Wednesday (ideally well before then).  We neglected to take pillows, towel, snacks for the road, camera tripod, and probably a few more things.   We will try and get all this ready for "load-out test weekend".

The passenger seat position is ok, but legroom etc mean that some times knees contact the dashboard a bit too closely, and feet get stuck underneath.  For a 5 day trip... I think we need to at least look at this, see if we can do something about opening it up a bit.

One of the biggest annoyances was storage.  The car has quite a few storage locations, but none of them are convenient.  We regularly required somewhere to stash things like the CB mic, camera, wallet, drinks, pens, etc...   so I think we may be fabricating a storage bin array to bolt on to the dash.

Power was also a small issue.  Currently the +12v power for the CB is pulled from a truly shocking "earth" cable installation.  We will pull a decent 8awg cable direct from the battery and run a few fused feeds from that for things like sat nav, phone chargers, laptop, cameras etc.

Physically, the car ran OK, but we did spot some areas for concern.  At motorway speeds there is a noticeable whine and vibration.  This doesn't appear to be wheel / tyre related as dropping the clutch eliminates it, so it must be something nearer the engine.

A brief chat with the guys at MitsiArt suggests it could be a bearing on its way out, which would require an expensive rebuild of the gearbox, transfer box, or diff....  not ideal.  Hopefully its functional enough to last another 3+k miles.

Lastly oil levels and pressure.  Originally, when we got the car, the oil pressure was a little low.  After the service, this returned to a sensible level, only to drop back off quite quickly.   Looking online, it appears that the GTO pressure gauge is less than reliable, so the actual reading isn't something that is worrying me, however combined with an apparent lack of oil in the engine (as seen on the dipstick) there is cause for some concern.  It may be this is directly related to the vibrations, in which case taking a load of oil with us may be the solution.   The car has been dropped off at Mitsi again for another look over (as well as a few little bits we found), so we shall see what they say.

Phew...   Big update... stay tuned for more shenanigans.

Test run, day 2

We have a bit more wordage this time as I am blogging this from home.   Before I get in to that, lets have a look at some of the Day 2 pics:

The morning pack-up (and figuring out how to de-rig a tent)

Re packing the car wasn't quite as tidy as it was originally, but not too bad.

It did rain in the night, more on that later...

Dat bacon ! hmmmm

Breakfast of champions :)

Christ on a bike... sunshine !

This is the end...

Welcome to Blackpool  "pleasure" beach.

The grim north :)

Mike is less than impressed with the locale

Fish and chips at an English seaside resort, a classic combo.

What wonderful weather we are having.

Maybe I wont go for a dip after all...

So as you can see, not fantastic weather, could have been better, but also could have been a lot worse.

The over night stay at the camp-site wasn't too bad.  We were forecast torrential rain, but there were only a few medium showers over night.  The down side...?

Well it looks like the "pitch and go" tents that Gregg and I opted for are more "pitch and go to the hotel".  Advertised as having 230cm of sleeping space (lengthways) and capacity for two people, these tents are nothing of the sort.  Bearing in mind that they are single skinned, so touching the outside will result in water seeping in, I had to crunch up to a full foetal position to avoid contact with the tent skin.  Even then I was still touching.  The problem lies in their shape.  A trapezoidal cross section means that the "full height" area is probably not much more than 1m long, and it slopes at about 45° down to the base.  Net result, once you add an air bed and pillows and body thickness of a full adult, you little more than 1.5m to "sleep" in and you cant move, or you get wet.  Side to side space isn't much better either.


Also, to top it off, both tents leaked.  Quite badly too.  During one of the heavy showers, I was getting "rained" on inside the tent.  Come the morning, there was a puddle of water about 10"-15" across in the bottom of both tents.

Due to this internal rain, I ended up de-camping all my kit into the shower block.  As we were the only, and first, people on site, this wasn't a problem as everything was clean and dry, but this is an issue for the run proper.  We will be re-visiting the tent situation asap.  Probably going for a much larger option.

So the night-time debacle over and done with, and following a rather tasty breakfast of smoked bacon baps, and a cup of tea, on Mike and Adams camp cooker we set off to go for a run around the "Evo Triangle".  This is a set of 3 roads praised by Evo magazine for their excellent driving characteristics, and I have to say they are spot on with this.  It is a combination of a windy country B road, a minor A road, and a major A road.  All roads offer spectacular views across the moorland (although we couldn't see most of them due to the weather) and more importantly you can see plenty of the road ahead as there are no hedgerows or buildings blocking your view.  This meant that you can take the apex of the corners without fear of oncoming traffic.

After a very "spririted" drive around here for an hour or so, we headed on to the grim north.  Blackpool specifically.  Unfortunately the weather followed us and as you can see from the photos, Mike was less than impressed with the whole situation.  A quick lunch, and a wander to the beach for a few pics, and just to say we had been, it was back into the cars for the run home.

On the way we stopped to drop off a delivery to an ebay buyer who was buying some wheels off of Mike.  It turns out he is related to a member of Team Gavlar from last years run, and he also took part in his own team.  This was a total coincidence as the ebay auction was in no way related to the run.  Small world.

Anyway, after that small tid-bit of frivolity it was motorway all the way, this run was largely uneventful, but there are a few little points about the car we need to look into.

So that's it, test over.  I will post a review of the important details shortly.

Some pics from the test flight trip to Wales... Day 1

Breakfast stop at Micks Monster Burger before the run..

Objects in mirror are LOSING !

I think this counts as mildly moist...

Which way is wales again ?

Following our other team "Axels of Evil" into the unknown

Here be dragons... literally!

Glamour shot, with free welsh mud :)

The camp site.  We were the only ones there.  Probably with good reason.

Welsh test run...

So we are on the road, heading to foreign lands, but for this run its only to wales.  Currently updating this blog from the passenger seat to test 3G tethering... All seams ok so far.

If you want to follow our progress, check out the real-time GPS tracking over at Greenalp

If you are in the area, we are spending the night here: http://www.cornbwch.co.uk