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Ladoga trophy 2019


Jimmymad99

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I'm seriously considering going back. I registered for 2015, but had to cancel due to the fire in our workshop. Now that I'm finally ready to start on a car again, Ladoga is very high on my wish list. Just the small matter of getting the car ready and finding a copilot/crew...

Filip

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1 hour ago, Escape said:

I'm seriously considering going back. I registered for 2015, but had to cancel due to the fire in our workshop. Now that I'm finally ready to start on a car again, Ladoga is very high on my wish list. Just the small matter of getting the car ready and finding a copilot/crew...

Filip

Need a build thread Filip :D 

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How about an multi langual and totally weird support crew from all over ?

Would give me a good excuse to get away.....

....and I have a towbar

....... and 3-axle trailer

 

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18 minutes ago, Arjan said:

How about an multi langual and totally weird support crew from all over ?

Would give me a good excuse to get away.....

....and I have a towbar

....... and 3-axle trailer

 

It would be great if we could get an international crew together! 😎 Should probably try and include some Fins as well. So who's up for it?

@landroversforever build thread started, as requested. It can only help keeping me motivated. 😉

Filip

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1 hour ago, Retroanaconda said:

Looks like it would be fun event to be part of, even just as the support crew :)

I can confirm it's abject misery from start to finish even as support crew, hence why I went back 3 times!

Unfortunately 2019 could be a lean year for me but I won't say I'm not tempted as support :ph34r: maybe I could rent out seats in the 109 to cover costs :unsure: as it worked nicely when only the drivers drove and the rest flew out to Finnski / StPete to be collected.

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It cost myself and ash around £3000 to do tourist class at Ladoga in 09. That covered ferries, fuel, food, overnights and entrance fee. We took 3 weeks off work to do it but you could do it quicker (the event was 8 days). On top of that you need to build a truck. 45 cost me about £3000 to build and prep though I did beg and borrow a fair bit of kit.

1522250109_2009-10-2520_21.16-1.JPG.03b8205b0171c15e012acbff4484ff5c.JPGThis was taken at the end of day one at about 9.30pm.

Mike

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Yes, money is something to look at as for us, it is a 5,000 miles return trip

Will take about 3 1/2 days to get there - and another 3 1/2 to get back..

How were the visa etc. ?

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I am a veteran of this event; A great experience, not to be missed. But it is a big undertaking. We did it in 2009. We had help of the HOFS team which was good with regards to things like Visas, route maps, and general do's and dont's. From memory, a good 5k was spend and this was without a service crew. In hindsight it was ridiculously positive thinking on my part to think I'd drive there, compete and drive back, but I suppose if you don't believe you can do it, you would never start this kind of event. In the end we did finish the event in 6th place in the TR2 class (modified production vehicles with tyres upto 36"). 

These type of events tend to be all about survival; 50% attrition rate tends to be normal. So that is your first priority; work your way through every eventuality and at least have a plan if it does go wrong.

We broke a cambelt on day 6 due to excessive water intake in the cambelt chest, and eventually, on the way home, just before the border with Finland, we did a big end bearing due to a rock clouting the sump on one of the stages and partially blocking the sif.

So we did not fullfill the aim of driving it home after finishing.  

I have no regrets about doing it, and would say go for it if you can. After all, you only regret the things you didn't do.

Would I do it again? Well it was only 2 years ago since I did the last big event, and it usually takes me 6 years to forget the bad bits of an event and get motivated for the next one. 

plus I didn't have any kids at the time. But recently Mini me no2. got born, so that probably settles it....

 

DSC01733.jpg.24cdec412ed998482d9cf9afdb104413.jpgDSC01726.jpg.e4df8470820452794cad38b106a8bec2.jpggallery_336_1371_101235.jpg 

 

I am always willing to help, among with the usual suspects on here, so you have come to the right forum!

Daan

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We did Ladoga in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. We tried Raid (= TR3 with 2 cars), Grand Tourism and Proto, with varying success. Jochen and Michel went back in 2015 and 2016. Like Daan, it was the HOFS who introduced us to the event and were a great help the first year!

A budget of around €1000/person covered ferries (only one for us), registration and fuel. A bit more if you can't split costs with a support crew. So not too bad for 2 a weeks holiday. 🙂 A lot of money does go in the preparation of the cars, and sorting stuff afterwards.

Getting the visums requires some patience if you do it yourself, or you can take the easy but more expensive route and go through an agency that sorts everything for you. Not sure how welcome we would be these days, with tensions building on several fronts...

From Belgium, we departed on Tuesday morning, to get the night ferry that arrives in Helsinki on Thursday morning. Which leaves you a day to reach St Pete's. Heading back on Sunday, we we're back home Tuesday evening 2 weeks later. So 2.5 weeks of holiday required, plus a lot of time preparing.

After our first tour, despite the setbacks, I couldn't wait to get back out there! And that itch has returned the last couple of years. I'm thinking Grand Tourism again, driving there and back. But I could easily be convinced to do support if someone wants to go racing. 🙂

Greetz,

Filip

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I did 2007, 2008 and 2009 as support to Jez in proto plus a bit of help to whoever else wandered by... all 3 trips were done in the 109.

JU_080609-16-17-00.JPG
 

The route for HOFS was:

  • Drive Basingstoke - Harwich
  • Greet Steve B who is mad enough to hang round the docks to say hello while ferry workers try to hustle you onto the ferry.
  • Harwich - Hook of Holland ferry (allows for sleeeeep)
  • Drive Hook of Holland - Travemunde
  • Travemunde to Helsinki ferry (more sleeeeep + all-you-can-eat buffet)
  • Pick up the rest of the crew from 'stinky airport and from under various secure facilities in the Finnish wilderness.
  • Helsinki into Russia allowing about 8 hours for the border crossing... there are wrinkles around UK trailers, who's driving what, ever-changing paperwork, rubber stamps, etc. Don't be in anything over 3.5t either.
  • Through Vyborg, on to St Petersburg for registration
  • A night in a hotel on the outskirts, with a secure parking compound (armed guard)
  • Registration / scrutineering / driver briefing was at Yubileynyy stadium, home of the worst smelling toilets I've ever visited.
  • Another night in the hotel. Definitely no drinking.
  • Race Start was at St. Isaac's Cathedral, near the Winter Palace - over the ramp and off to stage 1, or for the support crew off to camp 1.
  • Round the lake! Depends which way round they are going but it's 1000km round-trip if you include shopping trips, petrol stops, etc.
  • Stick around for the after-race festivities if you like but we had to race home each time, dropping the team at stinky airport on the way through.

There & back route: https://goo.gl/maps/wmxTQoCa1Sm about 770 miles of road work / 800 miles of ferry.

Around the pond: https://goo.gl/maps/JdbMsKnfV2N2 about 1000km give or take.

I didn't add up how much it cost, and I have to admit that Zuz did a hell of a lot of organising for all of us with regards to visas, ferries, hotels, etc. so I was mostly following the gang. Likewise we always had someone (or two or three) in charge of camping + cooking while the grease monkeys got on with spannering and the idiots got on with racing. If you can organise like a real team it's amazing how awesome it makes everything.

I can't comment on paperwork required now as the Russians keep changing it in retaliation for sanctions, being blamed for poisonings, etc. :ph34r: but it's good to have a contact either in-country or on the border who can tell you what's required this week and how to fill it out.

The HOFS team setup was pretty damn good and I can take zero credit for it:

We had a chase car (SJ410) with two people in it, carrying the absolute essentials. They would escort the race car to start-of-stage and make sure they were good to go (food, drink, fuel, fluffy dice) and got away cleanly. They would then either head back to camp or straight to the end of the stage, possibly via a petrol station to fill jerry cans and buy experimental energy drinks and unidentified snacking substances. Ideally they'd meet the race car at the end of the stage with a change of clothes and a hot coffee etc. and then escort them back to camp.

In camp, the crew would have a campfire going, coffee on, hot food, everyone's tent set-up and the support crew polishing spanners ready to service the race car.

We had multiple vehicles carrying all sorts - some were mostly camping gear, some were food, with the 109 I was the designated technical truck as mine was the only other truck that could get into a Proto stage. I carried a LOT of tools, fluids, and spares, plus up to 3 crew.

As someone else said, the real challenge is to keep a car running for 8 days of flat-out abuse. Anyone can do a play-day once a month or a winch challenge for a day, but to take a car out and beat the p*ss out of it over a 100km+ course every day for 8 days is a very different thing. We were tearing the race car apart & servicing it every day, and doing similar on the support trucks if we had time too, especially the chase car.

 

I made a little video of the 2009 outing, it gives some flavour - ignoring in-car footage it's mostly shot by myself or other support crew:

 

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A few illustrative pictures;

Road to camp - log bridge:

JU_080602-13-50-58.JPG

 

This is what happens when Kai gathers a little firewood - team support trailer:

JU_080602-07-07-38.JPG

 

Tapio's support C306's are well stocked:

IMG_6725.jpg

 

In camp, typical sorts of scenarios:

2007-06-10-08h22m13.jpg2007-06-04-05h19m12.jpg

 

Yours truly being stopped by the DPC (police):

IMG_6245.JPG

 

A bit of Tourist class:

2007-06-05-13h37m36.jpg

 

The class system is good and works well, but you have to be wary of who's coming up behind you - if you do TR3 you become cannon fodder for the Proto/TR4 class who will hunt you down and then destroy everything in their wake, so that you get stuck & become a road-block to the other protos, and then you're in a world of pain.

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