Updates from the Transilvianian Trophy 2010

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

New thread following the pogress of the motley crew that eventually got away at 11.pm Thursday

His last post was :

I think they are a little keen We on the other hand are completely dis-organised and not leaving until wednesday nite AND towing . It'll all be fine tho i'm sure

While we are away i will keep Nige Barker AKA Hybrid from Hell AKA Mr Megas$£te up to date on a daily basis so he can inform all of our great success or spectactular failures!

In the words of Simon Buck : It's better to be a spectacular failure than a dismall success!

Steve

And, he was daft enough to ask me to post up any pics they can send me, and also update how they progress

A quick pic or 3 before Steve left, looks finished here, I can assure you its prob still being worked on now before they start

Loads and loads of new bits, sat nav, Megasquirt, Shocks, springs, lights that work, Plugs, helmets (for their heads not them )

and loads still being done when I last saw them..............loaded up on a brand new £sssssssssss Trailer and being towed to Romania

Interesting to note blood groups on the door, both Steve and Chris are A+, or as I put it, Steve has his own spare bloody suplly handily in

reach

More soon

Nige

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

I've had a couple of updates

First was a "So far so good" type report. They had left at 11.00pm, and called into a Macky D's

pre ferry for a last bit of english cuisine, of Big Mac and Chips, all was going well.

Next update was a "Still so far alls fine" and they were cracking on across the various countries testing

out their joint language skills, and sampling the cusinees as they went

France they enjoy "Une Big Mac avec Chips", Germany "Ve Vant Da Biggun Maccum unt chips ya", moving through

in Holland where they were looking forward to trying "da Bigmaccy da Chips", with Romania in sort of 1/2 way there.

Then a call.

Apparently the 90 being towed by Nice big tow truck mit £1000ssssssssss brand new spankly all singing all dancing

special "De Bollox De Chein" trailler decided to shed a wheel, and rim, which gracefully bounced around 3 foot

in the air pilling into someones bonnet.

One big accident, nobody hurt but ze foriegn poliice ya were there speaking to the driver and owner of said

whizzy trialler, but all was fine as they didn't notice Steve and Chris removing the

90 and driving off to play catch up to Romania

They left the driver with Ze Poolice who is now either behind bars or sorting out replacement wheels and parts for

the trailer, hopefully the later as Steve doesn't really wnat to have to drive the 90 all the way home

In the meantime as he is away I am looking forward to having a right royal rummage under his bench

to see what goodies have been squirrelled away over the last years covering for him whilst away

More I am sure to come

Nige

[plasticbadger]

I've had an update from Paul (Moose);

Paul and Steve didn't complete the Prologue stage due to Steve breaking his steering box. The made it to camp and have started today's stage, but were waiting for the support crew to deliver engine oil when I got Paul's text.

Today is a 135K stage and Paul says the nav on the stages is a lot harder than last year (which was pretty hard!).

I try to talk to Paul tonight and find out how they got on!

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

Steve sheared both engine mounts, on what was another very long and very difficult stage

fixed for the off today. Couple of pics, sure there will be more

Nige

[plasticbadger]

Steve sheared both engine mounts, on what was another very long and very difficult stage

fixed for the off today. Couple of pics, sure there will be more

Nige

I had an update from Paul, he said they had to stop to wait for oil for his truck from the support crew 30km into the day, once they had oil they then pushed on hard to try and make up time, at 50km Steve's mounts let go. They made it back to camp to make repairs.

To explain to people who don't know the details of TAT, if you DNF in a single day, as long as you are ready for the start the next day you can take a maximum time penalty for the DNF day and continue in the competition. Last year even the winning team missed a day I think, so Paul and Steve will be hoping that their two DNFs so far don't take them completely out of the running if they can get through the rest of the week.

[protoprincess]

TAT website is about as user unfriendly as it can get

[*lee90*]

I think one of the english teams is heading for home not sure why.

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

Erm, well I hope its not Steve and Chris, I haven't finished "Looking about" yet

Anyway, update from them :

Some stages cancelled, The Press Car rolled ! and 2 other cars rolled down 100 metres downhill

Lots of retirements, and they repaired both engine mounts only to have the new ones shear off again, so now refitted with a kin big bolt through them

Steves comments are "Not doing well points wise - but hey still in there ! "

Couple of Pics :

Nige

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

It gets worse

Texted Steve to see how things were going....

Reply was

"Hanging off edge of cliff at mo, can't talk, Paul (Acketts) has ripped rear axle off,

will hopefully soon be sorted, internals OK, just external mounts fubared"

Then, later that night another e-mail :

"FFS, Blown the rebulit 8274 Gearbox, tried to fix it, unsure can. We will still carry on,

it simple words we are now ******d. Axles and internals, and new pegged diffs working a treat,

no probs there, some sections today make you think about life ! "

Couple of Pics :

Hopefully things will improve for them all ?

Nige

[moose]

A quick update as stll driving across europe and with data charges and all that...

wow this years tat, there were truck breakages, problems with our nav, monster road books, and some problems with event its self

I think we came 18th out of the 26th starters, not a mega result, but i guess a result and some fun was had along the way

a few images.. will add try and add some more when back in the uk.