Day 2 turned out to be a lovely day - somewhat un-characteristic weather for Germany in that it was warm, dry and sunny. The first stage (SS7 and 11) of the day started at a road junction in a small village. The cars would set off from one branch of a tee junction, go straight through said junction then wind around the village to an uphill tee junction where on arriving the first time we turned left. This brought us back into the village, but first was a long straight with a tight detour through a layby followed immediately by an almost unseen hairpin left to take us back amongst the houses and to the starting point with what was now noted as a square left. Back out to the uphill tee junction and right this time. From here it was fast and flowing to the finish.

The second stage (SS8 and 12) was unique in a tarmac rally given that it started on gravel. A couple of sweeping corners and crests and a square left took us under a bridge and onto tar...briefly. A short straight and then over a sharp crest into a square right and we were back on gravel. Another sweeping corner and downhill into a square left onto gravel and on the second pass with a little more gungho...kodak moment!!

The rest of this stage was on tar and generally tighter sections and combinations including a diversion around a tree that Jonathan completely missed in the notes.

SS9 and 13, the third stage for the day was one of the longer ones. After a keep left uphill junction there was a medium left that Jonathan missed in the notes the first time through causing him to loose his place and leaving me to drive by sight for what seemed an awfully long time. The stage included a hairpin right that was caught on video (check the video section) and a very tight chicane at the end of a top of 5th gear straight over a long crest that we brushed on the way through.

The fourth stage (SS10 and 14) of the day was the longest, and was after a very short transit from the second longest. I was smelling the brakes and the pedal was not quite as positive as I would have liked at the start of this one. This stage was fast and flowing, much more so than the previous one, and I could see where local knowledge and the lack of doing pacenotes myself could result in loosing lots of time. This stage demanded commitment and with our notes this just was not happening. It had everything from a very fast downhill section that leveled out and dodged around a farm house to a square right at the end of a long straight, from a very tight twisty bit through a village crossroads to a detour through a triangle graced with a huge boulder on the inside (don't cut) to a blast round a lake and through some trees. All in all, a very energetic 20kms.

After doing these stages twice each we were very pleased to reach the finish. The car had worked very well apart from the broken CV joint on Day 1 - this a combination of full lock, full welly and an inordinate desire to catch that bloody Honda... The new seats were very comfortable, and the HANS device seemed almost not to exist after the first few minutes. It seems that most people put the HANS on with the helmet. I found it too awkward and wore the HANS constantly and resorted to putting on the helmet separately. The finish itself was fantastic. The crew were ecstatic as were we, and on arriving at the finish arch, were promptly doused with champagne compliments the AutoSharf crew (check the video section). What a finale! Fantastic.

So, what have we learned?? Always do your own pacenotes unless the rules don't allow it. The car is definitely not as quick as the N3 cars at the cutting end of the group, but we can keep up on the twisty bits. The HANS device is far more comfortable than I imagined it would be. The new seats are very supportive and comfortable over long periods. My seat is too close to the wheel and I can't reach the handbrake without a double jointed right arm. My existing single jointed right arm has got the hang of right handed gear changes. My left arm has resisted the urge to change gear with the door handle, and finally, rallying with Jonathan is always exciting and above all, fun. We had a blast doing this rally and would definitely do something like this again given half a chance.

Adrian Linton
 

More photos are up here.  Videos are up here.

Day 2 report coming soon...
 

Initial photos are up here.
 

After leaving Barbados at  8:30am on Thursday morning and transiting via Puerto Rico and Washington DC, I arrived in Frankfurt on Friday morning (german time) shortly after 9:00am. I was met by the brother of Bernd Knuepfer, the person who Jonathan co-drove for last year in the only homologated FWD group N4 car, who also races motorbikes.

We then had a 350km 3-1/2 hr drive to Zwickau, where the rally was based.  Autobahns are nice! On arrival at the service park, which happened to be in the environs of a Gothic-inspired church (called the "Dom"), I met up with brother Jonathan and the rest of the team. We completed the necessary administrative checks (driving licence, etc.) and I was then introduced to the car. It sported new competition seats (this as a result of the FIA banning standard seats in WRC events - a quick review of our WRGB07 site will show that the last people on the planet to use standard seats in a WRC event were no other than...). Sitting in the car for the first time, I found the seating position to be alot closer to the wheel than I normally sit and I found that the seat shoulder extensions made it a bit awkward to select 2nd and 4th and made pulling the handbrake darn neigh impossible.  With the start of the rally less that 2 hours away, and ergonomic redesign was neither practical nor possible, so we would have to drive the car as is was.  I instead spend some time getting accustomed to wearing the newly acquired HANS device.  After some last minute fiddling with the lamp pod wiring, we were on our way to the first stage of the Sachsen Rallye.

Sitting on the start line of SS1, a 9.75km test, it struck me how crazy this escapade had been so far. The pace notes were written by Jonathan while being driven his wife Alecia, and here I was a scant few hours after an extended 24hr Trans-atlantic trip in a less than perfectly fitting car, which I actually drove for the first time across the start line.  Ohh well - thats rallying! The roads are very narrow and the stage quite technical with lots of fast over-crest sections into tighter corners and similar combinations.  There is very little room for error, with most of the roads having cat-eyes vertically-mounted on posts at the sides.  The stage also went through at least two small villages, and close enough to houses that you could literally knock on their door. Although being car #58, we were actually 32nd of our 59 starters and at the end of the first 2 stages, we were around the same position.

SS2 was a shorter but in many places quicker stage and had some interesting bits in it, like for example exiting what could only be described as a maintenance access ramp from an industrial estate onto a major road, as well as having a section where the road literally bent around a barn-like structure (we think the barn was there first!)

SS3 was supposed to have been 5-1/2 circuits of the ultimate town stage, but was unfortunately cancelled due to an unrelated accident on a public road nearby.

SS4 & 5 were repeats of SS1 & 2, with the exciting addition of twilight conditions, rending the foglights almost useful, and lovely wet roads for our slicks. Fortunately there was practically no standing water, and the tyres held surprisingly well.

We returned to Zwickau for SS6, the second running of the super-special town stage.  Cars were set of at approximately 1 minute intervals for the 5-1/2 laps required, which meant that there were about 5 active cars on the course at any given time. There were huge numbers of people, very reminiscent of the Bridgetown stage used in the Rally of the Sun and the Stars. It consisted of (in order), a very wide square left, an open 90 right into a light 90 right, followed by a 5th gear blast through a tunnel followed by a handbrake-turn (not for us!) out of the mouth of one tunnel and into the mouth of another in the opposite direction, then a sweeping left and right combination followed by a 3rd gear straight ending at a tight hairpin right (again, not for us!) in front of the starting point.  On the first lap, we were caught by (and made room to allow to pass) a demonic N3 Honda Civic and promptly tucked in behind him.  Although he pulled away us on the straight sections, we closed right back up on him on the hairpins, showing that handbrakes are not always the fastest way around corners. Unfortunately, we broke a CV joint after completing lap 3, and had to give up the chase. We exited the stage very slowly on one axle with the LSD barely inching us along.  The car came to a stop a little way before the Stage Stop control, and in an effort to finish under our own steam, Jonathan pushed while I nursed along the car with LSD and grinding noises at walking pace. The crowd went wild, literally, and there was much blowing of air horns, clapping and chearing.  Who says German spectators aren't enthusiastic.  We managed to get the car into to service, about a kilometer by the same means, and in no time at all, Tobias and the Autoscharf team had checked, diagnosted and replaced the offending axle.  Due to not completed the stage correctly, we received fastest time in class plus a 5 minute penalty as the time for SS6.  The car was placed in Parc Ferme on time, and ready for day 2, and after some German meatballs (they are very good!), some German Sausage (they are very very good!), and a cup of coffee (which was positively sublime), we then retired to the Guest House some 20 minutes away for some much needed rest.  This was just after midnight.

Day 2 -  Coffee, hard-boiled eggs, cured meat, and a laptop meant that the world could read this.  More to come...

Adrian Linton