Is it safe?

Is marathon rallying safe?

The short answer is no, it isn't. In 2013 Emma Wilkinson was killed on the Peking to Paris when her Chevrolet collided with a local driver. According to locals it was a notoriously dangerous strip of road.

At RPS's workshop they have a very sad looking wreck from last year's Sahara challenge. The car rolled on one of the mountain sections. It was when we saw this that we decided to fit a roll bar to Rhubarb and Custard. Longstanding readers will recall the owner of the Jeep who lost the ends of several fingers when it rolled over in testing.

We have been warned that huge convoys of slow moving trucks are a problem in Russia. Overtaking them is lethal but sitting behind them is unbearable.

The biggest risk is probably from the cars themselves. They are big machines with lots of moving parts. Jamie Turner had a nipple taken off when a gas suspension strut exploded in front of him. He also told the story of the mechanic who didn't wear rubber gloves when working on his car and not only got infected hands from dirty grease but managed to get an infected penis as well!

Finally there are completely random hazards. On one of the road to Mandalay rallies a farmer decided to undertake some illegal mining by the roadside just as a competitor went past. One of the dynamited rocks smashed through a car window and shattered the navigator's jaw. Extensive plastic surgery was required.

So, no - not safe.

Cooling

One of the biggest problems on the Rally is engine overheating.  This is particularly a problem in Mongolia, which is after all a desert, but there's a lot of climbing in the rally as a whole and so engines are working hard and that means working hot.

We had our radiator core tested by a specialist before the rally so we know it starts in good condition. We are carrying a spare water pump and a good selection of hoses and clips. We also have with us a temperature gun - no laughing please - with which we can instantly check the temperature of any component.  Richard has taken the temperature of Pike (his dog) and various cakes he has made. We know what the temperature of the cylinder head and the oil sump should be and so if this is out of whack we can anticipate a problem.

We are running using Evans Coolant.  This is a complete replacement for the water that would normally run through the radiator and engine cooling system.  It works because  it has a boiling point of 190 degrees C instead of 100 degrees for water.  This means that - unlike water - the Evans never vaporises and so there is much less pressure in the cooling system which is less stressed and less prone to failure.  Evans claim other long term benefits as well but over a 35 day rally the reduced stress on hoses and joints is what we are after.  Quite a lot of people say that this is moonshine and that Evans is the work of the Devil.  What is true is that if you get a radiator leak and replace even some of the Evans with water then the magic stops working - although the cooling system will still work, the water in the system will now vaporise and so put stress on the pipes and joints.

To avoid a radiator leak it is recommend to put chicken wire in front of the radiator, which we have not done.  The wire stops flying stones from damaging the radiator.  If a stone does penetrate the radiator we have some radiator gum (which is rather like chewing gum) to plug the leak - adding an egg to the radiator has the same effect but I'm not sure we will have an egg handy. Another trick recommended by Jamie Turner is to use long nose pliers to pinch off the damaged part of the radiator, the remainder will function just fine.

In Mongolia some cars remove their bonnet covers in an attempt to stay cool.  We can't do this but we might be able to prop open the covers with blocks of rubber or wood.  We do have an electric fan on a thermostat although there is a school of thought that these fans just block air flow to the radiator - there's always another opinion!

Ignorance

Since Richard and I know bugger all about how to fix a car we thought that we had better go on a mechanic's course and so we spent yesterday with Jamie Turner, one of the mechanics on the Rally (He's the brother of Owen of silk underpants fame (see earlier posts).

I did come away feeling reassured that I could at least make a start on solving our problems if we broke down and perhaps more importantly we learnt how to avoid a small issue becoming something really serious.  Whether I will still remember all of this in a month's time is another question.