Reilly Traveling Circus

After the misery of driving from London to Copenhagen and the drama of almost failing scrutineering, we are finally underway. After starting under the arch erected, or rather inflated, near the hotel, we promptly headed for Sweden via a very long and very expensive tunnel and bridge. The first day of Jeff driving and me navigating went pretty well. We were still speaking to each other after completing the final test of the day and heading for the hotel. Our brakes had been squealing, so we decided to try using them at speed to see if we could get them to quiet down. What happened instead was that the pedal went to the floor. We drove the last 30 to the hotel using the transmission and handbrake to slow the car. We were able to call on a combined 60+ years of diagnostic acumen to localize the problem to the left front break. This insight was sparked by the puddle of brake fluid around the front tire. With the assistance of the mechanics, a loose union of the hydraulic line to the caliper was identified and things tightened up. After bleeding the system, we once again had stopping power.

A word about the basics of the continuity in in this event. There are three factors in the composite penalty each team gets, which is reported in seconds (or minutes depending on how bad things go). The first is whether you check in on time at various points designated along each day’s route: start at the hotel, two to three points along the way and at the end of the day at the evening’s hotel or a designated stop. The second is “regularities”. These consist of a combination of route instructions and specifications for precise speeds to be followed along the way, which often step up or down along the route at defined distances. Lurking along the side of the road, usually over the crest of a hill or some other obscuring geographical feature is an official with a calibrated watch. You start at a recorded time at the start of a minute (for example, 9:05:00). When you happen upon the marshal doing the timing at an unannounced portion of the route, he/she marks your time and records it. The difference between your start time and the time at the interval is compared to the ‘ideal time’ based on the specified speeds and distance. If they match, you get a zero. Early or late, the amount of time you vary from the ideal time is your penalty for that competition. The third are “tests”. These take place off of public roads, typically on a track that can be either paved or gravel/dirt. The name of the game in the tests is to drive as fast as you can, negotiating the cones set up and following the other instructions in the route. Lowest time gets a score of . . . . zero. Cars in the same class slower than the lowest time are awarded penalty seconds. At the end of the twelve day rally, the team with the lowest penalty seconds wins.

Day 2 was better for us, at least in terms of mechanical performance of the car. Brakes worked, electrical system working well, car handling well. We improved our performance on the regularities by tweaking the calibration of our rally computer and are now usually within a couple of seconds of the ideal time. The weather has been really good, the scenery in Sweden is beautiful, all forests, trees and farms. The road quality is very good, even the unpaved surfaces. A far cry from the deserts and rural areas of China! Our morning stop on Day 2 was at the Saab Museum, home of a collection of . . . . Saab cars from the early days until the end of the company. Very interesting viewing and fun to see.

Day 3 ended in Stockholm for the overnight ferry to Turku, Finland. This is a far cry from the ferries in my previous experience. 10 levels, hundreds of cabins, several restaurants, a duty free shop and a couple of bars. Filled with hundreds of cars and hundreds of people. The cabins were quite ‘cozy’, with bunks that folded out from the wall. We thought it was tight for the two of us but came to realize that the cabin was designed to sleep 4. It seemed to me they would have to line up in the corridor and then clamber in one by one, as we were bumping elbows with just two. The buffet dinner was good and the overnight passage smooth.

We debarked at about 7:30 am Finnish time, an hour later than Swedish time. A novel experience was that the police subjected every driver leaving the ferry to a breathalyzer test. Apparently, the ferry has a reputation as a real party boat. We than had a fairly long day here with four regularities and two tests on a dirt track. I had my first stint behind the wheel and had great fun sliding around the track. I did, however, manage to stall the car at the start of the second test and it took forever (seemingly) to restart. Still fun. We did reasonably well on the regularities.

In summary, so far so good. The people, both participants and the organization personnel, are very nice. Dinners have been on the late side, which is a challenge with early starts the next morning. The weather is pleasantly cool and while we have had a few showers, overall sunny and very nice.