RALLY OF THE INCAS!
Spotted by Pam and Chuck Lyford, in a friends hangar in 2011, and authentically restored by their son's race shop; this right hand drive 1938 Chevy coup returns to it's country of origin again, to defend it's 2013 South American Vintage Rally Title: 2013 Cape Horn Rally Winner. Photo by Gerard Brown
Track us Live! Click this link, or copy and paste, to track us now: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0uMMRD0crHmELdfNfRqpLL2oMqCA9yn4T Tomorrow promises to be one of the most epic drives of the event! We head north west from Salta to cross back into Chile at the Paso Jama, the most northerly border between Argentina and Chile. The road over the pass rises to 14,100 ft. at the border and continues to 15,780 ft.100 kms west of the actual crossing point. From the highest point the road drops to the town of San Pedro de Atacama. Considered as the archaeological capital of Chile, San Pedro also benefits from the beauty of the surrounding landscape. Today: La Rioja - Tucuman see Pam's Hillclimb report below
We are at our half way point in the race! And what a point it is! We lost the car, then found it! Then we were out of the running and back! Due to a 20 min penalty, on day 2, removed on day 10. Looking forward to the what the rest of our adventure has in store! Have fun following along with us live, on our tracker!
Tracker Tips: 1) Views: You can change from map to satellite. 2) Zooming: Zoom in or out as much as you like - plus/minus bottom right, or use 2 fingers to zoom in or out, like on photos. 3) Past: Page back at the bottom of the message list on left, and it will populate last points traveled. 2) Street Views: Use the little orange guy in the bottom right by dragging him and placing him on any road that lights up blue, once you click on him, and seeing the street view - available on some of the mountain passes: 3) Mobie VR in street view: If you are using your phone or Ipad, you can pan and go up and down in the scenery, by toggling off the little phone icon on the bottom right. With the pan/tilt feature on you can move your phone up and down, or spin around and the scenery will move. It's like you're there.
A few words must be said about our fabulous Hillclimb today. The vintage cars ran at 70 km/h, an impossible speed to make on these twisty, turny uphill road. By the end, about 12 km, Fang had passed a fuel truck, two Bentleys and a horse. Partway into the event Chuck announced that he could not drive the car. We looked and a water bottle had wedged under the clutch pedal! A very long stretch of my seatbelt managed to dislodge it and we proceeded with a few seconds lost. The event was designed to separate the men from the boys. What about the women? Great fun, highly chancy and just up our valley. Super hot today, wet rags on our heads, vast amounts of water consumed and glad to be upgraded to a massive suite overlooking a park. Pam
The great news of the day was our penalty appeal was granted ......putting us back into the lead by almost two minutes. We never let up, and only hoped that attrition or luck would get us back to the front. Fang has suffered a bit from the harsh roads and a collision into Lars and Annette's Bentley that stopped unexpectedly in front.... Bentley's are tough cars as we learned. Fang lost a road light and damaged a fender and front bumper. His air cleaner has fallen off and his battery bracket has failed, all due to very rough roads taken at high speed. Today, a supposed rest day allowed for eight hours of maintenance, checking everything and relocating his battery from the engine compartment to behind the drivers seat. Lots of tightening, and cleaning and he is ready for combat again. Tomorrow we head back to Argentina over the Andes and some 4000m passes. Work today: Fang's 55 minute( between heats style) battery re -location behind the drivers seat. Ready to go
I was wrong. Things can get both better and worse. We had our team group cry yesterday as both other cars are out of the race. Hard to imagine a more miserable rally than car 18 endured.Each new radiator fix promised to be the last. Brian and Collin's old beauty arrived last night on a truck, DOA too. We are in the port for Santiago so both cars will be shipped home from here. Never fear. Our team mates will continue on in rental cars. So many dropouts at our table last night I thought we may need a bus! The long transit day thru the vineyards and orchards of Chile and the many large trucks on the two lanes whittled your navigator's brain yesterday. Charging off in the wrong direction on the freeway to Santiago we made a heroic recovery straight out of "Wild Tales". Inca Rally is physically, mentally and emotional challenging so this day off is heaven for me. Chuck started at 7AM moving the battery into the cab and going thru Fang top to bottom. I am still in bed! Navigator.
