Alfas on the Shitbox rally

[Stuart Thomson]

Hi all,
Follow the link for some great Alfa adventures.
http://www.shitboxrally.com.au/day-4-video-innamincka-to-windorah/

Cheers from the other Winton
Stuart

[Evan Bottcher]

600km run today, Winton to Undara. Mixed asphalt and dirt, should be a relief after three long days of dirt, rocks, washouts and bull dust. Cairns here we come!

[Davidm1600]

Great video. Good to have the Alfas feature:)! Can we take it that all are still running, minor electricals of course being par the course. Have fun guys

[Evan Bottcher]

All Alfas still going after a surprisingly rough trip today. Lots of rocky unsealed roads and two water crossings. Cairns tomorrow. Who's going to buy back their Alfa I wonder?

[Stuart Thomson]

Here's the crew in Cairns.

All made it inspite of Cairns' passion for red lights.

Cheers
Stuart

[Sheldon McIntosh]

Pics of Mario II in Melbourne, and in Cairns.  He was a great car, handled the dusty and dirty roads like a champ.  The only problems we had were due to driving too fast on rocky roads, with a punctured fuel-line, and whacking a rock so hard that we bent the (4mm steel plate) sump-guard up so it was rubbing on the exhaust.  He was getting a little hard to start by day 7, and the clutch felt pretty average on the way through Cairns' 100 red lights, but overall he was an excellent companion for the trip.

It was very disappointing that he only went for $20 at the auction (the two jerry cans in the boot are worth more than that), but I was slightly happier when the new owners told me they were going to khanacross him the next day!!

Overall, it was a bloody fantastic trip, made all the better with a good crew of Alfas along for the ride.  As they read out the list of cars nominated for "least likely to finish" we were all very happy to hear that "all the Alfas" were nominated!!

Congratulations to all the Alfa teams, just goes to show how tough these cars are, and what a bit of preparation can do.  Next years rally is from Adelaide to Fremantle via Uluru.  Planning is already underway for Mario III.....

[Sheldon McIntosh]

A few pics from Day 3.  Checking over Mario II at Cameron Corner, and then a couple of tackling the sand dunes between Cameron Corner and the Old Strzelecki Track.  We were actually told not to go up the old track because it was too washed out, and to stick to the New Strzelecki Track, but we (and the Two Amigos) took a wrong turning.  Which may have been my fault.....  The track did have a few deep waterholes in it, but we were able to go off the road to get around them.

[Sheldon McIntosh]

Day 4.  Incredible scenery, and huge changes throughout the day.  This is about as outback as I've experienced.  We saw snakes and dingoes this day, and the Two Amigos had a rally tyre fail in a major way.  Incredibly, the sidewalls are so strong that they were able to support the weight of the car.

This was the day that the cameraman came with us, so you may have seen the video, including great footage of the rally tyre tread rolling away from the car.

[Paul Gulliver]

Great stuff Sheldon, Thanks for sharing ( where ever you maybe). Interesting to note the outback looked just a touch greener than you would normally think and looked like ther was still a bit of water about. Sad to see Mario only got such a small ammount. Did you think about turning it around and driving it home I thought he may have been a keeper.

[Evan Bottcher]

Very green indeed!  Even up around Innamincka it was reasonably lush with grass and healthy looking scrub.  One local said he'd never seen it like that before, in 25 years.

I was a little disappointed in the price, but happy that Mario is going to see some good action and not just straight to the wreckers.  We did indeed think about picking it up and driving it home, but was logistically impossible.  Stuart bought back his 90, and Gavin bought the Two Amigos Alfetta.

[Evan Bottcher]

Some more roadside repairs... minor stuff really.  The fat boy 90 sounded significantly better after the exhaust rear section fell off somewhere past Cameron Corner.

[Evan Bottcher]

The rally was featured on Channel 10's "The Project": http://theprojecttv.com.au/video.htm?movideo_p=39696&movideo_m=179989
Fast forward to 2m10s.  Good coverage of the Alfa team again.

[Paul Gulliver]

Stuart bought back his 90, and Gavin bought the Two Amigos Alfetta

I would have thought that Mario 2 would have represented a far less risky prospect

[Sheldon McIntosh]

I would have thought that Mario 2 would have represented a far less risky prospect

Yeah, but we didn't have air-horns.....

And here's Team Fat Boys' 90 after the exhaust section fell off....

[Paul Gulliver]

Yeah, but we didn't have air-horns

I've listened to that twice i thought it was the water pump talking to you