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
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!
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
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?
Here's the crew in Cairns.
All made it inspite of Cairns' passion for red lights.
Cheers
Stuart
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.....
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
QuoteStuart 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 :D :D :D
Quote from: Paul Gulliver on April 23, 2012, 04:22:01 PM
I would have thought that Mario 2 would have represented a far less risky prospect :D :D :D
Yeah, but we didn't have air-horns.....
And here's Team Fat Boys' 90 after the exhaust section fell off....
QuoteYeah, but we didn't have air-horns
I've listened to that twice i thought it was the water pump talking to you
Fat Boy Racing has landed back in Melbourne. Three gruelling days drive from Cairns, nowhere near as much fun as the trip up.
I have removed the stuff I brought back and taken some pictures of the inside of the car and the damage to the exterior that I can find so far. Things that don't work now that I know of, the heater (as the heater tap leaks on my clutch foot), the heater fan, the CD player won't eject the CD that's in it, the engine temperature gauge, the fuel level gauge.
I spoke with Russell Stuckey this morning to point out the advertising he got from the rally video on day four and he has agreed to put the car on show in their front window in "as-is" condition, no promises but the car should be available for viewing over the next few weeks. Drop in to Stuckey's in Sydney Road and inspect the car, I'll let the forum and Vic members know when it is available. Of course Russell will want to sell you a new set of tyres, as they sponsor the club, consider them as your next tyre vendor.
On to the pictures...
The inside of the boot, you can't really tell just how thick the layer of dust is, about 5-10mm in places.
The centre console, the clean vent is because I was forever either directing the air away from me or towards me on the way home.
The drivers side of the interior
Stone chips on the new paint at the rear guards...
The end of the exhaust
Engine bay
Front grille
Preparation for next year...
Finally the bash plate, there's before and after.
Where did the large flat plate go? Don't know, didn't hear it fall off, but somewhere between Windorah and Winton there a large piece of Aluminium checker plate.
Cheers
Stuart
P.S. On the way home I stopped off to see a friend who lives in Siding Springs, at the observatory. For those of you who know my other passion, there's a shot of the Shitbox about to leave on the morning of Anzac Day with all the telescope domes in the background, this capped off a wonderful trip of 6529 km.
My pet project the last couple of nights was to stitch together some of the video we took on the rally. Here's a link, so you can watch it in large format.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry96zCkbi_4
well done EB for the doco and well down to all the AROCA teams!
Quote from: Evan Bottcher on April 26, 2012, 01:03:49 PM
My pet project the last couple of nights was to stitch together some of the video we took on the rally. Here's a link, so you can watch it in large format.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry96zCkbi_4
That link doesn't seem to want to work Stuart. But aren't you supposed to auction the car at the end??
Quote from: aggie57 on April 26, 2012, 05:27:09 PM
Quote from: Evan Bottcher on April 26, 2012, 01:03:49 PM
My pet project the last couple of nights was to stitch together some of the video we took on the rally. Here's a link, so you can watch it in large format.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry96zCkbi_4
That link doesn't seem to want to work Stuart. But aren't you supposed to auction the car at the end??
-The link works fine.
-Evan posted the link, not Stu.
-The cars get auctioned, but you have the option of buying it back beforehand.
Quote from: aggie57 on April 26, 2012, 05:27:09 PM
That link doesn't seem to want to work StuartEvan.
Are you in China behind the Great Firewall? Or Germany (where apparently my illegal use of copyrighted music means the video gets blocked)? What kind of error message did you get? Did you have the computer turned on at the time? Were you using the cup holder?
Link seems fine to me...
Thanks guys for the sharing the road trip. Amazing, and only goes to prove who needs a 4WD to cross this country when all you really need is an Alfa Shitbox. Would love to do this trip sometime. Well done on all succeeding in making the journey and raising funds for a worthy cause.
Quote from: Davidm1750 on April 26, 2012, 06:18:27 PM
Amazing, and only goes to prove who needs a 4WD to cross this country when all you really need is an Alfa Shitbox.
True, but I'm not sure I'd contemplate the trip in an Alfa shitbox without the support of the rally; the support vehicles and trailers were never needed, obviously (which meant that we could drive the car like we stole it), but it's nice to know they're there. It was also nice having Bruno and Giancarlo along.....
It's a very, very, very big country out there. There were a couple of days of 400km driving where we saw one vehicle coming the other way the whole day. If you broke down out there on your own you could be in big trouble.
Quote from: aggie57 on April 26, 2012, 05:27:09 PM
Quote from: Evan Bottcher on April 26, 2012, 01:03:49 PM
My pet project the last couple of nights was to stitch together some of the video we took on the rally. Here's a link, so you can watch it in large format.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry96zCkbi_4
That link doesn't seem to want to work Stuart. But aren't you supposed to auction the car at the end??
You are allowed to buy it back before auction at an agreed price, I paid $300 for mine, could have paid $10 at auction, but that's not helping the cause.
Happy with $300 for a pre-prepared SBR car, allows me $700 to spend on a kickarse sound system to drown out the exhaust noise...
Cheers
Stuart
$300 for the car and the memories......😄
Not in China; In Singapore.
Just watched the official videos again (http://vimeo.com/album/1920689) and my own video, and filled with emotions. Couple of weeks later and I'm still recovering physically and mentally. What a brilliant experience... never having been to the outback before, this was the greatest way to see it. Can't wait to see it again.
I also noticed tonight - if you like the music on the official videos, you can listen to the whole playlist on soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/thinkloco/sets/2012-shitbox-rally-soundtrack
Quote from: Evan Bottcher on April 26, 2012, 01:03:49 PM
My pet project the last couple of nights was to stitch together some of the video we took on the rally. Here's a link, so you can watch it in large format.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry96zCkbi_4
Great video Evan, Now you might understand why i rally Alfas. I know most of you guys reckon i'm crazy, But i reckon they are built for it. I maintain that i do less to my gtv6 to get it quick on gravel, than you do, to get them quick on bitumen.
I've gotta say, I was amazed at how well the Alfetta handled the off-road.
The edges of the rally tyres were pretty knackered, so we'd always have a bit of understeer when going quite quick into a corner, but there were a couple of ways to deal with that I found. If we had room you could just keep the throttle on and it would eventually find some grip on the front end, and then it would ease into an easily controlled drift. Otherwise you could come of the throttle a little bit and then ease it back on to tempt it into a nicely controlled drift.
It really was a very neutral handling car, and unfortunately not knowing the roads we couldn't push 100%, but we got close at times. We knew we had pretty decent ground-clearance, and a good-quality bash plate and the rally tyres meant that we could still push it hard through bumps and holes and etc.
We could tell the shocks were getting pretty knackered, but with some decent ones the Alfetta would be an excellent, excellent car on the off-road stuff.
I'm on the lookout for another that I can turn into a rallycar. It was that good, and I had so much fun on the gravel this year. Gee it was good not having to go slow to account for Stu's shit Dolomite this year....
They're great dirt road cars aren't they Sheldon. The 50/50 balance thing starts to pay dividends and setup of the rear axle, with the centre pivot point at the front of the de dion, is a real help. I've always found them great tow cars as well - I think for the same reason.
Quote from: aggie57 on May 04, 2012, 03:53:55 PM
They're great dirt road cars aren't they Sheldon. The 50/50 balance thing starts to pay dividends and setup of the rear axle, with the centre pivot point at the front of the de dion, is a real help. I've always found them great tow cars as well - I think for the same reason.
I was very surprised just how good it was. Top speed was reasonably about 140km/h on the off-road stuff so that you could still see any obstacles coming up (although we still had a very interesting moment when we came across some sand at 130km/h, I managed to brake to about 100km/h by the time we hit it, but it still got very sideways, both ways....), but I don't think a modern 4wd would be any quicker, and maybe even slower with the higher CofG. Most importantly the Alfetta could stay at that speed through the corners, and could easily have coped with more speed if we had more notice about hazards.
Absolutely superb, I can't speak highly enough of how well the Alfetta coped with the outback. Shame it went for $20 then....
August 4th is the date to put in your diary Sheldon. The Baden Powell Introductory Trial. A novice rally run by the scouts. Can do in a standard car with a 2ns licence. Have a dip. Much like the Challenge of Clubs Trial that Matt Francis and I did a couple of years ago. He had fun, but i think he expected a bit much from his Alfetta. The 2 inches of rain didn't help none either. My GTV6 relished in it.
http://www.vicrally.com.au/eventInfo.php?eventID=461 (http://www.vicrally.com.au/eventInfo.php?eventID=461)
My favourite photo from Stu's collection...
Sheldon and I are under Mario trying to patch a fuel line that was smashed by rocks, and Bruno and Giancarlo decided to take a rest...
Notice the whiteness of Bruno's legs. Everything else that started out white ended up red, except Bruno's legs.
Take Gerry's shirt for example...
Cheers
Stuart