We have watched car after car breakdown over the event. Some have retired while others have managed to be repaired and continue. We reckon that no less than 30 cars have withdrawn from the event for some reason or another. We have been careful not to be too smug as the problems we have had with the Dodge have been minor until yesterday when it was our turn. While driving up a steep hill we suddenly pulled up with the engine making a terrible noise! The rally mechanics felt that the one of the ‘little ends’ had blown and that the rally was over for us. As luck would have it before the tow truck could get to us a local Turkish man stopped and towed us to a basic mechanics shop in a very small settlement nearby. To cut to the chase we discovered a bent valve which we replaced and 24 hours later we were back on the road nursing the car along for a 1000km to catch up to the main fleet. Unfortunately today we have discovered that the noise we are hearing in the engine maybe due to a damaged a piston or in fact the little end is loose. This has resulted in a substantial loss of power in the Dodge and may yet result in us pulling out of the event. We have only 3,500km to go and this would be a great shame – we are crossing our fingers that we will make it to Paris – we can almost smell the coffee! An interesting day with the mechanics and I spent the afternoon with the mechanics wife in their small home. She spoke no English but we managed to do a lot of giggling! They very kindly invited us for dinner with the family (they had 2 small boys), which was wonderful and she had gone to quite a lot of trouble making chicken, rice and salad. A tiny, minimalistic but very clean home.
Hi guys,
We are with you all the way and praying the engine holds together. Good luck for the final stretch. Tim &Prue
Hi Craig & Nicky, sorry to hear about the engine troubles, I hope that it all works out for you and you can get it going again.
Best Wishes
Bruce
HI guys,
Been following you all the way- keeping everything crossed for the Dodge to keep going- even if you have to take a Turkish mechanic in the back !
Hang in there, the Champs Elysee beckons!
Love and thoughts, Malcolm , Carrie , George , Harry and Emelia xx
Wondered what had caused the 10 place drop over the weekend.
I’m sure that if you keep the oil in, keep it cool and look after the engine it will get you there complete with the theatrics and percussion band within. It is a DODGE after all.
What an adventure.
We are all watching with great interest.
Good Luck, Brian and Karen Knight.
Fingers crossed guys…….whos going to be doing the pushing Nicky
Graeme and Steve
reminds me of the story of the tortoise and the hare -there are 24 hrs in the day cwaig-good luck -a gentleman wld let nicki drive the day shift .We arrived home today to rain but great food after Delhi.Kind regards ,Shane and Dawn and family
Yes fingers crossed – but I have a feeling you’ll be driving into Paris – but with champagne in mind. I also think Malcolm is full of good ideas. Bunkyx
Hope 1937 Dodgeshave a very stubbon survival streak !…..
We fly the prayer flags :
Much Love Michelle and H.P.
All our fingers toes and any other bits we can find are crossed for you guys to make it through to Paris, thinking of you, all our love Rob Gerry Bella and Maddie
Turn up the stereo, grab some of those special turkish smokes and you’ll breeze into Paris!! Keep on truckin…Chrs Brad n Jos