Day 4 - into Italy and onto Greece

A welcome sight greeted us as we left the hotel at 5.30 - the Merc Coupe having been recovered from the Ligurian Hills and brought back to the hotel in Firenza. Some new wheel studs and and a bit of  TLC  and they should be fine. Shame to see anyone drop out.  

We travelled into central Italy early today (Wed) to compete on what we thought would be a similar section to last night - twisty tarmac. 100 miles before breakfast. Getting out of the Firenza road system was bad enough but in a 'pea-souper' fog with about 25 yds visibility in places, it was a problem for several crews with a couple of minor scrapes. 

The competitive section was actually a brilliant but slippy hilly earth road; not really gravel. It wound its way for 11km through the hills - roughly 50m between hairpin bends. Those on offroad tyres had a field day being able to get grip out of the corners where we struggled, spinning all 4 wheels on our Ford Transit specials. Weight is not on our side on the tight and twisties as we can't seem to build momentum to carry through the corners and braking can't be left late with so little grip.  

Still, we remain 3rd though with some serious cars coming up who are light (their weight carried by others), are well supplied and are experienced in African conditions - where the rally proper really starts. 

Looking at some of the other cars and their support arrangements over the first 4 days, we are really going to struggle to compete when we are carrying everything we need and running on van tyres. I was hoping our 'steady-Eddy' long game approach would be the right one but I have a feeling we are about to be blitzed. If fast purpose-built and powerful cars (who would usually chew up rally gravel tyres in, at most, a few hundred miles), can keep re-supplied with the right kit at the right time and travel light, we simply can't compete in our £3k ebay special in the longer term when carrying the weight of 2 additional bulky passengers and with 75hp less. Still, we plan to enjoy it but I'll be surprised if we finish in the top 10 after a few days of seeing what we are up against when the going gets tough in a few more days. 

A word on Owen Turner and Matt Fowle in their MG ZR which they built themselves and which is currently leading. You really have to applaud these guys. They are on a very tight budget but are very focused and slick as a team - and quick: how Owen can peddle that little MG so fast sometimes defies belief. They have a plan of changing between van and gravel front tyres between road and off road sections and it is working brilliantly (though will be more problematic in Africa if they have punctures). They carry everything they need themselves and have the skills to repair almost any semi-serious problem and quite rightly attract the highest respect as a team when you look at the money surrounding other entries. Good on'em. 

Making the best of it for now though, we are in Greece tomorrow to start a couple of days of Acropolis Rally sections.