(first 3 pics by Gerard Brown)

It’s my last blog, following this epic journey from Northern Europe to the Cape of Good Hope. The chequered flag has dropped, the rally has finished and the competitors have all gone home, but memories will live on for a long time yet.

Final position for the WEVO 912 was 6th: confirmed by the organisers but not acknowledged on the official timesheets. The Tuthill 911 (below) finished third, but should have won it by some accounts: the speed was incredible and it cleaned a stack of stages…

Francis Tuthill arrived home last night and I had a chance to chat with him today. Though he spoke of issues with some of the official timing, and objected to how the severity of the terrain was seriously underplayed to competitors in advance, he had a grin as wide as Africa when he remembered the good times.

No doubt Hayden and Alastair will have more stories of good and bad to share when I catch up with them later in the year, but I’m sure neither will have lost their appetite for road: that need to leave the daily grind behind and go do something primeval, and on four wheels.

These last two pictures of Hayden (with the 912′s cooling bucket and a very funky tree) were sent to me by Alastair as he was boarding the plane leaving South Africa. As I look at them all I feel is the ache of a slow news day. What to do with my time now? When’s the next event?

Even for awestruck spectators like me, racing is life. Anything else: that’s just waiting.

Today is the final day of the 2012 London to Cape Town World Cup Rally. It’s a bit of a nail biter finish. Yesterday afternoon, the P2 Subaru overtook the leading HiLux and enters the last day just three seconds ahead! We wish our boxer-engined brothers well in securing the victory.

That said, I also own a Toyota, so perhaps I should be rooting for them. Plus I own a Porsche so I am right with those guys also! If I ever need proof that rallying is my thing, I guess I just need to look at the leader list on this event and then open my garage doors.

Anyway, some good fun and games on the event while I have been off the radar shooting features with Jamie for Ferdinand magazine and Total 911. The turbo on Francis Tuthill’s HiLux blew up (now fixed), Hayden and Alastair strapped a bucket to the back of the 912 and the 911 has held onto a solid third position. Here’s Hayden’s text at the end of the recent 1000-kilometre stage.

In Windhoek now, knocked over the 1040km yesterday, no problems, the 600+ today no problems either. The world cup sections today topped 2000m elevation, with 35C ambient, so some hills were as low as second gear.

The Kenyan tires proved to offer  pretty miserable grip on the Namibian gravel, resulting a fairly large time drop for the 912, but I doubt it provides much of a gain – if any for the P2 Volvo in class C. Long day tommorrow with a similar format.

Less than 2000km to Capetown now, so arrival seem much more real. The motor is taking a bottle a day of Wynn’s “Re-Charger” in an effort to offset the spoonfuls of sand consumed by the motor on the Marsabit road. So far so good: the magic additive makes a noticeable difference.

Next text was from Alastair at the end of the following day, who told me of their latest mod to cope with ambient temps as high as 40 degrees Celsius:

Another busy day many k tests and car problems: all overcome with good humour and fortitude. Lost front ride height again but it has been found. Lost the brakes, but a quick search and a new pipe got them back. The rack got bent again by a bit of unobserved Namibia, but some formula type lock-to-lock activity on the straights soon wore that in.

The REAL triumph of the day was the cure to the overheating which was done in 15 mins: a quick bucket purchase in the local store, chopped in half and zip-tied to the engine cover. Hey presto: cool oil and happiness! H is doing is extensive homework for tomorrow: more later.

So at the end of Day 28, the boys had slipped to 7th spot, behind the Landcruiser. Hayden said:

Into Clanwilliam, all good. It was another great day of rallying. We took a conservative, but competitive approach. We have had a nice couple of days chasing Matt and Owen (MG ZR), likewise them protecting against us getting any nearer. Some fantastic world cup sections in the last 2 days, made more complicated by the hot weather.

Probably 40C today,  but our new AC/WEVO Namibia, half bucket air scoop on the decklid has allowed us to run middle of the gauge all day, with only a modest creep on some long climbs. Motor is happier (although no quieter) now we are back under 500m, feels peppy enough but like the whole car, it’s certainly not fresh any more.

We still have world cup sections – 3 more on the final day, plus some tight timing that means things could change between Clanwilliam and Capetown. I think we lost 2 or 3 to the MG today, but good fun on some seriously wicked roads. Driving 8/10ths on roads with 200-metre drops and barely a single track width is quite exhilarating. Speeds up to 155km/hr on the fast Namibian gravel, that’s all she had at the altitude and in the heat. I am sure the 911 could have run 200 km/h if they needed to. One section today was set at 130km/hr + average: sweet!

The rally is due to finish any time now: I will update on final positions in a bit.

Pics by Hayden

We are into the last week of the London to Cape Town rally. The Porsche 912 of Burvill and Caldwell is in 7th position, one hour ahead of its nearest class competitor. Between the 912 and the lead lies three 4x4s, an MG and a Porsche 911.

Thoughts now turn to reaching the finish.

The 912 has been reliable, but it’s taken a pounding on these tough desert roads. Pictures from the event show an emerging collection of dents on the previously straight body, which is to be expected when pushing as hard as this. Hayden and Alastair have been applying themselves to ongoing maintenance with the aim of crossing the line (first you have to finish, etc).

I’ve just had some pictures from the Australian showing the sort of stuff he’s been up to: pretty funny if you know Hayden. Looks like pretty hard work whether you know him or not! We’ve also got a video of Alastair carrying out contemplative adjustments to the 912’s front skid plate while the tank was out being welded.

Oh, the joy of Rally Porsche maintenance: I can sense the Zen from here. Here’s Hayden’s latest texts:

Did the nightly list in Lusaka. Had the tank out again to reinforce the top of the front X-beam mounts. Francis gave good advice on how to tackle it and we are at a great shop called McFarlanes. AC had the night off, fighting fatigue and road weary. I helmed the ferry for 450km that morning to take some load off. Short World Cup section that afternoon. 11km, we dropped 43 seconds off target time, I doubt it did anything for the results, or the margins in the classes.

Our Yellowbrick was stolen by a snatch and grab in the Lusaka traffic yesterday. We have another unit in the car now, but I don’t know if it is associated to our car number yet. Our original was last tracked at 0430 in Lusaka, but forensics were not on today’s agenda. (The new GPS is working: JG)

Job for tonight is raising rear ride height. We have accumulated some middle distance sag, not uncommon. Simple job, just knocking it out to the melody of Vic falls and the tourist choppers overhead.

Pics by Gerard Brown/Enduro Rally and Turbo’s Boys in Egypt

The number 45 911 of Joost van Cauwenberge and Jacques Castalein is demonstrating relentless pace on the London Cape Town. Down to 7th after a penalty for non-standard dampers, the Porsche is now back up to 3rd overall and setting some blistering times. I should point out that the damper fitment was discussed with the organisers before the off: the top dogs knew what was on the car but waited until Nairobi to apply a one-hour penalty.

“We discussed the damper options with the organisers before the event,” says Richard Tuthill. “While we knew our modern-style dampers would eventually incur a time penalty, our experience in Kenya (Safari Rally winners) told us it was worth it. The car’s reliability and the speed it can carry over this terrain vindicates the choice. It has backfired a little, as the organisers have now cancelled some of the rougher sections of the event to protect lesser-prepared cars, but the Tuthill 911 is still running a strong pace and giving the crew a consistent package they can trust.”

The official rally reports always make for interesting reading and this was part of the last one: “The rocky mountain climb saw Alastair Caldwell split his fuel tank. He slowed just enough to give Jane Edgington her finest moment so far: driving a Maestro in an overtaking sweep past the Porsche on a timed mountain climb. The Blunt Subaru was slowed by overheating, while the Cauwenberge Porsche 911 was a remarkable sight lifting a front wheel while hanging the back out...”

The 911 duo are clearly revelling in the conditions and who could blame them? Driving one of those magnificent Tuthill Porsches across such epic terrain – in the bigger picture of a rally from London to Cape Town – must be a magnificent adventure. Add speed and talent to the equation and get yourself up to a competitive position? It’s what heroes are made of. I envy Joost and Jacques something rotten.

The organisers’ note on Alastair and Hayden’s fuel tank is correct: Hayden filled me in last night with a text. Though there is work to be done on the 912 (no idea why we haven’t named that car yet), the boys are also loving it and holding a steady seventh overall – just a few minutes down on the Belgian Landcruiser 80 series (one of four 4x4s in the top seven). As the proud owner of a sturdy Landcruiser 80, I’m all for the Toyota taking it to the top five, but the 912 deserves a top five place for what it is going through. Hayden’s texts describing events just keep getting better:

“Another gruelling day, followed by midnight in the car park making running repairs, upgrades and routine maintenance.

We got a huge amount of mud injected into the gap between the now badly battered floorpan and the equally battered rear skid plate. The net result was a jammed throttle – about 20% after a quick stop to investigate it was clear that it was not a quick repair – so we jumped back in and drove the balance of the second and all the 3rd World Cup sections using the ignition switch for the throttle control and co-driver for gear changing. We got pretty proficient, only dropping one additional minute on the third section once AC nursed the throttle to about 80% stuck open.

We burned too much time making a modest repair in the final road section and had to really boogie (78+ AV) to make the end of day without penalty, this push was at the expense of another RF strut insert that melted in protest. So we have modified the skid with some local Dodoma sheet metal and replaced the RF insert. We will see what tomorrow brings…

We still have no driver window, no passenger door latch and this afternoon the wipers suddenly turned on and gave us a breakdance display before stopping in the upright position – a mystery for another night.”

Next day:

“Day 21 casualty was the fuel tank. We are constantly suffering loss of front ride height due to yielding aftermarket front torsion bar (supplier name deliberately not revealed). The bottom of the tank has been relentlessly pounded, even though it is well protected from abrasion and piercing by the front skid plate.

About 15km in to the first road section we started to smell fuel. The 95 litre tank was full, so we took the calculated risk to proceed when it appeared to be a modest leak. Ultimately we made it to the end of day, leaking about the same amount as we were burning.

First to end of day control, tank out, AC walked up the road with a local boy to a banzai welder who brazed up 3 cracks. Tank back on before the last car was into TC. Cranked in front ride height again and we were off.

First car thru the border to Zambia, we have 360km to the hotel, then back to items on our long job list – then last night added wipers when we discovered the rattle on the dash, days ago, was self disassembly of the wiper motor from its bracketry! Harsh event, great exposure to system weaknesses!“

Flicking through Youtube the other night, I tripped over this wickedness. It’s a 997 Turbo Cab with working PDK transmission, all remote control and all made from Lego.

Some stats:

• 3,500 parts: all standard Lego
• All-wheel drive
• Working 7-speed PDK dual clutch gearbox
• Disc brakes all ’round
• Working lights
• Folding roof & folding spoiler
• Progressive throttle
• Working steering wheel with same 2.6 turn ratio as the real car
• Motorised handbrake

The car recently won the AFOL (Adult fans of Lego) Technic 2011 Build of the Year competition. I repeat that it is all standard Lego parts and totally awesome work.

Sorry if you’re not into this stuff: I grew up mad about Lego and my two youngest girls have the bug too. Technic is great – think my first was a Harley with sidecar. Long time ago!

Get more details on the creator’s super website: Sheepo’s Garage.  Let’s have the video:

The Gen 2 Cayenne hit an important milestone recently, when the 100,000th example rolled off the production line. The milestone car was a V8 in Pure White, destined for Brazil.

I make no apologies for featuring Porsche’s Cayenne on these pages. The car has supported Porsche’s continued success and its ability to serve classic Porsche owners, so deserves our applause on that front alone.

That said, it is also a great car in its own right. On the Gen 1 cars, the VW-derived 3.2 makes a great base for a supercharger conversion and the V8 is more than respectable in open road economy: my Landcruiser diesel manages a paltry 4-6 mpg more than the V8 Cayenne’s 22mpg average (reported by owners I have spoken to). The only thing I don’t like about it is that I don’t own one and the ’06-onward models still enjoy strong demand. But one is coming my way eventually, for sure.

Cayenne shares the production plant at Leipzig with Panamera. The facility is one of the world’s most modern car manufacturing plants and last year turned out almost 94,000 cars: an incredible number in what we are told is a challenging economic climate. That many people in new Porsches has got to be good news for more than just Porsche AG: get with the positivity!

More positives come with the plant’s future as home to the Cajun. The site is currently being extended to make room for the 1,000 new team members who will work there on the compact SUV. Leipzig is soon to celebrate its 500,000th vehicle made in ten years, and is currently manufacturing 500 vehicles a day. Great numbers that bode well for the future of classic Porsche investment: everything is connected.

100,000 cars sold is vindication of Porsche’s vision with the super Gen 2 SUV. Congratulations to all those on the Cayenne team: keep up the good work!

Pics by Gerard Brown/Rally Organisers

Day 19 on the London to Cape Town and it’s back to business as normal in Africa: smashing nice cars to pieces! If this keeps up, then perhaps only the support 4x4s will take the flag in Cape Town.

At the end of Day 17, the 911 lay 3rd with the 912 6th. A quick protest on dampers and the 911 lost an hour: putting the 912 ahead of it at the half way point.

Yesterday was a rest day – if you call it that. Just swapped some texts with Hayden to catch up with what’s going on.

Epic rest day yesterday. AC will try to send you some pics. Today was the most dangerous so far. Punishing averages: 120 km/h for 32 km in one section. To preserve the car, we dropped about 30 mins, which will be less than many. Don’t expect it to affect our 2-litre Classic lead.

Just did some WEVO Kilimanjaro: new oil cooler brackets. Old ones were cracked and broken, held together with zip ties, but too much to get done on the rest day, so it got rolled to tonight’s list. So it goes!

We are on Bilsteins at the rear now too, after we destroyed one Ohlin as the result of a third party vendor error: no Loctite, in spite of the WEVO order spec. A part self-disassembled and lead to a spiral downfall that we are still recovering from.

I asked how the 911 had been demoted from third to seventh position:

That is correct, they were finally penalised 1 hour for non-compliance of dampers being remote canister style. Forbidden in Classic classes. Car 10 was given same. So at the mid way, the 912 was leading the 911 in spite of precious little likelihood.

As far as I can see there is a 2 min error on day 19 sheets and we should have taken that time off the 33 car. We are shown as early at a TC, yet we followed the 33 in on 2 min intervals. One to sort in the morning. Sleep now, WEVOmanjaro out.

Huge list of failures today: lots of our friends ended up on trucks. Here’s an excerpt from the organisers’ report:

Our course was remote rallying down long mostly-sandy tracks – choking dust clouds cutting visibility in the early-morning sunshine was predictable, so crews started at two-minute intervals.  It was an example of Kenyan rally-tracks at their best, but it was not to everyone’s liking; Alastair Caldwell reckoned it was difficult for cars that have already suffered greatly.

Underlining just how hard African rallying really is, Steve Blunt in the Subaru (P2 overall) posted another good time today but finished with bent front suspension after opting for a change to longer springs yesterday which proved to be too soft. The driver was all about “is it ain;t broke, don;t fix it” when he reached the Tanzanian border.

The 964 Porsche of Tomas Prenosil (above) caught fire while on the back of a truck trying to reach the border. Flames engulfed the whole car, including one and their carnets. Francis Tuthill, riding inside the top ten driving a Toyota Hilux, came out of the bush with a bent rear axle and arrived at the hotel on the back of a truck. Car 31, the VW Karmann Ghia (below), has fuel-pump problems after a dose of fuel so dirty the fuel-pump gave up trying.

Tomorrow is a car-killing rally all on its own! The route goes from Arusha to Dodoma: a favourite of the old Safari Rally. The day is 440 kilometres long and is bound to be misery squared for some.

After Tanzania we get into Zambia and Namibia before hitting South Africa. It doesn’t get any easier: Jan 25th is over 1,000 kilometres long…

I was down with JZM Porsche in Hertfordshire last week, doing a piece for Ferdinand magazine and talking about some other exciting stuff we have coming up together. Spent a few hours catching up with Jonas, and then Technical Director Steve McHale took me on a tour of their highly impressive facility.

As we walked through the showroom of Porsches for sale, one looked very familiar. “This is a car we sold and then bought back. It’s had a Cup engine with loads of 993 RS bits and a full respray: lovely car,” said Steve. I knew all about it – it was Peter Heaton’s 993 hot rod that I shot for 911 & Porsche World magazine last summer, as part of my monthly ‘You and Yours’ feature slot.

Have to admit to being slightly disappointed that it was back on sale. Rolls-Royce jet engine specialist Peter seemed properly in love with the car when we worked together, and the 993 was exceptional throughout. I loved this shot of the front wheel: printed it for my office wall, and put it on my business cards!

I shot the car as it came out of the paint shop after a big-money repaint in Polar Silver. Peter arrived in friend Paul’s BMW M3 Coupe and that was what prompted me to buy my saloon version a few weeks later. The whole day was good fun and also nice to work with C&N Customs in Middle Aston again (they painted the car).

Price has gone up since the last time it was sold: JZM are asking £44,000 for it. See the full Modified Porsche 993 for sale details here. Worth checking out if a unique 993 is on your list of wants.

Pictures: Bert Callens and Alltrack.be

Day 17 of the London to Cape Town Rally and all dreams of a quick breeze down a ‘civilised’ East African coast have been smashed to smithereens. So have most of the cars competing on the rally, thanks to the horrendous Marsabit to Nairobi road.

Had a text from Hayden today, huge essay packed with nice insider detail from the cockpit of the 912. He’s been suffering a stomach bug hence the radio silence. Here’s what he says:

Has been a tough 72 hours. But in spite of the rigours, we have still picked up a position I understand, was told 6th last night.

Ethiopia was fantastic. Hundreds of thousands, if not into the millions, lined the roadway all the way. Friendly, curious, proud: not at all like my preconceptions of Ethiopia. Crossing the border at Moyale was a complete let down: that part of Kenya is in poor shape compared to their northern neighbours.

Day 15 only had one tight time section with a 107km/hr average, turned out to be on Tarmac across the plains so I expect everyone cleaned it. In contrast, day 16 was a car breaker: only the Tuthill Porsche cleaned this section and the 912 (other than 4WD’s). It was at some expense to us: we had a puncture in the first 15km, then in our push to get back on time, we broke the LR damper. We did not stop to check, just pushed on with about 30km to go. The noise was horrific and when we stopped, the upper mount had been battered to pulp. We were able to fix it with parts on board and continue.

The balance on the day – another 170km was equally insane, roads like a quarry floor, not really roads at all. We had another puncture and blew the RF damper insert getting into Marsabit. In contrast to the P2P, equally rough, but for 10 times the distance. Other blogs may have better descriptions.

My last 48 hours has been a fevered mess, as I got a stomach infection in Moyale and was next to useless yesterday afternoon when we got to Marsabit. Doc Moe gave me the good stuff and it seems to have knocked it. I am looking forwards to a meal tonight: my first solids in 48 hours. AC has taken the 912 across town to the workshop we will be using on the rest day tomorrow.

The 400km of extreme stony roads has taken its toll on the 912. Today in some soft sandy tracks we had to take down some small trees – at speed – resulting in a bit more body damage. We gave up 29 minutes today when one section was impossibly fast for us, plus we had a puncture which after a flat tyre this morning before the off gave us no spares, so prudence was necessary. I am sure we lost time to the Volvo we are battling in Class C but not sure if it was enough to reverse our positions.

More later, need to sleep and be fresh to work on the car in the morning.

Here’s the day’s headlines from the organisers:

Cars are now arriving at the big thatched awning of the old-colonial Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi. It’s hard to believe that one of the worst roads in the whole of Africa is actually the main road to Nairobi.

• The Joost Van Cauwenberge Porsche breezed it, as did Andy Actman’s Hilux but most of the rally are limping to Nairobi.
• The Atherton/Henchoz Volvo reeks of petrol with a split rubber petrol pipe and broken Range Rover engine mounts.  “…otherwise it’s a mint condition Volvo” says Richard.
• David Spurling, Peugeot 504 arrived happy to be only 40 minutes late describing “130 km of tracks comprising a mix of goat tracks churned up by JCB and vile corrugations.”
• Stuart Rhys-Williams and Colin McConnell, Nissan Patrol, used a tow rope to pull the BMW X5 of Robert Belcher and Stephen Cooper back onto four wheels after it fell on its side. The BMW is now on a truck.
• The Tomas Prenosil, Lukas Kuttler Porsche 911 (964 C4) is also on a truck.
• Jane Edgington and Gill Cotton were the first small car to reach Nairobi. They have a bonnet pin torn out by vibration. Jane said “it’s the only thing broken but it’s crying out for some service  …I now know what hell looks like, truly dreadful road  …it’s an amazing car, I just don’t know how it got here. There’s carnage out there.”
• The remarkable catch-up drive of Ben and Mike Dawson’s Escort Mk2 continues. At 19:30 local they are just 260kms from Nairobi.
• Alex Thistlethwayte and David Hiscox, who are running very close to the Dawson Escort, have tweeted that they spent last night camped on the roof of their Datsun 240Z believing that hyenas do not jump.

Would still love to be on this rally – sounds absolutely epic. Found the pic below last night: could be my favourite of the rally so far.

More news in from Kenya. It’s been a tough day: many are arriving back to base well late and five cars are still stuck in the desert – but the two top ten Porsches are making more ground on the leaderboard.

Hayden is clearly keeping busy, hence the lack of texts. The organisers say that, despite changing a puncture and a shock absorber on the stage, he and Alastair Caldwell in the Porsche 912 cleaned the timed section: stunning work that brought them back up to P6 overall.

However, the organisers also report a damaged top mount on the 35 car: hopefully the 911 might have a spare one if this is beyond repair. We also have some friends in Kenya thanks to Safari, so I am not too worried for them: there will be spares somewhere close by. Interchangeability between 911 and 912 is one reason Hayden picked a ’68 912.

Joost and Jacques in the Tuthill 911 are third overall at the end of Day 16, with the MG ZR that had been quick in Europe now dropping down the order thanks to blowing all of its shock absorbers on this crazy stage to Mars (Marsabit). No reported problems for Joost and Jacques today.

All that lies between Joost and the lead is a 2006 Subaru Impreza and a 2010 Toyota HiLux. A 1973 Porsche 911 beaten through the desert by a pair of modern 4x4s with air conditioning all all the toys seems fair enough, but the Porsche is not being beaten. It is catching them up.

The 2002 MG ZR is fourth, followed by a 2005 Land Rover Defender TD5. Behind that is a 1968 four-cylinder Porsche 912, built in a garage in San Francisco – not at the home of the Safari Rally winners. Awesome work by the Caldwell/Burvill team, but there’s a way to go yet. Fingers crossed!

Anyone still hammering pre-’73 912s as a poor man’s 911 or the rich man’s Beetle had better think again: these are seriously competitive rally cars when prepared by the right workshop. Hayden and I were discussing the possibility of some more high end WEVO rally-spec 912 builds should this car do well in Africa, and it is beginning to feel like that might come to pass if things keep rolling our way.

Classic Porsches and Classic Porsche people are the greatest things on four wheels. No question!