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Posted by: Howard R May 9 2004, 02:52 AM

Hi Guys,

Thought you might be interested in something a bit different. 23 April caught the ferry from Sydney to Tas with Becko the navigator and a whole lot of other competitors. Photo of us follows with beer in hand cruising out of the harbour. Cruise got a bit rought 12 hours later when we ran into 9 metre seas and everyone except me an a few others threw up for the next 14 hours. Long day, but we got there.


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Posted by: Howard R May 9 2004, 02:55 AM

I'm the one with hand in splint. Broke 4th metacarpal playing footy at my sisters the previous weekend. Made driving a bit painful.


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Posted by: Howard R May 9 2004, 02:57 AM

Day 0 Prologue.

Single stage around Georgetown to seed the starting order. Went pretty well but a little bit conservative. I think we came in 29 th out of 120 in the classic division. Got airborne crossing an intersection.


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Posted by: Howard R May 9 2004, 02:59 AM

Day 1,

Cleaned most of the stages and maintained about the same position. It took Becko a while to get used to pace notes again. Heavily under brakes in the Moriarty stage.


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Posted by: Howard R May 9 2004, 03:02 AM

Day 2 - Wet

And real slippery. I think we lost a few places but kept it on the island; especially after last year when I speared it off on Weldborough Pass and we spent 2 hours standing in the rain watching the field go by. Photo of same stage this year.


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Posted by: Howard R May 9 2004, 03:04 AM

Day 3 - Mostly fine, but a bit damp.

I think we made up a few places, but kept it neat on the damp stuff. Photo of Ridgeway stage. I didn't notice the spectators until I got the photos.

Posted by: Howard R May 9 2004, 03:05 AM

Forgot photo


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Posted by: Howard R May 9 2004, 03:09 AM

Day 4 - Dry absolute blast.

What can you say - a few really good long stages, eg Cethana 33km, and a few others. Went hard but the motor was a little off song, later traced to cross firing plug lead. Had a huge lock up coming into the infamous right hander on Natone. see pic. Overall I think we maintained position. Becko had the calls right by this time.


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Posted by: Howard R May 9 2004, 03:14 AM

Day 5 Wet.

Lost a few spots. Longest day of the event about 130 km of stages, including the longest of the event Mount Arrowsmith 47km. In fact it was snowing at the end of that stage. I haven't seen so many trashed cars as on this stage. About 5 or 6 including 2 into a bank beside each other and 1 on the other side of the road which had rolled at more or less the same spot. Made it to the finish.

PS The boat trip home was cancelled becaue it was damaged in even bigger seas so the shipping line flew us back and the cars arrived last Friday!!


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Posted by: VegasRacer May 9 2004, 05:03 AM

Well done Howard.
Thanks for the photos and the story.

Do they still have the Cannonball or the Castrol Rally?

Posted by: fiid May 9 2004, 05:27 AM

Awesome pics. I want to run this event one day :-). I met a guy by the name of Lionel who was there in a blue 350Z this year and says it's quite the blast. He's also doing the targa NZ, which apparently has more open classes.... he was talking about supercharging the car for that.

Fun fun fun.

Fiid.

Posted by: ablose58 May 9 2004, 05:32 AM

Great job The pics are great also. AL

Posted by: 415PB May 9 2004, 08:27 AM

Now that looks like an awesome time. Great pics also

Posted by: seanery May 9 2004, 08:38 AM

Nice Job Howard! The pics are fantastic. You know, we're all jealous over here!

Posted by: ! May 9 2004, 08:58 AM

Too cool, lifetime of memories.....in one event.

Posted by: Howard R May 9 2004, 01:50 PM

The cannonball was only run once, about 10 or 12 years ago and I think the litgation is just winding up. You might remember that the japanese guys in a Ferrari didn't stop at the end of a stage and killed a couplke of control officials.

Fiid, I mixed it with the blue Z on a couple of stages. Because we went fairly well in the prologue we ended up with a lot of cars from the modern division around us. I think it pays to go a bit slower in the prologue so you start earlier and are less likely to get run down by GT3 s etc, however dinner that night was riding on against our taildragger team mates and we won.

I think I will do the Classic Adelaide event in November. Better weather and only classic cars. Thanks for the interest.

Posted by: anthony May 9 2004, 02:00 PM

Who took all the pics? Someone from the event?

Posted by: Howard R May 9 2004, 02:04 PM

Perfect Prints from Hobart. I buy the whole set before the event because he offers a good discount. I think I ended up with about 20 photos.

Posted by: Mueller May 9 2004, 02:07 PM

Looks like a blast Howard...too bad I didn't have decals for your car, would have been neat to have exposure way down there

thanks for sharing the pictures and story, not sure if I'll ever make it to your part of the world .....

Posted by: Howard R May 9 2004, 02:09 PM

BTW, I broke the spoiler not in the heat of competition doing something spectacular or heroic, but driving into the car park at lunch on day 2. The sports ground we were parking on was very soft and the entry was chopped up. It sank in the ruts and caught the spoiler at abt 5kph. Anyone know a good source of LE spoiler. I also want to a put some fibreglass bumpers on.

Posted by: Howard R May 9 2004, 02:11 PM

Mike,

The difference is unbelievable.

Posted by: ein 6er May 11 2004, 06:15 PM

howard,

you never mentioned you had "the worlds cleanest 914-6"!! your 911 mates posted over on pelican's 911 board, http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=162497 .
graet stories, sounded like a great time. thanks for sharing.

great fotos too!!! didn't see any of you on the events page though, http://www.targa.org.au/

i have an after market LE spoiler in good to excellent condition, recently painted black, it's yours for the asking.

Posted by: Joseph Mills May 11 2004, 10:46 PM

Howard,

Sorry about the metacarpal pain!

However....

Great looking car!

Beautiful scenery.

Maybe the best 914 photography I've ever seen.

And cool behind the wheel reporting!

Very inspirational!

Thanks for sharing!

Posted by: Howard R May 12 2004, 02:54 AM

Joe,

The girls (Curnick and Winter) each 20 years our junior, dont know the latest on the hand injury - Hospital Friday for a few screws in the broken bone. anyhow I'm sure it will be better in time to kick them hard in Adelaide and play the skins game again. At least i wont have any pins, wire etc on the outside. You should never let drunken navigators make bets as drivers don't understand what they are in for.

Ein6er,

I will pm you re the spoiler. Thanks,

How