Limo To Africa

More Photos

2008-01-30T11:48:00.000-08:00

Hi All - more photos here. Blog update coming shortly.

In Bamako !

Having great time, off to Timbuktu in a couple of days after limo repairs - need new rear shocks !!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/88296296@N00/sets/72157603736900463/

If the link doesn't work then the limotoafrica tag should get you there.

Off to Timbuktu !

2008-01-30T11:40:00.000-08:00

Spent the past two days in Bamako working on new rear suspension for Vegas. Amazing process, working on dirt street with junkyard African mechanics. New customized rear springs via blacksmith, new rear shocks from a toyota - rubber inserts from who knows where. Job done three times over Africa-style. Better than ever. Off to Segou to Festival on the River tomorrow, then on to Timbuktu.
Rally organizers are planning a special auction for Vegas - hopefully will raise several thousand euro !
Off to dinner, xo
M

Direct updates...

2008-01-28T08:57:00.000-08:00

If you want to keep an eye on occasional reports from the Limo, please visit this page:

http://www.pdcinfo.info/fieldreports/8502fr.htm

These are text messages sent directly from Mark or Suna to the rally site.

In Bamako - More Photos

2008-01-28T04:39:00.000-08:00

Hi All - more photos here. Blog update coming shortly.

In Bamako !

Having great time, off to Timbuktu in a couple of days after limo repairs - need new rear shocks !!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/88296296@N00/sets/72157603736900463/

If the link doesn't work then the limotoafrica tag should get you there.

Cheers
Mark

Report from Bamako

2008-01-27T15:54:00.000-08:00

The team reports that they have arrived in Bamako, three days ahead of schedule and plan to head to Timbuktu in a few days. The limo required a minor suspension rebuild in the desert today but "that's just part of the fun."

Roger and John in the London cab made it through, but sadly, the boys from the Isle of Man were forced to abandon their Land Rover after losing their rear axle in the desert.

In Mali

2008-01-26T12:04:00.000-08:00

Team Running Amoc (the London taxi) has sent news that they've arrived in Mali after some hard going through the desert and hope to get to Bamako tomorrow. If the convoy is still together, Mark, Suna and Pinar should be in Mali as well.

LATE UPDATE: The limo kidz report that they are almost in Bamako having spent a lovely night under the stars.

.mac web gallery

2008-01-24T00:08:00.000-08:00

Piles of pictures from the first half of the trip, very little editing. Enjoy.

Report from Dakhla

2008-01-21T02:28:00.000-08:00

This text from Mark, Suna & Pinar:

Leaving Dakla now @ 6.30am in convoy with guide - off to the desert we go. All are in good spirit & Vegas is ready as she'll ever be.

"Vegas" is convoying along with a few other teams: The London taxi piloted by Roger and John, the Land Rover Discovery driven by Juan (not pronounced like you think), Ben & James and The Farmers.

ODOMETER: ????

Sump/Oil Pan Protection

2008-01-20T22:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a close-up shot of the oil pan rails Abdul added, following Mark's design. He did this in a about an hour. Looks vicious, and if it doesn't protect the oil pan, at least it will intimidate a few desert rocks.

Report from Essaouira

2008-01-20T21:08:00.000-08:00

After a day and a half in the Moroccan port city of Essaouira, January 20th found Mark, Pinar and Suna leaving Payo standing by the beach with Cynthia. They will be returning to work while the hardcore crew of three heads for points south. While in Essaouira we were able to find a terrific local welder/fabricator, Abdul, who modified the Hi Lift jack for us and added some reinforcing rail shields to the undercarriage of the limo to help protect the oil pan/sump. He also brews up a great mint tea, with not too much sugar.

By about noon on the 20th, Suna, Pinar and Mark were reporting that they were in 'Armageddon,' with wind-blown dust rivaling the kinds seen in the Nevada desert at Burning Man.

From this point on, updates will be few, as the amount of cellular and internet access drops off until they reach larger cities again.

Wave-off in Essaouira

2008-01-19T16:49:00.000-08:00

Mark, Suna, Pinar and Vegas head south. (Shot on my "still" camera since I'd handed the hi-def over at this point)

ODOMETER: ????

That's the signpost up ahead...

2008-01-18T14:27:00.000-08:00

This thoughtfully placed sign was located about 27km outside of Essaouira, right where two Moroccan gendarmes decided to pull us over. They then made Pinar get out of the car, Suna delete some photos she had taken and Payo consider shaving off his beard. Power trips aren't just for U.S. cops.

Not available for purchase in the souks

2008-01-18T10:30:00.000-08:00

Here's a shot of "Vegas" in the Jemaa El Fna in Marrakech, just before we hit the road for Essaouira. At night the entire area at the passenger side of the limo is buzzing with food stalls.

Photos!!!

2008-01-17T04:43:00.000-08:00

Hey all, having trouble uploading lots of photos to the blog, here they are on flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/88296296@N00/sets/72157603736900463/

Having a great time, currently in Marrakesh, heading to Essa tomorrow. More photos soon....

"Vegas" and some fans

2008-01-16T13:59:00.000-08:00

As Suna mentioned, we headed out to meet the kids from Cara's class and talk to them about "Vegas" and the purpose of the trip. They were amazing, full of questions and energy. I have no idea how Cara handles them every day.

Reda & "Vegas"

2008-01-16T05:50:00.000-08:00

Here's one of our hosts in Casblanca, Reda, looking like he might want to keep "Vegas" in town for a few more days.

EN AFRIQUE!

2008-01-16T05:30:00.000-08:00

Wednesday January 16th and we're in Casablanca. Steve (Payo), myself (Suna), Mahk (Mark), Pinar, and we will meet Cynthia in Marrakech tonight. Every day has been a different city or country, and despite taking a slightly more relaxed pace than some of our other rally mates, it still has blurred together a bit, waking up to new sounds everyday, not quite sure where we came from, where we are, but still focused on where we're going.

Our chief rally mates to date have been Roger and John from Team Running Amok, two certified nutters who side car race in the UK, and three boys from the Isle of Man, a commonwealth country with official emblem of three legs joined together , meaning any which way you through an Isle of Man-ner they will land feet first. I'm sure that doesnt make sense but Google might be able to help you get the picture!

Reports back from prior teams are that Mauritania is safe, more police on the road and friendly, reassuring people all along the way. So we'll push ahead.

A few more hours in Casa and we're off. We enjoyed the generous hospitality of my dear friend from Japan Cara Warkentin and her Fiance Reda. We'll head to her school where she teaches English to talk about our little trip, do some fun games and let the l'il ones climb all over the limo. To date, we've certainly attracted our share of attention.
A bientot!

The Road to Casablanca

2008-01-15T10:44:00.000-08:00

We parted company with Roger, John and the Isle of Man guys this morning - they are off to the Atlas mountains and we'll meet up with them again in Marrakech. We spent the morning in the Medina in Asilah and then headed off towards Casablanca where we'll meet up with Suna's friend Cara and her fiancé Reda.

ODOMETER: 5948

Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies...

2008-01-14T23:38:00.000-08:00

We loaded Vegas onto the ferry Alacantra Dos for the 3 PM sailing to Tanger, leaving the Rock of Gibraltar and the continent of Europe behind. The distance from Gib to Africa seems so small that on a good day you can probably throw a rock across the Strait.

Once we arrived in Tanger we spent about an hour getting processed through customs, with the help of a "fixer" who walks you through the 5 or 6 steps required. Passports stamped and paperwork cleared we were off towards the port city of Asilah, wehere we rendezvoused with Roger and John (London taxi) and the Isle of Man guys at the Hotel Sahara.

Wet early morning

2008-01-14T10:32:00.000-08:00

We woke at 7 AM today to find the sky pouring down water on us, and a slight leak from the sunroof of the limo. After some quick rearranging of stuff, we hit the road to get down to Algeciras, stopping at a Carrefour for supplies, and at the local Feu Vert (Pep Boys) to get a replacement for our blown tire. Once we got Algeciras, we did some negotiating with a guy from the Acciona ferry line to get our tickets changed from Algeciras to Ceuta to the Algeciras to Tangier run.

The Southern Edge of Europe

2008-01-13T20:24:00.000-08:00

We reached Puerto de Sotogrande and our hotel, Las Camellias, around 8:00 PM. Whether by accident or design, there was an entire parking lot full of rally participants there to greet us as we pulled in. Beers and dinner were a great way for all the teams to mingle and chat and discuss the European leg of the drive. Everyone is in great spirits and we're looking forward to hitting the trail for Algeciras and the ferry trip over to Morocco tomorrow.

That's Pinar with the guys from the Isle of Man team (James, Ben & Juan).

ODOMETER: 5747

Alhambra is not a city in Southern California

2008-01-13T15:11:00.000-08:00

The Alhambra is a complex of buildings; palaces, mosques, churches, fortifications, etc. set amongst gardens and placed, like a jewel above the city of Granada. It has the feeling of magic, and even in its most worn stones and faded decorations there is an incredible beauty. It's really a place you have to experience for yourself, but I've posted a Flickr photostream to give you a taste.

Lessons learned:

1. You cannot possibly enjoy everything at the Alhambra in under four hours. Plan on a week or more.
2. Turks think of their current president in much the same way that Americans regard theirs.
3. Sometimes the sky is as blue as it is in the photos.
4. Stonecarvers don't get paid enough.

Party in the back, blowout in the front.

2008-01-12T18:36:00.000-08:00

Well, we had our first "incident" in the limo as we were making our way to Granada. We suffered a blowout of the driver's side front tire at about 100km/hour right as the sun was about to set. Mark managed to keep Vegas under control and guide her over to the side of the road where we were very quickly joined by the Spanish Policia, who set up some cones and directed traffic around us while we changed shoes. The tire was impressively mangled, the tread was gone and the steel belts had done some damage to the fender, but it all went very quickly and we were back up to speed in about 10 minutes.

In Europe, it's called Google Craps

2008-01-12T18:09:00.000-08:00

More trouble trying to find our way out of a city using Google's directions, but once again, common sense, perseverance and a rudimentary ability to speak Spanish prevail!

We left Madrid and jumped onto the A4, headed south towards Andalucia, with Granada as our target destination. The cabbies have decided to push on towards Gibraltar and we hope to catch up with them in Puerto de Sotogrande before the crossing into Africa.

We are blowing past huge chunks of country without so much as lifting our foot off the gas and we all agree this really is no way to see Spain. We are all resolved to come back and spend a good amount of time in this amazing country.

ODOMETER: 5546

The rain in Spain stays mainly in the London Taxi

2008-01-11T23:33:00.000-08:00

We woke up this morning and did a little repacking of the limo to create extra space in the back, by moving the spare tires, sand ladders, Hi Lift jack and a suitcase full of tools and parts up onto the roof and the jerry cans onto the trunk lid. Now riding in the back is like riding in a limo.

We hit the road for Madrid around 10:00 AM, just a bit behind the guys in the taxi, hoping to arrive there around 8:00 PM.

We hit snow crossing the mountains at Somosierra and the rain kept up for most of the way to Madrid, which for Roger and John was a bit of a problem as the shed they are driving leaks like a leaky shed. Both of them had wet feet.

Regardless, we all met up at our hotel in Madrid and officially added Pinar to Team Limo2Africa - she got off the elevator in the lobby as we were checking in.

Tonight's dinner was at El Lacon with John's former colleague Rupert followed up by a sherry at a great, dusty old place called La Venencien. The resident dog there is an expert at eating olives and spitting out the pits.

ODOMETER: 5448

The Second Invasion of Normandy

2008-01-10T23:05:00.000-08:00

Team Limo2Africa arrived in Caen by ferry early today and offloaded for the drive to Bordeaux. Last night, Suna and Payo were fortunate to meet and get to know another team doing the Plymouth-Timbuktu run, Roger and John of Team Running Amoc. They are driving an authentic London taxi (no meter, however) and we have paired up with them for some of the drive through France and Spain.

Roger and John describe the highway characteristics of the taxi as 'a bit like driving a shed,' which means "Vegas" is getting about the same highway gas mileage as the cab is.

After arriving in Bordeaux, we all enjoyed a fine dinner at La Remise in the St. Pierre section of town and then hit the beds to rest for the drive into Madrid, Spain.

ODOMETER: 4879 3/10

Last day in London

2008-01-09T21:55:00.000-08:00

That's Mark contemplating the odds of finding our way out of London at Trafalgar Square. It's surprisingly easy to park a limousine in a big city - everyone assumes you're supposed to be there.

We got a good night's sleep and had a nice lunch with Isabelle, Zac and Elodie at a Portuguese café in their neighborhood of Lambeth before heading out on a grand tour of Central London. If Ken Livingstone can track us down, he can have the congestion charge.

We then drove down to Portsmouth to catch the overnight ferry to Caen in France.

ODOMETER: 4568

London Calling

2008-01-08T16:00:00.000-08:00

Mark, Suna and Payo arrived this morning at London's Heathrow Airport. We dropped off our gear at the home of Suna's friends Luke & Isabelle before jumping onto a ONE train at Liverpool Station to Ipswitch. After a short cab ride to Felixstowe and some form-filling out, etc, we caught our first glimpse of "Vegas" in Europe.

She looks great, and runs great:

We'll head back to London and grab some dinner and drinks at a pub and try to get a good night's sleep before we drive down to Portsmouth to catch the ferry to Caen, France.

ODOMETER: 4430 1/10

And we're off to Timbuktu (for real!)

2008-01-06T21:25:00.000-08:00

Bags packed

Shots gotten

Work wrapped up (well, mostly)

Air tixs in hand

Limo in London (finally!)

Three-Fourths of our new Team LimotoAfrica leave tomorrow for London. Suna, Mahk and Payo. We meet Pinar, our fabulous new photographer team mate, in Madrid, along with former team mates Cynthia and Brian. We'll continue our previously laid route through UK-France-Spain-Morocco-Mauritania and Mali.

This date has been a long time coming! Some things have changed: The official Paris-Dakar race was cancelled this year for the first time in its history because of direct terrorist threats against the event as well as heightened concerns after a french family was slain while visiting Mauritania .

http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/2008/01/06/sports/doc477f434b5c0f3573703251.txt

Needless to say, we've taken precautions. We'll assess the situation in Morocco whether to head into Mauritania or not. For now...dreaming of Saharan sand dunes.....

PLACE YER BETS BOARD!!

2007-12-19T22:43:00.000-08:00

This is the Vegas betting board from the Butter Bar fundraiser. The person with the closest guess on what day we make it to Bamako, Mali or what day we break down (tsk, such naysayers), will win a custom prize; the "Spirit of PBR", which will encompass the essence of the Plymouth-Bamako Limo Rally, Team LimoToAfrica, and the adventure that crosses 3 continents, ancient capitals of the world and artistic meccas alike. What's in this gift box you might ask? It will be assembled enroute, containing so far:

-Butter Bar wear

-Signed book by famous San Francisco Writer about a "human journey"

-Certificate to SF massage center

-And many more goodies picked up in France, Spain, Africa.....

And....WE'RE OFF!!! (NOT)

2007-12-19T22:12:00.000-08:00

*cough cough*
ahem.
Well, right about now TeamLimotoAfrica should be on a plane enroute to London, UK to start our car rallying adventures.
*assess minor shipping miscalculation**
Oops.

Let's just say a not-to-be named (former) team member neglected to do thorough research on the trans-Altantic shipping timelines and we soon found out that our "hey we need to get our car to London on time for this car race/charity thing, I'll even put you on our website"was a dust-mite speck on the "I care" radar of the world wide shipping industry, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and US & UK homeland security procedures.

Damn.

So we're leaving the US 2 weeks later than expected, departing January 7th, 2008 and plans to arrive in Bamako, Mali sometime during the spring. Or maybe February. We'll see. Luckily, the official car rally leaves London in waves, so we plan to join the January 11th Plymouth-Bamako run. Didn't someone say that the hardest part is getting started? I don't like that person (they probably work in shipping).

At the moment, Team LimotoAfrica is Team LimoinLimbo as we assess;
1) Who can still make the delayed start
2) Who will still have a job when they get back and
3) Where does the team sleep in the meantime as we've all sub-letted our places. (If you have a couch, email me!)

On a more positive note, THANK YOU to everyone that came out to Butter and made it upstairs to the VIP Limo party. It was a blast!! Slightly disturbing was
1) Number of people that bet we'd break down early (quite a lot)
2) Number of people that thought we'd make it (even more!)
3) The video playing at the Bar showing cars attempting the Saharan desert crossing and getting eaten up, and
4) Talking to the writer of the one and only Bamako rally guidebook, who told us that we were freakin' crazy to even attempt the crossing in a limo. (oh sh&t). Mahk said something about power-wheel base -tyre ratio and terminal velocity factor playing in our favor so we'll make it, thanks for the advice anyways, Bub(you gotta love engineers).

STAY TUNED!!!

SHIPPING CRISIS

2007-12-13T09:37:00.000-08:00

Dec 13. Our vehicle is 2 WEEKS LATE shipping to the UK. We're supposed to meet it NEXT WEEK in Felixestowe, UK to begin the race. The media will be there. Ferries, hotels, and other plans have been booked and paid for over the course of the next 5 weeks. People have purchased plane tickets to meet us en-route at coordinated stops along the 4000 mile journey. We've raised $1000s of dollars from friends, family and sponsors.

Worried......

Fundraiser Date ! - BUTTER, Thursday, Dec. 13th

2007-12-05T15:47:00.001-08:00

Evite invitations should have gone out already, but in cased we missed anyone, here are the details

Limo to Africa Fundraiser
BUTTER - upstairs, VIP lounge
354 11th Street, between Folsom and Harrison
Thursday, December 13th, 8:30pm
http://www.smoothasbutter.com/index.php

Come show your support for Limo to Africa! Our motley crew of of past and future car rally-ers including Suna, Mahk, Scoti, Christian P, Persephone, Cynthia & Brian S. will be hosting a final farewell party 5 days before the Europe/Africa crew depart for the soggy English Isle and then motor onwards through Europe & Africa.

Donation from Degenkolb Engineers

2007-12-05T15:30:00.000-08:00

Degenkolb Engineers (www.degenkolb.com), where I work, has made a generous donation to the World Computer Exchange on behalf of limotoafrica. They're also contributing in the sense of generously letting me take the time off for this trip, some mumble mumble weeks in total.

We're adding a new donors section to our website to thank Degenkolb and all those that have contributed so far.

Mark

Leaving La Vegas

2007-11-25T13:20:00.000-08:00

With the cross country limo trip - over 3K miles in 3.5 days - finished, we enjoyed Thanksgiving with old and new friends in the Big Apple before heading back to San Francisco. The cross - US trip helped us discover all of Vegas' quirky mechanical vagaries and as such we assiduously loaded up on more spare alternators, wheels, batteries, fuel injectors and various nuts 'n bolts. All the while knowing that it will be the one thing we don't bring that is going to break. It was an emotional moment to let go of our dear "Little engine that will" as we dropped her off on a chilly morning in New Jersey to board a ship for Felixstowe, UK. Cynthia made it all worthwhile by throwing Team LimoToAfrica a fabulous charity fundraiser that night where we drowned our sorrows in NY priced cocktails. We raised over $1K for the World Computer Exchange as well as sold raffle tickets/gave away fabulous prizes to help with rally costs. Some yahoo (aka our good friend Dan) thought it would be funny to start a "Guess when the limo breaks down" betting pool. Ha ha.

Stay tuned for our San Francisco charity event coming soon!

Made It !

2007-11-18T14:13:00.000-08:00

We're in NY !

Arrived yesterday (Saturday) early evening.
3,000 miles in 3 days and 8 hours. Went out last night for a few hours until we ran out of steam. Feeling much better today. We're staying at Cynthia's place (thanks Cynthia!), she's back later tonite, meantime Rahim and Sheba have been taking good of us. Which entails a lot of eating and sleeping.

Managed to find street parking for Vegas - no small accomplishment for a 23 ft vehicle in Chelsea. Spent a couple of hours this afternoon fixing a few minor problems, doors that don't lock and various trim pieces falling off. She's basically ready to ship.

Nearly there...

2007-11-17T14:00:00.000-08:00

Nearly there. Will be hitting NYC in 2-3 hours, depending on traffic. We're feeling pretty good all things considered. Made another stop at an auto parts place and got some last minute things - spare water pump, thermostat, and a 12V cooler (my call against Suna's - we'll see what she says in the Sahara when I pull out some icey cold bevvies - soda's that is....

Drag Racing in Toledo

2007-11-17T07:01:00.000-08:00

It's Saturday morning now. We were planning to stay in Chicago at Angies place (thanks Angie!) - but decided to drive through to try and make up the lost time. Stayed at some dump on the 80 - somewhere after Toledo - another solid five hours sleep and back on the road. We cruised through Toledo looking for a place to stay last night - downtown Toledo is da-ed on a Friday night. Pulled up to a stop light and another limo pulls up next to us. The driver gave me the limo driver nod, one pro to another. It was on. I floored it and we left him in the dust - on to NYC....

Near Miss !!!

2007-11-16T06:35:00.000-08:00

I asked Suna to pull off the road so I could water the prairie and we noticed the wheel vibration had graduated to a more serious sounding knocking. Checked the steering and suspension and it looked a bit loose, but OK. Decided to take off hubcap in case that was the problem and uncovered the mess that used to be the wheel studs and nuts. They had loosened and the studs had torn ovals into the wheel and ground away about a 1/4 of the stud thickness. The whole thing could easily have given up a few miles down the road had we kept going. Even worse, one of the studs snapped off when I tried to get the nut off. At this stage it was below freezing and I couldn't feel my face. Suna called for a tow but they said they couldn't help because it was a limo - nice.

After cleaning up the threads we managed to get the wheel on and secured, and limped to the nearest gas station with huge trucks flying by at 90mph. Found a great 24 hour repair shop who helped us get a nearby hotel (for a much needed nap), fixed the hub, and we were on our way within 5 hours. Suna was frantically txting her friends who had helpful suggestions like "stay positive" and "next time stop for funny noises"..... there'll be nobody to hep you in Africa baby ;-)

Now we are back on the road, things are looking up. The car is running well, almost no vibration, and we're making great time. Had one more freakout but it turned out to be a fake - the oil warning sensor lead disconnected and started shorting out intermittently against the block making the oil warning light flicker on randomly - but mostly at idle. All the symptoms of a bad oil pump or bad rod or bottom end bearings. Hooked the sensor lead back up and problem solved. Now just need to burn of the extra couple of pints I tossed into the engine. Hopefully we'll have time to get the oil pressure gauge hooked up before shipping to prevent this sort of thing - will keep my blood pressure under control anyway.

Shopping At Walmart

2007-11-15T13:48:00.000-08:00

Breakfast in Nebraska, loaded up on jerry cans and "sand ladders" at Walmart. We're all set for the Sahara - people are starting to look at us funny now. Suicidal tumble weeds keep crossing the road in front of us. Car running well, apart from wheel vibration problem.

Sunrise in Wyoming, now in Nebraska

2007-11-15T08:43:00.000-08:00

We drove through the night and the sun rose on Wyoming, decided pushed on and made Nebraska in less than 22 hours after we left. Decided to keep pushing on, rotating the driving and sleeping in the back of the limo. Vegas running well, is developing a slight vibration somewhere, hopefully just wheel balance problems and nothing more serious.

Beautiful Nevada and Utah

2007-11-15T06:08:00.000-08:00

Driving through Nevada and Utah is supposed to be beautiful. Ah well. We're making awsome time though, decided to drive through the night rather than stopping in SLC. Vegas is running great, cruising nicely at 70-75, but doesn't like the hills much....

Multimedia message

2007-11-14T10:55:00.001-08:00

And were off... Across the US we go.... Running late - it's about 11am Wednesday.

T-minus 32 hours and counting....

2007-11-12T23:37:00.000-08:00

So we have a lot to do before departing Wednesday morning. We've made good progress in the last four days but another week for two would sure have been nice. Our original date for shipping from NYC was supposed to have been after Thanksgiving - this would have given us a nice leisurely 9 day vacation across the country. Now we're leaving a week early which doesn't seem like much, but you know how it goes.

Anyway, Vegas is starting to come together, here's a sampling of some of the things going on:

Visited the Oakland Pick and Pull and pulled a ton of spares for the road - wheels, tyres, alternator, regulator, starter, computer, distributor, handbrake mechanism, injectors, fuel metering unit, three roof racks, complete set of gauges, door handles, window motors, interior trim pieces, spare hood ornament.

The roof rack and trunk racks are now on and look good. Hard to believe but it turns out they made the entire roof of the limo out of fiberglass to save weight. It's a really nice job but nearly useless for anchoring a rack into. Finally found a couple of bits of steel to anchor the ends into so it's pretty sturdy now but took longer than expected. We also put a rack on the trunk lid, will look pretty nifty when it's cleaned up.
New (old) set of gauges - volts, amps, oil pressure and water temperature are all installed (just need to figure out how to hook them up).

Gauges, left and trunk rack above.

The drivers door now opens and closes, and the windows o up and down. Of course now the right rear door has stopped working and the left rear window.
The emergency brakes now works - handy little thing that, the emergency brake, for emergencies and whatnot.
New shock ! Sweet. After much research and several failed attempts found an upgrade to the stock Town Car front shocks. 1997 Ford Crown Victoria Police Edition - Severe Service Model. These are a perfect fit and much larger than the ones we pulled out. Hopefully this will help us make it through the desert - when we get airborne off the sand dunes in the sahara.....
Sadly we were not able to successfully remove and replace the front springs. I got some of those rinky-dink coil spring spacers but I'm not confident they'll be much use. We'll know how she rides tomorrow when we get her off the blocks for a test drive.
Replaced the front left rotor which we managed to destroy on the way back from BM when the pads wore out.

So between now and Wednesday morning just need to finish reassembling the interior, reinstall the front left hub, and get her back on the ground for a test drive. Fingers x'd. I'm sure every will work just fine. Fine fine fine. Yep yep yep.

The photo to the left is on the way back to San Francisco after a long afternoon at the Oakland Pick N Pull - on San Leandro down near Oakland Airport in case you need to know. Crazy place. Interesting people. Lots of wrecked Fords. If you zoom in on the map below you can see them all in the left corner, that's Suna waving from the top of a Crown Victoria.

One other item of news - the event is a staggered start - the first group has already reached Mali - live reports from the road are on the P-D website here.

http://www.pdcinfo.info/fieldreports/latestnews.htm

Cheers

Mark

View Larger Map

Our First Press!

2007-11-10T00:11:00.000-08:00

Well, we got our first press - very exciting. Check it out here.
http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/livewire/travel_food/africa_or_bust/
Thanks to Gaetana for tracking down the various US teams and putting all this together. We're hopeful that this will get picked up in some local papers

At present we're planning to hit the road for NYC either next Tuesday (Nov 13) or Wednesday morning. Unfortunately our shipping date got moved forward on us so we're leaving a week earlier than planned. What was to be a nice leisurely 9-day trip across country has become a high-speed run to meet the big boat - a la cannonball run.

Our NY friends (Cynthia, Dan, and Rahim) have organized a party/fundraiser for Monday November 19th. If you're in NY, please come join,
Alphabet Lounge
104 Avenue C, here.

The last week or three have been spent frantically working on Vegas in an attempt to get her in ship shape for the cross country drive. New alternator, batteries, regular, wiring and so now hopefully we've solved the electrical problems. Several trips to the Oakland Pick N Pull (good times) have netted a small hoard of spare parts starters, injectors and the like. This Saturday is hopefully the last visit - need a handbrake mechanism, roof racks, and some miscellaneous door parts. Will not be sorry to see the last of that place.

The main problem has been the suspension we had big plans to replace and upgrade all of the springs, which have sagged and softened over the years. Apparently ground clearance is key for some of this trip and limos aren't generally rated well in this department. After several attempts we gave up trying to extract the old springs - weird attachment requiring special tools and nonstrandard replacement parts. We've had to settle for new shocks and some spring spacers. The shocks are very cool - turns out we can upgrade to the shocks from a 1997 Ford Crown Victoria, Police Package - Severe Service Model. They're big and yellow, and hopefully they'll stop that embarrassing tendency to bounce down the highway that we have at present. So between the shocks, the new bushings, and the spring spacers hopefully it'll be enough. We'll fund out when we hit the road....

Fingers X'd.

The Beginning

2007-10-14T16:33:00.000-07:00

It started back in January when Christian sent Mark the link for the event.
www.plymouth-dakar.co.uk
So it's all his fault.....