Peking to paris update

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Peking to paris update

#1 Post by Guest »

Received a phone call this day at 10 am, midnight in Mongolia, I knew that any call from Hayden to me is not a good thing. We had arranged that a direct phone call was for help. Over the last 2 days the road was so rough the car use twice as much fuel as comparied to a regular road. Half way yesterday they broke off the rear shock mount from the swing arm, I have never seen this and 20 Km later the other side broke off. They traveled the next 150 km (90 miles) to the end of the day point with no rear shocks. I cannot imagine how bad that must have been especially of the roads they are on. They fortunetly found a local farmer that had a stick welding equiptment so they can do a repair. We decided to send fresh, reinforced parts to them. So today I found 2 rear trailing arms in my pile of used parts, boxed in the shock arm with 1/8 inch cold rolled steel. I then put together a repair kit of gaskets, bolts, bearings, boots and any thing else they might need. Since I fully enclosed the shock arm we lost the hole for the passage of the brake line so I supplied them with extra hard lines to make a new hose route. While I was doing this Tracy, his wife and manager of their company Wevo, made the arangements with a shipper to get it to Mongolia ASAP. ASAP is 5 working days. Tracy has experience with this since Hayden was the chassis engineer for Brumos racing and now with RICI racing and was used to crash shipping. Next week end, Sept. 18/19 is a 2 day break in the action. I needed to get the parts to WEVO by 4pm at the latest for todays pickup and shipment. No time to waste so i just piled all the parts the floor of the truck and left for WEVO 45 minutes away. I was writing instructions on things to check on the inside lid of the box the gaskets were in while driving down the highway to his shop. Got it boxed, papers filled and on the truck with 15 minutes to spare.
I hope he does not call me again.
The saga continues.

Alan

Jason McCandless
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Location: San Francisco

#2 Post by Jason McCandless »

Wow, I never expected it to be easy for the team, but that is brutal. Sorry they are having trouble, but that's the adventure I suppose!

Looking forward to more updates (as long as they are good!).

Good Luck to the Team!

Guest

#3 Post by Guest »

Jason,
I spite of this they have gone from 7th overall to 5th overall! I talked to him yesterday and he said at least half of the cars are being repaired! I have taken two swing axles and had the shock arm welded in a box form and sent them last Friday with all gaskets ,bearings and any thing extra I can think of. We had a special shipper on line that will get the parts to Mongolia in 5 bussiness days. In the meantime he found a local farmer that had stick welding equiptment to patch the car, I have some pictures hope to get it on the site. I have never seen the shock arm break let along both! Next weekend is 2 day stop so they can switch arms (I hope).

Alan

Guest

#4 Post by Guest »

Carnage from the roads!!!
Image

Image
The site is a famity in the Gobi dessert.
Repaire parts on the way!!
Alan

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Vic Skirmants
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#5 Post by Vic Skirmants »

Alan,
I don't remember all the build details you posted for that car: Is it a coil-over setup?
We had the same problem occasionally on our SCCA cars when we went to coil-overs,
since the mount was only meant for shock loads, and not full suspension loads.
If it is not coil-over, then the shocks have been bottoming big-time!

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Mike Klapac
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#6 Post by Mike Klapac »

Even with the wealth of experience that went into this build, I have a feeling that there is going to be a a lot learned by the end of the race.

Thanks for the updates. I look forward to the next one.

Max Handley
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Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2008 11:52 am

peking to paris

#7 Post by Max Handley »

Peking to Paris website with some good videos showing the Hayden Porsche 356 in the first & last video.

http://www.pekingparis.com/

Guest

#8 Post by Guest »

The suspension is very stock as per the rules. No extra stuff there. I have sent over to him a set of swing arms that have the shock arms boxed in with cold rolled steel. Sent last Friday and today they arrived in Mongolia just waiting to go through customs. Many of the cars have seen some sort of breakage so even in spite of these problems the 356C has gone to 7th overall and and 5th in class. After next weekend the roads are more paved. Hayden told me the last 2 days had the worst roads he has seen. In spite of his problems he says this is a tribute to the engineering and strength of the 356. This morning we received a text message that said when he woke up in his tent, this was one of the camp out days, it was zero degrees F and the sides of his tent were hard due to the ice covering.

Alan

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