2000 Mile Trial, a rally to the Artic Circle

2000 Mile Trial
A Rally to the Artic Circle
By Robert Frost

part 1
part 2 (with color pictures)

As some of you may know, Lauri and I use our old cars in Europe for rallies. Most of the rallies we participate in are of six or seven day's duration and usually involve only about 150 miles of competitive driving per day. Early in 1999 Jaap Elzas, my friend and SFJC member, telephoned and told me about a rally which would take place in 2000 and would go from Holland up to the wastes of Lapland and back to Oslo in Norway.

When I received the details of the rally I was unsure whether to participate. Despite the name (The 2000 mile Trial) the rally would be 6000 miles long and would take 21 days to complete. I was unsure whether I wanted to drive for up to 13 hours per day on mostly unpaved roads. However Lauri, my wife and also the navigator, was very keen as we would see a part of the world that we otherwise would never visit. Indeed the rally could not have been run prior to 1992. Only with the break up of Russia could you easily travel through those areas around the Baltic Sea.
So I paid the non refundable deposit, and we were committed.

The first problem that I faced was which car to use. Part of the rules of the rally was that each competitor could have no outside assistance. This meant that I needed a car that had enough room to carry tools and spares for 6000 miles of rough roads and also have enough room for two people and their luggage. The cars needed to be fast, reliable, have good ground clearance and manufactured prior to 1967. Additionally the car needed to be a convertible, as Lauri gets car sick in a closed car. I already had four cars but none of them were really suitable. The 1952 Alvis, which some of you may know from its time in Florida, is too slow. Also with a wood frame it is not strong enough for the rough roads.

maintenance in Riga The other cars I had were all Jaguars. A 1951 XK120, a 1969 E type and a 1967 420 sedan. The two sports cars did not have enough luggage capacity and the 420 was of course not a soft top. The 420 is also thirsty and fuel in Europe is about $5 per gallon. I decided to use a Jaguar because I know more about that make than any other. The car that appeared to fit the specification was an XK150 drop head coupe. It has good ground clearance, good performance and importantly, enough space for the luggage and spares. After much searching I found a 1960 car that had been the subject of a body off restoration in 1990 and had only covered 3000 miles since.

I purchased the car in January 2000 and then returned to Florida until the end of April. Upon return to England I set about the task of checking out the car and making modifications to enable the car to cover the 6000 miles of rough roads. Every item of the car, apart from the engine and transmission, was dismantled and checked for wear or faults. That took about three weeks of ten-hour days. I fitted a sump guard (a plate under the engine to protect against rough roads), new wheel bearings and Spax adjustable shocks to be able to stiffen the suspension. I stripped the brake system and fitted all new seals and refilled the system with DOT 4 fluid. I was recommended not to use silicone fluid as it can wreck the old type seals. I fitted armored stainless braided hoses to all wheels, and the clutch, to resist damage from flying stones. All exposed wires under the car were protected with plastic tubing.

The gas tank was then protected using a plate of 14g-aluminum sheet, and all fuel lines re-routed to keep them high up on the chassis. It would have been better to have routed them through the car but I did not have the time. I fitted the head lamps and the radiator with mesh covers to prevent damage from stones. I fitted new stiffer rear springs, which I packed with copper grease and covered with leather gaiters. I fitted a solid state electronic system to eliminate the points and fitted new plugs and leads. One of the weak points of the 1960 Jaguar is the electrical components. I know that there are many jokes about Lucas but my experience has not been at all bad, providing they are well maintained.

I purchased the following spares : Plugs, coil, voltage regulator, distributor cap, spare hoses, radiator cap, brake pads, brake fluid, fuses, bulbs, gas pump, gaskets for carburetors, fuel filters. I decided not to take a spare starter or generator due to the weight penalty, a decision I would learn to regret.

Tires were a problem as I only had room for one spare. The XK 150 is fitted with wire wheels and 185 X 16 tires, which are not readily available, at least, in the wilds of northern Europe. I finally compromised, and had all the tubes replaced with racing tubes, and took four spare tubes. These racing tubes are much thicker than standard and can take much more abuse than regular tubes. It is also important that when the tubes are fitted, they are liberally covered in French chalk to prevent chafing against the inside of the tire. I have suffered several flats in the past due to not following this vital rule.

The trunk was packed with the spares and a very carefully selected range of tools and a five gallon can of fuel, as the standard 14 gallon tank would not have enough range.Our clothes for a three-week trip were carefully selected to reduce the size of the bags, but we would have to cope with temperatures varying from 32 to 85. We planned to drive the whole route with the top down, as much as possible, so we took warm lightweight coats and two types of hat to cope with the temperature extremes. The bags were packed in the area behind the front seats. I did not like the idea of using the standard jack on soft ground in the event of having to change a wheel so I bought a two-ton trolley jack. This was strapped to the floor in front of Lauri's feet to move the weight forward. It is a good job she's not tall.

The instructions for the route of the rally were sent to us about three weeks before the start to enable us to plot the route on the maps. We were due to drive nearly six thousand miles through nine countries. Each country has a different style of map and not always at the same scale. The instructions were given as written notes telling you to take a certain road in a certain direction for a certain distance. These instructions had to be transferred to the maps for a distance of 6000 miles. This is not always easy when the roads you will be taking are very small and winding through the mountains. It took us about forty hours of concentrated effort to complete the task. We had not competed in a rally before where the navigation had to be done only from maps. It was to be a real uphill learning curve.

We left home in central England on Friday June 9th to drive to the port of Harwich, a distance of about 150 miles, where we were to board a ferry to Holland. After a crossing of 3 1/2 hours we arrived in Holland at 4.00 p.m. It should have taken about two hours to drive to the rally start in Apeldoorn. Unfortunately that weekend was also the finals of the European soccer championship and the roads were stationary with traffic. To add to our problems the temperature soared to 95 and the XK boiled over. We had to pull over and wait for the traffic to clear. We suffered the same problem throughout the rally whenever we had to travel slowly. A problem that I have since discovered is due to blocked waterways in the radiator. We met up with some of our fellow competitors who were also having overheating problems. The joys of old cars!

We finally arrived at the hotel to meet up with the other competitors. We soon found that many other teams were already facing some big problems. In fact three cars did not even start the event. I checked the car over and during a run through the local town was horrified to discover that the brakes did not work very well. The car took a very long distance to stop. I checked all through the system and could not find anything wrong. I went to bed in a very depressed state of mind. Next morning the car behaved normally and continued to do so for the rest of the rally. I still do not know what caused the problem.

the start at the Het Loo palace in Holland Day One...
Sunday morning the first car left the Palace "Het Loo" (A Dutch Royal palace) at 8 o'clock with the cars departing at one minute intervals. We were car number 66 but due to non starters we left at 8.48. We set out on a fast freeway towards Germany on a beautiful summer morning. About an hour after we pulled into a parking lot to participate in a slalom. Many competitors drove very fast (smoking tires, the whole works). As I pulled up to the start line the marshal said to me don't forget there is another 5900 miles to go. A very sobering thought. However the XK 150 is a quick car and I was able to beat the bogey time by two seconds without giving the old girl too much grief.

Rejoining the freeway we drove quickly for another hundred miles and I thought it would not be too difficult to reach our destination Potsdam near the German capital, Berlin in the allowed time. That soon changed when the route took off across country with many small country roads where the average speed of 63 kph was much more difficult to achieve. The final control of the day was at the Town Hall in Potsdam and we had to arrive not later that 7.18 p.m., or face time penalties. We thought we were in good time until we neared Potsdam and found that there were huge crowds waiting to greet us. Something that, much to our surprise, we would encounter all along our route. We finally clocked in with two minutes to spare. We arrived at the hotel at 8.30 in time for a meal and then collapsed into bed feeling very tired. And we still had another twenty days to go.

Day Two...
Next morning we were up at six for a start at 7.30 for the drive to Berlin. Fortunately it was a public holiday and we were able to see all the sights of Berlin (that I had only read about in spy books) without fighting the usual traffic. We got out of Berlin without getting lost, unlike many competitors, and headed for the border with Poland across the bridge that was the place where prisoners were exchanged during the cold war. It took us 45 minutes to complete all of the paperwork to get into Poland, but we were finally on our way to Choszczno. We arrived without getting lost, but if we had to ask our way we would have been in serious difficulty. I still don't know how you pronounce some of those Polish names. This was day two and the roads were some of the worst on the rally. Talk about being thrown in at the deep end. The route used many forest tracks and we had to average 48 kph (about 30 mph). This doesn't sound very fast until you know that some of the tracks were very rough. In front of me was an Austin Healey 3000 (which has very small ground clearance). The car dropped into a rut so deep he could not get out. This caused us a ten minute delay whilst several competitors helped him to get going again. Thank goodness for the 16 inch wheels on the XK.

We finally arrived at our destination, Gdansk, at 8.18 p.m. to the most overwhelming reception from the town. By the time we had eaten and dropped into bed at 11 we were exhausted. There has to be an easier way of enjoying yourself.

at speed in the dust of Latvia Day Three...
was a start at 7.30 for the drive to the border with Lithuania. This was one of the countries created in 1992 by the break up of Russia. The countryside is flat and partially wooded with many small farms. There were many horse drawn carts and the people looked poor and depressed. It was quite different in the larger towns where there were many people to greet us. They had not seen cars like this before. To see nearly 100 old cars was the most exciting thing to happen that year. We drove 600 kM that day on gravel roads. The dust was unbelievable. If you were unfortunate enough to come up behind another competitor it was just like driving in dense fog. The dust got everywhere in the car and by the end of day we also were very dirty. I was very grateful to reach the hotel in Vilnius, even the suitcase was full of dust so we had dirty clothes as well.

Day four...
we drove 30 kM to a place called Europas Centras. Apparently some Frenchman had calculated that this is the geographic center of Europe. In other words we were now midway between the southern tip of Spain and the northern tip of Norway. Another 350 kM of dust and gravel, sometimes driving absolutely flat out to achieve the set times, brought us to Riga, the capital of Latvia. Before finishing for the day we were directed to the Riga race circuit. There we had a very interesting test. We had to drive around the circuit at a set speed, the first lap at 55 kph the second lap at 60 kph and the third lap at 65 kph. The closer you got to the correct speed the lower were your penalties. Fortunately they gave us the lap distance and so it was possible to calculate the required lap times. I drove at a high speed and slowed down near to the finishing line so as to cross as near as possible to the exact time required. I must have been lucky that day, because I only had three seconds penalty for the three laps.

Day five...
and off to Tallin, the capital city of Estonia. Just after crossing the border we arrived at Parnu and another race circuit. This time it was to be a flat out race around the track. I had great fun and had just finished the run. The next car out on the track was an Austin Healey 3000. As the car rounded the last curve the passenger's door flew open and the navigator was thrown out onto the track. Fortunately she only suffered a broken finger. It could have been much worse.

reception in Riga And so, on to Tallin for another great reception, and a day off. At least for the navigator, but the driver was also the mechanic and the car had to be serviced. Apart from greasing and some adjustments the only major work was changing the brake pads which were badly worn due to the dust of the last 2000 kM.

Originally the rally was scheduled to travel through Russia to St. Petersburg, but due to border difficulties this plan was abandoned. We would instead be crossing directly to Helsinki in Finland by ferry on Saturday June 17th.

When the results were published we were very pleased to be lying 15th out of 75 and first of the thirteen Jaguars. We also received some very kind comments from the rally organizer and a bottle of champagne. The reason for his comments was the fact that that we were only using a standard speedometer to measure distances. All the other competitors were using very sophisticated devices that could measure to an accuracy of 100 meters. Many of the leading crews were semi professional and we knew that we did not have the experience to win.

Our main goal was to win a "Prince Hendrick Trophy". This was a solid bronze statue, and was a replica of the trophy given to the winner of "The 2000 mile trial" run in 1900. The original was so called because it was awarded by Prince Hendrick of The Netherlands, who was a car enthusiast. In order to win this prestigious trophy we had to come in the first 35 cars in each of the three legs into which the rally was divided. Since we were 15th we were in with a fighting chance.

The car was still running well and had had given very little trouble. I had driven over 3000 kM and had used less than a quart of oil.
We looked forward to a change of scene and the challenging driving of the Finland "Thousand Lakes Country".

To be continued: -