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Duckworth Land Rover Enter 2010 Tuareg Rallye
- The Event
- The Desert Warrior
- The Support Vehicle
- Daily Diary of Event
The Morocco Desert Storm rally in 2007 proved enormously successful for Duckworth land Rover, not only in terms of results but also in proving what could be achieved with a standard 4.4 V8 Discovery 3 prepared by a knowledgeable Land Rover main dealer with a real passion for the product. This combined with a team solely from the dealership decided a great result.
Daily reports were sent back to Market Rasen and were posted on the website. This information attracted customers from all over the world who logged in to watch the teams progress. On return from the trip the vehicle was re-worked by the workshop at Duckworth Land Rover and offered for sale. The vehicle was bought and immediately exported to its final destination – The Spanish Algarve.
Using various Genuine Land Rover Accessories and a few other components the vehicle was prepared over a 3-month period to prove reliable, comfortable and competitive, all based on a standard Discovery 3 4.4V8.
Now having had a taste for both adventure and success the Duckworth Land Rover Team decided it would like to enter for another event to build on the 2007 result.
The Event
It was only realistic to plan for 2009/2010 as 2008 events has already been booked up and organised during the latter half of 2007.
With a totally open mind many events were looked at ranging from, us organising a tour of Morocco, to events such as the Dakar Rally. We wanted to partake in a similar event that captured a spirit of adventure that came from the remote location but also keep within the constraints of a small budget.
We wanted to use a vehicle prepared by us, Land Rover based and compete over a period of several days to prove reliability and stamina, key attributes from the previous events.
A short list of events were drawn up that included;The Berlin to Breslau Rally
It was finally decided over much deliberating that the Tuareg Rallye would be perfect for us. Key attributes were;
Location – The event started on the south coast of France, followed by a Ferry to Morocco, five days of competition in Morocco and 1 day of competition in Spain.
Setup – The event is German organised and setup for the amateur as vehicle regulations are based on road cars with a few safety requirements
The Vehicle
Once the event had been decided we looked at several options. These included modifying a standard car much like what we had done previously, starting from scratch or using something ‘off the shelf’, however as we had done this previously we felt like we would like more of a challenge.
The experience and enthusiasm within the dealership to prepare another vehicle was enormous from the staff involved so it was decided that we could take on ‘a project’. This was key due to the budget constraints and the fact that we did have several second hand components available to largely construct a vehicle.
It was decided that ideally we could build a vehicle if we were to start with a basic chassis and body panel set. There are several vehicles on the market that would be ideal for what we wanted to achieve. The Bowler Wildcat would be perfect as most of this vehicle is from the Land Rover parts stable, however production at this time had stopped and was being transferred to QT Services who were prepared to help us with a chassis and body panel kit however did not have an accurate timeframe and price as production had not started.
A call to Bowler off road confirmed that the Nemesis would only be available as a complete vehicle due to its complexity and prices started at over £100,000. This was clearly not an option for us.
Various other options were looked at, however one vehicle in particular that was for consideration was the Rally Raid Desert Warrior. This vehicle is largely Land Rover based with its own space-frame and panel kit (see www.rallyraid.com) however these vehicles use the BMW TD6 engine. A call to Paul Round had us invited over to his factory for a tour.
Paul was extremely helpful and suggested that one of his new project rally cars may be of interest to us, the LXR. Paul was quite happy to sell us an FIA approved frame and body panel kit and to make matters better Paul offered to help us install an engine of our choice.
It was decided that we should aim to fit a Land Rover V8 engine mated to a ZF gearbox, these units had a similar overall dimension to the powertrain that Rally Raid use. This choice was made due to cost and availability of the parts and our extensive knowledge of the Land Rover units.
Powertrain
The Desert Warrior is normally fitted with a BMW 3.0 Td6 Diesel Engine. This unit was not our choice as we wanted to use a Land Rover engine for obvious reasons, and we needed to keep the budget to a minimum.
The engine we had available was a 4.0 high compression unit from a Discovery 2, this was stripped and re-built into a 4.6 high compression bottom end. The cylinder heads were taken to a specialist for the intake and exhaust ports to be opened out and the valves replaced with larger units. The cam was then exchanged for a slightly more aggressive profile. The engine was then assembled and sent to ACR (www.automotivecomp.com) for a dyno test and omex ignition and furl injection system to be fitted. The engine was confirmed to have a safe 250bhp and 400Nm Torque. These figures were ideal for what we were looking for to create a reliable unit that would not easily damage the rest of the running gear.
The gearbox was derived from a ZF unit fitted to a Discovery 2. This unit however had several issues the first and second gear clutch pack are underrated for the torque and the torque converter rating was too small. The gearbox was subsequently re-built with high performance internals and a modified torque converter was fitted.
Suspension
The axle cases are from a Discovery 2, these units were modified by removing all of the mounting points, spring hangers etc and fabrication of new components, welded in place. This had to be done to accommodate 12” of axle travel and the mounting of the 2 Fox suspension units per corner. This work was done by us at Market Rasen and the axles re-enforced by a D44 stainless steel removable differential inspection plate. (See www.devon4x4.com) The Axles than were fitted with ARB air locking differentials and strengthened shafts.
The Rally Support Vehicle
Daily Diary of our progress
Message from Ben @ 15:45
After all meeting at the dealership (see pic 1)we loaded up and left Market Rasen at 21.00hrs (and we were all on time for a change) on Wednesday the 10th March, to cover 1558 miles (see pic 2) to Mojacar, Almeria Spain, only to find the A1 shut at Melton Mowbray and then the M11 shut , both of which extended our already extreme estimated travel time.
It took us until 03.30hrs to reach our first milestone, Dover for our short crossing to Calais. This heralded our first slight challenge. Firstly our recently adapted support/tow Land Rover LRR 261 (2001MY Land Rover Defender TD5 with already 215,000 miles on the clock) had a complete lighting failure, this was traced on the car deck prior to sailing, by Nobby to a very worn out switch that we repaired there and then on the ferry car deck, which resulted in being the wrong side of the safety doors at the time of setting sail. This was after and on top of having to loose a recently purchased full jerry can of diesel that was not allowed to be carried on the ferry,however we resolved this hold up by reinstating the jerry can to the it's original location on the roof rack once in France.
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Once on the continent we headed south. Avoiding Paris was a must, so the route was, to the east of Paris and down to the Millau sky bridge where we were caught up in the destructing of a covey of berlingo vans heading for the France Spain border. Progress was slow as the further south we traveled the more snow (see pic 3) we experienced. It seemed strange heading for a desert race that we experienced southern Europe's worst snow for over 10-Years.
Another night came and went with our second dawn breaking in northern Spain. This morning from 0.00Hrs until 06.30Hrs were the most difficult as we battled with sleep depravation and the urgency to cover ground without jeopardizing our safety. Frequent stops for coffee and snacks (see pic 4) were the case.
The last 20 Miles to our destination focuses our minds to the purpose of the trip, compounded by beginning to see other teams traveling to our common destination. To act as a reminder for jobs to be carried out a makeshift dry wipe notice board was created using a marker pen and the windscreen....
Special Mentions go to LRR for transporting us, our kit and the trailer and desert warrior 1600 miles, not missing a beat. Oh and Jethro (and Densil) for keeping us awake and crying through the night...
Continue to follow our progress throughout this week by clicking the days below and don't forget, you can track our progress throughout the rally by clicking the 'Live - Vehicle Tracking' tab above.
Tomorrow sees us prepare for scrutinizing and loading LRR with our required kit.
Message from Ben @ 22:00
Today was spent checking over the racer and support car after the long journey. After removing the racer from the trailer we we attended to a few last minute modification to both cars in preparation for tomorrows scrutineering.
On the racing vehicle we fitted the drinking water systems and checks were made to the fuel and cooling systems.
On the support car we re-arranged the spare parts and kit as now only two occupants needed to travel in the car.
Both cars were washed and fuelled ready for the short trip to the port in the morning.
A last minute shop was done for essentials such as bottled water and basic food and snacks as we do not plan to each much local food for fear of the 'delli belly'.
We also met up with some of the other competitors and the rally raid team.
Come back tomorrow as scrutineering starts in the morning and then the race officially begins.
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Message from Ben @ 21:00
This morning was final packing and the last 100km drive to the port at Almeria. Scrutineering and signing on at the docks.
This process was planned to start at noon and will take up to 10pm this evening to complete as there are over 200 bikes, 40 cars and 30 assistance vehicles to process.
We arrived at the port at 10.00 and got into a good position in the queue. A touch of reality has now set in as roadbooks come out with highlighter pens with all bikers and co-drivers marking the route hazards.
We were visited by the technical scrutinisers at about 14.30 and they checked over the Desert Warrior and declared us safe to partake.
We then went on to get into the big queue for the signing on. This look a lot longer as roadbooks, paperwork, sponsor stickers etc were all collected.
The drivers briefing is set to start at 17:00 followed by the ferry crossing to Nador.
As you can see from the two satellite photographs, it has been very slow progress today.
Tomorrow will see this all change when the first official stage begins.
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Message from Ben @ 23:30
Just got into service after first full day of competition. Had a very good day and very fast. No problems with the racer only the normal day one tyre ripped off as per our last two competitions but we had that fixed in no time.
Did have a small 'slip' off the track, through a bush but no harm done.
Update from Ben @ 06:20
We came 7th overall on this first stage and was only 10 seconds behind the leaders (even with our flat tyre) so very pleased with our pace. We may even slow a little to sustain the racer a bit..... but then.... maybe not!
The boys (Kevin and Derek) serviced the racer last night and all was ok. Did some small adjustments such as reprogramming the cooling fans as its not as hot as we thought it might be. We also had to change the steering damper for a stronger one as it took some punishment and we boiled the oil in it yesterday and lost the power assistance.
Apart from that, we did the 40km special stage and 400km overall.
Although we are continuing unscathed, there were several accidents with the bikers. One broken leg and two bikers didn't turn up this morning.
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Message from Ben @ 19:00
Just finished for today. All in one piece and all ok.
Two special stages today. First one went really well with no dramas. The terrain was loose gravel and rocky with some very fast sections and we made no navigation errors. No finishing positions as yet, however we feel that it we did well.
There was then a 100 mile off-road liaison section to special stage two that started on the gravel flat of the northern sahara and then went into sand dunes.
The first section went badly as the navigation was very difficult with lots of it using bearings / headings for many miles. Our small errors when navigating cased large errors when translated to the course.
The second section in the dunes went well as the racer is awesome in the sand! With the centre diff locked and both axles diff locked, we could climb some huge sand dunes with ease. Even doing this for extended periods didn't make the auto gearbox overheat.
We finished well and have a positive feeling for our results.
Kevin and Derek are now working on the racer, checking it over ready for tomorrow.
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Message from Ben @ 16:10
Today was the day for the dunes with a small flat desert crossing in the middle, covering over 200km.
The day was all a special stage with no Liaison. Starting from the hotel we crossed the dunes of Erg Chebbi for about 3 hours, this included getting stuck twice following a very hairy moment cresting a dune with too much velocity, resulting in us landing on our nose and luckily not rolling end over end. The sand is soft and going is very slow, first and second gear Hi-Range with the engine working very hard. Our near miss made us slow down as we had realised how dangerous it could be. We had already learned from the briefing that 3 bikers were in hospital and seven more had already gone home on day two. After this heart stopping moment we slowed down. Our learning curve for driving and navigating in these large dunes was incredible. We then progressed more slowly and that resulted in us getting stuck on two dune tops as we were being too careful.
After the first section we were back on the flat desert and reverted our tyre pressures from 10psi in the sand to 25psi (ideally we would have liked them at circa 40psi for the flat however we did not want to waste time pumping them up more than absolutely necessary). This flat desert was magnificent as we passed a big lake with Camels and an Oasis, this was apparently filmed as a horizon for the film 'Sahara' .
This type of terrain has been our strong point as we can perform well on these surfaces. We overtook several bikers on this section but did not catch the leading 3 cars.
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At the end of this section we met up with Kevin and Derek who were ready to assist should we have needed it. A quick check of the car confirmed no issues and we took on board a cheese sandwich each and carried on.
Back in the dunes we could tell that our two moments of getting stuck on the first section had cost us time as several cars had already been through the stage. This time we managed to plan our route more carefully and managed to have a very good run through. 2 km into the dunes we came across the competition car from Brit-cars of Germany that had suffered an end over end roll. The driver, Jan Mihalicek, was not hurt however his car was badly damaged and left on its roof.
We had a good run to the end with only one small moment of getting stuck on a dune crest 200m from the finnish.
Kevin and Derek are now servicing the car, the only issues we have suffered are two sticking door handles, full of sand, and loss of power steering as the oil keeps boiling. We have fitted a new steering damper to sort this.
On return to the service area we note that the Desert Warrior of Paul Round was back and was the heavily modified Mercedes G Wagon of Last years winner and a few other cars.
We are not sure of our position as the results have not been published yet however we feel we have not had such a good day today as previously. We will send our times and positions later.
Tomorrow we are back in the dunes for a big stage, as I write this Howard is reading the road-book and reports that we have over 180km to do, mainly made up of sand dunes! I will prepare the shovels tonight!
Remember we are aiming to raise £10,000 for 'Help the Heroes', please consider us for a donation!
Message from Ben @ 16:30
The results were up from the last three days and our overall position is 11th.
Today however was the day for the Dune section. 180 km in the sand dunes consisting of as many laps as we could manage without being timed out. We were not sure that we would do well on this section as our past experience of sand dunes is very limited. A Le Mans start was the order of the day at 8.30am. Once off, we had a section of 14 waypoints, crossing the dunes in many directions. We had a steady start and took a different route to the first checkpoint and amazingly that allowed us to be in the first three cars to reach the first checkpoint.
The dunes got bigger and we slowed our pace to remain on course, meeting the Israeli brothers of Izahir and Nadev Armony in another Desert Warrior. They were suffering motion sickness and soon we experienced this ourselves as the dunes became bigger. Several times we had to stop to either recover the car or have a minute to prevent serious illness!
In between checkpoints three and four we had to cross a very large dune section and unfortunately came to a standstill on the brow of the largest dune. Our only option was to move forwards. We managed to dig the tip of the dune away from under the car to allow us to proceed.
The car is running perfectly with no failures al all. The engine is running well on the poor local fuel and the transmission has only reached a maximum temperature of 128Deg C, well within its working limit. The cooling system is working perfectly. We did worry about our positioning of the air intake as sand ingress could be an issue, however after today we only had only a spoonful of sand in the system.
We managed to complete one lap with only 3 cars ahead of us and a Polaris buggy.
We knew the day was hard as at last nights briefing it was announced that out of over 220 competitors only 53 completed the course to the required amount of laps. We did not as we were timed out. Out of the four Desert Warriors, 2 had a roll plus two other cars including a Defender SVX. Positions have been announced and we are currently 11th overall including a 4hr time penalty for missing two secret checkpoints. We have registered a protest as we do not think we missed one of them.
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Message from Ben @ 13:00
Just got in from today's stage. The day was four laps of the biggest dune in the area, checking in at four waypoints, one at each corner. This meant two large dune field crossings, one flat strength and one small dune field crossing. Things must be getting better as we have only been digging twice today, both times in the same place right at the top of large crest that we had to stop on to stamp our time card, both times we did not have enough speed to crest the top and stop on the downward side.
On the second two laps we did not make this mistake, the thought of more digging ensures a little extra speed when approaching the dune!
We took a little more time on lap one to find a great course and then stored the track to follow for the three remaining laps. This tactic worked well as the laps became easier as we re-traced our steps.
We completed the stage in approximately 4 hours, this has given us a good feeling for the day. This should give us a top ten placing for the day.
I will send the results later when announced.
The car has been worked very hard today spending most of the day in first and second gear high range with the engine working very hard, some sections required maximum engine power or several minutes at a time. The gearbox maximum temperature today was only 98Deg C however the transfer-box has been getting very hot again. We are going to change the fluid in the transfer box today to help ensure no issues. Both axles have ARB locking differentials and today have been switched in all day. We suspect we may have a leaky internal o' ring in the front diff as the compressor struggles occasionally to keep the front locker 'in'. Overall though the car is performing perfectly as we have had no major mechanical issues.
Most other teams have spent many hours at night repairing their cars with issues ranging from bodywork damage, differential and shaft failures, cooling problems to electrical faults.
Message from Ben @ 17:45
As of last night we are placed 8th overall.
Just got in from today's stage which comprised of three sections. The first out of merzuga over the dunes and a fast track section across the desert to a checpoint, this section was timed.
We navigated the dunes using a Gps route we had previously plotted and knew could be driven easily. Following this we progressed onto the flat desert sprint, we covered this well and have a positive feel to the section.
The following two sections were navigation based with our end point at Missor. These two sections totaled over 300 km and were made up of tracks and a long rocky river bed over 11km long traversing a long canyon.
All waypoints were reached.
The results will be posted later.
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Update from Ben @ 17:30
Unfortunately we had a nightmare day today. The first problem was that a rock split a brake hose and we lost all brakes. We spent the rest of the stage with mole grips on brake line. Then we hit a rock with the front axle in a riverbed and bent it and lost diff oil. We had to seal this up with the help of Kevin and Derek, and finally our fuel pump failed.
We made it to the Finnish line but lost a lot of time.
Update from Ben @ 21:30
In the end the stage was cancelled half way through due to poor conditions and too many accidents. We have now fixed the fuel pump with help from the support team and got the car back to the port all ok.
The car is now serviced up and ready to go for tomorrows single stage in Spain and the rally finishes at lunchtime.
No results yet.
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Message from Ben @ 06:00
After yesterdays bad luck we have unfortunately dropped a couple of places. We are now 10th overall.
Last day today of competition. We are now in Spain.
Message from Ben @ 17:30
No final results as yet but we had a good stage today and are hopeful for a place between 10th and 8th overall.
Ben and Howard successfully finished the 2010 Tuareg Rallye with in a very respectable 10th place overall!
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No news from Ben today but following them on the vehicle tracker I see they are now on their way home.
They are currently heading north through Spain and will then go north through France before catching the ferry back to Dover later today.
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