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Conrad Birch organizes international rallies. With him, we have raced the "Tiger Rally" and "Classic India". The next event will be "Alpaca Rally" in South America. Then in October, he will bring a dozen riders from Istanbul to Dubai. But in November it decided to hang car keys: for five months he will walk “slowwwwly" for 2500 km, from the far south of India to Calcutta. But the great thing about this trip all along the east coast will be walking every day for about twenty kilometers together with three donkeys, Zappa, Ziggy and Nina. Conrad will hold its diary online, and it seems that there are already thousands of animal activists ready to share - in virtual reality - this old flavor adventure. For a character who has traveled the globe in the car, this return to the four legs is impressive. For millennia, the donkey was one of the most popular means of transport but was supplanted by the combustion engine. The donkey is not a breed in danger of extinction, but the number is decreasing, there are barely 60 million. On conradbirch.me it is possible even now to follow the whole story.
We tested our Alfa Giulia and the ground for the experiment was the "secret" bumpy track of Balocco where they torture future SUVs and cars with wheel drive. Even choosing to skip all the "hard" traits, the evidence is found to be very challenging: mud and dirt of all levels, and stone embankments, slopes up to 36 percent, lethal bumps and deep holes. Of course, we chose to drive without straining too much the car, but the important thing was to calibrate the dampers and see the reactions of the car with a full tank of fuel and 75 pounds of cement bags. Souvenir photo out of the plant (at the entrance they "blinded" any instrument that can photograph. A shame was not being able to do some movies overcoming a ford) and then long struggle to synchronize the Terratrip on the highway. Did we do it? We are not yet perfect, but we're pretty advantaged. If we had a manual in Italian, it would be much easier.
It's exciting the image that Scuderia del Portello can give to Alfa Romeo. There were to reward the drivers who last year excelled. And there were to present the racing season 2016. First of all were projected images of the Beijing-Paris, and then a movie on the races and the protagonists of the Scuderia in all tracks in the world. President Marco Cajani illustrated Palmares achieved by the Portello members on five continents. The governor of Lombardy, Roberto Maroni, and the vice president of the Region Fabrizio Sala handed the trophies that reproduced in a bronze plaque of the next edition of the Beijing-Paris rally for vintage cars which the Scuderia del Portello officially participate with two Alfa Giulia. Just those deployed in the square of the Arese Museum, next to the new Giulia Quadrifoglio. Arturo Merzario, honorary president of the Scuderia, stressed the strong need to see the Alfa again on racetracks around the world. Fabrizio Curdi, responsible for Asia of the company, has confirmed its commitment to promoting the sporty appearance because "there can not be a future unless you have a glorious past."
Philip Young died a year ago and on 9 March the ceremony to remember him will take place in Brooklands, the temple of English engine. The track - the first in the world created to be permanent for racing - was built in 1907, in the same year of the epic Peking-Paris. And the name of Young will remain forever linked to this event that he was able to reproduce for the first time in 1997, convincing the Chinese authorities to let one hundred old Western cars to cross its territory. For these cars, they opened for the first time the border withTibet, and it was the occasion to restore, through the Gate of Freedom, the access to Nepal, barred for twenty years. Successes that reflected his extraordinary diplomatic skills, together with that of organizer formidable (gruff, authoritarian, even cynical, but good and it is testimony by at least 70 rallies in all continents). He trivially died falling from a motorcycle to the Burmese border: he was going back and forth between the various buildings of the border with Thailand, to facilitate customs procedures for the first rally in history that would come into Myanmar. Philip was just like that: he liked the daring challenges. How to launch the centenary edition of the Beijing-Paris, which would cross for a week in the nothing of Mongolia, with a subtitle enlightening: "Driving the impossible." We started in 130, and he appreciated our choose of an Alfa Romeo Giulietta first series, the smaller displacement at the start. He, moreover, had attended the first London-Sydney with a Morris Minor ... and was able to knock down 24-hours a record all-British, Cape Town -London: he left in the winter of 2013, and arrived ten days and a half after. Taking turns with co-driver every three hours, an average of a thousand miles a day. You know what car he used? An old Fiat Panda Twin air of 875 ccs an Italian car. As the pre-war Lancia Aprilia with whom he came to win his category at the Liege-Rome. "Hey, Philip - we told him on arrival - how come when you face a difficult challenge you always choose an Italian car?". He smiled: "Because us British know how to drive them".
P.s.: Invitation only, if you would like to attend, please email nikki@endurorally.com and she will post you an invitation.
An Alpine A110 of an Anglo-Swiss crew won. But the real show in this nineteenth edition of the Monte Carlo Historique was offered by the small Fulvia coupe of Gianmaria Aghem and Diego Cumin, third overall and class winners. They were fifteenth after the severe transfer trials (25 hours driving with regularity demanding tests), have managed to move up the rankings and get on the podium. In the second place, behind the winners Daniel Perfetti and Ronnie Kassel, have classified the French Luc Hasler and Sylvain Blondeau, who, with their Ford Escort RS. They lead to the last race, the legendary Lantosque-Lucéram 47 kilometers. Organizers based the race on very challenging time controls and tests in which you must maintain a predetermined average. With snowy roads, the Monte Carlo Historique often turns into a pure speed rally. It becomes virtually impossible to comply with the medium. But this year the 304 participants found most of the roads dry and the crew of the small Lancia could be able to show all his experience (Aghem played 15 times Monte Carlo).
There is a time for passion, but there is also a time for business. Jerry Seinfeld, an American comedian, has a huge attraction to the Porsche: in 25 years he collected 46 and held them in an old hangar in Santa Monica. He loves them; he said that driving a Porsche is "like having a pebble in the hands warm and round." But now, however, he decided that he could throw away some of these pebbles. Especially since the leaders of an auction house in Amelia Island told him, he could get up to ten million dollars surrendering some of its valuable pieces. The Porsche 550, for example, could reach five or six million dollars. 2 or 2.5 million may come from the sale of 356 A Carrera Speedster 1958 while the 911 Carrera RSR 3.0 could result in the pockets of the comedian another million and a half dollars. To say if these evaluations are a bit exaggerate we have just to wait on 11 March when the Porsche Seinfeld will be auctioned in Florida.
Across the Australian desert from the west to Cairns, Far East. An adventure that many motoring enthusiasts have surely dreamed. And now Conrad Birch, the organizer of great English raids, is developing to offer it to a small number of riders. It will start in June of 2017. Everybody will have the same model of 4x4 vehicles. The expected duration is three weeks, but then those who want can continue the journey south to Sydney. The route follows one of the adventures of Evan Green, journalist, writer and television anchorman, specializing in automotive reports. The east-west route in the fascinating nothing of northern territories is now known as "Savannah Way". This will be the official name of the legendary crossing. Large National Parks, fords challenging, forests, beautiful springs and waterfalls of thermal water, camps but also luxury resort when possible. As always, Conrad Birch will be part of the caravan and will provide a patrol with expert mechanics, able to solve any breakdown or motor mishap. In short, lots of adventure but in absolute safety. The number of participants - as always - is limited and you are required to have experience-based off-road driving. For those who want to keep track of and learn more: www.roarr.me/savannah-way
When we want someone to "share" our travel, we invite him to climb symbolically aboard. Our next tour will be the sixth edition of the Peking to Paris in 2016. This time, we invited on board the Draughts Club Ferro di Cavallo. You can say, but what has to do the draughts with your passion? It has to do, because for us ... even this sport is becoming a passion. Everything started at the Morello house, where Roberto Degli Esposti (delegate for Umbria of the Italian Draughts Federation) began organizing tournaments and championships that collect more and more support. We liked his enthusiasm and, in our limits, we supported morally and sometimes economically the Club. What made us most pleasure is that immediately after us, another person believed in the revival of the Draughts Club Ferro di Cavallo, he is Antonio Marinelli, president of the Credito Cooperativo Umbro of Mantignana. His contribution will give even more strength to the development of this beautiful sport of the mind, rooting it in the Perugia area. Meanwhile, take note: the next tournament "I love draughts" is scheduled for December the 6th.
Alberto started to dream the mythical turns of Col de Turini on the desk of the gymnasium. He took part in an official rally with a souped-up Fiat 600 (the number 17 was poorly designed with two twisted pieces of tape). Then he boasted a remarkable Palmares of races on tracks, on the ice, in the dirt. In the end, he realized the dream of his life: He participated in the Historic Monte Carlo! But as in most treacherous nightmares the engine of his car breaks at the start. Two more years of sacrifice, test after test, reconnaissance, organized assistance; and finally he started. Alberto Bergamaschi in the book "From the Classroom to the Turini" tells us all these stories. Including the collision in Torino, just left for his second Monte Carlo. And then...
Only they could succeed, Gianmaria Aghem and his wife Rossella, to make us young again, arousing the enthusiasm we had in the 70s for the victories of the Lancia coupe in international rallies. They won the Sahara Challenge, two weeks of special stages in the desert sands and turns that climb along the flanks of the Atlas. The car that led them to the finish line in the legendary Jemaa al Fna Square in Marrakesh is the same that raced the last Beijing-Paris, a 1,300 Fulvietta, well prepared, but very heavy. They made it a little lighter. They put under the hood a beautiful 1,600. Then, the great experience (Aghem played the Monte Carlo Historic 14 times ...), the right tools for this kind of race (Blizz-Timing is his stuff), a careful race strategy and an excellent navigator as Rossella completed the work. First absolute. With only four seconds ahead of a massive Mercedes 280, lining behind Volvo, Porsche 911, Datsun 240 Z and other forty crews. Only one Lancia at the start... the same that arrived first!
