Off to the shippers

Finally after lots of work and effort, Avanti was driven out to Secon Logistics on Thursday 21 March for shipping to Beijing.


I can do no more work on the car so that is that for now!

We must thank Richard Anderson of Avanti Spares who has helped all the way with preparation, advice and spares.

Also we need to thank our mate from the Morgan club, Jon Bate who has worked most Tuesdays at our factory, assisting and helping out with lots of the work completed.

Advice has also been helpful from Peter Ffrench, Nigel Tait, and Con.  These knowledgeable car people are sometime denizens and lurkers at the Elfin Heritage Center in Moorabbin where a regular Wednesday lunch invariably turns into show and tell or a problem solving session. 

I should also mention Charlie and Sam at "The Italian Job" near my factory in Oakleigh who have provided expert help.   

Thanks to All

Dust Sealing

Our prior driving on gravel and dirt showed that were still getting some dust into the interior.
I discovered that a disc jockey "smoke machine" could be bought for under $40.00 so purchased a unit along with the liquid which is turned into smoke, glycerine and water.

It only takes 5 seconds to fill the cabin with "smoke" and the smoke can then be seen wisping ( or pouring ) out of any badly sealed areas.   With the help of my Morgan mate Jon Bate, we managed to plug up many penetrations where dust could enter.

Not on fire!!!! just testing for leaks in door and boot seals.

Fitting of Rally Tyres

Following the dirt training, we took Avanti over to Stuckey Tyres for the fitting of 6 new Pirelli
P Zero K4 rally tyres.   These had not been fitted earlier for two reasons.  The first reason was that learning to drive the car on gravel with normal radials will allow it to let go at lower speeds and when the rally tyres are fitted it will have greater grip than I am used to.   The second and main reason was that with 14,000 kms to cover on Peking to Paris they had to be saved for as long as possible.

Whilst Avanti was having tyres fitted, I took the time to inspect the Land Crab in their foyer.  this car competed in many rallies including the same "1993 London to Sydney Marathon" as Avanti did.

I imagine that is fairly rare that two cars which competed in the same rally 26 years ago would be under the same roof by coincidence.

Gravel Practice

Gravel practice at the Ballarat Light Car Club

A few weeks ago we attended the BLCC driver training day where instructors sit next to the driver and show the way to drive fast and advise on car control on gravel surfaces.

The track is a km or so in length and witches hats are put out to keep drivers from cutting corners etc.  We first walked the track and were shown turn in and braking points.

My instructors for this session were Darren Watkins and Ben McKee, two very experienced rally drivers.

This first picture shows the rear squat under acceleration which is required in order to get power onto the ground. This indicates good rear suspension set up.

A good dust trail

Some of the many witches hats around the circuit, these survived, many did not!!

During the afternoon my times came down but there is still a long way to go on car control at speed on gravel.  It was a good chance though to find out the limits and characteristics of Avanti on loose gravel.

As Peking to Paris includes many dirt / gravel stages this is most useful to me.

Thanks to all at the Ballarat Light Car Club.

Tarmac test day at Winton Raceway

In order to get a feel for how Avanti handles on tarmac, I entered the "Test & Tune" day on a recent Friday.  you pay your entry fee and drive what you bring.  The field is divided into 3 classes with each class getting quite a few 20 min track sessions.  All untimed, no racing each other.

My class was road registered cars and few others such as GTR XU1 Torana's, Corvettes and Mustangs.   Certainly the only car there with driving lights, mud flaps and fairly worn rally tyres, therefore the slowest car on the track.  Spent more time looking in mirror than through the windscreen.

Had 3 x sessions where I learned how well it brakes and has fairly neutral handling.  tendency to oversteer with no weight in the boot.  A bit hard to really tell with the car on crook tyres and not set up to rally weight.

With only a few weeks to shipping date....................

Rule 1 for the day was.....DO NOT break the car
Rule 2 for the day was.....DO NOT break the car.
Rule 3 was.......................Learn as much as possible for future track events on P2P.
Rule 4 for the day was.....DO NOT break the car.

Apologies for poor quality video but it had to be reduced in size

So, after 3 track sessions I quit while I was ahead ( refer particularly rules 1, 2 & 4 ) and we headed back home.

Testing on dirt roads

A few days trying out the cars on dirt

Our friends from Adelaide, Bill and Kathy Gill had organised a few days away in the Wimmera where they, Phil and Lyndy Blunden and ourselves could try out the cars on some rough, dirt, sandy and otherwise roads which will be hopefully similar to what we will see on P2P.


The Gills are competing in a 330 Mercedes whilst Blundens are in a venerable EH Holden.


We all met at Nhill caravan park on a Friday late afternoon.   We chose to practice camping in our new tent whilst the others opted for cabins.

We were the first to arrive with beer and wine waiting in our salubrious plastic ice bucket.

Next day we drove through the Big Desert and spent the night at Balranald.  On the way we drove through sand as well as some moderately rough dirt roads.   The cars ( apart from the Merc ) had quite a lot of dust inside by day's end.

The following day we drove through Mungo National Park - very dry and quite hot

The three P2P cars at Mungo Nat Park

All of this was whilst following a complex waypoint route put together by Bill.

That night we were again back in Balranald, Yes, us camping and the others in their cabins!!

We learned a lot about unpaved roads, driving in sand, camping and also about the need for more dustproofing of the Alfa.

Many thanks to Bill