end of the rally

Yesterday marked the end of the rally, a couple of stops in the day and a trip over the border to Slovakia then back to Vienna, but the star attraction of the rally, the Red Bull Ring in the morning, it was an early start up at 5:30am to get to the track for 8.

The car handled the wet well and all ralliers made it around the track and to Vienna.

Of the whole rally only 2 cars dropped out, a mini cooper with a slipping clutch and a Merc sprinter van with a broken diff in Italy.

Both teams still appeared in Vienna at the end for the final party though so it was great to catch up with them at the end.

Herman the German evened out the win/loss ratio and is now on the way back to Blighty!

Thanks for the support from everyone 2025 has been a win!

final day and an early start.

5:30am alarm today to get to the Red Bull F1 track for 8am, but boy was it worth it.

Starting from the pit lane for several laps of fun. 

Team photo on the start line...

Heading shortly to Vienna to hopefully finish this one in style.

The steering is getting a little heavy after yesterday's windy roads, so might need to check on fluid levels.

day 6 questions

start of day 6 in the mountains

The hotel was a ridiculous temperature inside while the world was white outside at the top of the Stelvio pass.

Dug the cars out and everyone made it down off the mountain safely. The snow ploughs were amazing and roads were clear within an hour.

Beautiful but very cold start to the day. Heading towards Austria today.

what a day today

Not only going over Great St Bernards pass this morning (it snowed while we were at the top).

The run down the Italian side is always spectacular. We were lucky there with the weather.

We then went to the longest walkable bridge at 234m and over 100 meters high. The views were spectacular.

Then a big challenge up the Stelvio pass (we made it up before the snow set in, but most of the rally came up before the snow plough with people hanging off cars to gain traction....... It was something to witness.

Amazing feat by everyone, only 1 team turned back.

day 4 questions

a more civilised day today

4 1/2 hours of driving today to the top of the Stelvio pass with a night in the hotel at the top, we had a headlight issue that appeared yesterday and wiggling the connector seems to have fixed it....

Lovely driving on the lake road tohis morning and more rain as seems to be the order of the week.

another day done.

A third 500+km day, it's been a challenge this year, we are now down in Italy at a campsite we stayed at in 2019. Camping Lido on the banks of lake Como.

A couple of vehicles have dropped out already, a red mini with a slipping clutch in 6th gear was retired yesterday, the band that came on tour this year had an issue with a turbo overpressure fault, we reset the code fault with the tools we brought with us (it's run well and got here today, fingers crossed they make it, they are providing some great evening entertainment (Mike made a guest appearance on bass guitar yesterday playing Dakota).

We stopped in Greyer today at the H Giger museum (the guy who invented the alien character) the museum was interesting and in a stunning location, well worth a visit.

The car made it up Great St Bernards pass today without skipping a beat, 310km estimate of fuel at the start of the climb became 70km at the top of the 25km climb, then 280km when we got back down the Italian side.

Lightening in the distant hills suggest it maybe a wet night, however we are braving it tonight and staying in the tents.

today's questions

We have a couple already

a wet night..

The tactical tent upgrade was definitely the right move last night it was horrendous with heavy downpour most of the night, even the walkways were covered with water this morning. So we headed out quickly and a short hop over the border to a breakfast near Basel.

Coolant topped up and the big mountains ahead of us. It should be a fun day today!

campsite acquired....

The second long day of driving is done, the car has so far done us proud.

Now near the Swiss border we have had a massive day of rain and have decided to upgrade to a tactical challet for the night, so no wet tents to put away tomorrow.

Refreshments at the ready, it looks like it might be a later start tomorrow.

day 3 questions

Most of these are on route so it'll be a challenge for guessing today.

from tours to castors

Leaving the campsite at tours this morning heading straight into the rising sun is making the driving interesting.

A couple of stops today and a lot of driving to do, so heads down and revs up. Let's see how we do.

end of day 2...

We made it to the end of day 2 in tours at the campsite before dark.

A very interesting day with some interesting stops, the oddest being an artists impression of a myan village.

The day included a tank museum and about 500km of driving.

It's fair to say the cars doing ok so far. The heater is the challenge so we have window assisted cooling (it was a problem before we started but wasn't really a challenge in the cooler UK weather). Apart from that and a wheel being slightly unbalanced it's not drinking fluids etc. so all good. We will see how it does in the mountains in a couple of days (hopefully).

day 2 questions

start of day 2

After a very civilised crossing with a full 8 hours sleep we are heading to "tours" just south of Paris. A couple of snaps of team leaders already today.

Wish us luck.... Bring on the french wine and food. 

day 1 questions

Here are day 1 questions.

made it down to the start....

400 miles and 8+hours of driving down already, we've made it to the wettest start of a rally we've had..... 

Mike's gone in for registration and we are lined up in the convoy for the start in about an hour.

Let's see where this year takes us... 

A couple of sleeps left......

Time is drawing near for us to start this challenge again.... Costumes a ready this year we are going as "the composers" brought back to life for another European tour the world famous...

Brahms and Liszt

it needed some work.

With a car outside and no MOT the race was on to get some second hand parts and get it ready for an MOT as quickly as possible.

Did it need some work? Hell yeah, the chassis was straight but all radiators and mountings were bent, so with an £1800 quote just for the radiators from Audi Halifax it was clear this was going to be an eBay build.

Stripped back at the local garage she was ready to start building back up.. within the week she was holding fluids and new to us radiators and a new crash bar shockers we had a rolling chassis to come back and get the finishing bits added to the front to call it a car again...

2025 - Vienna or bust it's almost here

This year's rally started on day 5 of last year's rally..... After losing the mini in northern Italy due to a damaged harmonic balancer throwing the ancillary belt and needing to conserve phone batteries (hence not blogging) we ended up in Trieste in an Airbnb wondering how we ended up without a car again.... A quick auto trader under £1000 search showed an Audi with crash damage for £995.... But it's a stupid rally and we weren't doing it again!!!!! So end of search.

The car was still on auto trader 2 weeks after getting back (which should have been a red flag) but 1 phone call and 3 hours later it sat outside on the road with no MOT and a broken window....