Micra to Mongolia! Mongol Rally 2007

T

Turtle

Ex. Club Member
Hey everyone,

As a few of you already know, I'm hopefully taking part in this years mongol rally, a grand journey from London to Ulaanbatar, Mongolia. All in the name of charity and adventure!

On saturday we purchased our car, a K10 1 litre. Check out the pictures here

http://turtleracing.freehostia.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16&Itemid=52

Its being put in for its MOT this week, and we know it'll fail but at least we'll have a good list of stuff to do with it, and wether its worth scrapping it and finding something else.

Would be cool to have the MSC web address on the car...

I'll keep you guys posted. :D
 
Petrol gets cheaper once you leave England, a lot cheaper, but you may need octaine boosters for the fuel as its quite low in some countries apparently.

That car is a mess, but due to its intended purpose, and being a K10, im sure she'l still get you there,
 
Right now, and with very rough guessing, we're thinking £400 for petrol and less than that for accomadation (since we'll have a tent with us!!). That kind of stuff is gonna be covered either by some corperate sponsorship my team mate is working on... or out of our own pockets lol.
 
i would do it in a k11 1.0

personally i am more in tune with them and could diagnose a problem if one occured.

good luck with the rally!!
 
It Failed!

Gulp.

Well I have a nice long list of 25 fail items...

The basic jist of it...

Front o/s Headlamp needs replacing
All the brakes need some work...
Front shock absorbers need replacing
6 Patches of rust need welding... have been quoted £120 (anyone know anyone who can do cheap welding?)
And both the rear wheel bearings need replacing.

My rough estimate says the repairs will be £183 if I do a lot of the work myself. Remember the car was £50 and the MOT £40.

Do I scrap the car, cut my losses or do we get all the work done and shrug off the costs...
 
Do you need an MOT to enter? Because once you hit the crap terrain, your car will get bashed to bits anyway!!
 
Yeh we gotta drive from Hyde Park to Dover.

Just looked at the car, headlamp only needs ajusting and brake pads I have found in a scrap yard. Might take the whole hubs off the car in the scrap yard, and that should fix the hand brake and wheel bearing issue in one go.

I have some spare suspension hanging around too so i'll use that.

So that just leaves the welding as the only major issue.
 
We paid £215 for Team Miss Daisy's K11 - a 42,000 (genuine) mile slightly tatty example. Sailed through MOT.

There are plenty about at that sort of money though slightly higher mileage. Of course it depends where you are. We shall be making up templates for the tank and sump guard and also the brake pipe shield.

One tip - fit the car with 165/80/13s as it will raise the ground clearance by around 2".

Spares for the K10 seem cheaper but if you want to shorten the odds on getting there, I'd start again and get a K11. There is another car not far from here that could be bought for aound £200 - it seems pretty sound too.
 
AntMat said:
We paid £215 for Team Miss Daisy's K11 - a 42,000 (genuine) mile slightly tatty example. Sailed through MOT.

There are plenty about at that sort of money though slightly higher mileage. Of course it depends where you are. We shall be making up templates for the tank and sump guard and also the brake pipe shield.

One tip - fit the car with 165/80/13s as it will raise the ground clearance by around 2".

Spares for the K10 seem cheaper but if you want to shorten the odds on getting there, I'd start again and get a K11. There is another car not far from here that could be bought for aound £200 - it seems pretty sound too.
Click to expand...

Cheers for that info, i'll PM you soon about that... Looks like we will be starting again with this one, its not looking good on the rust and welding side of things. We'll see what quote i get for the repair.
 
Dont forget to tell the repair people its for charity. Offer to stick there company name over your car or something as payment. They might do it!
 
if you want to shorten the odds on getting there, I'd start again and get a K11
Click to expand...
Are K11s really better for this kind of terrain? I assumed there was more to go wrong, esp electronic sensors that might get confused by the dusty environment, and wouldnt be immediately repairable. Is this rally open to bets?!
 
Fordy said:
how far away from peterborough are you? i dont mind offering my help if its not to far away
Click to expand...

Bournemouth, about 4 hours away :) Thanks a lot for the offer, really appreciate it.

I think newer K11's would be screwed up by the rubbish fuel we're going to use further east, but K10's have been easier for us to find generally. We might do a deal with our garage owner friend on a K10, its not as cheap but its MOT'd and in a much better state for the rally.

It was just our mistake for going for a car without an MOT.
 
Spotted the comments about potential K11's vulnerabilities! We have mapped out the route re. octane rating and it is just a matter of adding the right amount of octane booster. Nissan Technical were helpful and did not consider that a lower compression ratio h/g was required. The car does have an anti-knock sensor anyway.

On the topic of sensors I am not concerned about dust being a problem. Using a hi-flo filter (definitely not a K & N for pretty obvious reasons!) as the secondary unit, we will have a primary quick change anti-dust filter fitted. Sensors should not be affected in any way - which is why the K & N is to be avoided.

The bug bear as I see it is the "throttle" box's electronics but the circuit will be modified to reduce the chance of heat induced dry joints - special solder and a big magnifier! Miss Daisy will also carry a spare unit as they are a quick and easy change.

We never had a problem doing a shortish :)grinning: !) run from Cape Town to Cairo a few years ago in a 3 Series 4 x 4, some 5.400 miles, 50% of which are pretty dusty and very hot! Similarly my last trip from Perth to Sydney across the Nullarbor Plain (2003) presented no problems electronicswise though the dust gets everywhere! This 400 miler was a doddle in an X-Trail.

Temperatures during both these trips exceeded 40C as well. I would strongly recommend the use of AMSOIL's 100% Synthetic for the engine and their g/box fluid too. Both will reduce engine operating temperatures.
 
for a k11 i'd relocated the maf sensor and use a facelift style as these are just a 2 screw and out job so it is easier to change

maybe try to fit a terrano airbox or some other 4x4 airbox some where in the engine bay as you could probably get some kind of off road air filter for them
 
Turtle said:
Hehe your attention to detail and preparation scares me slightly :)
Click to expand...
Attention to detail reduces the chances of not getting there and is far less expensive than the consequences!

Fordy thanks for that. We'll look into it next week. It's good to pick up tips from you guys! The supplementary airbox will be home (workshop) made.
 
AntMat said:
Attention to detail reduces the chances of not getting there and is far less expensive than the consequences!

Fordy thanks for that. We'll look into it next week. It's good to pick up tips from you guys! The supplementary airbox will be home (workshop) made.
Click to expand...

Yeh of course... we're going to get more organised soon :p
 
Great News!

Today we officially entered the rally, getting one of the 100 places released tonight. A total of 200 places are available so we're really happy to have definitely got a place.

We also got a sponsorship deal worth £200 today, so its full steam ahead for Turtle Racing and our K10 entry!

Will keep you posted!
 
Glad he's doing well! I checked out his facebook earlier for updates but didnt see anything there.
 

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