Ti Motorsport

2009 East African Safari

With entries now being accepted Ti have started our plans for the 2009  http://www.eastafricansafarirally.com/ and although it seems like a long way off the time will slip away as usual. Shipping dates start in August and although we normally wait until September it would be good to get the cars out early & perhaps have a shakedown a little while before the event instead of the day before as has happened on the last 2 occasions.

Plans are to run 2 504's this time as well as the Escort for Gogi. We are currently looking for some sponsorship for all 3 cars & or any assistance with parts or products, so if you have something that you want tried & tested under some of the most arduous conditions in motorsport give us a call or drop us an email.

Further details & driver line ups will appear very shortly 

2009 Safari

Hardev Singh Sira [Gogi as we know him] has defected.from the Peugeot camp & has bought a Mk1 Escort for the 2009 East African Safari Rally. The car was built from a Gatrac shell for the London Sydney rally.

Full details of the car will be published as soon as we know exactly what we have.

Ti running a Ford, what a turn up 

Pictures & Videos

The organisers have now put up a load of photos & videos of last years event. You will see our car on the animation at the top of the page as well as in the photo & video section

Safari Rally 2007

Reflections

Now that things have settled down and everyone concerned is back in the normal swing of things I have had chance to look at some of the photos & vid clips that we took while we were away. One of the lasting impressions this time was just how dusty the roads were for the service crews. The rally cars were running on 3 minute intervals which was a luxury not extended to the service crews.Download dusty_driving.mp4 & just how long the days were for the service crews. We spent quite a lot of time napping between servicesDownload sleeping_beauties.mp4 . For 9 days we were doing a couple of UK nationals every day & some days the same mileage as a WRC event. No wonder they say it's the toughest event on earth.

The other thing that stands out was the comarardarie amongst the crews.

Paul Dark Master Entertainer

Download 02122007016.mp4

While waiting for the car to come in Paul decided to entertain the kids ending up with a free for all for sweets.

Download 02122007015.mp4

Day 9 & Home

The final day of what had been an amazing journey. 3 stages, 2 in Tanzania and the final one back in Kenya before the finish at White Sands. A short 38.12 stage run from Mbembe Rd to Mananya took us to the Soni service area. The clutch cylinder had failed again. By now we had a new cylinder but for reasons unknown the decision was made to do the Soni stage without doing anything. I think part of the reason being that it is Gogi's favourite stage of the whole event & he was afraid he might miss it if anything went wrong with changing the slave. The stage from Soni to Korogwe was 73.8K and apart from the gear selection problem passed without incident although they were now having to have push starts as the clutch was not releasing. Then it was through the border crossing and Mombasa bound with just the final 36.16 k stage to do. Here again a strange decision to miss the stage and head straight to the finish & 34th place after 9 days on what must be one of the toughest events on earth

Day 8 Evening Service

I though I would single this service out as an example of how a simple job can go disastrously wrong. During the day the gear selection had been becoming very difficult as the clutch was not clearing properly. When we had a look in the service area it was obvious that we had lost some of the travel at the slave cylinder. The clutch on the 504 is hydraulic and although there were no signs of fluid leakage, both master & slave cylinders having had new seals fitted before the car left the UK we decided to bleed the system.

We then lost all movement and despite all efforts including reverse bleeding using the brake circuit we could not get a the system to bleed. While all this was going on some very very black clouds had been coming our way and then suddenly they decided to dump half the rain in Kenya onto us. Our part of the service area was on a low level so all the rain was running down through everyone elses mud & crap and landing at our place. At one time my tol box started to float off & it weighs a ton.

We eventually took the entire system off the car and some 2 hours later managed to get a pedal back. We were obviously late getting the car into parc ferme and were penalised for that. It just shows how a simple enough job can catch you out

Days 7 & 8

Day 7 would see us enter Tanzania at Taveta before the first stages 75.86k between Kifaru and Nakkete. Around now the first signs of a problem that would dog us later began to raise its head. The clutch release bearing had started to get a bit noisy. At this point we also lost our diff guard which would soon have disastrous consequences . Stage 17 of the event 116.49k from Mwembe Rd 1 to Same proved to be a killer for the diff. The upper mounting broke allowing the diff to drop enough for a rock to go through the unprotected casing. Luckily one of the other competitors towed the car out and time loss was drastically cut. 35 minutes later the car was on its way again. Not a bad time for a 504 diff change.

This was to be the first of 2 nights at the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge which was probably the worst place we stayed, not helped when we found our room already occupied by another crew.

Total days journey 501k stage 192.35k road 309.1k

Day 8 Sunday the 8th Dec would contain just 2 stages but the first was the longest of the entire rally. A massive 154.8k from Komolo Road to Meserani. Conditions in the stage were said to be very sandy & we were praying that the car wouldn't get stuck as the replacement diff had no LSD and was also 3.9 instead of 4.6:1. When the crew came out of the stage everyone gave a huge sigh of relief. One problem had however started to appear as the gear selection had become increasingly difficult & by now the release bearing was imitating a howling banshee. This was going to be something for the evening service. The final stage of the day ran from Longido to Sanya Juu, 61.74k

Day 6

With the car back to full fighting order we had a nice early start [4.30] to get to our first service at Matiliku. The track leaving Amboseli was unbelievably aweful. Overnight rains had caused huge pools of water to form in places. Many of the service crews were in trouble amongst the most spectacular offs being achieved by Tuthills & the Historic Motorsport boys even our own motor coughed & spluttered to a halt at one time but a touch of WD40 restored our spark & we were soon on our again. The opening stage 68.73kbfrom Amboseli to Emali was uneventful but Gogi thought it might be better to raise the car slightly so we increased ride height by half an inch. Stage 2 from Matiliku to Kaliiya weighed in at 49.02 also passed without drama as did the final 50.45 stage from Ndi to Maktua.

Taita Hills Lodge hosted the crews overnight and for once we had not got a lot to do. No panic jobs so we were able to do a routine check for the first time since setting out from Mombasa.Download 2007-11-30_13-23-50_30112007007.mp4

Total mileage 398.59. 168.2 stage 230.39 road

Day 5 Rest Day

Whilst for the crew it might be a rest day the service crew had 8 hours of working under tropical sunshine to look forward to. The Ambroseli Ol'Tukai Lodge was the service location and provided accommodation for many of the crews the rest being at Salt Lick about 10 k's away. The plan was to do a full check on the car plus address the problems encountered so far. We all know how the best laid plans often don't always work out and day 5 was to be no different. During a routine service we had replaced a rear x-member mounting and in the course of changing had found a crack in the actual mounting bracket. Cracks had also appeared on the strut top mounts and although they were double skinned the African roads had taken their toll. These bits were all duly welded and returned to the car. An alarming amount of play had appeared in the steering rack which turned out to be an easy to solve problem courtesy of a grease gun. Both engine mounts were replaced. Our aluminium radiator mounting .had suffered metal fatigue and had to be replaced. The by now properly repaired Proflex front unit was refitted with some beefed up track rods, although the modified 205 one had not caused any problems we were told that the second half of the event was going to be even rougher. My God How?

By 5 o'clock the car was back in parc ferme Andy was on a game drive, Paul was in the pool & our driver & I tidied up the van & service area.

Really early start tomorrow so thats something to look forward to. Oh yes at this time the Ti service crew had managed to be the last to leave the bar on every single night. a record we were determined to ho;d onto