The Mondog:
[quote="wez] copied from Crumball Rally Forum
i had a great time, even before we reached the start point, the mondog was a constant worry with it's rattly diff in the gearbox, knocking driveshaft and whirring rear wheel bearing. But got us the 400miles from newcastle to boulogne, which is more than what we thought we'd get.
First night was spent getting pissed and meeting a few teams like Sparky & Clutch from Sunderland etc...
So, day 1. We get up only to find we have a flat battery! It's either a drain on the electrics, or the battery is knackered. Anyway, thanks to team "Shake n Bake" and their jumpstart/bumpstart, we're on our way to startpoint!
At the start meet, I must say, the sight of all the cars was great, I expected more, but was still a good sight... well, what i saw of it! I was under the bonnet replacing fuses most of the time. Once done, we get the challenges (which our team werent really bothered about) and set off down the motorways of europe.
Doing a steady 70mph (any more and our driveshaft/bearing problems became more than 'apparent') when we see The Team Guiness Sierra going past us, supposedly the sound of no exhaust makes it seem like it went past us quicker than it actually did
Our car was plodding along happily, untill we started loosing power, 50mph with foot flat to floor on the smoke pedal.
Stopped off at services, I had a quick poke about to see the intercooler pipe from the turbo had came off, easy fix and back on the road (after we stopped to sellotape the white/gold graffiti pug's bumper back on)
Than we spot team guiness at side of the road, with team 67 (silver nissan QX) pointing and laughing at the hole in the block of the sierra. Ooops!
It is towed to the side of the motorway and left, with a nice little note asking the authorities not to blow it up, we're coming back for it!
We arrive at the hotel in Besancon after getting lost in their "excellent" one way system around the old town. We disconnect the battery of our Mondog, in hope for it to start in the morning.
Drinks start to flow - I dont remember much after that.
Day 2
I woke up and instantly vomited, dunno wether it was the pizza of the night before, or the lager (not the qaunitity of lager you must understand, just the qaulity of it) Reconnected battery, and it started no probs at all, so this is our nightly/daily routine for the rest of the trip!
The first half of the day was going well, got to start point early (nothing to do with following the organisers there), not as early as 'The Gooners', who had decided to put up tent there the previous day, dont think they got much sleep though, I hear it's a gay dogging spot by night!
Off throught the swiss border and all was going well, and what a beautiful place! We had some slight smoke from the brake pads when descending to lake geneva, but we got there. Spotted the Porsche & Clio lads (sorry cant remember your names) so had a drink with them on the lakeside.
Then off towards the major worry of the weekend - Saint Bernard Pass.
As we started to climb, the engine temperature was getting quite high, so we stopped off and tried to bridge the temperature switch to keep the fan on all the time, for whatever reason it wasnt playing ball, so we gave up on that idea, but thanks to all other teams who passed and asked if we were ok before carrying on, including team 67 - who stopped to ask if we were ok, and also install more empty stella cans to keep their exhaust together.
On the way up a bit more, the exhaust started to smoke heavily, and we could smell burning oil in the car, stopped off again, this time to undo the bolts for the bonnet hinges and actually lift the bonnet at the back, letting the hot air ( and smoke) out of the bay. This really did make a difference!
There was a descision to be made now, easy tunnel route, or the potentially killer mountain pass... considering the state of the car, we knew what route we had to take!
So, following team 67 and back end of their QX touching the ground, we head up the pass... the views are amasing, the roads are great, even in a £75 diesel mondeo with a rubbish handbrake, i still had some good fun... untill we started to get hot again! A few minutes later and there was blue burning oil smoke coming through the air vents into the car as we had heaters on full trying to draw some heat from the engine. We turned the last corner into the village of Saint Bernard, to be greeted by a few other crumballers, all in the same boat, HOT!
After we stayed there for about an hour (enough time for my glowing red turbo to cool down) and helped one or two other teams with tools and things, we headed down the alps into Italy. The road surface on the way down was terrible, it even managed to snap our drivers front spring!
As the diff bearings on the gearbox were toast, i didnt want to kill it off with too much engine braking, so we went 50/50 with that and using the brakes. Good job theres somewhere to stop at the bottom, our £6 brake pads were stinking, but we knew the worst (best?) part of the weekend was over.
After that it was a nice drive into Turin, again, some great roads!
The centre of turin is a beautiful palce, all the Piazzas etc... nice place, however, when youre driving about it in with crazy italian drivers, millions of cars, no road markings, no signal/sign discipline, overheating car and a slipping clutch for 2 hours trying to find your hotel, it's not really fun! Anyway, less said about that, bit of a sore point
Day 3
Battery connected up, about to start the car and... whats this???
Our radiator has cracked along the bottom and ballooned up, along the top of the radiator the fins have collapsed and the horizontal water veins are all bulging! It's not leaking, but looks like it's about to explode at any point! Never seen anything like it, must have been the heat of the mountain pass yesterday!
We wrap ratchet luggage straps round it to take the weight as there is now no bottom frame to the radiator, and remove the water header tank cap to stop it pressurising, and keep our fingers crossed!
We follow AndyH and his sat nav equipped team to the start point of the day - we cant afford to get lost again with a radiator like this.
After hanging round for a few hours to try and spot the rest of the cars we havent seen throughout the rest of the weekend, we head out of Turin with Team 67 again.
Was a nice drive, most of it off motorway, saying hello to locals by climbing out of the windows to make out presence known. After a little bit of 'bumper cars' with the QX, we stop off for food and are joined by the BMW 7 series Crocker team. As we were about to leave italy via the alps again, we started to climb again, up some really twisty stuff, i was trying to keep up speed to maintain airflow to the poorly radiator, but speed and hairpin bends dont go together well in a mondeo, so there was only one way round them, Handbrake
However, what goes up the alps, must come down, and boy did we come down them, a "steady pace" at first untill the cheapo brakebads faded to nothing and smoked for a few minutes, so we stopped, this gave the chance for a few more teams to catch up and have a natter, we also took this opportunity to 'pimp' each others car crumball style, and had some entertainment at the same time, some bloke on a 50cc scooter going up and down trying to "drift" round the hairpins
Once the brakes had stopped smoking, we were off down the twistites again, slow at first, but then we got bored and that was it... the mondeo was off, overtaking, undertaking (it's legal in europe isnt it?) handbrake, back end out, 110mph down tiny mountain passes... it was great, well i thought it was, GB and Norm were just swearing all the way down, must have been the scenery. If anybody has a good car, I'd reccomend that road - it's great!
Safely down to the bottom and a short motorway journey into monaco, thanks to the red Pug and white MK2 Golf for letting us follow, we would have definatley got lost without you's.
The drive along the mountainside descending to Monaco has some beautiful views... truly breathtaking!
Once at the bottom, we do a bit of the F1 circuit and show a few Ferarri drivers what a real car (1.8Td Mondog) can do through the famous Monaco Tunnel - about 75mph!
After finding the Finish Point bar we stop and a try and get served with a few drinks. It really was a sight, Rolls Royces, Lamborghinis, Porsches, loads of Billion Dollar Yachts, and a car park full of £200 volvos, fords, vauxhalls etc... WE HAD ARRIVED
After a short drive to Nice for the AfterParty, we stopped there for a few days, did a bit bartering with DieselDave to get their fire engine mondeo into our ownership (4 pints) and then drove both blue ovals back home to the north east of England, 37 hours with only 6hrs rest... lol
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So our 2nd Rally Car, The Mondog 2:
It's a 1.8TD Mondeo, Used to be Blue till the previous owner painted it 'Massey Ferguson Red' (Tractor paint) and added a few things
It also has a fully working 20litre water hose that squirts upto about 30metres
Well, it sounds like you had an awsome time there mate. You did well to keep that heap of shite going, well done.
Did you take any pics of the other cars?