Keith McVitty

Keith McVitty
Of 206 - A Race Odyssey
On the The Mongol Rally 2011
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
MORE FROM

It used to be good, but its over now!

Ok, so the final update has taken 2 weeks to write.  I'm back home in Northern Ireland and the adventure is over, reality is dawning, its hard to adjust to a life that doesn't involve driving on rediculous roads, meeting interesting locals, and having a laugh and drinking vodka with the worlds adventuring elite!

We completed the mission on Wednesday 17th August, 25 long, amazing days, after we set forth from Goodwood.  The elation when we crossed the line was immense, cheers went up, and we were absolutly buzzing for the next few hours. The funniest bit was when we were asked to move the car and I reversed it, only to find that it doesn't move forward any more, brilliant place to give up, right on the finish line, thank you Lionel!

The next few days were very cool, spent mostly in the finish line (bar) waiting for other teams to finish and swapping tales of adventure.

Friday was the day we had been talking about for a week, ever since meeting 'two blonds and two brits', the amazing RPG Friday happenend and was simply stunning fun. The shear noise and power blew us away, a perfect release at the end of a pretty tough few weeks.

 

**Final Checklist of what we broke on the car.**

Blew up the engine and water heater in Germany 

Back bumper held on with cable ties

Front under bumper ripped off 

5 tyres burst

1 wheel rim smashed

back doors didnt work

exahust lost

suspension dodgy

Wheel arch beat out with a persuading hammer

CD player only plays the first 4 songs of any album

Brake pipes smashed

Fuel tank ruptured

Fuel pipes broken

back windscreen wiper broken

Lights on right hand side of car dont work

Shock absorbers really bouncy

flooded the engine in a river

only firing on 3 cylinders 

boot locked, broken and fixed with pot noodle, then welded properly, then broke again and had to use the pot noodle to fix it again 

doesn't drive forwards anymore 

........and the car still sold for £1750-someone has a bargin!

 

This is the last post, so I write it with sadness, this trip was stunning and will be hard to beat........ so whats next? 

 

Keith McVitty
Of 206 - A Race Odyssey
On the The Mongol Rally 2011
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
MORE FROM

If anyone can Chingas Kann

More problems.  We reckon that we have blown a cylinder, and the fuel tank is bust again (apparently drilling 8 holes in the tank to fix 1 isn't a brilliant idea! That said we are 400km from the finish line and are going to make an assault on it tomorrow.  1/4 of the teams that enter Mongolia fail to finish, we will not be one of the 1/4, we will get there even if we are towed, we are going to finish, no matter what.  

We also have now a fourth team member, Amelia from the states, who we found at the mechanics

This is the third night in a row that we have spent at the mechanics. For the past two nights we have camped at the actual mechanics, but tonight we are going outside the city with our new convoy partners, The Shantastics, Mathematicians not mechanics, and the Germans, whose team name im not sure of at the minute.  We will create a fire, and make some toasts to a amazing trip.  We're nearly at the finish now, Mongolia is stunning, and despite its anger against our car we've enjoyed it immensly, 400km, let the games continue.

 

Best quotes of the last few days:

Josie: Can't we just drive 1000km with no brakes.  (The answer to this was a no, brakes are quite useful on the roads)

Sayan: Your western technology is no use against the cruel Mongolian roads. 

Sayan: Yeah baby, I smell home!