Darren S
ClioSport Club Member
So, the opportunity came along to support my nephew in his first 'official' rally event, alongside the more established WRC event and drivers. The plan involved a run down to pickup the recce car near Oxford on the 15th May - get it on the trailer, and then continue down to Portsmouth for the ferry crossing to Santander.
The chariot for lugging the load was a new V-Class Merc. A great load lugger for the journey and a piece-of-piss to drive...
At Portsmouth and waiting to board, it was nice to be alongside other people and teams heading in the same direction.
Although the Merc was easy enough to handle in itself, the trailer was a bit of a tight-fit going up the ramp...
At just gone 4am, we finally arrived at the hotel in Porto, Portugal. Knackered, I was relieved that the hotel were helpful enough to allow the van and trailer to be parked next to the reception in the coach bay.
With a fair bit of time to kill the following day, we had a wander down to the Douro River on the banks of old Porto itself. Lovely place - very chilled and relaxed. The weather was very pleasant too.
Followed by late night cheese and wines. Why the hell not?
The following day(s) - the reece car was getting abused on the rally stages. Portugal is brutal on cars - though probably not quite as bad as some of the rally stages of Argentina, from what I've been told. It suffered engine mount failure and a few other niggles - but given the fact that it's little more than a slightly strengthened road-car, the little red Fiesta did alright.
This was the first time that I came up close to the D-Mack cars - of which one was the car that my nephew was running. All identical - the rules stipulate that the teams can only alter the tyre pressures, type of tyre and damper settings. Nothing else can be changed or altered.
Once prepped - out onto the shakedown stages they went. Absolutely ZERO in the ways of health & safety (which was great) - no crowd tapes or restricted areas here!
Side profile of the nephew's car...
The following evening - the Special Stage - probably my favourite event of the whole trip. A great venue, the crowd was fantastic (the Portuguese are insane rally fans!) - and the show on display was a joy to watch.
Burning clutch time!!!
A couple of small phone clips captured on the day...
None of my night shots turned out ok without blurring, so as the sun started to go down - the number of viewable pics went as well. Such a shame I didn't have a proper camera there on the night.
There were some decent rally motors in the paddock too...
Over the next few days, the rally stages went further from the service centre and away to some remote hillside. Our main role was to transport the recce car anyway. As such, we left it to the D-Mack crew to support the car and just chilled for a few days - joining them afterwards for a pretty decent piss-up.
Feeling slightly delicate - we hit the northern Spanish roads on the way back to the ferry port. Quite straight (and a little bit boring I hasten to add) - we checked into a hotel in Bilbao, awaiting the ferry crossing, the following morning...
Whilst at Bilbao docks, the DubRun guys were queuing to board as well. As the slogan said it was 'Glasgow to Monaco' - I'm not too sure how they ended up on the north coast of Spain?
Bye bye Bilbao....
All in all, a great run out. Full of chilling, drinking, eating, chilling and a teeny bit of driving requirements thrown in. This is the second time I've been to northern Portugal and it certainly doesn't disappoint. Well recommended if you can make the journey over.
D.
The chariot for lugging the load was a new V-Class Merc. A great load lugger for the journey and a piece-of-piss to drive...
At Portsmouth and waiting to board, it was nice to be alongside other people and teams heading in the same direction.
Although the Merc was easy enough to handle in itself, the trailer was a bit of a tight-fit going up the ramp...
At just gone 4am, we finally arrived at the hotel in Porto, Portugal. Knackered, I was relieved that the hotel were helpful enough to allow the van and trailer to be parked next to the reception in the coach bay.
With a fair bit of time to kill the following day, we had a wander down to the Douro River on the banks of old Porto itself. Lovely place - very chilled and relaxed. The weather was very pleasant too.
Followed by late night cheese and wines. Why the hell not?
The following day(s) - the reece car was getting abused on the rally stages. Portugal is brutal on cars - though probably not quite as bad as some of the rally stages of Argentina, from what I've been told. It suffered engine mount failure and a few other niggles - but given the fact that it's little more than a slightly strengthened road-car, the little red Fiesta did alright.
This was the first time that I came up close to the D-Mack cars - of which one was the car that my nephew was running. All identical - the rules stipulate that the teams can only alter the tyre pressures, type of tyre and damper settings. Nothing else can be changed or altered.
Once prepped - out onto the shakedown stages they went. Absolutely ZERO in the ways of health & safety (which was great) - no crowd tapes or restricted areas here!
Side profile of the nephew's car...
The following evening - the Special Stage - probably my favourite event of the whole trip. A great venue, the crowd was fantastic (the Portuguese are insane rally fans!) - and the show on display was a joy to watch.
Burning clutch time!!!
A couple of small phone clips captured on the day...
None of my night shots turned out ok without blurring, so as the sun started to go down - the number of viewable pics went as well. Such a shame I didn't have a proper camera there on the night.
There were some decent rally motors in the paddock too...
Over the next few days, the rally stages went further from the service centre and away to some remote hillside. Our main role was to transport the recce car anyway. As such, we left it to the D-Mack crew to support the car and just chilled for a few days - joining them afterwards for a pretty decent piss-up.
Feeling slightly delicate - we hit the northern Spanish roads on the way back to the ferry port. Quite straight (and a little bit boring I hasten to add) - we checked into a hotel in Bilbao, awaiting the ferry crossing, the following morning...
Whilst at Bilbao docks, the DubRun guys were queuing to board as well. As the slogan said it was 'Glasgow to Monaco' - I'm not too sure how they ended up on the north coast of Spain?
Bye bye Bilbao....
All in all, a great run out. Full of chilling, drinking, eating, chilling and a teeny bit of driving requirements thrown in. This is the second time I've been to northern Portugal and it certainly doesn't disappoint. Well recommended if you can make the journey over.
D.
