Date:         Mon, 1 Jan 2007 19:52:37 -0600
Reply-To:     joel walker <jwalker17@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         joel walker <jwalker17@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      Re: (select name here) Rally starts soon :)
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> At 07:51 PM 1/1/2007, Malcolm Stebbins wrote:
>>Just FYI:   the Dakar rally starts soon.

... and for those of you with more money that brains, who would like
something a bit
LONGER (but much more civilized!) than the Dakar rallye, check out ...
http://www.siteset.co.uk/pekingparis/index.html

this is a replay of a replay of the 1907 Peking to Paris 'rallye' by a
bunch of seriously insane motorists, driving 'automobiles' of that era
(i.e., huge heavy truck-thingies) on what might today pass laughingly
as 'roads'. :)
anyway, a bunch of idiots did it again in 1997, but chose a more
southerly route (through india, pakistan, iran, iraq, turkey, greece,
italy, and so on).
this year, they intend apparently to closer to the original 1907
route, across Russia.
should be interesting, but certainly expen$ive.

ok, intellectual puzzle:
IF you had the time and money and the spirit of
Adventure-amongst-Idiots (even rich ones),
and were given these classes/choices of vehicle-eras to choose, but
have to choose a VW BUS
(semi-vanagon content),
which bus year and model would you choose,
and why.

here are the classes/choices available from the Rallye organizers:
1. The Pioneer Category:
       any car of a model-type in production prior to 1920.
       pretty much lets out any vw buses. :(

2. The Ventageant Category:
       cars of a model-type in production prior to 1940.
       also lets out most vw buses. :(  but a kubelwagen might get in.

3. The Classics Category:
       cars of model-types in production prior to 1960.
       now, this means that a 1967 bus IS allowed, as that model-type
was in production
       prior to 1960 (buses started in 1952, right?). however ...
       i don't know if they'd let a vanagon or even a breadloaf in, as
that body-style
       wasn't around.

they also claim to restrict the categories to a limited number of
entries. according to their entry list, they've already gone way over
that. :)

so which vw bus would you take: campmobile? samba with roofrack?
double-cab pickup truck with rack and tent?
remember, you've got to carry all your own spare parts, tires,
emergency equipment, toilet articles and so forth for 10,000 miles and
almost two months. :)  they provide some of the food and lodging (you
pay).  each vehicle has to bring a tent, even if you don't use it.

plus each vehicle has to have two people ... driver and co-driver.

i found it very odd that nobody drove a vw bus in the 1997 rallye ...
a couple of beetles (fer crying out loud!), a 356 porsche!, 1950
fords, citroen 2cv and so forth, but no practical vehicles like the
bus.

unca joel
who would, i think, take the kombi ... more room for parts, and i
could still sleep in it. :)