Day 35 - How steep is it ... going down the other side?

To get into character, we woke early today.   We didn't want to get too into character, so we skipped the Soviet style hotel and the sewage-burbling shower.  Instead, we headed up to the Col de Cenis at 2,000 metres to await the various cars arriving about midday.

Already there was one of the P2P mechanics (apologies for not remembering his name) and his wife.   He had been the mechanic for the 1st half of the P2P and then had to return home for business reasons, but drove back down to meet the P2P for the final few days.   He brought his wife down also, so that she could man the passage control that was established at the top of the Col.

P2P cars arrived erratically all through the afternoon ... until well after the sun had disappeared behind the nearby peaks ... after which the temperature plummeted.

The 78-year-old Aussie

The Bentley Boys

Fester, who is Fugly's "never puts a foot wrong" brother.

The German folks' wagon

The only all girls entry

Not sure this was an original factory colour

Now and again, Mr Mechanic would help some participants to fix mechanical issues ... mostly a very hi-tech sequence of actions ...

How to fix an old style bent wheel

... from this car

Finally, about 4:30-ish, Car 72 arrived over the crest.  

By now it was getting quite cold, but there was plenty of heat and steam within Fugly.   We soon discovered that the cause was plain old terror.   You see, the brakes on Fugly had been playing up all day ... and were now virtually useless.   Clive and Ces knew that what goes up must also go down.   Once they saw the passage control, they knew that the descent was about to begin ... and they wondered how fast it would drop from 2,000m to 300m.   

Clive nervously shook my hand, and promptly asked "Is it steep going down that side?".    "Yes" I said "same as what you just climbed  ... a quick drop from 2,000 to 1,400m ... and then a more gradual descent to 300m".   This did not please him, so he and Mr Mechanic started figuring out what, if anything, they could do.

a serious man concerned with a serious issue

Ces, of course, stayed calm and under control as usual.   While the blokes were all flapping about under the car, Ces enjoyed a cappuccino inside ... occasionally stabbing on the brake pedal as one or other of the blokes shouted "pump the pedal", "foot off" or "hold pedal all the way down"

Ces drinking and driving

Meanwhile, as we readied to depart, we realised that the window-sticker that we had made was badly worded ... instead, it should have said "Stop!   Fugly, stop!!"

Groupies waiting for Fugly ...

As I write, Clive is replacing the brakes on Fugly, so that he can have one last carefree blast around the Circuit de Bresse tomorrow.

For and on behalf of CD and Ces

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Late update (actually very early the next day):

Fugly features in the official rally update for Thursday, complete with honourable mention and photo.   The official report also confirms that Clive and Ces moved up yet another place to 9th overall and 5th in class.   Just as well those critical timed stages took place early in the day while the brakes had some function in them.   By the time Clive reached the Col de Cenis, his standing in the event had been banished from his priorities ... getting off the mountain alive had become the competitive priority.