The 4 Wheelies. Image used with permission from The Adventurists
Things break down on the rally, but mostly it’s all part of the fun. Proper Mongol Rallyers don’t whine, they get down in the dirt and duct-tape that piston in place!
Here follows an unofficial list of some of the things that have happened to some of the teams in the Mongol Rally 2014 so far.
The first casualty of the rally was Nutsack-Dave – so-called because he punctured his scrotum while trying to climb a fence at the kickoff-party the night before the rally start in Battersea Park. He ended up needing about 2 liters of blood to make up for the difference, but joined his teammates later on to be part of the adventure.
Nutsack Dave looking pretty smug in Hospital. Image used with permission from The Adventurists
We helped out Team Running Salted Fish with some gaffa tape when their back window was broken as they backed it into an immovable object. Photo: Team Yak in Black
Another two cars lost parts of their exhaust the day of the start, as they were crossing the starting line. This must be some kind of record!
There was trouble as early on as Germany, as one team was arrested by the German Polizei. Turns out their car was wanted by Interpol, as it had been reported stolen in Italy a few years back. What Interpol hadn’t been told by the French police, was that they had found the car in the meantime after which it was resold to some guys going on the Mongol Rally.
After 4 hours in police custody they were released and were on their merry way.
Die Polizei.
One teams’ Morris Minor met their end in Belgium, when a drunk driver plowed his Mercedes into the back of the team’s car, causing it to flip over and be totaled. They had about 400 km of adventure before it all came to a screeching halt.
No one was seriously injured.
The 1954 Morris Minor driven by brother and sister Andrew and Rachel Lovett has had a pretty bad accident. Image used with permission from The Adventurists
One of the motorbikes began their rally by breaking down on a hard shoulder somewhere. They eventually got running again, after what sounds like a complete rebuild of the offending motorbike engine.
The famous beetle has also thrown in the towel, leaving one of the guys trying to find a team with an opening to adopt him in Almaty.
Photo: The Argonaughts Return! Image used with permission from The Adventurists
Another team have had a spot of bother with disintegrating pistons in their Micra. They’re currently stuck in Uzbekistan trying to figure out how to carry on.
Hit by a bus just outside Istanbul. Photo: Mongol Mariachis. Image used with permission from The Adventurists
A team that was told that they’d only make it 5km before their engine fell apart, have now made it to Semey, 2000 km later.
Photo: Team Meow Meow. Image used with permission from The Adventurists
One of the participants of the rally was arrested in Istanbul, after what can only be described as «indecent exposure». Apparently he doesn’t know what curtains are, and had a few spectators as he and his lady were enjoying themselves. An irate lynch mob formed shortly after, storming the hotel they were in. Enter the Turkish police, who promptly arrested our friend, making him spend 10 hours in a Turkish jail before he was allowed to leave.
This is what happens when you don’t pack light enough!
Another team broke down in Bakara, Uzbekistan when they broke down in the desert. They managed to get a lorry to tow them 40 km through the night to the nearest truck stop.
Photo: Spontaneous Khanbustions. Image used with permission from The Adventurists
Murphy’s Law dictates, that something bad will happen when nothing bad has happened for quite some time. So it was our turn, as we drove the Pamir highway and a particularly nasty piece of road decided to eat our sump guard.
The sump guard tore off at the worst possible time. Photo: Team Yak in Black
The car of one Australian team seems to have a picky gearbox – apparently it’ll only go into first if the engine is turned off, and «reversing requires pixie dust». At the same time they also managed to snap their cars’ suspension like a twig, so some first-aid mechanics were required.
First-aid mechanics by The Khangaroos. Image used with permission from The Adventurists
One team made it as far as Uzbekistan, being towed by one of the teams driving a London Taxi, when their visas ran out. They were detained for 10 days(!) by the nice Uzbek police, before being deported. Deported with their cars, that is. So they continued on towards Mongolia.
The Idiots Abroad and their London Taxi
Other common misfortunes, injuries or accidents among the 300 teams include broken suspensions, blown tyres, expired visas, cracked and missing windows, broken cylinders, bent wheels, scotch-taped and silly-puttied exhausts, broken fuel gauges, punctured fuel tanks, missing license plates, food poisoning, traffic accidents, broken roof racks, bar room brawls, evil bureaucracies, armed soldiers, shorted-out batteries, corrupt officials, cracked engines, oil leaks, extreme hail storms, thunder, mudslides, loose brakes, wild bears, altitude sickness and so much more!
Photo: Lost in Allegro. Image used with permission from The Adventurists
All Inclusive Tour were a bit unlucky too: I hit a rock which I hadn’t seen. The 4th gear has been ripped out. We stopped immediately and took a look under our car: Gas was running out. Furthermore, oil was running out somewhere from the engine block. We thought we probably could tape it with duct tape, but because of the oil, the tape wouldn’t stick. So we sat back and tried to drive the 3 km to Bayankonghor as fast as possible. The gearbox was working, however the fuel gauge was going down by the second. Since we did not have the oil level on our instruments, we had no clue whether the engine still had any oil.
The 4th gear has been ripped out. Photo: All Inclusive Tour. Image used with permission from The Adventurists
Baby got Yak hit trouble two days out from Ulaan Bataar, after being driven to the point of insanity by potholes the decision was made to try the only tactic left… a foot hard on the gas and a straight line: This worked well for many kilometers, but somewhere along the way we noticed that our levels of discomfort had greatly increased and the little Subaru was definitely in pain. We limped her into a town at dusk, slept in a yurt the night and awoke to thick frost everywhere. Next morning fuelled by bad coffee we sliced up one of our spare wheels with a Leatherman and packed the springs with rubber. The zipties were more an act of hope more than anything else but proved to last the distance, covering the 1000km plus left to Ulaanbaatar without even one snapping.
Baby Got Yak sliced up one of their spare wheels with a Leatherman and packed the springs with rubber. Image used with permission from The Adventurists
The below film is from when team Just In Time crashed in Mongolia. As they themselves say: By the time we lost control we had approximately 90-100km/h and yes we made it to the finish line. Fortunately no one got seriously injured and we were back on the road after one hour only.
And the Ferrari? The good news is that his cylinder head is fixed. The bad news is that part of his other cylinder head is broken. Still. In November 2014, the car is still stuck in a garage in Tbilisi.
Image used with permission from The Adventurists
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