This morning Mattia woke up saying “I had a dream!” … that he needed to change the “T” joint connecting the mechanical and electric pumps to the fuel line leading to the carburetors. I guess these are sometimes the kind of dreams one has when doing these rallies! Since last night, he had been mulling over the joint that had been fabricated and installed by the local mechanics because the car had been sputtering and stopping on the way to the hotel. We had checked and changed the points the previous evening and the car seemed to work fine. Nevertheless as he was given a new T-joint by one of the mechanics he thought of installing it before breakfasts. So he did.
We leave punctually at 6:34 (!) but soon after we realise that the car is not running smoothly. It sputters and backfires and then finally stops. This happens several times before we give up and stop by the side of the road. We’ve only done 7Km. We dismantle the carburetor bowl and discover some rubber debris in it, possibly caused by the careless installation of the local mechanics. Maybe that’s what been preventing the fuel from flowing smoothly. We are not entirely convinced, however fear having to dismantle the carb jet on our own. Sure enough after just a few hundred metres we stop again. Damn! We call Simon who has just passed us. He cannot turn back and suggests ringing Peter Banham who is at the back. A Kazakh mechanic stops his van and offers to help. We tell him we are waiting for our own support but he hangs around and offers us some of his tools which facilitate our work.. It’s amazing how kind and helpful people try to be with foreigners. It must be part of a culture of hospitality of this people. Peter arrives a few minutes later and after a few futile attempts on the electrics – distributor, coil – he attacks the carburetor. Sure enough he discovers a some rubber debris in one of the jets, probably the result of some of the stuff done in the workshop yesterday. Once more confirming that we shouldn’t let anyone put hands on our car. We put everything back and run off. We are an hour and a half late on our schedule. It will not be easy to catch up. Another exciting start to our day!
Leaving Almaty at 8 is a lot harder than an hour and a half before. Better than the way into town which has turned into a parking lot. The road is excellent both the double carriageway and the single that follows. We are trying to catch up and have calculated that if we stay above 70Kph we should be able to reach the final time control without incurring penalties. We pass through a few towns, probably at a speed higher than allowed and on a couple of occasions policemen whistle and make signs for us to stop. We don’t and wave back in as friendly way as possible smiling all along! When we stop to refill our tank, Peter Banham, who was tailing us, stops to tell us that they were stopped in our place for speeding and fined accordingly! He didn’t have enough cash to pay the fine but he managed to negotiate a discount in exchange for not demanding a receipt…obviously we promptly reimbursed him. Beware of tailing the “mad Italian motorists” when they are running late!
The rest of the day went smoothly, that is if we leave out a 17Km stretch of road that seemed to have been recently air-bombed given its huge craters. They were larger even than anything we had seen in Mongolia. Only survival strategy was to advance at a crawling pace swinging the car from side to side to minimise the “strikes”. Brought back fond memories of Mongolia after so much asphalt!
By the evening we managed to catch up some of the slower cars and some like the now famous blue Model A belonging to Rupert and Simon and Nigel and Hugo’s Lagonda still marred by mechanical problems. They both managed, however, to reach our hotel in Shimkent.