It’s rally rest day, so we can have a little breather on the blog, and bring you information from other parts of our campaign. Before that, here’s an interesting video roundup from Kenya’s KN TV, covering Day 4 of the 2011 East African Safari Rally: the day the cars came back to Kenya.
Good to see the 240Z’s (above) getting some attention. I grew up with Datsuns, and ran a couple of Zs before I bought before I bought my first Porsche. The Z is an handsome car, with a strong drivetrain and a sturdy reliable feel to the chassis, but without the light, connected feel of the 911s we are rallying on this event. In my opinion, as an owner of both.
Many of the Zs have been suffering with overheating differentials: no such problems for the Porsches that I know of. Waldegård Senior told me that the Zs on the original Safari rally would often have 19 or 20 people around them at each service point, while his small-scale Porsche works entry would have three or four mechanics from the factory and that was it! Datsun pulled all the stops out on Safari, back in the day.
I’ve got some good historic footage to share with you later, but enjoy this news report, which also features service for Race4Change’s chrome 911, the Spirit of Kenya. I would tell you how clean and tidy it looks, and how we hope Funk can hold his third position, but I don’t want to curse the thing! Whatever happens, we’re very proud of Funk for such a skilful performance.
Don’t forget that, whatever our success on this event, we still need your support. There is no prize money to be won on this rally podium: it is hard graft all the way until poverty is beaten.
