MGF Treffen 2002 day 8

Well, it would be except that I posted yesterday's report in the early evening and therefore I have yet to write up the BBQ. We had one, it was nice, and I went to bed – happy now? ;-) OK, seriously though, the BBQ was excellent, good food in good company, on a day like no other – a perfect way to end a perfect day. :-)

On to today (Saturday)…

Another early start saw us eating breakfast at 7:30am and then heading over to Riller and Schnauk (sorry if this is a misspelling, my rally pack is in the car and I am typing this up in the hotel room), the local MG dealership who is one of the major sponsors of this event. Today's fun consists of a 100-mile or so tulip rally and a (posh) evening dinner / dance later. I am typing this up at 4:50pm so all I can report on so far is the rally, which was great, completed in glorious sunshine. Entry on the rally was limited to only 80 cars so Alex co-drove in Mike Satur's TF and I navigated for Richard Tookey in his BRG F. Those of you with long memories may recall a similar rally held in Dormagen on the first Treffen in 1999. At this event Richard navigated for me so I was returning the favour. Not that it was a chore; I got some superb footage from the passenger seat, mainly of Erik and Fran overtaking us! :-) The cars set off in strict number sequence (our rally plates are individually numbered). Our group had fairly high numbers and Richard's car was number 78, so we had a little wait before we could set off. Because we had 'doubled up' in some of the cars, a few of the numbers were missing (Scarlet is number 70 and as I wasn't driving, she stayed in the hotel car park), resulting in a few puzzled officials.

Eventually we lined up and mounted the ramps to a commentary about Richard's F (in German), where we received our route book and instructions. We then set off and I (as navigator) immediately made an error as the mileages were individual stages and not cumulative! Still, I had only just laid eyes on them and as it transpires, I wasn't the only one, Patrick and Ann, who had left before us, joined the group behind and Erik and Fran also went up the same blind alley as we did, only to have to retrace thier steps! :-) Incidentally, I learned a good trick with rally plates today, everyone (pretty much) over here had them over their front number plates (not sure if this is strictly legal, but I just followed the herd!) and attached them with long plastic coated wires, you know the flat strips you tie up bags with. Erik and Fran (who have obviously done this a lot) produced a couple of stout bulldog clips for theirs and clipped it securely to the number plate – mental note: carry bulldog clips next year! Back to the tour, it wasn't long before I was confused again, one of the stops was a 'Prüfung' stage and it wasn't until we pulled up that I realised it probably translates to 'Proving', or test. This consisted of an angled board with holes in it and a small 'carriage' suspended from 2 strings (one on the left and one on the right), carrying a ball bearing. The idea is that you pull the strings in co- operation with each other so that the carriage and the ball trace a route around the board, avoiding the holes (as the ball bearing will fall through) - all in 30 seconds or less. I was off to a flying start when Patrick called out "Look Andy, Dieter has just arrived!" D'OH! I was momentarily distracted and lost the ball down the #4 marked hole! Still, Patrick didn't do any better, and I wasn't even there to 'return the compliment!' :-)

We set off once more, following the tulips, oh, as an aside, you all know what a 'tulip rally' is don't you? For those newbies, a tulip rally started off as a pre-arranged route for the participants to follow. In the olden days (sound like a geriatric reminiscing don't I!) the route was marked out with small cards attached to sticks positioned at each junction. On each card was a sketch of the junction with a dot and an arrow on it. Basically you arrive from the direction of the dot and head towards the arrow – simple. These cards (with a little stretch of the imagination) resembled a flower by the roadside, hence the name 'Tulip Rally'. The highways authority however got a bit miffed by all these little signs popping up everywhere so the car clubs re-thought the idea and nowadays you get a route book consisting of a series of sketched with distances between each one (much more civilised!) In this case, there were 2 sets of distances, in miles (for us 'strange' English people!) and Kilometres. Anyway, we followed the tulips for a while and then Erik and Fran zoomed past us (sounded great, Miltek blaring away!) and a couple of stops later we came across the next special stage.

This one was a series of cars and magnetic badges with 'nicknames' on them. Being a 'foreigner' half of the cars were new to me, so between us Richard and I guessed all bar the 'Frogeye' Sprite. Didn't do too badly either, considering (what the hell is a 'moppet' or a 'Big White Coffin?'). Ultimately we set off again, winding our way through the East German countryside. We saw some evidence of the recent flooding here, the odd field still under water and occasionally a strange 'damp' smell (no it wasn't Richard's car!) Also, since we entered East Germany I have been Trabant spotting, and I clocked up my eighth one today, somehow I was expecting to see more, still I suppose if you now have access to other vehicles the humble 'trabby' soon gets replaced. We overtook a couple of German B's (one was an RV8) who were travelling together until we arrived at the next special stage.

This next one was a jigsaw of shapes and an outline to fit them in. Despite our best efforts Richard and I failed to complete in under 30 seconds, so we headed off back on the route until we arrived at our lunch stop where there were 2 more special stages for us to complete.

When we arrived however, a worried looking Fran ran up with news that their car was still playing up. Erik had left it running and I was able to experience one of the 'symptoms' first hand. It was slow to return to idle and hovered around the 1200 rpm mark before dropping to the normal 850 or so, but if you slightly depress the accelerator, up to around the 1000 rpm mark, the engine would start 'pulsing' with the revs jumping rhythmically. Very odd indeed. I have it on video and it is clear the throttle isn't being depressed to cause this effect. Mike Satur arrived with a plan to clean out the stepper motor, but we needed to let the car cool off first so we started the special stages. Incidentally, Erik and Fran were not the only people doing a lot of overtaking, Mike Satur when he pulled up had lost his rally plate, apparently he was overtaking Mike and Vyv in their Trophy when it came loose and flew off into a filed somewhere – I am saying nothing… ;-)

The first one was to fold up a newspaper to form a receptacle, and then you needed to fill it with water and walk a short course before putting it in a bucket on some scales. Lots of fun as the newspaper pouches generally gave way! I thought Richard and I did very well, hardly spilling a drop and achieving 1.2 kilos of water in the bucket. I found out later that Mike Nunn had done a whopping 2.4 kilos – how he did so without getting soaked is a mystery to me! The other test was more like a gymkhana event, with 4 cones arranges in a rectangle with red and blue balls on each. You and your co-driver drive through the middle, reversing as necessary to end up with the red and blue balls swapped over – fastest time wins. Richard and I did a respectable 42 seconds, Mike Satur and Alex however managed to knock a full 10 seconds off of our time, the lack of a rally plate obviously made the car lighter! ;-) We all had lunch and then afterwards had a go at the stepper motor on Erik and Fran's F, (I also now have a new use for the Greygate polish). Once cleaned and reassembled we all set off and, although I have yet to speak to Erik and Fran, no news is good news.

On the way out we were reminded that the route book asks us to look for an eagle statue en-route. The way it was phrased suggested that we may have already missed it but the fact that he reminded us gave us hope. Off we set again, travelling through some nice towns and villages until we came to special stage number 6. This time there was a rope attached to a tree, connected via a set of scales. We were asked to pull on the rope until we thought we had 20 kilos of tension on it, then say stop and the actual reading would be recorded. Richard scored 23 kilos – not to shabby IMO. I think Ted misunderstood the instructions and thought it was a test of strength, but Michael came to the rescue :-)

The next leg saw us nearly missing the road to the special stage, there was a tractor waiting to pull out (blocking the sign) and we narrowly avoided over shooting the entrance as we braked hard to get back on track. This one had a grid of squares and a spinning top, the idea was to spin the top and wherever it stops on the grid gives you some points. You had three attempts to build the highest score. I managed a respectable 60 points and was happy.

Off once more on the penultimate stage, more 'scenery', no eagle statue yet until we reached the last special stage – woohoo an eagle statue!! It turns out that this is a memorial to the lost soldiers from the Great War. The irony of an English group, in English cars looking for a memorial to soldiers lost to English guns was not lost on me – even if we are several generations removed from the event. A sombre moment during the day's fun. The last special stage was to place a list of European capitals in order of their distance from Berlin, despite the fact that the distances were in kilometres, Richard and I did quite well, getting 4 correct (it would have been embarrassing to have got the London to Berlin one wrong, considering we had just driven it!!).

Off we set on the last leg, finally reaching the MG dealership we set off from this morning. The last tulip was a bit confusing though and Erik and Fran along with 2 other cars made a small error at the last minute allowing Richard and I top pass them and beet them to the finish line, where we handed in our results for the special stages. We were also able to get Erik and Fran on the dais behind us on video – should make interesting viewing when I get home.

We arrived back at the hotel a little after 3:30pm and I proceeded to try to change my rear discs. To my horror, it appears that my local tyre place has swapped the socket for my wheel nuts meaning that not only could I not change the pads, but also if I have a puncture out here I am well and truly stuffed. At the moment I am well miffed, fingers crossed for the return journey…

OK, that's enough babbling from me for the moment, it is now 6:35pm and we are meeting (suited and booted) in the reception for 7:30 ready for tonight's posh dinner. More as and when it happens.

SF (Can't believe there is only 2 more days left.) :-(

P.S. One more thing, the start tomorrow has been moved an hour earlier, we have received word that the Germn press will be at our next stop! (National or local i don't know. probably local, but nice anyway.) :-)

....

Once more, I have posted early, so here’s what happened at the posh do on Saturday…

Riller and Schnauk are a multiple marque dealership with a number of showrooms under the same banner – if you’ve ever been to Cambridge, the Marshall Group have a similar set up. Anyway, the do was held in the BMW showroom (I kinda like the idea of all the Beemers being booted out so that the MG crew could have a function) :-) The showroom was devoid of cars except for an old Issetta (bubble car for those who don’t remember them) and a new MINI Cooper (which got a lot of attention). We sat down on two tables and enjoyed an excellent meal, and although the temperature in the showroom was high, the influx of ‘skeeters (mosquitoes to non-Essex residents!) made us quickly shut them again. There was a live band (if you can call ‘Joe Shmoe and his mate on keyboards and trumpet’ a band) who were pretty good, in an elevator music kind of way and waiters/esses doing the rounds, providing drinks. After the meal, the presentations began. This was the part I was looking forward to least, being mainly in German with the odd English translation thrown in, but when 2 of our number were called out, Jackie and Fran to receive prizes for being part of a small band of female drivers, my interest was attained and paid attention to the rest. We gained 2 more prizes as well, Mike Satur got one for living in Yorkshire (worth a prize in my book any day of the week ;-) sorry to any other residents, what do I know I live in Essex!) and Dieter received a prize for screwing!!!! Mike was the furthest travelled and at the Communications Museum yesterday there was a competition to see who could place the nuts on an assortment of bolts the quickest – you see, all becomes clear… ;-) The night drew to a close and then certificates including photos of the participating cars were distributed. Scarlet didn’t get one as she spent the day in the car park whilst I navigated for Richard, I won’t pretend I wasn’t disappointed, when Richard appeared with a photo for me. Apparently the organisers had sent the photographer to the hotel to take pictures of the remaining cars, as Scarlet still had her rally plate fitted I got a picture after all – nice one :-)

The Berlin event continues tomorrow, but we have to make tracks on our own BBS Treffen, as we need to be in Celle tomorrow evening. Before I finish I must give a big thanks to the MG-Club Berlin for putting on such a fantastic event and being such excellent hosts. A special thank you to Mike Standring, who was our English contact / tour guide / translator and despite being run off his feet was always able to make time for us. Apparently the ‘Octagonal Berlin Event’ is a bi-annual do (this one was the 7th) and I thoroughly recommend that you participate. It is more than worth the long haul to Berlin and is something really quite unique. I would certainly like to come back in 2004. Thank you guys, your work was appreciated and I for one had a superb (there’s that adjective again!) couple of days