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Last Updated 06/09/00
Scandi 2000 Pictures
This section contains a report and pictures from the se7ens list tour in Scandinavia in 2000: Scandi2000. This was a 2 week holiday involving track days and much driving about in between - excellent!
This report is based (heavily :) ) on the one by Roy Booth which is on the main Scandi2000 site. He was on the trip with his who was on the trip in his very yellow 6 month old 1.8 K Caterham with the registration W111 FLY, quickly rechristened WILL SPIN :)
The tour lasted for 11 days and this report is organised by day:
- Day 1 - Leaving England
- Day 2 - Gothenburg to Karlsborg
- Day 3 - Karlsborg to Helsinki
- Day 4 - Track 1: Ahvenisto, my first ever track
- Day 5 - Track 2: Motopark and rain
- Day 6 - Track 3: Alataro and bearing woes
- Day 7 - Bye bye Finland
- Day 8 - Track 4: Kinnekulle and armco
- Day 9 - Go-Karts and Gothenburg
- Day 10 - Leaving Gothenburg
- Day 11 - England again
The route: overall, and in more detail for Finland
Day 1 - Friday 4 August 2000 - Leaving England
Woken at 6:00 by the alarm clock. Wahey! HOLIDAYS! I'd packed the car the night before so I just had to get up, grab a bowl of cereal and I was off. The plan was to meet Nigel Marston, who was coming up from near Worcester, near the M6/M54 interchange at 7:30. Once I arrived at J12 I made a quick phone call to tell Nig I was waiting for him, 10 minutes later the famous Azure Blue V7 SLR arrived with Nig complaining of cold hands.
Nigel Marston and his Azure Blue SLR.
We then set out to Liverpool Airport to collect Mark Lyons (son of Johnty Lyons who was on the tour with his wife Liz). A simple run up the M6 to airport at Speke saw us arrive a bit early. We rang Johnty (who had just got off the ferry from Ireland) confirmed Mark was due in soon. We rearranged the cars as Nig had a load of tour T-shirts so that Mark would be able to fit in his car. Once we met Mark we then had to get to Newcastle so Mark could say hello to his sister and then to North Shields Ferry port the other side of the Tyne Tunnel.
We set off with Nig in the lead this time, after an interesting diversion through Manchester we stopped on the A1(M) for a loo stop. Just as we finished 2 more cars pulled up so we joined Kev and Gaynor Strawbridge (Carbon/Ali K DVA) and Mick and Gloria Smith (Purple & Yellow stripe self done K DVA) for lunch at the little chef.
We left them finishing coffee and continued up north. Some more interesting navigation and a few phone calls later and we met up with Mark's sister, brother (Garth who also did the tour) and his parents. By now it was 14:15 and the ferry was due to leave in 15 minutes! We quickly rushed off in convoy following Johnty who luckily knew the way. A blast through the Tyne Tunnel with plenty revs proved to be a taste of what was to become a favourite pastime on the tour: TUNNELS! :)
Meanwhile everybody else was waiting at the ferry terminal, some for longer than others. Steve Wiseman had come from Cambridge in his Fury (his striker wasn't finished in time) at 6 in the morning as he was worried about breaking down. He'd done a few hours spannering to fix a jibs that needed doing and then helped Trevor and Roy when they arrived at 12:30. Roy had a look at his oil leak to find that his Apollo tank had a leaky union, this was easily fixed by tightening it. Trevor's Triumph Dolomite based S1 Robin Hood had more work to do. He had finished replaced the aged shocks and springs at 22:00 the previous night and was now replacing a leaky rocker cover gasket and worrying about a rear axle seal. We arrived at 25 after setting a record for the cross river route and we then all boarded the boat, 15 Se7ens and a Fury, it was quite a sight.
15 sevens and a Fury ready to go in Newcastle
The ship, The Princess of Scandinavia, was very well equipped and had an excellent self service restaurant where some of us went for dinner. After dinner we retired to the bar. Jonathan Rarity (Green Pre-Lit Westfield) started Chatting to some Norwegian bikers who were just on their way home after touring part of the UK on their vintage BSAs. Jonathan then decided it was time to show off his dancing prowess with all the ladies in the group and was last seen heading towards the disco. I don't think most people remember much of what followed as ales were consumed and friends made.
Miles today: 326
Day 2 - Saturday 5 August 2000 - Gothenburg to Karlsborg
The next morning we docked in Kristiansand in Norway with clear blue skies and warm sunshine, hopefully a sign of things to come.
After Kristiansand we departed for Gothenburg in Sweden, to start the tour proper.
We arrived Gothenburg at 17:30 and were met by the main tour organiser Andrew Barriskell, aka Vinnie, who had come in the tour Landrover with Chris Kent. The Landie was full of beer, spares, tools, and battery - more on this later. A local sevener, Erik, who couldn't join us on the tour guided us out of Stockholm and we set out on the gentle drive from Gothenburg to Karlsborg to stay in hotel Wettern by lake Vattern. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the Swedish driving style involves pulling over if anyone comes along behind you at a higher speed so we made rapid progress. After a cracking steak we started our attack on the beers in the back of the Landie. We were also joined by Tor Atle Lunde and his mate Frode in his 106. Unfortunately Tor's K DVA had needed a last minute rebuild and there hadn't been enough time to finish it so he had set off from Norway that afternoon to meet us.
Miles today: 145
Day 3 - Sunday 6 August 2000 - Karlsborg to Helsinki
The following morning I was greeted by beautiful scenery and a large pool of coolant. beautiful. It seems that Allan Taylor's new Blue and Ali VVC had been venting coolant the previous day and had now been attacked by the technologically competent to find the problem. After much head scratching the thermostat was removed and the car reassembled.
The hotel at Karlsborg with Allan's car in bits and Johnty and John G helping
We were also given the results of Vinnie's sponsorship efforts. We were all feeling the effects of the beer from the night before so we tucked into the sponsors other product - battery. This is a caffeine packed revival drink, it tastes a bit odd to start with but after a can or so we were all addicted - a good thing seeing the half dozen or so crates stuffed into the back of the support vehicle!
We were also supplied with Battery hats and jackets, loaned mobile phones (which were free to use), and the first of the sponsor and official tour stickers.
Stickers! (on Roy's Car)
We left the hotel about 1130 after a quick photo shoot and set off for the drive up to Stockholm for the ferry to Finland.
The Group in Sweden
We dropped off Tor's car at a service station and met some Swedish listers at another service station near Stockholm. The Swedish listers then led us through the town in small groups. Unfortunately some people missed the service station and got lost in Stockholm despite the road book. It was now 1630 with a 1700 departure. They made it with 4 minutes to spare, this is getting to be a habit on this tour.
The ferry is BIG, there's a 6 storey atrium down the middle of the ferry, food fantastic.
The boat was LARGE
We spent the evening in the bar with the group, listening to Scottish guitar player and singing, FAR too much beer was drunk, another tour habit. Tor stayed up all night.
Miles Today: 200
Day 4 - Monday 7 August 2000 - Track 1: Ahvenisto, my first ever track
Ooooh dear, I don't feel too good. A quick can of battery and I was ready for breakfast. As on the first ferry crossing (and for the rest of the tour) my cabin was shared with Steve Wiseman, Allan Taylor and Roy Booth. Allan was also to share hotel rooms with me for the rest of tour. Luckily everybody on the tour got on with everybody else!
We arrived in Helsinki at 0930 and swapped passengers around, unfortunately Frode was nowhere to be found. We went off to the photo shoot near the docks and met up with the Finnish contingent of the tour. Frode was then collected as he had finally woken up and rung someone to come and get him.
The photoshoot in Helsinki
Helsinki was a bit of a nightmare since the streets were cobbled (slippy and bumpy) and there were no signposts. Fortunately we'd interspersed the convoy with locals (more excellent organising by Vinnie) and got through OK. Before we got separated we had the awesome site of 25 odd sevens blasting through the picturesque city centre!
A nice 2 hour drive to took us to Hameenlinna for the first track day. The Ahvenisto track is a VERY tight, hilly, figure of eight with a particularly 'interesting' blind 90 degree right over a hill, and a lot of hundred and something degree corners with no run off and plenty of armco. Vinnie took us round in an off roader that a local had used to bring his Lotus Cortina and pointed all this out. I'd not been on a track before so was really quite nervous by now!
The experienced people went out for the first few sessions so Dave Gathard (John G's son) and I helped Jonathan Rarity change his engine mounts (he'd bought spares, as well as 2 spare clutches and a multitude of other bits and bobs) and jam his gearbox over to one side as its bushes were also worn. I also watched Max pull out, accelerate and then lose his bonnet which he'd forgotten to do up. Luckily it only bent a corner on landing.
The Ahvenisto Paddock - notice the ski jump and the track at the back
I had now run out of excuses and prepared to go onto the track. I emptied all the luggage out (how does such a little car take so much?), attached the Petty strut to the FIA roll bar and got changed into my (my dad's hand offs :) ) track gear. I did the first few laps in 2nd with a change to 3rd on the main striate. After a few laps I was doing everything in third with a change to 4th on the straight - the quick men were hitting 6th! I was beginning to enjoy it now as the nervousness fell away so I decided to come in for safety's sake after 10 laps.
In the break before I went out again we heard a huge tyre squeal that was identified as big Phil's Zetec Westfield - he later admitted it was at 110 mph. My second session felt much better although I was still cruising down the straight at 90 as the idea as accelerating towards the long uphill 180 and vertical wall half a mile away seemed a bit scary. I was perhaps mindful of Phil's spin at the kink as well. I did however get a few complexes to flow nicely and even overtook someone else on their first drive. All in all a cracking experience and I was now really looking forward to the other tracks. The only other incidents were Mick running wide and getting briefly stuck in some gravel and Max pulling an 8 inch tyre off its rim. He borrowed my 6.5 inch spare and replaced it the next day.
The main group left the track at 4:30 with Gareth driving Janne's race Westie, I was still on a bit of a high and took ages to pack the car so stayed behind with Steve, Vinnie, Paula (Vinnie's wife in a Legacy) and Trevor. Unfortunately Trevor's engine had given up the ghost due to oil surge and so he was waiting for a tow truck to take it to a local specialist who, by amazing luck, had a suitable spare engine. By the time the Landie was packed he had decided that the tow truck man would be able to load it by himself and he reluctantly agreed to come with us (in Steve's car - I took his luggage) and abandon his car. We had only been driving a while when we saw a group of sevens parked at the side of the road - Vinnie's race Westie had packed up totally at 6pm after being troublesome for some time. We spent 2 1/2 hours by the road drying to fix it (well, since I would barely recognise a carb if it hit me I read a book) before we ditched it for the trailer to pick up at the end of the holiday. We finally arrived at the hotel in Mikkeli at 10pm, had a meal and went to bed. A dry night tonight as us latecomers were all a bit knackered.
Miles Today: 241 - including 30 on the track
Day 5 - Tuesday 8 August 2000 - Track 2: Motopark and rain
A contents of a dream garage
The day dawned bright and sunny with everybody raring to get to the second track day at Motopark, a track where we could go fast without worrying about the dangers Ahvenisto. Motopark was an hours drive away with the only speed cameras of the whole holiday on it. Vinnie had marked these on the road book so they were no trouble :)
Motopark is a great circuit with a long straight with a few kinks, a series of corners up and down hill (one of which is blind) then some tighter corners and another long straight broken by a chicane, over the start line and then a tricky composite 180 that few of us could work out how to do properly. We put a marshal on the blind corner so he /she could wave a flag if anyone had spun.
It started raining in my second run so I rushed in to cover up all the stuff I'd taken out of the car. I then went back out and had a great time! A bit less grip but still very controllable on my Yokohama 021Rs. The rain came down even more heavily, then the sun came out again so we all went out again. I found I was a similar speed to Rob Margel and quicker than Trevor. However, he had borrowed Andy's less powerful car and was changing up about 1500 rpm early as he's used to an old design of engine and wasn't sure of the limit on a K series.
We had a Finnish style meal of stodgy but excellent meaty pasta based something for lunch provided by the circuit. Vinnie also took some of us out in the Van Diemen, an enclosed wheels, open top race car with a 150 bhp Subaru motor in it. The incidents were limited to the usual spins from Roy (he changed his rear ride height which improved matters) and Kev found he'd lost most of his gearbox oil so he had the top off and filled it up again. We never found the leak although it was suspected that the speedo drive seal was responsible.
The paddock at Motopark and John G exiting the chicane
I'm sure there's a gearbox here somewhere (Kev's SL DVA) and Steve's Fury
The Van Diemen
Andy Ish gave us a demo of donuts and figure eights in the damp paddock and then we went off for a so called barbecue which was more like fried rice. Since it was starting raining we woofed down the food, the wimps put the roofs on and we headed off for Tampere. Roy had trouble with the immobiliser stopping my engine and got left behind, a determined drive down the lanes at 90+ in the rain, Frode didn't seem to mind too much, saw him catch and pass the touring Andy before catching Johnty at a fuel stop.
The sun soon came out but we were faced with wet roads (so no grip), lots of spray (with no wind to clear it) and driving straight into the setting sun. The visibility was between zero and sod all! Steve's car floated on a deep puddle and he nearly ran into the car in front. Nigel was wheelspinning at 95 overtaking cars. As we got closer the rain started again and I heard the first signs of that which was to follow - a slight metallic grating from the rear end. As we got into the town I was using my diminishing supply of tissues to wipe my glasses (plastic with clear lenses - rain drops hurt!), the inside of the windscreen and the peak of my hat. I should add here that I hadn't bought the hood as it causes everything to steam up, makes it VERY noisy, very hot and greatly reduces visibility. Despite the rain I didn't regret this decision. Once we arrived in the city there were puddles inches deep and I could barely see Jonathan's car's lights in front.
We finally got to the Sokos (or was it SodOff) hotel where the staff were awful and the bar shut at 11:30 so we had to go and eat to get a drink. Vinnie had a big bust up with the waitress who wanted paying before he'd finished eating, then she had to keep the kitchen open since Chris was still on the road in the Barge. He arrived about midnight and got a meal but the hotel was really the pits for service.
Miles today: 286 (67 on track)
Day 6 - Wednesday 9 August 2000 - Track 3: Alataro and bearing woes
We left Tampere early to head for Pori via a track day at Alastaro. We headed off in various groups, I was with Martin we were later joined by Steve and Jonathan. Steve was having quite severe fuel problems by now - he'd already changed a couple of fuel filters and so we had to stop regularly as he brimmed the tank which seemed to help. After about 40 miles I was following Martin overtaking someone when the car jerked sideways, the rear end noise had been getting worse but an inspection that morning had not shown any problems so we'd decided to get to the track for a proper look. I decided to pull in ASAP, 200 yards later I saw a lay-by, as I braked for it the left rear locked and I skidded to a halt. Minutes later a group of 10 or so cars arrived and Andy Ish(erwood) and I set to taking the car to bits. The nearside rear wheel bearing was diagnosed as the problem, the wheel was quite warm so it was obviously overheating. I limped to a petrol station (marked in the roadbook) as 1 mile away. Jonathan followed me and said he could see the wheel wobbling - oh dear :(.
After half an hour Jukka arrived with a 41mm socket and bar that we would need to undo the hub nut, a slight tug on the bar and the nut was off - so much for the 250 ft lb torque it was meant to have - the bearing was obviously totally shot.
Bearing woes :( and isn't my chassis rusty :(
After another hour or so Hasse arrived with the van Diemen's trailer attached. He is the organiser for the SCCH (Sports car club of Helsinki) and we got to the circuit. We then dismantled the rear again and removed the half shaft with the hub still attached by the seized bearing. No amount of hitting it with a hammer was going to shift it. A bearing puller would definitely have been useful.
Trying to remove the half shaft with Mick
Meanwhile Roy had been on the phone to the UK to determine exactly which car the bearings were from (thanks ROY!). After phoning both Caterham and Automotive Bearings we had the information - a Ford Sierra bearing would do the trick. Hasse had been ringing around as well and knew someone who wanted him to have a look at his Cobra replica (under construction), fortunately his engine builder had all the tools we needed but was not yet back from work. We set out to a Ford garage, got their last bearing (at half price thanks to Hasse's negotiating) and set off to his mate's to wait for the engine builder to get home. We arrived at the workshop after waiting half an hour and he duly pressed out the mangled mess that had been my bearing and put the new one in. This took a bit of work as the shaft was lightly scored.
While all this was happening the others had been attacked Alastaro, Roy's favourite track of the tour. It was basically flat but had a few great corners with a particularly good sweeping left hander after a hairpin flat out in 5th with a four wheel drift.
As the track time was running out and Vinnie said to Nig 'fancy a burn out down the drag strip ?' Of course Nig is never one to turn down a challenge or the chance to pose, so off everybody went (except I was still chasing bearings across Finland) went to the end of the drag strip, Vinnie and Roy in the Van Diemen (with a video camera) and Andy Robertson and Nig in V7SLR (Andy taking photos). After three very close runs it appears that Vinnie won 2-1 but that depends who you ask :)
Earlier in the day Trevor had returned with he reengined car following an SCCH man in his S4. He didn't take to the track as it needed running in, but was wearing a large grin :)
Back at the track everybody had gone home except for Vinnie and Jukka doing laps in Vinnie's S3. We reassembled the car and disaster! Our attempts to removed the hub had mangled the thread, I attacked the mushroomed end of the shaft with Hasse's file to get the nut on but the thread was still wrong.
Back at the hotel in Pori the guys were regularly phoning Vinnie discussing progress, or lack thereof and options of getting people back to the hotel with a distinct lack of seats in he cars left at the track.
We returned to the workshop (it was now 9pm) and the man said we should follow him back to his place of work. This turned out to be one of Finland's 2 Harley Davidson dealers, despite his impressive workshop at home he needed the left-handed thread reprofiler. Half an hours work later it was done and we set off again, the 5th time of reassembly took barely ten minutes, I stood on the bar to torque the hub up and a test run confirmed that all was OK. Jukka set off to return the socket to the tractor repair shop he'd borrowed it from and Vinnie drove Hasse's van while Hasse tucked into a well deserved crate of beers in the back of the camper - Thanks Hasse!
Miles today: 104 plus about the same again in Hasse's camper :(
Day 7 - Thursday 10 August 2000 - Bye bye Finland
We just had a run from Pori to Turku to catch the ferry for Stockholm, with a lunch stop at Naantali today. There were two options for the drive from Pori to Naantali, the interesting route and the Wimps route. I think everyone took the interesting route which ran just inland of the Baltic coast with wonderful roads for the Se7en. The trip was made better by the SMS messages being from car to car whilst driving. The best one being Roy's message to convoy leader saying "Faster" when we were already at 80 something :)
Naantali is a lovely town on the Baltic coast where he Finnish president has his summer residence. We had a great buffet lunch by the water for 47 marks (just under a fiver to you and me).
The road to Naantali
Since the Land Rover would not be accompanying us to Sweden we had to pack all the spares and tools (and the Battery and Beer) into Vinnie's Subaru and the Se7ens. We also left Max Nyman and his 250 bhp Vauxhall powered Caterham. I also checked a few things on the car - the high speed blast to Naantali had caused the coolant temperature to rise quite a bit, from its normal 80 to nearly 100. I noticed that the level had dropped a bit so I topped it up and replaced the jubilee clip that Trevor pointed out had broken and leaked at bit. We also handed the phones back.
Checking the coolant
The run from Naantali to Turku was short and some of us diverted via the Motor Museum where we were treated as special guests and had our own private guided tour and allowed to sit in the cars. We were interviewed by the local press and photographed for a newspaper
We got to Turku early and waited for the ferry while Gareth, Tor and Frode headed off to the pub (for a change). We just sat in the queue and attacked the last 3 crates of beer.
Beers at the ferry with Dave G (middle) and Steve (right)
As usual come boarding time the three musketeers (Aka the Vampires due to their nocturnal lifestyle on the Tour) were still missing and had to be phoned before we could board. We also discovered the root of Steve's problems: his tank was half full of water! This had then rusted the pickup pipe away so that it only reached halfway down the tank.
Just before boarding
We booked in for a communal meal on the ferry and had the special offer of steak and buffet starters and pudding. Most of us went to bed fairly early although there were reports of the usual suspects hitting the night-club that looked out over the back of the ship, others started shopping for souvenirs.
Miles today: 118
Day 8 - Friday 11 August 2000 - Track 4: Kinnekulle and armco
We arrived back at Stockholm and were led out of Stockholm in a convoy led by the locals to a service station. We waved them goodbye and set out for the last track session at the Kinnekulle ring. It was 8am by the time we left the docks and we had 200 miles to drive before our last track day at the Kinnekulle Ring.
We all started off in a long convoy going at a steady pace with a complete convoy of Se7ens which was a brilliant sight in the mirror. However, Johnty was obviously getting bored with this and soon went flying past at about 100 mph closely followed by the quicker members of the tour. I decided to tag on the back and we had an 8 car convoy doing 100 mph up the E20, unfortunately my temperature was reading the same. We were now back down to 16 se7ens and Vinnie's Subaru which seemed to have trouble doing 100 mph with six spare tyres on the roof! The tyres kept wanting to get off, if you'd seen Vinnie's driving you'd understand why. After a stop at Eurostop services to pick up Frode's Peugeot which we'd left on the way out of Sweden we carried on to Kinnekulle and arrived at 1230.
Just before we got to Kinnekulle Roy and I decided to top up with fuel. As the pump spat fuel out of Roy's filler the fog light decided to call it a day and fell of the car in pieces, don't you just love the quality of Caterham components!
Kinnekulle was not what you'd call a 'posh' circuit, but it did have covered bays in the pits and had some 'interesting' corners as some of us were to find out. After the exploration lap (all of us driving round at half speed to see where the bends went) we all came back with big grins. The circuit had a few rises with blind corners, one of which would soon become infamous. The main straight also had a kink that was 'flat' in fifth.
I could never quite get the confidence to try it flat as the camber of it did some interesting things. Roy tried it flat but went in too fast and too early and was flying towards the edge of the track so he slammed on the brakes, locked up all four wheels and did a 540 and stopped in the middle of the track with Rob Margel heading straight at him. Fortunately he missed!
Nig did a quick bit of grass cutting before having a departure into the kitty litter during which the car developed some designer gravel rash down the sides of the car. The sides of the car now look like they've got mud splattered down them permanently. Fortunately he sprayed up enough dust that no one got any photographic proof of his 100 mph off.
That smarts :( The car is perfectly clean in this shot
I had been watching the infamous corner as almost everybody had spun, got out of shape or just plain taken the wrong line through it. I was refining my line and was getting it reasonably right, this meant that I didn't need any correction before the next corner so I got on the power much earlier than usual. Unfortunately the rear of the car was still a bit light from the crest and it let go and I went backwards off the track. The small gravel trap did its job and I kissed the armco. Nothing that a bit of gaffer tape couldn't solve though. I decided/was told afterwards that the secret is to try and get the corner right a few times before trying to go any quicker. However, considering that Nig was the only other person to damage his car on the track over the fortnight I think we did quite well.
The track swings left with a late apex on the crest of the hill and then down and right
Whilst I was assessing the damage to my wing and taping it up Johnty was looking under the bonnet and noticed a LOT of coolant over the block. He traced it to a dying head gasket, none had got into the oil so we decided that driving at low revs should stop further degradation. I'd checked the coolant before going on the track so the high revs there must have blown it although the high temperatures in the previous days probably pointed to it going.
The phrase of the day was 'It's supposed to do that it's a cross flow' normally coming from Steve or Jonathan after they finally had enough of the jokes at their expense about leaking oil etc. Jonathan was also giving demonstration rides in how people should be driving their cars and was having a great time doing in car videos.
A bit of unofficial lap timing was going on between Kev and Andy Ish with Kev slightly ahead, until Vinnie took Andy's car out and beat Kev's time with a bit in hand. The highlight of the day had to be Vinnie taking Steve out in the Fury. Afterwards he said that you steer it using the right pedal, the wheel in front of you just controls the volume of the tyre noise. I had a ride in it with Steve and confirm that its VERY bumpy and the suffers from tyre noise and a distinct lack of turn in - a bit scary really :)
A quiet meal in the hotel was followed by Jonathan serenading Sarah on the Guitar which quickly progressed (degenerated) into the singing of rude songs and then it was back to the accommodation block to watch the video from the camcorders.
Miles today: 299 - including 37 on track
Day 9 - Saturday 12 August 2000 - Go-Karts and Gothenburg
After a pleasant night in the Lunsbrunn Hotel we organised a group photo. Some people took a while to get up with the last arrival being Nig who was driven to the larger car park (we were staying just around the corner) by Vinnie. He stood in the seat and did a Mussolini salute as in the picture at the top of the report. The group then split up with some members heading straight off to Gothenburg while others of us returned to the Kinnekulle ring for a karting session. It turned into a wet race which was interesting on slick tyres. Gareth Lyons got the fastest lap whilst Vinnie tried to keep up with some underhand tactics. Most of us suffered from his hand grabbing the side bars of our kart as we tried to overtake and pulling us back. It was here that the only injuries of the holiday were suffered. Dave G saw Trevor closing on him fast and moved over to let him by. Unfortunately he drove into Jonathan's path who then bounced off Dave and in to me. I got a nasty bruise and Jonathan's slightly sprained arm was further damaged so he reverted to a sling for the next few days. Its much easier to muck around when its not your car!
We then went to the other side of the circuit to watch some 911s in the wet - the quick men were lapping at 1.03 which was slightly slower than Vinnie managed in Andy Ish's Seven.
the drive from Kinnekulle to Gothenburg was fairly uneventful if a little boring, especially as I was driving at only 4000-4500 revs and keeping the temperature at 85-90. This limited me to 70 to 80 mph instead of the more usual 90 on the motorways. I had Gareth as my passenger so I got elected to lead us into Gothenburg. Gareth saw a sign for the second place listed in our directions so we followed it, this meant that we came in from the wrong direction so did a U-turn at some lights. They only stayed green for about 5 seconds so only 3 of us got through, being at the front I didn't realise this and carried on. We eventually stopped in the town centre very near the hotel as the last turning was guarded by 1 way streets, bus lanes and a pedestrianised section. The other group, led by Roy, soon got lost without us (as they had no idea where we'd led them) and asked a local who led them straight there.
We had plenty of time for a bit of shopping for souvenirs, Jonathan bought his sling and we then had dinner in the hotel - steak again! We even persuaded Jonathan to try a non-French red wine, he reluctantly agreed it was drinkable :)
Miles today: 193
Day 10 - Sunday 13 August 2000 - Leaving Gothenburg
An early breakfast in the Hotel Europa and we were off to the ferry, as usual we got lost on the way but got there with tine to spare. Andy Ish's route led us through a nice long tunnel twice - I couldn't join in the fun as I was still keeping the revs down but the noise from the others was deafening :)
The plan on the ferry was to watch the Grand Prix in the Bar but the boat is Danish and only shows Danish TV so no Grand Prix for us. So we attacked the bar again and but one by one went off for a nap (it was only mid morning) I was the last to bed but Trevor kept going. When I returned a few hours later he was just finishing my barely touched beer!
John G had booked up for us to eat so off we went. I was knackered again so left some cash and went to bed, I missed out on a big argument over the bill as the waiter had bought the wrong wine or something...
miles today - 16
Day 11 - Monday 14 August 2000 - England again
We arrived in Newcastle and after a farewell in a carpark we all headed off our separate ways. I went via the airport just north of Newcastle to drop off Gareth for his flight home. I then head down the A1. Just north of Leeds the oil temperature started rising - a quick check on the dipstick showed a few bubbles of coolant - the gasket had finally died. I called the RAC and went home on a truck arriving back at 19:00.
Conclusions...
Scandi may be over but the planning and Ideas for next year are already under way and if it lives up to the hype it'll be even bigger and hopefully better. The current plan is to go to France, Switzerland and Italy for some mountain roads and tunnels.
During the trip we had a lot of niggling failures which often hampered progress for hours resulting in many late nights. Here is a catalogue of those failures:
Andy Robertson - Exhaust, mirror & battery
Kev Strawbridge - Starter motor & gearbox oil
David Hooper - Wheel bearing, head gasket, rear wing, rear light cluster, suspension bushes wore out
Allan Taylor- Immobiliser, fan switch, thermostat & brake light switch.
Steve Wiseman - Water and sludge in fuel tank, distributor timing moving
Trevor Joel - Rocker gasket at Newcastle, new engine in Finland, Handbrake and Distributor cap.
John Gathard - Starter motor, immobiliser, fan switch & temp gauge.
Andy Ish - car got dirty!
Rob Margel - Apollo tank leak, cracked windscreen, oil overheating.
Mick Smith - Oil surge, little ends starting failing, ECU.
Jonathan Rarity - Oil leak (it's a crossflow, it's supposed to do that - Ed.), rear suspension mount sheared, roof, door catches, wipers, indicator, voltage gauge, ignition light, rubbing tyres, engine mounts, gearbox mount & throttle cable.
Roy Booth - Tyre off rim, fog light (It's a Caterham, they're supposed to do that !), fan switch, Apollo, tank oil leak & oversteer (not on demand).
Nigel Marston - Paint !
Max Nyman - Bonnet, tyre off rim & exhaust.
But other than the race Westfield all the cars that were driven to the tour returned to their home country under their own steam. Tor's was a non starter so that doesn't count, and mine at least got some of the way in England !
For the hammering the cars got they all performed exceptionally well. Some of the failures are down to poor quality components from Caterham (thermostat switches and fog lights) and others are perhaps from poor preparation, some were unavoidable. Lessons have been learned all round - I learnt enough that my car has been fully stripped since I got back and the following all replaced: head gasket, suspension bushes, ARB bushes, track rod ends, ARB ends, fog and reversing lights, sump gasket, sump foam, spark plugs, oil, coolant, diff oil, cambelt and tensioner pulley. I've also removed all the rust and flaky powder coating on the car and repainted it in chip and rust proof paint.
I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly thank all the organisers for putting together a great Tour.
To Vinnie, for a brilliant road book which was a godsend at times, and also for everything else he did because if anything was going wrong Vinnie was there helping fix it. No one had more late nights except the Lyons' boys but they're just party animals.
To Johnty for being deputy organiser when Vinnie was off fixing things. It was him that made sure I got some supper after my late return fixing the wheel bearing whilst everybody else emptied the bar
To Jukka for the phones, I'd never sent a text message at 80mph before saying 'Faster' !
To Hasse for all his work keeping people going, especially my half shaft but also Andy's new battery and sorting out an engine change for Trevor.
To Nig and Jonathan for Tour shirts and stickers.
To Caterham especially Nick O'Brien and Darren Philips for the spares pack up which thankfully was never opened and for all of you who came without whom Scandi would not have been the success it has been.
To Automotive Bearings for their help in tracing the donor car for rear wheel bearings (Sierra or Mk. III escort fronts).
To Steve Potter for running the Scandi list while we (i.e. Chris Kent who left an out of office agent running...) tried to break it and then not coming on the Tour.
To Chris Kent for driving the Barge vast distances dragging a trailer, normally one of the last to go to bed.
To all those wives, girlfriends and children who were left behind when the menfolk went to pillage Scandinavia.
COME TO EURO2001!