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Rally "48 hours of the Alentejo" (Southern Portugal)


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Rally "48 hours of the Alentejo" (Southern Portugal)


Being my first ever rally, I have nothing to compare it with. There were 91 cars with many modern ones (see entry list: we were nº 16) http://48halentejo.com/lista-inscritos.pdf.

My biggest surprise was that other than some twelve specials over three to five Km each, you could drive as fast or slow as you wished and there were no time controls on arrival. It meant driving to the start of the Specials, stop, wait for five to twenty minutes and set off at your designated time. Averages over those stretches varied from 35Km/h (very difficult for me to achieve) to 45km/h.


The very positive points were the sunny weather (coldish at 9,30am but warming up as the day went on. A slow strip-tease taking off the sidescreens, then the top, and vice versa as the evening approached; along the small towns that we entered we were welcomed with large numbers of residents with their cameras, and in some places even dancers and singers in the local square, and each car got a local souvenir; and the social side with interesting people sharing our tables at great spots turned into Pousadas (originally state-run hotels in historic monuments, like castles, and convents).


Anyway, although I have not received the official results, I came 50th in the General, and 8th in our Class out of 14. Bearing in mind that on the first day I had little idea of what was going on, it is not such a bad result. Of course, the success has to be divided with a fantastic navigator, my daughter (just-turned 17-years-old a week ago), and "Bolinhas", the machine, that behaved very, very well, including a return home along the motorway at continuous speeds of over 140 KPH (90MPH). Could have gone faster but the foot is not as heavy as it used to be; and then I had a passenger to think of!


Altogether we did 600 Km over the three days ( two for the actual rally).


A couple of photos are posted in the TR3 section.

Edited by qim
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