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Chris needs to be in Tokyo for the Rugby World Cup opening ceremony on the 20th September 2019.
He was aiming for ferries from Vladivostok which, as I recall, ran on the 4th, 11th, and 18th of September.
He should be in Helsinki early next week, and Google Maps says he will have 9,890 km, or 6145 miles to go to Vladivostok.
The route follows, more or less, the route of the Trans Siberian railway.
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Thanks Nick, don't know how I missed that!
And at the risk of seeming even dumber, do we know anything about Chris's car?
Much of interest here...
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I am very interested in the car too - the large area behind the rear axle intrigues me.
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Car type: 1933 RP Standard Saloon
Long range fuel tank perhaps? I guess there'll not be many filling stations in Siberia.
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I had wondered - serious weight overhang issues.
Is this a Mk1 RTC?
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13-07-2019, 12:22 PM
(This post was last modified: 13-07-2019, 12:22 PM by Nick Salmon.)
I know that the car is an RTC. In fact, just in the week before Beaulieu, Chris had the misfortune to have the car hit and seriously damaged on one side. He told me that Roach Engineering very kindly agreed to sort out the bodywork 'on the spot' and did a brilliant job of it. Don't know much about prepping the car but I do know Vince Leek did some work on it.
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Hi R,
I may have this wrong, as my memory is good. But the recall very bad.
I think the car is an RTC, I'm sure chris told me at edmonds last year, the rear of the body was extended to make it a family four seat.
The RTC usually has a tank cover, it may be the tank is a standard Ruby, but moved back with the body.
Tony.
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13-07-2019, 03:12 PM
(This post was last modified: 13-07-2019, 03:36 PM by "Slack Alice" Simon.)
It is an RTC, Chris has extended it to a "cloverleaf" seating layout so that Arthur has a seat as far as Moscow.
The conversion has worked quite well, though the footwells are small because Chris has storage boxes encroaching on the area.
And the hood extends to cover the whole of the seated area.
Chris has made his own side screens, so, for a special, it should be pretty well weatherproof.
To me, the proportions don't look bad, and it looks good with the hood up, too.
I didn't really look at the details of the extension, I know Chris added some angle irons to the Ruby chassis extensions, I think there is other strengthening as well.
I think the Ruby tank is in its original position, he has a scuttle tank as well which was in the car when he acquired it.
Engine has new 2 bearing 11/2" crank and rods, shell big ends, new SU carb, 4 branch exhaust. Can't remember if he did anything to the cam or followers.
Late Ruby head, rebored block with oversize inlets.
Rebuilt dizzy and dynamo.
All fitted into a modified 3 bearing marine 'case, which was impressive in the quality of the metal used in the casting -it looked lovely when polished up.
One of the marine add-on drillings went into the cam oilway and had to be plugged.
Oil filter and air filter fitted.
Gear box with modified ratios.
Standard brakes, which worked very well.
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All very interesting, thank you - so what is the body extension behind the rear wheels?