The Inca Trail C-V8

An epic rally and an epic restoration
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zacmarshall
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Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2005 4:22 pm
Location: Bristol, UK

The Inca Trail C-V8

Post by zacmarshall »

Some of the longer term members will remember Alan Smith's epic adventure on the Inca Trail in South America back in 2001, 16,000 miles over some of the toughest roads in the world.

Alan and wife Jean are organising this years Spring Weekend.

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Preparing the car at Alan's house before the rally

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Ready for the off

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Whoops. Or words to that effect 8)

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They did it :lol:

This is Alan's account of the trip (printed in the magazine back in 2001), it's a lot longer than we would normally have for a car of the month but I think people will be interested.


IMPORTANT NOTE: all motor sport is potentially dangerous. The Trial passes through areas and uses roads which may be hazardous. It is expressly organised to present a challenge to competitors, and to test among other things their stamina, initiative, self-reliance and resourcefulness. Competitors should not enter unless they accept that there is an element of risk to themselves and their vehicle.
This is the only paragraph in bold print in 18 pages of regulation for the Inca Trail; it sums up the 55 days of the rally better than any other words can.

During 4 days of pre-rally briefings some requirements were made known, these included: - an endurance of near 25,000 kms (over a third of this on unmade and gravel roads), a fuel endurance of over 500 kms, accepting a wide range of fuel qualities, endure an altitude of up to 16,000 ft. and be able to cruise at high speeds. It was obvious that modifications and improvements would have to be carried out to the Jensen C-V8 within the regulations. Without going into too much detail, the mods. included: - Strengthening the suspension with that well known ½ inch steel plate underneath the normal damper mounting, this was a necessity as the original mount had already cracked (it also gave an extra ½ inch of ground clearance). The rear suspension was fitted with a pair of Hydro/Pneumatic dampers, the hydraulic part acted as normal dampers and the pneumatic part could be pumped up from a central point to increase and decrease ground clearance. An extra 19-gallon fuel tank was installed in the boot; this necessitated building an airtight fire bulkhead between the boot and cabin. The boot also contained a second spare wheel, so with the reduction in load capacity the rear seats were taken out and the area converted for carrying secured spares and baggage. This ‘baggage’ included the compulsory equipment that had to be carried i.e. a comprehensive first aid kit, 4 litres of drinking water, emergency food, a tent, 2 sleeping bags, 2 warning triangles and an OK/SOS sign. The spares not only included emergency spares for breakdowns etc. but sufficient for 5 full services. To cope with the high temperatures expected and to overcome the overheating of this particular engine a 5-stage radiator, a 4½-inch bladed water pump, an air deflector and a third electric fan were fitted. The coolant would be 50/50 diluted water to antifreeze with 2 bottles of ‘water wetter’ added. Also the bonnet was raised by 2 inches to aid cooling by increasing the exposed area to the radiator and increase airflow in the engine bay. The bonnet height also allowed me to fit 2 air filters on top of the carburettor thus allowing a greater quantity of the rarefied air for the engine at altitude (I also carried some smaller jets). The 2 fuel filters (1 for each tank) were located inside the engine bay to assist changing, as was the tank changeover valve. All under-body pipes, brake and fuel, were rerouted and a guard fitted under the radiator to avoid stone damage. For safety the front brakes were upgraded and the system converted to a dual brake system (front and rear). Fitting fully reclinable rally seats was also a safety and comfort modification. Although the rally would cover 25,000 kilometres, the navigation was down to an accuracy of one hundredth of a kilometre, this necessitated fitting a very accurately calibrated odometer. Front and rear towing brackets, navigator operated air horns, headlight stone guards, a battery cut-out switch, a central console for extra switches and equipment, an auxiliary electric fuel pump and a spare ignition coil was fitted. The car was finished off with the Jensen Owners Club ‘logo’ on both doors and boot. I said I wouldn’t go into detail but believe me; this list is just touching the surface.

The start was from the military fort at the end of Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. The first day of 55, 590km long, comprising a regularity stage and a medal stage. We left behind us views of Sugarloaf, Corcovado with the statue of Christ and to some extent civilisation. When we reached the start of the first Regularity section, I took over the navigator’s role, as Willie hadn’t experienced this type of discipline before. A Regularity section is where you have to maintain a set speed over a certain distance, the HERO way of doing this (called the Jogularity system, after LeJog) is to give you the speed plus the times at landmarks along the route (every km or so). We were passing these ‘landmarks’ correctly to the second, with Willie driving as close to the set speed as possible and me giving countdowns to the markers. We passed one of the manned markers spot on time, and continued. The trouble was we should have stopped! I’m afraid to say that on the first day at the first checkpoint we lost our Gold Medal! After a compulsory lunch stop it was a 107km Medal Section. A Medal Section is just like a Rally Stage with a set average speed and always on ‘gravel’. I was driving again and set off to achieve what was thought of as an easily achievable sedate 55km/h speed. Now I didn’t really know what ‘gravel’ and 55km/h meant together, until one of the Volvo PV544 Sports passed us on a bend with its tail out, a quick calculation and our sedate speed was far too slow, the required pace was flat out! Also, ‘gravel’ meant dust with rocks and potholes, getting within 200 meters of anybody meant driving ‘blind’ due to the impenetrable dust cloud. We also had to go flat out to make our time at the ‘end of day’ checkpoint. The end of the day meant checking the car over and correcting any defects, most of the regular checks had to be done in the mornings when the car had cooled down. This was our introduction to the Rally. There were to be 54 more days, approx 40 more Regularity Sections and 45 more Medal Sections together with 9 Circuit Tests. Day 1 also produced 3 engine bay fires in other cars. Day 2 and the Ferrari had a fuel filter leak. Day 4 was of 805kms, mainly on tarmac roads, but at a toll booth a truck driver was frantically waving at the car, not understanding the language, I replied “Great, isn’t it, it’s a Jensen”, at that moment a sheet of flame shot out from the side. (The scrutinisers had asked for a fire blanket to block the gap between engine bulkhead and bonnet, this would stop any fumes going down the intake into the cabin, this is something to note for those Interceptor owners that raise the bonnet backs for cooling). Now I knew what had caused all the other fires. The Brazilian fuel dissolves some types of rubber; this caused a pipe to perish and fuel to be sprayed onto our exhaust manifold. After the fire was extinguished, roadside repairs were made and we continued.

Two days later and we left Brazil and entered Argentina after visiting the fantastic Iguazu Falls (in my opinion better than Victoria Falls). This border crossing with importing and exporting a car plus equipment, took nearly 2 hours, this didn't bode too well as we had another 12 crossings to go. The Brazilian fuel hadn't finished with us, its slow burning properties (it was still burning when exhausted into the manifold) plus the habit of ‘pumping’ the throttle by an owner, caused rapid heating and cooling and eventual cracking of the manifold.
Northern Argentina was made up of lush grassland, pampas and scrub with dead straight roads. Here I learnt that when you are confronted with a horse or cow walking across the road, always aim for the backside, the animal will always continue on its journey and never go back, going by the number of carcasses at the side of the road this probably wasn't always true! This was all to change when we entered Bolivia, the horses turned to Llamas and the terrain mountainous with Technicolor cliffs. The view wasn't the only thing to change, Bolivia is truly a third world country and it had roads to match. We were told the true rally starts here! The next Medal Section was ‘The Sundance Trail’; this is where Butch Cassidy and Co. ran amok (on horses). It was 400km of rough gravel, riverbeds, rock, mud, potholes and gullies. We were given about 7 hours to do this section and told the roads would be closed! We continually passed cars with suspension, tyre and mechanical problems, also a few cars that had had head on collisions, nobody told the locals the road was closed! We were also told one of the high bridges was ‘out’ and we should ford the river, when we came to this river I drove up and down the bank looking for a crossing spot, finding what I thought was a shallow, I started to cross, then realised the little lad in the middle of the river was actually standing on a rock. I therefore chanced the bridge and rearranged some newly laid planks, as everyone else did after watching some cars being rescued after floating downstream. The Sundance Trail will go down in rallying history. After it 2 cars were totally out and only 7 had kept their Gold Medal. By now most cars were seeking major repairs, the C-V8 was no exception, the dampers had broken, which meant losing our ground clearance and the exhaust manifold had broken into 4, with 2 pieces missing! We managed to find somebody to braze the manifold but after taking a rear wheel off to explain why his damper wouldn't fit the wheel was replaced but the nuts weren't tightened. Got to bed about 2.00am that night and up for an early start at 5.00am (that was not untypical). On the way to the start of the next morning, yes you got it, the wheel fell off. Every job that was done in these back street workshops/garages failed! The damper problem meant that for a few days I was driving on rough tracks without any rear damping but for the rest of the rally it would mean a very much reduced ground clearance.
Another problem had emerged. We had climbed to the world heritage site of the city of Potosi. Not only is this a very nice colonial city but the world highest at (4,090m/13,420ft). At this altitude the fuel vaporises at a much lower temperature and with the under bonnet heat, this is what was happening. What I thought was lack of air to the carburettor was actually lack of fuel. The only way out of this was to keep the electric fuel pump on, select a low gear (to get the mechanical pump to run faster), keep stopping to cool down or get a 4 X 4 to tow us to the top of a hill and run down the other side to fill the carburettor. It was the turn of the highest capital city next, La Paz, here another ‘back street’ garage for the manifold to be re-brazed and to return the axle to its correct position as it had been pushed back on the spring on one side. True to all garages, the job was late, but they did have 6 other cars as well. This meant we couldn't start until a day later and did 2 days of rallying in 1, starting off in a snow storm, which included a raft crossing of Lake Titicaca (the world's highest navigable lake), this couldn't be rushed, and into Peru. We caught up with the rest of the pack at Cusco where we had 2 days of rest. 1 day was spent making up some long spring shackles to increase the ground clearance and the other to visit (by train) the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu, one of the true wonders of the world. It was in Cusco that we drivers had a small rebellion, the route was considered too rough (not a lot could be done about that) and the speeds we were expected to maintain were far too high. We had already had many injuries and 1 fatality. The organisers eventually listened and an alternative route could be followed to Lima. We decided to take this route (along with 30 out of 49 of the classics) as the C-V8 was getting ‘delicate’ and we had spares being delivered, including dampers and a new manifold to Lima. What we didn't know, was that the alternative was mainly un-surveyed and turned out to be worse than the original route; it also had the highest ambient temperature (110F) of the rally. The route took us from 15,000m down to sea level, which was a good thing for the Bentley S2 as it ran out of petrol and cruised the last 35kms ‘dead stick’. We had reached the Pacific Ocean. One milestone over!

The parts never reached Lima, but after the third re-brazing a ‘Dodge enthusiast’ presented me with a selection of Chrysler manifolds. After some negotiations (I bought him and his mate a beer each), a 400cu. inch (same as an Interceptor) manifold was mine. I waited until we were out of Peru and no chance of the parts catching us up before modifying the down pipe to fit the new manifold. Those two beers saved us, as the old one was as delicate as an egg by now. Lima was the end of leg 1 and our performance had won us 2nd place in class, even though we had missed a day’s start.

The rally was now heading south, passing the Nasca Lines, criss-crossing the Andes, travelling through countryside and on roads that had been decimated by the earthquakes and the El Nino of last year. At one town, Arequipa, we were made citizens of the town, but I was pleased to leave as the town still had a volcano ‘puffing’ out smoke every minute or so. Leg 2 ended in Marbella, Chile. Here we had a day off to repair and fettle the car. Also due to 5 days free of penalties and another 3 with just seconds picked up on the track and during regularity stages we won 1st in group. By now the number of cars dropping out of the full route was increasing (about 50%). We nearly added to the number. Whilst checking some fuel calculations, I left the road at high speed and ended up in a storm drain causing considerable damage. Emergency repairs were carried out and the Jensen stuck with it. The next milestone was the most southerly city on earth, Ushuaia, I was a little worried, I must admit, after asking the locals the best way to Ushuaia and being given the answer “by Helicopter”. Some time back, one of the front bearing covers had gone missing and replaced with a spray can top, this too went missing and due to the grease attracting all the dust and turning itself into ‘grinding paste’, the bearing wore out, overheated, expanded and burst the stub axle nut. This blew off; the wheel came off and took the hub and brake disc with it. This in turn broke the brake calliper and bent the mounting. Miracles were performed and the next day we met up with my son Daniel at Rio Grande who was navigating the northbound legs.

After crossing the Straight of Magellan the east coast was in total contrast to the west. We ate up the miles across empty southern Patagonia, but all the time the organisers found ‘interesting’ off road sections to continually punish the cars and us. At Balcarce we had a test on the race circuit designed by Juan Manuel Fangio, here we managed to give our best performance and came away with just one second penalty over 5 laps. Hoping to repeat this the next day when we did the same circuit but in the opposite direction, we were thwarted when we came head to head with a bus! Some work was being carried out on the side of the track and the works bus had got onto the track to pick up the workers. The big talking point about the east coast was the weather (50% of the entrants were British). I have spent many times in India during the monsoon but I have never met such rain and floods. At one end of day checkpoint 7 cars were towed in but the Jensen managed to do it under its own ‘steam’ with the help of copious quantities of WD40. As if ordered, one break in the storms came for a reception at the British High Commission in Buenos Aires to be followed the next day by a ferry crossing of the River Plate and another ‘musical’ reception given by semi-naked ladies in Uruguay. These receptions were a feature of the rally with schools and universities closing for our arrival, the streets would be swarming with people waiting to greet us. The adulation we received by autograph hunters etc. was somewhat enjoyable, but some aspects were ‘irritating’. Working our way through the crowds produced many ‘bangs’ on the roof as most people had never seen a glass fibre body before (let alone a Jensen) and it was quite a novelty to test it out. Also, invariably the local TV cameras would be out and enterprising ‘traders’ would quickly stick an advert on the windscreen, not used to right hand drive cars, these adverts would always be slapped across my line of sight.

The end had to come sometime; the last checkpoint (at a café) was just 30km from the finish post in Rio, but there was a strange feeling, nobody wanted to leave it. For 55 days we had lived on adrenaline (I had lost 2 stone), I have never been closer to getting killed. We had all worked together to beat the elements and anything the organisers could throw at us. The camaraderie and strength that had built up between us all was fantastic; one person said that with this we could take on the whole Taliban Army.
After suitably decorating the car we made the finish, exactly to the minute after 8 long weeks. With Jean waiting to greet us the arrival was very emotional. I have always wondered what winning a gold at the Olympics or scoring the winning goal in the FA cup was like, I now know. We had ‘mixed’ it with the best, many being very experienced including Clay Regazzoni (ex Formula 1 driver) and Alistair Caldwell (Maclaren Formula 1 boss in the 70’s). I am not a rally driver and the C-V8 is not a rally car, but together we beat the hardest endurance rally ever devised. At the ‘end of rally’ award ceremony we were reminded of the first paragraph of this article and we were all declared true HEROES!

Some more photos from the rally.

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The car was bought back to the UK, it was then stored for a number of years before Alan's son Dan (who had joined Alan on the rally) decided to take on the car and restore it. As you can see from the photos above, this is a major restoration.

Dan and Alan decided to get the car going again at the International in 2011.
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The car at the start of the weekend, just as at the end of the rally.

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The C-V8 doing the driving challenge (photo by Stephen Carter)

The car then sat for two and half years back in Devizes, before Dan had a chance to do anything with it (Dan has a house to restore as well.....)

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Daylight!

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Restoration under way :D

To see Dan's progress see his topic in members cars here
http://www.joc.org.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=17295" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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ex FF II, Interceptor I, II and III, SP, GTs and Healeys. You might say I got the bug....
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Jens
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Re: The Inca Trail C-V8

Post by Jens »

Absolutely worth the wait, I remember Alan telling some parts of the story at his dinner speech last year in Waddeston (50th anniversary of the C-V8).

I think it's a pity to delete all the bruises and scars from that epic ride but can fully understand to bring a C-V8 back into life and a useable condition.

Good luck Dan and Alan with the restauration.

A story to be continued methinks.
In order of appearance:

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Re: The Inca Trail C-V8

Post by colin7673 »

Well worth the wait indeed. A car that has a great story, that will forever be with with Jensen, the Jensen Owners' Club and of course Alan & Jean Smith and their family.
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Julian
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Re: The Inca Trail C-V8

Post by Julian »

A fantastic story. Hugen credit to be car but especially the humans. What a tremendous adventure!
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Martin R
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Re: The Inca Trail C-V8

Post by Martin R »

Incredible to read the story having heard so many snips over the years! Alan Smith (& co), you're are indeed heroes :!:
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peter ullrich
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Re: The Inca Trail C-V8

Post by peter ullrich »

Absolutely, bloody fantastic, you are a Jensen legend.
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