Rally Elan in Malaysia

PostPost by: cliveyboy » Thu Mar 06, 2008 3:17 pm

Allison, Peter and the red Elan are in the exotic east rallying.
they sent an update

Hi all,
We are now on Phuket island in Southern Thailand - with no issues to report - well almost none!
The first thing was the oil pressure. We are using Duckhams 20/50 which was good enough for Dakar and the Himalayas but gives a much lower reading here. At 60mph in top it struggles to get to just below 30psi and even at start-up it finds 40 difficult to achieve whereas back home the release valve is working overtime when cold. Oil consumption remains minimal and after about 1,400 km is still clean on the dipstick (I would expect it to be turning black by now). By way of precaution, we've asked Susan Miller to send spare big end shells to Bangkok where we arrive in a few days (she's sent parcels to Marakesh and Kathmandhu in the past).
The other problem is brakes. The pedal goes almost to the floor before it does anything yet there's a new master cylinder, servo and a full set of brake pipes - and yes we've bled the system many times over. I think its sticky pistons but the car doesn't pull to one side - very odd. Even odder because the other (yellow) Elan has brakes that bite as soon as you touch the pedal!
The roads are beautiful tarmac and I'm tempted to say better than in UK. The driving's a bit, shall we say sleepy, with people meandering along the road. Our exhaust is deafening - after being squahed on our previous rallies but so far we haven't bottomed once. Fuel is 97 octane in Malayasia and 95 here in Thailand.
We even saw another Lotus - a yellow Elise in Georgetown, Penang, Malayasia. Sadly we could not make contact, but he may read this so I'll say Hello just in case!
That's about it now - we'll keep you posted!
Peter & Allison and the red Elan
1972 Elan Sprint FHC
cliveyboy
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