Monte Carlo Historique Rallye 2008: Finale

ZR10 -another battle in the snow

The following day, Tuesday 5th February, we left the pretty ski resort of Briancon in a good mood. We now had our snow tyres and were still running with the pack. The previous night's performance on the ice circuit had elevated out spirits considerably. We had just two stages to do and then it was a straight run in to Monte Carlo. We were also relishing having another crack at the infamous Col de Turini later that the evening. Unfortunately this was not to be. The first of the day's stages, ZR10 Seyne les Alpes, was in a gorgeous location. Back in December we hadn't had time to do a reconnaissance of this section but from the start it didn’t look too bad. We raced away quietly confident and for the first two kilometers we were right on the clock. Then things went horribly wrong. We started climbing and the road surface comprised highly packed snow. Despite our studded tyres we lost momentum and came to a halt with the wheels spinning wildly. Cars were stuck all around us although an Mini Innocenti sped past without pausing. How on earth did he do this, I wondered? I got out of the car to help push and had an epiphany. One of our front wheels was spinning strenuously while the other was stopped dead; dammit my kingdom for a limited slip differential. Why did I ever think they were unnecessary? Note to self for next year -get a bloody Quaife. We struggled desperately to get traction and eventually got going with the help of willing spectators but we'd lost about six minutes. The stage was unbelievably treacherous and there were several nasty wrecks including a Porsche 911 that had gone off in a big way and was lying virtually inverted in a field. Bill went into 10/10 mode to recover this time and did indeed claw back one minute but we were pushing our luck (to put it mildly) and we clipped a bridge just 200 meters before the end of the stage and broke the steering rack. We actually completed the stage by pushing the car backwards over the line and then withdrew from the rally when we realised that repairs were impossible.

Jim and company duly turned up and the ACM officials called a breakdown truck. While we were waiting, a spectator informed us that we were the 6th car of the day to crash into the bridge. As he spoke, the 7th victim, a Porsche 356, tore off his entire rear bumper but somehow kept going. Following a quick review of our damage (it really wasn't bad but Minis are very fragile) Jim produced a bottle of 5 star cognac and we held an impromptu party at the roadside. After 30 minutes of relative hilarity Bill and I made our way to Monte Carlo in the comfort of John Griffin’s Ford Galaxy minivan for the various festivities.


Road conditions on ZR10 were treacherous: this picture is at the end of the stage. The dreaded bridge is just out of sight. Earlier the road was hard packed ice


PRX 720B completes the ZR10 stage by being pushed over the line, backwards


Jim arrives and takes charge


While we assess the damage, old friends Jackie Parkin and John Goldstone go past in their fab Mk 1 Jaguar. This was their first rally and a real baptism by fire (or is that snow?)


The steering rack has clearly sheared


Bill looks pensive and a bit flat


Depression raises its ugly head


However Griffy is not bovvered


Juliette and Jim come to the rescue again


Mood enhancing medication appears -never mind the Prozac, here's 5 star Napoleon cognac. Perfect!


PARTY!


Did you hear the one about the actress and the rally driver...?


Next year we'll win! Really!

With the exception of the first picture, all other photos are courtesy Stefan Sittner.

To be continued...

Monte Carlo Historique Rallye 2008: 3rd Movement "The Common Leg"

Mad Dogs preparing to leave Valence: note to self -the robin red breast race suit makes me look like the Michelin man. Photo courtesy Stefan Sittner.

On Monday 4th February we started the first part of what is known as the Common Leg of the rally. The previous day's "Classification Run" is now somewhat erroneously named. In the past it dictated the competitors' running order but this year we continued to go out according to our car number and thus we hung around in Valence city centre for quite awhile as 263 cars raced off in front of us at 1 minute intervals. On this day the rally took us over the Vercors plateau and on to the Haute Alps. The first regularity, ZR5, was a golden oldie run over the Col de L’Echarassone. Here we made a major mistake and went out on our intermediate Yokohama tyres instead of studded Hakkas. On our December recon run we had got over the mountain quite easily in our rented Peugeot despite snowy conditions. Six weeks later, however the conditions were horrendous. The stage was packed snow over hard ice and the effect of 263 cars (our running number was 264) going before us had caused a “washboard” effect in the packed ice which shook many cars to pieces and ruined our front tyres. Many cars went off altogether. We lost a lot of time and the front wheel spun constantly which caused the Halda reading to become wildly inaccurate. We somehow bumped our way to the end of the stage and pushed on to ZR6 at Les Nonieres. Our frantic text to the service crew requesting an urgent wheel was pinged back saying that conditions were so bad that the vehicle with our much needed tyres had itself got stuck in a snowdrift and had no traction. So off we went to ZR6, again without our studded Hakkas.

PRX 720B tackles the Col de L’Echarassone on the wrong tyres


Memorial to French Resistance Fighters marked the end of ZR5

Conditions were also horrendous on the transit section and I know understood the old rally saying “See Vercors and Die”. Die is a small town at the bottom of the plateau.

Ethereal view from the Vercors plateau: the road goes down to the appropriately named town of Die

We had so many slips and spins on the way down I started to think that the heavenly view from the top of the plateau was going to become a literal one before the end of the day. So we did the ZR6 on our hopelessly inadequate intermediate tyres. We spun several times and eventually slid into a snowbank (we were towed out by a kind spectator). We did eventually find some grip and Bill shot over the brow of the Col and made the descent at terrifying speed. There were several hairpins on the way down and Bill just hurled the car into them doing dramatic handbrake turns on each occasion.

Extreme conditions persist on ZR6 and our tyres are still inadequate

We completed the stage, found the service point, Jim et al. zipped on our snowtyres and we made the time control at Mens on time and despite these two horrendous stages were amazed to find later in the day that our overall position had stayed almost the same. Everybody else had had a torrid time and many cars were damaged or abandonne.

ZR7 at Mens was a super stage. We whizzed around it with no difficulty bang on the clock and then found ourselves climbing back through the ranks. At the end of the stage marshals presented us with a note that ZR8 was cancelled due to a blizzard and we were to make our own way the Serre Chevalier ice circuit just outside the night stop at Briancon close to the Italian border. I was then forced to do some old fashioned “plot and bash” navigation -plotting the route while on the move. It wasn’t too difficult. We took a long diversion south through the town of Gap instead of going north and arrived at the Serre Chevalier in the dark. It was bloody cold and snowing.

Arrival at the ice circuit. Photo courtesy Stefan Sittner.

We checked in at the time control and before we knew what was happening we were pushed out onto the ice circuit. Here a bit of hilarity ensued. We’d researched the ice circuit carefully and knew the layout. We were also aware that the result of this particular stage (and it was conducted as a regularity) didn’t count to the final rankings but it had its own trophy. As we were channeled onto the circuit I was unprepared to say the least: I’d only just got back into the car had my seatbelts weren’t on (this situation was rapidly corrected), the Halda wasn't zeroed and the chronometer was somewhere on the floor of the car. In front of us a BMW that was always zooming past on the road was spinning hopelessly. Bill, however, was in his element and went into full “Stig” mode. The Mini flew around the circuit and we overtook everybody.

On the ZR9 ice circuit we overtook everybody. Photo courtesy Stefan Sittner

Bill drifted through every corner and we were having a great time. The instructions said do four laps and exit but we were having such fun we couldn’t stop. After about eight or nine circuits Bill came out with the immortal line from The Italian Job “Try to find the exit, we can’t keep going round here all day” -we were giggling like naughty schoolboys when we eventually found the sortie and departed for the night stop back at Briancon. We’d placed 27th overall on the ice circuit and and we were actually first in class.

Porsche out of shape


Opel can't cope


PRX 720B avoiding a BMW


Mad Dogs frolick in snow

All video clips courtesy Stefan Sittner.

To be continued...

Monte Carlo Historique Rallye 2008: 2nd Movement "The Classification Stage"

PRX 720B pushing hard on ZR1 at St Julien

After a good meal and a decent night’s sleep I got up early and reviewed my notes for Sunday’s four regularity sections (known as ZR stages). These comprised a loop over the Ardeche plateau in classic rally country and we were to finish the day back in Valence. This first day of serious rallying is usually pretty demanding and compounded by the fact that crews are nervy. We made our way to the first stage at St. Pierreville. The ACM describes this stage as follows:

"There is a downhill start at the exit of the village of St-Pierreville, followed immediately by a climb up to the Ardeche plateau, along a chestnut-tree lined road, at an average altitude of 650 m, on a narrow, but well-maintained, road. Then, at the D244/D261 intersection, at Foulix, competitors return along the old Moulinon / Antraigues route, another great Monte-Carlo Rally classic, which climbs to the Col de la Fayolle, from St-Julien du Gua, on a wider but more uneven road, to the summit at 877 m".

Poetic indeed but make no mistake, this was a bloody hard, unforgiving, stage that was fully intended by the ACM rally planners to sort out the men from the boys.

We shot off from the start confidently and our recon notes paid huge dividends as we launched into the first series of hairpins. We went past crews evidently phased by the relatively high speed of the regularity and there were signs of mishaps –dropped exhausts, broken lamp and reflector glass everywhere. I kept Bill on course and according to my calculations we were pretty much dead on time.


The Crew hard at work at a service point at Antraigues; they were amazingly quick. Photo courtesy Stefan Sittner.

ZR2, Burzet to St Martial, was long (40Km+) and with a fast target time. Road conditions were pretty demanding and we encountered some snow, ice and even freezing fog. Fortunately none of these conditions persisted and we again appeared to finish close to the target time.


White out on ZR2

ZR3 and 4 were also completed satisfactorily. ZR3 at St Bonnet was flat straightforward loop and relatively unremarkable. ZR4 at Lalouvesec was notable for a very nasty descending hairpin about 14km into the stage (Bill did a spectacular handbrake turn to the delight of the crowd) which then continued into some of the narrowest roads I’ve ever encountered. They were really farm tracks. We lost about 20 seconds, the biggest deficit of the day, but Bill thrashed PRX 720B mercilessly and pulled us back on the clock. We were set to clean the stage but in the last half kilometer we were quite unbelievably baulked by a non-competing AWD car coming in the opposite direction. Heaven knows how the driver found his (it was a “he”) onto the rally route but he must have been terrified as he just stopped in the middle of the road effectively blocking our passage. We lost at least 7 seconds tiptoeing past this twit and were too close to the end of the stage to claw anything back. Nevertheless we didn’t feel too bad about our performance and made our way back to the Valence time control feeling fairly optimistic. Sometime over dinner the results were posted. I was a little disappointed to find we were running exactly in the middle of the pack of 305 cars. However there was a mere 50 seconds between us and the leading car and the standard of regularity driving was just amazing. When I first started rallying I would have been happy to complete each stage within a minute of the target time! Nevertheless we were running ahead of many high profile crews including former MC rally winners so we had everything to play for and turned in with eager anticipation for the following day’s competition.


Mad Dogs cross the Ardeche plateau

To be continued...

Monte Carlo Historique Rallye 2008: 1st Movement "The Concentration Run"

Map of our concentration run route from Reims to Valence: a long and winding road

On Friday 1st February, Bill and I were up early and met Jim, Juliette and Stefan for breakfast. Griffy popped over from his hotel and we made a plan for the day. The first thing to do was to get the car to the scrutineering sheds, do the necessary paperwork, get the technical examination done then give the car a full "bolt check", apply the competition numbers and rally plates and take care of any small details before the 7.30pm start.

We duly made our way to the exhibition centre and presented ourselves to the scrutineering officals. Our paperwork was in order (always a relief -I hate administrative faux pas) and after fairly cursory technical examination we got the essential "approved" sticker applied to our roof. Jim and Stefan put on the graphics, fixed the rally plates and then got to work doing a thorough mechanical check. Attention to detail at this stage pays dividends later: a flawed component may not be apparent in normal road driving but may let go in a big way on a stage and can cost the rally. To the immense credit of the team PRX 720B has hardly missed a beat on the three MCHs I've done to date (the exception is a minor hiccup -see below). Jim was concerned about one of our front hubs but fortunately we had a spare and changed the suspect part in almost no time.


Jim applies graphics, son Sam and Bill (on right) watch. Photo courtesy Stefan Sittner

At some point we grabbed some lunch and then went back to the hotel to change into our race gear. Classic rally driving doesn't require us to wear nomex but many of the competitors do so. My personal view is that it looks professional and is also very practical in that it's warm and it precludes any dithering about "what shall I wear today?". It's just a uniform. One or two drivers wear crash helmets but I think this is a bit over the top for regularity driving with the exception of the Col de Turini stage and thus we'd brought our skid lids with the intention of wearing them on this final nemesis section.


PRX 720B parked up and waiting for "the off", Reims town square:Bill and I went for a quite cup of coffee. Photo courtesy Stefan Sittner.

At 4.00pm we got back to scrutineering area to join the convoy of cars to Reims town square. I love this part. The sight and sound of 100+ battle-ready classic cars preparing for action always stirs my blood. Actually, I'm pretty sure its a major reason why do this crazy stuff. Eventually we got lined up in the town square and waited for "the off". Bill and I said goodbye to the Crew who were leaving for the first service point, briefly attended a reception in the Town Hall and then killed half an hour drinking coffee in a lovely little bar as the cars took off at one minute intervals. Our competition number was 264 which meant we were running quite close to the back. This is no problem but does mean there's quite a bit of hanging around. Finally we got into the car and strapped ourselves in. I checked the maps and the stopwatches and we joined the queue to the starting podium. Waiting for the go is always surreal and an adrenaline rush. I was only barely aware of the cacophany of the brass band, the blaring loudspeakers and the roar of the crowd. I fidgeted with my equipment and clothing as we approached and eventually drove up on the podium and stopped at the start line as directed by the marshals. I took our time card, zeroed the Halda and heard, in an otherworldly way, our car being described over the tannoy system. My pulse probably doubled as the second hand of the clock ticked towards the zero. The marshal indicated 10 seconds. All I could hear was my hearbeat. The start of the film Le Mans describes this situation perfectly. And then we were off! I hit the stopwatch and countdown timer simultaneously and Bill gunned the engine. The crowd cheered and we honked and waved as we roared out of Reims. The rally was on!

The first leg of the event was a gruelling 20 hour, 1200Km, shakedown known as the “concentration run” from the start at Reims to Valence located in the Ardeche region. Here cars from the five diffrent start points across Europe converge for the stages. This has been a tiring but uncomplicated drive in the past but this year we encountered several unexpected challenges. We droned through the night uneventfully and met up with the service crew at the pre-agreed locations. However some time after daybreak we encountered significant snowfall as we were making our way to the time control in the delightful town of St. Claude located in a valley in the Jura mountains. Road conditions were poor and our progress became slow. We were in danger of not making our time. Bill pushed hard. A slow moving Porsche in front of us picked up the pace as we closed on its tail (there’s something about Minis that Porsche drivers just can’t stand –they don’t seem to be able to cope with our demented little buzz boxes nipping at their heels). Time became really tight and we flew down the Col St Claude in excess of 130 kph. Bill’s skill in the snow was astonishing and he demonstrated once gain why he has earned the nickname “Stig”. To this moment I’m still wondering how he controlled the car safely through a 180° spin at 80kph on a narrow mountain road. This bravery paid off and unlike many, we made it into the St. Claude town center with two minutes to spare.


Porsche drivers seem to particularly irritated by this image in their rear view mirrors. Ha Ha! Photo courtesy Stefan Sittner.

An hour or so further on we were not so lucky. I suffered brain fade around mid-morning as road signs apparently dried up. We got horribly lost and only after some headless chicken panic antics we got back on route but again we were running slow. Bill once more did some heroic (I didn’t say hooligan) driving and we got to the checkpoint at Bourgoin-Jallieu just one minute late. Annoying but not the end of the world. What happened next, however, was egregious. I recalculated our time into the next time control at Mauve. Needless to say our arrival time should have reset from when we left Bourgoin-Jallieu but in the heat of the moment I kept our original scratch time as the starting point for my calculations. As a result we checked into Mauve one minute early. This was a bad mistake as time in early gets a six-fold penalty over time in late (the Automobile Club de Monaco tries to discourage speeding). In the scheme of the overall rally these penalties don’t matter too much but this was the first time I hadn’t kept a clean sheet on a concentration run and I was more than a little irked by this rudimentary error.

Our final drama of the day was on the tripmeter calibration section just outside Mauve. There were a few traps on this 5km stretch –the rally designers love to catch out weary crews with confusing signage. Fortunately we eluded these pitfalls and were droning along quite nicely when 100 metres from the final marker the engine died. An incomplete tripmeter calibration would have been disastrous so I hopped out of the car and Bill and I pushed PRX 720B over the line. I recorded the distance on the Halda and then called in Jim and the cavalry as Bill started working frantically on the car. Amazingly the service vehicles arrived within minutes and the problem was traced to a faulty rotor arm and we raced off to the final stop at Valence. Once again we were behind time and now we were up against Saturday afternoon traffic and a major urban centre. At this point our driving started to resemble something out of The Italian Job as we tried frantically to get around traffic jams. I’m not sure how many traffic regulations we broke and I’ll say no more here in case the Valence gendarmerie are still looking for us. With Parc Ferme in sight Bill started to drive on the pavement. At this point I jumped out of the car and ran to the control with my time card. It seemed to me that we should have been five minutes late but fortunately the Control was in chaos due to poor traffic management (I seem to remember the same thing happened in Vals les Bains in 2005) and penalties were waived for all crews -the rally gods were smiling on us once again.

PRX 720B arrives at Valence

To be continued...

Monte Carlo Historique Rallye 2008: Prelude

Bill at the scrutineering sheds at Reims doing mods to the rockers or something...

To the rally faithful, here's the first of the posts I've been promising on this year's 11th Monte Carlo Historique rally. It'll take a while to describe the event so sit down with a cuppa and enjoy. To my non-petrolhead readers I would ask your indulgence for the next few days; normal (non-rallying articles) will resume shortly. Anyway here we go...

Prior to the start of the rally on February 1st, my horoscope said "Mercury, your ruler, is in retrograde for the next three week. This transit will cause chaos in all areas of your life involving travel and communications. Avoid taking trips during this period if possible". Great, just the advice I needed before a long distance rally in a foreign country. In any case I packed my cases containing navigational paraphernalia, road book, maps, race suit, helmet and a tone of other miscellaneous gear and staggered off to the airport. I managed to check onto the flight without incurring a luggage surcharge despite being a good bit overweight and counted my blessings. I settled in the seat of the Boeing 777 (see my previous concerns) and 10 hours later landed at Heathrow without incident and made my way to Bill Richards' place. So far so good: maybe the rally gods were smiling for once.

Over the next two days days I did the usual car preparation. PRX 720B was cleaned, graphics applied, tools and spares sorted out and the tyres calibrated against the Halda. Back in November/December the car had been strengthened and upgraded. It was now fitted with FIA seats –not particularly pretty but much safer than the old period buckets. We had paid special attention to lights. Gone was the rack of vintage Lucas “flame thrower” spot and fogs which were quite ineffective despite new reflectors and halogen bulbs: in their place was a set of a full set of Cibié Oscars. The headlamps too had been replaced with the latest halogen offerings and were also a huge improvement over the previous units (also halogen but an older design). In addition, Bill had done an amazing engine tuning job –the 1293cc lump pulled to 8,300 rpm and had serious grunt most of the way there. Bill estimated at least 110bhp which is a lot in a car weighing aroung 600Kg. Finally we'd given a lot of thought to tyres. This time we had a total of 16 boots: four Dunlops for dry conditions, six intermediate winter tyres Yokohamas sourced in Austria by Jim Wirtz and six Hakka studded for snow. We'd never been this well prepared and overall felt fit, fast and confident.

Mad Dogs await rally with eager anticipation

More important than any number of technical innovations is the service crew and this year we had a superb complement. Jim Wirtz was masterminding the logistics and was assisted by his wife Juliette and Stefan Sittner. All three were from the Luxembourg Mini Club and performed sterling service for us in 2005. In addition John Griffin (Griffy) from the London and Surrey Mini Club, who had originally intended to shadow us and write a story for an automotive magazine was press-ganged into the team. Thus our service team comprised four adults as well as Juliette and Jim’s young son Sam and three vehicles carrying what seemed like a ton of tools and spare parts.

So early in the morning of Thursday 31st January Bill and I met up with Griffy and we set off for Dover. And here our problems started. Overnight a serious storm had blown up. Wind gusts of Force 10-11 were being recorded and the Port of Dover was closed. The ferry office advised us to stay put they anticipated sailing at 1.00pm. Now it seems whatever way I elect to cross La Manche I encounter difficulties. Devoted readers may recall that back in 2005, Bill and I had caused the evacuation of the entire Le Shuttle due to a fuel leak. In 2008 I had opted to use the ferry system not only was it considerably cheaper ($60 vs $400) but it is more relaxing and less claustrophobic. And at the back of our minds we didn't want to encounter any officials that might have remembered us from the 2005 incident! At this point we considered making a run for the tunnel but received conflicting information as to whether there was any availability. In the end we decided to wait it out and eventually boarded and sailed around 3.00pm

The Channel crossing was actually quite mild considering the waves we'd observed earlier in the morning and we arrived in Dunkirk at 6.00pm. The three hour drive to Reims was uneventful although we did stop to change tyres and make another Halda check. Eventually we arrived at the Mercure Hotel, met up with Jim, Juliette and Stefan, scoffed some dinner and turned in for the night. Next day was going to be long.

To be continued...

Mad Dog as a Buddhist

Here's a piece of flagrant, time-wasting, filler (nod to LitBrit).

Mad Dog's name "translated" into Buddhist is, apparently, Bodhisattva Boundless Wisdom.

Bodhisattva Boundless Wisdom, eh? It has a ring to it, don't you think...?

What's yours?

My next post will be about rallying, I promise.

Martial Arts Milestone

A fine suit of Yoroi. Photo taken by MD in either Kyoto or Tokyo in 1983.

I've had no time to blog since my return from France. Apart from getting back on an even keel at work I've also been preparing frantically for an iaido test. I'm delighted to say that after a very stressful examination earlier today I've achieved the modest rank of sankyu. So now I'm an officially documented swordsman. My thanks go to my colleagues and superb instructors at Musokai.

Rally reports will follow shortly...

Friday Music Blogging: Bonnie Tyler

It's hard to believe that this song is 32 years old but it seems appropriate for my activities last week. Normal blogging will be resumed as soon as I've finished digging out of the admin pile which resembled an Alpine Col at the beginning of the week. Have a great weekend, everyone.

Back to Reality

Mad Dogs attack snowy conditions with gusto en route to Monte Carlo

Well, the rally adventure is over for another year. I got back to Seattle about 12 hours ago after an exhausting 80 hour journey from Monte Carlo. A full account of our adventures will be forthcoming after I've unpacked, dealt with the laundry, soothed stroppy cats, attended to admin, dealt with the email deluge at work (urgh!) and done the usual post-trip fire-fighting.

So for now it's enough to say we didn't win the rally and on day 4 we had a minor flirtation with some iron railings that broke our steering rack and put paid to our chances. But this was without doubt the most exciting and fun event ever and I can't wait to have another go in 2009. More soon...

Thanks to our Sponsors

Now with just eight days to go before The Rally, it's high time to acknowledge some of the help that the Mad Dog team has received from various sponsors and friends. First and foremost is Chris Harper and MiniSport, of Padiham, Lancashire to whom we are deeply indebeted in more ways than one, but especially for putting up with our dithering.

Honourable mentions must also go to the following who have helped us in a variety of ways:

Piper Cams

Marilyn Connell

London and Surrey Mini Owners Club

Mini Magazine

Neil Huband



In the next few days I'm sure other individuals and organisations will come to the fore and I will acknowledge them as appropriate.

Mad Dog Rallying is a supporter of the Kent Autistic Trust, UK.

Blogging: Technical Irritations

For non-bloggers, this post may be a bit meaningless but I'm getting really frustrated with some technical aspects of blogging.  Haloscan is a particular annoyance. It sometimes registers comments i.e. counts them and sometimes it doesn't. On other occasions comments disappear off into the ether. I suppose this is just a product of using free third party software. I'd welcome any insight. Also Blogger has its own frustrations. I'm thinking of switching hosts. When I come back from my trip I'll do some homework...

Confronting My Demons

Rauno Aaltonen and Geoff Mabbs invert their Mini Cooper on the Col de Turini in 1962.

It’s now just 10 days before the start of the rally. Preparations are going quite well although there is still a lot to do. I must confess that I’m now feeling the pressure to perform quite acutely. The great thing about being a beginner is that there are no expectations. But now that we can no longer claim tyro status this sanctuary has disappeared. I’m anxious about all sorts of things: a simple navigational error can cost us dozens of places in the rankings (and make me look very foolish) as can mechanical failures, bad tyre choices or driver error. The teams that win the Monte are those that make the fewest mistakes. Previous blunders still haunt me, notably our 100 metre skid on the downhill section of the Col de Turini which ended in an unpleasant collision with a very unyielding wall.

In an attempt to exorcise this particular demon, Bill and I revisited the crash scene when we did our reconnaissance back in December. It was a somewhat cathartic experience. The error was very easy to comprehend. A longish fast downhill section (there aren’t many opportunities to make up time on the CdT) quickly became a tight and then tighter left hander. And of course there was ice on the margins. Bill has been particularly self-critical but this was a classic trap. A couple of recent web trawls have revealed some of the Col’s numerous high profile victims. We are in illustrious company and I’ve been reminded why the Monte Carlo is the jewel in the crown of both historic and modern rally series. The WRC site says it perfectly in a couple of clips here and here. Enjoy!

Now I’d better get back to the mapping. I’m also going to keep repeating the mantra “we will not crash, we will not crash”. Feel free to join in.


Altogether now, "We will not crash, we will not crash, we will not crash..."

Photos from the excellent Turini website.

Boeing, Boeing

Emergency vehicles chase the Boeing 777 on which MD

was a passenger, September 14th 2004 (view from window).

Last Thursday's crash of a Boeing 777 at Heathrow due to some kind of engine failure reminded me of my own hairy moment in one of these aircraft. Back in 2004 I was heading off to a conference in Singapore. I had boarded the aircraft at Seattle international airport (SeaTac) and after settling into my seat had started to snooze lightly. I was aware of the engines accelerating for take off and as we hit V1 I was jolted into hyper-vigilant awareness by a loud, all-permeating vibration. My mechanical intuition told me that something was deeply wrong. But the noise subsided, the plane levelled off and for awhile all seemed normal. Then, after 15-20 minutes I noticed that were no longer flying west but instead flying north over Puget Sound. A few minutes later the pilot announced that there was a problem with one of the engines and and that he was "doing tests".  As we continued flying it became very evident that everytime one of the engines was throttled up the vibration became apparent. Subesequently the pilot announced that we had a serious problem and that we were going to make an emergency back at SeaTac after we'd dumped our fuel load. He also urged us to remain calm. And thus we flew around in a big circle, on one engine, for more than half an hour while the flight engineer sprayed 40,000+ gallons of fuel over the Pacific North West. Some of the passengers were less than calm and there was a lot of praying, Bible clutching and frantic crossings going on. Eventually we landed back at SeaTac where we surrounded by a fleet of yellow emergency vehicles and firefighters wearing aluminium suits that will withstand temperatures close to the surface of the sun.

My fellow passengers and I were eventually evacuated (no fun inflatable slides, unfortunately), put up in hotel accommodation and flown out the following day when a new plane was located. I asked the pilot if the nature of the problem had been discovered. He replied that the fan blades on one of the engines had broken up and that this was a bewildering incident as that particular airplane was brand new. I continued on my journey without incident. By way of compensation, I was allowed to sit in the cockpit and wear the pilot's hat. Needless to say I was not particularly reassured. I think I may avoid Boeing 777s from now on...

Searching for Bobby Fischer

Windmill, Poros, Greece, 1972

In August of 1972, I sat in the shade of a tree by this windmill on the Peloponese island of Poros and opened a nearly week old copy of The Daily Telegraph (I know, but it was just about the only English news broadsheet I could find). I'd been away from England for nearly a month and was desperate for world news and thus I devoured every printed word with gusto. A prominent news story at the time was the battle going on in Iceland between the steely Russian chess Grand Master, Boris Spassky, and American prodigy, Bobby Fischer. The world championship series of matches was played in high drama over the summer of that year and the antics of the two players held me captivated: chess had finally become a true spectator sport. So it was with sadness I read of the passing Mr Fischer yesterday. His genius was never in doubt but at the time of his death he was no longer the iconic figure from the 1970s but, to put it mildly, a highly eccentric individual with a more than messy personal life. He had turned against the land of his birth, and the American government was intolerant of his lack of patriotism and went after him with a vengeance. Possibly the American public, too. Overall a terrible shame considering the entertainment he had once provided.

Time, Speed, Distance

Mad Dog's on-the-road "office"

Various friends, colleagues and some bloggers have asked me what rallying is all about. The realisation that I'm regarded as an authority in some quarters is quite funny but I suppose I have learned a bit since my first, laughably useless, first attempt on one of the first days of the New Millennium. So here's a quick guide for the perplexed.

The overall objective of historic or classic rallying is to drive a specified route and collect the fewest penalty points. A few things are assumed (i) that a car must have a crew of at least two individuals and (ii) an age-appropriate vehicle must be used. Different organisations and different events will have varying rules which is quite confusing, especially when they dictate the modifications that can be made to the car or the equipment carried. Roughly speaking, the car needs to have only period modifications although some concessions are allowed for safety (modern seats, seatbelts, roll cages etc).

So as I was saying, the crew needs to drive from the start to finish along a pre-defined route in a timely manner. To ensure this happens, the rally organisers will set up check points to ensure that the competitors are not cheating and taking shortcuts. The crews must get to certain time controls on the exact minute as written in the instructions. This is usually not too difficult, especially if the section is longish -the organisers usually build in sufficient time to allow the crews to stop for fuel, take "bio-breaks" get coffee or do minor servicing and repairs. So the general idea is to get to a spot before the checkpoint (often conveniently located in a café) early and then check exactly on the prescribed minute (a task for the co-driver). An important point to make is that historic rallies are conducted at street legal speeds and are not races (usually). It's actually bad form to call the event "a race" as it gets the sport a bad name. The point is not to reenact the Gumball Rally. The American term "rally racing" is also misleading. It's fine for WRC kind of thing where the fastest through the stage wins but it's not what historic events are about.

OK, I hope that's clear so far. But I've only covered the easy part known as "transit sections". Up until now all that's needed is a competent driver and co-driver, the ability to drive to a route and organise the car to be at certain places on time. Surprisingly a lot of people get tripped up on the transit sections and if the rally planners scatter a few navigational booby traps in the mix a lot of crews can get caught out. But now the fun rally begins. The point of the transit sections is to convey the crews to the really nasty bits which are known as "Regularity Zones". Americans call this next bit Time, Speed, Distance which is a good description. At the starting checkpoint the crew will be assigned a speed. They then have to drive the route precisely at this average speed, usually between 42-49 KPH. The regularity stages vary in length from 10-40 kilometers. The degree of precision is variable from event to event but this year the Automobile Club de Monaco is doing the timing to 1/100th of a second! So how is this accuracy accomplished? Well the co-driver needs three items (i) a good stopwatch, (ii) an accurate mechanical tripmeter of the type used in the 60s and 70s -the Mini is fitted with a Halda Twinmaster; these devices were originally made for Swedish taxis and are accurate down to 10 metres and (iii) a large book of speedtables. Lots of excellent geekery is involved. As soon as the car is flagged off, the previously zeroed stopwatch and tripmeter are started and the co-driver starts checking the average speed in the book by cross reading elapsed time on the stopwatch vs. distance covered on the tripmeter. I try to do this four times per minute and call out whether we are fast or slow. If the car is bouncing over a bad road it's quite common to be able to achieve only two or three sampling times per minute. Oh, and the co-driver has also got to keep the driver on the correct route so some map work is necessary too. And before anybody asks, modern electronic tripmeters are illegal as are GPS devices and other such gizmos. Some rallies outlaw the use of mobile phones (one or two competitors phone back road conditions and positions of hidden intermediate timing points -usually a couple of marshals sequestered in a van- to their team mates) but it's virtually impossible to police their use. The ACM doesn't even try.

So just in case anybody is thinking that maintaining an average speed of less than 30mph is easy, let me point out that the stages are invariably narrow mountain roads frequently covered with snow and ice. Freezing fog is quite common too. To do well everything needs to be just right. The crew must have a harmonious relationship with each knowing their precise job, the car needs to be set up correctly and in the case of the Monte Carlo, appropriate tyres need to be fitted and the service crew needs to be at a spot where wheels can be juggled. If any of these variables are wrong, the crew will find the going difficult. Often it's so difficult to make the target time (usually set in optimum weather conditions) that the drive is a flat out blast until the end of the stage.

And that's about it. If you can maintain your concentration for four days, manage to drive all the transit sections on time, score a minimum of penalties on the regularity stages (the Monte Carlo has 14 this year) not crash or breakdown, avoid traffic jams due to bad weather, idiotic spectators or bakers giving away apple strudel* and not come to blows with your crew members**, you'll have a good chance of finishing in the points. In any case you'll have a lot of good stories by the end of the event and the Automobile Club de Monaco holds the best party ever.

P.S. Following a comment from the ever astute Little Cricket, I realised I omitted an important fact about the regularity stages. I should have mentioned how the average speed is monitored. Each car carries a transponder which registers when we start and finish the stage. There are also hidden intermediate timing points to stop cars accruing time on the easier sections and giving themselves a reserve for the harder parts of the stage. I should also out that this year, in an attempt to control the boy racer element in the rally (sadly there is one) the penalty points for being ahead of the target time are six times those for being slow.

* This happened to us in 2005. A baker in the village of Antraigues is famous for passing out delicious apple strudel to the rally crews. Note to the ACM and the local Gendamarie: it's a lovely gesture but please don't let it impede competeing cars. After losing 15 minutes due to crowd control, I wanted to stick the said strudel up somebody's ar was very stressed.

** Rally lore has several accounts of married couples getting so angry with each other en route that they've abandonded their car, flown home separately and filed for divorce!

Monte Carlo Countdown: Start -19 Days

Mad Dog is burning the midnight oil doing the mapping for the MCH

There's now less than three weeks before the start of the rally and the pressure is starting to gnaw at me. I've booked my flights to the UK and back. I've booked the cross channel ferry (let's hope we won't have any high jinks of the kind we had in 2005 on Le Shuttle). I've booked most of the ancillary accommodation. That just leaves a few bits and bobs to organise and that side of things is done.

On the car preparation front, Bill has rebuilt the engine and gearbox and PRX 720B is up and running and is working more or less OK but needless to say there are a few bugs to sort out. The front brakes are apparently leaking despite new seals; we'll need to get the calipers sleeved. Bloody useless things, just 43 three years old and they're knackered. You can't get quality products anymore. I sent the Twinmaster off to noted Halda guru, Neil Huband, for a quick service and he's just informed me that the internals have seen better days and it needs a full overhaul. More expense, I suppose but at this stage, who cares.

Technical and safety improvements to the car include modern FIA seats that hold the seatbelts securely (there's nothing  like a nosedive into a mountain wall to become acutely aware of one's mortality -see how WRC ace Petter Solberg did something very similar at almost the same spot the week before us in 2005). In addition, the period correct Lucas fog and spotlights have been replaced by a set of monster Cibié Oscars. Sadly those jokes that Americans love to make about Lucas electrics are largely true. Despite investing quite a bit on refurbishing the old Lucas SLR 700 "flame throwers" they just didn't perform well enough for a modern rally and now will only be used for shows. Finally the tyres have all been delivered. We have a set of six studded Hakka for the snow and ice: hopefully these will be a huge improvement over the wretched Colway M/S whose demise will cause me to shed no tears. In addition we have another set of six Yokohama intermediates for mixed conditions. Hopefully that will be enough and short of getting full works-level sponsorship I don't see what more we can do in that department.

The major task that remains for me is to complete the mapping and pace notes, Hopefully that will be done by next weekend by which time I should have completed our roadbook. Must go now, the Carte Michelin are calling...

Well George, we finally knocked the bastard off*

Sir Edmund Hillary, 1919-2008

Damn! And there I was writing about him in just my last post. Rest in Peace, Ed, you were also one of my heroes. Wherever you are now, I'm sure you'll find some mountains to climb.

*Sir Edmund's comment to friend George Lowe, on returning from his conquest of Everest in 1953.

4th January

The Royal Albert Hall, London. Mad Dog first attended a classical music concert here on this day forty years ago.

The 4th day of the New Year seems to be one of those dates that has special significance in my memory. Forty years ago today was the first time I ventured to London on my own to attend a classical concert (Handel's Messiah) at the Royal Albert Hall. It was snowing and very atmospheric. Don't ask me how I can remember the date because these days I can't even recall what I did on the previous day. Somehow these formative experiences are etched on the brain.

On the same day the previous year (1967 if you're having trouble with the maths) one of my childhood heroes, Donald Campbell, was killed in the most dramatic fashion, live on television while attempting a water speed record on Coniston Water. I remember the film clip being broadcast over and over again while I watched aghast but with morbid fascination with his last words "...I've got the bows up, I'm going..." ringing in my ears.

Also on this day in 1986 the tragic death of Thin Lizzy frontman, Phil Lynott, came as a shock. This Irish combo was one of my favourite bands of the 1970s (yay, for a great concert at the Top Rank, Cardiff, c 1973). By that time I was living in San Francisco but tuned avidly to the BBC World Service for Euro news (some things never change).

Finally, I can remember clearly the news of Sir Edmund Hillary's triumph in reaching the South Pole by overland expedition in 1958. The first person to do so since Captain Scott in 1912. I was still in primary school and these kinds of achievements were applauded greatly in the grey post-war atmosphere still prevalent in the UK. To this day I've been fascinated by the Snowcats.

Carlos Who...?

As Bill Richards and I raced around France recently on our rally recon we noticed the billboard above on one of the stages near St. Agreve. So it seems to me that the Automobile Club de Monaco is so slack that it can't be arsed to plot a different route for our rally and that bunch of overpaid boy racers from the WRC who are drivng ahead of us by a few days (you know, cars with huge exhaust pipes, wings and stuff driven by rockstar crews who are constantly pampered, have groupies tending to their every need and don't have to worry if they can afford to buy a third set of tyres). Anyway my interest was piqued and I went for a surf on the ACM's site. To my surprise they've made an announcement that no fewer than four former winners of the MC rally will be competing on the Historique event. First there is Bruno Saby and Jean-Francois Fauchille (winners, 1988) in a Fiat 500. Hah Hah and LMFAO! Then there's 1978 winner, Jean-Pierre Nicolas, driving his Gitanes Porsche 911. I expect he'll be too busy smoking cigarettes to care about driving. Next there's Vic Elford and David Stone at the wheel of their orange Porsche 911. I'm frankly a bit worried about this pair as they broke the dominance of the Mini Coopers back in 1968. They are quite familiar with regularity rallys if they're not too old to remember how to read speed tables and David Stone lives near Valence (the nexus point of the rally), apparently. You don't think they could have been practicing, do you....? Nah, I'm being paranoid! Finally there's some bloke called Sainz. Never heard of him. He's from Barcelona (or somewhere close). A quick internet search reveals that he likes to drive his car greasy side up. He's clearly rubbish!  Bring 'em on, I say.

Welcome 2008

Photo purloined from Lolcats.

No the champagne isn't (wasn't) invisible. I drank it. Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to find the ibuprofen.

Happy New Year!

Reflections on 2007

MD and Offspring in Seattle Last Week (in case anyone dares suggest this is a studio picture, I can tell you that we nearly got frostbite getting this shot).

Well there's another year gone (and don't they just fly by these days -one of my resolutions for 2008 will be to not blink). 2007 was by no means bad. Several longstanding personal issues were finally resolved and in many ways closed a quite painful chapter of my life and opened a new one which promises to be very exciting in 2008 and beyond. Work was very rewarding and also moved up a gear: I'm certainly not short of projects for the next year or so. Travel was highlighted with four major international trips taking in Ireland, France, Greece, UK (x3) and Thailand and as many more domestic jaunts. A quick glance at the calendar tells me that things will be just as frenetic in 2008. Let's hope health and sanity hold out over the next 12 months. Now enough introspection -it's time to drink some champagne!

A White Christmas!

Well it wasn't exactly a blizzard but we did have a significant snowfall here in Seattle today (even if it was a bit wet and rainy too).

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Mad Dogs and Englishmen

I don't want to overdo this YouTube cross-posting business but in keeping with an encroaching mood of pre-Christmas insouciance (or is it hysteria?) here's a clip of total genius featuring the incomparable  Noel Coward.

'Fings Ain't What They Used To Be

Mad Dog, at school side door, 1967


Mad Dog, at school side door, 2007 (note to self: don't tuck a scarf into a buttoned up jacket as it makes you look fat)

Somebody, maybe Chertz, said "...depression is the price you pay for nostalgia...". Sometimes true, perhaps, but not always. It depends on the circumstances. If it were, I'd be reaching for a catering pack of anti-depressants by now. On my recent trip back to the UK, I met up with my brother and for a morning we indulged in a shameless walk down memory lane including visiting our old school in surburban Surrey. It was a training day and the building was closed (sounds like a skive to me -these things didn't exist when I was a pupil). The caretaker noticed the two middle-aged men lurking suspiciously in the driveway and after we had convinced him we weren't hooligans he invited us in. Well nostalgia is not a strong enough word to convey the emotions that followed. Still there in the entry hall were the boards with the gilt-enlaid names of all the Head Boys and Girls. The main hall itself, the scene of maybe a 1000 assemblys when I was there, not to mention plays concerts as well as some mass interrogations from the Principal (a future blog topic), looked exactly as it was 40 years ago. The place even smelled the same. Oh memories, what thou art?

Never mind the Prozac, I'm off to pour myself a stiff single malt...!

Monte Carlo Countdown: Start -45 Days

I can't explain the allure of classic rallying. Something about challenging myself but Heaven knows that there are less elaborate and certainly less expensive ways of doing this. But trying to maintain a steady speed of 45 Kph (accurate to 1:100th of a second up a snowy mountain road, often no wider than a cart track) is as exciting as it is physically and intellectually demanding. This clip from the 2007 event captures the gestalt.

Another Sidebar Cleanup

It's time for another tidy-up of the sidebar. Thus I've purged dead links and also removed some that no longer quite pique my interest. And I've added a few new ones although sensible suggestions for fresh and exciting sites are most welcome. I've also got rid of a lot of junky buttons that mostly didn't work.  Anyway here's the summary:

Exits

Baghdad Burning
Writer and family have left Baghdad for safety reasons. Poor buggers.

Ionetics
No longer about science.

Mini Crazy
Stefan –where did you go?

Rockall Times
Tag line “There’s f*** all on Rockall”. Blogging finished a long time ago and now there’s just f*** all.

Shakesville
This excellent site was brought down by malicious hackers. Bastards. Now it’s reverted back to its roots (Shakespear’s Sister).

Tiny Voices in My Head
Dawn has given up blogging to be a rock star. Best of luck (said without irony).

Two Glasses
The posts were more and more about sports I don’t understand (y’know, the American ones) and less and less about politics.

Walking the StreetsMr. Stickers has moved to Canada and now only operates a closed blog.


Entrances

Aetiology
I’m cheating here as I quietly added this one a little while back. Anyway, an excellent bio-science/medical blog by Tara Smith.

Arse Poetica
Great political commentary.

Canadian Cynic
Excellent snarky socio-political commentary from a hilarious Canuck.

English Soldier
Fascinating diaries of an English soldier in WW1: I love this historical stuff.

What's in a Name?

View over the Vercors Plateau last week

You have to love the way the French name places and geographical features. While the English have some delightfully eccentric places such as Pratts Bottom, Foul End, Great Snoring and Thong, the French seem to have a much more literal approach. As Bill Richards and I drove around the mountains in south central France last week on our rally recon some of the places we passed through had a wonderfully muscular nomenclature. Col de la Homme Morte, Col de la Machine, Col de La Morte and especially Die all jumped off the map and seemed very appropriate for rallying (maybe just "Feels like you're about to Die" would be preferable). Anyway, the scenery was stunning as it always is in this part of the world although the weather and road conditions were severe (see below). And it's only December; Heaven knows what it will be like in the first week of February when the snowfall peaks. One thing is for sure it won't be a dry run. We'd better get those snow tyres sorted out.


The Col L'Echarasson always seems to be like this


Snow and freezing fog equal white out in the Ardeche

Stairway to Heaven

BackpackDave was there. The rest of us are jealous. Thanks for the post, Dave...

Mazel Tov!

Congratulations Sara and Tom. It was a fine wedding and I wish you every good fortune on your journey together.

Monte Carlo Countdown: Start -53 Days

I've now been back in the UK for three days. So far I've been to Oxford to discuss a project and also seen my brother for some family business. I've also been to Stamfords's in Covent Garden and bought all the maps necessary for the rally. Later this afternoon I have to attend a wedding but before I don my tuxedo I'll do some basic route plotting in preparation for my reconnaissance with Bill later in the week.

Tomorrow I'm going down to the Bill Richards workshop and I'll go over the car which is undergoing the finishing touches to its preparation. I'll write an update on that in my next post.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Max Yasgur's farm, Bethel, NY, August 1969

No time for a proper post as I'm once again running to the airport. So here's a YouTube filler from an aeronautically-inclined bunch. Unfortunately even the wonderful Grace is not immune from the ravages of the ageing process but her wit is most definitely intact.

Stay tuned; with any luck the next post will be from somewhere in Europe.

MacBook

Mad Dog's new productivity tool

Well according to the Geniuses at the AppleStore, the faithful old iBook is in a bad way and it will take another week to complete the repairs. It needs a new hard disk and a DC input card. And this is on top of the wireless card, the bluetooth card and the motherboard that were replaced in the summer. The hard disk was pretty full and the machine was due for replacement anyway -I just hadn't planned on doing it it this side of Christmas. but now I have no choice, unless I want to go unwired for two weeks. This is not really an option so I pulled out the debit card and shelled out for a new Black MacBook with IGb of Ram and a 160Gb hard drive. Precisely double the memory (in each area) of the poor hospitalised thing. I'll pick up the new one on this evening and thus will have it for my trip on Wednesday. Fingers crossed the data transfer goes OK...

Oh, and Blackberrys are an experiment for another occasion. I'm still not quite convinced that I want to be always "on"!

P.S. After Christmas I will upgrade to 2 Gb of RAM and will purchase the Apple Procare service agreement -after five years of hammering a couple of iBooks this is a must.

Blackberry and Apple Pie

I've really tried to resist society's current demand that we are always available for communications. The last time I relished being away from email was my Grecian vacation back in September. Yet despite enjoying the concept of being unwired for two weeks, the reality was that after two days I cracked and was to be found typing away in an internet café. Now, with another trip coming up, Christmas bearing down and rally planning to do my trusty iBook's hard drive has decided to come apart at the seams. This is inconvenient to say the least. I have two days to sort things sort before I head off to the airport once more. I may have to invest in one of these or these. Or even both. In the meantime posts will be minimal.

Friday Music Blogging: Colosseum

Jon Hiseman's Colosseum were surely one of the best British jazz-rock fusion bands of the late 60s/early 70s. Unfortunately the clip I wanted to show has disappeared from YouTube (surely not copyright infringement, er,hum?). This one is not bad although is of the re-formed group in the 90s. It features the Valentyne Suite which was a signature piece. Great sax playing from the late lamented Dick Heckstall-Smith.I saw this band in their first life at diverse locations including Guildford and Cardiff. And Jon Hiseman I've seen many times drumming in Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia.

Oh, sorry, I forgot to mention that YouTube has turned off the embedding on this clip so you have to access it by clicking here or the link above.

What's the Obsession with Minis About...?

Little Cricket asks this excellent question in the comments section of the previous post. It's hard to explain if you haven't driven one (or possibly not lived in the 1960's). In this case a video clip is probably worth a million words. Here's some classic footage featuring the car's designer, Sir Alec Issigonis, who explains all.

Monte Carlo -Here We Go

Hard to believe that it's been nearly three years since I donned my Nomex gear and did battle but another adventure is nigh. My entry with Bill Richards to the 2008 Monte Carlo Historique rally has been accepted. So now the work starts. There are maps to buy, routes to plot and a reconnaissance to do. And above all the trusty Mini Cooper has to be prepared. I'll document all our preparations over the next two months (at the time of writing there are 66 days to go).

In the meantime here's the re-run of the 2005 event which culminated in an intimate association with an Alpine mountain wall 50Km outside Monte Carlo.

C.R.A.P.

Undesirable placement of telephone and toilet

I'm now safely back home after my jaunt to the Far East and recovering from 18 hours of being cooped up in a metal tube and forced to consume some kind of substance purporting to be food. But fortunately I avoided the gastrointestinal difficulties that have in the past made traveling in far off lands a miserable experience. Indeed following a trip to New Delhi a few years ago, I remember praying for death for several days after making innumerable trips, mostly on my hands and knees, to the bathroom. But that's a story for another day. However I do wish to comment on the growing, and to the mind of this old microbiologist, the quite rebarbative trend in so-called luxury hotels of placing extra telephones adjacent to toilets. The last thing I want to do when I'm, err, doing my ablutions, is to receive incoming phone calls. And if I make a call to someone I certainly don't want to talk to them while they are otherwise engaged. Most of all it has to by unhygienic as by definition the user cannot have washed their hands. It's beyond the pale. I'm going to start a movement (pun intended) which I'm going to call the Campaign for the Removal of Ancillary Phones (CRAP).

While we're on the subject Chertz makes a related observation.