Day 3 Aprica to Viterbo.

We can't believe it! We found a decent hotel AND a restaurant in Aprica! It seems that the way to do it is to ignore the arrangements made by the rally organisers and book your own place. We stayed in Hotel Meuble Stelvio which was very clean and welll appointed, and run by a very helpful and friendly man. The resturant was just oposite and we were pleased to find that they offered Chateau Briand and a very morish Nebbiolo wine to go with it.

It's just as well that the hotel was so cheap because buying drinks for all the people who helped get the Daimler going again nearly bankrupted us. It was worth it though.

Last night we were a bit worried about the old girl's brakes so we got up early to investigate the grinding sound we were hearing which was accompanied by rather vague braking. Unfortunately investigation in the main square in Aprica revealed that we have about 3mm of brake pad on both outer front pads and are down to the metal on the inners. This was not good news! I suppose that the engine braking in the Alps saved her less than we'd hoped.

We had a decision to make: try to fix her in Aprica before blasting down to Viterbo; or hoping for the best and setting off, down the big old hill out of Aprica. Seeing as it was a Sunday morning and the whole of Italy was busy praising the Lord we had no choice but to hope for the best.

Ian was nominated as the first driver of the day, and we set off. To be honest, at the end of the day, when all's said and done, the physics wasn't in our favour: a 2 tonne, 140 mph car, 386 miles to go and no brakes unless in an absolute emergency. Mr. Bighead deserves a large pat on the back and even larger beer because he piloted the car all day and only used the brakes about 5 times until we got to Viterbo. It's amazing what well-timed engine braking does for the fuel economy, too. We could make comments about Grandad driving here (for which he's famous) but I've not seen many Grandads barrelling a 2 tonne car at 90mph when they've had no brakes.

A quick mention should be made for a particularly skilful bit of driving that he achieved while we stopped in a petrol station. Eventually. Careering into a petrol station for a well timed leak stop at 50MPH and not using the brakes, he narrowly missed a lady in a Fiat who looked very surprised to see a BRG lump shoot past her and slalom between her and a fellow S2Ner fulfilling today's challenge. (Key word is MISSED... -Ian)

The Duchess has also had a bit of an engine issue that's been gradualy getting worse. There's always a hint of hesitancy and irregular running on the over-run. We found out in Aprica that one of the other Jag-teams has a stock of spares and they very kindly lent us a replacement air-flow meter which we fitted in Viterbo and things seem a lot improved. Shame on them for not taking brake pads with them as well ;-)

We've given up on the rally challenges now so tomorrow's challenge for us is to track down an Italian Jag-mechanic or at the very least a set of replacement brake pads so that we can continue to Rome where the finish line awaits....

A photo update can be found in the usual place (see previous posts).

-Simon.