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Two Tuthill Porsches are tackling the 2019 Peking to Paris Rally. As this marathon historic rally approaches the closing stages through Russia and towards Scandinavia, their rally diaries tell quite different stories.
The Porsche 911 of David and Susan Danglard is currently running third overall in the Classic category. Multiple P2P winners, Gerry Crown and Matt Bryson are out front in their Leyland P76, closely followed by the Datsun 240Z of Chris and Tjerk Bury. The dashing Danglards are just over three minutes back on the leader in total penalties.
Eight Porsche 911s and 912s started this year’s 8,700-mile Peking to Paris Motor Challenge, but the Danglard’s car is the only 911 inside the top twenty. This edition has been particularly brutal, with only the top twenty cars in Classic running at less than 400 minutes of penalties and the last car in class clocking almost 10,000. The rally will soon reach St Petersburg and enjoy its final rest day. The Danglards have reported no problems with their former Safari Rally competitor to date, so they are looking good to remain in contention, right to the finish.
Further down the field, the 1956 Porsche 356A of Renee Brinkerhoff and Calvin Cooledge is soldiering on after a troubled first week in Mongolia. Following some mechanical checks as the cars left China, an air filter was refitted slightly misaligned and fine desert sand was sucked into the engine, mixing with the oil and grinding the internal surfaces. This soon caused the engine to burn oil at a furious rate.
Technical support crews are not permitted on the rally stages, so the crew was forced to decide how best to proceed. As the problem could not be fixed in Mongolia, the car was transported to the next rest stop at Novosibirsk in Russia from Ulaanbaatar. Francis Tuthill flew to Russia with a new set of pistons and rings and partially rebuilt the engine on the Novosibirsk rest day. The crew then rejoined the rally and completed the section through Kazakhstan and back into Russia.
With so much wear to other engine parts, the car is down on performance, but Renée and Calvin are still on the road and aiming for the chequered flag in Paris on July 7th. Everything is crossed for both cars: we’re avidly following the live tracking links and look forward to seeing them in Paris next month!
Photos by Gerard Brown/Endurance Rally Association
