Travel Tips

The race was based on challenges to be found along the established route. These were distributed every morning to all teams by the organizers. A list of questions with answers to be sought and found at given geographical coordinates with the aid of a GPS unit. Each question would correspond to a specific score based on a point system, and all answers were to be turned in within a time limit - usually 8 PM - at the end of each daily stage.

15 teams, with 33 participants from 8 different countries - Norway, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, Italy, Portugal and the US.
The road conditions were meant - and proved - to be severe in many areas and several teams could count on their modern SUVs. Along with our VT Mobile there were other vintage vehicles such as another Moskvich, a Lada and a Dacia although their general appearance seemed to be much better than ours. We were definitely the underdog and, of course, the most appealing team!
It was just funny to see our blue beauty parked next to the big cars!

Despite most of the participating vehicles were newer and definitely more suitable for this race, our Moskvich proved to be an excellent machine. With obvious limits. We couldn't ask too much and we definitely had to take good care of it to keep it going!
Some cars had severe problems urging parts replacement and costly garage stops. We otherwise kept pace at slow speed and did the necessary repairs by ourselves, fixing the failures upon occurrence. No matter if we at times left very early in the morning, we hardly reached the daily destinations within the time limit and our overall score is therefore yet to be determined.
Our highway cruising speed was up to 85 Km/h (53 mph) when good pavement allowed. going faster would not only prove dangerous due to the handling, but it would pose potential risks of fire. How fast we could go was dictated by the perceived temperature of the backseat, which was really hot! And, considering the high temperatures encountered in southern Turkey, we can say we were slowly baked inside the car!

- to be continued -