Bowler

Bowler

Part 1 - Part 2

We still had no experience, nothing, we were tabula rasa, but we set off for the Dakar Series. First day, first stage, brilliant. We were passing cars at an impressive rate but we had problems with the warning system. We didn't really read the instructions that said that the alarm button has to be pressed for 5 seconds to inform the car in front that you want to pass it. Of course, we just hit the button and nothing would happen so we got a bit annoyed because it felt like your average rush hour traffic jam most times. We started from one of the last places and we ended up being in the first quarter of racers to finish the stage.

The second day was an 800 kilometer stage. After the first 200 kilometers into the competition, the oil pressure dropped and the car died out. Technoraid were well ahead because they needed to set up camp for everyone else. We were lucky enough that we got our Disco 3 on as an assistance vehicle - we managed to tow the broken Bowler for the last 600 kilometers of the journey. It was a horrible experience. We barely slept that night since the Technoraid people said:
"You guys get some rest and we'll do all we can. Might get it fixed, but we might not."

How were we supposed to sleep then? But they fixed it. They changed the oil pump and some other things and it was all good. Come the third day, we kept on with this myriad of problems but it was something new this time: the fuel pressure was very low. When we had to go up some hills, we'd lose pressure and when we'd go down we'd get it back. We finished on one of the last places, we were very upset and also had two flat tires and got the car serviced. We noticed then that the tubes from the fuel tanks (the Bowler Wildcat had three separate tanks - one 300 liter one and two 50 liter ones) didn't really work. We cancelled the small ones but we left them there so we were running around with 100 extra liters of the stuff for no good reason.

In this time I kept getting advices from people about driving and how to do it. We got to talking about air lockers and how I should always drive with my differentials locked for some reason. It wasn't a problem in the first day because it was all sandy just as it wasn't a problem in the second and third days because it was all wet and the roads were paved with pebbles. But after all this, we get into Hungary and everything changed. I did what I was told, I locked the central differential and the rear one since the face was self-locking and we set off. The ground allowed us to drive very fast and we managed to pass a lot of cars. At some point we managed to put the car on the side, at a very small speed. We got off and I was worried because it felt like the worst thing that could ever happen. Unfortunately it wasn't because 5 minutes later, after jumping over a little mount I managed to break the front shaft and, not only that, but also successfully grinded part of the rear differential. The ring and pinion were pretty badly damaged.

This little fiasco happened twice in a row.

The exact same thing!

First we put the car on it's side and then we broke the shaft and the diff. The guys from Technoraid begged me to be careful because they'd run out of shafts and rings and pinions so they advised me to manage my driving because if I broke them, that'd be the end of the race. We drove extremely careful the last day and, at the end of it we got into a little discussion about the damages. They asked me who was the genius who suggested that I run with everything locked- That was a milestone really. It was a bit frustrating and we had to reassess everything. Dan didn't really want to be a copilot anymore. He always wanted to drive so everything was far more frustrating for him. It's one thing to shoot a bad movie but it's a whole different thing to be forced to watch it.

A bit later I found Dragos, who is my current copilot, and we figured out a rhythm, after checking some time sheets. We calculated that people average about 50 kilometers an hour. So we said, let's try to drive 51 kilometers an hour. And so we won our first race but this little gap grew bigger and bigger, from 51 to 52 to 53 and so on. We won all the races with careful driving and thinking about driving rather than just push the pedal when it seems ok. We didn't really break the car at all, never really fixed the car because nothing ever got damaged. We only managed to put it on it's side once. At the day's finish, everyone was laughing at my mechanics. Nobody had mechanic's outfits because they didn't need them. The car didn't break and all they did was fill the windshield water tank. We did help other people though since we didn't need anything done.

After a while I figured that the Euro-GBP rate was in such a horrible state for the GBP that the Bowler Nemesis, which had been an incredibly expensive raid car, had gone down 30-40% in price. I did the same mistake I do every time and went to my grandmother for advice. The whole thing took about 5 seconds and as a result, the Nemesis is currently in my garage- So I found myself needing to sell the Wildcat. Since it was the middle of the economic crisis, everyone was surprised and puzzled regarding my decision to sell it. I figured that the car has brought me so much joy that I wouldn't want to sell it to just anyone. I needed to meet and get to know the future owner and see how they were. I wanted a fair price on it but more than that, I wanted the person who buys it to cherish the car, just as I did.

I was contacted by dozens of people who were really interested. With somebody who pays attention, you can track the car's history and performances and, since it was clear that it was rebuilt by Bowler and then Technoraid, it had a pretty good pedigree. I had a huge list of stuff going away with it - tires, the whole fiberglass exterior as a back-up, inside parts, bits and bobs. It was finally bought by some Belgians who currently live in Congo and who called me and said:

"We're buying the car"

... and I replied:

"That's what you think"

I asked them to come over and check it because I needed to see them. They did come over and get it and they're still thrilled with it. They always call and tell me how much they love the car and that they're happy that they got to buy it from someone who was honest about everything. They got the Wildcat in the last edition of the Dakar but unfortunately they had to abandon because the organizers noted a partner fuel station that mixed water with fuel and broke down a whole bunch of trucks in the third day. That's unacceptable - for a fee north of 80 000 euros per team, it's beyond unreasonable to have to abandon because of a random gas station in Argentina which didn't really have enough fuel and so they did this. The car was ok afterwards -

So back to the Nemesis. I raced it all of last year and didn't have any problems with it. Well, not until I totaled the engine. It happened because of somebody from Bowler who was paid to modify the oil bath, which was extended with a small piece of metal that was welded in place. Drew Bowler told me that they'd always been worried that it might not hold and it really didn't. The pump pulled the little metal plate out but not well enough to fully clog the pipe so I had 1.7 pressure. We initially figured that it had to be the sensor because since we had pressure and the engine was ok, we decided to run with it and change the thing when we could. We were sure that it was the sensor so we didn't worry but we should have. It wasn't the sensor - The lucky bit was that we totaled the engine in a special stage, on asphalt so when the assistance guys came we were comfortably leaning against the Bowler, having juice. It was easier than having to be recovered from somewhere in the forest.

Later on I sent Drew pictures of the little plate which had suction marks on it. Everyone said that I should press on, ask for warranty and so on and so forth but I guess I knew better. When your race there's no such thing as a warranty on a car. The first kilometer that truck does off the road, the warranty is just something to keep you reassured, because it'll take the pounding of a lifetime at each and every race. He called me two weeks later and said that the problem was solved and he's going to get a new engine for me, all for free. So that worked out pretty well.

One of our last events was a bent radius arm. But it's ok, we're learning the car now, getting used to each other. In short, the truck is brilliant for the price. As for Drew Bowler and his team, I can take a bow and honestly say that they're excellent people who continue to do what they do out of passion. They don't get rich out of it - it seems like all the money they get, they reinvest in the designing of the Nemesis. I feed back to them everything I'm not happy with and I realize every time that they take my advices, consider them and do the necessary adjustments. I always give them small details but since they don't really have the time for research and this and that, they appreciate it a great deal and they use the feedback to the benefit of everyone, company and owners.

 

As I was saying, one of our last adventures was with a bent radius arm. We fell in a really narrow ditch and I pushed it quite hard to get back on the road. One of the rear radius arms was bent and the wheel was at a 15 degree angle from how it should normally be. Now I pasted two red arrows on my dashboard to remember that when I fall on the left side I need to exit towards the left and when I fall on the right side I need to exit towards the right so I would pull the radius arm rather than bend it like I did. We overtook some bikers, which later caught up with us and were wondering why we were going sideways, just to show off- When I showed them how the wheel looked they couldn't believe it. The mechanics changed the arm in 5 minutes, between two special stages, and we finished second place overall and first place in the championship. This year was the same as our last competition season- we won all the races that we participated in. Sadly, the long race that counted for most points didn't get us anything because we abandoned. As a conclusion, last year we were third place overall in the Romanian Championship - the first place was somebody from Architectgroup Rally Raid team, which is our club. We have our Bowler, a Defender 90 and an ARover which is basically a Bowler in the clothes of an ARO utility vehicle.

As a conclusion, the story's ending is that my grandmother, who lives and relives her youth with and through us, has already started suggesting that I turn the speed of things down a bit. We are expecting a little boy in June and that truck racing needs to be left on the side but the story goes on and we shall see how everything goes from there -

Part 1 of Bowler...