Day 1 of the Samurai Challenge

The first day of the  Samurai Challenge Rally,  was all a hit hectic.
We had to collect the car from the docks, have a welcome lunch, a formal blessing from a priest, pack and sort the cars, calibrate the trip meter and then start the rally in the early afternoon.

We have found Molly Porsche at the docks

The rally receives it's blessing 

All the competitors getting blessed for the rally.

The rally part consisted of getting out of town and heading into the beautiful countryside. Here we had our first test known as a regulatory. This is where you are given verious average speeds you have to drive at over a given distance and arrive at an unknown spot at exactly the time the marshalls say. If you are ahead or behind this time you incur penalty  points.
Usually we are pretty good at this but due to navigator and driver errors this test will not be our finest hour. We are blaming get lag :)
Never mind there are only another 89 to do.
The next test was a bit more exciting we had to do 4 laps of the Honda test track flat out. Molly Porsche did her best but she is about 300 bhp down on some of the cars and to be honest the driver is no where near as quick as some of the other guys. But we did our best and it was great fun.
Then off to the hotel which was a golfing complex. Wow what a golf course, the back drop was mountains and a smoking volcano. The course was in stunning condition. Newly made me get up early to play a few holes, but the comfy bed won the day.

The golf course at night

Not so dramatic at day but still a stunning course.

Quite a few cars were having problems along the way, hopefully they will be fixed by our great mechanics and be able to carry on.
Molly Porsche and the other Porsche 356 are doing fine.
Tomorrow we are going up to see the volcano, plant some trees at a local school, more racing and more regularities. We are never going to last 3 weeks of all this excitement.

Molly Porsche the Samurai Challenge, Japan, starts on the 12 April 2017.

On the 12th April we will be one of 53 cars starting the historic Samurai Challenge rally.
The rally runs from the south to the far north of Japan. To be more precise from Fukuoka to Lake Toya.

The Route running from the bottom to the top ( very technical )

It should take us 23 days and if we follow the route correctly it will be 4660 kilometers.
Along the way we will experience all that Japan has to offer from bustling cities to amazing mountain scenery. Motorways to single track cart type tracks. Luckily the Japanese drive on the left, the same as the UK. Only real problem is the road signs are in Japanese. Julie thought about going to night school to try and get the hang of it symbols but she has decided it will be much more exciting not knowing where we are going !!!


To spice things up a bit the organisers Rally Round have managed to include some 90 special stages and tests along the route. These may vary from charging round a race track to driving as carefully and precisely as you can on the regularity test.  With a bit of luck Julie and I will still be talking to each other at the end and Molly Porsche will still be in one piece.
One of the tracks we will be on is the Honda test track !!

We have got our road books, instructions and lists of places to visit along the way (time permitting).
We have had numerous road books on our previous rallies but this is the first time we have had a book with a whole page devoted to 'how to work a toilet .' These Japanese state of the art toilets have more settings than my TV. Should be quite an experience :) Just got to read the instructions and switch the right switches and pull the right nobs ;)
There are 53 cars on the rally ranging from a 1925 Chrysler to 1999 Bentley, and the engine size ranging from a 1970 Fiat at 982cc to a whopping 7,983cc of a 1931 Bentley.
Our Porsche 356A (Molly Porsche ) along with another Porsche 356 have the second smallest engines at 1600cc. As the say 'its not the size that matters its how you handle it' !!

Molly Porsche is the 1st entry for the Samurai Challenge

On 12 April 2017 David and Julie and their Porsche 356A, Molly Porsche, will start the Samurai Challenge. 

The Samurai Challenge is the 1st UK organised competitive rally ever to visit Japan.

The rally is over 23 days from Fukuoka in the south to Lake Toya in the north, some 4660 kilometers.

An amazing rally and adventure.

First entry for the 2017 Samurai Challenge - David & Julia Harrison in Molly Porsche.

Julie and David Harrison with their Porsche 356A, Molly Porsche in Iceland.

Molly Porsche  is also on DRIVETRIBE

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