COVID19 Compliant - Morning Extreme Desert Drive - Faqa Fast and Furious - Dubai - 22 May 2021

[Gaurav]

1 minute ago, Christian Andras said:

But on the other hand I would feel very handicapped, always the fear of another popout, not being able to push the car, limping like a wounded animal at the back of the pack😭

You can extend your learning mode without limping on Fewbie or even newbie drives.

[Srikumar]

@Christian Andras Gaurav has made a very important point. Tyres are very critical components for offroading and if you have recently changed the size it's very important to try them at Newbie or Fewbie drives, before pushing on Extreme drives

[M.Seidam]

Dear Chris  @Christian Andras 

I thought I was the only one who is not popping out . Trust me in each drive I do be it any level from NB till extreme this possibility is never out of my mind especially when it’s very pushy like in the extreme one. And for sure the day will come when this happen to me because there is no perfect tires on perfect rims driven by the perfect driver. But what is there for sure there are the best times with the best friends who can help us with the best advices and that what I call experience . 
 

cheers 🙏🌷

Mohamed 

 

 

Edited May 22, 2021 by M.Seidam

[Chaitanya D]

5 hours ago, Christian Andras said:

But on the other hand I would feel very handicapped, always the fear of another popout, not being able to push the car, limping like a wounded animal at the back of the pack😭

Dear @Christian Andras, from seeing how you drive so wonderfully be it any level I don't think you should be  feeling handicapped or wounded. Sand dunes are great leveler for anyone , irrespective of their cars/mods or tires. At some point you have to remember not to cross that line as there are some things you just cannot do /push through. You are a fantastic driver and ease through it, enjoy your drives be it any level!

[Ale Vallecchi]

On 5/22/2021 at 12:30 PM, Christian Andras said:

Hi guys!

Hope you had a better continuation of the drive than the start. It was very sad to see you all ”vroooming” away, and living me behind, however, it was the right thing to do…From the technical point of view, I didn’t expect this to happen, not that bad. I have never, ever had a pop out, and felt a little bit ”overconfident” thinking “this doesn’t happen to me”, so I guess this was a small lesson in being more humble.

What I have done, is to change the tires from 285/70 to 275/65, keeping the same rims…Tires were brand new 2 days old. Misstake. The tyre guy today said the tires need a while to get a bit softer, and “mold” a bit to the rim. 

Many thanks to @Lorenzo Candelpergher for the swift and expert guidance with the 2 pop outs. Also thanks to the rest of you who helped. I know that everyone wants to help, but still when you are the one causing the delay, it’s so stressful knowing you’re keeping everybody still…

Went straight to the tyre shop, and fixed the tires. No damages, besides on of the tyre pressure sensors that broke. The biggest damage is the psychological one, cause my faith in the FJ, which has been rock solid until now, is somewhat weakened 😩. But I guess that happens sooner or later in any relationship 😂.

So I have already found new rims to buy, cause the only way out of this is beadlocks. Anyone has any opinion/knowledge about “Black Rhino Primm” rims??

A final word to @Gaurav: you told me the danger of starting modifying the car, where you get into a never ending spiral of more mods/more time/more money. Well, here I am, living the dream: bought the car like this, w 285/70 tires>no problems>started with extreme drives>front wheels where touching sometime>decided to lift the car just a notch + spacers> hitting got MUCH worse>removed spacers>better but still not perfect>changed to smaller tyres>Today it was perfect and I fell like a king for 10 minutes before getting a double pop-out…I hope the beadlock rims will put an end to this drama…

Hope to get the chance to have more drives like the first 2-3 extreme drives, which were magical, super intense and virtually with no stops/stucks/accidents…

See you!

/Chris

 

 

 

Hi @Christian Andras. I was sad to see you withdraw. I guess you felt it wad the right thing to do, so in the end it was surely for the better. My own 2 cents on what happened, but most of all about your feelings 😊.

You say: "The biggest damage is the psychological one, cause my faith in the FJ, which has been rock solid until now, is somewhat weakened 😩". I say, do NOT feel that way. I also felt disappointed when I had my first 2 pop outs, as until then my FJ had proved extremely reliable, and almost unstoppable. Yet, the car was not at fault, in both situation; rather, I was the one to blame, and reviewing what had caused the 2 pop outs restored the confidence in my FJ, and made me learn very useful lessons. The first pop out was due to my counter-steering up a slope, with too much deflation (on a hot summer afternoon). The second one was due to my coming down sideways on a slip-face, onto the hard flat terrain. In both cases, if I had made different choices, I would not have had any pop outs (but, with hind sight, thankfully, I had). 

Referring to what happened to you yesterday, I am not pointing my finger at you (yes, your tires were badly matched to the rims), but: 1) you may have deflated too much, adopting a deflation point based on your previous tire set-up, and 2) you may have missed the right line of exit from the dune you were criss-crossing. Again, probably your old tire set-up would not have penalized you, but take this opportunity to look back, correct whatever went wrong in terms of "human choices", and keep, or even strengthen your confidence in your FJ, an in your driving skills.

Now that you have found the proper solution for your tires, do not forget what you may have learned in terms of choices you can make while driving, and surely you will come back on the sand as an unstoppable force. 

See you soon out there!!

[Lorenzo Candelpergher]

DRIVE REPORT 

 

Dear Desert Wanderers, 

 

Yesterday's drive in Faqa was no doubt an extreme one, but for reasons that went well beyond the original objectives for the day. 

 

We started on time, as everyone made it to the meeting point early enough, except for @Shehab Alawadhi who unfortunately overslept and missed the drive entirely. 

 

We entered the desert quite on the north edge of Faqa area and very soon had to face a very unfortunate double pop-out at the bottom of a slip face by @Christian Andras, whose tires were very new and probably not yet fully molded to the rims and not yet tested for the ideal deflating pressure. I was sorry to see Christian bailing out after this unfortunate start, I think he might have given it one more try as @Ale Vallecchi was also suggesting. Having a pop-out is a bit of a shock especially if it happens for the 1st time when you are already an experienced driver, but it is always worth going through something like that, as it is part of the indispensabile wealth of expertise that can only be built by hard lived real situations. 

 

After sadly leading Christian back to the tarmac, the convoy made its way again in the desert but soon after I was betrayed by a nasty bush at the bottom of a slip face and had my first pop-out of the day. 

 

After quickly fixing it (thanks for the help to everyone) we kept going and splashed into a very long stint of acrobatic driving on the increasingly high dunes in Faqa, keeping a high pace and a high level of difficulty, further enhanced by the soft sand that would be greatly churned up by the first vehicles in the convoy. 

 

Climbing those very high dunes along the crest and then deep diving, nose down, on long and steep slip faces or criss-crossings at high speed coming from either the wind or slip face was no easy exercise and required, in some cases, quite a good degree of faith that everything would be fine on the other side which was beyond sight.. 

 

Everyone did incredibly well, given the challenges. A few physiological stucks and refusals only proved that the drive level wall was a real extreme one, where even the best Carnity Intermediate drivers could occasionally find difficulties up to their level. 

 

@Ahab Shamaawas a great 2nd lead, getting more and more comfortable in the complex maneuvers we would make and always promptly responsive to my instructions or holding when I had a refusal. 

 

I didn't get to see much of what happened behind, as I was mostly focused on the way ahead. I was occasionally able to loop back and have a look at the convoy riding along the crest and coming down a slip face, however:

 

@MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ in his yellow JL followed with great attention and precision. A couple of long climbs gave him a hard time, but he eventually made it to the top. 

 

@Shaaz Shasurely enjoyed the drive as everytime I got near to his car I could see him smiling from ear to hear. A very good performance with very few refusals. 

 

@Tero Vallaswas also very inspired yesterday and pushed his car to its full potential, finding its limit in a nasty bowl where he needed a small tug to get back on track. 

 

@Rizwanm2sweated his way through those big dunes as everyone else, certainly getting to know better his car's limits. 

 

@Francois Germishuys was a caterpillar as usual at the back, flattening every crest except the one where he had to be winched out from a delicate position. 

 

@Ale Vallecchiat the back was of great support in assisting during the stucks and refusals and, from what I could understand from the radio, had to drive in an incredibly churned up sand, which was at times very tricky even for such an experienced Marshal. 

 

Talking about caterpillars, it was really an annoying surprise to see how multiple bulldozers were creating multiple tracks across the sand spoiling one of the most intact and beautiful areas in Faqa. It was quite a disturbing feeling to drive around crossing those ugly (and bumpy) tracks and seeing those huge beasts roaming around. 

 

Due to the 3 pop-outs and the multiple stops for stucks and refusals, when we exited Faqa we were a bit behind schedule. It was therefore decided to extend the drive so we could make it to Solar Park. 

 

We quickly moved east but we were again delayed by my 2nd pop-out of the day, the stupidest possible one, occurred on a dirt track when I hit a bush while distracted looking at the navigator.

 

After a quick fix, we then started to head north when we unfortunately found ourselves dealing with a very nasty fence, mostly hidden under the high dunes. Some of us managed to criss cross at a point where the fence was totally buried, but it became more and more difficult as the convoy got through, as the fence was getting exposed. It was then decided that @Ale Vallecchiwith the last few cars would explore the fence from the south side to seek for a safe passage, while the front of the convoy would run in parallel on the north side. 

 

It was at this point that the incredible happened, and Ale ended up literally on top of the fence while trying to criss cross in an apparently safe point (hopefully someone will post some photos!). The recovery was quite demanding as we had to secure the car from the side with one winch to prevent it sliding further down while with the other winch we pulled it from the front disentangling it from the fence. In the end it all went well, Ale was out with minimal damage and we could move again. 

 

After a minor roaming around Little Sweihan, where another winch recovery was needed to get @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQout of a crested situation, we decided it was getting too late and too hot, so we hit the sabkha and made our way to Solar Park via a fast dirt track north. 

 

Overall we drove 95.9km in 5h 23', with an average moving speed of 23.1km/h. We moved for 4h 09' and stopped for 1h 14'. Out ascent was +250/-305m.

 

It wasn't the luckiest of all drives, but certainly an extreme one in many ways. 

 

Congratulations to everyone and great thanks to @Ahab Shamaaand @Ale Vallecchi for their support and to all those who helped fixing pop-outs and performing recoveries. Great team work. 

 

See you next time!!

[Ale Vallecchi]

1 hour ago, Lorenzo Candelpergher said:

DRIVE REPORT 

 

Dear Desert Wanderers, 

 

Yesterday's drive in Faqa was no doubt an extreme one, but for reasons that went well beyond the original objectives for the days. 

 

We started on time, as everyone made it to the meeting point early enough, except for @Shehab Alawadhi who unfortunately overslept and missed the drive entirely. 

 

We entered the desert quite on the north edge of Faqa area and very soon had to face a very unfortunate double pop-out at the bottom of a slip face by @Christian Andras, whose tires were very new and probably not yet fully molded to the rims and not yet tested for the ideal deflating pressure. I was sorry to see Christian bailing out after this unfortunate start, I think he might have given it one more try as @Ale Vallecchi was also suggesting. Having a pop-out is a bit of a shock especially if it happens for the 1st time when you are already an experienced driver, but it is always worth going through something like that, as it is part of the indispensabile wealth of expertise that can only be built by hard lived real situations. 

 

After sadly leading Christian back to the tarmac, the convoy made its way again in the desert but soon after I was betrayed by a nasty bush at the bottom of a slip face and had my first pop-out of the day. 

 

After quickly fixing it (thanks for the help to everyone) we kept going and splashed into a very long stint of acrobatic driving on the increasingly high dunes in Faqa, keeping a high pace and a high level of difficulty, further enhanced by the soft sand that would be greatly churned up by the first vehicles in the convoy. 

 

Climbing those very high dunes along the crest and then deep diving, nose down, on long and steep slip faces or criss-crossings at high speed coming from either the wind or slip face was no easy exercise and required, in some cases, quite a good degree of faith that everything would be fine on the other side which was beyond sight.. 

 

Everyone did incredibly well, given the challenges. A few physiological stucks and refusals only proved that the drive level wall was a real extreme one, where even the best Carnity Intermediate drivers could occasionally find difficulties up to their level. 

 

@Ahab Shamaawas a great 2nd lead, getting more and more comfortable in the complex maneuvers we would make and always promptly responsive to my instructions or holding when I had a refusal. 

 

I didn't get to see much of what happened behind, as I was mostly focused on the way ahead. I was occasionally able to loop back and have a look at the convoy riding along the crest and coming down a slip face, however:

 

@MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ in his yellow JL followed with great attention and precision. A couple of long climbs gave him a hard time, but he eventually made it to the top. 

 

@Shaaz Shasurely enjoyed the drive as everytime I got near to his car I could see him smiling from ear to hear. A very good performance with very few refusals. 

 

@Tero Vallaswas also very inspired yesterday and pushed his car to its full potential, finding its limit in a nasty bowl where he needed a small tug to get back on track. 

 

@Rizwanm2sweated his way through those big dunes as everyone else, certainly getting to know better his car's limits. 

 

@Francois Germishuys was a caterpillar as usual at the back, flattening every crest except the one where he had to be winched out from a delicate position. 

 

@Ale Vallecchiat the back was of great support in assisting during the stucks and refusals and, from what I could understand from the radio, had to drive in an incredibly churned up sand, which was at times very tricky even for such an experienced Marshal. 

 

Talking about caterpillars, it was really an annoying surprise to see how multiple bulldozers were creating multiple tracks across the sand spoiling one of the most intact and beautiful areas in Faqa. It was quite a disturbing feeling to drive around crossing those ugly (and bumpy) tracks and seeing those huge beasts roaming around. 

 

Due to the 3 pop-outs and the multiple stops for stucks and refusals, when we exited Faqa we were a bit behind schedule. It was therefore decided to extend the drive so we could make it to Solar Park. 

 

We quickly moved east but we're again delayed by my 2nd pop-out of the day, the stupidest possible one, occurred on a dirt track when I hit a bush while distracted looking at the navigator.

 

After a quick fix, we then started to head north when we unfortunately found ourselves dealing with a very nasty fence, mostly hidden under the high dunes. Some of use managed to criss cross at a point where the fence was totally buried, but it became more and more difficult as the convoy got through, as the fence was getting exposed. It was then decided that @Ale Vallecchiwith the last few cars would explore the fence from the south side to seek for a safe passage, while the front of the convoy would run in parallel on the north side. 

 

It was at this point that the incredible happened, and Ale ended up literally on top of the fence while trying to criss cross in an apparently safe point (hopefully someone will post some photos!). The recovery was quite demanding as we had to secure the car from the side with one winch to prevent it sliding further down while with the other winch we pulled it from the front disentangling it from the fence. In the end it all went well, Ale was out with minimal damage and we could move again. 

 

After a minor roaming around Little Sweihan, where another winch recovery was needed to get @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQout of a crested situation, we decided it was getting too late and too hot, so we hit the sabkha and made our way to Solar Park via a fast dirt track north. 

 

Overall we drove 95.9km in 5h 23', with an average moving speed of 23.1km/h. We moved for 4h 09' and stopped for 1h 14'. Out ascent was +250/-305m.

 

It wasn't the luckiest of all drives, but certainly an extreme one in many ways. 

 

Congratulations to everyone and great thanks to @Ahab Shamaaand @Ale Vallecchi for their support and to all those who helped fixing pop-outs and performing recoveries. Great team work. 

 

See you next time!!

Great drive @Lorenzo Candelpergher. It was my first Extreme club drive (had done other drives with high level of difficulty and speed with other Marshals, but mostly as our own recce or practice drives), and it was extremely enjoyable, thanks to the well chosen, challenging, route, as well as greatly useful to me, allowing my FJ to stretch to its limits after the engine rebuild. Plus, what a difference it makes moving from the front to the back of the convoy. Exchanging the luxury of choosing a fresh, unspoiled track, for the challenge of moving through churned up sand, trying to avoid the deeper ruts, and moving through dug up tracks, required attention and patience, providing a great training ground, both technically and mentally. From that point of view at the rear of the convoy I have gained renewed respect for all the drivers that end up being placed in that position: what a difficult task we give the big trucks, or heavier cars which normally drive in the rear-most positions, and how well they always carry it out. 

As far as my close encounter with the fence, I didn't plan it, but it certainly helped make the drive even more extreme. Looking at it with hindsight, it could have gone both ways: as I came off the crest, and committed to exit on the other side of the dune, I could have either flipped, as my car came to a halt, sideways, hitting the few centimeters of fence jutting out of the sand, or could have escaped unscathed, if I had seen the fence sooner, and had simply ridden the ridge for just a couple more meters (on the same path that the rescue cars took to come over the crest from the other side). Anyways, all is well what ends well. For this I have to thank the whole convoy - @Rizwanm2, @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ, @Tero Vallas, @Francois Germishuys and @Shaaz Sha - as it came together to evaluate the situation, with each driver offering point of view and solutions which, summed together, provided the blueprint for the final rescue plan, perfectly executed by @Lorenzo Candelpergher and @Ahab Shamaa, the first winching the car from the front, and the latter anchoring its rear away from the fence. 

Thank you all for the fun drive. I look forward to see you all in the sand. 

[Francois Germishuys]

@Lorenzo Candelpergher thanks it was an exciting drive, i started feeling a bit jealous towards the end as everyone was having so much fun with their refusals, stucks and popouts that i had to participate, that crest’ing took Zero effort  🤣✌🏼, thanks for coming to rescue me!

But one a serious note, this was one of the drives with the most refusals and stucks that I’ve experience with carnity.... (except for Liwa )

 

See you all next time. 

 

[Rizwanm2]

4 hours ago, Lorenzo Candelpergher said:

DRIVE REPORT 

 

Dear Desert Wanderers, 

 

Yesterday's drive in Faqa was no doubt an extreme one, but for reasons that went well beyond the original objectives for the day. 

 

We started on time, as everyone made it to the meeting point early enough, except for @Shehab Alawadhi who unfortunately overslept and missed the drive entirely. 

 

We entered the desert quite on the north edge of Faqa area and very soon had to face a very unfortunate double pop-out at the bottom of a slip face by @Christian Andras, whose tires were very new and probably not yet fully molded to the rims and not yet tested for the ideal deflating pressure. I was sorry to see Christian bailing out after this unfortunate start, I think he might have given it one more try as @Ale Vallecchi was also suggesting. Having a pop-out is a bit of a shock especially if it happens for the 1st time when you are already an experienced driver, but it is always worth going through something like that, as it is part of the indispensabile wealth of expertise that can only be built by hard lived real situations. 

 

After sadly leading Christian back to the tarmac, the convoy made its way again in the desert but soon after I was betrayed by a nasty bush at the bottom of a slip face and had my first pop-out of the day. 

 

After quickly fixing it (thanks for the help to everyone) we kept going and splashed into a very long stint of acrobatic driving on the increasingly high dunes in Faqa, keeping a high pace and a high level of difficulty, further enhanced by the soft sand that would be greatly churned up by the first vehicles in the convoy. 

 

Climbing those very high dunes along the crest and then deep diving, nose down, on long and steep slip faces or criss-crossings at high speed coming from either the wind or slip face was no easy exercise and required, in some cases, quite a good degree of faith that everything would be fine on the other side which was beyond sight.. 

 

Everyone did incredibly well, given the challenges. A few physiological stucks and refusals only proved that the drive level wall was a real extreme one, where even the best Carnity Intermediate drivers could occasionally find difficulties up to their level. 

 

@Ahab Shamaawas a great 2nd lead, getting more and more comfortable in the complex maneuvers we would make and always promptly responsive to my instructions or holding when I had a refusal. 

 

I didn't get to see much of what happened behind, as I was mostly focused on the way ahead. I was occasionally able to loop back and have a look at the convoy riding along the crest and coming down a slip face, however:

 

@MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ in his yellow JL followed with great attention and precision. A couple of long climbs gave him a hard time, but he eventually made it to the top. 

 

@Shaaz Shasurely enjoyed the drive as everytime I got near to his car I could see him smiling from ear to hear. A very good performance with very few refusals. 

 

@Tero Vallaswas also very inspired yesterday and pushed his car to its full potential, finding its limit in a nasty bowl where he needed a small tug to get back on track. 

 

@Rizwanm2sweated his way through those big dunes as everyone else, certainly getting to know better his car's limits. 

 

@Francois Germishuys was a caterpillar as usual at the back, flattening every crest except the one where he had to be winched out from a delicate position. 

 

@Ale Vallecchiat the back was of great support in assisting during the stucks and refusals and, from what I could understand from the radio, had to drive in an incredibly churned up sand, which was at times very tricky even for such an experienced Marshal. 

 

Talking about caterpillars, it was really an annoying surprise to see how multiple bulldozers were creating multiple tracks across the sand spoiling one of the most intact and beautiful areas in Faqa. It was quite a disturbing feeling to drive around crossing those ugly (and bumpy) tracks and seeing those huge beasts roaming around. 

 

Due to the 3 pop-outs and the multiple stops for stucks and refusals, when we exited Faqa we were a bit behind schedule. It was therefore decided to extend the drive so we could make it to Solar Park. 

 

We quickly moved east but we were again delayed by my 2nd pop-out of the day, the stupidest possible one, occurred on a dirt track when I hit a bush while distracted looking at the navigator.

 

After a quick fix, we then started to head north when we unfortunately found ourselves dealing with a very nasty fence, mostly hidden under the high dunes. Some of us managed to criss cross at a point where the fence was totally buried, but it became more and more difficult as the convoy got through, as the fence was getting exposed. It was then decided that @Ale Vallecchiwith the last few cars would explore the fence from the south side to seek for a safe passage, while the front of the convoy would run in parallel on the north side. 

 

It was at this point that the incredible happened, and Ale ended up literally on top of the fence while trying to criss cross in an apparently safe point (hopefully someone will post some photos!). The recovery was quite demanding as we had to secure the car from the side with one winch to prevent it sliding further down while with the other winch we pulled it from the front disentangling it from the fence. In the end it all went well, Ale was out with minimal damage and we could move again. 

 

After a minor roaming around Little Sweihan, where another winch recovery was needed to get @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQout of a crested situation, we decided it was getting too late and too hot, so we hit the sabkha and made our way to Solar Park via a fast dirt track north. 

 

Overall we drove 95.9km in 5h 23', with an average moving speed of 23.1km/h. We moved for 4h 09' and stopped for 1h 14'. Out ascent was +250/-305m.

 

It wasn't the luckiest of all drives, but certainly an extreme one in many ways. 

 

Congratulations to everyone and great thanks to @Ahab Shamaaand @Ale Vallecchi for their support and to all those who helped fixing pop-outs and performing recoveries. Great team work. 

 

See you next time!!

Thank you @Lorenzo Candelpergherfor an exiting extreme drive. It literally extreme in every aspect.

The most extreme part was recovering @Ale Vallecchi from the fence. It was great team effort by everyone. We managed to get out of it in no time. 

 

Until next time. Stay safe!!