Leaderboard

Thanks a lot @Ale Vallecchi for another memorable Rush Hour drive. I love the concept as it is a real Team challenge where of course the Lead is prime, selecting a suitable route, but every driver skills are required to stay focused and concentrated for the duration of the drive. We had the chance to have virgin dunes for most of the drives, even if the tracks were becoming churned for the end of the convoy, and it was a pleasure to drive with this late afternoon light and watching the Oryxes. Thank you all for participating, and @Gaurav Soni for the support and sweep !

Thank you @Ale Vallecchi for a great drive yesterday afternoon. It was fast paced and even though we didn't achieve our target for the two hours, we can take solace in the fact that we hit the 30 km mark (or thereabouts) within the first 60 mins. Getting to see the Oryx at the end of the drive was a nice surprise also! @JeromeFJ and @Gaurav Soni thank you for providing great support to the convoy. I look forward to the next installment!

Thank you, @Ale Vallecchi, for the third rush hour; I'm looking forward to the fourth one. The speed was pacey as usual🙂; it's not easy to keep up with you, but everyone in the convoy drove brilliantly. @Gaurav Soni thank you for sweeping the convoy

@Davie Chase Congratulations on becoming support team

Another great weekday rush-hour drive.... some minor issues to deal with but all done quickly and promptly. As @Waqas Parvezsaid, looking forward to the next one. 👍 Thanks for posting the drive @Ale Vallecchi, and the support from @JeromeFJ and @Gaurav Soni

Congratulations @Davie Chase ...

Rush Hour 3: Qudra to Ghantoot - Drive Report " I need a big suite, two beds, two showers, a massage therapist, some new clothes and a case of Old Spice" - Chris Tucker / Rush Hour 3 That's how some may feel after the Rush Hour: tired from the effort to stay concentrated, sore from holding the wheel, dusty from eating the sand. The third installment of the saga saw the convoy leave 5 minutes ahead of time, in the 36 degree heat of Qudra, headed across the "Bab al Shams" segment, across the Solar Park's western pylon line, through the long range dunes reaching the E14 Faqa Road on the outskirts of Ghantoot. As promised, the Oryx Express managed to find the noble beats, roaming just outside their compound. Nonetheless, a couple of episodes prevented the convoy from accomplishing the goal of covering 60 Km in the 2 hours of the drive. In fact, after an outstanding start, driven at an average speed of 35 Km/hour, the beginning of the second hour saw the convoy run into unexpected trouble, in the form of two nasty stucks requiring quite an effort to be solved. The first, in all honesty, was yours truly's fault: after a sharp criss-crossing we ended into a tight bowl, from which the attempt to climb and crossing it straight on, caused the lead to slow down, and the second lead to get stuck on the ridge. The tug from the slip face required a double rope, due to the tallness of the crest, with quite a loss of time needed to join the ropes and attach them by climbing the very soft sand. The second stuck, although it seemed harmless and needing only a self recovery, become a joint recovery effort, after the stuck car's diff-lock failed to engage, leading to an even more deep stuck on a soft side-slope. All in all, 22 minutes were spent with the two recoveries, negating the valiant effort to reach the goal of 60 Km in the 2 allocated hours. In fact, while the convoy maintained a 31 Km/h moving average throughout the drive, the total moving average was "only" 25 Km/h, covering just 43.9 Km. in the 2 hours of the drive. Nothing to be disappointed about, considering, with hindsight, that this Rush Hour episode took place in a much more mixed terrain than the previous two tracks. The Ghantoot segment is constituted by a longer stretch of tighter, soft dunes, closer to each other, following a small patch of steep technical dunes, which require perfect choice of track and immaculate execution, which is at times difficult to achieve with a 13 car convoy. So, hat off to @JeromeFJ in Second Lead, @GauravSoni sweeping, and @Alexanderrr, @Waqas Parvez, @ASAD., @Senthil Kumar, @Gregory, @Tom B, @Shaker, @Ashok chaturvedi, @Gilbert Khalil and @Joseph Raju, for completing this challenging drive. I hope to see you soon out there for the next episode of Rush Hour....soon to come!

Congratulations @Fabien Monleau

@Fabien Monleau congratulations. Welcome to the new level. Hope to see you soon in the coming drives. 👍

Congratulation @Fabien Monleau...

Congratulations @Fabien Monleau

Confirmed @Hisham Masaad

Congratulations @Gertjan

Let’s see by the end of the week, there can still be some changes in the convoy …

Congratulations @Zixuan Huang - Charlie. Well deserved 👍

Confirm

Sounds good, should be an exciting one yet again.

Well done @Gertjan, congratulations

Congratulations @Zixuan Huang - Charlie

It had been quite a busy weekend for me, hence the delayed report DRIVE REPORT: Thank you @Paolo Morresi @Paolo Pellegrini@Amr Aydin @Gertjan @Federico De Chirico @Federico Galbieri @Senthil Kumar @eldose baby @Rob S and @Frederic for joining the drive. "If plan A doesn't work, we have another 25 letters in the alphabet" , this quote was apt for the drive that started just at the sunrise as we headed towards the technical areas behind solar park "Chimney". we intended to meander through the soft sands towards the long range dunes south of Solar park, however the sand gods had their own plan in making. we tried to loop back twice to navigate through the soft technical path which was greeted with few stucks and refusal at the start of the convoy including myself being stuck on a flat ground. we were blessed to witness couple of excellent self and assisted recoveries following guidance from @Frederic. it was decided then to change the plan and head towards the long range dunes south of our meeting point making way through the sabkha where were greeted with huge long range dunes with some vegetation. taking the opportunity, we mixed the drive with some ridge riding, dune surfing and criss cross which was excellently executed by convoy. while going on a side slope ,we had a rear passenger tyre pop out for @Paolo Pellegrini . once sorted, we started moving south on the long range side slopes. at this point @Federico De Chirico experienced some issues with the transmission which kept on upshifting during the climbs. after a few futile attempts to see if the car runs normally, we exited the car. Hope you have identified the issue and fixed @Federico De Chirico. we re-entered the dunes and made our way to find ANGELA's BOWL, which i remember driving a year back. however to our surprise, the shifting sand changed the topography. Making the best of the time remaining, we played around the huge slip faces pushing our cars to max Revs and then eventually exiting to tarmac around 9,30 am. we all learned something new, practiced something old, and remembered some good old stories. and yes, it was a drive of two and three's @Gertjan. I hope you all enjoyed this drive as much as i enjoyed leading this one. Thanks @Frederic for the valuable feedbacks and support. well done @Rob S for a well executed CF and congrats @Senthil Kumarfor a job well done as your first Sweep i believe. you raised an excellent point @Federico Galbieri with the waste thrown in the desert. i am sure we all will keep that in consideration next time we get in. Thankyou! See you all soon in sand!

Well done @Fabien Monleau! 👍

@Jad Moussalli the best approach is to get a flag holder fabricated by an off road garage. We cannot recommend through this forum, but you can do a search, call some of them and inquire. Some of them may sell suction cups. Other alternatives: - visit car accessories shops, there are many scattered all Quoz, Ras Al Khor, Barsha (Umm Suqeim Rd), they may have a solution for your car. - Off Road Souq group in Facebook Hope this helps!