In the weeks and days leading up to the start of the Mongol Rally on July 10th, 2013 – tensions were extremely high getting the fine details and logistics hammered out. Our Russian visas came right down to the wire getting back, car insurance was nothing less than a complete fiasco, prepping the car had a couple hiccups (careful with the bleeders on those calipers!) and we hadn’t even begun packing until the night before setting off for the start line at Bodiam Castle.

As mentioned in the last article about Mongol Rally logistics, when choosing our vehicle I wanted to make this a real challenge. Some teams (most teams) would probably carry-out a fairly complex prep job on the car…many having skid plates installed beneath their car and others running vehicles with a full roll cage even. Most teams would also have roof racks installed, a large collection of spare tires and enough jerry cans to seemingly make the journey unaided by fuel stops.

The car chosen was a 1999 Dahaitsu Cuore we purchased for 500 GBP. Conversion Rate at time of purchase: 1 GBP = 1.68 USD making the vehicle cost about $845.00

Some specs about the car:

• 989 cc, inline 3-cylinder engine, 5 speed manual transmission
• EFI, producing about 55 horsepower & 65 ft-lb torque
• Curb weight: 1,587 lbs
• 0-60 mph: 12.6 seconds
• 0-100 mph: impossible unless falling off a cliff
• Claimed fuel economy: 45 US mpg combined (we couldn’t break 30 Imperial mpg combined…disappointing and frustrating)
• Fuel capacity: 8.8 Imperial gallons, making our range just over 250 miles per tank

Our preparation was the following:

• Oil & filter change
• Transmission fluid change
• New brake pads
• Four new tires, got ourselves a (used) full-size spare
• New air filter
• New spark plugs

Pretty routine right? While going through the car I noticed a split CV boot, but didn’t have the time to get a replacement and install it. “Oh well” I thought, “people drive around with split CV boots all the time”. Just in case, I took a gander online for spare CVs. At around $150 each, I decided we’d take our chances. This decision would later proved problematic and nearly devastating to our rally.

The additions we made to our vehicle were the following:

• Removable soft roof rack (30 GBP)
• Canvas roof bag (45 GBP)
• 2 x 10 Liter (~2.5 Gallons each) Plastic Jugs, one for fuel one for water (11 GBP)
• MP3 Head Unit (30 GBP)
• Small cigarette-plug power inverter (27 GBP)
• Various plastic containers to organize and allocate strict space restrictions

So relative to other ralliers, modesty was certainly our strong suit. Now when it came to tools, I was less inclined to skimp out. I needed to be sure that any problem we had which could be solved with tools alone, we’d be prepared for. I didn’t want to be doing any repair work that required a slim 10 mm wrench when all we had was a crescent.

• Combination wrench set (8 – 19 mm)
• Draper boxed tool set 19728 (which included various pliers, a ratchet, sockets, allen wrenches, etc.)
• A 100-piece screwdriver bit set
• Vice grips (the set included 3, we only brought two to save space)
• Cigarette-lighter plug-in air compressor
• Duct tape
• Electrical wire
• Zip ties
• Wire stripper/crimp
• Rope

Two more things I wanted but was unable to find in a limited time:

• Window crack repair kit (finally got one in Russia on the way back, had needed it for a long time)
• Tire plug kit (got one in Russia I believe it was)

Some things we brought from the US that I knew would come in handy

• JB Weld
• Craftsman 3/8″ ratchet w/ a couple longer extensions I had at home (the ratchets included in kits are generally low quality. Lo and behold, the Draper ratchet failed partway through)

Some spares for the car:

• Extra oil
• Extra oil filter
• Extra spark plugs (2 that were removed)
• Funnel

Luckily, we did eventually make it to the start line. And thus began the rally! For the rest of the story, you must wait.