Dimpled Dan Dimpled Dan
Not all of the rally motorists are swimming in disposable income. In the spirit of Charles Goddard, the penniless carnival barker who raced in the 1907 rally, Daniel Orteu (right) and his sidekick John Davies (left) are hoping to survive by their wits. "Some people say you have to plan everything, others say just go," says Orteu. "We're examples of the latter." The 20-something management consultant was volunteering in Zimbabwe when a friend first proposed going on the trip. But, after Orteu had already made several payments to the Classic Rally Association, his partner dropped out of the race to get married. Undeterred, Orteu scrapped together 8,000 pounds to buy and rebuild a 1962 Volvo Amazon. He even handpainted the car bright blue with a large logo for Raleigh International, the organization he worked for in Zimbabwe. The group is sponsoring the team, says Orteu, but, being a non- profit, they have more goodwill to spare than cash. Back to the top


Go Carr Go Go Carr Go
Cars have secured Raymond Carr's place in history, or at least in the Guinness Book of World Records. The unassuming 76-year-old holds three records for driving across the United States in automobiles even older than he is. Three years ago, Carr (right) drove a 1902 Northern Runabout with its 1-cylinder, 5-horsepower engine, from San Diego to Jekyll Island, Ga., averaging 20 mph. The next year Carr crawled across North America in a 1912 Baker Electric, charging its 12 internal batteries with a portable generator. And last year, Carr drove a 1909 wooden frame Model E-2 Stanley Steamer 5,200 miles from Anchorage, Alaska, to Bar Harbor, Maine. Both the Stanley and the Northern were designed to run on 50-octane gasoline, a big problem as gas today has a minimum rating of 85 octane. Mike Wyka, Carr's trusty companion and a mechanic from Poland, came up with a solution to the gassy dilemma: mix kerosene with gasoline to lower the octane. Luckily for Carr, he has Wyka as his co-driver in the 1939 Ford convertible he's using in the rally. If, and when, the two reach Paris, they will have traveled around the world together. Back to the top


Auto-Addled Genny Auto-Addled Genny
As a reporter for Autoweek, Genevieve Obert infuses her coverage of vintage cars with a sense of history -- "Since the Angles first battled the Saxons, the British and the Germans have found reasons to quarrel". But Obert will switch from observer to participant in the rally, driving a 1968 Hillman Hunter with Linda Dodwell (above), also from San Francisco. Combined, the pair has far more motor know-how than the other women-only team of Francesca Sternberg and Jennifer Gillies. In addition to racing in various auto rallies, Dodwell has spent a lot of time on two wheels, traveling with fellow rally motorist Burt Richmond during his exotic long-distance motorcycle expeditions.
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Chic Kleptz "Chic" Kleptz
Talk to Charles "Chic" Kleptz and you get the impression that he would be more interested in the conversation if you had six cylinders or a fan belt. Chic's wife and navigator Arlene is fairly chatty, but the entrepreneur from Ohio is clearly more comfortable when under a hood or behind a wheel. The Kleptzes are veteran auto rallyists who have driven vintage cars in numerous U.S. rallies and have chosen the rare 1919 Marmon Model 34 to make their international debut. A Marmon collector, Kleptz is confident that his vehicle is one of the best-engineered cars of its day and he has already driven one model, a 1917, to a second-place finish in an American coast-to-coast rally. The 1919 Model 34 is the last survivor of the 1,200 Marmon touring cars. Chic reassembled the vehicle from parts he bought from a Philadelphia estate. The Marmon has only two brakes, unlike the four of most modern cars, not ideal for a race requiring participants to scale 17,000 feet Himalayan mountains. To account for the inevitable steep declines, Chic is adapting pickup truck brakes to the Marmon's front axle. Of course, the modified brakes won't help the car on its ascent. Back to the top


Biker Burt Biker Burt
Burt Richmond, aka "Mom," is a charismatic Chicago architect who makes a living balanced on two-wheels. Obsessed with motorcycles -- he once owned more than 300 bikes -- Richmond leads RUBBIE (Rich Urban Biker) expeditions through far-flung locales such as Nepal and Vietnam with his company, Lotus Tours. "Our motto is 'You provide the helmet, we provide the adventure ... and stay at the best places there are,'" he says. Since his first international motorcycle trip to Nepal in the '80s, Richmond has biked through Africa, Asia, South America, Australia and New Zealand. Richmond's rally partner, Richard Newman, is the owner of a vehicle rental business and shares the architect's motor-mania. The duo chose a 1953 Citroen 2CV for the rally. Back to the top


Bart Rietbergen Jolyn Rietbergen

Lean, Mean & Neon-Green
Bart Rietbergen, a carpet executive from Vaassen, Holland, is a former Dutch rallycross champion, and has driven in the Tulip Rally, the Liege-Rome-Liege and the Monte Carlo Challenge. "He's been racing nearly all his life," says his wife and partner, Jolyn. The Rietbergens chose their car carefully, trying out several different makes before settling on a white 1965 PV 544 Volvo. The most challenging leg of the race for the Volvo will be the mountains of Nepal, says Jolyn, explaining the couple had been taking the car on test runs up smaller peaks. "If the car takes that, it takes all." The Rietbergen's sponsor, a Dutch packaging company, is banking on it. The company sank a tidy sum into the couple's rally kitty. However, it wasn't without strings attached. As a condition of the sponsorship, the Rietbergen's had to paint their Volvo a startling neon green. A week after its metamorphosis, the upbeat Jolyn had nearly convinced herself that the flashy coat was a positive development. "It's clear, it's bright and you can see it everywhere," she said. "It's no problem when you get lost or anything, if anything happens to you, everyone will see you." Back to the top


Capt. Capt. "Zen" O'Neill
Canadian John O'Neill is driving a 1960 Volkswagen Cabrio with his daughter Susan Tsicrycas. For the retired infantry captain, whose military career includes service in World War II, Korea, and the Middle East, the rally is hardly an adventure of a lifetime. And at age 75, O'Neill is grateful to be going, having suffered an aneurysm in January. "I don't care if I'm last, first or anything, I'll just enjoy the drive," he says. Back to the top


Pink Tank Pink Tank
John Stuttard (in yellow shirt), chairman of Coopers & Lybrand in China, has invited a handful of consultant and embassy types to play musical chairs in his 1934 Rolls Royce 20/25. The 20/25 is one of the most durable of the Rolls Royce models, and can travel 90 mph, says Stuttard. He dubbed the Rolls "Harrison" after learning that the car's original owner Henry Harrison Stuttard was a distant relative. Harrison, the car, was recently painted pink at the request of one Stuttard's sponsors, the Financial Times. Not every fellow would be willing to paint his car such a shade but Stuttard is used to thinking and doing the unthinkable. It is a skill he acquired while privatizing England's national industries for former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
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Pictures: Candide Media Works |
Copyright © 1997 Discovery Communications, Inc.