Sunday November 13-Day 1
Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata, 524 kms.
And we are off…….
A very rainy start to the first day. Departing Buenos Aires in decidedly wet conditions. Glad we are in a completely water tight Porsche 912, some of our fellow travellers endure these conditions in leather helmets and goggles, their maps all soggy and cold wet dribbles of rain water running down the insides of their “Inca” jackets. The car is doing great, the navigator is fabulous, we are just having a little problem with the driver. We wound our way through the outskirts of B.A. to an auto racing circuit, where we all dove down into the the bowl in 1 minute intervals, one at a time, while rain was pelting the tarmac. In my enthousiasm I converted this high paced event into a slow motion ballet performance in a Porsche 912. On a large curve, just after passing a nice rumbling Volvo Catback, we came accelerating out of the curve into a very large big thick puddle. The hydroplaning rear wheels lost their grip and we made a couple of full 360 turns at 90 kms/hr. Luckily I succeeded in keeping the machine on the tarmac, but we were faced the wrong way. A quick restart was needed and off we went, again passing the Volvo on our way out. It must have cost us more than a few seconds, but sure was a thrill.
Then off we go through endless pampas with horses and cattle all over, sometimes reminding us of Kansas and other times the coastal Carolinas. For lunch we were hosted at a beautiful ranch with our cars parked on the lawn
and the gauchos giving a performance of their riding skills.
Lunch of course means Asado and we were not disappointed.
Two more regularities were on the program for the day. racing through rural gravel roads at 70km/hr. and trying to get to the unexpected finish within a couple of seconds.
seems we did ok, I have not checked the specifics of the standings but so far we are 2nd in class and 4th overall. if only I had avoided that pirouette !!
