tuningblog.eu Your magazine about tuning the car
After almost two years of delay, the time has finally come. Renée Brinkerhoff will be the last stage of her “Project 356 World Rally Tour“Compete. An extreme undertaking: after the amateur rally driver has put her 65-year-old sports car (built in 1956) to the test in races on six continents and in every terrain, Antarctica is now the last continent of her tour. A total of 573 kilometers lie ahead of her and the “Valkyrie Racing” team. In order to withstand the harsh conditions in the Antarctic, the sports car was specially redesigned. “We are very proud that we have successfully completed every long-distance rally that we started. Our actual goal was to make our racing activities visible around the world in order to effectively support our campaign against child trafficking, ”says Brinkerhoff. “We wanted to overcome borders and set new records. We hope to achieve just that with our Antarctic expedition. "
Project 356 World Rally Tour
If the weather conditions are good, Renée Brinkerhoff and the “Valkyrie Racing” team will start the Antarctic Tour on December 5th and finish it before the end of the year. The prepared Porsche 356 is already on its way to South America by ship from the workshop in England. Upon arrival in Chile, he is transported by air to the extreme environment of Union Glacier in Antarctica. At the end of November, the team will also meet in Chile to start the long-awaited trip originally planned for the end of 2020. The more than 18-month postponement made it possible to completely revise the sports car with a six-cylinder naturally aspirated engine in order to equip it for arctic terrain.
Kieron Bradley, who has a lot of expedition experience himself, supervised the conversion as chief chassis development engineer. Bradley replaced the rear tires of the vehicle with caterpillars. In the front he mounted a pair of skis along with a special support and suspension system. A one-arm suspension with spiral suspension is used to stabilize the two rear caterpillars.
Kieron Bradley, who has a lot of expedition experience himself, supervised the conversion as chief chassis development engineer. Bradley replaced the rear tires of the vehicle with caterpillars. In the front he mounted a pair of skis along with a special support and suspension system. A one-arm suspension with spiral suspension is used to stabilize the two rear caterpillars.
Track chains and a pair of skis
Another challenge with Bradley's work was that the skis and caterpillars had to be easily removable. This is the only way to mount the spike ice tires without changing the track setting. A pneumatic lifting bag is used for the change. In addition to Renée Brinkerhoff, the British researcher Jason de Carteret will also take part in the polar tour as a navigator in the Porsche 356. De Carteret has led more than 50 expeditions, including to the North and South Poles. Together with Kieron Bradley, he set two world records for the fastest cross-country trip to the South Pole in the Thomson Reuters polar vehicle they developed.
"As is so often the case when I enter new territory with my 356, I have not yet had the opportunity to test the car," says Brinkerhoff. “The test will come when we are at Union Glacier. We are very confident that the new design will prove its worth. As Jason and Kieron told me, there is no comparable site on earth and therefore no place where a test can be carried out. "
Expedition with a humanitarian concern
With its “Project 356 World Rally Tour”, Brinkerhoff aims to combat child trafficking worldwide. She has raised nearly half a million dollars through Valkyrie Gives, the racing team's philanthropic offshoot. 100 percent of the proceeds will benefit victims of child trafficking around the world. By the time the tour is over, Brinkerhoff will have driven nearly 20.000 miles across all seven continents and long-distance rallies such as Beijing-to-Paris, East African Safari Classic Rally and La Carrera Panamericana.
Of course, that wasn't the end of it. Our tuning magazine has tens of thousands of other tuning reports in stock. Do you want to see them all? Just click HERE and look around. Or are you especially interested in our Tuning classics category? Then the following extract of tuned young and old timers is sure to be just the thing to browse.
|
Oldtimer stolen after purchase! Does the seller have to pay added value?
|
Jaguar E-Type Restomod for $ 580.000!
|
Barn find! Ascari FGT prototype from 1992 will be auctioned!
|
Project 356 World Rally Tour
Photo credit: Porsche
tuningblog.eu - on the subject of cars, motorcycles, bikes / ATV / scooters & Co., and of course our passion, the Tuning, we keep you up to date and report daily on cool vehicles from all over the world. It's best to subscribe to ours Feed and you will be automatically informed as soon as there is a new post.
