Pedal to the Metal

[Gabor]

That drive was my first intermediate trip.

All in all, it was a really great drive.
Started with the welcoming, all of the "old" intermediates congrated again, warmly, it was very good feeling.
Bu Salem requested the new drivers to the front of the convoy, so Giorgio was the 3rd, me the 4th, Sajeed FJ the 5th car with leading Daggerfall end his second lead Presa.
Every drive is like a new lesson, a lot of new input. I learned a lot of, perhaps a little bit more than I expected before.
First of all, the proper distance what we should kept.
If it is too long, you might be lost the track. If it is shorter you will not have enough react the situation in front of you. That happened with me, I followed Giorgio to sidecresting, but I went to close to him. He decided to turn down due to lack of momentum, even I had enough, followed him, on a higher arc, then he slowed down and I had no chance to steer clear of him, started to slide down, and hit his car.
The second, the proper tooling.
I believed, I have them. But not. My rims are upgraded rims, I never checked, the original socket does fit or not. Of course not! Pls check yours also!
The third, spare tyre in good condition.
It seemed to be good, same size but different type. No problem. But the age!
After some km, it torn, fortunately on a horizontal place.

Thanks for everybody the patients, a lot of helps. I think I learned these things forever. :)

[Daggerfall]

Hello Almosters,

The weather was still very hot and the humidity was high when we met in the afternoon. However it dropped down and became relatively reasonable during the drive as we expected and hoped you're kidding, right . But anything with metal surface (even tools) was still burning hands. (Make sure you always have with you and wear your gloves when you are dealing with cars during the summer)

We put our fresh intermediates to the front for a "warm welcome" grin on their first intermediate drive and I must say they did very well for their first drive. There are still things to improve but it was a good start. I think they understand why we are so keen to make sure our members have all the proper training and experience and ready to drive at this level "comfortably" when they were Newbies.

We attacked the dunes for side cresting from both wind direction and against the wind direction and they managed to execute these two different techniques as I explained during the briefing "safely". My suggestion is to focus on perfecting your technique rather than keeping up with the pace in the beginning and make sure you don't develop "bad habits"

All in all in was a great afternoon with Almosters and I had a lot of fun!

Thanks to all supported and participated!

See you on the next intermediate drive thumbsup

[nabil_k]

Hello Everyone ,

First i need to mentioned the temperature it was 46 C ( Guys are you serious to play over the high dunes with this high temp. O_O !!) , well i fell this heat at the deflating point only after that when the drive start i not remember there any heat effecting or existing , even we replacing 2 tires under this condition !.
After briefing given by [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] , with some notification for new intermediate members about this area and the side crest as we are going to do side cresting in the high dunes , we start the drive flying the sand over the dunes its really amazing i had really enjoying every moment in this drive, the dunes was selected in very professional tactic ninja, one by one higher to higher yuush , we had many second try due to missing the right climbing angle and its very healthy think to do second round not to risk your self. the trip name was really applied its very fast, and we finish with 41c temp.

Thanks to [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] for organizing and leading this trip, thanks to [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] , [mention]Booy[/mention] , [mention]JockJKU[/mention] , [mention]Agalon[/mention] , [mention]Solmaz[/mention] for the supporting , and thanks to everyone come to this drive it was really amazing .

see you in the next drive.

[giorgio]

Pedal to the Metal

And the name was supposed to be Hot pedal to the metal. As other members already described was a hot afternoon and after the regular but way more technical briefing we all got ready to take up the dunes.

The older intermediates crew and leaders welcome us (the new intermediates) and with no delays we started the drive.

The paste was fast and before I even realize what has happened we were climbing with 60-70Km doing arches and crests.

I remember [mention]Johanna[/mention] which she had joint as a passenger coming up to me and asking me if I was nervous and I recall saying that I wasn't. That was true at the moment of the question but after we took off I found myself speeding like never before and that did made me nervous for a moment. I tried to shake off the nervousness and focus on my driving.

Now for my fellow drivers from the 10+ level (which I am sure that are waiting to see what is coming jumping to the next level) I have to say the following.

Riving on the Intermediate level It is a totally different animal. Unless you are more than comfortable with the 10+ drives (maybe little bored sometimes) do not wish and anticipate to change level. Believe me you will immediately find yourselves out of your comfort zone and maybe you wish you had not joined this level yet and had more time on the lower just to perfect your technique and style.

The window for taking decision is way smaller. You get to realize that, although you may think that you know your car this is not the case. You may know your car but for the tasks and demands of the level you are. Moving levels you are required to perform new maneuvers that requires new driving skills which means push your car more and find out how your car will react/ perform. You need to adapt and practice while flying and attacking mid to big size dunes from every angle.

I found myself been mostly on a survivor mode than doing technical driving. Driving a manual was also another personal challenge that I encountered. I found my 1st gear strong but short with not enough momentum to keep up with the drive"s quick paste so I was forced to drive on 2nd. That resulted to phasing problems on the big climbs and especially at the top where it is time to side crest. I was losing speed which made the back of my Jeep slowly sliding down-hill. After discussing it with [mention]Booy[/mention] , I was advised downshifting to the 1st gear before I reach the top but this needed to be done I a quick manner so I don’t lose the momentum. That is easy to say than do, but nether less, I put a plan in action and started attempting downshifting in Dunes that I was sure that I had them ( fairly easy and safe for the trial). In some occasions the trick worked and it brought the expected results in some others it didn’t go as well as expected, for the only reason that I did not shift at the correct moment ( too early too slow). So this is one of the major learning curves for me to work on.
One thing though it is important to mention. You need to have strong foundation of the basic, don't fight gravity and leave the ego home . Fellows there is no room for any of the above in this level.

Overall it was a very well designed drive full of adrenaline and thrills.

Many thanks to the organizer and support members for the support and assistance and [mention]JockJKU[/mention] U thank you for the tip on creating a different climbing line than the FJ’s Although I didn’t have the chance to practice it I will keep it in mind for the next drive and try to adapt this new technique


Looking forward to the next drive see you all soon

[Agalon]

It was a very nice track with lots of side cresting and the first intermediate trial with my new toy. I am glad that the bond is getting stronger everytime.
All drivers did very well with only a couple of issues which is part of the game. All in all that is how we gain experience.
@alshamsi_m gave us a practical presentation of the meaning of “it’s not the car but the driver”. That heavy patrol finished the drive without scratch. You wouldn’t expect that normally.
Finally one more time i apologise from my fellow friends @Abu Odai and @Yazan Ali for the unintentional sand shower... i am still trying to get used to :)

See you next time...

[presa]

Hi Almosters!

We had a amazing intermediate drive with the lead from Daggerfall!

He did great on choosing the track. The idea was climbing medium size dunes - the largest for that area - entering them at full speed on 1st gear (60-70kph) and crest them. Now repeat this 100 times :)

There were some easy ones, there were some not very easy, and there were a climbing by the soft side, with the sun ahead of us difficulting the visibility and side cresting with the crest climbing sick sick sick

By the way I didn't see any passenger with motion sick, what means that we are training them well :)

I believe that overall the main difference for the intermediate level is that you are going to fight to keep the pace, not to avoid being stuck.

I can't finish without mentioning that I was impressed by Shamsi taking the big patrol to the desert... but what impressed me wasn't the patrol doing all the drive being completely stock, but it coming out of the drive without any scratch even on the bumpers!

Looking forward for the next drive!

[Saeed FJ]

Hello Every One

it's my first intermediate drive, and as promised by [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] we will give you a warm welcome and it was.
first, we ware welcome in the new level by all the attendance, then we start the drive, I will not explain because I will let my video show you the part of the drive, the link is below



overall the drive was full of adrenaline, I love it,
thanks to marshals for such an amazing route, support team, and all the attendance

till next drive, stay safe

see you on sand

[Gabor]

Hi Abu Madi!

Thanks for this video! :)

[JockJKU]

Morning All!

Really great drive on a quick track with some nice crests!! There really wasn't much of a warm-up for the new guys to get used to the new level!!

Great lead from [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] as always and the convoy kept up pretty well!!

Looking forward to Welcome to the Jungle and Paradise City now...

Till then,

Jock!

[Youssef.Abdelhady]

Hey Almosters,

The drive really lived up to its name. Fast paced drive with plenty of high climbs and lots of side cresting.
[mention]Daggerfall[/mention] chose a perfect track that was exciting and challenging but not out of our (inters) league.

During this drive I learned a very valuable lesson about braking that I would like to share with all of you to avoid this dangerous mistake:

At one point we where driving along a tall arc. This meant we were driving fast in order to reach to the top of the arch.
As we were driving down, I noticed that I was going too fast and would damage my bumper once I reached the flat ground.
So I instinctively pressed hard on the brakes. The result was that the rear of the car swung INSTANTLY to the right and I was driving down this dune sideways.
Thankfully it occurred near the bottom of the dune or else I'm sure I would've rolled over.

Reason: When applying hard brakes, the very heavy front of the car digs into the sand so the rear of the car lifts in the air and loses traction. As [mention]Booy[/mention] explained to me that in extreme cases you can actually front flip with the car.

Lesson: Depend more on the engine braking vs. wheel braking. And it is better to damage your bumper than roll over.


Thank you to the organizers, support team, and everyone who joined
See you in the sand.