After Siegfried did a closer inspection of our car, it turned out to be in a worse condition then we had hoped for. The engine runs great, but the chassis is really bad. So we decided to take it to the garage this weekend to do some reinforcement welding, to have a chance of getting there without the suspension just breaking out of the car at some point. More work then we had hoped for, but that’s always the problem with old cars.

However, when we disassembled the car, we noticed a much bigger problem - The car’s VIN doesn’t match our papers. So we have essentially been driving around without any legal papers or insurance so far. We briefly contemplated the idea of just going as it is, and hoping nobody would notice, but the concept of doing jail time in Russia for smuggling a “stolen” car doesn’t sound all too appealing. Since getting new papers for the car would require a whole lot of expensive bureaucracy, plus getting a new road worthiness certificate for the car (har har), we decided to dump the car instead, and get a new one.

We did find another Wartburg which seems to be in a much better condition then ours, which we are currently in the process of purchasing (see picture). Unfortunately it’s not a wagon, but it should still have more storage space then most of our contenders. This is all still very annoying, as we already dumped a lot of money and work into the old car.

Meanwhile we met up with one of the two other german teams, Stefan and Lutz of Team Ruhrpott, for some BBQ this weekend. Was nice meeting you guys! Best wishes for working everything out, and getting some good sponsors!