Classic Cars Phuket

Phuket Classic Car Trophy 2012

On Sunday, 22. January 2012, we started on Phuket's first real classic car rally, the Phuket Classic Car Trophy 2012, a roadbook rally around the north-eastern part of the island. A motley crew of adventurous Thai and farang drivers with brave navigators and a colourful selection of classic and sports cars went on a 65km cruise, struggled with various technical challenges, needed investigative qualities to answer the questions along the road and had to demonstrate their driving skills in some sophisticated tests and games.

All of us had lots of fun, often laughed tears, and we got everyone's promise to be back on our next rally event. If you own an original classic car, a youngtimer car or a new exotic car, please contact us in english or thai language and we put you on our notification list for future events.

ClassicCarClubPhuket@hotmail.com

Team Nicolas / K. Jutha with 1955 MGA

A broken exhaust on the way to the start of the rally could not stop them and their gorgeous British roadster.

Team K. Chuncharoen with 1963 MG Midget

This cute little roadster struggled a bit at the steep hills around Leam Khat, but due to the stamina of the team and cheering for them on their slow-motion move up the hill, they finally mastered the whole tour excellently.

Team Dr. Suchon / K. Toey / Philipp with 1963 Mercedes 200 Fintail

Dr. Suchon nearly surrendered after his beautiful Benz struggled with problems in the fuel system. But like nearly all problems also this one could be solved with the collective help of the teams and a really Thai ingeniousness of finding straight-forward solutions for complicate situations... see the photo on the next page! And finally this team was the winner the trophy!

Team Peter / Helen with 1968 Volkswagen Beetle

It needed a big amount of luck that they reached the start in time. Just with the help of a local Thai with a motorbike and a jerry can they made "her" run again (their Beetle is not just an "it"). But once filled up with gas "she" did what Beetles are usually known for... run, run and run. And she finished forth in the first rally of her life.

Team Adam / Harry with 2008 Lotus Exige

The Australian team not only had the fastest car of the rally but also the best driver. Adam finished both driving games with 7 out of 8 possible points! Overall they finished third.

Team Christian / Peter with VW Buggy

They were the mystery team of the rally as they disappeared soon after starting... too fast for stopping at the checkpoints, they probably finished the whole tour before the rest arrived at the lunch break.

Team David / K. Noi with 1977 Toyota Landcruiser

David promised to be our service vehicle. If anyone got stuck, he would winch the car out and tow back home... until the Landcruiser itself struggled with technical problems at the rear axle. But a straight-forward repair on the road brought the team back into the competition (and finally us back home after our Skyline failed due to a leak in the cooling system).

Team Michael / Tar with 1979 Nissan Skyline 2000 GT

In the weeks before the rally we renewed a bunch of ancillary units of the car like fuel pump and coil, so we really expected that our vintage Skyline runs smoothly. Initially it did, but a few kilometers before the finish the temperature gauge signalled danger and we better stopped.

Last instructions by Tar for the Lotus team before the start

Luckily they had a working mileage counter... other than 50% of its competitors. What can you do, when the roadbook gives the instruction: "Turn left after 10,7 km" but your instruments don't show you the distance done... well, just guess the distance, after all we are in Thailand!

The roadbook for the rally

65km, 50 instructions, 8 questions along the road, 2 driving tests and 2 knowledge tests... not just a coffee party for Sunday drivers.

Phuket's unknown northeast still offers empty and twisty roads that are really fun to drive

We tried to stay away from Phuket's usual traffic jams. All our route was along small and twisty roads with nearly no traffic. Even some of our Thai crews haven't discovered them before and were pretty surprised.

First checkpoint at Leam Khat

Our rare Nissan Skyline 2000 GT in the front... still running at this time. At this stop everyone could enjoy the beautiful scenery of Phang Nga Bay before contesting in the first driving games.