Fast and Faster
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Yoghybear
- Golden Member
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Sat May 21, 2011 2:19 pm
I would like to start saying that who missed this trip, has missed a great trip.
Strawb put on the table a meal with a lot of ingredients, and he was not short of salt and pepper!!!!
In Umm al Oush you can find whatever you are looking for, and we found all we needed for an awesome day.
All drivers were tired at the end of the trip, we asked them a lot and they gave all at their best for a successful event.
A very BIG thanks to Strawb for the amazing lead, another very BIG thanks (in alphabetic order) to Dave, Francis, Ginger, Hailun, Oxana and Ron for the performance, guys and girl, you did a fantastic job, and finally also a very BIG thanks to Raff (....probably I am the only Marshal with driver....)
See you soon and take care all.
Cheers
Strawb put on the table a meal with a lot of ingredients, and he was not short of salt and pepper!!!!
In Umm al Oush you can find whatever you are looking for, and we found all we needed for an awesome day.
All drivers were tired at the end of the trip, we asked them a lot and they gave all at their best for a successful event.
A very BIG thanks to Strawb for the amazing lead, another very BIG thanks (in alphabetic order) to Dave, Francis, Ginger, Hailun, Oxana and Ron for the performance, guys and girl, you did a fantastic job, and finally also a very BIG thanks to Raff (....probably I am the only Marshal with driver....)
See you soon and take care all.
Cheers
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ginger
- Intermediate
- Posts: 0
- Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2012 10:16 am
What a day (and I mean a whole day , not just a morning!). The desert in Umm AlOush is well worth the trip, apart from Liwa it’s really one of my favourite areas to drive. The Sabkha gave us the opportunity to go really fast over 140 km/h in places. The high dunes were spectacular, awe-inspiring , and almost frightening in places.
Driving at this level stretches and tests both cars and drivers, and it’s interesting to see the limit being reached under different circumstances. Suspension set-up , driver experience, power, choice of 4L versus 4H -all came under the spot-light!
I was truly exhausted after nearly 6 hours of desert driving, but would a day – definitely to be repeated please!
Many thanks to all the organisers
Driving at this level stretches and tests both cars and drivers, and it’s interesting to see the limit being reached under different circumstances. Suspension set-up , driver experience, power, choice of 4L versus 4H -all came under the spot-light!
I was truly exhausted after nearly 6 hours of desert driving, but would a day – definitely to be repeated please!
Many thanks to all the organisers
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Zorro
- Advance
- Posts: 0
- Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2012 10:29 pm
Yet an other successful drive by our Marshal Strawb.
Umm al Oush is an interesting area to drive and explore. It feels like Liwa without some of its scary V-shaped bowls, but probably with some of the best sabkas you can find in UAE. As by it's name the drive was fast, and without major issues, which also made it more enjoyable. Yoghybear rightly mentioned, that whoever did not join missed an interesting drive to test both car and driver. I'm pretty sure that the intermediate drivers who joined benefited really a lot, and i'm sure know better their car's 4L than did before.
You all know the Marshals always take interesting routes, so there is no point in me repeating yet again that Strawb choose an interesting track, He always does! Moreover he brought us in several big bowls, in which, Jeeps (obviously :015: ) always climbed higher. On a serious note, although being really fun driving around them, from my point of view it helped in understanding and knowing better the limits of the cars, as in certain situations 4L was better although in other bowls 4H felt better..
Anyway, it's been a great day with great people.
Thank you Strawb for Fast and Faster Drive, will now be waiting the sequel: Faster and Fastest!!
Thank you all drivers for not having popouts or serious stucks. You all did a awesome job :045: ....and made sweeping easier!
Thanks,
Raf
Umm al Oush is an interesting area to drive and explore. It feels like Liwa without some of its scary V-shaped bowls, but probably with some of the best sabkas you can find in UAE. As by it's name the drive was fast, and without major issues, which also made it more enjoyable. Yoghybear rightly mentioned, that whoever did not join missed an interesting drive to test both car and driver. I'm pretty sure that the intermediate drivers who joined benefited really a lot, and i'm sure know better their car's 4L than did before.
You all know the Marshals always take interesting routes, so there is no point in me repeating yet again that Strawb choose an interesting track, He always does! Moreover he brought us in several big bowls, in which, Jeeps (obviously :015: ) always climbed higher. On a serious note, although being really fun driving around them, from my point of view it helped in understanding and knowing better the limits of the cars, as in certain situations 4L was better although in other bowls 4H felt better..
Anyway, it's been a great day with great people.
Thank you Strawb for Fast and Faster Drive, will now be waiting the sequel: Faster and Fastest!!
Thank you all drivers for not having popouts or serious stucks. You all did a awesome job :045: ....and made sweeping easier!
Thanks,
Raf
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Randy
- Newbie
- Posts: 0
- Joined: Sat Apr 05, 2014 12:00 pm
I am a passenger/photographer who's more than happy not only to enjoy the trip but to take photos of the main characters of this awesome event.
Hats off on your superb driving skills. You guys inspires me to be one someday.
Enjoy the photos lady and gentlemen.
https://www.facebook.com/randy.lestino. ... nref=story
Videos on youtube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbF25ysITiU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7fCFdweCME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X3Vw9eZgmU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH9IxqtNpQ8
Hats off on your superb driving skills. You guys inspires me to be one someday.
Enjoy the photos lady and gentlemen.
https://www.facebook.com/randy.lestino. ... nref=story
Videos on youtube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbF25ysITiU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7fCFdweCME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X3Vw9eZgmU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH9IxqtNpQ8
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Dave
- Advance
- Posts: 0
- Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2013 3:54 pm
FAST and FASTER has left me so tired it has produced my SLOWEST time ever at getting round to writing a trip report! This was to be my last drive as a Newbie and my first drive with the Intermediates. Also, the drive was to be held in an area about 120km south of our usual playing area, Al Badayer. Zoom in on Google Earth to the town of Al Khatim off the Abu Dhabi to Al Ain highway and track about 30km directly south. You will see nothing but large dunes and endless bowls. This would be a tough day!
Challenge Number One was getting out of bed on Friday at 4.45am. We all have to balance work, family and our ''Almost4x4'' activity time with care. A deal was struck at home that dinner at a nice restaurant on Thursday night would give the green card to play Friday. Result.....four hours sleep before wake up! A group of us drove in convoy from Jebel Ali to the meeting point arriving well on time for our adventure. We fuelled up and set off a further 30km south to the deflate point. I believe we were 8 cars in total.
Brief was given by Strawb, who clearly had more sleep in him than me because he was full of energy. This would be bad for us as he was our lead today! He will not be choosing the easy path! The task was simple. 8 cars start. 8 cars finish. This area had claimed a good few cars. From our club and certainly others. I wished I had gone to bed earlier! As I was being assessed as such, I would be second lead for the first two hours. Yoghybear had brought his excellent chauffeur Zorro for the day to be sweep and that way he could keep two watch full eyes on us all!
The first 30 minutes were a warm up. This involved small technical dunes initially. Then something new for me. A feature of this area were large subkha (salt) flats. As we demonstrated, these could be crossed at high speed to the next section of sand formations. I was uncomfortable travelling along this surface well in excess of 100km on 12psi so was thankful to reach the dunes again and give my poor tyres a break!
Soon enough we reached the big bowls that Strawb had marked in his gps. Much sharper, steeper and deeper than anything I had seen before. One step down from those in Liwa I was told. Suddenly, Al Badayer/Nizwa was childs play. This was serious. Still in second place I followed Strawb as he drove the upper rim of the bowls, one after the other with some serious ''high altitude'' cresting in between. The trick was to get to the tip of the bowl with speed then car would easily ride the upper rim all around the bowl. If speed was lost, you knew not to fight gravity (this is intermediate level!) and point down towards the base. Now it got tough! You are carrying not enough speed to stay aloft but too much for the descent. As you approach the base of these bowls the walls steepen. This is compounded by the flats of the larger dunes having a subkha like base so you transition from very soft sand at an descent angle greater than 30 degrees at speed to a hard flat surface! Getting this wrong and not arriving at the base with the car pointing almost directly down will lead to at best a pop out and I wont mention the worst!
Having realised staying aloft was a lot less work than descending into the base of these monster bowls more thought was required for the entry. Some bowls had such an awkward entry it made arriving at the lip with speed tough. Second gear high speed was my sweet spot but I soon realised the space to accelerate was not there. Next best option was third gear low ratio. Not as good as high second, but next best thing to keeping me aloft on the upper rim on the tighter more technical bowls.
We crossed bowl after bowl, crest after crest, had a short lunch break, then found even bigger bowls and crests! This day was turning into an endurance race! It was clear to see each car had their advantages and disadvantages along with the drivers having different strengths and weaknesses. Ginger and Offroad Rons 4 door Xterra's parked up on a crest or two, FrancisJK Wrangler kept fooling us by slowing at the top of each crest but would keep powering up over. A few deep descents in high ratio became excessive in speed as gearing was too high and brakes usless with abs kicking in! Oxana's Legend Pathfinder was cresting things a four door 4x4 shouldn't be able to do. My 2 door Patrol didn't like ridding the rims of the larger bowls but its driver only had a Newbie right foot and was deaf to Yoghy's shouts of ''Go Faster....Go Faster''! It did get me through the day without a single stuck....ignoring my self recovery! The FJ of Hailun didn't break to much sweat. A modest car and a modest driver! Even the great Strawb ''parked'' up twice!! Thought it best not to take a picture as I was yearning an additional star!! The driver of the day was Zorro. A great father and son team inside that green Turtle!
Fuel tanks are now on the wrong side of ''half'' so we set back and as tasked I am happy to report 8 cars returned to the inflate point! I am lead to believe only 7 did the remaining 30km to the gas station due fuel issues. My low light came on also so next trip to this area my Jerry can shall be filled too! By the time I returned home my trip meter was just shy of 500km and I was in the car over 11 hours!! What a day.
I learnt so much from this drive and I am so grateful for having this upgrade opportunity. I realise that the learning will always continue within this club and for that I thank the founders, marshals and of course its core, the members themselves! For my fellow Newbies I left behind, I hold the door open for you! Enjoy the leisurely pace of the clubs ''chapter one'' for ''chapter two'' is a whole new level!! Don't rush into it till your absolutely ready!
Challenge Number One was getting out of bed on Friday at 4.45am. We all have to balance work, family and our ''Almost4x4'' activity time with care. A deal was struck at home that dinner at a nice restaurant on Thursday night would give the green card to play Friday. Result.....four hours sleep before wake up! A group of us drove in convoy from Jebel Ali to the meeting point arriving well on time for our adventure. We fuelled up and set off a further 30km south to the deflate point. I believe we were 8 cars in total.
Brief was given by Strawb, who clearly had more sleep in him than me because he was full of energy. This would be bad for us as he was our lead today! He will not be choosing the easy path! The task was simple. 8 cars start. 8 cars finish. This area had claimed a good few cars. From our club and certainly others. I wished I had gone to bed earlier! As I was being assessed as such, I would be second lead for the first two hours. Yoghybear had brought his excellent chauffeur Zorro for the day to be sweep and that way he could keep two watch full eyes on us all!
The first 30 minutes were a warm up. This involved small technical dunes initially. Then something new for me. A feature of this area were large subkha (salt) flats. As we demonstrated, these could be crossed at high speed to the next section of sand formations. I was uncomfortable travelling along this surface well in excess of 100km on 12psi so was thankful to reach the dunes again and give my poor tyres a break!
Soon enough we reached the big bowls that Strawb had marked in his gps. Much sharper, steeper and deeper than anything I had seen before. One step down from those in Liwa I was told. Suddenly, Al Badayer/Nizwa was childs play. This was serious. Still in second place I followed Strawb as he drove the upper rim of the bowls, one after the other with some serious ''high altitude'' cresting in between. The trick was to get to the tip of the bowl with speed then car would easily ride the upper rim all around the bowl. If speed was lost, you knew not to fight gravity (this is intermediate level!) and point down towards the base. Now it got tough! You are carrying not enough speed to stay aloft but too much for the descent. As you approach the base of these bowls the walls steepen. This is compounded by the flats of the larger dunes having a subkha like base so you transition from very soft sand at an descent angle greater than 30 degrees at speed to a hard flat surface! Getting this wrong and not arriving at the base with the car pointing almost directly down will lead to at best a pop out and I wont mention the worst!
Having realised staying aloft was a lot less work than descending into the base of these monster bowls more thought was required for the entry. Some bowls had such an awkward entry it made arriving at the lip with speed tough. Second gear high speed was my sweet spot but I soon realised the space to accelerate was not there. Next best option was third gear low ratio. Not as good as high second, but next best thing to keeping me aloft on the upper rim on the tighter more technical bowls.
We crossed bowl after bowl, crest after crest, had a short lunch break, then found even bigger bowls and crests! This day was turning into an endurance race! It was clear to see each car had their advantages and disadvantages along with the drivers having different strengths and weaknesses. Ginger and Offroad Rons 4 door Xterra's parked up on a crest or two, FrancisJK Wrangler kept fooling us by slowing at the top of each crest but would keep powering up over. A few deep descents in high ratio became excessive in speed as gearing was too high and brakes usless with abs kicking in! Oxana's Legend Pathfinder was cresting things a four door 4x4 shouldn't be able to do. My 2 door Patrol didn't like ridding the rims of the larger bowls but its driver only had a Newbie right foot and was deaf to Yoghy's shouts of ''Go Faster....Go Faster''! It did get me through the day without a single stuck....ignoring my self recovery! The FJ of Hailun didn't break to much sweat. A modest car and a modest driver! Even the great Strawb ''parked'' up twice!! Thought it best not to take a picture as I was yearning an additional star!! The driver of the day was Zorro. A great father and son team inside that green Turtle!
Fuel tanks are now on the wrong side of ''half'' so we set back and as tasked I am happy to report 8 cars returned to the inflate point! I am lead to believe only 7 did the remaining 30km to the gas station due fuel issues. My low light came on also so next trip to this area my Jerry can shall be filled too! By the time I returned home my trip meter was just shy of 500km and I was in the car over 11 hours!! What a day.
I learnt so much from this drive and I am so grateful for having this upgrade opportunity. I realise that the learning will always continue within this club and for that I thank the founders, marshals and of course its core, the members themselves! For my fellow Newbies I left behind, I hold the door open for you! Enjoy the leisurely pace of the clubs ''chapter one'' for ''chapter two'' is a whole new level!! Don't rush into it till your absolutely ready!
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strawb
- Golden Member
- Posts: 0
- Joined: Sun Jan 22, 2012 3:03 pm
It was a day of fun filled offroading with all the aspects of technicalities of desert driving involved.
We completed 138 kilometers of pure offroad adrenalin filled driving. It was definitely a drive with more driving than anything else.
I was very happy with how the drivers managed the challenges given to them and i must say ..... umm al oush offers one of the most complicated sand formations ive driven in.
All in all we drove as one strong almost4x4 team and it was definitely a drive to remember.
Keep the sand flying and i hope to see you on the sand very soon again.
Cheers
We completed 138 kilometers of pure offroad adrenalin filled driving. It was definitely a drive with more driving than anything else.
I was very happy with how the drivers managed the challenges given to them and i must say ..... umm al oush offers one of the most complicated sand formations ive driven in.
All in all we drove as one strong almost4x4 team and it was definitely a drive to remember.
Keep the sand flying and i hope to see you on the sand very soon again.
Cheers
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OffroadRon
- Intermediate
- Posts: 0
- Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2012 11:03 am
This was the first time for me in Umm al Oush and it was an amazing, exhausting but very rewarding day!
Thank you Strawb for taking us there and leading us through the great variety of dunes that Umm al Oush has to offer
I think we have all learnt a lot and were significantly challenged, both car and driver. On many occassions I had to push for maximum power of my Xterra and shift to the 4LO gear to be able to follow the challenging track :-)
Big thumbs up for all the drivers, we did a great job! Looking forward to the next trip.
Ronald
Thank you Strawb for taking us there and leading us through the great variety of dunes that Umm al Oush has to offer
I think we have all learnt a lot and were significantly challenged, both car and driver. On many occassions I had to push for maximum power of my Xterra and shift to the 4LO gear to be able to follow the challenging track :-)
Big thumbs up for all the drivers, we did a great job! Looking forward to the next trip.
Ronald
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hailun
- Intermediate
- Posts: 0
- Joined: Wed May 09, 2012 5:58 pm
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FrancisJK
- Intermediate
- Posts: 0
- Joined: Sun Oct 06, 2013 11:46 am
Up, down, flat, sharp, deep, drop, long, short, crest, bowl, small, big, in, out, high, low, slow, fast and faster! All I can say is you name it and we had it. Well done to all & see you again.
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