Wednesday 9th July 2014

Moreeb Dune busters: Time For Tea?

Massively steep sand dune, massively boosted turbo, simple pleasures

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Moreeb Dune, or Scary Mountain, is reputedly the biggest sand dune in the United Arab Emirates. In essence it's a mile-long beach that's been rotated up through 50 degrees. To give you an idea of what that means, a 1 in 3 (about the nastiest you'll get on British roads) is 18.5 degrees. 50 degrees is more than 1 in 1, ie for every horizontal metre you travel, you're going up more than one meter vertically. That's steep.

Now add in the fact that sand is not exactly the most stable road surface in the world and you will understand that the requirements for conquering the Moreeb hillclimb are (a) traction and (b) power - lots of it.

Not the most subtle of engine mods...

The Abu Dhabi Motors Club doesn't allow paddle tyres on the Moreeb, but that doesn't stop yer man getting something that sounds like tyre chirp at the beginning. It's more likely to be the anguished shriek of diffs meshing like they've never been meshed before.

Power. Hmmm. Many Moreebers go for the easy option of nitro-burning V8s, detuned Top Fuel drag motors if you will, but that's boring. We like this guy because he's heaving on the sweaty manual stick of an overbored Nissan Patrol (4.5 litres?) that's been puffed to madness level by some sort of deviant TB48 turbo.

Boost pressure? Who knows. Put it this way: we wouldn't want to be within a few hundred yards of it when it pops, as it surely will at some excitingly unknown point in the future. That would be fun to see, but only from behind a sofa, or some sort of blast shelter.

Anyway, he does the course in 8.219 secs to win the six-pot class (the V8 auto boys do it in a second less). It loses a couple of cylinders at the end, plus by the looks of it the rad cap, but who wouldn't after that?

If you enjoy environments where real men eat nails and mechanical sympathy is the name of a wimpy college band, the Moreeb Desert Challenge is for you. Register here.

See here.

 

[handpaper]

Check the onboard video - the rad cap comes off at the beginning of the run. The big spurt at the end (oo-er!) is from the coolant sloshing forward as the vehicle slows.
I thought initially that it was some kind of insane water mist injection system, a lot of it does seem to go into the turbo...

[sideways man]

Never seen a turbo and manifold turn red hot on anything other than a test bed before. And in about 6 seconds !
My steepest climb is the brooklands test hill,at 1 in 4 it was pretty steep,so this must be an insane drive.

Balls of steel,sir,I am impressed.

[skyrover]

pretty cool but can't compete with the big V8's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaPCi4sEDfk

[shirt]

i'll have to search for the photos but i've been in to zub zero and some of the engine build are mental. not neccesarily in a good way either - more the hand grenade / ticking time bomb variety!

[Reardy Mister]

I reckon whatever they spent on the engines they must have spent once again on the drivetrain. If one of those tyres going 100kmh faster than the car suddenly grips - bang. I've always admired the UAE philosophy of "If it looks impossible, keep chucking money at it until it isn't".

Anyway, I *think* from the same of similar event, this is one of my favourite videos - the presence of mind shown here is amazing and there was no second chance before the Patrol would have become a giant Zorb ball.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3HQd8M1C4o

[anonymous-user]

I suspect that the head lifts as it comes on boost (the first jet of water that blows the rad cap off) and then at the end of the run it simply boils over as their is no coolant pressure any longer!

[John.Taylor]

Why no air filters, surely the sand ingestion would be an issue?

[Ellieb10]

skyrover said:

pretty cool but can't compete with the big V8's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaPCi4sEDfk

I had a Y60 TB42. Loved that truck. That video rearranged my synapses.

[gck303]

In Europe we have tractors:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGOFEeFGYzI&no...