As usual, we all met downstairs for breakfast at 7am, with Sebastian already there having arrived several hours earlier. With some food to power us into action, the well oiled machine of unpacking and repacking the van was mobilised, and shortly afterwards we were back on the road and heading the 32km to the Peru/Chile border!

We had heard very good things about Chile in the sense that it is a stable and advanced country, but the bad news was that they were apparently very strict on letting in vehicles. Naturally, we were a little worried that this would hold us up, but upon arriving our fears were allayed. The paperwork was very limited, and the bit that there was was very self explanatory. The only hold up was that they wanted us to take out every bag in the van and have them x-rayed.

This was the last thing we wanted as with all our luggage, tools and equipment, this is a massive hassle! But we got on with it by forming a human chain; one guy was unpacking the bags which were passed along the chain to the x-Ray machine, and at the end of the x-Ray machine, we had another chain returning the bags to the van! Very quick and efficient, and it got us done in around 15 minutes! The whole border crossing took around 1.5 hours; a record by absolute miles!

Our next stop was Arica, just inside the border, where we were to meet the British Consul there. As it turned out, we were surrounded by locals as well, and the Governor and the local press turned up; a very enjoyable and successful entry into Chile! After a brief bout of being lost and unable to find the Pan-American Highway, we were back on the road south.

The road was of a consistently high standard and wound its way through yet another magnificent landscape until we made our way up to the central desert plateaux of Chile which stands at over 2,000m. This, starting from sea level was a drain on the batteries, but after all the climbing and 400km of driving, we arrived in Iquique with a good 150km of range left. As you may remember from yesterday’s blog post, I said I would mention how we would prove that there is actually no problem with the batteries.

In order to do this, we needed a start to the day whereby we could get the batteries up to a normal operating temperature without drawing a lot of power from them like we normally do. We were fortunate in this sense because Tacna stood at around 500m and we were able to cruise the 32km down to the border at sea level by using very little energy but using just enough to provide warmth to the batteries. This, coupled with good (but not slow) driving for the rest of the day confirmed that our range was as good as ever! Give us a straight road and we may even hit 600km, and who knows how much further if we actually make the car aerodynamically slippery!

Upon arriving at the hotel, we got our rooms sorted and attempted to get the car on charge. However, while the front desk staff were happy to make it happen, they knew that their boss would not be so keen on it, so they suggested we waited until the boss went home before plugging it in! As such, it was only 10pm before the car went on charge, and quite a few hours later that the team went to bed as we still needed to eat and get work done.

Truly a fantastic day’s driving in the world’s longest country and driest desert!

Today was set to be a long drive of 300 miles, and while this should be within our range, our recent observations seemed to suggest otherwise, so we opted for a short intermediate charge in Moquegue, around 150km north of Tacna. Talking of the range problem, we do now have a theory which seems to fit all of our data, although it is not a certainty yet so please bear with me if it changes upon further investigation!

Essentially, we have noticed a range decrease since Quito amounting to somewhere around 10%. After looking at how the state of charge (SoC) decreases, which is akin to looking how the petrol needle in your car goes down as you drive, we have noticed that the fastest drop occurs in the first 15% of the battery life. So, upon leaving a destination, the SoC plummets rapidly to around 85%, and thereafter steadies out to a normal rate of decrease. In those first 15%, our projected range can be as low as 300km after which it steadies out to around 450km, still 50km short of our normal range under good driving conditions. So, what could be causing such behaviour?

The first thing that would affect our overall range is driving style and terrain. In North America, the roads were typically very gentle and well paved, and we could pretty much cruise at 60mph for hours on end without stopping. In addition, we were very carefully watching our speed, not just for energy reasons, but also to avoid being pulled over by the strict American and Canadian police!

In contrast, our driving since Quito has been on very mountainous terrain and as the roads have been generally good (and the policing is lax on occasion), we have taken to driving and accelerating a little faster than before! Why did we not notice this in Central America though? This can be attributed to much lower average driving speeds due to the rain, potholed roads, and of course the fact that we were doing shorter legs typically so we were never concerned about our range.

However, while this may make a difference, it doesn’t explain why the first 15% drops so rapidly or why it’s got apparently worse since Quito. We have looked at all the log files of previous data, but these are inconclusive as you can never have 2 identical drives without driving the same road, so a direct comparison is actually very difficult. Furthermore, we have stripped the car down to its bare components and we can find absolutely nothing which could cause such behaviour, so what could be happening at the beginning of all these drives?

To answer this, you need to really look at the fundamentals of what we are doing each day, and what environment we are in. You also need to know a little about how batteries work, so let’s start from the beginning! Essentially, batteries store energy as a chemical potential, and when a current is requested from the battery, the molecules inside undergo a chemical reaction which releases energy in the form of electricity.

Because all batteries have an internal resistance, as current flows through the cells, a very small but not insignificant amount of energy is converted into heat. Another crucial point to note is that this chemical reaction is greatly affected by temperature; it’s slow at low temperatures, and faster at high temperatures. This means that when your batteries are cold, the internal resistance is higher which means to get the same power out of your batteries, you draw a higher current due to the higher internal resistance, and so you suck more power. This is why in cold conditions, your petrol car has difficulty starting because the battery inside just does not have enough power to crank the engine. If you have an electric car, then this is why you see a range reduction during cold weather. So far so good I hope!

Now, up until Quito, we have been charging the car in fairly warm conditions outside, or in a garage. However, in Quito, the nights get cold, as is also the case in the deserts which we have been passing through since Quito. Our suspicion is that, even though the batteries are charging overnight which releases small amounts of heat, albeit very minimal, they are actually getting colder than at any other point we have experienced.

Following this train of thought, we always leave early in the morning before the weather has really warmed up enough to warm the batteries, and our driving first thing in the morning is fairly stop/start as we get out of the city, and this is typically a big drain on the batteries even under normal conditions. However, as we drive, the batteries warm themselves up to a stable temperature and the range begins to improve.

So, there you have, in short, the RGE theory on why we were seeing a range decrease! In tomorrow’s blog I will explain a little more how we demonstrated that this was the case by doing a drive which exhibited an even better than normal range, but for now, back to today!

The drive was on perfect roads with spectacular weather, and breathtaking scenery. Really very similar to all our other driving in Peru; while all this coastal desert is much the same, it’s incredibly beautiful and I would recommend doing a drive in this part of the world if you can! However, the first 300km to Moquegue was very uneventful apart from an impromptu stop in the desert.

Why did we stop in the desert? Well, running parallel alongside the road, around 200m away, was a row of electricity pylons stretching off into the distance. We noticed that they didn’t have any cables running between them and were safe enough to climb. “Easy”, we thought, “they don’t look so big; let’s climb them!” so, after stopping on the side of the deserted road (no pun intended) we walked over to them, anticipating a great view a great view from the top.

However, reaching their base we realised that they were a lot taller than we had thought from the road, and a lot harder to climb! However, not to back out from a challenge, we did climb up a little bit; perhaps 10 metres or so, but that was enough for us! We quickly shimmied down, ran back to the car, and carried on with what we are good at; driving!

About 20km from the failed pylon attempt, we arrived in the surprisingly green town of Moquegue. We had a contact here from Salvador who had offered us a place to charge the car for an hour or so, but as it turned out, we couldn’t get hold of him! So, we had to make an impromptu decision as to where to charge.

The answer came as we were driving into town in the form of a big box, marked with a lightening bolt and a man being electrocuted, that was on the wall of a petrol station! For good reason, we are taught as kids to not go anywhere near these high voltage electricity boxes, however, for us these little boxes are sources of sweet electric nectar! If you know how to do it safely, which we do, you can draw lots of power to charge your car from these boxes, so we drove into the petrol station to see what we could organise.

The petrol station attendant, replete in grubby baseball cap and greasy overall was a little bewildered! The first source of confusion was why a car like the SRZero was in a place like Moquegue, and the second source of consternation was why on earth a car would need to plug into an electricity supply! So we explained to him that the car was electric and all the other missing pieces of the puzzle, and very quickly he was inviting us to plug in at our leisure!

As it so happened, we only needed a short charge, so while the car was drinking its juice, we were eating some rather bland local takeaway while sitting on the petrol forecourt. Whoever thought that RGE was all about fast cars and luxury, think again! We are just as happy sitting and eating on the floor of a petrol station which smells of manure as we are eating canapes in the home if the British Ambassador!

Anyway, with us having finished our food, we took the car off charge and headed back on our journey. The drive into Tacna went very quickly as we drove fairly fast into the slowly fading daylight. We arrived at a very reasonable time, and we were soon able to call our contact here to give us directions to his hotel.

But for the second time in one day, and only the third on the entire trip, our contact was unreachable. However, with Peru running off the higher power 220 volt electricity standard, finding a suitable place to charge, unlike the northern part of our trip, is actually very easy. So, all we did was follow a cab to an alright looking hotel, book some cheap rooms, and ask the manager if we could charge the car. They were more than happy to help, even giving us a discount on our rooms, and before long the car was charging once more! As it turned out, we didn’t actually need the intermediate charge as we had enough energy to travel the entire distance, which was a good thing as it further reenforced our suspicion that there is in fact nothing wrong with the car!

As is usual nowadays, we were fairly exhausted after dinner, and it was around 9.30pm that consciousness slipped away! That being said, we were looking forward to our early start and our entry into Chile the following day…the penultimate country of the RGE adventure!

Unfortunately, there is very little for me to report from today aside from the road turning a little sour for a small section of the drive, but other than this, it was as smooth as we have begun to expect from Peruvian roads. The barren desert continued, however today the scenery did feel that little bit more spectacular as we wound our way up and down mountains right along the ocean.

At almost all times we were in view of the sea and the huge Pacific waves which were crashing onto the shore. The air was fresh and salty, and it truly was a great drive. One thing of note though were some of the road signs; every so often there is a sign warning you of a foggy or sandy patch. The interesting thing was how accurate these signs were because literally at the point they were situated, either the sky would turn cloudy or you would begin to get sandblasted as the wind picked up the sand and blew it across the road. This is a testament to how stable and predictable the weather here is!

As usual, aside from the odd camera shot and lunch, we didn’t stop until we reached our hotel in Camana. Once again, the car was quickly put on charge (we are getting very good at this by now!) and we were able to make it out to dinner and back in time to get a very good night’s sleep!

Our hotel was located amongst a small collection of other buildings, and trees and grass could readily be seen; something quite unfamiliar when you consider it rains only once every 10 years here, and you literally do not see a blade of grass for hundreds of kilometres at a time! In addition, there was a large swimming pool in the centre of the hotel; another rarity given the desert location and only made possible by the oasis, but by far the most impressive sight was the sand dunes. They towered around the hotel, and by towered I mean over a hundred metres high…they really were a sight to see! I have been told that they are among the largest in the world, and I have no trouble believing that!

However, we had no time to explore as the car needed attention, so we bolted down a breakfast and headed the short distance over to Revistar. We only had a short leg of 150km to complete today, so we were not under a great deal of time pressure for a change. You may be wondering why we chose to do such a short leg, and the answer is simple; we don’t actually have a choice. Population centres are so sparse here in the desert, that if we were to make better use of our range and drive, say, 450km, we would end up in the middle of the desert. On this occasion, the next town after Nasca was around 540km away from Ica which we simply cannot do in a day, and so we split up the driving in this fashion.

Work continued on the car until early afternoon, and exceptional progress was made. A number of solutions to lingering problems were found, and by the time we had reassembled the car and ready to leave, we were feeling rather happy! We said our farewells to the very kind Revistar people, and rejoined the Pan American Highway to Nasca; home of the famous and mysterious Nasca lines!

The drive was fairly uneventful; the road was great and the moon was so bright that one had a great view of the landscape even at night. Just before entering Nasca, we saw signs that we were passing the famous and mysterious Nasca lines. These are a collection of hundreds of animals and geometric shapes carved into the desert by removing the common reddish pebbles covering the surface, and exposing the pale dirt beneath. Because of the incredibly stable climate in the region, these lines have been left undisturbed for millennia, however their purpose remains shrouded in the mystery.

Unfortunately, we did not have time to see these relics of the past, and we continued on our way to Nasca. Here we were welcomed into, a new and beautiful establishment located in yet another oasis. In a rapid mobilization, we had the car on charge and them team at the dinner table in minutes, and before long we were happily munching away on a delicious meal of chicken, mash, and salad.

As usual, with food in our stomachs we all immediately felt tired, and with an early morning the next day we all hit the sack after the customary Internet session!

Despite the relatively short drive we had planned today, only around 300km, we had a lot to fit in what with a visit to the University of Lima and a trip to Salvador and Fernando’s race track. So, after our alarms ringing at the hideous time of 6.30am, we arrived at the university at 7.45am with the aim of giving a presentation and mixing with the students before leaving at 9am sharp.

Despite the very late night and early start, we were all feeling great, and Toby managed to deliver a very impressive presentation completely in Spanish. We had time for a few questions afterwards, but with our deadline rapidly approaching, we thanked the university for hosting us, and we headed on our way. Our impression of the university was excellent; they had clearly invested a huge amount in their buildings and infrastructure which again, like we saw in Medellin, just serves to show how up and coming Latin America is.

The 50km drive out of Lima south to the race track was quick and easy, and before long we were back out into the wide open desert landscapes we had begun to know and love. A sharp turn off the Pan-American Highway followed by a short stretch of dirt road brought us onto the smooth, pitch black tarmac of the race circuit. It was in quite spectacular surroundings with reddish mountains on one side, and a small airfield on the other with planes flying overhead coming in to land…quite dramatic!

Initially we had planned to do some testing on the track to see if our changes to the wheel alignment had made a difference to our range, however, upon driving the circuit we realised that it was not going to be representative of the typical driving that we do and so would not give us accurate results. As such, we decided to enjoy our visit by taking Fernando, Salvador and some others for gentle laps of the track, followed by some pictures for the press that were there as well…we would save the testing for the road.

We spent around 2 hours at the track before getting back on the road with the warm desert sun on our backs. Aside from a small break for lunch at around 3, we powered on towards Ica where we arrived at around 6pm. Here we were welcomed by Giofranco who works at Revistar, a vehicle testing centre so new it had yet to be inaugurated. The facility was absolutely first class with top of the range equipment, and we were warmly welcomed and told we could charge here and conduct any work we may need to do on the car.

It had in fact transpired that the wheel alignment was not making any difference to our range whatsoever, and that there must be something else at fault. Our next suspicion was that perhaps a component had malfunctioned giving a higher electrical resistance than normal and thereby giving rise to higher currents and higher losses to deliver the same power as before. This would follow what’s called a square law whereby if one doubles the current drawn, you quadruple the energy losses, and this would be roughly consistent with our findings whereby under normal low power cruising conditions, our range is normal, but even marginal amounts of acceleration served to reduce our range noticably.. And so, we set to work on the car to try and find the solution.

Work lasted late into the night in our bid to reinstall part of the BMS which was removed in Cartagena which would enable us to isolate the problem. As is typical, we saw other things on the car which could be improved as well, and these were addressed too. But by 11.30pm we were absolutely exhausted and it was getting to the point where accidents could happen while being so tired around a live 550V battery pack! As such, we called it a night, put the car on charge, and headed to the hotel for some sleep before continuing the following day!

The first priority was to fix the bodywork which was damaged in the crash during our drive into Lima the night before. Through one of Salvador’s contacts, we had located a fibreglass guy, and through Giovanna, the marketing director at KPMG, we had got hold of a painter that could restore the surface of the bodywork to its formerly smooth and unblemished finish.

At 8am, Toby met the fibreglasser in the underground garage at KPMG, and within an hour the bodywork had been fully repaired to its former strength, and the surface sanded down to a smooth finish. Later on in the day the painter arrived, and after combining together the right proportions of white and silver paint, applied an even finish to the repair job. The rest of the morning was spent doing the “behind the scenes stuff” like emails, website updating, blogs etc until we went over to KPMG for the afternoon to prepare for the press day starting the following morning.

While myself and Clemens were meeting with KPMG to work out the precise details about who will be doing what and saying what during the press day, Nik and Toby were downstairs playing with the wheel alignment configuration to see if this would affect the reduced range we have been seeing. Through our observation of data collected while driving over the preceding days, we had eliminated the possibility of the range reduction having anything to do with altered aerodynamics. This was initially suggested because the repaired front splitter dips slightly on the left, it’s thicker than its predecessor, and is traditionally a large source of drag (purposefully) on race cars.

We suspected that after the wheel realignment in Quito, which was done to mimic the normal race car set up, that the wheels were toed inwards too much. As such, we toed them out to as straight as they would go, and also looked at other potential factors such as tyre tread and alignment of break callipers. However, we would have to wait until Thursday, when we were due to drive out of Lima, before we could test the changes.

The next challenge of the day was to move the car into the KPMG lobby so that it could be displayed during the press event. This entailed getting it up 2 small steps and then one big flight of steps around 1.3 metres high. To this end, KPMG had organised for a flat bed truck to come which, apparently, would be able to safely deliver the SRZero into the lobby.

However, we took one look at the truck when it arrived and we had serious doubts whether it would be able to live up to the expectation. We told the driver this, but he said that he had come on Friday to check that it was possible, that he has done this before, and that it wouldn’t be a problem. We were not instilled with the greatest of confidence, and our concerns were further enforced when we measured the stairs and the truck with a tape measure…it just wasn’t going to happen!

Yet the driver still insisted he could do it, and that we must just load up the SRZero and get on with it. Naturally, we were not prepared to risk the car on something we were sure would not work, and so we told him to do a dry run and show us that the truck could bridge the stairs, but without the SRZero on board.

He begrudgingly agreed and so we headed over to do just that. I can condense the following 2 hours into a single sentence; it didn’t work, not by a mile! Firstly, the bed would not extend far enough back or high enough to bridge the stairs, so then he tried reversing the truck onto unstable little pieces of wood to try and make up for the short fall. While doing so, one of his hydraulic actuators, which he had been fiddling with earlier, starting spewing out hydraulic oil all over the smart entrance of the KPMG tower; they were less than amused!

Yet he still didn’t give up, and it was only on another reversing attempt when he went too far and took chunks out of the stone staircase that KPMG finally intervened and told the guy to go home. It was a shame it had to happen like this, but infinitely preferable than doing it with the 1.2 ton SRZero mounted on top of it! And besides, our back up plan to have it just in front of the steps (but still off the pavement) was perfectly good as well, so on this note, we finished the day and returned to the hotel for a quick shower before dinner.

We were due to meet Fernando for dinner, and he had promised us to take us to some sushi which was supposed to be unmatched. Given our previous experience with Peruvian seafood, we certainly had high expectations, and we arrived with our appetites fully whetted! Sharing a large assortment of different dishes, we had an extensive taste of what the restaurant was capable of, and the verdict was unanimous incredulity! Quite unlike normal sushi, these delicious morsels were infused with ingredients not normally found in Japanese cuisine, such as parmesan for example, and the result was truly exquisite!

After dinner, Fernando took us for a quick tour of the city, and contrary to what we had heard about Lima being a grey and ugly city, we were very pleasantly surprised. Sure, there are large areas of the city which are somewhat less than attractive, but the area along the coast and parts of the old city further inland were very beautiful indeed.

With the tour complete, Fernando dropped us off at our hotel where we all took an early night. Many thanks to Fernando for showing us a great time, and to the flatbed truck driver; sorry my friend, better luck next time!

The next day was the standard press day affair; long, tiring but always enjoyable! We had 2 presentations to give; one to the press, and the other to KPMG staff. These presentations were separated by viewing time of the car when anybody could come along, meet the team, ask questions, and take pictures with the car. This continued uninterrupted apart from lunch where we were treated to a delicious meal by the British Embassy.

This provided for an extremely interesting time as we quizzed the Deputy Head of Mission about some of the things which, with our prior involvement with the embassies along the way, we had been thinking about. What travels in the diplomatic bag? How are communications with the UK conducted in a secure manner? Do their mobiles have secret encryptions to prevent people from tapping their calls? Do they ever get MI6 agents stopping by?!

There were things which he couldn’t divulge of course, but he gave us the general gist in most cases and it certainly is fascinating area of the civil service! Peru isn’t exactly a hotbed of secret diplomatic activity though, at least as far as the UK is concerned, so the embassy here is more focussed on enhancing ties between the 2 countries through trade and investment.

After returning to the KPMG building and finishing with the press day, we had to move the car over to the university where we would be giving a quick presentation early the following morning. To ensure the car was not going to be damaged in the apocalyptic Lima traffic, we surrounded the SRZero in a convoy totalling 5 vehicles including one police motorbike. Progress was fairly slow; it took about half an hour to complete 7km, but we made it there safely at least! We drove it into the large and incredibly impressive university campus (La Universidad de Lima), and parked it up ready for the next morning.

From here, we had just one more engagement for the day; eating! KPMG took us out to a smart restaurant right on the beach, and ordered for the whole table round after round of delicious sushi. Yes we had had some the night before, but this was just as good! The atmosphere was really enjoyable as 5 of us and around 15 KPMG staff chatted away. We also had the opportunity to try something very interesting; un pisco de coca. Pisco is an alcohol made from grape which is mixed into a drink traditionally known as pisco sour. Containing lime, sugar and egg white, it is a potent but delicious concoction which we had the pleasure of trying over previous days. However, on this occasion, the restaurant had on offer the aforementioned variation which was flavoured with coca leaves!

In Peru, coca leaves are completely legal and are predominantly used in tea and for chewing. Apparently this releases a chemical (not cocaine!) which acts as a stimulant in much the same way as caffeine. This effect was not noticed in the pisco de coca, which tasted much like alcoholic green tea, but it certainly provided for a delicious flavour!

After dinner, we went out to a party with some of the girls from KPMG which Fernando had invited us to, and this concluded a long but very enjoyable day! Many thanks to KPMG for hosting us in such style, including our hotel which was fantastic, and for allowing us to use their garage as an impromptu workshop!

The drive back onto the Pan-American Highway passed through a small section of the city, but before long we were speeding south once more. Again, the smooth roads and beautiful scenery continued and we began making very good progress towards the capital city of Peru and 4th largest city in Latin America; Lima!

Aside from a stop for breakfast 50km into the journey, we drove uninterrupted for several hours. The next stop was completely unscheduled and came as we were driving alongside the coast. From the road, mountains stretched off into the distance on our left, but on our right, pristine sand dunes abounded for a few hundred metres until the desert turned to beach. The sun was out, it wasn’t cold (as it frequently is in this desert strangely enough) and the road was deserted. So, leaving our hazards flashing we all threw off our shoes, rolled up our trousers, and ran towards the ocean!

Running on sand dunes is actually a lot harder than it looks because the consistency of the sand changes which means there was a lot of falling over as we pelted towards the glistening sea. We had extra impetus to run there as the sand was scorching and was actually burning the soles of our feet!

Completely breathless, we arrived on the most spectacular and untouched beach imaginable. Never had any of us seen a coastline so untouched, and we spent some time just admiring our surroundings. It was an impromptu halt to the driving, but nonetheless an incredibly enjoyable one despite wasting an hour of daylight driving! Discipline won though, so we returned to the vehicles and set course once again for Lima.

After a few more miles we had our first encounter with a blemished road. There were some stretches of a few kilometres each which were being retarred, so they had made a rocky, unsurfaced diversion through the desert which was very SRZero unfriendly! However, upon seeing the SRZero, the boss a.k.a. jefe of the construction site wrote us out a note telling us we could pass through the cordoned off section of road without hindrance. So, while the rest of the traffic took the slow and bumpy diversion, we sped across the freshest tarmac imaginable with the entire road to ourselves; nice!

At the end of the new stretch of road, there was a manned barrier, and the guard there thought that we shouldn’t be there. However, after waving the aforementioned note from the jefe, they were more than happy to let us continue on our way. We came across a few more road works until we came to the end where we were actually driving behind the machines which flatten the tarmac and make it so smooth! Literally, we could not be driving on newer road! But suddenly, one of these monster flattening machine stopped and started reversing straight into the path of the SRZero! There was perhaps 4 metres to spare…

The look on Toby’s face was one of pure horror, and he had not reacted fast enough to start reversing. The flattener was approaching rapidly, and all the rest of us could do in the van was shout, point and honk the horn like crazy! This apelike behaviour clearly worked because the flattener driver looked over and immediately stopped the vehicle mere metres from the SRZero! Luckily no harm was done, and we were able to continue on our way for some miles until the next holdup.

The next delay took the form of a police stop. We have had many of these by now, this one being our 34th I believe, so we were completely nonplussed when the policeman signalled for us to pull over. Normally, the police take a cursory glance at our paperwork, stand and admire the SRZero for a few minutes, and then wave us on our way without any problems. But this guy was different; he wasn’t interested in the SRZero.

He took a look at our paperwork, and when he couldn’t find anything wrong with that, he started walking around the van trying to find something amiss. The translated conversation went something as follows:

Police: “You have tinted windows.”
Toby: “Yes we do.”
Police: “That’s illegal. I’m going to have to fine you. Give me 50 soles ($18)”.
Toby: “But that bus over there has tinted windows.”
The policeman looks over at the bus and mumbles something incoherently before continuing to walk around the car desperately thinking of something to fine us for.
Police: “You were driving the car without a helmet.”
Toby: “So?”
Police: “That’s illegal. I will fine you 50 soles.”

As you can see from the above transcription, he was clearly trying to hassle us into bribing him because we knew that driving the SRZero without a helmet is perfectly legal. We also knew that unless we didn’t pay him, he would hold us up there for hours and cause far more trouble than it’s worth. So we gave him the money, and attempted to get moving again. But now he wanted to chat; “Oh, what’s this car you’re driving here?” he asked, and “Isn’t it pretty!” he explained…

We were pretty annoyed with this whole situation; he managed to rip us off and waste our time. So we came up with a very simple solution; not to stop for the police anymore! Our resolve was tested minutes later when we got waved at by another policeman to come over. However, we just waved back and carried on driving! All they did in retaliation was blow their whistles a bit, but clearly we had worked out the way to save ourselves some time as they clearly weren’t interested in chasing us. Just imagine the drama if you were to try this in the US or Europe…we certainly won’t be exporting this driving style back home!

By this time we were nearing Lima and our rendezvous point with Salvador, our contact here who is very involved in the racing industry. After agreeing a meeting spot, we met up on the outskirts of the city and he escorted us in. For the second day in a row we had arrived at a very reasonable time, something in the region of 7 o’clock, we had covered a long distance today, and we were chuffed with ourselves!

However, our jubilation soon turned to sheer incredulity when we saw the traffic conditions coming into Lima; it was an absolute zoo! People were honking like crazy, swapping lanes without indicating, and generally driving like complete lunatics. This was by far the worst driving and traffic we have ever seen, and I honestly believe that a bunch of drunk chimpanzees could have driven the cars in a more orderly fashion!

However, our convoy techniques were working well in protecting the SRZero, and we slowly inched our way towards the KPMG tower which is where the car would charge overnight. Oops, I spoke too soon…

A crazy truck driver decided to overtake the van which was trailing the SRZero, and then decided to switch lanes, probably with his eyes closed. In doing so, he scraped the rear left edge of the SRZero! We immediately honked the horn into overdrive, and jumped out of the car to stop him doing more damage. We stopped the other vehicles in the convoy, which of course prompted all the cars behind us to go absolutely crazy, and we went to inspect the damage.

Fortunately, the damage was very minimal. Some of the truck’s paint had come off onto the bodywork, and the fibreglass had cracked slightly, but not even all the way through; a very fixable job indeed. In all honesty, we were very glad that this was the only damage because we have seen how quickly and easily this stuff can be repaired, and so we weren’t particularly worried. We did however address the truck driver in fairly strong language as he was completely unwilling to accept any blame despite being entirely in the wrong.

Luck was on our side however because a nearby policeman had seen everything and within moments he was at our side. He ensured that the truck driver cooperated when we asked for his details, and then, when we continued driving, he accompanied us for some distance, fending off unruly cars…very helpful indeed! It turned out to be quite a mixed day regarding our experience with the police!

The rest of the journey, which lasted around half an hour was similarly crazy, but fortunately no more accidents can be reported and we made it safely into the underground parking of KPMG’s office. By this time, Salvador had already called his fibreglass man to come at 8 the next morning to fix the car, and we were ready to hook the car up to charge.

With this done, the normal routine resumed; this being check in at hotel, shower, change, and topped off with some food! This time it wasn’t just any food, it was some very local Peruvian food of which we have heard much about. Myself and Nik tried the guinea pig, or cuy as it’s locally known, and I have to say that it was rather delicious! The others sampled grilled cow’s heart; another local delicacy which was well received! We also tried the local drink called pisco sour which, among other ingredients, has raw egg white in it. I wouldn’t know how to describe it exactly, although it is sour (obviously) and is very strong!

And so that concludes a very exciting day; a lot happening in the last few kilometres before the 20,000km mark! We can’t wait to see what the next 6,000km brings…it feels like we’re almost there!

A long stretch of around 230 miles awaited us today as the drive to Chimbote, Peru’s centre of the seafood industry, beckoned. By 8.30am we were back at the university to pick up the now fully charged SRZero and to mix with a large crowd of people that had come to see the car off. However, as always, time was of the essence so after an hour or so here we packed everything up and rejoined the Pan-American Highway.

The beautiful desert scenery only intensified as we passed through a range of landscapes, from flat sandy desert, to dunes, rocky outcrops, and very high, barren mountains. However, the one thing you do notice on this coastal strip of Peru is the litter. It is, and I mean this in the full sense of the word, everywhere. No matter how far you are away from civilisation, glance to the side of the road and you will, without fail, spot some litter. None of us had ever seen anything like it, and it’s such a shame given the pristine and largely untouched landscape alongside the road. It is clear that littering is just an accepted part of the nation’s psyche as one regularly sees drivers just throwing their plastic bottles out of the window as they drive past; such a shame to be tarnishing this beautiful country.

However, while the roadside may not be in great shape, the actual road was better than we could have imagined. We sped along the unblemished surface for miles upon miles, and we were making excellent time. For lunch we stopped at a roadside restaurant for some very local food (the chicken we ate was no doubt the same that we saw clucking around the yard moments before!) and we were struck by how low the prices are. For a full meal and a drink the price came to less than $3 per person. Really great value for money for very tasty food!

The afternoon’s drive continued just as smoothly as the mornings, and for the first time in a very long time, we actually arrived at our destination during daylight! Just outside Chimbote we were met by some representatives from the local university who guided us through Old Chimbote and into New Chimbote which is where the campus was located and where we would charge the car overnight.

The reason why there is a New Chimbote became abundantly clear as we drove through its older counterpart; the place absolutely reeked! I cannot use that word strongly enough; the moment we caught a whiff of the foul air coming seemingly from everywhere, our stomachs turned, and Nik and I who were in the SRZero at the time nearly vomited out our delicious $3 lunch! The whole place smelled like rotting flesh, and once our minds had recovered from the smell onslaught, we realised why; the fishing industry. Over 75% of Peru’s fishing industry is located here, and clearly smell containment is not the top priority!

Anyway, we were soon out of this toxic cloud and into New Chimbote which looked and smelled a lot more pleasant. We were ushered through the university gates and into a bus garage where we could charge the car. Yet again, the university’s electricity supply ran without a ground, so we manufactured our own one by stretching a wire out from the chargers to a grounding point outside. With this complete, the car was ready to spend the night suckling and we were ready to have some food and go to bed!

Our hosts from the university led us back into town to the hotel they had booked for us, which was located just off the attractive main square. Well, we were under the impression that they would book us a hotel, but the venue turned out to be something a little more frivolous! The first indication of something being a little off sorts was the word “Erotica” painted on the door in front of where we parked the van. The red lights and condoms for sale in the reception further proved our theory that this hotel offered a little more than just a bed for the night!

However, the “hotel” did seem to have 2 parts to it, and fortunately, the team seem to be located in the more innocent half as the rooms were pretty much what you would expect from a basic hotel. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the camera crew as they were entertained with with certain noises from the room next door all night long!

Moral of the story; always book the hotel yourself!

Today was a day which we were all looking forward to considerably. We had something on the agenda which was completely different to what we had done at any point on the trip so far, so we woke up in Troy’s apartment looking forward to the day’s events.

Firstly though we had to eat, so we started asking our hosts where we could take some breakfast. However, it turned out that our Lauren, Gabriela and Hannah had prepared us breakfast at their house mere metres away, so we walked over and indulged. Breakfast was delicious, and once we had finished we went over to the university to do a presentation to the students and staff there. This was a deal that was organised the night before when they offered us a place to charge, but prior to this we had no plans to visit this university.

As such, we were perplexed as to how a whole contingent of students could suddenly have procured custom printed Racing Green Endurance t-shirts! Literally, they must have been printed out overnight because not even we knew that we would be going to the university but 12 hours before! Anyway, we delivered the presentation which went very well after which we demonstrated the car in the car park, without crashing this time! Despite the amount of press rushing to talk to us, we really had to leave for our other engagement which for us was very important to meet.

Troy and the girls from Ayni had organised for us to go to a small, poor village around half an hour out of Piura for us to get a sense of some the real life conditions off the highway. Every day we are either on the road or in big cities and we have never really had the chance to see how people lived in the rural parts, so this was really a special opportunity to do so.

Upon arriving, a whole gaggle of children around 10 years old rushed out to greet us; apparently white people in these parts are pretty rare! They were so eager to play and to test their limited English on us, and while lunch was being prepared we played football with them in the sandy streets. This being in the middle of the desert, everything is sandy, dusty, and very hot. The people here are living in real poverty, but nonetheless had a glowing smile on their faces and were perhaps the best demonstration of how you don’t have to have a great deal of possessions to be happy.

Anyway, further revelations were to come later as for now we were ushered into Ines’ home, a lady from the village who coordinates the volunteer effort. She and other women from the village had heard we were coming and had prepared us a delicious meal of lamb, rice and potato salad. Despite having so little to eat they were still unbelievably generous with their food and managed to put together a meal to feed all 14 of us! The meal was accompanied by checha, a local alcoholic drink made by fermenting corn. It tasted a little like beer and was not that bad, although I don’t think any of us will be asking for it the next time we go down the pub for a pint!

After lunch, the library, where the children are taught English and learn games and suchlike, was opened and we were allowed in to play games with them and see how they interact with each other. This was one of the most enjoyable experiences of the trip; completely unlike anything any of us had ever done before, and a real eyeopener. So eager to learn and engage with new people, it was a real glimpse of true community life which in some cases has been forgotten in our big prosperous cities in the West.

After spending some time at the library, we went into one of the houses where the Ayni project is really improving the quality of peoples’ lives. Traditionally, they cook food over open flames inside their homes which is not only a dangerous fire hazard but also very bad for their health, especially so for the children. So one of the things Ayni does is to teach them how to build stoves out of cheap local materials; something which has immediately and directly improved the standard of living in these very primitive living conditions.

While we were in the house we could really see how similar we all are despite the huge wealth disparity. One of the children’s school timetable pinned up to the straw wall while the other was sitting on a bed, which is shared with all the children in the family, doing her homework. This would be the same scene in any household pretty much anywhere in the world; sure, the conditions are lightyears apart, but it shows we are all doing the same things effectively. The children are trying to learn while the adults are working to provide for their families in order to provide the simple things we all need.

Much as we were really enjoying our time here, we still had some driving to do, so after saying our goodbyes to everyone, we headed on back to Piura to pick up the SRZero and head on south towards Chiclayo. At the university we said goodbye to our hosts, and headed back out of the city to rejoin the Pan-American Highway.

The road was, as we have become used to in Peru, absolutely perfect as it stretched its way through the desert. The landscape was spectacular with sand dunes coming right up to the road and a horizon so flat it looked like an ocean. In fact, on one occasion the desert overcame our desire to keep on pushing forward, so we stopped alongside the deserted road and went for a run in the desert. The sand was fine and soft, and it was only a matter of time before we ended up all rugby tackling each other in the sand…such fun!

A few hours later and we pulled into the local university in Chiclayo where we were able to charge up. For the first time since Mexico, the charging point they had for us had no earth which makes the case of our chargers live and is hence not safe. So we did something that we had always thought we would have to do; make our own earth! In Mexico we had wired onto a local water pipe, but with none of these available we had to get a long metal stake and drive it into the ground outside. To this we wired into our earth wire, and we were good to go!

After this we went to our hotel, dropped our bags off, and went to a restaurant with Frankie from the university. He assured us this would be some of the best chicken we would taste, so we were eager to see what was going on. Lo and behold, when we got to the restaurant, it was exactly the same as our Nandoes back in the UK, except it was called Pardoes! It was very nice actually and a delicious way to finish a very interesting and perspective-altering day!

Finally, and I mean this in the best possible way, today was the day we were able to drive into our 12th country; Peru. We had fantastic experiences in Ecuador with the most astounding generosity displayed towards the team, but between the shipping, fire and crash we had been delayed enough and we really wanted to move on! So with this in mind, we left early from Machala and headed for the Ecuador/Peru border; our first unassisted land border since going into Panama some month and a half ago! I say unassisted because between Colombia and Ecuador we had Sebastian and his legion of contacts helping us out, so today we were to be retested on our border skills!

The 70km to the border was a very easy drive with smooth roads. Almost the entire way the road was lined with banana plantations; apparently this area is a major world exporter of bananas. However, even in this 70km you could see a marked shift in the landscape and climate, from tropical vegetation and hot humid air in Machala, to a more arid and drier scenario as we neared the border. In fact, the rapid change of landscape is something we have noticed a lot on this trip, particularly so in Colombia and Ecuador where within just a few miles you can pass through a range of climates due to the altitude and mountain influences. It makes for a thrilling drive I can assure you!

Anyway, onwards we drove towards the frontier, following the road markings to Peru, when all of a sudden a sign indicated that we had left Ecuador and that we were very welcome in Peru! It distinctly reminded us of the Alaska/Canada border where there appeared to be no controls whatsoever. However, we knew that it could not be this easy, especially as we have certain paperwork pertaining to the vehicles going in and out of Ecuador that needed to be stamped by various officials. Indeed, our passports needed to be stamped too so we were a little perplexed as to what to do!

However, after technically driving into Peru, we noticed a few roadside huts with border guards outside. Asking them what the story was revealed that we had to go back into Ecuador to get our passports and papers stamped. After being given the directions, we arrived a few minutes later at the customs building where we could get our exit stamps for our passports. Of course, someone came up with the cunning idea of putting a toll booth just before this building so that everyone leaving Ecuador has to pay to pass through it; that’s Latin America I guess!

Arriving at the customs building revealed another side of Latin American bureaucracy; there were 4 windows, 2 for people exiting the country, and 2 for those entering. Nobody was staffing the exit windows, and we were told that we had to stand in the entry queue to get our exit stamps. This long queue was needlessly long as the second entry window was staffed, but the guy was just refusing to do anything, so everyone for both exit and entry were queued up behind one window! Despite our best sweet talk, the lazy customs guy was not going to stamp our passports, so we were forced to wait an unnecessarily long time.

Upon reaching the window and getting our passports stamped, we were told that the vehicle papers had to be completed at a building about 4km up the road. Why everything can’t be in one place is a big mystery for us, but nonetheless we had no choice and we raced over to this other customs building! Fortunately we met with very efficient guards here and in a matter of minutes all the vehicles were cleared to leave Ecuador and we were on our way to Peru, for real this time!

Arriving at the Peruvian stretch of border huts a few minutes later revealed a slow but fair process to allow the vehicles into the county. We were the only people there, and the guard took his time to check through all our paperwork, but without much hassle, everything was signed and stamped off and we were free to enter Peru! The whole border process had taken a little over 2 hours, an hour less than expected, and with a super smooth road stretching out into the desert, we continued deeper into the Southern Hemisphere!

It seemed that the country border also seemed to be a landscape border because almost immediately after entering Peru we found ourselves driving through real desert. Quite a change from the tropics in which we had been in for the last 2 months, but beautiful nonetheless! Before long we found ourselves driving along the Pacific coastline where we stopped for a delicious seafood lunch right on the beach. We had heard from numerous people about the great seafood in Peru and we certainly weren’t disappointed!

Back on the Pan-American Highway after lunch, we found ourselves driving on a straight road through a few small fishing villages before hitting a twisty desert mountain road. The mountains weren’t actually that high, but they were dramatic with deep gorges and plunging cliffs. The views of the sea from the road were unbelievably spectacular and, once again, this drive topped many we have had in the past. Claudio managed to get some great shots for the documentary, the weather and the road was absolutely perfect, and we continued on into the sunset.

The whole drive would have been absolutely trouble free had it not been for a problem with the car that we had noticed whilst driving since the crash. For some reason, the car seemed to be using about 20% more energy than normal whilst cruising. Naturally this took a big hit on our range, and while we had enough juice even with this diminished range to complete the 250 mile leg without any worries, it was still very perplexing. We suspect the prime culprit is the front splitter which is slanting down slightly on the left hand side; an effect of the way it was fixed after the crash. Over the next few drives we intend on finding out what is the problem by experimenting with different aerodynamic setups, wheel alignments and anything else which could be causing the problem.

However, leaving this issue to be sorted on another day, we happily drove on into the sunset, by now on perfectly straight and smooth roads. It was easy driving at its finest, and barring a few rough patches, we arrived in Piura after a very successful driving day. We were finally able to rack up the miles once more!

Upon arriving in Piura, we met up with our contacts here. They were volunteers in a program called Ayni where they teach poor Peruvian children English, help with micro finance projects to assist families in starting self supporting businesses, and generally do good things to help lift this community out of poverty. We were due to go and see some of their work the next day, but for now we needed to get the car on charge, eat, and spend some time with our very friendly hosts.

Our hosts, all from the US and Canada, had kindly organised the use of a garage at one of their friend’s house where we would be able to charge the car. However, upon arriving there we realised that their circuit was simply not enough to sustain the power we needed to charge the car. While the circuit breaker was rated correctly, if anybody in the house was to use an appliance, the breaker would trip and cut off all the power; not a desirable outcome either for us or the occupants of the house!

So now the search was on to find a place for the car to charge. We tried several hotels but all to no avail; none of them were prepared to entertain the idea of a sporty electric number charging in their car park! While we were searching for hotels, we were also in contact with a sponsor in Lima, and she was trying to get her contact at the local university to find us. Completely by coincidence, Toby bumped into her at one of the hotels he was viewing, upon which she then explained that we would be able to charge at her university with no problems. Great, we thought, charging problem solved!

Not quite so, unfortunately, as we were led to a car park without any electricity supply…someone clearly hadn’t thought this through properly. By this time is was late, around 12pm, on a Friday night, and we still didn’t have a place to charge. However, after scouring the university and having them call in their electrician, we managed to find a point where we could charge off. As there was no plug, just wires from the mains, this took a while to set up, and it was only at around 1.30am that we were able to leave with the car charging.

From the university we went to grab a bite to eat, and then we headed to our hostel to get some very needed sleep! However, to top the night off, the hostel had ever so kindly given away our reservation, which probably could have been avoided had we called ahead to tell them we would be late, but nonetheless meant that we had no place to stay. However, our hosts were really helpful and offered us to crash at their place.

And so it was that on Friday 15th October we ended up sleeping in a random house in the desert city of Piura in Peru. It topped off a long and exciting, but occasionally frustrating day, and we were glad to finally get some sleep, albeit at 3am in the morning! However, all these little mishaps are part of the adventure, we love the unpredictability and spontaneity of it, and we are so happy to be doing a trip like this!

Thanks so much to Hannah, Jessica, Troy, Christin and Lauren for helping us out so much…we really appreciated not having to sleep on the streets!