Described as the ‘Dakar of Europe’, the Rallye Breslau in Poland is a five-day, 1,300km cross-country rally across some of the most difficult terrains, driving day and night. Over 400 competitors from all over Europe helped make this year’s event the biggest ever.
Land Rover Owner International reports that Team Twinlock was the only British team to compete in the event this year, using a 200Tdi Defender 90 that had been rebuilt and modified to qualify for the Extreme category.
The owner of the vehicle, Henry Siebert-Saunders, said that the Defender had had two previous iterations of builds, but ‘this was the big one’
However, despite bureaucratic hurdles to attend the event, COVID-secure measures and endless tests, and three months of rebuilds and modifications, the challenging extreme rally proved to be too much for the old 200Tdi engine.
After getting lost on the first day, and being rescued by a French team, the next day, the French lost their rear differential and front winch on their Suzuki with Land Rover axels and were pulled through a mud section by Twinlock’s Defender, only for roles to be reversed once again later when their power steering started having issues.
On day three, the Defender, going full throttle through a deep water crossing took on a bit too much water, causing trouble for the 200Dti engine.
“It wasn’t quite the same after that,” says Henry. “It carried on, but it was burning oil and sounding tappetty.
“Halfway through the second stage the next day, the temperature started climbing, then our secondary water pump blew its fuse and that was the last straw. There’s just no compression now – I’m expecting to find holes in the pistons when we take it apart.”
He added that at one point, before the power steering issues, the team had climbed to ninth place in provisional classifications.
“For our first attempt at Breslau, I think that’s pretty good,” said Henry.
The team plan on returning to the Rallye Breslau in 2022.
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