Transylvania Adventure Trophy

Like every year, off road lovers from all over Europe gathered in the Romanian city of Deva, in the western part of the Transylvania Plateau to take part in one of the most prestigious competitions of the year. Unlike previous years, the TAT was not part of the National Off Road Championship, hence the competition spirit was left aside in favor of a more friendly, fairplay relationship between contestants. The teams that took part came from 17 different countries, with trucks prepared for both Open and Extreme classes. Amongst the competition vehicles were Suzuki Samurai, Nissan Patrols, both full body and tray-back for the Extreme class, Toyota 70's and 73's, Mercedes G Klasse and Land Rover Discovery and Defenders.

For those who are unfamiliar with the competition, the TAT was started in 2001 by Virgil Marin together with Off Road Adventure Romania Club, with the aim of popularizing the sport in the mountain-surrounded heart of Romania. One of the facts that set it apart from most of the other competitions was it's length, being a 7-day race, teams had to cope with various conditions, from comfortably sleeping in their hotel rooms in the first or second day, to sleeping in the tents, or even under the open sky in the case of a team car breaking in the forest overnight. It has grown during time, becoming a competition where finishing is more often than not more important than winning.

This year, the competition start took place on the 29th of June from the center of Deva, heading for a prologue zone outside the city, designed for both classes, with some modifications. The Extreme class was presented with a 2 meter deep hole with a steep climb on the front side, followed by a crawl over a rectangle made from logs, two sections leaning sideways and a final run through used tires and deep mud. The open class lacked the hole and the logs, which were completely obliterated by the extreme class cars anyway, but were given an alternative track, trough a ditch and a short section leaning the car right ways.

After the prologue, the cars were given road books and were sent directly on a 60 km track, which served as accommodation for the following days, delivering all the cars in a central camp. the following day teams had the morning briefing and were sent in two other camps, Open class in the North Camp and Extreme Class in the South Camp. Because of previous years, where rain fell down in at least two of the days, making the Open class Extreme and the Extreme class Impossible, the Open class was composed of two parts. One of them was proper off road tracks involving a good deal of navigation skills and another part composed of rally raid sections which would help damaged or out of fuel cars to be accessed easier than in the case of a mountain track. The race track was supported by some of the country's most impressive landscapes, leading the competitors through all manners of terrain, from alpine meadows to muddy forests and rocky climbs.

Furthermore, the Extreme class was not spared anything. They had more mud, more rocks, more winching and navigation through some of the most difficult terrain available in the area. The special stage in the 4th day was an important factor in the competition winners as well. Again, since the competition was thought up in case of heavy rain, the Open class appeared to most side viewers to be harder than the Extreme class, the first one having a steep climb of several hundred meters, followed by an abrupt 90 degree turn, a steep descent and a river section. The Extreme class had a similar track, but after the special stage were presented with 50 kilometers of the day's road book to go through, with various almost-impossible parts where radius arms, winches, drive shafts, radiators and other important iron work gave up the fight, leaving the teams in difficulty. Cars kept arriving in the camps every night throughout the race, all the way to the morning, just in time for the following day's briefing. The other racers who managed to arrive at decent times spent their night talking about the day's difficult sections or welding bits and pieces that fell off the car during the day. At the end of the race, a good deal of teams have left the race due to technical difficulties but everyone who finished had the satisfaction of being called on stage in the final evening to receive the participant's or winner's diploma, depending on the results.

Images courtesy of B. Paranici

R.T.
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