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Sports Siberian Tigers

By Photos by Christian Weiss Rolf Klatt

Just running your finger over the map lets you The Panthera tigris altaica lives in the Russian Far East and : it is muscular and a good climber, but also moves very gracefully on level ground. When running down prey, it can put on a fast gallop. This summer, the famous feel the adventure of the Transsyberia Rally: Siberian tiger got some competition—from 24 Porsche Cayenne S Transsyberias that headed east on August 3 7,108 kilometers (4,417 miles) from to from Moscow’s Red Square. The specially prepared Cayennes also have these same attributes, but with wheels instead of paws. For the first time, Porsche has built a limited-edition series for such a competition. In addition to the Ulan Bator. Twenty-four Cayenne S Transsyberias characteristic rally design, this 385-hp V8 model also includes a roll cage, a shorter axle ratio, a reinforced multi- followed the trail of the czar’s couriers. component underbody guard, and Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control adapted for extreme conditions. Page 44 Christophorus 328 Christophorus 328 Page 45

The Russian summer got rained out this year, too. “Muddy, messy, miserable,” the boy scouts reported about the route through Siberia. The rally participants soon knew why Transsyberia organizer Richard Schalber had symbolically given them bread and salt for the road—the traditional protection from accidents and fire. Even the pros, who otherwise trust only their off-road-capable navigation systems and their front-seat passengers, were grateful for this moral support, because the orientation drive was anything but a drive in the park. Water holes, tree-trunk bridges, rocks—real pioneering work. Among the 24 Cayenne teams, which functioned as national teams, there was cameraderie: one might pull the other out of the muck on occasion, for example. Page 46 Christophorus 328

Marathon men: Rod Millen and co-driver Richard Kelsey (USA ⁄ New Zealand) reached the finish first in their Cayenne S Transsyberia; second and third place went to Cayenne drivers Antonio Tognana ⁄ Carlo Cassina (Italy) and Adel Abdulla ⁄ Norbert Lutteri (Qatar ⁄ Italy)

The road from Europe to Asia is bumpy—and ence and circumspection. It’s unbelievable to Adventure not only proverbially. Covering 4,549 kilometers come through such a rally in a luxury vehicle,” (2,827 miles) of Russian and 2,559 kilometers said winner Rod Millen, from the USA, at the end Transsyberia (1,590 miles) of Mongolian “roadway,” the Trans- of the ordeal for the 33 teams from a total of 15 syberia participants had to overcome every con- countries. For nine days, the German duo of for-

ceivable kind of landscape: marshland, taiga, mer European rally champion Armin Schwarz and h c s i

Start: August 3, 2007, Moscow mountains, desert. It was a supreme challenge Oliver Hilger had held on to the lead. The Trans- b a r Goal: August 17,2007, Ulan Bator to human and machine. “The key to success in syberia Rally 2007 was certainly one of the great A d n

Length: 7,108 km (4,417 miles) this tremendously tough marathon were experi- adventures on four wheels. a l s s u R a e r

) ) o K KRASNOYARSK )

1,889 km 2,229 km ) ) n * * a p a

905 km J * YEKATARINBURGTYUMEN 984 km ( 2,845 km 3,511 km IRKUTSK VLADIMIR 340 km ( * *

231 km a MOSCOW KAZAN 4 5 n 674 km ( ) i 2 h OMSK NOVOSIBIRSK ) START 1 3 616 km ( C 666 km ( ) ) ) 6 7 ) 7,108 km n e

) 6,766 km* i * n

4,642 km 5,082 km ) a

4,356 km * * p

* 6,315 km S * 5,412 km * , 451 km (

ASTANA KOSHAGASH 5,797 km n

* e 845 km ( i l a

8 t KIEV ÖLGII, 286 km ( I 9 ULAN BATOR, 342 km ( KAZAKHSTAN MANKHAN, 440 km ( MONGOL TBSP . r

DARVI, 330 km ( GOAL k 10 ALTAY,385BAYANKHOR, km ( 518 km ( n

14 a

11 r UKRAINE 12 13 F MONGOLIA CHINA

BEIJING . g s u A -

(* total kilometers) S U D