Siberian Tigers
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Page 42 Christophorus 328 Christophorus 328 Page 43 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 Mongolia: 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 Moscow 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. UKRAINE third place went to Cayenne drivers AntonioTognana toCayenne third placewent ⁄ Carlo Cassina(Italy) andAdelAbdulla ⁄ Norbert Lutteri(Qatar (USARod Millenandco-driverRichardKelsey ⁄ ⁄ Italy) secondand Zealand) New STranssyberia; reachedthefinishfirst intheirCayenne Marathon men: 46 Page Length: Goal: Start: Transsyberia Adventure START KIEV 7,108 km(4,417miles) 7,108 August 17,2007, UlanBator August 3, 2007, Moscow 1 Christophorus 328 MOSCOW 2 VLADIMIR 231 km 3 KAZAN 674 km ( * 905 km ) syberia participants had to overcome not The roadfromEuropetoAsiaisbumpy—and (1,590 miles) of Mongolian “roadway,” (1,590 miles)ofMongolian“roadway,” (2,827 miles)ofRussianand2,559kilometers this tremendously tough marathon were experi- this tremendouslytoughmarathonwere to successin to humanandmachine.“Thekey mountains, desert. asupremechallenge Itwas ceivable kindoflandscape:marshland, taiga, 4 KAZAKHSTAN YEKATARINBURG 984 km ( only proverbially. Covering 4,549kilometers Covering only proverbially. 5 * 1,889 km TYUMEN 340 km ( ASTANA ) * 2,229 km 6 OMSK ) 616 km ( KRASNOYARSK * 2,845 km 7 ) every con- the Trans- NOVOSIBIRSK 666 km ( CHINA 8 * 3,511 km KOSHAGASH 9 845 km ( RUSSIA Oliver Hilgerhadheldontothelead.The mer Europeanrallychampion ninedays,countries. For theGerman duooffor- of theordealfor33teamsfromatotal15 said winnerRodMillen, fromtheUSA, attheend come throughsucharallyinluxury vehicle,” to unbelievable ence andcircumspection.It’s ÖLGII, 286 km ( adventures onfourwheels. syberia Rally2007 certainly was oneofthegreat 10 ) 11 MANKHAN, 440 km* ( 4,356 km DARVI, 330 km ( 12 IRKUTSK ALTAY,385 km ( * ) 4,642 km 13 MONGOLIA BAYANKHOR, 518 km ( * * ) 5,4125,082 km km * 14 5,797 km MONGOL TBSP ) ) ) GOAL ULAN BATOR, 342* km ( 6,315 km and Armin Schwarz , 451 km ( (* totalkilometers) BEIJING ) * 6,766 km * Trans- 7,108 km) ) D US-Ausg. Frankr. Italien Spanien China Japan Korea Russland Arabisch.