By Jesse Adams
Day two of Cannonball Run Africa 2013 is in the bag, and team-mate Thomas Falkiner and I are lucky to have come out of it alive. Not because of any high-speed horseplay or stand-offs with Swazi cattle, but because my co-driver and I are ready to strangle each other with car chargers.
A big part of this event is judged on teams' abilities to negotiate efficient routes between A and B. But when you’re in a foreign land with neither of those particulars available, and your satnav device has decided it also wants in on the argument, the atmosphere inside a confined coupé cabin such as that of the F-Type can get a little, how can I say... tempestuous.
GHOST IN THE MACHINE
At one point our GPS unit nearly incited a riot when it told us it should take two and half hours to drive 53km. It's become quite clear there's a ghost in this machine and it's a vindictive little bugger.
Yes, there have been some heated exchanges within Team Jaguar but we're still in it and it seems challenges involving stopwatches and helmets are our saving grace here in Swaziland. Turns out it's harder to squabble with visors down while negotiating a 1.2km time trial at maximum attack.
A stunning drive by Falkiner put us sixth out of 33 (mostly supercars) on today's timed section. A small, but still useful amount of points came from that.
PUTTING ON A GREAT SHOW
We still stink at the all the tedious scavenger hunting between stages though, which is why we're 20th on the overall points leaderboard after two days. Our chances of winning Cannonball Run 2013 are pretty much zero, but we're putting on a great show when the opportunities to stretch our Jag's legs arise. Our fellow competitors are in awe of the F-Type's high-revving shriek, and even more amazed that its supercharged three-litre V6 is outperforming much higher-calibre exotica on a regular basis.
We're still in the dark about what's in store for the Run's final day tomorrow, but a little birdie tells us there will be three more time attack stages. No doubt our giant-killing steed will again send some big-output cars back to their temperature-controlled garages with tails tucked between legs.
If you don't hear from us tomorrow, it means Thomas and I have choked the life out each other. But I'll do my best to update you before that happens. As for the electronic navigation, I might conveniently forget to pack its power cable... - Star Motoring
Follow Jesse Adams on Twitter.