David and Karen Ayre's wonderful Itala 40 broke an axle yesterday, and currently, a team of local garagistes are trying to get it all back together...

Day eleven: The big news of the day is that come the 07.30 start at the Pyramids, the number one car, David and Karen Ayre's 1907 Itala, was there to wow the crowds. After some ingenius repair work on the car's axle and wooden spoked wheel by Cairo mechanics, the intrepid team were up and running again and raring to go for more.

We passed the Itala motoring out of Cairo in the rush hour traffic, still travelling at a healthy pace, but when we caught up with David and Karen at the end of the day, their comment was, 'we had to keep the speed down...'

As is was, there had only been one retiree at the start of the day, but that figure had ballooned to at least two - with an unfortunate accident putting out the 1924 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost of Geoffrey Foster-Taylor and David Daniels. The car was damanged, but the two team members escaped with some bruising - and we bore witness to the incredibly efficient medical back-up.

The rest of the day was an interesting mix of high speed running across Egypt's desert interior towards the Red Sea, and a number of off-road stages that challenged the cars and drivers under the winter sun. All the teams were pleased to make the end of the 11th day, although the Soma Bay Cascade Hotel car park became an impromptu garage as several teams worked into the night getting their cars back into shape.

Tomorrow, the teams move on to Luxor...

[Full results and report: Nile Trial 2009]
[Classic Passions: Classic Passions Website]