Transsyberia Rally: Ammin Schwarz leg five summary

Fastest on today's special stage - slowly closing gap to front runners

My co-driver Andi Schulz and I had a really good day on this fifth leg of the Transsyberia Rally. Of the 672 quite rough kilometres, 50 were driven as a special stage - and we were fastest, 55 seconds faster than Adel Abdulla/Norbert Lutteri of Team Qatar. Italy's Antonio Tognana with his co Carlo Cassina, whom I know well from the oldern days in the WRC, finished the stage third, 70 seconds slower than we were. The top nine times were set by Porsche teams.

Fast over smooth gravel: the special stage on the fifth leg was good stuff.

The stage was fast, flowing, not too rough, good stuff for us and the Cayenne. And it is a fascinating adventure to be in the middle of Siberia knowing Mongolia is waiting. But we are not getting too happy, because we are still running 34.29 minutes behind the leader, Pedro Gameiro from Portugal. That's an awful lot of time. Well, we lost it right on the first day, when we got stuck in a waterhole. Still, after the first day there were 57.36 minutes between us and the leaders. So we took away 23 minutes from them. Poor pedro spend eleven minutes in a watherhole today.

... and here we go with 382 horses under the bonnet, bound for Mongolia ...

After last year's first Transsyberia Rally Porsche put their experiences into the modification of the Cayenne S Transsyberia. Right height was lowered by 25 millimetres. We are running on BF Goodrich tyres, which I know and like from the SCO RE Off-Road Series. Porsche has optimised the air suspension, active anti roll bars, the Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control and the differentials. Moreover, we are now running special rally shocks.

The six gear automatic ‘box, the shortened final drive and the very brawny 4.8 litre V8 engine remain unchanged. The engine has 385 hp, and the maximum torque of 500 Nm is at our disposal at 3,500 revs already. The Cayenne S Transsyberia is a great off-road racer - which is quite incredible, because the car is very close to the standard vehicle.

Tomorrow's leg 6 will bring us from Omsk to Novosibirsk, where we will enjoy the last night in a hotel bed after 712 kilometres. From then on it's tents - and I am looking forward to that very much.

Back here tomorrow, best wishes, Armin

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-credit: armin schwarz