Mara Goes Letara, Ep. 1-4
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16th September 1949, Storia Habour, Letara
Rodyn Gumprov, Mara junior development engineer and in charge of running the P47-1 prototype testing programme, had gotten up early to watch the big cargo ship glide into a dock in Storia Harbour. Earlier in the year, he had arrived with one prototype car, a support van and a few colleagues on a similar ship to put the P47-1 through its paces on Letaran soil - first, to iron out the worst kinks, but also fine-tune it for its designated role as an entry into the Portunis Cannonball run.
A converted HD6 van turned out to be quite spacious to support prototype testing in Letara
The engine swap of the 2.5l flat-4 engine from the HD6 van (now called Mara Visim (‘eight’) for the Letaran government bid) into the diminutive P47-1 body had not been an easy task, but they had managed. In the process, he had learned quite a few new curses from his engineer comrade colleague Yenna Bielicki, but over time she had worked wonders to extract almost double the power from the venerable HD6 engine.
This extra power had been very handy in testing the P47-1’s suspension and brakes to the limit (and finding quite a few flaws in the initial setup). The engine had also proven surprisingly reliable, despite running close to its max rev range. On the ship were now two more prototypes with a few further enhancements (and parts in the trunks). As the dockworkers started unloading the ship, Rodyn made his way to the customs area to sort out the paperwork.
**
Later in the day, he met the two main drivers for the cannonball race in front of a large garage door. (He himself would enter as well, but only as designated support for the other two.) One main driver was his boss, Mara chief engineer Fedor Piechov, the other one, to his astonishment, Mara’s chief executive Henri Nordhov*. Both had arrived by plane a few days ago and were officially on holiday in Letara.
“Good morning, comrade director, comrade”, he greeted the other two.
“Good morning”, Nordhov replied cheerfully. “And you can drop the ‘comrade director’, as long as we are racing on Letaran soil.” Nordhov winked to Fedor and Rodyn. “I must say, I am really enjoying my time here in Letara. Great climate, nice wine, and everything else you might possibly want from life.” He winked again.
Fedor readily agreed. “Nice not to worry about things for a while. I had rented a boat for a few days - good sailing climate.” He looked at Rodyn. “The cars are ready?”
“Yes, comr… sir. If you would come in please.” Rodyn led the way into the garage they had rented to serve as the base for their Letaran prototype testing. It was almost empty on a Friday afternoon, except for the three P47-1 prototype cars and Yenna Bielicki, the engineer in charge of engine testing (and tuning).
Upon hearing the entrance door opening and closing, she looked up and turned around. “Comrades… Comrade director? What a surprise.” Instinctively, she stood at attention.
Nordhov kept his cheerful tone. “At ease… Yenna, right? Officially, I am on holiday. But can’t wait to put our prototypes through the paces myself. Carry on.”
Yenna happily turned around again and turned her attention back to the engine in the #99 car.
“How are they to drive?” inquired Fedor, pointing at the three prototypes.
“Much more powerful than the future production versions, of course. But surprisingly tame at the same time, after we happened to find suitable wider tyres locally to fit instead of the stock wheels. The speedometer gives accurate readings, by the way… until the end of the scale, that is.”
Henri and Fedor exchanged excited glances.
Rodyn pointed towards a table at the back wall of the garage. “There are the keys… and the registration forms for the rally. If you’d like to fill them out, then I can take them to the rally office before it closes for the week.”
Henri and Fedor quickly made their way to the table, hastily scribbled their names and other information into the form and handed them to Rodyn. Afterwards, they were eager to grab the keys and put the prototype P47-1s through their paces.
Meanwhile, Rodyn took three sheets of paper to the rally registration office which had the following lines at the top:
#42 - TEAM MARA #1: NORDHOV
#47 - TEAM MARA #2: PIECHOV
#99 - TEAM MARA #3: GUMPROV
OOC: No real-world car manufacturer executives of the past or present were harmed when seeking inspirations for the protagonists.