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Anybody ever done a banger challenge. I.e. you buy a cheap car and drive off round Europe for a few days. Along with loads of other cars. I'm asking because myself and 3 friends have entered this rally. http://www.bangerrallychallenge.co.uk .
Our car is a old T reg 1.8 mercedes c180. Everyday we think of something else that needs to be done or booked or figured out. Lol
Before we even get to the starting location we have a 12 hour drive and 680 miles to get there.
On the way back we are going a different route. Come home via Prague then nurburgring and on to amesterdam for 2 nights. Last leg home is amesterdam to Newcastle on the ferry. And back up to the north east of Scotland.

Away for 12 days going through 11 countries and approx 3500 miles to drive.
We have set up a face book page look for 'Cruisin Clanmen'. You will see the car. I don't do face book so no clue when it comes to face book. We have gotten some sponsorship to help with the costs. But most importantly we are hoping to collect cash for our chosen charities. The car is going to a local raft race/ fund raising event on Sunday so we can rattle our collection tins.

Greig

Lowrider dave has done several

Been there, done that, wrote the book and bought the t-shirt (and designed it!)
If you want any pointers let me know!

Wanting to do something like this, but can't get 4 people interested!

You don't need four, two would do! I did many with just two of us.

Going with 4 half's the cost from only 2 going. We reckon it's going to cost the each of us 1k each on our trip.
But like I said on first post we have got a few sponsors to help with the costs. My work 'calor gas' gave us £250 for example.

Greig

Good luck Greig.

Simply the wrong time pal. Something I've wanted to do just not got round to it

lowrider dave wrote:You don't need four, two would do! I did many with just two of us.

It would be down to cost mainly. Fuel is not cheap to say the least.

Envoy CDX wrote:

lowrider dave wrote:You don't need four, two would do! I did many with just two of us.

It would be down to cost mainly. Fuel is not cheap to say the least.

Well its now only 3 of us going unless we find a 4th person again. So our costs will be going up. We do have about 1k in sponsorship from companies that wanted to help us out with running costs and we are very grateful too them.

We collected just under £305 on Sunday at the raft race for one of our charities.

If your on face book look for 'Cruisin Clanmen' to see photos from Sunday.

Greig

Did one going to Prague in 2008, car got as far as Canterbury

Could have been worse by breaking down half way a cross Europe.

Well our car was out at a local hotel that an classic car rally was using for a stop off to get lunch.
So my mate and myself were out with our donation buckets. We were given approx £130 in the hour and a half every one was there. Check out the ' Crusin Clansmen' face book page for photos. It now has lots of added colour and can't be missed it's so bright. Thanks to one of our sponsors.

oh and we came across a woman that used to own the merc for 8 years. Small world. Lol

Greig

We had a charity auction and raffle last night at a local golf course. Lots of really good stuff was given to us by local company's. We raised £1604 to our charities on the night.

My goby and not normaly shy mate was ment to be the m.c. for the night but he got stage fright after saying a few words. So i had to step up to take over, not my seen. But I managed it. Lol. The 4 pints of cider i had by then helped tho.

Greig

We are nearly home from the trip. Just now on the ferry waiting to get off at Newcastle. Then a 5 hour drive up the road. We are shattered ,been 11 days of partying .
The old car has never missed a beat in its 4000 miles round Europe.

Greig

Well done so far, but the fat lady hasn't sung yet. Good luck with the finishing straight!

Looking forwards to the photos Greig!

How did you get on Greig?

High lights of the trip include. Good weather once half way down France. Most days was 25c and once in to Croatia it got up to 27th. It was 11 nights of partying, the best one was at the camp site in Italy. For 25 euros each well all got unlimited food ie pizza , pasta dishes and cold meats. Also got unlimited lager and red wine. Had a live band playing. The campsite had closed for the season but the owner kept it open for the banger rally foke. We got lost a few times even with sat navigation. Got stopped 3 times by the cops. First time was in France. 2 motorbike cops seen the car coming and pulled us. The wanted to know what was going on. As we talked to them more banger cars passed. So once our paperwork was checked we were let on our way. 2nd time was on our way home going through Slovenia at the border with Austria. We got fined 150 euro because we forgot about buying a road tax sticker. Lol. 3rd time was as we entered Germany from the chec Republic. The cops this time were undercover ones. With guns on hips. Lol. But they weren't along there was a tv crew with them. Filming for the German version of motorway cops. The cops asked what was going on and checked paperwork then let us on our way. We went the only banger car to get the cops . One car was done up like a army car with camouflage and a fake 50. Call gun on its roof. The Italian army and cops near had them locked up.
We had a magic time in monoco . The tourists in casino square stopped taking pics of the super cars and started to take pics of the bangers and the foke in fancy dress.

On way home our banger did 3 laps of the nuremberg ring. We were the slowest on track .Lol
The total miles the car did was 4053. With the only problem a sticking wiper arm that I fixed with a squirt of WD40.
We went through about £800 on petrol and toll roads. Cheapest petrol was in chec Republic and Croatia about £1 a litre. We all want to do it again. The organisers were going to take a year off from doing the rally but had to give in because everyone on the rally kept saying we want them to do it again .

If your on face book look for our team page it has loads of pics. I'll get round to putting some up here once I have time.

Greig

Sounds like fun. Army camo and .50 cal lol that would have been me....

Well go an up date to this. We are doing it again this year. Check out www.bangerrallychallenge.co.uk for info on this year's rally.
Last week the merc was put for mot and it failed. But not to bad a fail. So at weekend I replaced a front wheel bearing, new brake pipes from master cylinder to abs and then from abs to front calipers and lastly welded in a cat to exhaust system. Today it passed the mot. Cost us £108 in total for the mot. A bargain for an old car we thought.

Greig

Excellent news, look forwards to further news when you have it. If I wasn't going to NZ this year I'd be looking for a rally to do!

We think its going to cost us approx £700 each this year plus spending money. If we get the same amount in sponsorship to pay the petrol as last year. We are still waiting on foke to say they definitely going to do it with us. We are looking to go with 6 people in 2 cars. 3 are going for sure. 2 are thinking about it and 1 space empty at moment. My better half is looking to fly out to Milan and meet us for the trip back but if the empty space still there she will think about doing the whole trip.

Greig

Little up date on the rally. Now officially 6 of us going on the rally . So a 2nd banger was needed to keep in with the sprit of the banger rally and tonight we picked up a other car. This time it had to be a cavalier I found one localish on ebay and won it on Tuesday. It's a k reg diplomat hatch back. It's now home and needing to go for mot to see how bad the fail sheet is.
Pics to follow. Unless you have face book a look up 'Cruisin Clanmen '

Greig

This is the cavalier bought from ebay.



Needs to go for mot and see how bad the fail sheet is. Before deciding if its worth fixing or just breaking for parts.