Banger Rally Update

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
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Just to keep everyone up to date with where we are with donations and car preparations for my entry into Ramshackle Valencia 2010.

To date, we have raised £1905 for Meningitis Research Foundation (http://www.meningitis.org) which is nearly double our original target of £1000 and I am proud to say, a large proportion of this money came from TNUK members.

Rikki has organised some TNUK stickers which our car will be proud to wear. I will upload photos on Wednesday night when the car arrives back in Newcastle, prior to leaving for Spain on Thursday morning. The ‘Tesco Value Porsche’ has been pressed into service as Ray, my mate has crashed his car and is using it in Harrogate, rather him than me when you see the pics of it.

For those of you who may not have seen this before, you can read my story as to why i am doing this on our website, http://www.sensibles.co.uk and for those of you who are Facebook friends, bear with me, I will stop hounding you soon!! If you can spare a few quid, you can donate through our site, or at Chris Wilson is fundraising for Meningitis Research Foundation .

Also, when you look at our homepage, you will notice we have gps tracking which has kindly been donated by Road Angel trac-it and this will be live from Thursday although I am trying to get them to switch it on, by Monday so I can run it in the truck to try it out. My wife Wendy will also be updating a blog on our site which, if you are interested, I will update daily during the rally.

If anyone spots us on Thursday, give us a shout, we will be on CB CH39, or if not, toot your horn and we will respond with ours, and it IS louder than yours!! Illegal, but loud!! :smiley: We will be heading for the tunnel from Newcastle upon Tyne, leaving around 9am with a brekky stop at Jaynes Cafe at Blyth.

Once again, thanks everyone for your support.

Chris.

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Simply because so many members here have supported Chris and the team, despite this not being strictly on topic it will not only remain in our busiest forum while the rally is on , I will endeavour to update this thread with links to their blogs and progress.

Can I add my thanks to Chris’s for your support for his fundraising… looking at the “hall of fame” on his website T/NUK features heavily !!

Go take a look at their website, read Chris’s story and follow their journey…

and if you wish to, then donate, if you dont wish to but want to wish them bon voyage then you can here… if your not interested in the slightest then theres plenty of other threads for you to enjoy here on TruckNet… dont be a berk on this one please

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Thanks Rikki.

Here are some pictures of the 3 cars travelling from Newcastle in convoy, just so you don’t miss us.

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Dont forget, we are off tomorrow at 0900 from Newcastle to Folkstone. On ch39 on the squakbox.

Will be in a convoy of at least 3 and possibly 5 from Nottingham area.

Even have our trucknet stickers on too now.

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And they are off… tracking shows them as not broken down yet :grimacing: :grimacing: (as at 10.15am) and passing Dishforth on the A1

s.eventeagle.com/Map.aspx?EventName=BangerRally

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Update the nutters have made it to the channel crossing… god help the French :slight_smile:

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are they the sensibles or the beerhunters ? :stuck_out_tongue: one is in france already :slight_smile:

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They are the Sensibles… their tracker seems to have packed up… but they are running in convoy with the Beerhunters so you can still follow their progress… today they have 450 odd miles across France to cover…

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Looks like they’re in Annecy, Eastern France tonight, its south of Geneva. Parked up by 6.38pm. Part timers!

They’ve swopped tracker units with the beer hunters.

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The Goddams in the Fiat are bound to fire at some innocent bystanders :stuck_out_tongue:

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Wheel Nut:
The Goddams in the Fiat are bound to fire at some innocent bystanders :stuck_out_tongue:

The Fiat has given up the game on day 2 and been scrapped in France, it ended up only achieving 12MPG which would have made the journey a touch more expensive that planned !!

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Rikki-UK:
The Fiat has given up the game on day 2 and been scrapped in France, it ended up only achieving 12MPG which would have made the journey a touch more expensive that planned !!

So have the guys from the Fiat doubled up in the other cars :question: or bought another cheap kermit mobeel to continue :question: or gone home :question:

I see they`re back on the move again :laughing:

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Chris and the team in their £150 banger made it all the way… not without incident, but they are there, and if they have any sense about now enjoying a well deserved beer ot two … congrats guys and well done on raising nearly £2000 for a charity near to Chris’s heart.

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Well done to the old bangers :laughing: two grand to charity as well…

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Well done to all have a beer or two then congrats on the money raised

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damm fine job boys well done and well done done on the money you raised :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

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trux:

Rikki-UK:
The Fiat has given up the game on day 2 and been scrapped in France, it ended up only achieving 12MPG which would have made the journey a touch more expensive that planned !!

So have the guys from the Fiat doubled up in the other cars :question: or bought another cheap kermit mobeel to continue :question: or gone home :question:

I see they`re back on the move again :laughing:

Team Friendly Fire ( The cinc) got to Annecy, but had a knackered cooling fan and a severe fuel problem, so under their AA Europe breakdown policy, they got a taxi from Annecy to Geneva Airport, a C$ Diesel hire car to complete the rally! They renamed the car, with masking tape, Team Friendly Hire! As Darren had to be at work on Thursday, they tanked it back up France, got a new hire car in Calais, and arrived back in geordieland on Wednesday afternoon.

The Beerhunters, have the tracker now as they are driving back too and you can still track them for an hour or so. Our tracker failed so the tracker company, merged the details and set up a trail so you can also see where we have been.

We burst a brake pipe in Monaco, which we fixed by clamping the flexi in front of the leak with a pair of pliers with the handles cable tied together. this lasted the last thousand miles!

We scrapped the car in Barcelona yesterday and got 50 euros for it, not bad. Beerhunters got pulled off the plod in Valencia on Wed on the way to La Tomatina and had to remove their blue light bar or else.

All in all we did 2400 miles (600 over estimate!) used about 55 gallons of fuel and spent a fortune on road tolls. Got over the Millau Viaduct though which was good and drove the grand prix track in Monte Carlo and joined in a bull run in Benicarlo. also got through a few pints of grog!!

I am going to knock up a video this weekend hopefully when i get copies off the other lads. More photos on the website.

Thanks for all your support, we still have a few hundred to get in, so should be about £2300 in total, I will let you know.

Chris

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We are up to £2115 now and still have a few hundred to come in, so it looks like being a successful run.

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Good news then :smiley: :smiley:

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Visited the head office of MRF when I was in Thornbury through the week, and what a lovely bunch of people. I couldnt have been made more welcome, so have decided our next challenge will be next year.
Travel around all of the MRF offices, thats Edinburgh, Belfast, Dublin and ending in Bristol. Easy you say? Not for 4 old fat blokes on pushbikes, yes pushbikes about 500 miles of it. havent been on mine for 13 years FFS. Seemed like a good idea after a few beers, but I have said I will, and I will.