I only told you to blow the Bl**dy doors off.....

Well since my last post we are now back in Blighty. After leaving the girls in Madrid to catch there flight home, Pete and I set off on our long journey home (Tom Tom says Noooooooooooooo).

Actually Tom Tom said approx 15Hrs to Calais! This of course turned into a challenge to beat Tom Tom, and of course we tried; leaving Madrid at about 13:30 Hrs and arriving in Calais at 05:30 Hrs the following morning!

We thought sixteen hours was pretty good considering stops for fuel etc.

Tuesday - Homeward bound

After spending the day in Madrid we parted company with the Girls who flew back to Luton; while the we (Dave & Pete) drove back to Calais bringing Quenton the Quattro Home...!!!

Quattro's Rule..... :-)

Roll on Scally Rally 2007......

Winners Scally Rally 2006

WINNERS 2006

The spoils....

Monday - Barcelona to Madrid

All motorway, the shortest and fastest part of our entire journey but still entertaining!

This allowed us plenty of time to party!

Bring on the Beer...!!!

Sunday - Menton to Barcelona

Half motorway and half mountain roads, we decided to test the car and take the hard route through Andora.

It was well worth it! Driving towards Barcelona out of the mountains was quite something as the Sun was setting. It has made the entire trip worth while:-) Arrived 21:30 Hrs at the Hotel thanks to Tom Tom and Anna Anna!

Saturday - Geneva to Menton (Monaco)

What can I say, fantastic but there was only one problem the girls were not looking forward to the days drive.

This was mainly due to the route being straight through the middle of the alps! Needless to say there were a few moments where they were hiding behind their travel pillows! (Many Photos to upload) Arrived in Menton and had issues with the hotel, but had a fantastic meal and walked along the sea front. We arrived at 20:30 Hrs, some who had taken the more testing route did not make it into Menton until the early hours of the morning!

Scally Motors leaveing the Hotel in Geneva...


Team 59 - 'Bad Boys' Leaving the Hotel in style, as usual...

Friday - Calais to Geneva

We started in the City Europe car park in Calais at 09:00 Hrs, with the other 74 teams all raring to go. All of the cars looked great, in fact ours was looking too good compared to some....!! We put this down to the fact that Pete and I are anal about cleaning our cars and had spent the best part of a day cleaning it:-)


We set off after the air horn was blown and everyone was trying to get to the exit first to collect their days rally pack, which had all of the challenge details enclosed.

The days run was mostly motorways until we reached Switzeland, when it got really interesting!
We drove through the mountains on very windy roads in the dark through cloud cover, thank´s to the additional spotlights we arrived safely!

Thursday Night - Registration 'City Europe'

We arrived in City Europe and the first thing on the agenda was to register our team, this was obviously important as we could no take part unless the organisers had seen a valid V5, MOT Certificate and valid insurance certificate. This ensured that everyone was legit for the rally!

Sue doing the Registration of teams

After registration we sunk a few pints and then sent about finding our Hotel (ibis - just next to City Europe)

To Dover and beyond....

We had a good start to our journey and everything was going fine, until.....






We had to stop on the M25 for a short break, as the car had overheated whilst sat in traffic for two hours!

The Ferry Journey.....

Well we finally made it to the Ferry terminal at Dover and as luck would have it went straight onto the next ferry..!!

And were off..........

Well we are nearly all packed and Rob (Sobell House Fundraiser) has just arrived with the stickers for the car, which look great.

Have a break have a kit kat..!!

After spending all day working on the car "last minite.com" as usual, we are now flaked out on the living room floor posting an update after all our hard work!

Still the Scally Motor is looking prety good now and we are feeling chuffed with our handy work!

She has now been fully serviced by pistol Pete, including the obligatory oil & filter change, new plug leads, new rotor arm and of course some new wiper blades.

There is no stopping us now.....:-)

Well actually we did not stop there! The Audi has also been upgraded with Rally Giant driving lamps and Lucas fog lights, that look great..!! She really does look like a Rally Quattro now..!!

But if course we could not stop there, so we have also added some vinyl stickers just take a look at the photos.....

If you see this coming - MOVE OVER - please.............:-)

New Rubber

We now have a brand fire new set of tyres for the Audi, but only 14 days to go and we still don't have any viynl graphics on the car :-(

If any one can help us with this it would be most appreciated......

Star City Meet & Greet

Team 83 finally made it to a Scally Rally meet, minus one team member Sam, "Who was sadly missed".

However we arrived in our Scally Rally motor in one piece and met up with some of the other teams taking part, you will see from the photos that we have a lot of work to do on our paint job in order for us to match the standard that has been set. However we will do our best in true Dastardly Style..!!

"The Dastardly Motor at Star City Birmingham"

From Rags to Riches...!!

This weekend a second working party was organized, with Pistol Pete & Special Agent Barton giving the car a full valet with some remarkable resultsÂ….

Madrid Booked

We have booked into the rap party hotel, missed out on the cheap deal but at least we have a room for the night. Did not fancy sleeping in the Audi!

So, everything booked up, Ferry, Calais, Geneva, Menton, Barcelona, Madrid and the flights back for the girls. Rock on, Boys drive back!

There was talk of the Nuerburgring on the way home....!!!!

Insurance

At Last we have insurance.....

The kind people at HIC Insurance have agreed to insure our vehicle for the duration of the event for a tidy sum of £112 TPFT with a named drive on the policy and a green card for all countries we are visiting on our trip.

Check out their site for a quote - www.hertsinsurance.com/

Hotels Booked

Hotels Booked:

Calais - Ibis
Geneva - Hotel 33
Menton - Hotel Mediterranee
Barcelona - Hotel Granollers
Madrid - ?

Pass me the left handed spanner.....

The Audi has now been given a new lease of life.... Pistol Pete and Special Agent Barton have managed to fix the power steering pump, with a length of 8mm Stud and two nuts....

What can I say, so far the car has cost us £10 in power steering pump fluid and she runs like a dream.... Lets hope she gets us to Madrid in one piece!

Fund Raising

We are raising money for Sobell House Hospice in Oxford.

Sobell House Hospice Charity supports Sir Michael Sobell House who at any one time help hundreds of patients with life threatening illnesses to live with dignity and freedom from pain in the time they have available. The focus is on the individual and their loved ones.

Please use the Just Giving link in the menu on the right hand side of this page to pledge your sponsorship of our team.

Introducing Team 83 Dastardly Mini Cabs - Any Distance Covered

Our Car in all it's glory....

Dastardly Mini Cabs (Any distance covered) - we hope..!!

At long last we have managed to source a vehicle for the Rally, and I can tell you it was well worth the wait. We were all getting a bit worried as every car we were bidding on or went to look at either sold before we could make an offer or went well over our £100 budget....

However patients is a virtue and we are now the proud owners of a 1991 Audi 80 Quattro 4 Door Saloon in Red. It does have a few problems, but these can be easily resolved by the resident team mechanic Pistol Pete (We hope!).

The car was very kindly donated for "FREE" by Neil who is a good friend of one of our team members Pete. For his generous offering and because he is a crazy Rock Star we have agreed to advertise his band, Drugdealercheerleader see - www.drugdealercheerleader.co.uk/

Watch this space over the next few weeks for regular updates on our progress with the car.