Last weekend I headed home for my four day Easter break before the start of revision. During my time off, I was randomly browsing Facebook (well, what else is there to do when you're not studying?) when an advert for a rally across Europe popped up at the side of the screen. This got me investigating just how feasible it would be for me to get involved with something like this.
The whole idea of a rally through Europe is to drive your car from home to an end location in Europe across a very short time span, from a weekend to a week. For example, one rally started in France and ended in Italy, driving through several countries along the way. During your trip, you participate in challenges such as wearing fancy dress every day of the event or decorating your car. While this isn't a race, you are able to score points for participating in the challenges and at the end of it all there's the potential to win prize money. Sounds like a hell of a lot of fun to me!
Most of the places I looked at asked you to buy a car for £200-300, or use a car over 20 years old. As we have the trusty Range Rover classic and my awesome Series III Land Rover, the car would be theoretically sorted. So, this would leave me to raise money for entry fees (around £200), fuel (gas for the Rangey, so we'd probably take this car as gas is a hell of a lot cheaper than petrol) and accommodation (apparently around £30-40 a night, depending on where you want to stay). While this probably isn't possible for me to do myself, I got thinking about doing the rally for charity, and getting sponsorship for the event, and should I win any prize money it would go to charity.
In terms of what charity I'd support, the choice for me is simple. If you're not already aware of it, I have a massive interest in neuropsychology and I'm currently studying towards a BSc in psychology and ultimately want a PhD and research career in neuropsychology. As I'm nowhere near patient enough to wait before working in the field, I also volunteer for Headway, a brain injury charity. This charity aims to provide support for people who have sustained an acquired brain injury of some form. I've been volunteering for Headway for around 6 months now, and I've really noticed how much of a difference the charity makes to the clients. So, if I were to rally across Europe I'd be donating my money to these amazing people.
I'm not able to do an event like this in 2012, however I'm looking towards doing something like this either in summer 2013 or 2014. Of course, I wouldn't be doing this on my own, and I'd be taking my Dad along with me, as well as anyone else I could persuade to join me. Now, I'll get to the point: There's no way I can afford this on my own, and if I'm to raise enough money for Headway I need sponsors! If I've sent you the link to this blog, you're either someone who's really interested in motorsport, or someone I consider kind and loving and caring and stuff. So, if you'd be willing to sponsor me for this event - or if you know of anyone else who would - please leave a comment on here or get in touch with me via Twitter. I'm not asking for money right now, I just want to test the waters to see who'd like to sponsor me for something like this. If there's enough interest, then I'll get planning! I'll keep you all updated as to how it's all going, and thanks for reading!
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Thursday, 12 April 2012
Monday, 4 July 2011
The Week After Next (Like The Day After Tomorrow, But More Epic)
Ok, it's July. That means one thing only to me: NURBURGRING. Yes, the month has finally arrived when I shall cross the Channel from my home in Kent and drive across Europe until I get to the home of the 2011 German Grand Prix. As mentioned before, this will be the first F1 race I've ever seen in person. The decision to go wasn't much of a planned event, with savings and strategies, but rather a realisation that the event was affordable and a reward for me winning an award from the British Psychological Society for the highest A-level grade in the UK - see, studying does have its perks! I think we can do the whole trip for around £500, although I will, of course, be cluttering the Range Rover with momentos... Well, what else is a scholarship for?! As it's nearing the time of departure (the 20th of July at around 8 PM for those interested), I thought I'd best update on what's happened so far in terms of preparation.
The Rangey is very nearly ready for its epic journey. Dad's had some worries about the ABS working on the car, so in order to eliminate these worries the whole system's come off to give us normal brakes that shouldn't cause any problems (touch wood). The panels are all still lovely and straight owing to a lack of trialling lately. I also believe that Dad's going to put a winch on the car, as well as a snorkel, just so it looks more awesome and so it functions a little better off road. Although whether this gets done in the next 16 days is unclear. Just to be on the safe side, phone calls were made to our insurance company about European break down cover. This is one thing that we definitely needed more than anything else - driving a 21 year old car across Europe to a trip of a lifetime is a risky business, and we don't want anything going wrong. Luckily, our insurance company provided us with the necessary cover.
On that note, a word of caution to other classic car owners: many companies won't offer European break down cover to those of you who drive a car over 11 years old. Some companies, like the RAC, will charge an extra fee. We were offered a quote of £74 by the RAC, only to look in the terms and conditions to see that the total cost would be £174 because of the age of the car. Needless to say, we didn't take that deal.
In terms of other preparation for the trip, I got my damage deposit back from my university accommodation, as well as a scholarship payment. This is, of course, going to be spending money for the trip. I don't exactly know what I'm going to buy from the circuit, but without doubt most of the merchandise will be pricey so I'm preparing myself to spend a bit more than I'd perhaps like. However, seeing as this is something I've always wanted to do I'm not letting a mere matter of money get in the way. Expect to see photos of what I've bought when I return and blog about the trip.
A final note is that my Dad and I have filtered in a trip to Bruges on the way back from the Nurburgring. We saw the Belgian city on an episode of Coast, and it looked far too good to miss out on. As the ferry back isn't until 10 at night, we'd be mad not to go! I've been given instruction that whilst there I have to buy chocolates. How can I resist obeying those instructions?
So, in just over two weeks I'll be on my way to the Nurburgring. Until then, I'm going to be far too overexcited. Kids at Christmas won't have anything on my excitement levels for this trip. Here's hoping for a Red Bull win just to top the whole trip off!
The Rangey is very nearly ready for its epic journey. Dad's had some worries about the ABS working on the car, so in order to eliminate these worries the whole system's come off to give us normal brakes that shouldn't cause any problems (touch wood). The panels are all still lovely and straight owing to a lack of trialling lately. I also believe that Dad's going to put a winch on the car, as well as a snorkel, just so it looks more awesome and so it functions a little better off road. Although whether this gets done in the next 16 days is unclear. Just to be on the safe side, phone calls were made to our insurance company about European break down cover. This is one thing that we definitely needed more than anything else - driving a 21 year old car across Europe to a trip of a lifetime is a risky business, and we don't want anything going wrong. Luckily, our insurance company provided us with the necessary cover.
On that note, a word of caution to other classic car owners: many companies won't offer European break down cover to those of you who drive a car over 11 years old. Some companies, like the RAC, will charge an extra fee. We were offered a quote of £74 by the RAC, only to look in the terms and conditions to see that the total cost would be £174 because of the age of the car. Needless to say, we didn't take that deal.
In terms of other preparation for the trip, I got my damage deposit back from my university accommodation, as well as a scholarship payment. This is, of course, going to be spending money for the trip. I don't exactly know what I'm going to buy from the circuit, but without doubt most of the merchandise will be pricey so I'm preparing myself to spend a bit more than I'd perhaps like. However, seeing as this is something I've always wanted to do I'm not letting a mere matter of money get in the way. Expect to see photos of what I've bought when I return and blog about the trip.
A final note is that my Dad and I have filtered in a trip to Bruges on the way back from the Nurburgring. We saw the Belgian city on an episode of Coast, and it looked far too good to miss out on. As the ferry back isn't until 10 at night, we'd be mad not to go! I've been given instruction that whilst there I have to buy chocolates. How can I resist obeying those instructions?
So, in just over two weeks I'll be on my way to the Nurburgring. Until then, I'm going to be far too overexcited. Kids at Christmas won't have anything on my excitement levels for this trip. Here's hoping for a Red Bull win just to top the whole trip off!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)