10:21 pm, November 9, 2009
DRIVING 600 miles is, in a word, dull. Travelling four fifths of the country’s length in a day isn’t just painful for your buttocks, but your brain too.
Duncan and I started this morning on our Bangers4Ben adventure at 5.15am. Which is an actual time in the MORNING. I never even realised it existed.
But the problem is we’ve been bored like you wouldn’t believe. After the excitement of meeting the 25 other teams for our epic travel at BEN’s headquarters at Ascot, we hit the road.
And then more road. And more road. Oh, and some more road.
It’s funny the things you talk about when you’re forced to. We’ve discussed the merits of some seriously strange things today. But they were so ridiculous they’ve taken up no space in my memory. So I can’t remember what they were.
But there were dancing bears, dancing eyebrows and some seriously bad blues singing – but we won’t mention that.
We have literally been going stir crazy. It’s probably a combination of the caramel lattes, peanut M&Ms and bacon rolls, but you only need to take a look at these videos for proof…
This is what Classic FM can do to you…
And this is what happens if you leave me in a car for 600 miles with a cuddly BEN dog…
So to our car. It’s had eight careful owners, covered 96k miles (allegedly), and has a clutch with three stages which makes traffic, shall we say, ‘a challenge’.
Other problems? Well, nothing serious really. The outside temperature gauge says it’s 67 degrees C. It’s certainly mild out, but I think that might be a little inaccurate.
That’s nothing compared to our biggest problem – a lack of power. We’re not talking of the combustion type though. More the 12v variety.
This has meant we’ve actually had to use a MAP. This is basically a book with drawings in it, blue lines constitute motorways and the green lines are other roads. It’s really quite something. Just haven’t worked out how to turn the volume up…
But apart from these minor issues our Peugeot 406 2.0-litre is in fine form. That’s thanks, in no small part, to Peugeot’s press garage.
The guys there lovingly coaxed the old girl through her MOT last week, shelling out no less than £1,000 on a brake ‘issue’, fuel line ‘issue’ and rear directional tyres that had been put on the wrong way ‘issues’.
But it came back from Peugeot absolutely gleaming – and thanks to Phil Voller of Artistic Licence fame it looks seriously smart wrapped in Car Dealer Magazine covers.
FREE CAR
But the biggest thanks has to go to one Mr Bob Garrod Esq from Widley in Portsmouth. Why? Well, our Bangers4Ben chariot was donated to the cause by our friend Bob.
That’s right, we paid absolutely nothing for the 406. Which stands us in reasonable stead when it comes to auction time. We hope.
For more on the rally check out our latest posts here or see what all the other ralliers are saying on Twitter here.
More tomorrow…
James
PS: Before I go, check out Team Hyundai’s effort. Top marks awarded for dress code – their Hyundai Rolls-Royce XG came complete with blow up bride… love it!
