Sponsor Your Queen and Country

BABE Rally 2007 - From BA (Big Apple) to BE (Big Easy), a total drive of 1500 miles in four days on the east coast of the USA, in a banger yank tank that has to cost less than $250.

In a moment of madness, Martini and Gausie have entered a team - "Queen and Country", the entry has been accepted, and so long as we can get all of the prelims in place, at the end of May we'll be setting off from New York with "New Orleans or bust" ringing loudly in our ears.

In case you're wondering, we'll start with Martini as Queen (Gausie will be Cunt-ry) and we'll swap over every now and again.

We'll be raising money for Save The Children, and hopefully, in due course, some of you guys will dig deep.

We're planning on getting a car in late April and flying out a week early to prepare it for the journey - which is at the end of May.

We'll be looking for a car with acres and acres of metal and rust, a decent set of brakes, an engine and gearbox that stands a chance of getting us 1500 miles, and a very loud stereo. We've decided that an open top is mandatory - even if we have to take a cutter to a saloon. A custom paintjob is planned, given sufficient time.

Lowering the flagpole won by a vote of 2 to 1.


No prizes for guessing who the dissenter was ;)

There were two dissenters. Otherwise it would have been unanimous.

:-)

Arrived in Washington DC after a meander through Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia,



If you look very carefully you can see the Capitol in the background.



The plan was to raise the Union Jack and claim back the USA for the Crown however I got distracted for some reason and got moved on by the local constabulary who had never heard of the right of a freeman of Deddington to both graze his sheep and park his chariot any where on past Colonial soil.



The White house you couldnt get within a catapults range of let alone park and take photos of the chariot with!



Onwards back to New York and the completion of a 4000 mile trundle round America.



M

Where's the shot of the bonnet front end on? ;-)))

Those wigs don't suit you guys.

must be lovely to have a car that blends in with the locals so well.

ps - this is the first pic that really shows the paintwork up close.

Note the blue - it's Home Depot Bulk-Buy blue emulsion - part applied by brush and part roller. Three coats at the front and two where we couldnt be arsed with a 3rd.

The stripes - six rolls of red duck tape and six rolls of white. A few rolls left over.

G

Preparation


Elvis (Cautionary Rating)


Deals Gap / Tail of the Dragon

Superb :)

Boiled eggs will never look the same again.

From this months zopa newsletter:

1500 miles - on a shoestring

With considerable help from some kind-hearted Americans, Zopa lender and discussion board regular Deddington recently completed the annual BABE rally. The BABE rally involves buying a car for less than $250 and travelling the 1,500 miles from New York to New Orleans (the Big Apple to the Big Easy, hence BABE) in 4 days. Deddington and his team had problems buying a car, insuring a car, finding places to stay, and completing the various missions they were set on the way. But with the help of a lot of people, they managed to get all the way to New York in the spectacular, Union Jack-themed car you can see opposite. In the process, they raised thousands of pounds for Save the Children. Here's to people power!

I wonder what team Deddington was in then. Probly one of those rickety van blokes.

Doing the rally backwards and finishing in New York can't have helped much either!

dcb

Just caught up with this thread ... what a great laff !!

Enjoyed just reading about it so no doubt it must have been really great fun for the `lads` actually doing it .


Wondered if Gausies Elvis costume was a deliberate attempt to try and `impress` the locals or just a case of too many US portions ;-)

Loved the video of the local Police looking open mouthed as the Brits drove by lol ;-) , hopefully with the Union Jack flying high ;-))


Great stuff , well done chaps !


ps- Wheres the thread for this years effort ?? Cant believe there has been no follow up after that ....