Jeremy Clarkson drives our car. With his head out of the sunroof.

16 April 2010

Yes, that's really our Lexus he's driving. With his head out of the sunroof.

Here's a clip from Clarkson's own Thriller DVD...


Incidentally, there were two cars used in filming this. Ours isn't riddled with bullet holes and hasn't been burned to a cinder, just to be clear ;-)

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Fuel economy? Pah!

15 April 2010

This could get expensive.

The Lexus has never been known for its frugality, what with it being as big as a barge, having a 'relaxed' 4.0 V8 engine, and weighing as much as Worcestershire. We're not expecting 40mpg levels of economy.

We've just completed 95 miles since picking up the car. It was full to the brim when we started, and has just swallowed £28.50 of Tesco's unleaded petrol. By my calculations, that's an average of around 19.5mpg or, to make it seem slightly scarier, means we'll need something like 700 litres of the stuff to get to Rome and back via the unnecessarily complicated route we'll be taking.

Spare fuel card, anyone?

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We've got a Japanese Mercedes

13 April 2010

We took a trip to Top Gear today to pick up a Lexus LS400 we agreed to buy earlier this month.

Expectations were, quite frankly, pretty low - we know its been driven by Jeremy Clarkson, so we had assumed there would be no rear tyres, probably a broken gearbox and a shed load of other bits either missing or damaged.

Imagine our surprise when, as we walked through the Top Gear garage, we spotted a gleaming LS400, radiating artificial lighting off every panel, illuminating the surrounding area with the soft glow of dull Japanese luxury saloon car. It looked a cracking car.

Getting nearer showed it really wasn't bad at all. Problems known about include some dodgy suspension at the front and a lack of working fuel gauge, but that's about it.

A face lifted Lexus LS400 Series 1a with 133k on the clock, a bit of tax and, as we found out later, 60 litres of fuel in the tank, and all within budget? We really couldn't resist. We handed over the cash, thanked TG's Richard Porter, and then headed off in the car. Before stopping a few feet round the corner and wandering around the garage to see what interesting cars we could find.

We're sworn to secrecy, but see that red Lotus Excel on the right of the top photograph? Thanks to James May, that will look a whole lot different come the new series.

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Complications, but the good kind

06 April 2010

Blimey. Now things are getting tough.

Within minutes of Neo Brothers agreeing to coax our SAAB in to MOT beating life, we've been offered another car. And this one's a monster!

Lurking deep within the BBC Top Gear garage is an ancient Japanese boulevard cruiser, dull enough to put ditchwater out of a job, and it's been offered to us, with only a handful of known problems, within budget.

So we're going for it. We'll now be doing all 3,000 miles of Home2Rome in a Lexus LS400, complete with a 4.0 V8 engine that can best be described as both lazy and thirsty.

It's not the end of the road for our trusty SAAB though, as that will serve its time in the hands of another Home2Rome rally team.

They'll certainly get a smaller fuel bill...

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Neo Brothers supporting our Home2Rome effort

We love Neo Brothers. Really, we do.

No sooner have we made a plea for help, but the generous guys at Neo Brothers get in touch and offer us everything we want.

Europe's largest news and used SAAB spare parts specialists (that's Neo Brothers, obviously) were keen to get involved in our rally effort, supplying the parts we require and also agreeing to promote the cause via their Twitter page and on UKSaabs.

So the SAAB 900 will soon be up and running and, once painted, sporting some rather swish Neo Brothers stickers.

Awesome!

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Our SAAB needs you!

02 April 2010

It's reached the time where we need to start preparing our SAAB 900 for the forthcoming Home2Rome rally, so we've got a new power steering pipe on the way and we're hunting for the other parts required to get it through its MOT.

So far that seems to be just an exhaust and a passenger wing mirror - everything else we can cope with, including the massive dents on both sides of the car.

So how are we going about getting that? We're begging! You're never meant to spend a great deal on these things, the idea being to bodge as much as you can get away with, so if there's anyone out there with a second hand wing mirror and exhaust, as unlikely as that sounds, then please get in touch.

We need you.

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Cars and birds

01 April 2010

It's all been a bit quiet on the rally front, as investigations in to the SAAB's fitness drag on thanks to some nesting birds.

While we're all about burning fuel, making noise and tearing around in knackered motors, we're also a bunch of softies. Once we found the nest in the engine bay, work had to stop.

No wonder the car was going cheep...

So far it seems we need just an exhaust, a power steering pipe and a wing mirror. With those in place, it should pass an MOT.

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We're going from Home to Rome in 2010

27 January 2010

Just two months after the end of the Bangers4BEN adventure, we've started preparations for the next rally event, and this time we're heading back in to Europe.

We're tackling Home2Rome in 2010, more than doubling the mileage of the last event, and swapping the dubious delights of Berwick-upon-Tweed in winter for the splendour of Monaco and Rome in summer.

We'll be facing 4,000 miles of road, a couple of rally stages around Monte-Carlo, a stay at the top of Stelvio, and the natural banger environment of Rome city centre amongst many other challenges, so we need something sturdy and reliable to tackle that, although staying within a strict £150 purchase price limit.

Something like a SAAB 900…

Taking the budget right to the limit, our ton and a half has bought us a reasonably sturdy model, with only some minor issues to resolve. A power steering failure is the number one priority to fix, as the co-driver apparently can't cope with roundabouts with the steering as it is now!

Aside from that, there's a 'sporty' exhaust note that probably won't pass an MOT, a useless mirror and some artistic remodelling of various body panels.

Just about right for Italy then!

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Bangers4BEN 2009: Game Over

04 January 2010

It's been a very long time coming, thank to some auction 'issues' (not with our car, I hasten to add!) and some tardy timekeeping (which is my fault), but the final scores on the Bangers4BEN rally have finally come out.

First of all, my huge thanks to each and every one of our partners for their support...
This has been the first banger rally we've been involved in where everything, even the proceeds from the sale of the car, ends up in the hands of the charity we're raising money for, so the support in kind offered has been invaluable in keeping costs low and offering maximum exposure for the effort.

If you were following the rally on the website, you'll have seen that it was a pretty uneventful affair, with the Audi 90 running near faultlessly throughout the entire event, surviving with fewer issues than the Audi 100 entered by the Poole Audi dealership! However, the motorway sections meant I missed the cruise control, auto box and sofa-style seats that the legendary Renault Safrane from previous events had.

At the finish line at Mercedes-Benz World in historic Brooklands, a brief prize-giving ceremony took place, and we came away with a trophy for our efforts. We're happy with how we performed, especially when we were up against Honda's two cars, Toyota's entry and a great entry fom Hyundai, as well as a large number of dealer teams.

All told, the whole rally raised a stunning £15,268 for BEN, and only required around 70 people, 25 bangers, two support staff and one support vehicle to get there!

It may have been quicker and easier to dash a cheque off to BEN, but we wouldn't have had half as much fun doing that...

We'll be back on another rally in July, this time taking an ancient SAAB 900* to Rome and back via a very tortuous route (Stelvio, anyone?), and we'd love you to join us for that one.

Thanks once again for your support, and have a very happy and prosperous new year.

* Assuming the car works out ok. These things are never guaranteed...

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Going... going... gone.

18 November 2009

Today was the day. The day we finally waved goodbye to H585AFJ, the ancient Audi 90 we rescued from a garden in order to drive the length of the county, twice, in a bid to raise money for BEN.

After dropping off the Audi at BCA Auctions in Blackbushe on Friday, we travelled down again to see first hand just how much money BEN would get from our car - still with the red Audi rings on the rear flanks, and now renamed to BEN007 for the auction catalogue.

Lined up in front of the cafe, the Bangers4BEN cars attracted attention, all clean and shiny after being given the Auction Clean service by Motorclean, but was it the right kind of attention?

The first car rolled in to the auction room, a Ford Mondeo Si, selling for £150. An Avensis followed, getting an impressive £1,225, although still below book price. Close relations came next, a Rover 400 and a Honda Civic, both the same age. The Honda took twice the money of the Rover, making £450. Then the Audi…

After a jump start it drove in, the cracks in the windscreen highlighted by the strip lighting, the gleaming white paint showing off the areas of filler, and the 14" alloy wheels emphasising the fact that one wing didn't quite fit properly. The auctioneers sales pitch underlined the 'variable' mileage, and promoted the lack of an MOT. This wasn't going to go well…

Slowly, surely, the bids came in. Quickly dropping from increments of £50 to £25, then £10, before finally giving up as the room collectively shuffled their feet and looked at the floor, the hammer coming down at a disappointing £125.

I'd promised I wouldn't come back home with more cars than I left with, but it was tough to see the Audi go. We'd got history. We knew each others little foibles. We had a relationship. But now our Bangers4BEN adventure is over, and I expect to see a surge of Audi 90 spares on eBay.

Still, it's another bundle of cash in the pot for BEN, and that's the reason we did this one.

Make us feel better - add to the BEN pot by going to justgiving.com/CimaRacing and topping up the total.

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Bidding farewell to our Audi 90...

13 November 2009

Today was a sad day, as we saw the SportNetwork Cima Racing Audi 90 leave our site and be abandoned at BCA Auctions in Blackbushe, ready to be sold off on Wednesday

The car needed de-stickering, and that's easier said than done. While most of the logos were printed on to white vinyl in order to make removal easier, the Huntingdon Audi details on the doors are individual letters, so it all took some time. We've left the car with the iconic Audi rings on the rear quarters, though. They're very easy to remove, but should make the car look a little more desirable at auction.

And so it's been left at BCA. We've turned the satellite tracking off now, and won't see the car again until auction day, where we'll be in attendance to watch it go.

Or bid and buy it back...

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Oops!

12 November 2009

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Day Three: Berwick to Benz

11 November 2009

After leaving Berwick-upon-Tweed this morning, stopping off at SportNetwork and Invent Partners, we've finally made it to the end of the rally, our trusty Audi 90 taking us all the way to Mercedes-Benz World at Brooklands.

The final blast form Wakefield, a 180 mile run down the M1 and M25, was despatched in well under three hours as we chased the setting sun. There's not much to say about the journey - dry, straight and dull. Somehow, any traffic parted and we arrived at Brooklands just in time for a celebratory lap or two of one of the many circuits, although an over sensitive safety car prevented speeds increasing much beyond glacial.

But that wasn't an issue. We'd made it, and that was reward enough.

That, and the trophy.

A prize giving ceremony took place in the Mercedes-Benz World building, with the guys from Hyundai taking the Best Decorated Car award, and the Honda teams taking the Best Twittering award thanks to their multiple people and constant laptop connection - we were runners up for that award, coping with nothing more high tech than a mobile phone!

The ultimate winners won't be decided until next Wednesday, when the cars go to BCA Auction to be sold off, with all proceeds going to BEN. While we think we'll do well there, we can't help but think one of the Honda teams could pick up that prize too - those Honda Prelude's are desirable cars after all. I may even bid myself.

So that's it. The easy part of Bangers4BEN has been completed. Next comes the hard part - handing the keys to the Audi 90 over to someone else.

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When Cima Racing met Invent Partners

Following a short drive from SportNetwork HQ, we arrived at the Holiday Inn at Wakefield where the guys from our supporters at Invent Partners were due to meet us - the second PR stop of the day.

After coaxing the ageing Audi 90 from Ascot to John o' Groats, and then back down towards Mercedes-Benz World at Brooklands, we were glad of the break, and what better company to keep than Invent's Matt Bradley and Julian Dyer, the guys behind our fantastic site.

So why did they get involved in building our site for us? Being used to producing business sites for proper grown up clients, they asked the rhetorical question "How often do we get to work on a site based around rusty bits of metal?"

Quite.

A cup of coffee, a pause for some photos, a gift of various chocolates to keep us going, and we were off for the final leg - Wakefield to Mercedes-Benz World.

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Stopping at SportNetwork

Day three saw us leave Berwick-upon-Tweed early in the morning and head south down the A19, through the Tyne Tunnel, and on to Castle Eden, home of SportNetwork.

Our bosses at SN HQ had agreed to put on some breakfast for the teams and, as the breakfast options at Berwick consisted of only a McDonald's, most were pleased to be presented with a huge number of fresh bacon rolls and a supply of tea and coffee.

I can't remember the last time I was actually in the office, so it was good to meet up with the team once again, including the new additions.

After a well deserved break, a quick photo shoot and some genuine thanks to the SportNetwork team from both ourselves and other banger teams, we were on our way once more.

Next stop, Wakefield.

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