Cima Racing : Home2Rome 2010: Going... going... gone.

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.

Labels: Bangers4BEN 09