Media Frenzy!

So the day after we arrived in Prague, seeing as there had been some media interest, we went to the shops to buy a newspaper. Here's what we found (click on the image for a better look) :

From Dnes - Czech Republic's buggest daily paper:






And from Pravo....




Think this one's 'Aha!'.....



And 'Blesk':

About time I put some pics on here, so here they are in order as you scroll down!

about time I posted pics

Oi! Latimer, get ure ands off!!! Please note no Homosexuality is implied or warranted from this well dodgy picture!!!!

Day 04 - Monday, 4th September

Day 4 - The final leg

This morning, our last leg starts in Salzburg, from where we will head directly towards The Czech Republic, and our final destination - Prague.

Once we found our way out of Salzburg, the driving through Austria was fairly straightforward, allowing us to build up a head of steam and overtake most of the other teams.

Approaching the border, the traffic began to back up, which as we were about to find out was a bad omen.

At the border, we handed our passports over, and were instructed to pull the car in to the side. There followed a very strict investigation of our documents, including the border guard wanting to see our vehicle's VIN plates - both the riveted on plate in the engine bay, and a stamped one, somewhere else on the vehicle. Having owned the car for only a matter of weeks, we were a bit stumped as to where to find the VIN. The plastic fascia covering the sills came up, but to no avail. Eventually, Southampton Saab came to the rescue again, as Graham helpfully pointed us in the right direction to find the stamped VIN.

Unfortunately, the border guard's initial reaction was to accuse us of faking the VIN. We were not the first team to have this problem - in fact several teams had already been turned away by this stage.

Eventually, after at least an hour stuck at the border, due to us having every single piece of documentation relating to the car since it's manufacture, the paperwork was approved and we were able to carry on with our Journey. After stopping for a running repair, we were finally on our way.


Finding somewhere to have lunch turned into a bit of a quest. Firstly, following the internationally recognised sign - a knife and fork - for 'dinner' we ended up in a village that time (and tarmac) seem to have forgotten. We're not sure who was more surprised - us or the people at the bus stop.

Once we'd decided this village had nothing to offer, it was back to the motorway - which we had to join via the shortest slip road in existence. This made for a 'problematic' joining of the motorway, including a nearer-than-normal miss with a BIG lorry. Rupert almost had to re-apply his witch hazel.

The rally finished in Wenceslas square, with lots of onlookers unsure what to make of the cars blocking up the streets. There was considerable media interest, with Radio, TV and Press journalists there.

The rest of our evening was spent celebrating with a few beers, stopping only to wave off one of the cars as it got towed from outside the restaurant.

Day 3 - Sunday 03rd September

Day 3 - Up and over

Todays schedule begins with a meet in the square outside Bormio Townhall. All the cars loooked brilliant lined up, and there were plentyof locals observing with mild amusement, but the best was yet to come.
First, the mayor of Bormio came out and sounded the horn to begin the day. Then, there was a police escort as the entire rally paraded through town -Led proudly by the Muthaship! the route went straight through the old town and down the pedestrianised area.

It would be fair to say that the locals and tourists loved it - The sights, sounds and smells of 50 clapped-out motors, horns blasting and engines revving.

The parade wound up the hill out of town and then started to climb up into themountains. From here on in, we're driving up the Stelvio pass. The route winds up a series of increasingly tight hairpin bends, through some very tight tunnels, and up to the snowline.

The sight of a convoy of 50 Czech Wreckers crawling up the side of the mountain was truly something to behold.From the top, there were a further 48 hairpins to negotiate on the way down. It was a truly spectacular trip down into the valley. The next portion of the trip was spent crossing in and out of Italy and Austria as we headed into the Tyrol and beyond.

The challenge for the day was to take pictures of as many different numberplates from different countries as possible. Who'd have thunk there would be cars from as far away as the Dutch Antilles driving around?

Stopped for a top lunch with a team we bumped into on the way, and then continued to cruise up to Salzburg.

Day 2 - 2nd September

Day 2 - Lakes and Mountains




Day 2 starts off with us headi.ng towards Geneva, then taking a route through the Swiss alps, over Simplon pass and down into Italy. There's simply some awesome views on the way.

After lunch we head towards Milan, turning off towards Como, and then on twards Bormio. This part of the world, Italy north of Milan, with it's lakes and mountains makes for very pleasant cruising.

Todays climb up Simplon and down into Italy has been a gentle test before tomorrow's big event - crossing Stelvio pass into Austria.

Day 1 - 1st September

Day 1 - Success!


Day one proper started early with a trip to a supermarket to use their facilities to freshen up.

Gradually. All the teams arrived at the start rendezvous. Eager to set off.

Just past 09.00 all teams headed off - direction Annecy. The rest of the day was spent eating up the miles on the autoroutes. The Muthaship performed excellently, behaving like a car half it's age.

Todays challenge - eye-spy involved picking a letter of the alphabet and take photos of things beginning with that letter all day, the winner being the team with the most photos.
After arguing for an hour about what letter to pick, we settled for D.

We got a few good spots:

Deer
Digger
Ditch
Dirtbike
Dirttrack
Drink
Driver
Dice
Etc.

In total, 27. A good haul, but no match for the team who got 190! - Taking it a bit more seriously than us perhaps.

Making good time on the Autoroutes, we came into Annecy around 5. The final drive of the day was up hairpin bends to a mountain top hotel, with a stunning view over the alps.

A great day, topped off with a couple of well earnt beers in the sunshine.

Day 0 - Thursday 31st August

Day 0 - A faltering start


So the day has come, all the weeks of preparation are over, and it's time to go!

The mechanical brains and brawn of the operation met up at the car's current resting place
in order to fit the engine mounts and replace the clutch hose. 2 simple operations,
or so it would seem.....

5 hours later, and 3 o'clock (the time we were planning to leave) has come and gone. 4 o'clock
is fast approaching, and still no sign of clutch action.

So off we trot to Grove Park Autos, to beg for help. Colin from Grove Park Autos was, to be fair, brilliant.
We interrupted whatever it was he was doing, mentioned that we were taking part in a charity rally, and he was away...
like a rat up a drainpipe.. Out came the clutch master cylinder piston, seals (Aaarf Aaarf) were changed,
but to no avail.

Given that the clock was ticking, we started to weigh up the options:

- Persevere with the repairs
- Drive to Dover without clutch, organising repairs en-route
- Source a replacement car

Meanwhile, back at Grove Park Autos....

The entire clutch hydraulic system was bled at every join, and eventually it became apparent that
there was gunk in the hose leading to the slave cylinder (that's a technical term)

Colin, the miracle worker from Grove Park Autos went at the system with the air hose. all of a sudden, out pops a
lump of hose-rubber, flying out like a champagne cork. Couple of more rounds of 'playing the Up-Down game
- bleeding the system out, and voila! We have some pedal action!

By this time, it was too late to still catch the original ferry. We'll be there later than planned, but there at least. Tomorrow the real test begins....

At least nothing else can go wrong today.................. or so we thought. Upon arrival in Calais, we
successfully located our quality F1 Hotel, duly booked weeks in advance, only to be told that no, there were
no rooms available, and yes, reservations made over the internet were not worth the paper they're (not)
written on. (UPDATE: it turns out that in fact, one night previously, the Student Gumball Rally had stayed at the F1 in Calais, and trashed the place. Following that, all banger rally types were persona non grata. Those Pesky Students!)This caused a slight problem, but no matter, there are plenty of hotels in this area. 5 enquiries in 5 hotels
later, it's now 2.00 AM, and we're losing our patience. Everywhere is full up.

Given the choice of driving around for another hour on a potentially fruitless search for accomodation,
bearing in mind that we needed to be up and at 'em at 7.00 on the next day we decided to cut our losses.

That's how we ended up sleeping in the carpark of Carrefour.........

Sun 27th - under pressure

So on to the next phase of the extensive proving out drive - the return leg from Milton Keynes to London.

The Journey started off fine, with a little bit of traffic around on the M1, but as we passed Toddington services, the bank holiday droves jammed up the highway, causing mile after mile of Stop-Start traffic.

Well, I say Stop-Start, for the Muthaship, it was more Stop-Stop, since in the middle of all this, the hydraulic hose from the clutch Master cylinder to the slave burst. You can just about see the split in the pipe here:


So that was me done for for the next while. Called out the RAC, and sat by the side of the M1 watching the traffic crawl past.

Every cloud though, as they say, does have a silver lining. Where I stopped happened to be right outside a yard for a recovery firm called Saunders Recovery, of Hitchin (they're providing the free recovery service during the roadworks by the junction for Luton Airport) So after I've been there for a while, 2 of the staff from Saunders come out, and start asking about the car. They seem genuinely impressed and amused by the prospect. And then, after having chewed the cud for a while, they strolled back to their site offices. Next thing I know, a few minutes later, they've come back with their kids to have a look at the car, and one of them is carrying along their spare change jar. These 2 chaps from Saunders Recovery very kindly donated the entire contents of their change jar - which turned out to contain over £50. Thanks Guys!

So after a little while longer waiting by the side of the M1, and pondering complete strangers' generosity when told about our mission, along comes the RAC.

The very nice man - or was that the other lot? - told me what was wrong (I could have sworn the clutch was cable operated) and decides that he's going to bodge it by surgivally removing the split section and then re-positioning the hose with a couple of Jubilee clips. Fair enough, I thought, that's in the spirit of what this event will be about anyway.

In the battle of Jubilee clips vs. Clutch fluid under normal operating pressure, although the Jubilee clips put up a good fight, eventually the hose split again. Here's the sad old jubilee clips on the end of the hose:



And so it was, I was back to matching the revs and teasing the gearlever into gear. This is a technique that it would be fair to say, I've yet to master fully. As such, I can't say I really enjoyed the rest of the Journey back to London.

Looking on the brightside, we've sourced a replacement part now, which can be picked up on Wednesday, for fitting Wed PM, and then bleeding Thursday.

What do you mean, "we're leaving it a bit late aren't we"?

Sat 26th - scrapheap challenge

The guys at Soton Saab had put us in touch with a firm called Just Saab in Farnborough (Tel 01252 549500) - top guys, check them out if you're in the area. Their core business is selling quality pre-owned Saabs, but they also had a 9000 CS due to go to the breakers, which they very generously let team soap me down mutha rob of any parts which might aid our cause.

So out came the spanners, the screwdrivers, and a selection of choice Anglo-Saxon swearwords, and off came the drivers side rear front and back engine mounts. Whilst those were being pillaged, the good folk at Just Saab also picked out a pair of spare steels and tyres (actually, the tyres they donated look better than most of the ones we're currently running.

Next was the first part of what is to become a valuable pre-rally proving out run - a blast up to Milton Keynes with a boot full of cheese.

Friday 25th August - what's been going on this week?

Quite an eventful week all in all - firstly, the beast made an appearance at TCC, creating quite a stir. In between the looks of pure envy, and the comments about the driver's ability to park (It was left at a deliberately 'jaunty' angle to create interest) The folk at TCC dipped into their collective pockets, and were very generous with the old sponsorship monies. Has really set us on our way to reaching our target. Thanks to everyone who has contributed :)

The only thing putting a damper on the week was learning that the brakelights seem to have taken it upon themselves to come on as and when they saw fit, regardless of driver input. Thankfully, the cause was soon narrowed down to a faulty brakelight switch, which at 7 quid was cheap and relatively straightforward to fit.

What does "Soap Me Down Mutha!" actually mean?

Is there some mysterious significance to the name Soap Me Down Mutha? What does it all mean? Here's what our foreign correspondent has to say on the matter:

History of Soap Me Down Mutha

By David Sargent, somewhere in Germany

It’s a cold wintry evening somewhere in west London, outside a dog barks; an old man coughs into the dense smoke-filled lounge of a local pub. In the corner of the bar, next to the fireplace and the giant portrait of some old Victorian sits a group of twentysomethings deep in conversation.

“No, it’s definitely Pamela Anderson, you can tell by her massive…. sunglasses”

“Nonsense, it’s clearly Paris Hilton, check out the nose”

And so the conversation continued until the next question on flags of the world came round and attention was directed elsewhere. The pub quiz team were a well established foursome but lacked that certain something – a unique, humorous and slightly discomforting team name.

Suggestions came thick & fast with all the usual suspects popping up, but sadly the team couldn’t decide between the relative merits of “Norfolk n Chance” versus “My Granny Can’t Fight But You Should See Her Box”. At this moment, the tall lad in the corner who was there to identify celebrities and contribute random answers to questions on The Beatles or Card Games, stomped his fist on the table and bellowed “SOAP ME DOWN MUTHA” for no obvious good reason.

Delighted with this outburst, as it diverted attention away from a question on which country is the largest producer of shoes ( China ), the team took on this unusual & mildly comical appellation. The rest is history…