SCUMBALL 3000 2.0 LASER OWNED BY DAVID, WHO IS RAISING MONEY FOR THE CHARITY WHIZZ KIDS.
HERE IS HIS REPORT OF THE RALLY 2008.
This is the second year the car has taken part in the rally and - once again - completed the rally with no problems. Last year there was a bit of criticism that the drives were too long along too many motorways, so this year the driving was shorter and there was more option to hit the smaller roads. We started with the launch party at Arena Essex, where we also had the opportunity to do a few laps of the track. That evening we drove down to Dover where we slept in the car, catching the 06:30 ferry to Calais. From Calais we headed to Nevers, south of Paris, camped overnight then headed up through France and Luxembourg to the Nurburgring circuit in Germany where we camped on day-2. We had the opportunity to do a lap of the Nurburgring, but the prices, what it might do to the car, the fog and the 3 hour wait to see if the track would open put us off that! So we headed off across Germany and through the width of Netherlands to camp on the last night near Amsterdam. The next day we headed back through Netherlands, Belgium and back to Calais, managing to miss the 3-4 hour queues of some other Scumballers stuck on the Belgian motorway near Antwerp. The whole event is organised to support children's charities, this year supporting the Whizz-Kidz charity which improves mobility for physically handicapped children. Our team of 2 raised just over £1,300 and at the last tally, the whole event raised over £56,000 for the charity.
The car was originally a 2.0 Auto Laser and I bought it from a lady in Cornwall for £500 - the maximum purchase price of any car on the Scumball rally. After that you can spend what you like in doing the car up, but the car was in such good condition that I didn't need to do any work on it. However in preparation for this year's rally, and in the spirit of Scumball, I decided to try to spend no more than £500 on improvements. This was achieved with the admirable help of Tickover of Bexleyheath who provided the main improvements of a 5-speed manual conversion and a tune-up. Consequently this year's event was faster, quieter and more economical...
