Plymouth-Dakar rally

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W210 Fan

MB Enthusiast
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Well its Plymouth to Banjul actually but the former had a better ring to it. One drunken Sunday in my local curry house and my mate tells me about this charity event a colleage has been on, it gets discussed over lots of Vodka and we decide its a great idea, Drive from Plymouth to Banjul in North Africa in a car worth less than £500 then sell it the other end and the money goes to charity. We decided on a diesel 190 as said mate had previously sold one for about £300, your allowed £15 on "race prep" which to us was an engine/gearbox sump protector which will be a plate of alloy rivoted to the chassis. Anyway when I got home I looked up the rally at the link below and found out the car has to be less than £100, Im still up for it though as it will be good fun and something to talk about later on in life, yeah I remember taking an auto box to bits in the Sahara when I was younger.....

And while your reading this thinking about suggesting cars there is one thing I havn`t mentioned, it has to be a left hooker as one of the African countries we are driving through does not allow right hand drive cars, which does narrow down ones choices somewhat.

I have also signed up another mate of mine (sent him a txt saying your not seeing your family over xmas you will be in Africa with Nige and I) and we are just waiting for the application form, I shall keep you all posted.

http://www.plymouth-dakar.co.uk/
 
You need to research the car prep a bit more, this is a gruelling challange.
If possible go for an estate car as the extra space will be very welcomed.

I know someone who did this run last year.

If you are serious send me a PM and I'll forward it.
 
I remember one year seeing a documetary and a couple broke down a few times and eventually had to dump the car out in the desert. They begged and pleaded for a lift from other competitors but all to no avail. Kind of sad.

Make sure you have lots of money to either get your 'rally' car repaired or to bail you out from the middle of nowhere.

John
 
One of the guys at work took a left hooker 380SE, as far as I'm aware it survived ok. Had some involvement in the prep of the car, the main things were lifting it slightly, and a whacking great sump guard.
 
Got no issues with the race prep, I design military vehicles, Paul can do anything with a car and Nige race preps sports cars. I wanna take a merc as I am pretty sure it will just go and not stop or complain about it. I agree with the estate shout as we will probably camp rather than lord it up in hotels, hotels dont seem to be in the swing of the event, There was a mention on the site that if you break down your on your own, thats why they recommend two people in a car, more chance of getting a lift as there will be a lot of kit........
 
A guy from work also did last years race. Unfortunately his car did not make the whole trip. They managed to grab a lift off another team...

I think he drove an old Vauxhall Senator or something.

Also, I was reading a past issue of Mercedes Enthusiast old Mercs go for a premium in Africa. The journo managed to buy a car over here, drive all the way down there, have a great trip, sell the car and fly home with change. Take a Merc ;)

Alex
 
Friends of our flogged their ancient but still reliable Ford Granada via eBay to someone who claimed to be buying it for doing that run. Nice to think it might now live in Gambia being somewhat useful rather than scrap.
 
Satch said:
Friends of our flogged their ancient but still reliable Ford Granada via eBay to someone who claimed to be buying it for doing that run. Nice to think it might now live in Gambia being somewhat useful rather than scrap.

W210 Fan said:
And while your reading this thinking about suggesting cars there is one thing I havn`t mentioned, it has to be a left hooker as one of the African countries we are driving through does not allow right hand drive cars, which does narrow down ones choices somewhat.

I do hope your friends were not conned in anyway by the buyers. I must confess to not knowing this information and paid no attention to that sort of detail when I saw the documentary. It certainly narrows the choice down considerably.


Regards,
John
 
glojo said:
I do hope your friends were not conned in anyway by the buyers. I must confess to not knowing this information and paid no attention to that sort of detail when I saw the documentary. It certainly narrows the choice down considerably.


Regards,
John

Well it was the only offer they got so since the alternative was scrapping it they did well enough!
 
Dont forget Guy Dewdney did a similarish event last year.


Love to do it myself but not sure if I am brave enough in a £100 car. :D
 
Satch said:
Well it was the only offer they got so since the alternative was scrapping it they did well enough!

Good news and I'm sure they were genuine. W210 Fan's post had caught my eye and made me think.

Have a nice one,
John
 
I have ideal car for the job, loads of room, low miles, working aircon, mercedes build quality and best of all it was free. :)

Shame its not a left hooker although I guess a Mercedes Limo might not be the best form of transport in deep sand.
 
Lada Niva?
 
GrahamC230K said:
Lada Niva?
How can you go wrong with a Lada Niva? :)

autogalerie_picture.php
 
Drive from Plymouth to Banjul in North Africa in a car worth less than £500
I thought it was £100?
Maybe they relaxed it because not many made it?
I remember when it started a few years ago. There where only a handful of cars but it's grown every year.
Good luck if you try it.

You can't use anything other than a Merc though. :rock:
 
We had planned a similar trip last year www.mongolrally.co.uk... however time conspired against us ...

Only rules are that the car has to be less than 1 litre.....

We had decided on either a mk 1 golf 1.1 (and pay the £100 fine for being 0.1 litres ) over a litre as it is very easy to work on and get bits (either made or bought) for.....

The other option was an old Fiat Panda Sisley (4x4) which in the end we decided against as the 4x4 system was complicated if anything went wrong ...

Another option bandied around was a Bedford Rascal as we could sleep in the back and carry spare wheels in there (engine is under the cab so we figured on pushing it on its side if anything needed doing underneath)

Some great photos here :-

http://www.mongolrally.co.uk/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=92
 
Lhd

Plymouth-Dakar is LHD cars only now, which limits you a bit. A 250TD W124 Estate would be the perfect car but way too valuable to "waste" on an event like this

I'd be up for a crack at it one year...

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk
 

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