F-Body Europe

http://www.scallyrally.co.uk/arctic_38_38.html

the trick is to do this in a car costing no more then 150 euro's

but i think i found a capable copilot, and will try to find a car and register

anymore takers ?
this is a trip that should last a lifetime, and will not nessesarily cost the bank

Remembering Top Gear's junker challenges (and that they most likely have some tricks up their sleeves to get the cars back running behind the camera) I'm not sure there will be many participants arriving at the final destination ... should be fun though ...

I'm sure it's fun... good luck Jeejee!

i don't know if anybody is interested , but i could report future progress with regards to this "topgear challenge" trip
So we have some extra traffic on this board ...
we registered the car for the rally this week , so no turning back

the start is here : the 100 euro car


i got it from a friendly scrapyard, still needs a couple of things worked out / fixed.
unfortunately the yearly tüv inspection just stops 4 weeks before the start, so that might require some extra work

still need a nice "in your face" paintscheme , and maybe some sponsor names (if i can get any)
But we have a couple of months so that should not be a biggie

this is a couple of the things that lie ahead

(sorry for some of the huge pictures)








i sure hope we dont get stuck here ... in the middle of freaking nowhere



and the destination :

Cool! Good luck with that, hope you keep us in the loop ...

Keep the updates coming Joeri. I will have to try this but at different time frame.

That looks like a blast. If it was just a month earlier...I would be in. I'm gone before then.

Keep us updated.

Please keep the updates coming...

i would not have mind a bit longer driving timeframe too

Still about 6 months to go, so plenty of time for al the nessesary updates.
maybe next time i should buy a car closer to the departure day, so we don't have the yearly tech inspection problem and extra road tax and insurance for several unnessesary months

As for the tax and insurance, you don't have to register it now, do you? If you don't drive it on the street ...

that is what you would think,
but our nice (dutch) goverment insists that we pay, even if the car isn't used.

you can have it exempt for a year from insurance and road tax, but this allso costs money, and you then can't testdrive the car, and must be stored on own property and the car should not be visible from the road.

you can't help but to love a goverment that hates cars and everything that has to do with them

well apparently the previous owner of the car was a drugs addict

after removing some panels to change the steering colum , i came upon a consealed space where
there was a spoon and a lighter inside..

I think it will be wise to visit the local police and ask if they can have a look with a drugs dog to see if all is well
i hate to cross the border to norway or sweden and the customs would find some consealed drugs we did not know about

Ouch! That would have been one nasty surprise ... better make sure you get the Police to take a drug dog through there ... would sure hurt your time being stuck at some border and having customs take apart the 100€ car

i found a trip that should be even better.

20.000km's 2,5 months , 15 countries

http://www.oranjetrophy.nl/route.php



unfortunately it's a bit more expensive , estimated cost around 25000 euro
but that includes accomodation and shipping the car back

some day...

we found a sponsor willing to give the car a different look ,

i guess it helps to have some friends in a opel (s)tealership paintshop






the car will be bright orange (eventhough we lost the worldcup finale)
paint will follow today, and most likely it wil the best paintjob car i ever had, too bad in 3 weeks it will be on a scrapyard

oyes, we gave the car a well deserved tuneup, "new" front left and right suspension arms, steering arm, cv joints , wheelbearing , cam belt and alternator belt, wheels/ suspension aligned , radio/cd player , abs sensor , oil + filters + some engine gaskets, angle steering wheel adjusted, "new" doorspeakers, new right rearview mirror, and a lot of other stuff i cant remember right now, should be good for another 5 years i think

... plus the cost of not earning anything during that time ...

now all we need is some sponsor stickers and logo's

maybe some 1on1 stickers ? and does the f-body forum have some stickers too perhaps ??

Silke may still have a couple 1on1 stickers ...

we made it

the car held it's own, didn't have any problems with it..
But i was pretty beat up at the end of every day.

some days with 15 hours drives , on some of the most challenging roads i can think of



By ll at 2010-07-30

some other participants.

the bmw on the left didn't have reverse and no cooling fan, so it was a bit of a challenge driving the narrow mountain passes...






The english participants sure know how to party, But being in the local pubs / cafes at the end of every days destination till 0100-0200 at night , and getting up at 6 to start on a 12-15 hours drive (at speeds a bit higher then allowed ) , is a bit much for me, and i propably need a week to rest now...

Wow
Glad you made it.
That is some beautiful scenery up there. I am still planning to drive up there just to say that I've been to the Circle.