BBC Coverage of the challenge 27/07/08

10th Anniversary of Air Ambulance crash

Tomorrow will mark the 10th Anniversary of the Air Ambulance crash that killed three crew members in Burham, not far from where I live.

On the 26th July 1998 the helicopter struck power lines and crashed in a field in Burham killing its crew - pilot Graham Budden and paramedics Tony Richardson and Mark Darby. It was the only fatal accident in the UK involving an Air Ambulance.

The picnic site in Burham where the 'Roc-around-the clock' challenge came to a close last year was dedicated to the 3 crew who lost their lives.

A tribute service is to be held today at Rochester Cathederal to celebrate their lives.

Rest in peace chaps.

Link

Heron VW fix gearbox selector & local school donates money

Those awfully nice people at Heron Volkswagen have yet again proved what a thoroughly decent lot they are after taking the car in on Tuesday and fitting a new set of gear change linkage bushes !.
The old bushes appeared to have completely worn away, and this would explain why i was having great fun trying to locate first and second gears whilst driving. After Paul Stanney had identified the problem, he wasted no time in getting the parts ordered and the job completed.
Heron have been fantastic supporters of Scirocco 2 Morocco, and myself and Glen would just like to pass on our thanks (yet again !) for the help that they have provided over the last year or so.

Also, I would like to thank all the staff and Kids at Our Lady of Good Counsel school who today (Wednesday) donated a cheque for £50 to Leukaemia Research.The youngsters had paid 50p each to come to school in "civvies", and Mr Weldon, the about to retire headmaster, very generously donated the proceeds of civvies day to one of our charities.
The kids also got a chance to have a good look at Scarlet and her trailer after they went on display in the playground for a while after lunch. Thanks to the kids for asking me all those awkward questions...i just wish that i had some better answers for you !.....must do some research :-).

Wow...how busy ?

As mentioned in a previous post I had a bit of "a do" with a snapped clutch cable the other week. That is now sorted after Glen posted me a new one which arrived a couple of days later and is now fitted to the car.....jobs a good 'un !.
This week saw S2M's first outing into the big world of TV...well regional TV news, but still TV !. After ambushing Rob Sissons (BBC East Midlands Today) at a recent event at Kings MilHospital, and then sebsequently emailing him a few times, he phoned me on Monday morning to ask if it would be alright to pop over to mine and shoot some footage for the Sunday Afternoon news (not quite the news 10, but hey, from little acorns and all that !).
Rob arrived at approx 15.45 and after a brief chat we went into filming first an interview, followed by a few shots of me "messing under the bonnet" (ooeeerrr missus !) for him to use when he got back to the "cutting room" (getting all the TV jargon now you know !)......probably cut the ruddy lot :-). Anyway, this was followed by a drive around the local roads so that he could get some "in car" (a la Top Gear Stylee !), and some video of me driving the car along the road. The funniest part was when a local farmer took interest in Rob whilst he was lying down on the ground just in front of this guys field entrance, complete with flourescent jacket and large "professional" camera. "What are you up to then ?" was the question he asked of Rob, to which he politely pointed out that he was in fact lying quite legaly on a public road...and what did it have to do with him anyway !. The words "Get off my land" were,apparently, not spoken :-).
After about an hour Rob got off and it was " a wrap".....see, told you I was picking up the lingo !.

The story is due to be aired on the East Midlands Today news on Sunday PM.....unless something more interesting comes along !...just hope that Sunday is a boring day :-).

Thanks to AutoStyle......but more sponsors wanted !

The latest sponsor for S2M is now AutoStyle Bespoke tailored car mats.We received the fantastic tailored mats for the Scirocco the day before the Waddington Airshow, and they really are a great bit of kit !.
Anton and his team have made a wonderful job of producing not only mats that fit like a glove to the Scirocco's footwells, but also bear the S2M logo on them to boot !.Clips are supplied to facilitate a more secure installation, but to be honest the fit is so good that i never bothered to put them on !.
Many thanks to all at AutoStyle for a great (and practical) addition to our list of helpers as we prepare for the start of our challenge within the next 7 weeks (6th September).

If you know of (or maybe have contacts too) any companies that may be able to help out with the completion of our challenge please feel free to get in touch with details. We still have room on the car and trailer for company logo's, and we can also offer links to your websites as an added bonus :-)

We still need help with:

Telecommunications (mobile comms during the drive)

Ferry crossings between Dover/Calais and Spain/Morocco

Breakdown cover (Just in case !)

Petrol costs...getting higher by the day :-(

Any other aspects of the journey that we may have overlooked.....probably !

As always you can also make donations to any of our 3 charities via our online donation page at:

www.justgiving.com/scirocco2morocco

Come on !...and help us to help others :-)

Scirocco Scala....now with semi auto gearbox.....

It was bound to happen really !. Today was the last day at work for a week or two.Paul at Heron Volkswagen had emailed to say that the bushing for the gearbox selectors had arrived and was ready to be fitted at the earliest opportunity.

The sun was beating down,traffic was light, life was good and I was now on my way home after a short detour to pick up an anniversary card (Our 20th !)...then "CRACK"...and the clutch cable ceased to operate !.

After sticking on the hazards, and pulling over on the side of the road approx 10ft away from the entrance onto a very busy roundabout near Ollerton (I sure pick good spots to break down !). I decided that to prevent causing an obstruction to other traffic (And to prevent the chance of some huge HGV from shortening the Roc's rear end !)I would push the car up onto the kerb......not an easy job when trying to dodge fast moving cars with inattentive drivers at the wheel, and the small problem of a kerb that must have been at least 6" high !.

After a few goes I somehow got the car half way off of the road and then began the job of investigating the problem, which (to make a long story very brief!) involved dismantling the underside of the drivers dash and having a gander at the end of the clutch cable. This was not too difficult as upon removing the panels, the end of the cable dropped onto the floor !.....not a good sign as it was not attached to the rest of the cable which can cause problems when pressing the pedal :-(.

After diagnosing the cause of the failure i now had to figure out a way of driving the 33 miles back home minus clutch.......mmmmmm !

My journey home was interesting to say the least.Approaching roundabouts required a new approach, namely snatching the gearshift out of gear, coasting along and trying to ensure that my arrival at the said roundabout coincided with a Scirocco sized gap in the traffic.This was achieved in 90% of cases, but on one occasion a frantic stirring of gears, erratic braking and numerous prayers did the trick !.I was also attempting to contact Glen and Rachel to see if they could bid on an Ebay item that i had been chasing for the last week (a set of matching Alloy wheels for the trailer) , this auction was about to close in the next 10 mins and i would not be home to put a higher bid on as i was currently nursing the car back to Sleaford !

We got outbid, but i got Scarlet back home by 8PM...then found that i was locked out of my home due to the wife going out to pick the kids up from a party...Oh bliss !

The photo's below illustrate the broken cable, and the damage to my shoulder that i attained whilst pushing a 1000 KG car up a 6" Kerb.

Anyone got a spare clutch cable ?

Cpl 'Nooky' Nauyokas supports S2M at Waddo.

This Weekend, Rachel and I made the journey up to Waddington to attend the Waddington Airshow. We met up with Andy at the gate at 7am on the Saturday morning so that we could get set up and display Scarlett in front of our 'Scirocco2Morocco HQ gazebo'. We set up plenty of displays and information for people to read, and it certainly seemed to attract a lot of attention! We ran a competition to guess how many balls were in the trailer having filled it up with a combination of plastic balls and Euro 2008 footballs, the first prize was a go in a flight simulator. Although the weather was awful to start with, it soon brightened up into a lovely day which attracted more interest and allowed us to see some fine aircraft displays in the skies above. We also had a classic car stand behind us with some lovely looking motors on display. We eventually got a bit peckish, so Andy made his way over to one of our neighbours during the show - the Spam stand - who gave us some free spam fritters, which prompted plenty of Spam, Spam, Spam chants for the rest of the day!

We stayed on the airfield on the Saturday night, so once the crowds had dispersed we had a perfect opportunity to take some shots of the aircraft on the ground before settling down for some pizza and beer and retiring to our Galert tents for the night.

The Sunday was a bit dull weather-wise, but was soon brightened up by the arrival of Cpl 'Nooky' Nauyokas, One of the drill instructors from 'Bad Lads Army'. He set to work on the passing crowds and soon we were collecting donations from people wanting to have their picture taken. We managed to get a few minutes on Airshow radio when a few of the staff made their way down to our stand to interview Andy and the Cpl. A few mouthy comments from the 'guy on the other end of the mike' saw 'Nooky' making his way up the the Radio station which was situated in the old control tower, for a confrontation on air! This we have on tape (No Radio staff were injured in the making of that film!)

As the day drew to a close we had counted up the donations for the weekend and were pleasantly surprised by the donations we managed to raise. We also made a few contacts from local businesses that might be interested in sponsoring the event as well - Result! The only downside to the whole weekend aside form the weather, was music that was repeated over and over from the nearby fairground ride. Made us want to Freak-out!

If you want to see pictures of the weekends antics, feel free to visit these links:
People shots
Aircraft Shots
Classic car shots

Or see the video here

Hopping for joy!

This weekend, we attended the VW Expo in Kent. Andy and his two daughters Rachel and Lauren made the 3 hour trip down from Sleaford to Kent in Scarlett the night before to enable us to fit the car with some shiny new alloys before the show. We enjoyed a nice friendly BBQ and a few beers outside in the sunshine before heading off to bed ready for the Sunday.

What a show it was too! Aside from discovering the wheels didnt fit properly without spacers and shearing a screw holding the brake disc in place, the journey to the event was uneventful! Once there, we set up a fairly decent looking club stand for the Register and put Scarlett in pride of place - right at the front with a nice display along side.

We had quite a bit of interest and raised a bit of money in our collection buckets, as well as aquiring a few goodies from the AA and a possible article in one of the VW magazines. Andy got the horn.... an air horn for the car of course, and to top it all off we won the best club stand trophy too! What a weekend.

Atten...shun !.Cpl Nauyokas joins S2M !

Alright you 'orrible lot stand at ease !.

Now then, anyone who has not been residing on the planet Mars for the last few years MUST have heard of the smash hit TV series "Lads Army"in which a bunch of "Bad lads" are put through 1950's style National Service training, and one of the luvvly fella's that they meet during their several week stay in the Army equivalent of Butlins, is Cpl "Nooky" Nauyokas, your friendly Drill Instructor who makes Foghorn Leghorn seem tame when it comes to screeching out orders to the hapless recruits !

Nooky will be joining our stand on Sunday to "encourage"(!), people to dig deep and donate some wonga to our charities so if you fancy getting an autograph or having your picture taken with him make sure you are there...of course a small donation to one of our charities would be a nice gesture...or you can hit the deck and give him 10...and that's if you get off lightly :-).

It just goes to show.....

Looks like Andy had a great time at GTi International last weekend, and this weekend we hope to be attending the VW Expo in Paddock Wood, Kent. With our plans to attend the airshow as well the following weekend, its shaping up to be a busy few weeks!! Im really looking forward to plugging the event though and hopefully the waether will be a bit more hospitable than it was at GTi......

We are hoping to get some more much needed publicity from these shows and maybe even get the event covered by local press at the VW Expo. It will also give us the opportunity to film both ourselves and the car in the same place at the same time for the first time since the car and trailer were prepared for the challenge.

GTI International 2008.....Good old British Summertime !

After receiving our complimentary VIP tickets on Friday I was really looking forward to our drive down to Bruntingthorpe (Home of the last Flying Vulcan), and so at 05.35on Saturday morning I was up bright (?) and early ready for the short hop from Lincolnshire to Leicestershire and the promise of a luvvly day sunning in the ...err..sun ! Of course we are now bang in the middle of the British summertime, so the daydream of the sunny day and lashings of Ginger beer and cucumber sandwiches soon evaporated when I ventured outside and was met by a depressing damp day (DDD !).Damn :-(. Anyway, after loading up the last few items into the car/trailer (drinks,food,camera...daughter !), we set f at approx 07.40 and let my friend Yoda (AKA TomTom Satav) point us in the right direction. At around 08.34 we received the news from Yoda "At your destination you have arrived"...great !...except for the fact that the dizzy sod had directed us into the far end of the aerodrome, and so we found ourselves in some sort of industrial park !. After back tracking to the main road again we aimlessly drove around the small winding roads until we spotted a long procession of Golf GTI's and the likes, and decided to hedge our bets that they would be making their way to our intended destination.....as luck had it we were correct in our assumption. It rained for most of the day, but we had the occasional spot of sun and overcast Sky's to allow us to have a few bimbles around the show, and even though the weather was far from perfect, we had a great time. Congratulations to all those that have been organising this event for the last 21 years (the same age as our car !), and special thanks to Neil Birkett,editor of Volkswagen Driver who came to our aid first with the tickets for the event, and again when we got lost on site and almost ended up on the 1/4 mile strip...mmmm, would have been nice to see what the old girl could do though :-). A few short video's of the day:







More to follow...when i have time ! :-)

Waddington tickets arrived today...yippee !

On Saturday morning the postie brought me an envelope containing our tickets that allow us access to display the car in the Vintage/classic car area of the event.
Now i am not sure that our trusty steed could really be classed in either of these categories...but what the hell, as long as we can get into the show and raise money for the Air Ambulance who cares.Besides, they haven't got an area set aside for "Awesome and eyecatching" vehicles, so the area we have been allocated to will just have to do i suppose :-)....shame that the rest of the exhibits will be overlooked !.

GTI International here we come !

Just a quick note ('cos it's lunchtime and i have had 10 mins more than I should already !).We have now had confirmation that we will be receiving VIP tickets to this years GTI International event at Bruntingthorpe (Leicestershire) on the 21st and 22nd June.Hope to see some of you there, please do come along and say hello.....we won't bother you with a collection box......cos we are going to be asking people to stick cash in the trailer instead ! :-).

From the ashes....Scarlets back !

After several weeks of anticipation i got to see the results of AW body repairs efforts to get Scarlet back on the road.And boy was it worth the wait !.
The old saying goes "A picture says a thousand words", and so here are a couple of before and after shots to give you an idea of just what those talented fellas at AW's have managed to do.Thanks go especially to Rob, who I am informed was the main man involved in bringing the car back to life.

Click on the pictures for a better view:










Now all we need to do is get back to the point at which we were at a few weeks ago !namely sorting out the wiring on the trailer/car, getting more sponsors logo's onto her, then making preparations for our visit to GTI International on the 21st June.
Talking about GTI International, we are pleased to announce that after a recent conversation with Neil Birkett, the editor of Autometrix publications Volkswagen/Audi Car magazines, we have been promised a special VIP ticket which will enable us to get right into the fray of things during the show.....and perhaps a run down the strip ?Thanks Neil :-)

New Scirocco in Group win @ Nurburgring 24-hour

News just in this weekend is that the new Scirocco has cut it's teeth convincingly by winning its group at the Nurburgring 24-hour.

For more information about this and other VW Motorsport news items have a look at this site:


www.volkswagen-motorsport.com/web/start/index.php?flash=ok