Scirocco 2 Morocco 10 years on. Scarlett Mk3...The new chapter begins :-)

Obviously anyone who has been following my blog over the last 10 years must be aware of the disaster which befell my Mk2 Scirocco Scala "Scarlett".

After my brilliant car was fatally damaged by a 42 ton lorry on the A17 in 2014 I was left, after a messy and financially crippling court case, with not only no car, but with a £2000 legal bill and permanent Tinnitus. The other driver had a much better legal team than me and on the day the judge decided to award fault to both parties....although the 3 versions of the other drivers statement should have made him question what ACTUALLY happened on that cold February morning !!

Anyway. I digress.

This post is to let you know that I AM BACK !

Gone is the Ford Focus ST which i owned for around 2 and a half years primarily due to my long term good friend David who, Observing my predicament and being a very kind fella, offered to sell me the ST for a bargain price......a very welcome and generous gesture being as i had spent the last 2 years feeling incredibly stressed and ultimately humiliated and financially ruined by a system that appears to hold such things as the truth as being incidental to the facts !.....i'm off   again aren't I lol :-)

So. Ladies and Gentlemen. Can i now then present to you Scarlett Mk3 (She's a Mk3 Scirocco so hence the label!)

This cracking motor is an October 2008 Scirocco 2.0ltr TSI GT which is finished in Salsa Red, which is not such a dissimilar colour to my previous Mk2 (Paprika Red)....which is a nod to the old girl of course :-)

Of course this year (September) marks 10 years since I and my excellent friend Glen Place set off on our Scirocco 2 Morocco adventure.....and on our return to the UK we were invited to attend the launch of the New Scirocco Mk3 at Heron VW in Newark upon Trent. If i remember correctly Glen was unable to make it up to my neck of the woods but myself and my son attended with Scarlett and her half Roc trailer.....so the fact i now own a Scirocco from that particular moment in time seems somehow fitting as a continuation of my love of these cars.


So....here she is.

Scarlett Mk3......

Of course the Registration is quite poignant as this is actually my 6th Scirocco (S6) (6 and a half if you count the trailer!) and its a Volks Wagen Scirocco (VWS)... nice :-)

So far the car has been fantastic, and i hope to be showing her at the Scirocco Register National Meeting in August 2018.....alongside Glens newly refurbished 1988 Scala.....should be EPIC :-)

Arctic Blast 2015...Another Scirocco adventure soon to be underway :-)

I heard some great news today that another pair of brave souls are planning on setting off on an epic adventure a la Scirocco on the 1st March this year :-)

Here are a few details from their facebook "About" page:

• In March brothers Tony and Paul Greer will undertake a daunting driving challenge. Having bought a car for under £1000 they will attempt to drive in a 5000 mile round trip to Nordkapp, the most northerly point in Europe it's possible to reach by car. Nordkapp is 2500 miles away from London on the northern tip of Norway, 700 miles inside the Arctic Circle. The brothers want to raise money and awareness of two charities that have personal importance to them. These are Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research and the Antony Nolan charities who special in blood diseases and manage the national bone marrow register.
  
  You can follow their preparations including a frantic hunt to find a suitable car (This was recently confirmed to be a Mk2 Scirocco!) and get everything organised before departing on Sunday 1st March.
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  Making Tracks - Arctic Blast has been supported by sponsors helping the brothers achieve their goal. You can help to by donating on our Justgiving Team page.
• Website

  https://www.justgiving.com/teams/makingtracksarcticblast

Their facebook page can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/ArcticBlast2015/info?tab=page_info

Scirocco 50LLR on Top Gear...at last!

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Well it was a well kept secret, but now it's official. The Scirocco 50LLR has at last been asked to appear on Top Gear. Show TV dates to be published soon :-)

( This is of course a dream...but you never know...perhaps one day! :-) )

Nasty Scirocco Crash caught on video

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You know how it is, you are just going for a nice drive in your Scirocco when all of a sudden........

OUCH!

Jose Carreras loves "La Scala" .So do I,but mine's made by Volkswagen :-)

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Tenor Jose Carreras is to perform at Milan's La Scala for the first time in 14 years at a benefit concert.

The Three Tenors star will sing at an event to raise funds for cancer research at the Italian opera house on 10 October. Carreras has said that "every singer has a special love for La Scala".
The Spaniard spent almost a year in hospital and underwent a bone marrow transplant in 1997 after being diagnosed with leukaemia.

It's so good to see Jose is doing well after his battle against Leukaemia, and it's nice also to note that he has a special love for "La Scala". I also have a liking for La Scala, but of course mine is not a song but a very special Scirocco ! :-)

Scirocco Scala 1.8 Ltr :-)

By the way Jose, if you ever fancy a trip in my Scala,just give me a call :-)

For more about this story click HERE to view the BBC News Website.

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Stanford Hall VW Show on Sunday.

On Sunday myself and "mini me" will be driving over (and down!) to Stanford Hall to display Scarlett at the annual Volkswagen Show. We will be in area "C" so if you fancy popping along and seeing the car on the day, do say hello and let me know what you think about it, and this blog :-).

For details about the Stanford Hall Show click HERE.

Chuggaboom....my "temporary" Scirocco

Imagine my delight after the disaster of the recent accident, when a member of the Scirocco Register offered to "give" me a car so that I could stay on the road whilst Scarlet is in the repair shop.

You know the old saying "you don't get anything for nowt", well i can categorically dispute that now...and with some degree of qualification, such as.......

No dashboard !

No headlining

No heater

No door panels

No stereo

No Petrol gauge 8-0

No temperature gauge

No centre console

and No sun visors !

Yes, you can certainly get a lot of Nowt for...well nowt really :-)

On the upside i can honestly say that i have not driven a car for a long time that makes me smile quite as much as this one.....and the looks on peoples faces as they stroll past..have a quick look...walk back..have a better look...comment to either themselves or anyone nearby (content of comments is currently unknown but probably includes several expletives !) then smile/laugh/point and go merrily on their way, is worth a million..erm..things !.

To give you a better idea i thought it pertinent to post a few piccies, as they say, a picture speaks a thousand words...most of them far to rude to post :-)...enjoy !

Of course the plus side is that if anything goes wrong on the inside of the car it's not very difficult to find, and you don't have to remove panels to work on them. To be honest most of the missing panels are safe and sound...in the garage or the "half Roc" trailer !

On a serious note though, can i just say a great big thank you to Rick for getting me out of a tight spot regarding transport after the accident by letting me have the car and delivering to me so quickly.....cheers mate ;-).

P.S. If anyone would like to buy Chuggaboom over the next week or so, she will be for sale as soon as Scarlet comes back from AW's.MOT only until 6th June,tax until September.£100 donated to one of our charities and she's yours ! :-)

First the good news....

At this moment in time I am at a loss as to what to write about!Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of news to report about the progress of our challenge...but unfortunately not all good I’m afraid :-(.

I suppose it would make sense to start (As they say) at the beginning, and in this case that would be a week ago,the location is AW Body Repairs in Sleaford and I have just been driven down to their premises by Teresa to see for the first time the newly resprayed Scirocco a la Trailer combination.
The guys at AW's have done something that many fail to do every day of the week...shut me up!, I am pretty much speechless at the sight of a "straight from the showroom" Scirocco and matching trailer...absolutely gob smacked is the phrase that springs to mind....absolutely speechless and, I wont deny it, almost shedding a tear in admiration of the transformation to this 21 year old "Vintage car" that only a few months earlier was destined for the breakers.
Andy Grinned (he's very good at that!), and asked if I was happy with the result? Of course the answer was pretty much written all over my face and the huge smile that I was wearing was hard to disguise :-) "That is bloody fantastic mate" I mumbled, "absolutely bloody brilliant".
Shortly after having a good look at the car I went over to the trailer and yet again I was (initially) speechless, it too was just as we had envisaged it, just as the "virtual" trailer that Glen had made looked so many months ago, and this looked 110% better than the image because now it was the real thing.
After my delight had subsided again It suddenly occurred to me that even though I now had an immaculate Scirocco, I currently had no way of towing the equally immaculate Trailer home as I had forgotten one small detail....I had yet to fit the tow bar !....what a plonker !, so after arranging with Mick (the manager) that I would get the tow bar fitted the next day, and then to return to the compound for the trailer I went back home and planned for the next days (hectic) proceedings !.
Saturday morning arrived and I was up with the lark (or perhaps the sparrows!) and was soon busily drilling holes to fit the tow bar. All went well, but then I got to the point of wiring the electrics and realised that I had absolutely no wiring diagrams at all.....this was going to be fun!
A few emails and posts on the owners club website prompted several replies, amongst them was a very useful "idiots guide" which even I could understand. Well most of it anyway.
The afternoon saw me driving over to Lee Ballands home to let him fit our new (improved?) logos, and on the way I stopped of at a very nice fella’s house in Walcott to pick up free plug and extension lead for the trailer electrics (Cheers Dave!).
Lee spent around 1 and half hours fitting the logos, and at around 6.25 PM I headed back to Sleaford to get some tea and do a little blogging.
On Sunday I was up at 5.35 AM and by 06.05 was busy completing the install of the tow bar electrics on the car. At 08.20 myself and Andy Jr (Mini Me!) set of to navigate our way to Santa Pod drag strip and our first "official" fixture for 2008 which was the GTI Spring Festival were thousands of VW enthusiasts congregate to drive their cars down the 1/4 mile (if it's not wet), buy parts for their cars and get mugged by villains masquerading as chip and milkshake sellers!.
After a very wet but interesting few hours of chatting, eating chips (£2.00 for a tray the size of a very small flip-flop !) and chasing my mad al 5 year old son around, it was time to say our fond farewells to the other Scirocco register members, and drive the 80 miles back to sunny Sleaford.

Now we get to the not so good news section of this weeks update....and boy is this BAD NEWS>

I took the car to work on Tuesday without drama, she ran great (as usual) and was attracting a lot of interest from other drivers on my way to Mansfield and also folk who saw it parked up at the hospital. Now for Wednesday...black Wednesday.

I had arranged to take my 2 girls to my parents on Wednesday, and as usual we were running a little late after leaving home at around 07.20.The trip was uneventful really, and we arrived in Mansfield Woodhouse at approx 08.17...then the world went bang...or rather it made a sort of screeching, mettalic screaming sound as we had an almost head on with another car after stalling the car whilst turning right at a crossroads...

I remember seeing the car coming straight at us, I was already executing the turn but at that moment the engine revs dropped and it stalled so i dipped the clutch to start the engine and all I could do then was to wait for the impact. That came violently in that weird sort of slow motion way that these things do....slow and deliberate, and there was nothing I could do but brace and wait. There was a sound of breaking glass, twisting metal and then silence...except for my heart which was now well and truly lodged in my mouth.
I remember trying to open the door and finding it was almost seized shut checked the girls were alright and then stumbled and squeezed my way though the door which was now the size of a letterbox slot, then I remember telling the other driver how sorry I was and then my legs buckled. I knelt on the road in the middle of the crossroads for what seemed like an eternity, contemplating what had just taken place, the emotion was raw, my mind was spinning and I felt faint, but somehow I got back up and after apologising again to the other driver I squeezed back into my Scirocco shaped post-box and with another screech of metal I reversed her back then parked her on the side of the road. I looked again at the damage and felt sick, the front appeared to me to be almost gone and the beautiful resprayed Scirocco 2 Morocco vehicle looked shattered and destroyed.

The next couple of hours were spent making the obligatory calls to my insurers, my wife and work to explain why I was late. The most difficult call was the one I felt compelled to make to Andy Walsh (AW Body Repairs), when I had to inform him that the fantastic job he had completed on the car only a few days earlier was now looking as though it had been hit by an express train....to say I was gutted was possibly the understatement of 2008.

Andy was incredibly upbeat about the whole thing, and, after ensuring that myself and the children were ok, he arranged for the collection of the Scirocco and afterwards to explore the possibility of repairing her. The insurance had all but said that based on the age of the car it was "almost certainly a right off", but with a little luck, a lot of help from Andy and his staff the Scirocco 2 Morocco challenge will be back on the road once more.

Update: The car is now being repaired by AW body Repairs in Sleaford, and will be back on the road in the next few weeks. In the meantime I may be seen driving another Scirocco around, rather an interesting Blue one that a member of the owners club has donated to me whilst Scarlet is in the workshop....to say it is rather "lightweight" would be something of an understatement, mostly due to the fact that almost all of the interior fittings are in the boot....if you see the car around have a look...if you want a laugh :-)

Note: Anyone or any business that would like to help us out with our challenge, please feel free to contact us and we will be glad to link to your websites,stick a few logo's on and mention you in our dispatches :-).

Remember that from perseverance comes character,from character comes hope, from hope comes faith and with faith anything is possible.....take care :-)

So much happening,better do an update !

Ok, so where do I start ? I won't try to recall the exact dates that events occured, but will instead just try to include all relevant details that I think are worth mentioning...so here goes !....

The Car's refurbishment is now well under way at AW's Accident Repair Centre in Sleaford after a slight delay , and owner Andy Walsh will be documenting the progress of Scarlet from ugly duckling to Swan by photographing her over the next fortnight (Thanks Andy !).I will post more details of scarlets refurb when I get some pictures to accompany it.

The Trailer (or "half Roc" as we call it !) was progressed this week after Paul B took it on himself to try out his newly acquired compressor and saw on his old GT2 Scirocco, and after shedding a few drops of blood in the process (nothing serious...who needs to count to 10 on their fingers anyway !), he trailered the rear end of the car from Derby to Mansfield arriving at the premises of our metalwork experts (and greatly appreciated sponsors) ASMech (Mansfield) mid day Tuesday.It took 5 or six of us to get the bum of the Scirocco off of the trailer, but after a brief struggle we managed to get her unloaded and into the workshop were work started in earnest on it's transformation from scrap back end, to eye catching trailer.Many thanks to Richard Toon and his crew for this priceless help, it will make the whole process of getting the "rig"ready in time for the start of the VW show season a lot easier :-).

A big thanks you to Bob over in Nottighamshire who,after letting me have a towbar for the Scirocco for the huge sum of £3.00 ! then went on (after I yapped on for some time about our trip...sorry Bob !)to donate a pair of rear lights for the trailer (the old clusters had gone).Top Fella :-)

Lee, my trusty Graphics/Vinyl man has agreed to do the logo's for the trip again, and we may also be producing T-Shirts with the logo that we will be selling @ approx £10 each to raise even more funds for our charities.

Alistair from Waddington is going to produce a 1/18 Scale Die Cast model of the car and it's trailer (complete with log's), then pop it in a display case and we will have that with us at the shows.Eventually we will be holding a draw to win this unique prize.Thanks Alistair.

On Saturday last week I received an Email from Kaz and Pete, some people up the road that I had met originally through "FreeCycle", an Internet recycling organisation that has groups around the UK.They had heard about the trip that was being planned (probably from me because I tell anyone.....well anyone who hangs around long enough to listen !) and had decided between them to help our efforts by donating a SatNav System to us....how good is that ?.
Now the reason that Kaz and Pete decided to help us is not just down to them being thoroughly nice people, but because both of them have lost siblings to Cancer.Kaz lost her sister to Leukaemia 3 years ago at the age of only 35, she had 5 children and did not even know she had the disease.
Pete lost his brother only six months ago to Myelodyplasia which,although not cancer,can develop into leukaemia. and the symptoms of which are often very similar to those caused by cancer.
In my experience of fundraising (which is only really about 9 months or so !) I have found that it is the ordinary people that I meet that are the most likely to help you out,sometimes because they know someone who has the disease, maybe they have an illness themselves,or perhaps sadly they have lost a loved one through cancer of some sort.These are the bread and butter of campaigns such as this on that myself and Glen are undertaking, they are proof if proof was needed, that out there in this big wide world of ours there are still good,generous people who care about more than just the material things in life, and have in some cases been touched by events that have resulted in perhaps the loss of someone very close and very dear to them.
You know during the preparations for this event I have sent out hundreds of emails,made dozens of phone calls,dropped in to many companies and spoken to many individuals about our challenge, often asking for help and support in our quest....and do you know one thing that I have learned in all of this ? It's not the big companies, the multinational corporations worth hundreds of millions of pounds, and are always telling us how much they care for our custom,for our well being and for our best interests that are the first to offer help,often I get no response to emails,letters and answerphone messages...not even a simple "NO"!
Its the small companies, the local companies, individuals and local groups that are the ones we should be proud of.
I want everyone who reads this blog to take a good look at the left hand column headed "S2M Sponsors", and also the list of private individuals that I will soon be posting, and I want you to give these people a "virtual" pat on the back !.Well done and thank you to all, for you,every one of you,are our inspiration.Andy and Glen.

P.S anyone who I have forgotten to mention in this "dispatch", please forgive me, but I am currently typing this in between nursing 2 poorly children and tidying my house !.Until next time,take care :-)

S2M @ Waddington Air Show July 2008

I spoke to one of the organisers of the RAF Waddington International Air Show today, and we have been given the green light to attend this fantastic event on the weekend of the 5th and 6th July this year :-).

In years gone by the number of people attending what is probably now the UK's leading Air Show has frequently topped 400,000 over the 2 days it is staged, and therefore it goes without saying that a stand there will hopefully help us to swell the coffers for our 3 nominated charities as well as enabling us to highten the profile of the event amongst the general public....and that will be a great help in securing sponsorship of our challenge.

I have been an avid attendee (is that a real word ?) of the Waddington air show for around 8 or 9 years now, and always find it an excellent day out for all members of the family having not only a shed load of aeroplanes both flying and static, but also a wide veriety of stalls, funfairs and exhibitions that will keep you occupied for many hours.

Apparently we are to be allocated a pitch within the "Vintage vehicle" area (!), and Glen and I will be asking people to donate towards any of our charities, but especially the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance as the helicopter itself is actually stationed at RAF Waddington.

We will also be holding a prize draw to win the fantastic Simulator prize mentioned in an earlier post that was donated by Real Simulation based in Yorkshire.This prize is for a 1 hour flight in either an F4 Phantom or a Boeing 737 airliner and it's worth £279 !

For more info about the event just click on the link that is under the S2M Sponsors heading.

Old Vs New......the facts.

The number of people commenting on the reasons for our choice of vehicle that we have chosen to use for this challenge is growing,so I will now endevour to explain that there is indeed method behind our madness...honest !.

Just for a moment then would you take time to ponder this Jeremy Clarkson style question.....

In aerial combat which of these machines would win a dogfight, the cutting edge of technology Eurofighter (AKA the Typhoon) which we love loads, but for(an earth bound comparison) will put in the same league as...oh I don't know...erm....how about a Bugatti Veyron supercar. OR.....the world renowned icon of British aviation genius......the Supermarine Spitfire, which again for the purpose of comparison we will align with an older style of motor car...such as...erm.....how about a 1987 VW Scirocco Scala ?

Now of course many of the purists out there will immediately point out to me the fact that if i am drawing a comparison between an old (German)VW and an aeroplane, then surely it should be a Messerschmitt BF109 and not a Spitfire.......so to those of you who have indeed let these thoughts cross your minds let me just say one thing ..............."I don't care !"...ok, that was three words and a smattering of punctuation, but as Neil, the long haired hippy character from that wonderfull 80's comedy "The young ones" famously said..."Alright, so most metaphors don't bear close examination".........so there !....anyway......the evidence for the comparison now follows:

A) The Spitfire (Scirocco)has proved it's worth in real combat,being able to take immense punishment and still come back for more (Roc Around the Clock charity drive,24 hours,672 miles,35 hospitals).....The Eurofighter (AKA Veyron) has not.

B) The spitfire (Scirocco) was (in the nicest possible sense) simple, and due to that fact if the jockey (pilot) found himself stranded in the middle of a field having been "bagged" during some aerial combat sometime after lunch, but perilously close to tea, there was an outside chance that with a little basic mechanical knowledge (such a rudimentary bicycle repair) he would be able to fashion a repair to the stricken craft and arrive back to the airfield just as the main course was about to be served !...the Eurofighter (Veyron)would be emedded in the field and it's unfortunate pilot would not be home in time for lunch ever again...unless he had time to bang out (eject) , in which case his spine will have shrunk by several inches resulting in a short stay in the local hospital and a terrble ringing in his lug holes which are both classic symptoms of having been shot out of a moving aeroplane atop a seat shaped firework !....and he would be far to late to even catch an after dinner mint !

C)Fuel....As we are all so painfully aware this is in rather short supply, and having to carry lots of the stuff has a relative effect on your aeroplanes performance.Let me explain:

The Spitfire carried 85-90 gallons of liquid gold and had a range of approx 1135 miles

The Eurofighter has a fuel capacity of 880 Gallons of Avtur and a range of 750-800 miles

Result ? Well you would not get any were near as far with a full tank of GoGo juice in a Typhoon as you would in a Spitfire which would be still turning cartwheels whilst the Typhoon heads for the nearest service station.............although the upside to this of course is that the Typhoon pilot would earn a shed load of points on his Tesco club card and be able to keep his Sqn mates in biscuits for many years :-).

I suppose the key point that I am trying to make in this rant is pretty straight forward really.............newer is not always better, and that, in a nutshell is why we are taking a 21 year old Volkswagen Scirocco and not a Bugatti Veyron.......well that and the fact that no one would let us get our hands on one, never mind drive it to Africa !

Is it me or is it getting hot in here ?

I had a taste of what to expect when we go to Morocco in September this week after i managed to not only break off, but then loose the heater control lever !.As luck would have it the lever is not so much broken as detatched, and so once i manage to find the ruddy thing (it's gone missing...looked everywhere and nowt !) i will be able to turn the heater off...because at the mo it's like driving a sauna to work once the engine is warmed up :-).

On a slightly cooler note Leukaemia Research have managed to get details and web links on their site, so hopefully the traffic (it's net slang for viewers !) to this blog will increase a little.

Can I please ask people who read these blogs to make a comment on them if possible ? I don't really care if they are good,bad or indifferent...just let me know that you are out there...please !.

Changing tack (yet again!) I took Scarlet to the Sleaford branch of AW body repairs this morning and had a chat with Mike down there.He took some piccies and we had a good old chat as to the merits...and pitfalls of attempting to drive a 21 year old car with no air conditioning,sunroof or opening rear windows to North Africa, but agreed on one major point and that it is all for a good cause, and (to paraphrase)as John F Kennedy,the then president of the USA said about the NASA Apollo space programme “We choose to go...not because [driving to Morocco] easy, but because [driving to Morocco] is hard, because that goal will serve to measure and organize the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win......and possibly pick up a few duty free's on the way !”.......oh,and to raise lots of money for the charities that we are helping !

One more thing.If by any miracle/act of God/total breakdown of reality I win the Euro Lottery this evening (£95 Million !) please take this post as notice that i intend to keep just a measly £5 Mill, and donate the rest to friends,family and Charity.......I don't care if i do regret saying that, cos i will have £5 million reasons to be happy anyway :-).Don't forget to leave your comments !.

Scirocco...now with build in swimming pool !

I noticed recently that the floor of the car appeared to be...erm...rather moist !.Have made a few enquiries and come to the conclusion that it is being caused by the windscreen seal leaking.....somewhere !.I suppose that with it being a 21 year old car (well it will be on the 31st March) i should expect these sort of "glitches".
It was about this time that i started to read my latest Jezza Clarkson book titled "I Know You Got Soul".I have read most of his others,"On Cars","The World According to" and "Motorworld", and apart from the blasphamy in one of these where he refers to the Roc as "A Ford Scirocco" ! i find his babblings quite entertaining.
Anyway...getting back to my latest read, in which Jeremy makes quite a poingniant and true statement relating to the significance of faults in machines.......such as my leaky window... In the introductionj to the book he says...
"But some machines do have soul.Sometimes,as is the case with Concorde and the AK47,it's because they possess that most of human qualities,a flaw".
Maybe then it's no accident that the Scirocco model was given the type number "53" when it was first being developed....what's significant about 53 i hear you ask !, to which I will refer you to the worlds most famous Volkswagen...Herbie...remember the bonnet number ? And you know what fun and games the drivers of that particular car had don't we :-).

Ode to the Morocco Scirocco !

Ode to the Roc !

I decided to write an ode to Scirocco, but all that would rhyme was the place called Morocco !.so faced with a case of poetic block, i decided to call it "the ode to the Roc" !

Twas back in the 70's when that great man Giugiaro took hold of blank paper a ruler and Biro ...then shouted ......"eureka" ! "i have an idea"...before pottering off for a fresh glass of beer !.

For weeks he did toil, like a man that's possessed , and when he was finished said "i think it's my best !".
gazing down at the drawing he stood and he grinned " such a sleek shape I've drawn it should go like the wind !"

So he called it Scirocco, and the legend was born, and many a driveway this car would adorn, all over the world from Antwerp to Bangkok folks fell in love with the lines of the Roc.

Then in '92 production did cease and Volkswagen laid the Rocco to rest in peace, but 2008 See's the phoenix reborn and the IROC begins a windy new dawn !

Andy W

Dakar Rally cancelled for 2008

I have just read that the Paris-Dakar rally has been cancelled for 2008 due to the murder of a French family in Mauritania.Makes you wonder what the people who did this thought they would acheive by killing a women and 2 children, and severely injuring the father ?
I have often heard people say that it is a wicked world, but what they should really say is that it is a beautiful world with some wicked people in it !.

For more details about the cancelled rally follow this link :

http://www.marathonrally.com/news/dakar_2008_moroccans_saddened_by_dakar_rally_decision.8743.0.html

Meet the team. Andy Ward

Hi there.My names Andy Ward (the one without the dummy !),I'm 41 years old (young ?) and I am the guy who got us all into this mad quest !.

I suppose it's only fair that I give you a quick rundown of my background as I am expecting complete strangers to help our team out on our adventure next September so here goes:

I am currently ,like Glen and Gary, also employed within the NHS but i work for the Kings Mill Hospital as a medical Technical Officer (I repair the machines that "go ping" in hospitals as was featured in a sketch by the Monty Pythons team many years ago !).Before I was employed by the NHS I served for 12 years with the RAF as an Airframes Technician working at several stations including RAF Cranwell,RAF Lyneham,RAF Honington and finally RAF Lossiemouth in the deepest darkest highlands of Scotland.I services and maintained a wide veriety of aeroplanes such Jet provosts,Hercules and Tornado GR1's.

I have been married to my wonderful wife Teresa for 20 years (in July) and we have been blessed with 3 children, Rachel,Lauren and Andrew Jr.

My interests include Ebay,Online games,Messing with my car (yes it's a Scirocco and I have owned 4!) and giving up some spare time (if i can find any these days !) to help out at the Cranwell Aviation Heritage Centre at Rauceby were I maintain their static displayed Jet Provost Tmk4 and other exhibits.

Why am I doing the challenge ? Well in August 2006 I was unfortunate enough to be diagnosed with Chronic Leukaemia, and after a few months in "the wilderness" i got my head back together and decided to turn my efforts to trying to raise money for Leukaemia Research, which is how I ended up together with Teresa, undertaking Roc Around the Clock in August 2007, and at the end of that event we started to think "bigger"....and after a few months of consideration and debate Scirocco 2 Morocco was born and named as such due to the the fact that Morocco just happens to rhyme nicely with Scirocco :-)

I am really glad that we are doing this challenge, and that i will have the company of a very good friend of mine for what i believe will be a memorable trip, and that not just one, but 3 charities are hopefully going to benefit from our efforts.

My fundraising page is at: www.justgiving.com/scirocco2morocco .

Meet the team.Glen Place.

Now that Scirocco2Morocco is underway, we thought it would be a good idea to tell you all a bit about ourselves, so here goes……

My name is Glen Place, Im 31 (in February) and has worked for the NHS for 12 years!! I currently work in Gravesend as a Rehabilitation assistant, helping patients suffering from a variety of neurological illnesses and conditions including MS, Parkinson’s disease, and Stroke.

My hobbies include ‘trying’ to play the guitar, editing videos (I have a few on youtube under gplace01) and, surprise – Sirocco’s! I have owned 8 of these cars since I passed my driving test in 1995 and still have a keen interest today. I am also the events co-ordinator for the Scirocco Register - the UK’s best Scirocco club, and I’m a regular visitor and contributor to the forum (http://www.sciroccoregister.co.uk/).

So, how did I end up volunteering for this venture? Obviously I heard about the idea from its creator – Andy Ward, after meeting him at a few of the Register meets and events in 2007. I even joined Andy and Teresa on their final leg of their ‘roc around the clock’ challenge this year, helping them to achieve their 35 Hospitals visited. Shortly after this venture Andy mentioned an idea to enter something a little more ‘ambitious’ in 2008 and I quickly jumped at the chance to assist him in his efforts. It was only after this decision that Morocco became the ambitious destination! However, this only boosted my interest and determination to help – what an idea!

We decided to support a charity each on our adventure + the Air Ambulance. I chose to support MacMillan partly because so many of us have lost friends and family to cancer and also because my wife Rachel recently lost her Aunt Nell to cancer. It was during this difficult time that I learned how much help and support this charity gives to sufferers of this terrible disease. This has made me all the more determined to raise as much money for them as possible

So that’s me! If you think you can support us on our perilous quest (thought I would add some drama at this point!) please visit my web page at www.justgiving.com/scirocco2morocco-mac or if you would prefer to support one of the other charities we are supporting, click the respective links on my page. I will leave Andy to explain more about these.

Thanks for your support

Glen Place

Wouldn't it be nice to get on Top Gear ?

Having spent countless hours pondering about things we can do to improve our exposure within the community of the W3, i came to the conclusion that in order to gain more attention, you need to gain more profile, and to gain more of a profile you need to get on TV !.
The last time i tried anything like this (Roc Around the Clock) i found that once you get into local papers and local radio it sets in motion something that i refer to as a "snowball effect", in other words once the first steps have been taken, you've appeared (or been heard on !) local radio,or seen in the press, you seem to gain a lot more interest in your project !...that's why we need to get onto BBC Top Gear, because that would be the metaphorical "springboard" that would give us the exposure that we need, and thus more funds would be raised for our selected charities :-).
If anyone knows James May,Richard Hammond or Jeremy Clarkson...put us a good word in !

Bought a camera...i love Ebay !

I bought a video camera for the trip on Tuesday, a Panasonic Full sized S-VHS (on the shoilder job !) that uses your standard full size VHS video cassettes.It comes complete with charger,all leads,battery and carry case, all in full working order and for the pricely sum of...wait for it.....£14.99 :-).
Ok, so its about 19 years old, but that still makes it 2 years younger than the car, and a LOT younger than me and i work ok..well most of the time (my boss says i sometimes don't work at all !...what can he mean ?).
The reason for buying such an antique peice of video history ? Well someone on another Blog (realbuzz.com i think) suggested (after i winged that people doing documentries always get more help cos they have a camera crew) that we invest in a camera, not just any camera, but one that looks like a "proffessional" one (is it 2 ff's or 2 ss's...oh well i'll use both !), so that we can appear (to the unannitiated) to be making a documentry during the drive, and thus gain the trust/help of the locals if we need any "favours"....crafty eh ?.....and of course we will be using it to film our progress also !.
Is that the time...damn, that's lunch finished...better get back :-).

Scirocco 2 Morocco 2008 ...why ?

Why do you do it?

This is a question that I have been asked numerous times, and the answer I suppose is quite simple…because I can!

Even though I have been diagnosed with Chronic Leukaemia so far it is not giving me too many (if any) problems except for the regular blood tests that I have to have in my “watch and wait” regime. And I suppose this is what drives me (excuse the terrible pun!) to do what I can in the way of raising money for cancer charities.
I always told people that in my case I am fortunate to have a relatively slow developing form of the cancer, so I have been given a chance, I suppose you could call it a gift of being able to help not only my self, but also to help other sufferers, some with types a lot more aggressive that mine, and for whom time is not on their side.

Until my diagnosis in 2006 my idea of donating or raising money for charity was probably much the same as anyone else’s….a few quid in a box, a couple of raffle tickets now and then, and perhaps sponsoring someone to do…well something all in the name of a good cause, of course now I have what you would term “a vested interest” in raising money for Leukaemia charities….funny how things seem more interesting and important when they effect you!

You know it really breaks my heart when I see events such as Children in need and comic relief becoming no more than an excuse for “Stars” to peddle and plug their new records and DVD’s. Next time you watch one of these televised extravaganzas just note how long the camera and the presenter spend talking to “ordinary” people who have raised sometimes a few hundred, but often several thousand pounds for a good cause, only to be cut off mid sentence so the “action” can switch back to yet another celebrity who’s main concern seems to be milking as much publicity out of supporting (aren’t they honoured!) a charity. My question is…would they be so enthusiastic to do the gig if it was not televised and they couldn’t mime. Sorry, sing their latest pop offering?The sad reality of the matter is that if all the celebs put a hand deeply into their metaphorical pocket and donated say 5% of their annual earnings, the charity would probably hit their target figure without the need for a show, then they could then dedicate a programme to the mere mortals who carry out charity work time upon time again, without publicity, without drama and without any gain for themselves.