Where to start? 11 countries, 4 days, and a car worth under £1,500.00. How hard could it be?
Verity Interiors was lucky enough to be invited by the Blues Foundation to enter a car in their first-ever Banger Rally. Starting from their fabulous ground on Goldington Road, the journey took us through France (twice), Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany (twice), Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, and finally arrived in Porec, Croatia, covering 1400 miles.
Given the Blues Foundation’s work to support children in the community through rugby values and promoting positive lifestyle choices, it was a no-brainer to join.
First up, finding a partner to share the driving. Enter Ed Franklin, Managing Director of Absolute and Nomad Cases. Then, the car: a 256,000-mile 1996 L400 V8 Lexus, which soon became known as the ‘Legend.’
Day one was a short domestic trot to Folkestone, a train trip to France, and then 10 over-excited teams getting a little well-refreshed at Chateau Tilques… first country ticked off.
Day two took us to the historic and beautiful cities of Northern Europe. After a long lunch in Trier, Germany, the last 50km to our overnight stop at the Grand Hotel Filippo was more like a sprint race, and it was quite eventful in the ‘Legend.’
Day three was incredible. Four countries visited, 425 miles covered, and a chance to visit the Zugspitze viewing gallery in Germany. Perched at 3000m on the border with Germany and Austria, it’s one of the world’s most spectacular mountain range views. This was followed by a quick 2-hour drive to our bed for the night at Hotel Kohlerhof.
Day four was a real highlight: tackling Austria’s Grobglockner Alpine High Road. This was a bit challenging for the 3-ton ‘Legend,’ which needed 12 litres of extra water to make it to the top! On the way down, we had brake failure, along with two others. Things got even more interesting when we got caught up in the Tour of Austria cycling race ????.
After escaping the closed roads and peloton, a quick run to Lienz gave us more white-knuckle excitement on the toboggan run before we finally arrived in beautiful Porec, Croatia.
The awards at the final supper were varied (and not fit for social media) but a good laugh, and all were in good spirits.
The trip wrapped up with a little 1000-mile, 15-hour drive back to Caen, via the Mont Blanc tunnel, which the ‘Legend’ took in stride. We were the absolute last vehicle onto the boat!
A huge thank you to The Blues Foundation, The Bedford Blues, our fellow adventurers, helpers on the Alpine High Road, and our sponsors who raised an incredible £9,000.00 for the foundation’s work.
Can’t wait for the next one!
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