Student Gumball!
Discussion
Just a Heads Up. My son, Ollie, Left on Sunday on the Student Gumball in a £250 Volvo hoping to cross Europe. 
You can track his progress through his website.
You may even wish to donate to his good cause.
You can track his progress through his website. You may even wish to donate to his good cause.
Edited by silentmonkey on Monday 4th September 09:09
Edited by silentmonkey on Monday 4th September 09:10
I wish him & his team all the best, although a £250 volvo is luxury IMHO. I did the Staples to Naples Banger Rally in a £50 (limit was £100) VW Golf and we made it there and back without too many ding'd panels 
We even got our money back for the car from the local scrap yard!! It was one of the best things I've done in a long time and had soooo much fun.
We were going to do the Mongol Rally this year but couldn't get the time off work
Maybe next time.
We even got our money back for the car from the local scrap yard!! It was one of the best things I've done in a long time and had soooo much fun. We were going to do the Mongol Rally this year but couldn't get the time off work
Maybe next time. 
Just had a report from Ollie. God it sounds like fun. Just wish I was a few years younger (30 actually). The live tracking on the website is working well though the GPRS network is a bit intermittent in Budapest. The maps are good and you even get the average speed between updates. Anyway, for those interested here is the report.
First update
Day1
Registration started at 9am in Dover and an amazing sight of 150 stickered up cars. Ferry crossing very choppy but camaraderie started straight away. A team dressed as pirates attempted to take control of the boat but ended up in the bar. Getting off the ferry 150 horns sirens dixies and megaphones all going at once the continent will never be the same again. Into France and the gumball had its first victim, a Saab turbo loosing all brakes. Thankfully the breakdown insurance have provided a Peugeot 407 estate. Into Belgium and the first fuel stop. This took a bit of time and we ended up meeting a Porsche on a blast to spa for a track day. Taking the wrong road we end up going around Antwerp. Damn satnav. we didn't see another gumballer for 2hours and thinking we were miles behind the pack ended up booting it to the right road finally catching up with the organisers car and a convoy of other cars, who led us into cologne.
The hostel was fantastic. We arrived to hear a campervan had broken down in Belgium and wouldn't make it to cologne. Partying at the triple a club followed.
Day2
Today proves to be very eventful all round.
Starting with messages that batman had had the batmobile towed for illegal parking along with 2 other cars. We leave on the endurance leg a 700 km dash to prague and convoy out of cologne with the welsh boyos and the angry mexicans before loosing them and making the most out of the unrestricted autobahns. on the autobahn we get blitsed by a golf gti and a skyline who clocked at 147mph as they passed. We later find out that the skyline has been impounded in Germany for speeding and the guys had to be bailed out of jail by the redbull girls. The border crossing into czech went without too much hassle for us but a number of cars were turned away and one even taken into custody for 3hours while they performed drug tests. Into czech and we catch up with the golf guys and about 20 other cars who are lost. Pulling off a slip road we park up blocking the off ramp to have a meeting and team-geek leads 20 other teams into our hostel in Prague arriving with only one other team in the car park. Once other teams start filtering in we hear of stories of other teams and their bad luck. Today we had 3 cars towed in Germany, 2 cars impounded for 24 hours, strip searches, 1 team crashed into the barrier all are ok, 1500 euro worth of speeding fines and countless breakdowns. And that is only the ones we were told about. the hostel digs here are awful but its a bed for the night.
Partying tonight is organised by redbull at the duplex club in the centre of Prague and turns out to be an amazing night with fantastic views from the roof terrace overlooking the main city centre.
Day 3 so far
We get up to the news that the campervan which broke down in Belgium arrived at 5am but unfortunately left the Lincoln in Germany after waiting with it for 4 hours while a tow truck was arranged, the Lincoln has lost all drive from its auto box. After some caterham donughts and some drag racing antics in the car park we all disperse.
No one wanted to take on the mighty Volvo down the drag strip though.
We are currently leading a convoy of 6 cars out of Czech towards the Slovakian border. Another update later
Ollie and the team.
First update
Day1
Registration started at 9am in Dover and an amazing sight of 150 stickered up cars. Ferry crossing very choppy but camaraderie started straight away. A team dressed as pirates attempted to take control of the boat but ended up in the bar. Getting off the ferry 150 horns sirens dixies and megaphones all going at once the continent will never be the same again. Into France and the gumball had its first victim, a Saab turbo loosing all brakes. Thankfully the breakdown insurance have provided a Peugeot 407 estate. Into Belgium and the first fuel stop. This took a bit of time and we ended up meeting a Porsche on a blast to spa for a track day. Taking the wrong road we end up going around Antwerp. Damn satnav. we didn't see another gumballer for 2hours and thinking we were miles behind the pack ended up booting it to the right road finally catching up with the organisers car and a convoy of other cars, who led us into cologne.
The hostel was fantastic. We arrived to hear a campervan had broken down in Belgium and wouldn't make it to cologne. Partying at the triple a club followed.
Day2
Today proves to be very eventful all round.
Starting with messages that batman had had the batmobile towed for illegal parking along with 2 other cars. We leave on the endurance leg a 700 km dash to prague and convoy out of cologne with the welsh boyos and the angry mexicans before loosing them and making the most out of the unrestricted autobahns. on the autobahn we get blitsed by a golf gti and a skyline who clocked at 147mph as they passed. We later find out that the skyline has been impounded in Germany for speeding and the guys had to be bailed out of jail by the redbull girls. The border crossing into czech went without too much hassle for us but a number of cars were turned away and one even taken into custody for 3hours while they performed drug tests. Into czech and we catch up with the golf guys and about 20 other cars who are lost. Pulling off a slip road we park up blocking the off ramp to have a meeting and team-geek leads 20 other teams into our hostel in Prague arriving with only one other team in the car park. Once other teams start filtering in we hear of stories of other teams and their bad luck. Today we had 3 cars towed in Germany, 2 cars impounded for 24 hours, strip searches, 1 team crashed into the barrier all are ok, 1500 euro worth of speeding fines and countless breakdowns. And that is only the ones we were told about. the hostel digs here are awful but its a bed for the night.
Partying tonight is organised by redbull at the duplex club in the centre of Prague and turns out to be an amazing night with fantastic views from the roof terrace overlooking the main city centre.
Day 3 so far
We get up to the news that the campervan which broke down in Belgium arrived at 5am but unfortunately left the Lincoln in Germany after waiting with it for 4 hours while a tow truck was arranged, the Lincoln has lost all drive from its auto box. After some caterham donughts and some drag racing antics in the car park we all disperse.
No one wanted to take on the mighty Volvo down the drag strip though.
We are currently leading a convoy of 6 cars out of Czech towards the Slovakian border. Another update later
Ollie and the team.
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