Land's End to Lowestoft: Our Blog

Land's End to Lowestoft: Our Blog

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Kesler

Original Poster:

154 posts

144 months

Thursday 22nd September 2016
quotequote all
Hi everyone, I just thought I would share my whole experience with the charity event Run Against The Sun (RATS) with you all, as it’s been overwhelming from start to finish. Initially, the only thing I know about this was that a certain Jeremy Clarkson had done this in a Jaguar XJR, and that episode of Top Gear was rather enjoyable to watch. Often I wondered if that Land’s End to Lowestoft was really achievable, but Clarkson did beat the sunrise with 5 mins to spare, and managed to have a film crew drive with him, which probably meant he couldn’t have sped off that much… could he?

My friend Matt messaged me, he and his friend found this RATS event originally hosted by Rally for Heroes, and the proceeds go to SSAFA, the Armed Forces Charity. This sounded like the challenge we wanted to do; driving hard with a good friend, going past British landmarks at a brisk pace, with one target in mind, raising money for a great cause. He’s got a Nissan 370Z, a 3.7 litre V6 with around 330bhp! At the time, I wasn’t in the best personal situation, feeling a little lost in life and wondering what the next thing to look forward to was, but thankfully this emerged, and my focus was back again.

‘Yes’ I said, ‘let’s do this!’ and Matt put us down for the event. It looked promising, 20+ cars, drivers and co-drivers all signing up to be a part of an epic journey for a great cause. It was initially £50 down to sign up (1 driver only), as I anticipated on documenting everything on camera, filming and doing the photography throughout the journey. But Matt offered to have me insured on the 370Z! This made perfect sense; share the driving to keep concentration levels safe. The bad bit is finding the cost to get myself insured on his car, and then affording that cost. It was a joke, looking through the specialist insurance companies that offer the 1 day temp covers. As soon as they heard ‘370Z’ and ‘3.7 litre’ they all said they couldn’t offer a quote. So I was screwed over and back to being the photographer, no biggie - it’s still going to be an amazing experience. Then - a stroke of good fortune came our way - Matt asked his current insurance company to see on the off-chance how much it would cost to add me on for the day. They offered to put me on his insurance for the remainder of his policy - for £18. EIGHTEEN POUNDS! That’s less than a return train ticket to London! So we added the +1 driver to our sign on fee which was only £10. Epic!

‘This is working out to be pretty amazing’ we thought to ourselves. So we figured we’d push the boundary a bit and make our own fundraising page to see how just much we can achieve on our own. Matt’s friend Hardeep also put his name down, he drives a Ferrari 360 which we were begging him to take for the rally, but you know, it was a daft idea. So instead he bought a Vauxhall/Holden Monaro for the rally! My eyes lit up - this is going to be f&cking amazing. We pressed on and pushed hard for donations and we were moving steadily to an agreed £500 target, we had a fair bit to go, but to get ~£100 within a couple of days was already a success, and we decided to put on a campaign to hit our target. Tarmac Sportz agreed to donate a healthy amount to the pot, for which we were very grateful for, and this was considered the first of many sponsorship deals for our car.


They see me rolling... by Andy Liu, on Flickr

Kesler

Original Poster:

154 posts

144 months

Thursday 22nd September 2016
quotequote all
Then things went a bit sour, as a few days later Rally for Heroes cancelled the event. My heart sank, we were lost for words, wasn’t sure if we were disappointed or angry with this. Hardeep even bought a Monaro for this bloody event! It was fortunate that they refunded everyone their money though, that was something I was afraid we wouldn’t see back. We planned a lot and dreamt big about this event, and now it’s not happening. I was lost and I really didn’t know what do again.

We have a RATS group chat on WhatsApp, and after a couple of days of letting this sink in, considering writing the idea off and looking at other events to do - but then the idea struck us (albeit in a not-so-eloquently spoken way) ; ‘F&ck it, we’ll just do it ourselves’ - and the chat was alive once more with a surge of enthusiasm. So yes, WE’RE DOING IT. I suppose it’s no longer a rally, but more of a challenge - and who else would you want but your friends alongside you to see this through.

So a few weeks went by, and we managed to get some more sponsors on board and it was time we did something special to show our appreciation to our sponsors’ commitment and also to the cause. Matt and I began designing a livery to mark this occasion, to thank every sponsor too and make the car stand out and draw as much attention to the charity as we could. That is, until we realised a small obstacle we needed to overcome - we don’t have money for a livery! It will have to be done on a strict budget; decal stickers will do. It all sounded pretty simple actually, size up the decals, acquire them, apply decals to car.

Ok, it didn’t go as planned, we genuinely thought applying a decal was easy, I mean how hard can it be? Let me tell you = very. Firstly some of our decals were of poor quality and secondly - BUBBLES! It was halfway through applying the decals that we were missing a squeegee to help us fix this - but we were too far in it and had to persevere to the end. To be honest we actually achieved a lot and it looks pretty damn good.

So more time went by and our campaign to promote the challenge and the cause had been successful (we’re getting good at this), and we’re reaching out further than we ever had anticipated, which is overwhelming and exciting to say the least. Matt managed to have an article written in The Herts Advertiser while I drummed up the support from the charity SSAFA and had their social media team push for our success via Twitter. Hardeep began his campaign via social media, collectively we are doing well.










Our RATS Nissan 370Z by Andy Liu, on Flickr


The Nissan 370Z for SSAFA by Andy Liu, on Flickr



Kesler

Original Poster:

154 posts

144 months

Thursday 22nd September 2016
quotequote all
As the time grew closer to the event, our WhatsApp group chat became more serious, and we were planning such things as; Where do we wash the cars prior to Land’s End, where are the jet wash stations? Where we would stop for fuel? WHAT ROUTE? We weren’t panicking, but I’m the type of guy who wants to know everything before we set off, and there was an air of uncertainty about the last question, I’ve only ever been to Cornwall once, Matt’s never been and Hardeep knows some of the roads near the Cornish area, but not 100%. Oh yeah, and since Matt and I are going on the Friday, where are we going to stay? Glastonbury is on the same weekend so all the hotels are either booked up or we need to win the Euro Millions just to afford the accommodation. Matt took charge of this and booked a cottage via AirBNB. AirBNB is not something I’ve ever used, AirBNB, I would normally pick something simple like Travelodge/Premier Inn/Holiday Inn - but he’s done this before, so we proceeded with the cottage in St Ives.

I took charge of looking for a DIY jet wash place, so harnessing the power of social media I decided to message the supermarket chains to find any that were available. Tesco’s closest jet wash was in Redruth, but if we’re going from St Ives then we’d have already passed there, and I don’t see the point in going further away from Land’s End just to get it washed; it needs to be en route. Morrisons came up trumps with a jet wash station in Penzance. So, the plan for the RATS weekend; Friday we drive to St Ives where we’ll stay overnight - Saturday Hardeep joins us and we head to Morrisons Penzance, clean the cars and head to Land’s End, and Saturday night we’ll get going!

Friday arrives, and it’s evident that we have to pack the 370Z using skills developed from playing Tetris - There really isn’t much room in the boot, and while we have packed our stuff in the most minimal fashion (i.e. pack just enough for the weekend), my girlfriend decided (with good intentions, mind!) to pack enough food and drink to last us a month! Bless her, we couldn’t fit everything so it was with heavy heart we left the Pot Noodles, Ruffles and various drinks. However, it must be said that the compartment behind the seats in the 370Z is actually very useful, fitting the food and drink there proved to be a clever move for the journey ahead. So at 10:00am we begin our drive to Cornwall. Our plan? Drive to Bristol first and meet with Hardeep, stretch our legs, have some food, have one last RATS meeting, watch Police Interceptors, then drive down to Cornwall.


CLƩΛN 370Z by Andy Liu, on Flickr

Kesler

Original Poster:

154 posts

144 months

Thursday 22nd September 2016
quotequote all
Ok, first things first - we decided to leave at 10:00am as we felt that we could miss the morning traffic. Oh, boy did we get that wrong. It seems that some people just can’t drive normally, they crash, or leave stupid gaps, or slow down for no reason, or just drive stupidly slow. Either way it causes traffic and it brings us down to 1st/2nd gear strolls on the M25. We eventually break off the M25 to the M4 and head towards Bristol, and the M4 allowed us to open the throttle a bit more, the 370Z showing us what it can do and how it will cope in the run. We eventually get to Bristol, with the car running thoroughly warm, it’s throttle and steering response gives you the impression that it’s barely broken a sweat, and it wants to eat up more miles. The Cybox exhaust on the 370Z is also drawing a lot of attention (er, as well as the fully liveried body…). Matt’s put the Z in S-mode, allowing for auto blipping on downshifts, and the Cybox is allowing the exhaust system to crackle and pop on the downshifts. It sounds amazing, but we do forget how loud it is, especially in a city…

We pulled up at Hardeep’s place, a perfect time to get out of the car and stretch our legs, and also to stop for a bite to eat. Hardeep arranges some pizzas for lunch while we have a catch up (Matt and Hardeep went to university together), and plan ahead. Hardeep’s not having much luck with having a co-driver; his first one dropped out because the dates clashed, the second co-driver just didn’t fancy it, and the third is ill! He’s holding out to the end but there is a possibility he’s driving down to Cornwall on his own.

Food and drink consumed, we get back to the cars and we move some of the items from the 370Z in to the Monaro. We take the cleaning products out and move it over, as we’d only be cleaning the cars on Saturday afternoon, so this freed up a bit of space in the Z. Opening the boot of the Monaro, I was surprised to see the space wasn’t as much as I thought. The position of the fuel tank hinders a lot of the boot space you would expect the Monaro would have, especially when you judge it by the sheer size of the car. Perhaps it was done as a ballast? Maybe they built the car then forgot about the fuel tank? I don’t know, but I’m told the fuel tank is saddle-shaped so the readings can be a bit off when you’re on a spirited drive and fuel levels are low, which is reminiscent of the 370Z and their issue when the fuel is low (when the fuel levels are low and you’re hooning the Z around, it could starve the engine! - fingers crossed this won’t happen here).



We repack both cars and we left Hardeep to continue our journey down to St Ives - this time I’m behind the wheel. This is the first purposeful drive in the Z (the other times I’ve driven the 370Z to get used to it was the odd drive here or there) so initially I was a little bit nervous, so much that I missed the turning to leave Hardeep’s estate! Once I turned the car around and made our way back out I religiously followed the sat nav, and make it back to the motorway - phew! Back to the easy part of driving, or so I thought… We ate up quite a few miles until we hit traffic, lots of traffic. So much traffic, and we realise the motorway was blocked both ways to allow a helicopter to land as there was a monumental collision.

When the gridlock eased we decided to try and make up the time lost sitting back there, and it was then I realised the real potential of the 370Z as we edge closer to RATS. The acceleration really does take you back into your seat, despite the sheer weight of the car the power is definitely on tap. Granted, we’re on the motorway, but the handling sure does feel immediate - the steering feedback, perhaps it doesn’t match something like the GT86 but it sure does talk to you, a lot more than other cars within this bracket. The car is very much composed over the bumps of the British roads set us up for which, though is a good sign for now, we still don’t know how it will cope on Cornish roads - but we’ll soon find out.

I pull a decent stint, bringing us to Exeter Services, which gave us a chance to stretch our legs and the much needed toilet breaks. Matt found a very good app on his phone which rivalled the Road Angels called ‘Cyclops’ and was looking for an in-car phone holder - though luck wasn’t on his side so we had to rig the app’s audio through the car so if it pinged, we’ll know to be aware of something. We grab some more drinks for the journey and set off again, with the next stop being Cornwall. This brings us to the A30, where it has been decided to do a lot of roadworks, and there is a contraflow - not that this mattered as we were gridlocked again.

Kesler

Original Poster:

154 posts

144 months

Thursday 22nd September 2016
quotequote all
We finally make it to Cornwall, and we now low on fuel, thinking we should stop at the next petrol station we find only to talk ourselves into the notion that there will be another one closer to St Ives. After the 3rd petrol station we passed, Matt decided enough is enough, and we pulled into a Shell and brimmed the Z. I make my way over to pay and the attendant asked what all the decals were on the car, and what we were doing. I’m very surprised to see everyone’s reaction when I tell them what we’re doing it for, and we get a host of ‘good luck, make it there safely’ from the attendant, their manager and also from the others queueing up. We haven’t even begun the challenge and already I felt that rewarding feeling. This only fuels us with more confidence and energy, and we make our way to St Ives.


FUΞL by Andy Liu, on Flickr



We finally made it, well, ish. The sat nav postcode only took us to the road but we weren’t sure whereabouts the house was. Stopping at the first building we see and finding our bearings, Matt moved onwards to the tightest of private single lane overgrown country road (if, it could be passed as a road), and if by magic, another building emerges through the bushes, and we’re greeted with this massive house - or so I thought. It turns out that the building is cut up into multiple living arrangements, and we have the little bit on the end. Still, it’s not all bad, we park up having the double doors letting a lot of light in, and from the sofa inside we get to see the beautiful countryside and a big fat 370Z right in front of the doors. We have an upstairs, a kitchen, a bathroom, but one bed. This is awkward.

We couldn't find the owner of the house too, so Matt emails them and clarifies we booked for a 2 bed. We dumped our stuff from the car in the house and go out to get some food. This is where we find Cornwall’s true limitation of driving a wide car through the coastal town.





We drive to the coast and look for parking, and the route takes us through the harbour, where, although it is a road, it looks like a road where cars rarely use it, and pedestrians are everywhere; pavement, road, beach, boat, pub etc. It’s not long before everyone stops and stares at a 370Z with a charity livery and a loud Cybox exhaust trying to ‘quietly’ navigate through St Ives. We weave through at a snail’s pace, and randomly the road ends and we have to turn left and up a very steep hill where there is a sign on the far side that indicated a car park is that way. After this left it’s a sharp right and we find we are turning through to a tight coastal village, designed for horses rather than cars. I trust Matt’s spacial awareness with the front of the car, making sure we don’t hit a house or move a plant pot, while I stick my head out of the car like a dog, checking the massively flared rear arches doesn’t clip a wall or kill a child or something.

Eventually we make it to a car park, and it took a good 20 minutes to pay for parking via telephone as neither of us had any change. Once that was settled we then realised we were perfectly placed to do a little sightseeing, and climb up this hill with a tiny church at the top, and turn around to look over the beautiful sight of St Ives. We then went into the town to find a place to eat - and decided on the Seafood Cafe. It’s great there, locally sourced seafood, reasonably priced, open late. It’s definitely what we needed!











We head back to the house and find that we were supposed to have a second bed - as clarified in the emails and booking confirmation. I discover the shower gives me the choice of barely lukewarm, cold and freeze your tits off cold - Yet the sink gives you hot or burn your hands off hot. Matt chose to sleep in the bed upstairs while I opted to sleep on the sofa downstairs, hoping I could get the laptop open to transfer some photos over and review the footage we had taken that day. This didn’t happen, even though we were assured wireless Internet there wasn’t any. There was barely any signal on my phone too! We waited for the owner to drop by with another duvet and pillow for me, which would be ‘about half an hour’. I’m not exactly sure how it would take this long just to get me something to sleep in, but we waited for another 2 hours and called it quits; this is not going to be a good sleep for me.

Kesler

Original Poster:

154 posts

144 months

Thursday 22nd September 2016
quotequote all
I wake up the following morning with neck ache, back pains and a crampy leg. Matt slept like a baby. Therefore he makes breakfast and since this house hasn’t gone completely to plan, and we did pay for all of it, it makes sense that we use EVERYTHING to make breakfast. We got changed, donned the PistonHeads shirts, packed our stuff up and got ready to chill out for the day in St Ives, before meeting up with Hardeep in the Monaro. Matt is driving this morning, as I sit in the passenger seat with a dissatisfied face from the lack of sleep.

We paraded the 370Z through the tight and twisty streets of St Ives, before parking and chilling out in the town, and we found the main street for all the shopping, so we begin looking for souvenirs. The sun was coming out, temperature rising, and from this we can only sit back and enjoy the weather, the beautiful sunny skies of Cornwall - with a Cornish pasty no less.



What is still an overwhelming feeling to this day, is the support from the public seeing us in the car and those who were asking us what we are doing there and what it was all for. One of the shop owners asked us, and when we told her she actually dipped into her till and offered a donation to the cause - it was such a sweet and lovely moment, I highly doubt that would have happened back in our home towns. I tell the lady our plans now to meet up with Hardeep and find somewhere to wash the cars and she pointed out a purpose built DIY hand wash place in St Ives ‘just past the fire station’. Sounding like the perfect solution, we jumped into the Z and made our way over to this place which is situated in a business park. The area looks good, no sand or dirt around, although we didn’t want to use the machine’s own shampoo, brush, etc. as we had sponsored detailing products that are… in Hardeep’s car. D’oh. We decided to clean the interior with the machine vacuum cleaner and top up the car with the relevant fluids to be as prepared as we can. After all the shopping, eating, drinking and chilling, we were ready to leave St Ives - by this time, Hardeep has phoned in and is close to St Ives, so we left the washing place as we didn’t want to hog the spot in case people wanted to get their cars cleaned, and we parked on the side.



A few moments later, we hear the faint sound of a V8 burbling by - HE’S HERE! We wait again and we see the nose of a red Monaro pull into the road, Matt waves him down and Hardeep thunders up the road - what a glorious sound! He turns around and parks behind the Z. We begin sorting out the comms and sponsored electronics (cables, power banks, in car chargers, etc.) to each car, test them to make sure they’re all fully functional, then plan the next destination to wash the cars - we decided against washing it in St Ives because the journey to Land’s End would inevitably cake both cars in dirt/dust, so it would be better to do it closer to the destination. And that would be Penzance - Morrisons Penzance to be exact, they have a DIY jet wash where you get to select your own functions instead of washing the car in a sequence dictated by a buzzer. So it’s my turn to get some driving under my belt today, and it will be the first time I drive a manual V8.







First things first; the Monaro is enormous! I’ve seen many pictures of it online, but in person and especially in the car you get the feeling of a BIG car. There is so much space inside the car, and it’s not often I see proper sporty seats in the rear as well! The steering wheel is quite large, and as with imports the indicator and wiper stalks are switched over. The dash is simple, and with a big V8 it’s not really a requirement to have so much gadgetry displayed in front of me when I’m driving - all I need is the sound of that thunderous engine, and am I still within the speed limit, everything else isn’t really a must-have. There’s only one in car charging port, which although isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things, one would have thought there would be a second one in a car of this size.

It is also pleasing for me to see that this car is MINT. and I mean it, it’s so clean. Both Hardeep and Matt take a lot of pride in their cars and it really does show. I fire up the Monaro, the engine sounds like it’s struggling to crank but eventually gets going - once it does fire up the sound of that V8 barks at you, and the exhaust sounds very free-flowing - the idle sound is rather loud when you stand behind it, though it’s fairly subtle sounding from the side and front of the car. Matt fires the Z up, and I’m engrossed in a symphony of a 6.0 litre LS2 V8 and a 3.7 litre V6. Half of St Ives must’ve woken up from the sound of these cars in the hills!




Kesler

Original Poster:

154 posts

144 months

Thursday 22nd September 2016
quotequote all
We make our way to Penzance. The first thing I notice is that the clutch has a lot of travel. In fact, all the pedals though, perhaps I’m just a short arse and Aussie cars are made for tall people? Either way it felt like a long time for me to find any biting point but off we go. This made changing gear very slow and lazy, but I think that’s the characteristic of this car, it’s just got brute power, big brute lazy power. The steering is well, like a barge. There’s not really anything else I could describe it as, coming from a GT86, FK2 and 370Z the Monaro just has A LOT of steering for minimal turning. Again I treat it as another characteristic, a personality of the car, which I’m sure I could get used to but it just means turns have to be taken with care, while the suspension is stiffened, the Monaro is a big heavy beast and there is the inevitable body roll - and, because I’m not putting much power down and not quite used to the overall handling/steering yet, quite a bit of understeer. It’s a massive change coming some very torque-less cars to this, and I quickly learn I don’t have to downshift and stress other parts of the car, and just take a turn in 6th or 5th. One thing I most definitely had to learn quickly from, are the brakes. In my eyes, they are shocking. Hardeep explains the aftermarket option of some AP Racing BBKs albeit at a cost of £2k, which I think could have really helped inspire confidence under braking, but the current setup has made me feel that IF there is a car/junction/obstacle ahead, hit the brakes now. A few miles into the convoy and I find myself warming to the car, though short-shifting without realising. I try putting my foot down hard on the throttle, only to find my foot is stretching to put the pedal to the metal - I check the revs and I’m near the red line. ‘That’ll do’ I say to myself, through the thunderous V8 sound booming in the cabin.

We pull up at Morrisons, and pretty much block off the jet wash area. We get all the washing gear out of the Monaro and Matt 370Z lines up to get the washing going, as Matt and Hardeep gives the car a rinse before the shampoo, I take our pop-up bucket to the kiosk and kindly asked the manager to fill it up with water. As the manager comes back with the water he is all too aware what we are here for, and give us his advice of taking the M5 > M4 route over the A303 > M3, ‘to ensure we get there with minimal traffic’. Thank you Mr Morrisons petrol station manager! We used the supplied detailing products from our sponsors which pretty much covered everything between the 2 cars, including some sealant for the Monaro. After we finished with the Z we move it out and bring the Monaro in and repeat the process. As we finish up washing the cars we dive in to buy some drinks and snacks for the night, and finally set off for Land’s End - this time I jump in the Z and discuss my experience driving the Monaro with Matt.



We finally arrive in Land’s End, a bit later than planned and we find that Josh, the marketing manager for Land’s End who is aware of our arrival has gone home for the day. In fact, it looks like nearly everyone has gone home. We park up by Greeb Farm and as make our way towards the First and Last signpost, where we saw a lot of tourists hanging around getting their photos taken, a couple of other drivers walk over and ask us if we’re doing the challenge too. They’re both from the PistonHeads forum and learn that this is not their first time.





There’s no way in getting our custom signage up on the First and Last post, literally every shop has closed. The only thing that is open is the restaurant - perfect - as we look to have our final meal before the challenge. We couldn’t go to Cornwall and not have Cornish fish and chips (again) could we!



So midway through the meal we finally come across a topic I so very much wanted planned early on; what route do we take? Mr Morrisons Man says M5 > M4, but as Matt contests, the A303 > M3 route is shorter, ‘and more fun’. We also plan our pitstops for fuel, and the order of drivers. The conversations moves from the dinner table to the First and Last post, where we find several motorbikes lined up right by the edge of the coast. It turns out all but one of the bikers were doing a Harley Davidson tour, and one was here for the challenge too, via the PistonHeads forum. Since he managed to get a motor in right to the edge, I’m sure Land’s End won’t mind a Monaro and 370Z parking with him too - so we walked back to the cars, fired them up and crawled our way through the authorised personnel only road. This prompted the other drivers to bring their cars over too, and I learn that this is where a certain Jeremy Clarkson officially started his run. This makes it even more official - and accurate, and we all confirmed our target is to beat Clarkson’s time of ‘5 mins before sunrise’.





Now, Summer Solstice this year was actually Monday 20th June, so we’ve gone past our longest day of the year (to result in the shortest night of the year) already. Without knowing the minute/minutes each day changes by, we assumed a minute a day… ish. Something like that, and decided the way to truly beat Clarkson is to add this on to his time, so adding another 5 mins or so meant that we needed to beat the Sunrise by 10 minutes. Well, that’s what we all agreed, and what we also agreed was that we will take the M5 > M4 route, yes it is longer, and ‘boring’ according to Matt, but with less traffic and an increased chance to beat the time and successfully complete the challenge for all our sponsors, we felt this was the right thing to do. However, it does look like we are the only team doing this route. The motorcycle, Saab 9-3 (tuned to 200bhp I’m told) and Honda Accord (which, the driver confirms he won’t need to stop as a large fuel tank and economic engine will see him to Ness Point) are all going the A303 way.

Our proposed pit-stops: Leigh Delamere services on the M4 and South Mimms services on the M25. The first pit stop is ~225 miles from Land’s End, and I’ve not really seen Matt and Hardeep drive in a fuel saving mode before, so it’s touch and go if we even make it to Leigh Delamere! We look at the time again, 8:45pm. The clouds scattered across the sky covers the sun, which gives us a bit of a guessing game of when the sun sets, but we stick to our preplanned time of 9:34pm. The Harley group leaves, and only the RATS teams and tourists remain here as the time draws closer to our departure time. 9:00pm - I head back to the Land’s End restaurant toilets to get changed into something more comfortable for the challenge, the only time I’ve ever accepted chav-attire out in public! And back to the cars I go, where I change the batteries in the comms and test them one more time, checking the Road Angels in each car, etc.

We’re becoming a little anxious and nervous, and huddled together we decide on one thing - if we’re ever going to be in with a shout of completing this before the sunrise, our first stint is going to have to be done quickly. And when I meant quickly, I meant fast - very fast. The first stint in theory should be clear, and we’re expecting the second stint to have traffic. Matt smiles, what we agreed on must be music to his ears. And to be sure we won’t lose any time in the first stint, Matt and Hardeep will be driving first. We see a massive tour coach slowly leaving. ‘I hope that’s not going the same route we’re heading’ says Hardeep, planning the route in his head well in advance.









It’s now 9:30pm, and with a few minutes to go we fire up the cars and get them up to temp. The other drivers fire up and get ready too, all this planning, all the promoting, campaigning, advertising has all come to this. And the sound of all the engines and exhausts from all the cars and the bike in such a confined area is starting to draw some attention from all the tourists and diners at the bar/restaurant. From what I could see, there are 2 ways to get from where we were back to the car park and thus the exit; the left hand side of the building will be the same route that we crawled through to get to the cliff, and the right side seemed like a wide road which is slightly more direct to the exit road - this is where we’ll head.


Kesler

Original Poster:

154 posts

144 months

Thursday 22nd September 2016
quotequote all
I’m riding shotgun in the Monaro, and we’re all mentally preparing for the drive ahead. The other drivers are looking at us, I think we’re dictating the time. The biker shouts over to us ‘WHEN ARE WE GOING?’ - I look at our clock, about 20 seconds to go, and as much as I plead to Hardeep to just go now, he’s adamant we do this right. I count down and shout: ‘...4… 3… 2… 1… GO GO GO!’ we blare our horns like we’ve won the world cup, everyone is revving their tits off - this is actually happening! Matt shoots off into the lead, The biker follows close behind him, and we follow them, with the Saab 9-3behind us. But wait - the Honda Accord driver, he takes the left exit as we all go right - we find out coming over to the main car park exit that the Honda is firmly last, and unfortunately, this is the last we actually saw of him. Perhaps he is playing the tactical game - after all, he doesn’t need to stop for fuel.

It was mesmerising seeing Matt throwing the 370Z in the turns, for something I always thought was a heavy beast, he made it look like the car was dancing over the crests and bumps, and the whole car turns like it was a lightweight track car. I know the handling of the 370Z was good, but I’ve never seen the car move like that before. This was also an opportunity to see Hardeep drive the Monaro properly, and hearing that LS2 roar was incredible, the sheer torque and speed we were going was unbelievable. We were on the hunt as the biker could had more of the road width to navigate through and didn’t require a full car width to overtake.

We saw ahead one car just trundling along, leaving Land’s End after an enjoyable day out with the family, probably had a nice meal overlooking the beautiful scenery, and having a gentle drive home. Like a scene out of Fast & Furious, 5 vehicles overtake it within a few seconds. We press on, flying through the single road out of Land’s End and find 3 more vehicles we would need to get past. Matt radios in ‘We need to pass these cars ASAP’, the biker makes a move and overtakes 2 of the 3 cars..

‘We really need to pass these cars, we can’t afford to get held up on this stint’, I say to Hardeep. His usual happy face, now just a face of concentration. There’s another downhill slope with good visibility, here’s our chance to safely pass - Matt V6 screams as he passes 2 cars and gets stuck behind the third one. Hardeep take a bite of the cherry, realises we won’t make 2 cars, and pulls back in. We turn our attention to pass the next 2 cars in front when the lights turn green, luckily after the turning there’s a clear stretch of road and we overtook the remaining 2 cars with ease. Matt was quite far in front, seeing as he was able to clear the 3 cars before us he went to hunt down the biker, leaving us with the task of checking the sat nav while making up ground.

As the co-driver of the Monaro, and experiencing how Hardeep drives this, you can definitely tell that the car has a certain character; yes it’s heavy, doesn’t steer too well, doesn’t stop too well, but the engine and that sound, and the fact that you almost have to understand the car and nurse it round corners at its limit and then make it thunder down the long straights makes you grow fond of it. Before I was a strong V8 fan in the form of Mercedes’ 6.2 litre M156 beast, but I’m now a firm believer in the charismatic Chevrolet LS2 VXR spec that’s in this Monaro. We did discuss whether we should alter the centre section of the exhaust to make it scream more, but actually with its current custom exhaust setup - it’s brilliant.

We look at the long straight road and come to a crest to find that the next vehicle was in fact, the coach that left Land’s End earlier in the evening, and the sheer joy of simply putting your foot down and feeling that surge of power making you effortlessly overtake is rather addictive! Still taking in the realisation that we’ve actually planned everything and are now driving, we fly through the A30 and make a break for the M5 - this is where we begin to see people disappearing to their own alternate routes, and we settle down on the motorway, calculating MPG, range, distance to the first pitstop and overall timing. With regular radio transmissions, we ensured both cars are running fine and fuels levels were relatively safe. It must’ve been fatigue for the weekend setting in but we weren’t 100% sure if the service station was open for fuel (duh, of course it is!), so I called up the Leigh Delamere services to double check. Thinking about it now, that was a stupid thing to do, why wouldn’t it be open??

After a healthy stint on the M5 we noticed a car’s reflectors ahead, and it had to be didn’t it; a police car. It was our worst possible situation, trying to get to Leigh Delamere services by managing our fuel levels based on a constant speed as well as doing it in good time, but with the police car directly in front of us, I was frantically on the radio, discussing what we can do to get pass this rolling 65 mph roadblock. Our heart sinking moment was when we said over the radio ‘if this police car stays on the motorway we can kiss our chances of completing it in time goodbye’. This then lead to a very stupid decision; as the Matt’s 370Z had quite a blatant livery, we decided to slowly overtake the police car in the Monaro to take their attention away from Matt. Once we overtook the police car Matt radios in ‘he’s definitely following you, I’ll back off’. Several miles later it seems that the police car must’ve got bored and turned off at a junction. We should have got Matt to follow the it off on the slip road to ensure he didn’t try and fool us by going off and coming straight back on to see what we were really up to - but we all continued driving, while I was constantly looking behind via the mirrors to check every slip road entering the motorway of any suspicious looking cars. All of this cost us a lot of time and once we concluded that the coast was clear we put our foot down to try and make up the time. Not only did we lose time, it damaged our strategy as the catching up had a detrimental effect on both cars’ economy.

After several calculations to the cars’ current fuel levels, MPG and distance to our pitstop it meant we would have to drive the final few miles to Leigh Delamere services on fumes - it wasn’t a risk we wanted to take so we looked for the most appropriate service station to stop at, which would also be our toilet break and driver rotation, as well as the refuel. Sedgemoor services, or Gordano services? Gordano would be the more ideal stop as we would be within striking distance to the M4. Matt shouts over the radio “I REALLY NEED THE TOILET” - Sedgemoor it is then.

Like a well trained pit crew, we pull up to Sedgemoor services Shell station, Matt opens his door and the fuel filler cap of the 370Z, leaves both open and runs to the toilet for a splash ’n’ dash. I grab my gear out of the Monaro and pack the 370Z, grabbing the pump and getting the car refuelled. Hardeep makes a call and decides to stay on as a driver for the second stint in the Monaro. We shouted over ‘ARE YOU SURE?’ He was damn sure, he was incredibly determined and this spurred us on. After this pitstop Hardeep would be driving the Monaro solo, while I will be driving the 370Z and Matt will be my co-driver. I finish with the pump and make a run for the toilet, Matt finishes his toilet break, runs over to pay while Hardeep continues to refuel the Monaro. Like clockwork, we all complete the pitstop at the same time, and Hardeep leads the drive - we jump in the 370Z and I adjust the seat (as I’m a shortarse), fire up the Z and hoon it out of the station. Immediately the intensity is there as I commit to an overtake on a car on the slip to the motorway. Matt laughs his head off, either in disbelief, adrenaline or fear - I’ll take any, we don’t have any more time to lose.

For the remainder of the M5, the motorway seemed quite empty - and understandably so, we are driving in the middle of the night and have passed the Glastonbury area a while back. We drive side by side, radioing each other of the data, MPG, fuel level and calculated range. Oddly enough we concluded that so long as we don’t have any more hiccups we should be able to make it all the way to Lowestoft. This raised our morale so we got our head down and drove on to the M4.

Of course, nothing is ever easy - We indicate to move to the left lane, and a further left lane emerges which I drive to. Hardeep stays in what now is the second lane. ‘He needs to move left, he needs to move left’ Matt shouts to me, rather worryingly. Is he sensing something? You’re damn right he is. We turn off for the M4 - but Hardeep continues driving the Monaro onwards on the M5. ‘He’s missed the f*cking turning!’ exclaims Matt. Shortly after Hardeep phones us, the radios were out of range and exhaustion must have set in for him have missed this turning. We were worried about the ‘no more problems’ as it would seriously hinder our time to reach Lowestoft. Hardeep will have to drive to the next junction, turn around, drive back, turn around again and make the turning for the M4.

I ask Matt ‘what should I do?’, and was told to keep at a relatively steady speed to allow Hardeep to catch us. We aren’t going to leave a man behind! The fatigue must really have taken its toll on Hardeep as he didn’t have a break from driving. Bristol to St Ives, then to Penzance and Land’s End, and now this - all within the day, and now to think we are driving to the finish line. With a few miles left before we reach the M25 - a flash of lights from behind, and a red Monaro flies by - Hardeep is back! We clock him flying past us, and we knew this is back on and it’s ours for the win.

We also saw a white Hyundai I40 fly by,which was very suspicious, as apart from us, who else would be driving like this at this time in the night? We avoid provoking anything and get to the M25. There’s something about a sense of familiarity now that we’re back on the M25, our energy levels increased a little and Matt tracks every gantry for us, working in parallel with the Cyclops app on his phone to track the HADECS cameras hidden on the M25. The temptation to turn off on the M25 to go home and sleep was difficult to resist, but we soldiered on, going at a good pace when we can and ensuring we don’t get complacent where the cameras are.

South Mimms services is soon on our radar, and we number crunch again to see if we need to stop again, or go for the finish in Lowestoft. We calculated that we won’t be at risk of arriving at Lowestoft on fumes and decided not to stop. So this is it - M25, A12 and we should be there. We check our ETA and we realise we are going to make it to Ness Point in time! This news travelled to both cars and with 3 massive grins, we continued our journey on the M25 to the A12.

I found the A12 strange, it was like a computer game where it was a dual carriageway with pretty much no straight roads, just sweeping bends. At no point were you able to relax on a straight, but this allowed me to think about the car I was driving again. The 3.7 litre V6 from Nissan really delivers with the power punch in acceleration. Shifting what is classed as a heavy car with such speed off from standstill - the petrol station back at Sedgewood was a good example. I’m not known for driving fast but this car encourages you to be quite the hooligan - with minimal effort. So much of the 370Z’s perception based on online reviews and videos has been swept to one side and the real life, first hand experience tells me that this car is quick. Steering feedback is fantastic and the car dances through the turns. I’m absolutely in awe of these cars that we’ve taken, 2 really different cars, but each with their own X-factor. The Monaro has brute power but you’ll find it’s handling limitations rather quickly (this does mean the line of sensible to stupidly good fun if you know what you’re doing, can get crossed very easily), and the 370Z is a Japanese concoction of V6 power in a Grand Touring coupé, decent power and precise handling really gives you that confidence on the road.

We continue on the A12, finding that our times are tumbling and it’s not so much ‘are we going to make it in time’, but more of ‘how much can we beat the sunrise by’. This put us in great stead for the finish. that is, until Matt decides to win the award for worst bladder control ever known to man, and asks for another toilet break.

We stop on the hard shoulder of the A12, for our makeshift Bear Grylls style toilet break, and decide on another driver swap. We’re so close now, but the consensus was that the owners of the cars would make it to the finish line - so Matt is back driving the 370Z, but Hardeep, with three stints in a row! I honestly didn’t know if this was dangerous or not but he was adamant on completing this. So here we are, the original lineup at the start of this drive will now be the lineup to finish it, and we hooned it through the A12 at speed.

The road soon became a single lane, but that didn’t slow us down. Trees was just a blur flying by either side and the brightness from the imminent sunrise lighting up what was ahead. We checked the fuel levels and everything is remarkably in order. We checked the times again and we are well within the declared sunrise time, so we have another conversation over the radio; Are we going to be the first to get to Ness Point? We really didn’t know as we didn’t know how all the others got on. I thought the guy with the motorbike would get there first as he was nimble through the traffic so was able to get a good headstart on the others, but what about the Honda Accord who didn’t need to stop? And the guy in the Saab? Matt believes we WILL be the first, and as he said this, we notice a car up ahead in the distance - it better not be another police car.

We drove closer and found - of all cars - it’s the same Hyundai I40 from before that was driving pretty hard! Could it be… he’s doing the challenge too?

‘Guys, we’ve been driving for hours, we’re not going to get beaten by a f*cking Hyundai’ Matt announces over the radio. We’re all in agreement, and proceed to chase the I40, lining it up with a swift overtake on the A12. The Hyundai’s keeps an impressive pace but both the 370Z and the Monaro make it past safely, and we stormed ahead.

Kesler

Original Poster:

154 posts

144 months

Thursday 22nd September 2016
quotequote all
We enter Lowestoft, and we look to find the train station and Marina theatre as Gas Works Road is very close by. ‘Find the big blue thing and it’ll be the next right’ I reiterate on the radio. Looking back at all of this, my input on the radio is poor, perhaps it was fatigue setting in after an eventful weekend, but thankfully the others understood.

And… We made it. Parked at Ness Point, it was evident that we are the first to arrive too, so not only did we ‘get P1’, we also beat the sunrise by a solid chunk. This was an amazing adventure, and an outstanding drive from both Matt and Hardeep. An incredible team to do the challenge with, and while I congratulate the team for achieving this in spectacular fashion, a special mention goes to Hardeep who drove through all three stints, what a warrior.

The results:
P1) Nissan 370Z / Vauxhall Monaro VXR (Kesler | Topless360 | Matt370z)
P2) Hyundai I40 (unknown driver!)
P3) Saab 9-3 (James2593)
P4) Kawasaki Z1000SX (early_911)
P5) Honda Accord! (forgot your name on here mate sorry!)

The sunrise as expected, was breathtaking.











And... I got to drive the Monaro home afterwards smile



This was an incredible adventure, we’d like to thank everyone who helped us in any way shape or form to get us through the challenge, be it sponsorship, donations, or general encouragement and support, it helped us immensely.

And I personally thank my team-mates, Matt and Hardeep. We came into this challenge as friends, and came out of it as brothers.



A few months down the line we catch up for a round at Top Golf and a little drive, the Monaro sold after the adventure and replaced by a Z4M smile


R?TS R?UNIØN by Andy Liu, on Flickr

Edited by Kesler on Thursday 22 September 14:07


Edited by Kesler on Thursday 22 September 14:09


Edited by Kesler on Thursday 22 September 14:30

Khaki Suit

500 posts

163 months

Thursday 22nd September 2016
quotequote all
Cracking adventure and write up! Thanks for sharing.

Kesler

Original Poster:

154 posts

144 months

Friday 23rd September 2016
quotequote all
Khaki Suit said:
Cracking adventure and write up! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you! It was an unforgettable experience, and writing it brought back all the memories of having such an epic time out.

Chris99

353 posts

159 months

Friday 23rd September 2016
quotequote all
Superb adventure and cracking writeup smile

Kesler

Original Poster:

154 posts

144 months

Friday 23rd September 2016
quotequote all
Chris99 said:
Superb adventure and cracking writeup smile
Thank you very much!! smile

countzero

392 posts

217 months

Sunday 25th September 2016
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Great stuff, hoping to do this trip next year for charity

Kesler

Original Poster:

154 posts

144 months

Sunday 25th September 2016
quotequote all
countzero said:
Great stuff, hoping to do this trip next year for charity
Thanks mate, it's a fun challenge using thirsty cars and really good for charity!

Bluedot

3,573 posts

106 months

Monday 26th September 2016
quotequote all
Chris99 said:
Superb adventure and cracking writeup smile
Yep, echoes my sentiments thumbup