10.02.09: Bangers4BEN – the success story in full
February 10th, 2009 by James Baggott
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1,496 miles, three days, seven fill ups, one flat tyre and a leaking radiator – but our £200 chariots made it.
No, I can’t quite believe it either. But you know the really shocking bit? We didn’t get caught in traffic once.
Not once did we have to stop and wait in a traffic queue other than at a red light.
Considering we’ve quite literally covered the length of Britain I think that’s even more amazing than the fact our Bangers made it.
I’m not going to say it was easy. The very fact I’m writing this the day after we got back is testament to how hard 12 hours’ driving and 603 miles in a day is.
Yesterday we left the frankly quite luxurious Best Western hotel at Inverness (reluctantly) at 8.45am and we crossed the threshold of Portsmouth exactly 12 hours later.
We encountered two foot of snow in the Cairngorms, speed cameras on the M6 and then some torrential downpours in the south east.
But still the cars – which actually cost less each then the hotel room we’d been upgraded into the night before – made it all the way.
It wasn’t completely without drama. As we were pulling out of one petrol station near Carlisle, Duncan’s Calibra sprung a leak.
After coping with the coldest night in Scotland on record, the radiator decided it enough was enough and dropped its contents into the slush on the forecourt.
Not to be beaten we set to work with some Radweld. Luckily it happened at a petrol station as we could top up on caffeine while the magic formula got to work.
Within a few minutes the leak was plugged and we were back on our way – only some 470-odd miles to go. But it held out fine. The only thing we had to battle for the rest of the day was service station fast food and many, many monotonous miles.
I actually got quite attached to my Mondy. After so long behind the wheel it began to fit like a glove; I knew instinctively where the heater and stereo controls were without looking and began to love its throaty V6 rumble.
I even put up with its weird wobbly steering wheel, Christmas tree-light dash and funky smell.
The other guys were just the same. Will’s Volvo was solid as a rock and in absolutely A1 condition at the end of the trip. Dan’s BMW was like a brick, completely unbreakable and a bit rough round the edges, while Dunc’s Calibra defied the odds by holding onto its internal fluids for the rest of the journey.
Ok, so we had to ditch the track day on Saturday because of the flat-tyre start, but the trip was still eventful – and a resounding success.
We did, after all, make it all the way from Portsmouth to John O’Groats and back in cars costing just £200…
Now we’ve just got to find some mugs, sorry I mean customers, to buy the cars. Might be a bit harder than we first imagined.
James
MORE BANGERS4BEN BLOGS CAN BE FOUND HERE
February 11th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Amazing what you can do with a few hundred quid and all for such a worthy cause!
February 11th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Great feature mate!
February 11th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Well done guys,
Now you’ve sampled the fun to be had on a BEN charity motoring event, any chance we will see you on the BEN Millie Miglia rally in June ?
Regards -Team Anglia
Ps to see what fun we had ona BEN Rally in 2007
goggle – london2moscow and check out our blog.
March 19th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Very nice, but when are you going to do it in some bangers?
March 20th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
12 hours driving in a 11 year old car?, Wow. Try looking at this site http://www.plymouth-dakar.co.uk/ and see how it’s done properly.
March 20th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Its great that you’ve done something for a good cause………..
But quite frankly, I would hardly call any of the cars you used “bangers” the cars you used I see used on the road/motorways everyday, I certainly wouldnt hesitate to drive in any of those cars the length of Britain or even across Europe…..
Time you live in the real world I think.
March 20th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
You seem to be missing the point. The whole idea of this feature was to raise as much money for BEN as possible and we did that by trying to find the best ‘bangers’ as we could for the budget.
Yes, they’re not clapped out old Metros, but they did only cost us £200, did cover 1,500 miles and now they will make a lot of money for charity. Which is, after all, the whole reason we did this.
We plan to do it again too – but this time throw the gauntlet down to the industry in general, from dealers to car manufacturers. Perhaps you would like to join us?
James, editor
April 10th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
You might read my comments again above and actually understand what was written. Ok, fair enough, so you did it for a charity, good for you as I’ve already said above, but please do not ever use the term “bangers” for cars that are hardly even 10 years old next time.
My problem is the way this so-called was written up and the fact that you call these cars “bangers” and the fact that you seemed genuinly surprised that these cars “kept going” Why? So what if they cost you £200? You can actually buy some pretty decent £200 cars today, in fact I was once given a P-reg Escort for free a few months ago and even that was hardly a “banger” I would have been well happy to drive from Land End to John O’Groats, in fact I do sometimes go on long journeys covering up to 1200 miles per week for work in my 1989 Rover 827Si and I’ve never had a problem, far from being surprised that it keeps going, I expect it to do that sort of distance without failure as its kept very well serviced and clean.
If your going to do another “charity run” then at least do it with some sort of realism, dont just buy 98 S-plate Primera’s and feel surprised that it still drives as many late 80′s and early 90′s cars were built to last subject of course, like many cars, to being regularly serviced and looked after.
Yeh, I might join you, but if your going to do it in “bangers” make sure they really are bangers!
April 11th, 2009 at 11:02 am
The reason it’s called Bangers4BEN is because when we set out to do this charity challenge that’s what we thought we’d get for £200.
It was only because of some very generous dealers that gave us cars that were worth far more than the £200 budget that the cars here are featured.
This is because they understood the concept of the challenge – the better cars we ‘bought’ for £200 meant we could then make more money for BEN at resale time.
That was how we were making the money here – no one was sponsored to get to John O’Groats and back again – it was simply somewhere to head for a road trip.
As it stands, we’ve sold three cars and have doubled the original stake. And we expect to make a lot more on the last car.
Yes, the cars we bought weren’t what some would call ‘bangers’ but the problem was the feature had been christened Bangers4BEN before we realised what machines we would buy.
And I am sure you would agree Slightly-Old-Cars-That-Aren’t-Quite-Bangers-But-Are-Actually-Quite-Good-4-BEN isn’t such a catchy name for a feature…
James
April 12th, 2009 at 2:19 am
I think you’ll find alot of people wouldn’t call them bangers
Its easy to change a name, or at least spend some time finding some real “bangers” you werent obliged to take the cars the “gernerous” dealers were offering, it certainly doesnt sound as if they really “understood” the concept of the challenge.
Ok so you made some mistakes, but wouldnt it have been better to be upfront about instead of continuing down the route of calling the cars “bangers” as I said I had some problems, as did others who view this site about the kind things said about the cars and the journey:
Heres an example:
“Considering we’ve quite literally covered the length of Britain I think that’s even more amazing than the fact our Bangers made it.”
You see, looking at your cars and the distance covered I could have quite easily done it in my 89′ Rover 827 without any trouble, in fact I have done a few times, but now your telling me that you actually knew the cars were good and could make the journey without so much as a hiccup then you sell the cars on for a profit, hmmm………
I think next time you do something like this best plan it out bit better eh?…………………………….
Cheers,