LINGsCARS - Mongol Rally - I sponsor 2 brave boys!

James Rickwood-Dodsworth and Andy Wallace (both 19), from Newcastle and Gateshead cross Europe and take in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in the Mongol Rally 2006.

...We want to drive to Mongolia, but there's a crazy Chinese woman standing on top of our newly-purchased car, in Gateshead, yelling "Take photos!".

Ling Valentine, owner of our major sponsor LINGsCARS.com had just finished filming her promotional video for her new-car leasing website and we were all exhausted. She had forced us to drive like rally madmen for her video, and the car smelt hot. As soon as Ling's boots abandoned our roof and hit the ground, we hit the road.

Why did we choose a mental Chinese woman for a sponsor?

Goodbye Ling

Earlier, Ling had provided our food as she had promised. Eight boxes of identical "Chicken soup flavour" sell-by-date this month, Chinese brand packet noodles had been thrown into our Fiat, along with 100 pairs of chopsticks and two boxes of Chinese tea bags. We stood there and watched, with our mouths open. We were expecting food, not dried chemicals. "Go!" Ling simply yelled after provisioning us, then turned her back and marched off.

We jumped straight back in the rubbish car we had bought, an R reg Fiat Seicento, and it took us 7 hours to reach London from Gateshead. The rally rules stipulate a "car less than 1000cc", and when it was sitting and shining at the photo shoot, our black LINGsCARS Seicento had seemed a fine choice. That was before three breakdowns on the way to London; the radiator hose kept falling off the Seicento and eventually the engine seized. We reached the hotel at 2am and it seemed as if our rally was over. We called Ling, to apologise. "You useless! Mend car! Send photos!", she shouted, and the phone hammered down.

Hello Toolkit

The next day, we trekked 3 hours across London to Clapham to find a new radiator hose, under the threat of a Chinese chop-chop gang reprisal.

Later, with the stupid car fixed-up so it would drive, we rolled into the Mongol Rally car park feeling confident, the triumphal arrival of the LINGsCARS.com team. One of our other secondary sponsors, from Gloucester, (also a Fiat expert) heard our engine and diagnosed a dodgy exhaust gasket. Further inspection saw that it had rusted away. Ling had said, "no problem, all Fiats sound like that". Oh yeah, right, Ling. We frantically called around garages trying to find a place open where we could get onto a repair lift. We ended up in Kwik-Fit and bodged the gasket. Racing out onto the M25, we made our Channel Tunnel train by 5 minutes and were in France by 8.30, and in 2nd place in the rally overall. We were on top of the world.

France & Germany

France disappeared in a blur of tiredness and we blitzed through the night in Germany but we got lost in Cologne, and slept from 2-6am in the cramped car, awoken by German school kids laughing at us.

After a sausage breakfast (no noodles today!) we made Prague by the Sunday evening but were stopped in the city centre for driving down a one-way street the wrong way and not having our lights on. It wasn't even dark.

Into Eastern Europe

We went to Krakow the next day, no drama -- remarkably the car was singing along. This rally will be a piece of cake. Then on Tuesday went past Auschwitz and carried on to the Ukrainian border. We planned to stop at the border and cross in the morning but carried on too far by accident, got sucked into border traffic and eventually crossed at 2am. Three other teams were waiting there to cross, a Mini Scamp, a Fiesta and a Seat Marbella (slightly shabbier than our car) and we decided to convoy with them from now on. None of us have much faith in our motors.

Ukraine

We drove for 3 hours covering 50 miles on awful Ukrainian roads. That night we slept folded in the car in a petrol station, to be woken up at 7am by a solider shouting at us. Does he think we can speak Ukrainian? We didn't argue; we drove on.

The drive to Kiev took 9 hours to cover 350 miles. We saw gangs with AK47s but didn't get pulled by the police, probably because we were in a convoy of four cars. Other rally teams got emissions tested, were given speeding fines and even had their passports confiscated. Any excuse for the Ukrainian police to rake in some cash, we suspected.

Rolling into Kiev at about 5.30pm, on the main road into the city centre, the Mini Scamp broke down on an uphill, one-way street. After an hour of trying to fix it, we decided to give in and tried to bump start it downhill the wrong way down the street. Blocking the road, delaying a few dozen mafia Mercedes and several hundred Ladas heading into the city centre we started the car. The police just laughed at us this time, and we shared cigarettes with them, which were rough.

... continues on my website

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[mickeymoose76]

I think youll find its a Cinquecento

[bloombikeshop]

Nice, I love rally racing!

[sang3Eta]

Should have got them a 4x4 Panda or Lada Niva or old Landrover ;D

[ligure1976]

@baatarsansar

Yes, I'm agree. My sister had one, it's a toy. I've driven. But maybe is strong if...

[baatarsansar]

CAR = soap box

[trompelamorte]

yes it is an fiat 500

[tenpastnine]

Yes I have one my self..

[erpunketo]

very cooool!

[rallydude777]

cheese

[rallydude777]

are u american?