I have entered Club Triumph's Round Britain Reliability Run and am to drive a Coca Cola Levis TR7 around the UK starting in London heading to John O Groats on to Lands End finishing back in London once again. Its a gruelling test for the car and for me and my co-driver Matt and we are hoping to raise lots of money for the charity MIND who work for better mental health care in the UK.
For the details and to sponsor us / donate please give generously here:
<center><b><font size="4">http://www.justgiving.com/cokecar </font id="size4"></b>
</center>
<center><font size="3"><b>22nd Club Triumph Round Britain Reliability Run: 1st - 3rd October 2010<b></b>
LONDON – JOHN O GROATS – LANDS END – LONDON
<font color="red">
2</font id="red"> DRIVERS, <font color="red">2,000</font id="red"> MILES in <font color="red">48</font id="red"> HOURS... <font color="red">non – stop!!</font id="red">
In aid of MIND - for better mental health</b></center></font id="size3">
The TR Register & TR Yoof have entered the famous Coca Cola Levis TR7 into the 22nd bi-annual Club Triumph Round Britain Reliability Run. Please support drivers Wayne Scott, founder of the TR Register’s Youth Group and Matt George from Classic Car Weekly Magazine as they take on the challenge of this gruelling test of endurance and reliability........
The event was first run in 1966 as a proving run for the Standard Triumph factory and is unchanged in its objective to drive around the UK, covering nearly 2000 miles visiting pre-arranged control stops in 48 hours. The start and finish will be the now traditional venue of The Plough at Crews Hill near Enfield, in Middlesex.
Since the 1960s over 782 crews have completed the bi-annual event and entrants have collected over £335,000 for various national charities. For the 22nd RBRR we have chosen MIND.
<b>The charity:</b>
MIND are the leading mental health charity in England and Wales and their remit is to create a better life for anyone with experience of mental distress, a chilling fact of modern life being that one in four people in the UK will suffer from a form of mental distress during their life.
We will attempt to make the event Carbon Neutral. We have calculated that each car will produce carbon that costs £10.00 to neutralise and have thus funded this with an organisation called ‘Climate Care’ who will use this money wisely for a variety of environmental measures.
So please, dig deep, give whatever you can and support the Coca Cola Team on the RBRR 2010!!!
<b>The route:</b>
The event has 3 stages, these being London to John O’Groats, John O’Groats to Lands End and Lands End to London .
The start is at 18.30 and heads north on the A1 up to the first stop at Blythe services just south of Doncaster . A cup of tea and then onto the next stop near Hadrians Wall and then its into . We visit Edinburgh Airport at about 3.00am on the Saturday morning and crews can take the opportunity to use the facilities in the main terminal building.
By now the initial euphoria felt by the crews at the start will have worn off and weariness will start to creep up. After the Airport stop its onto John O’Groats via Inverness and Wick for a well earned breakfast and a wash and brush up at this very Northern tip of the mainland. Now come possibly the best driving roads of the event as crews cross the top of Scotland via Thurso and then take B873/A836 south down to Altanharra on this marvellous single track road that offers both challenges to the drivers and stunning views.
The next stop is at the Conon Bridge Hotel which is north west of Inverness , by now it will be early afternoon and a brief but welcome cuppa and some sandwiches are on offer for the crews. From there on the route skirts Loch Ness, crosses Telford’s Caledonian Canal and heads onto Fort William .
The next part is a visual highlight as crews pass through the inspiring mountain ranges of Glen Coe. Its then onwards to Stirling to Morrisons Garage, a traditional RBRR stop that used to be an old Standard Triumph dealership, at this point it will be early Saturday evening and the event is half completed. Mild panic can ensue as crews realise that they are still in and they have got to get down to Cornwall for breakfast and then back to London to finish the event!
The crews then drop back into for the section on the A74(M), M6, a brief stop in Lancastershire and then onto Chirk near Oswestry for the next stop. Another great nights driving is now enjoyed in in the middle of the night through to early Sunday morning to get to the next control at Bristol via the Forest of Dean and the Severn Bridge.
If the crews thought the Saturday morning sections were tough, the Sunday morning can be very fatiguing and it can be a struggle to get to Cornwall , the section through Bodmin Moor being particularly tiring. After breakfast at the southern end of Cornwall, a quick visit to Lands End and then it’s a trip over Dartmoor into Dorset to enjoy an early afternoon break enjoying teas and home made cake near Blandford Forum, before attempting to get back to Enfield for the finish.
So all that driving means nearly 2000 miles in 48 hours, to be successful an average speed of 40mph must be maintained throughout the weekend, a difficult task for modern cars let alone cars 40 years old! [/black]
INFO SOURCED FROM CLUB TRIUMPH :
http://www.triumph.org.uk/cgi-bin/comps ... .cgi?pid=3
<b>Red 4.0 Litre V8 DHC Grinnall (with huuuuuge arches...!)</b>
so hope to see you at the finish.