semel in anno licet insanire - Once in a year, one is allowed to go crazy. **Email us - Floppythrottle@live.co.uk** **Facebook - The Rogue Run** **Twitter: @TheRogueRun**
Saturday 23 June 2012
Tuesday 1 May 2012
No time left now...
Going to be a swift update from me as we leave tomorrow and I'm nowhere near ready. In fact if you google mapped it, I'm very far from ready indeedy.
The cabby I'm using still has a truly irritating gremlin in that the battery will not hold a charge. But it's not the battery. I think we are on battery number 4 now, it's something draining the power but damned if I can figure it out.
On the up-side... I think we have enough stickers on her now.
The route has been finalised, the cars and additional people are booked into campsites, and in theory, we're good to go. Probably.
Thats all from me for now, I'll update a scorching set of blog entries on my return, but have a nice weekend and I'll let you know how we get on.
Chris.
Monday 30 April 2012
Last words from Ridgeway...
So....Its been a while since the last update from any of us, that’s because we have all been feverishly working away on preparing our vans and cars and making last minute additions and subtractions to both people coming and campsites to visit. With just 58 hours to go before the invasion of Europe starts, the van has just been given a short test drive (Scotland.... a leisurely 1400 miles in 4 days) a service and we have started stickering up the van in recognition of the fantastic donations of our sponsors have made!
The van is now as ready as its ever going to be, sporting a shiny new set alloy wheels. Over the last few months we have been carpeted the van right through, We had a CB installed which proved to be temperamental at first, but after going through the system with a fine tooth comb we found that it had a broken mic, and since thats been fixed appears to be working fine.
We have each had our trials with our individual vehicles, we have been busy fixing a flaw with the power steering which was bought on by my mechanic we had used previously who actually turned out to be pretty useless!
The news on the grapevine is that Savage is still trying to hunt down his electrical gremlins and the Alfa is well... the Alfa
Our plan is to eventually turn the transporter into the Rogue Run party bus...but not wanting to walk before we can run we will just survive this years trip and see what happens!
Monday 19 March 2012
Words from Kelly this time...
I've been a little slack in keeping this up to date, but for those that check back on here, a lot will be changing soon. Anyway, we still have the DodoJuice to give away, the Voltz energy drink to give away, and AWMAutoservices.co.uk are offering a free major service (Terms and conditions apply - up to 2,000cc engine being the main bit), as a raffle prize as well to people that donate £2 or more to our charity kitty. The link can be found at www.roguerun.co.uk
Anyway, some words from our resident Kelly...
=================================================
Hi all, I thought I would contribute this time (can't let the boys take all the glory after all).
Like everyone else in the Rogue clan, I have a love for cars and driving them. Between my best friend, Jon and I, I have participated in monster trucking, off-roading, high speed track events, rage buggies, rally cars, speed boats (ok that's not a car) but literally anything with four wheels gets my heart pumping - and of course I am always tolerant to those who call me names such as "Van Widow" - yeah right! ;o)
As you may have seen from previous posts, our vehicle, the Transporter T4 van is coming along really well and is slowly transforming from your typical white van to a proper pimped up day camper.
For those who do not follow the trend, you may be familiar with the bay window campervans but the VW Transporter T4 (and T5) are the new age campervan/motorhomes.
Depending on what you want from your van, the conversion can be anything from the adding of adjustable seats/bed (also known as a rock’n’roll bed), to a fully kitted out camping van with hobs, fridge freezers and even a toilet.
This week I had a rather in-depth conversation with a colleague at work, who decided to wind me up and keep questioning what the point was to converting a white van (keep in mind at this point Jon and I had been driven to despair by spacers that day before so I wasn’t in the mood to be wound up, but I will get to that in a minute)..
“But why would you convert a van, it’s for building materials?” says colleague.
“It’s not, they are the modern campervans,” said I.
“If you want a campervan, buy a campervan, your van is not a campervan,” said colleague.
“Yes it is,” said I.
“No it’s not,” said colleague.
“Yes it is, go on the forums and see how much of a following it has,” said I (you get the gist who is speaking now).
“Ok, fine then, what are you going to convert it to?”
“It will be a day van, which means it doesn’t have the sink, fridge etc_”
“Then it is not a campervan is it!”
So I leapt over the partition and engaged in beating the crap out of him – Ok maybe I didn’t but I will mention now that there was no coffee in the office that day, it was a Monday AND as I said before the previous day we were having a bit of a fiasco with the van’s new alloys wheels.
I will explain further.
Jon has been having a bit of an itch lately - yes I know you can get cream for that but this is an entirely different itch. Several months ago he bought a set of gorgeous Audi A4 2010 alloys complete with tyres (yes I know the badges are still in the picture). They were hardly used and in immaculate condition. Well Jon has wanted to get them on the van for a while and at the weekend he felt it was the right time to do it.
One problem - spacers!
They could not be fitted without the spacers, and have you ever tried to find the definition as well as what kind of spacers you need for a vehicle? It is surprisingly difficult, even with the aid of the internet nowadays. Jon became frustrated, I went for a swim (my favourite past time next to moaning about South Eastern trains), came back and he had got even worse.
To save myself of an afternoon of Jon moaning, throwing toys out of prams, dummies hitting walls and the like, I did some research and posted the question in the T4 forum. If you read between the lines you could tell the answers were just as oblivious as what we were gaining. Even after a phonecall to the Almighty Savage and there was still no joy.
So we went to the fountain of knowledge (i.e. the person we bought them from), and she said that she never used them and the only problem she experienced was when the van was on full lock. Given that her van was lowered and ours is not we couldn’t see a problem, so we went commando (without the spacers that is) and the difference it has made to the van compared to keeping the steels on – well the picture says it all.
After nearly six months we have welcomed a van into the Team Blind Panic camp, and the changes have included:
· Captain seats;
· Minor treatment of rust and touch-up in places;
· Adding of 2 brand new tinted windows at the back of the van;
· Wind deflectors on front windows;
· CB radio;
· Interior carpeting and insulation; and
· New alloy wheels (of course).
The list is still quite long but in such as short space of time we have a vehicle that we are proud to call our own. We know it can endure long distances (it originally came from Fife), we know it cruises at a respectable speed, and we know it is comfortable, but will it last Europe – watch this space!"
Anyway, some words from our resident Kelly...
=================================================
Hi all, I thought I would contribute this time (can't let the boys take all the glory after all).
Like everyone else in the Rogue clan, I have a love for cars and driving them. Between my best friend, Jon and I, I have participated in monster trucking, off-roading, high speed track events, rage buggies, rally cars, speed boats (ok that's not a car) but literally anything with four wheels gets my heart pumping - and of course I am always tolerant to those who call me names such as "Van Widow" - yeah right! ;o)
As you may have seen from previous posts, our vehicle, the Transporter T4 van is coming along really well and is slowly transforming from your typical white van to a proper pimped up day camper.
For those who do not follow the trend, you may be familiar with the bay window campervans but the VW Transporter T4 (and T5) are the new age campervan/motorhomes.
Depending on what you want from your van, the conversion can be anything from the adding of adjustable seats/bed (also known as a rock’n’roll bed), to a fully kitted out camping van with hobs, fridge freezers and even a toilet.
This week I had a rather in-depth conversation with a colleague at work, who decided to wind me up and keep questioning what the point was to converting a white van (keep in mind at this point Jon and I had been driven to despair by spacers that day before so I wasn’t in the mood to be wound up, but I will get to that in a minute)..
“But why would you convert a van, it’s for building materials?” says colleague.
“It’s not, they are the modern campervans,” said I.
“If you want a campervan, buy a campervan, your van is not a campervan,” said colleague.
“Yes it is,” said I.
“No it’s not,” said colleague.
“Yes it is, go on the forums and see how much of a following it has,” said I (you get the gist who is speaking now).
“Ok, fine then, what are you going to convert it to?”
“It will be a day van, which means it doesn’t have the sink, fridge etc_”
“Then it is not a campervan is it!”
So I leapt over the partition and engaged in beating the crap out of him – Ok maybe I didn’t but I will mention now that there was no coffee in the office that day, it was a Monday AND as I said before the previous day we were having a bit of a fiasco with the van’s new alloys wheels.
I will explain further.
Jon has been having a bit of an itch lately - yes I know you can get cream for that but this is an entirely different itch. Several months ago he bought a set of gorgeous Audi A4 2010 alloys complete with tyres (yes I know the badges are still in the picture). They were hardly used and in immaculate condition. Well Jon has wanted to get them on the van for a while and at the weekend he felt it was the right time to do it.
One problem - spacers!
They could not be fitted without the spacers, and have you ever tried to find the definition as well as what kind of spacers you need for a vehicle? It is surprisingly difficult, even with the aid of the internet nowadays. Jon became frustrated, I went for a swim (my favourite past time next to moaning about South Eastern trains), came back and he had got even worse.
To save myself of an afternoon of Jon moaning, throwing toys out of prams, dummies hitting walls and the like, I did some research and posted the question in the T4 forum. If you read between the lines you could tell the answers were just as oblivious as what we were gaining. Even after a phonecall to the Almighty Savage and there was still no joy.
So we went to the fountain of knowledge (i.e. the person we bought them from), and she said that she never used them and the only problem she experienced was when the van was on full lock. Given that her van was lowered and ours is not we couldn’t see a problem, so we went commando (without the spacers that is) and the difference it has made to the van compared to keeping the steels on – well the picture says it all.
After nearly six months we have welcomed a van into the Team Blind Panic camp, and the changes have included:
· Captain seats;
· Minor treatment of rust and touch-up in places;
· Adding of 2 brand new tinted windows at the back of the van;
· Wind deflectors on front windows;
· CB radio;
· Interior carpeting and insulation; and
· New alloy wheels (of course).
The list is still quite long but in such as short space of time we have a vehicle that we are proud to call our own. We know it can endure long distances (it originally came from Fife), we know it cruises at a respectable speed, and we know it is comfortable, but will it last Europe – watch this space!"
Friday 10 February 2012
A swift update just to show who's helping us out...
As the title would imply, here's a list of our friends...
There's a lot of traffic flowing through this blog and I hope it's feeding into our sponsors. To make life a little easier, I'm popping this user friendly list up so please please please visit their sites and have a look at what they have to offer as a thank you for supporting us...
We have a set of new friends at Good Girl Gone Bad - Sexy lingerie, clothing and accessories. They're even offering us this discount code for use at their online shop "ROGUE12". If you enter that code at time of order, you will receive 15% off total order value plus their free delivery. Valentines day is coming up, so go for it...
www.good-girl-gone-bad.co.uk
Voltz International / Voltz Energy Drink supported me as an individual sponsorship last year, although have now extended that sponsorship for our whole charitable run this year. Fantastic guys. They have donated several cases of Voltz Energy Shots (including their new citrus range) for us to raffle off (details below).
www.voltzenergyshot.co.uk
Dodo Juice Car care products are known in car circles for their superior products. If the best clean you have ever tried involved a sponge and a tub of shampoo/wax combo, you NEED to try their stuff. As with Voltz, they supported me last year, but are now giving us a care package which will clean your car superbly. I'll post an image below of what their car cleaning products did to my 16 year old Escort... Once again, we are giving this to 1 lucky winner of our raffle (details below).
www.voltzenergyshot.co.uk
BENEATH IS AN IMAGE OF WHAT DODOJUICE DID TO MY FADED 16 YEAR OLD FORD ESCORT - DONATE £2 FOR A CHANCE TO WIN THE PRODUCTS THAT DO THIS!!!
Also, Toxic Motorsport Vinyls have helped us out - They are part of Toxic Motorsport based on the Isle of Man. If you need car parts over there and don't want to pay the ridiculous postage charges, or you want some simple vinyl cutting, give them a shout.
www.toxic-motorsport.co.uk
Cream Design and Print appear to be the Holy Grail of printers... Charity budget friendly, easy to work with, and if you speak nicely to Seb (the boss), he'll even play "Words with Friends" with you when he gets a bit bored. He can arrange ALL printing needs from full car wraps, to posh bespoke hoodies, to shop sign front design and creation.
www.creamdesignandprint.co.uk
HSP Plastics are also worth a mention at this point as they have supplied our first run of vinyl text work quickly and with a smile. Again, anything to do with plastics or vinyl, these guys are also worth a shout.
www.hspplastics.co.uk
Dinkyccino coffee was our first local corporate sponsor on board and despite being Dinky, they are big on service. If you look at their website, you'll see that an enormous amount of talent and skill are involved in making your morning coffee look so effortless. They can be found at Yapton Station most mornings if you want to say hi.
www.dinkyccino.com
Ford Enthusiast & Owners Club have been helping with tech bits and their members have started donating so thank you.
www.feoc-uk.com
Escort Cabriolet Club have now taken an interest fully and I'm in the process of designing some fresh vinyl sporting their logo on the side of the cab.
www.escortcabrioletclub.co.uk
Clive Stanley Associates are also looking for vinyl to go on, so once we have that sorted, then thats a few more inches of paint covered on the Alfa.
MyMod Magazine have been in touch and it looks like they and their show girls will be helping us to raise a few pounds at Fast Show (25th March) by selling our tickets (If I get the info over to them quickly enough).
Performance Ford Mag have said they will mention RogueRun in the news section of their Mag, so thats fantastic.
Of course, a BIG thank you to those that have so far donated via our link, please keep contributing... Every £2 donated via the link receives 1 entry into the raffle (so £10 = 5) to win either a case of Voltz Energy or the big stack courtesy of DodoJuice. Please put "BLOG" or contact details (email?) into the comments bit when you donate so we know how to alert you if you win.
I've probably missed some people out, in fact I know I have, but when I remember who they are, I'll pop more pics/links etc up.
Further to a telephone conversation earlier this week, I feel this is also the time to point out that this is not a professionally organised Charity Rally in that no entry fees are payable and all income generated from advertising/sponsorship goes 100% to the charity "The Jennifer Trust".
Either follow the link from our WEBSITE or, click HERE to donate.
Thank you everyone so far for your help and donations (both online and in person).
The RogueRun Team.
There's a lot of traffic flowing through this blog and I hope it's feeding into our sponsors. To make life a little easier, I'm popping this user friendly list up so please please please visit their sites and have a look at what they have to offer as a thank you for supporting us...
We have a set of new friends at Good Girl Gone Bad - Sexy lingerie, clothing and accessories. They're even offering us this discount code for use at their online shop "ROGUE12". If you enter that code at time of order, you will receive 15% off total order value plus their free delivery. Valentines day is coming up, so go for it...
www.good-girl-gone-bad.co.uk
Voltz International / Voltz Energy Drink supported me as an individual sponsorship last year, although have now extended that sponsorship for our whole charitable run this year. Fantastic guys. They have donated several cases of Voltz Energy Shots (including their new citrus range) for us to raffle off (details below).
www.voltzenergyshot.co.uk
Dodo Juice Car care products are known in car circles for their superior products. If the best clean you have ever tried involved a sponge and a tub of shampoo/wax combo, you NEED to try their stuff. As with Voltz, they supported me last year, but are now giving us a care package which will clean your car superbly. I'll post an image below of what their car cleaning products did to my 16 year old Escort... Once again, we are giving this to 1 lucky winner of our raffle (details below).
www.voltzenergyshot.co.uk
BENEATH IS AN IMAGE OF WHAT DODOJUICE DID TO MY FADED 16 YEAR OLD FORD ESCORT - DONATE £2 FOR A CHANCE TO WIN THE PRODUCTS THAT DO THIS!!!
Also, Toxic Motorsport Vinyls have helped us out - They are part of Toxic Motorsport based on the Isle of Man. If you need car parts over there and don't want to pay the ridiculous postage charges, or you want some simple vinyl cutting, give them a shout.
www.toxic-motorsport.co.uk
Cream Design and Print appear to be the Holy Grail of printers... Charity budget friendly, easy to work with, and if you speak nicely to Seb (the boss), he'll even play "Words with Friends" with you when he gets a bit bored. He can arrange ALL printing needs from full car wraps, to posh bespoke hoodies, to shop sign front design and creation.
www.creamdesignandprint.co.uk
HSP Plastics are also worth a mention at this point as they have supplied our first run of vinyl text work quickly and with a smile. Again, anything to do with plastics or vinyl, these guys are also worth a shout.
www.hspplastics.co.uk
Dinkyccino coffee was our first local corporate sponsor on board and despite being Dinky, they are big on service. If you look at their website, you'll see that an enormous amount of talent and skill are involved in making your morning coffee look so effortless. They can be found at Yapton Station most mornings if you want to say hi.
www.dinkyccino.com
Ford Enthusiast & Owners Club have been helping with tech bits and their members have started donating so thank you.
www.feoc-uk.com
Escort Cabriolet Club have now taken an interest fully and I'm in the process of designing some fresh vinyl sporting their logo on the side of the cab.
www.escortcabrioletclub.co.uk
Clive Stanley Associates are also looking for vinyl to go on, so once we have that sorted, then thats a few more inches of paint covered on the Alfa.
MyMod Magazine have been in touch and it looks like they and their show girls will be helping us to raise a few pounds at Fast Show (25th March) by selling our tickets (If I get the info over to them quickly enough).
Performance Ford Mag have said they will mention RogueRun in the news section of their Mag, so thats fantastic.
Of course, a BIG thank you to those that have so far donated via our link, please keep contributing... Every £2 donated via the link receives 1 entry into the raffle (so £10 = 5) to win either a case of Voltz Energy or the big stack courtesy of DodoJuice. Please put "BLOG" or contact details (email?) into the comments bit when you donate so we know how to alert you if you win.
I've probably missed some people out, in fact I know I have, but when I remember who they are, I'll pop more pics/links etc up.
Further to a telephone conversation earlier this week, I feel this is also the time to point out that this is not a professionally organised Charity Rally in that no entry fees are payable and all income generated from advertising/sponsorship goes 100% to the charity "The Jennifer Trust".
Either follow the link from our WEBSITE or, click HERE to donate.
Thank you everyone so far for your help and donations (both online and in person).
The RogueRun Team.
Sunday 5 February 2012
Some more words from Jon...
Well, as the title says, some words from the Quagmire look-a-like...
===============================================
Well, it’s been a busy old couple of months for Kelly and I, between starting new jobs and businesses we have been spending every spare minute sending emails to friends, family...and complete strangers for that matter asking for money, sponsorship or anything that may help us raise extra money for the Jennifer Trust.
Since the last time I sat here staring at my computer wondering what to write, I have booked the ferry with our good friends at DFDS for a rather good deal, and as a group we have lost some people and gained some new friends...but I shall let my good friend Mr Savage fill you in on that.
I thought that as the run was getting a bit closer, it was about time I got cracking on the van and did some more work to it. So I booked a week off, ordered the ply line kit and the carpet and got ready to crack on and turn my standard white van into a funky looking passion wagon. Having said that as the saying goes... the best laid plans go to waste, with the courier mucking up the delivery of the ply, meaning I ended up a day and a half behind my planned schedule.
Then when it finally arrived, its needed some altering to get it to sit flush with the insulating that we have done, and it was while I was doing this I discovered the mighty VW is stronger than the earth itself and subsequently eats drill bits!
So after a week solid of hard graft I don’t have too much to show for it, except having it filled with shiny new wood (oo-er!) and having about half the panels carpeted. The next couple of weeks will hopefully see a CB kit get installed, and finally lowered on some quality suspension.
While sorting all of this out, we have heard that some shiny new vinyl’s are on their way for us to plaster the van in, although I am still waiting to hear from VW magazine as they seem to have gone worryingly quiet on me!
===============================================
Well, it’s been a busy old couple of months for Kelly and I, between starting new jobs and businesses we have been spending every spare minute sending emails to friends, family...and complete strangers for that matter asking for money, sponsorship or anything that may help us raise extra money for the Jennifer Trust.
Since the last time I sat here staring at my computer wondering what to write, I have booked the ferry with our good friends at DFDS for a rather good deal, and as a group we have lost some people and gained some new friends...but I shall let my good friend Mr Savage fill you in on that.
I thought that as the run was getting a bit closer, it was about time I got cracking on the van and did some more work to it. So I booked a week off, ordered the ply line kit and the carpet and got ready to crack on and turn my standard white van into a funky looking passion wagon. Having said that as the saying goes... the best laid plans go to waste, with the courier mucking up the delivery of the ply, meaning I ended up a day and a half behind my planned schedule.
Then when it finally arrived, its needed some altering to get it to sit flush with the insulating that we have done, and it was while I was doing this I discovered the mighty VW is stronger than the earth itself and subsequently eats drill bits!
So after a week solid of hard graft I don’t have too much to show for it, except having it filled with shiny new wood (oo-er!) and having about half the panels carpeted. The next couple of weeks will hopefully see a CB kit get installed, and finally lowered on some quality suspension.
While sorting all of this out, we have heard that some shiny new vinyl’s are on their way for us to plaster the van in, although I am still waiting to hear from VW magazine as they seem to have gone worryingly quiet on me!
Wednesday 25 January 2012
It seems there may be some more interest out there...
First off, let me remind you all that last years journey can be found at www.floppythrottle.blogspot.com. Again, may be worth noting at this point that we are planning on doing something similar next year and any interest can be mailed to me (Savage) at floppythrottle@live.co.uk
Following a couple of emails, I'm now expecting this to be bigger than we thought. Luke Wood, editor of Performance Ford Magazine, has shown an interest and it looks like we're hitting those pages so that's brilliant news.
Also, Jon has been in touch with a new magazine "VW Bus" and they want to throw their details all over his van and do a spot of promoting so again, happy happy.
So for any of you that have been directed to the blog, through the website, from the mags, hello, take a seat, have a read, feel free to comment, feel free to donate.
Whilst on the thought of donations, we have still got the ongoing raffle running. Donate £2 to get a ticket. Multiples of £2 count, so £10 goes straight 100% to charity but gets you 5 tickets. The prizes... Of course. We have a few cases of Voltz Energy drink, and a car care package of Dodo Juice to give away. More details will be on here soon. Please use the link from www.roguerun.co.uk to donate and in the comments box, please put "PFM" if you heard from us through Performance Ford Magazine, "VW" If through a VW publication. If you're from a car club, please put the clubs name somewhere. The draw is taking place at midnight, 2 May on the ferry out and although we will announce the winners here, if you let us know VW, PFM, car club etc, we will know how to notify you of your win.
That seems to be the important bits out the way for a while. I haven't updated for a while but thats because I've been trying quietly to get this run working properly. The route is now nailed down. In just a few days, we will be driving through Dover-Dunkirk-Monaco-Fiorino/Maranello-Slovenia-Austria-Germany-Amsterdam-Bruges-Dunkirk-Dover-Home.
I seem to have got a cheap quote for getting the Escort Cab taken Portsmouth to Essex for it's electrical gremlins to be fixed (www.awmautoservices.co.uk) so that'll be winging it's way to Ash very quickly.
Yet more driver issues in that we've lost a co-driver, swapped some others around to make the numbers work, and I'm down to 2 again. Except I'm not. Once he has committed to sitting in my passenger seat as I pilot the silly purple cabriolet, I'll post a pic, but for now, Lee Baker, welcome aboard.
Other news, well, the VW Van is definately starting to take shape, insulated now so just waiting for the ply lining to turn up and to lose a little of it's ride height.
Ash in the RS2K Escort Van seems to be testing it to destruction, and then rebuilding on a weekly basis to include more insane upgrades. I know the 4x4 conversion is on his mind but I doubt he'll try that before we leave.
The green Escort Cabriolet known as Hobo Jo is taking some interesting changes. Full custom exhaust has been bought this week and a refined rear spoiler. It is also halfway through the most hard to describe paint job ever... The pictures will show what I mean soon.
Surprising news, the Alfa hasn't blown up yet.
More cars, more updates, but I'll get round to them next time. Apologies these updates are coming so slowly, but so much else going on.
If you want a more up to date summary of what is happening, please join our facebook page "The Rogue Run" at http://www.facebook.com/groups/348552461822154/#!/groups/348552461822154/ or search for "The Rogue Run"
Savage.
Following a couple of emails, I'm now expecting this to be bigger than we thought. Luke Wood, editor of Performance Ford Magazine, has shown an interest and it looks like we're hitting those pages so that's brilliant news.
Also, Jon has been in touch with a new magazine "VW Bus" and they want to throw their details all over his van and do a spot of promoting so again, happy happy.
So for any of you that have been directed to the blog, through the website, from the mags, hello, take a seat, have a read, feel free to comment, feel free to donate.
Whilst on the thought of donations, we have still got the ongoing raffle running. Donate £2 to get a ticket. Multiples of £2 count, so £10 goes straight 100% to charity but gets you 5 tickets. The prizes... Of course. We have a few cases of Voltz Energy drink, and a car care package of Dodo Juice to give away. More details will be on here soon. Please use the link from www.roguerun.co.uk to donate and in the comments box, please put "PFM" if you heard from us through Performance Ford Magazine, "VW" If through a VW publication. If you're from a car club, please put the clubs name somewhere. The draw is taking place at midnight, 2 May on the ferry out and although we will announce the winners here, if you let us know VW, PFM, car club etc, we will know how to notify you of your win.
That seems to be the important bits out the way for a while. I haven't updated for a while but thats because I've been trying quietly to get this run working properly. The route is now nailed down. In just a few days, we will be driving through Dover-Dunkirk-Monaco-Fiorino/Maranello-Slovenia-Austria-Germany-Amsterdam-Bruges-Dunkirk-Dover-Home.
I seem to have got a cheap quote for getting the Escort Cab taken Portsmouth to Essex for it's electrical gremlins to be fixed (www.awmautoservices.co.uk) so that'll be winging it's way to Ash very quickly.
Yet more driver issues in that we've lost a co-driver, swapped some others around to make the numbers work, and I'm down to 2 again. Except I'm not. Once he has committed to sitting in my passenger seat as I pilot the silly purple cabriolet, I'll post a pic, but for now, Lee Baker, welcome aboard.
Other news, well, the VW Van is definately starting to take shape, insulated now so just waiting for the ply lining to turn up and to lose a little of it's ride height.
Ash in the RS2K Escort Van seems to be testing it to destruction, and then rebuilding on a weekly basis to include more insane upgrades. I know the 4x4 conversion is on his mind but I doubt he'll try that before we leave.
The green Escort Cabriolet known as Hobo Jo is taking some interesting changes. Full custom exhaust has been bought this week and a refined rear spoiler. It is also halfway through the most hard to describe paint job ever... The pictures will show what I mean soon.
Surprising news, the Alfa hasn't blown up yet.
More cars, more updates, but I'll get round to them next time. Apologies these updates are coming so slowly, but so much else going on.
If you want a more up to date summary of what is happening, please join our facebook page "The Rogue Run" at http://www.facebook.com/groups/348552461822154/#!/groups/348552461822154/ or search for "The Rogue Run"
Savage.
Tuesday 10 January 2012
Update for the Rogues Gallery.
Well, a couple of entries ago I mentioned there had been some changes, so here we go.
The green Escort cabriolet that was mine at the start of 2011 got sold on to Marc and James. They ruined it with some dodgy mods, got offered an Alfa so then had a spare car. However, it's around about this time that Hill 'n' Holcs were looking for a car. So they have taken the green cabby, restored it back to Ford spec, then changed it again.
Ash appears to be having a dilemma as to which of his overpowered toys to bring, so still unsure there.
A few extra drivers in the line up so I'll include them as follows, together with whatever nuggets of info I have found out about them.
This is Kelly. She also answers to the name Gromit. She wasnt keen on the name Sticky Kelly. I like Sticky Kelly. Anyway, Gromit works for BMW, and I'm sure she has her reasons for doing so. She will not be joining us in a BMW as that would show a complete lack of imagination.
Kelly (AKA Gromit)
This is another Ash. Or Ashley. Or Ashleen. You can take your pick. Please bear in mind when selecting which name to use that he isn't a small chap and judging from his Facebook tantrums, is prone to bouts of anger and revenge. Me? I call him Mr Hall. There are better pics of him, but I think this is a winner. He drives (amongst other things) a BMW which is an inspired choice of vehicle.
Ashley (Ashleen)
This is Robbie. He's really called Eddie but even his Missus calls him Robbie. Robbie seems to be camera shy as there are very few images of him I can find. He supports West Ham so I can sort of understand why he wouldn't want to be recognised. His daily driver is a Nissan 4x4 (which his wife never tires of scratching), his toy is a 2.0 Escort Saloon, and now it's currently off road, Mrs Robbie is letting him have her Escort Cabby to fix over the winter months. She will no doubt reclaim it as soon as Spring hits.
Eddie (Robbie)
Well thats the most recent additions covered, the route seems pretty much set, the ferries are in place, campsites should be sorted soon, just need a friendly charitable Vinyl printer to pop up and discount sticky stickies in return for their name slapped over all the cars.
Please pop a few quid in the kitty (link is on www.roguerun.co.uk ), comment on the blog, help us with parts, freebies, prizes for the upcoming raffle etc...
I think all is going well, I've managed to get some half sensible quotes on getting my purple cab to Essex for repairs so thats all good and less than 4 months til we depart.
As I have thrown some other folks dodgy pics up without checking with them, here's one of me sporting a very dodgy set of facial fur...
Savage.
The green Escort cabriolet that was mine at the start of 2011 got sold on to Marc and James. They ruined it with some dodgy mods, got offered an Alfa so then had a spare car. However, it's around about this time that Hill 'n' Holcs were looking for a car. So they have taken the green cabby, restored it back to Ford spec, then changed it again.
Ash appears to be having a dilemma as to which of his overpowered toys to bring, so still unsure there.
A few extra drivers in the line up so I'll include them as follows, together with whatever nuggets of info I have found out about them.
This is Kelly. She also answers to the name Gromit. She wasnt keen on the name Sticky Kelly. I like Sticky Kelly. Anyway, Gromit works for BMW, and I'm sure she has her reasons for doing so. She will not be joining us in a BMW as that would show a complete lack of imagination.
Kelly (AKA Gromit)
This is another Ash. Or Ashley. Or Ashleen. You can take your pick. Please bear in mind when selecting which name to use that he isn't a small chap and judging from his Facebook tantrums, is prone to bouts of anger and revenge. Me? I call him Mr Hall. There are better pics of him, but I think this is a winner. He drives (amongst other things) a BMW which is an inspired choice of vehicle.
Ashley (Ashleen)
This is Robbie. He's really called Eddie but even his Missus calls him Robbie. Robbie seems to be camera shy as there are very few images of him I can find. He supports West Ham so I can sort of understand why he wouldn't want to be recognised. His daily driver is a Nissan 4x4 (which his wife never tires of scratching), his toy is a 2.0 Escort Saloon, and now it's currently off road, Mrs Robbie is letting him have her Escort Cabby to fix over the winter months. She will no doubt reclaim it as soon as Spring hits.
Eddie (Robbie)
Well thats the most recent additions covered, the route seems pretty much set, the ferries are in place, campsites should be sorted soon, just need a friendly charitable Vinyl printer to pop up and discount sticky stickies in return for their name slapped over all the cars.
Please pop a few quid in the kitty (link is on www.roguerun.co.uk ), comment on the blog, help us with parts, freebies, prizes for the upcoming raffle etc...
I think all is going well, I've managed to get some half sensible quotes on getting my purple cab to Essex for repairs so thats all good and less than 4 months til we depart.
As I have thrown some other folks dodgy pics up without checking with them, here's one of me sporting a very dodgy set of facial fur...
Savage.
Sunday 8 January 2012
It's been a month, so a quick update...
Time flies when everything goes wrong. It's been a month since the last update, and it's now a fresh year. That means our last Euro road trip was last year, and Rogue is getting here very, very quickly.
First off, the new Rogue website is live. www.roguerun.co.uk - please go and admire Marc's handiwork. We now have Voltz International and Dodojuice officially confirmed as partners in this venture. I say partners, they've promised us some goodies and aren't going to sue us for using their names/logos. Good enough for me. DodoJuice are going to provide some raffle prizes as are Voltz so please keep your eyes out over the next month or 2 for your chance to win some cracking stuff.
Jon has managed to persuade those lovely people at DFDS ferries to let us get to France on the cheap so good work there.
That seems to be the good news over with.
Theres been some issues with Rogue cars and our daily runners as well recently. Somebody took Jon's wing mirror off (it's a BMW so not actually used a lot), another incident saw Curly's ST get a dent, and a couple weeks back, some arsebag drove into my daily car and left me with a £500 repair bill.
My excess is £450, so figured I may as well keep the no claims and pay it out my own pocket.
Unfortunately, that money was earmarked for repairing the Rogue car. The Escort has a few niggly little issues that need addressing and a fairly major one. The electrics are shot, the rear shocks are still waiting to be swapped over, the MOT is due but more annoyingly than anything, the heater matrix has leaked.
To replace the matrix, the whole dash needs to come out so a fair bit of work, but an essential bit of work. Locally, I've been quoted £300 just for the matrix, plus extra bundles of cash for all the leccy fixes, but Ash has quoted me happy. Except I can't get the car to him. Needs recovery lorry, which is gonna set me back a couple hundred quid which I no longer have due to the gonad that drove into me. I'm pinning my hopes on the lottery to get it fixed in time.
The green escort cabby is now in the hands of Richy and Holcsy and wont be green for much longer. In the short space of time they've had it, they've put a lot of hours in and it looks very nice indeed now. Low, soon loud, and looking like a proper toy.
With all that in mind, it's going to be touch and go as to which car I end up taking. Hopefully, I can get the Cabby up to Colchester in time, but thats relying on getting a cheap car transporter.
At the moment, I'm trolling through a million and one camp site websites to find a cheap set of good ones to put us up and with a bit of luck, we'll be able to sort that fairly sharpish.
On a final note, we're going in just 3 and a half months, so support would be nice. Please drop 2 quid (or more) into the kitty to help out some children less fortunate than yourself. Theres a link to the donation site on our website, but for the lazy buggers, heres another link...Jennifer Trust Giving Site.
A fuller, more picture filled update will be coming soon.
First off, the new Rogue website is live. www.roguerun.co.uk - please go and admire Marc's handiwork. We now have Voltz International and Dodojuice officially confirmed as partners in this venture. I say partners, they've promised us some goodies and aren't going to sue us for using their names/logos. Good enough for me. DodoJuice are going to provide some raffle prizes as are Voltz so please keep your eyes out over the next month or 2 for your chance to win some cracking stuff.
Jon has managed to persuade those lovely people at DFDS ferries to let us get to France on the cheap so good work there.
That seems to be the good news over with.
Theres been some issues with Rogue cars and our daily runners as well recently. Somebody took Jon's wing mirror off (it's a BMW so not actually used a lot), another incident saw Curly's ST get a dent, and a couple weeks back, some arsebag drove into my daily car and left me with a £500 repair bill.
My excess is £450, so figured I may as well keep the no claims and pay it out my own pocket.
Unfortunately, that money was earmarked for repairing the Rogue car. The Escort has a few niggly little issues that need addressing and a fairly major one. The electrics are shot, the rear shocks are still waiting to be swapped over, the MOT is due but more annoyingly than anything, the heater matrix has leaked.
To replace the matrix, the whole dash needs to come out so a fair bit of work, but an essential bit of work. Locally, I've been quoted £300 just for the matrix, plus extra bundles of cash for all the leccy fixes, but Ash has quoted me happy. Except I can't get the car to him. Needs recovery lorry, which is gonna set me back a couple hundred quid which I no longer have due to the gonad that drove into me. I'm pinning my hopes on the lottery to get it fixed in time.
The green escort cabby is now in the hands of Richy and Holcsy and wont be green for much longer. In the short space of time they've had it, they've put a lot of hours in and it looks very nice indeed now. Low, soon loud, and looking like a proper toy.
With all that in mind, it's going to be touch and go as to which car I end up taking. Hopefully, I can get the Cabby up to Colchester in time, but thats relying on getting a cheap car transporter.
At the moment, I'm trolling through a million and one camp site websites to find a cheap set of good ones to put us up and with a bit of luck, we'll be able to sort that fairly sharpish.
On a final note, we're going in just 3 and a half months, so support would be nice. Please drop 2 quid (or more) into the kitty to help out some children less fortunate than yourself. Theres a link to the donation site on our website, but for the lazy buggers, heres another link...Jennifer Trust Giving Site.
A fuller, more picture filled update will be coming soon.
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