FF Rally;
Following mckrob’s initial suggestion for a “FF rally” I feel the possibility has become serious. It is most likely that there will be a “proper” one in 2005 but it is intended that there is a 2004 version to “test the water” ready for the real thing next year. This 2004 rally will most likely cover 2-3 days (1-2 nights) over a bank holiday weekend towards the end of summer. You, along with any team mates in your car (advised to keep sanity), will be given locations you have to visit in the UK and make your own route between these places. At each place, you will be asked to gain evidence. For example, if a service station on a particular part of the M1 was chosen as a checkpoint, you would be asked to buy a pack of polos and get a receipt, along with taking a digital photo of the sign for the service station for back up proof. There may be 10-20 of these along the way – or more? – which will mean you have to find the quicker route to get to each one. I emphasise quickest route, you will be expected to keep to all speed limits throughout – FF rally co-ordinators cannot be seen to condone speeding. There will be time penalties for anybody caught speeding – method of proof to be considered in the future.
The rally will hopefully take the drivers and passengers through some of the nicer areas of the UK; this will be at the competitors choice. For example, if somebody has ever wanted to see Oxford (which is a beautiful city!), this would be possible, it could be a checkpoint and you would need to gain proof that you have visited there, if on the other hand you don’t want you tyres shot by local drug dealers, you might chose to avoid Robin Hood’s city of Nottingham (!).
There would be a limit between which you wouldn’t be allowed to drive for obvious safety reasons. Also, all competitors should want to enjoy this and driving constantly would be boring, having a BBQ at a campsite wouldn’t be. A method would be devised therefore to check you kept within these hours, such as forcing you to buy something from a shop within a mile of your campsite at the time you leave, hence proving you didn’t leave too early. The reason for this rule would be to prevent one of the teams waking at 3am, jumping in the car and driving to the finish line before anybody else had finished breakfast, it wouldn’t be in the spirit of the competition! Of course competitors could drive on if they hadn’t reached their destination for the night but disqualification would be at the discretion of judges because you would have taken longer to complete the course.
Accommodation would be the sole responsibility of the individual teams. Camping equipment would be advised or hotel bookings made in advance for the richer teams would obviously be possible. No team will be allowed to follow the competition without a pre-define sleeping point due to safety reasons. Sleeping in your car is not an option due to the dangers of theft/hijacking, problems with the law and the very real danger that if you sleep in your car, you might not be fresh enough to do a full day of driving and feel as if the car is your bed. Each car if possible should have a relief driving so that the drivers can take shifts – you make think 8 hours in a day of driving is easy, even on a second day, yet the dangers are real.
Originally it was decided that the cars would be labelled up with numbers and advertise the fact that we’re doing a “rally around the UK” and even the chances of doing it for charity. However, insurance constraints mean that this is very unlikely for this year – maybe next year with more time it would be looked into. I know the insurance details of this means we’re on very dodgy ground, I don’t have the time to look into it and am worried it will mean we’re breaking the law just by this basic set up, does anybody know if this is true?
So it’s over to all FF members, so far we have 4 cars to be part of the challenge and we would like it to grow, although obviously not too big as this is just a first tester. You will need along the lines of:
Money for fuel, camping (including your own tent etc.)/hotel, food, any entertainment, repairs if necessary (fiats
)
Perseverance just to be part of the organising (all groups will be forced to organise parts such as their own accommodation/routes between checkpoints)
A weekend off in the summer holidays sometime.
A friend to go with them
A decent CD collection (it’s a bloody long way!)
A digital camera per team
Money for 10 x packs of polos or more!
Etc. etc.
For now, all we are asking for is interested parties. Not definite, but interested. Don’t put your name down if you’re vaguely interested/think it’s a good idea, only if you will actually do it all being well.
So far we have:
Stuart DemonD and team
James M and team
McKrob and team (the original idea maker)
Dawn of time and team
Gaz and team
The idea would be to all meet up either the night before/in the morning of the day somewhere in the centre of England (which is most accessible to most people, sorry all extreme southerners and northerners, it hasn’t been done on purpose), do a circle and meet up for a get together all being well at the end of day two.
We also require people to list places that they would like (if possible) included in the route. It is felt that the route should cover the nicer areas of the UK as possible, a good mix of A and B roads and some nice sights on the way. After all, it’s supposed to be an enjoyable occasion.
Please keep this thread with just the important bits of info, who is in, (not who isn’t and reasons why not), where you want the route to go and any other general suggestions. Any other discussion can go into the original thread in “talk about Fiats” which we could get moved into LL.
NB: I have just searched this text for the word “race” and haven’t found it, it simply isn’t a race and sorry if this comes across as such. See it as an adventure to see the country in a couple of days with friends and have a nice meet up with everybody at the end of it. A whistle stop tour of what Britain has to offer! Do not consider it a race, there will be no prizes for the winners.
I hope this introduces everybody to the idea.
Regards
Paul
P.S I am not agreeing to organise any of this yet/assuming position of organiser and offending others I hope by putting this down. I just got bored of revising chemistry and thought I would have a go.
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Uno 1.0ie Start. Standard.
Following mckrob’s initial suggestion for a “FF rally” I feel the possibility has become serious. It is most likely that there will be a “proper” one in 2005 but it is intended that there is a 2004 version to “test the water” ready for the real thing next year. This 2004 rally will most likely cover 2-3 days (1-2 nights) over a bank holiday weekend towards the end of summer. You, along with any team mates in your car (advised to keep sanity), will be given locations you have to visit in the UK and make your own route between these places. At each place, you will be asked to gain evidence. For example, if a service station on a particular part of the M1 was chosen as a checkpoint, you would be asked to buy a pack of polos and get a receipt, along with taking a digital photo of the sign for the service station for back up proof. There may be 10-20 of these along the way – or more? – which will mean you have to find the quicker route to get to each one. I emphasise quickest route, you will be expected to keep to all speed limits throughout – FF rally co-ordinators cannot be seen to condone speeding. There will be time penalties for anybody caught speeding – method of proof to be considered in the future.
The rally will hopefully take the drivers and passengers through some of the nicer areas of the UK; this will be at the competitors choice. For example, if somebody has ever wanted to see Oxford (which is a beautiful city!), this would be possible, it could be a checkpoint and you would need to gain proof that you have visited there, if on the other hand you don’t want you tyres shot by local drug dealers, you might chose to avoid Robin Hood’s city of Nottingham (!).
There would be a limit between which you wouldn’t be allowed to drive for obvious safety reasons. Also, all competitors should want to enjoy this and driving constantly would be boring, having a BBQ at a campsite wouldn’t be. A method would be devised therefore to check you kept within these hours, such as forcing you to buy something from a shop within a mile of your campsite at the time you leave, hence proving you didn’t leave too early. The reason for this rule would be to prevent one of the teams waking at 3am, jumping in the car and driving to the finish line before anybody else had finished breakfast, it wouldn’t be in the spirit of the competition! Of course competitors could drive on if they hadn’t reached their destination for the night but disqualification would be at the discretion of judges because you would have taken longer to complete the course.
Accommodation would be the sole responsibility of the individual teams. Camping equipment would be advised or hotel bookings made in advance for the richer teams would obviously be possible. No team will be allowed to follow the competition without a pre-define sleeping point due to safety reasons. Sleeping in your car is not an option due to the dangers of theft/hijacking, problems with the law and the very real danger that if you sleep in your car, you might not be fresh enough to do a full day of driving and feel as if the car is your bed. Each car if possible should have a relief driving so that the drivers can take shifts – you make think 8 hours in a day of driving is easy, even on a second day, yet the dangers are real.
Originally it was decided that the cars would be labelled up with numbers and advertise the fact that we’re doing a “rally around the UK” and even the chances of doing it for charity. However, insurance constraints mean that this is very unlikely for this year – maybe next year with more time it would be looked into. I know the insurance details of this means we’re on very dodgy ground, I don’t have the time to look into it and am worried it will mean we’re breaking the law just by this basic set up, does anybody know if this is true?
So it’s over to all FF members, so far we have 4 cars to be part of the challenge and we would like it to grow, although obviously not too big as this is just a first tester. You will need along the lines of:
Money for fuel, camping (including your own tent etc.)/hotel, food, any entertainment, repairs if necessary (fiats
)Perseverance just to be part of the organising (all groups will be forced to organise parts such as their own accommodation/routes between checkpoints)
A weekend off in the summer holidays sometime.
A friend to go with them
A decent CD collection (it’s a bloody long way!)
A digital camera per team
Money for 10 x packs of polos or more!
Etc. etc.
For now, all we are asking for is interested parties. Not definite, but interested. Don’t put your name down if you’re vaguely interested/think it’s a good idea, only if you will actually do it all being well.
So far we have:
Stuart DemonD and team
James M and team
McKrob and team (the original idea maker)
Dawn of time and team
Gaz and team
The idea would be to all meet up either the night before/in the morning of the day somewhere in the centre of England (which is most accessible to most people, sorry all extreme southerners and northerners, it hasn’t been done on purpose), do a circle and meet up for a get together all being well at the end of day two.
We also require people to list places that they would like (if possible) included in the route. It is felt that the route should cover the nicer areas of the UK as possible, a good mix of A and B roads and some nice sights on the way. After all, it’s supposed to be an enjoyable occasion.
Please keep this thread with just the important bits of info, who is in, (not who isn’t and reasons why not), where you want the route to go and any other general suggestions. Any other discussion can go into the original thread in “talk about Fiats” which we could get moved into LL.
NB: I have just searched this text for the word “race” and haven’t found it, it simply isn’t a race and sorry if this comes across as such. See it as an adventure to see the country in a couple of days with friends and have a nice meet up with everybody at the end of it. A whistle stop tour of what Britain has to offer! Do not consider it a race, there will be no prizes for the winners.
I hope this introduces everybody to the idea.
Regards
Paul
P.S I am not agreeing to organise any of this yet/assuming position of organiser and offending others I hope by putting this down. I just got bored of revising chemistry and thought I would have a go.
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Uno 1.0ie Start. Standard.
