SB RALLY: Shitbox Rally underway
Raising funds for Cancer Research by driving from Perth to Darwin via the Kimberly in a $1000 carIt goes against most rules of what to do in the Outback... But there's safety in numbers. Indeed, traversing some of Australia's loneliest roads this week is the 2014 Shitbox Rally.
More than 250 teams are hoping that their less than race-ready cars go the distance from Perth to Darwin. The main rule is the cars cannot cost more than $1000 to buy – so the chances of striking trouble along the way are far from remote...
motoring.com.au's eyes and ears in the dust this week are Regan and Paula – the 'Dunny Dragsters'. So far their trip and 1998 Ford Falcon have both been drama free.
Regan takes up the tale...
DAY ONE: Perth to Meekatharra
Wow we made it, 771km done. And yes, before you ask, we were the first to arrive, ahead of the scout car -- but we didn't get into any trouble. It also means we were the first car to park, so will be the last to leave on the second leg. Probably not the best tactics...
To maintain such a good average speed, we were forced to skip the Wheatbin Museum in Wubin much to Paula's dismay.
Later that night we found out why we were in front of the scout car -- it got lost leaving Kings Park in the suburbs of Perth. Yes, they got lost at the very first corner of the 4200km route! My confidence in them is now a little rattled.
It took about four hours for all the cars to roll into Meekatharra our overnight stop. Not many casualties but a few in triage for the night.
There was a Mazda 121 that needed the clutch replaced which involved removing the gearbox -- no easy task at 10pm in a dusty car park of Meekatharra. But she'll be on the road again and that's all that counts.
The folk of Meekatharra were brilliant hosts putting on a great spread of food and lubricating us at the town's two pubs. Not the biggest pub crawl but visiting new venues is important, although I didn't get any ideas that I can share with The Duke of Wellington (That's my local in the city of Melbourne), unless you think toothless barmaids will work.
Last year the petrol bowsers were caged to combat theft. In Meeka they actually have cages around their beer taps! Also behind the bar was an A4 sheet full of names and dates of when people were allowed back into the pub.
This really is the Wild Wild West.
But the best news is that I have finally found the un-lock code for the Falcon's radio, so we won't kill each other after all.
Who would have thought they would put the code in the owner's manual. It's obviously why Leigh (the guy who bought the car for us) didn't find it -- he's never read a manual in his life.
We will have more updates from Regan during the week.
You can follow the escapades of Regan and Paula and the Shitbox Rally here:
Shitbox Rally Official Website
Donate to 'Dunny Dragsters' - All funds raised goes towards Cancer Research
Shitbox Rally 2014 - Day 1 - Perth to Meekatharra from Shitbox Rally on Vimeo.
Images: Jarrad Seng & Regan Cheriton
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