Saturday 22nd July 2006 – Up at 7am and before we left we found one of Plan-a-do’s cards on our car!
We set off for Hyde Park, which we finally found at around 10am, so much for getting there early! There were many wonderful cars lined up ready for the start of the rally and people kept coming up to talk to us... it seemed we were famous again. The sign in was not even organised chaos and we spent hours stood by Marvin waiting for the paperwork so we could be ‘authorised’ and we missed all the entertainment because of it! Neil kept sneaking away to film the latest teams arriving and the line of cars got longer and longer!
As we all started our engines ready for the off at 1.30pm, the heavens opened and we began our convoy around the center of London. Or we would have if Park Lane hadn’t been closed due to a demonstration so we had to find another route. We spent over 2 hours driving round London trying to find a way out only to find ourselves half a mile or so from the start line. As we drove down to Dover we passed 6 or 7 rally cars already broken down. We were happily bimling down the motorway when there were blue lights flashing in the mirror and we were flagged over by the police. What had we done wrong? We definitely hadn’t been speeding and it had cost us enough to get Marvin legal. The policeman approached us and lifted the windscreen wiper to look at the tax disc, and then apologised for stopping us. Apparently the all singing all dancing registration plate recognition computer in their car had said we had no road tax! Then Neil found that Marvin’s brakes weren’t working! This was traced to leaving the handbrake on and boiling the brake fluid and in time they start working again. The late start meant we missed our 6pm ferry in Dover, so we spent the time trying to rectify an oil leak that Marvin has sprung. Halfords being shut we settled for B&Q and substitute bath sealant for gasket compound and plant ties for tie wraps, and buy a very useful looking roll of plastic covered wire for tying bits back on!
We missed the ferry by 5 minutes but managed to transfer our booking onto the 10pm crossing. Spent the time chatting with Goldy Looking Micra, who were doing the quick route across Russia due to one of them having a 3 weeks old baby to rush back for, and the time flies by. Which was just as well as the ferry eventually left shortly after 11pm.
Sunday 23rd July 2006 - We arrived in Dunkirk around 1am and set off on our way through France, Belgium, Germany and into the Czech Republic. Just after the border we stopped for fuel and met up with various other teams, three 2CVs, a couple of Minis and a Morris Minor – all with stories of breakdowns to share. Apart from the continuing oil leak, Marvin was running fine .We waved our goodbyes and 2 minutes later the heavens opened and we were driving through the mother of all storms! Water poured into Marvin, from around the windscreen, down the windscreen wiper shafts, through the vent flap and god knows where else. J-cloths to the rescue stopped too much of it running over the instrument panel but worse was to come. Marvin decided he didn’t like it and after 20 minutes or so started to misfire, losing power and tried to jolt himself to bits. We stopped around 2km from a garage and sprayed the engine with WD40 and tried to carry on but it was all too much for Marvin and he came to a halt half way across a bridge 700 metres short of the garage. Neil sprayed him with more trusty WD40 but it didn’t help.
All the cars we had left at the garage earlier streamed past but didn’t stop for us, which was depressing. So much for the Rally spirit!! An American team stopped to see if we were ok but couldn’t offer us a tow to the nearby garage as they were having problems with their clutch. A team in a blue mini with Trouble (Steve) at the wheel whizzed by and Jan swore she would murder him when she next saw him!
Eventually with much spluttering and bumping we made it to the garage and the rain eases off. At the garage we met team Flappo Brothers who had been struck by lightening. Instruments had gone haywire, warning lights came on but after stopping and leaving it a while everything had returned to normal. We sprayed Marvin with WD40 again and left it to dry for a while then we ran him around the garage car park a few times and all seemed ok so off we went – but half a mile up the road the misfire returned so we stopped at the next fuel station.
Neil swapped the coil and fitted new plugs but to no avail and the rain came down again.
So we parked Marvin amongst the lorries for the night and after a quick wash and brush up went for a meal and a couple of drinks. Exhausted we headed back to Marvin and moved our belongings around and got some sleep – hoping for a better day tomorrow.
