The Mongol Rally 2012

Three supposed masters of engineering from Scotland putting their balls and brains to the test. Clueless, talentless and over ambitious!

The Challenge: Drive 10,000 miles from the UK to Mongolia in very very small cars to raise money for charity.

It is completely devoted to charity and every team that participates must finance their own travel expenses, meaning that all money raised goes directly to charity!
The Mongol Rally isn't about comfort and it doesn't have a great deal to do with style, what we seek is adventure. The whole point is that it's difficult. Hence why we are tackling some of the worst roads in the world in a chariot with an engine size of under 1 litre (ish).

Why are we doing this? The main objective of this rally is fundraising to help selected charities. Lotus is the Mongol Rally’s official charity which is a non-profit, non-government organisation working with vulnerable children and families to provide the basic human rights of shelter, food and education. They care for up to 150 abused, orphaned and abandoned children at any one time. Initially set up to provide basic needs for survival for just a handful of children in one apartment, Lotus has developed a kindergarten and a primary school to provide educational foundation, and is developing vocational pathways for employment opportunities. Please donate to our cause:

New update from Facebook

Posted by Ross at 14th July 2012 at 18:00

goodbye UK

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Brian R.	14th July 2012 at 19:18
Have a great trip

West Sussex, UK

Recieved by SMS at 14th July 2012 at 15:00

Just left Goodwood race circuit, on route to Dover. Festival of Slow was amazing!

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Brian R.	14th July 2012 at 15:41
Great day pity we could not have changed the weather . Great bunch of very excited people. Good luck to all . Brian

New update from Facebook

Posted by Ross at 13th July 2012 at 22:16

we have arrived at festival of slow...car looks good covered in mud. Beer disappearing fast.

New update from Facebook

Posted by Ross at 13th July 2012 at 10:44

Shared a photo: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150913837622217&set=a.10150159878832217.289704.670697216&type=1&relevant_count=1

Birmingham, UK

Recieved by SMS at 13th July 2012 at 00:04

Staying in Birmingham tonight. Already passed one other team on the road and met a canadian from a different team in the hostel who is fitting a new petrol tank to hos Daewoo Matiz tomorrow! Wild!

T minus 1 day until our unofficial start to the rally

Posted by Ross at 11th July 2012 at 20:31

With just one day left until our unofficial start to the rally, where we will drive down to the starting line at Goodwood motor circuit and the first night of Mongol rally partying, we are all packed and ready and raring to go. We are all travelling very light, although I have managed to find space for some of what I have deemed as rally essentials including a team tiger onesy, a team borat mankini (pictures of this will follow, presumably not for the faint hearted) and my diabolo. Here is the bag I will be living out of for the next six weeks

We are all extremely excited to begin the journey after months of speculation and planning. Our next blog update will come from on the road!

Also, here is some information about the rally that is quite interesting, showing the extent of the event and the diverse mix of people participating

New update from Facebook

Posted by Ian Roberts at 10th July 2012 at 11:33

Off to get an International Driving Permit

Banchory, UK

Recieved by SMS at 10th July 2012 at 11:27

Leaving for London in 2 days, just checking the live tracking is working!

Photos of Car Mods

Posted by Ross at 6th July 2012 at 13:21

Thought I'd upload some of the photos I have taken over the past week whilst we have been preparing our car for the journey ahead of us. Ian has talked about what we have done to the car, these photos should show the magic happening...

Unconventional jacking system and preparing the chassis for being welded onto - thanks to friend of the team Ian Christie for the services of his farm, tractor and know how:

Completed sumpguard - isn't pretty but should protect our precious engine:

Rally styling:

Modifications complete:

1 week to go

Posted by Ian Roberts at 5th July 2012 at 21:55

So, we leave in exactly one week and we are starting to get reasonably organised!

Ross, Hutch and myself have spent the last few days preparing the car, although the other guys should take most of the credit as I have been busy working whilst they have been slaving over Pippa.

We sourced a second spare wheel from a junk yard in aberdeen so we can now get two puncutres and keep driving. Everytime we get a puncture we plan on replacing the tyre locally to save carrying too many spares from day one (how practical this will be in the middle of Kazakhstan remains to be seen. They must get punctures too though so have garages...?)

The sump guard was made with the help of Hutch's friend Ian, who usefully owns a farm with lots of tools and welders which came in handy. His practical knowledge was incredible and he managed to bang together a very tough looking sump guard in a couple of hours. I would like to say a HUGE thanks to him for his help, I kind of wish he was coming with us as I think he would be useful to have around.

We have also made the car look the part with various stickers, decals, spray painted wheels and some extra rally spot lights. We have made the decision to avoid taking a roof rack to save on cost, improve fuel efficiency and not effect the cars stability. This might mean we will end up rather cramped inside but we plan on packing light so hopefully it will be okay! Saying that we havn't actually had all our kit in it at the same time to test how much space we have and we won't now until we pick up Ross in Kirkcaldy on our way to the leaving party in Goodwood!

We still have a small list of things to do before we are 100% ready to go but compared to where we were last week I'm feeling confident that we are as ready as we will ever be to conquer the unknown lands between Aberdeen and Ulaanbataar, Mongolia.

If anyone is near Goodwood and wants to come to the leaving festival on Saturday the 14th of July get in touch!

Wish us luck!

Ian

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