Team Two-by-Four
Enthusiast
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hello,
On the 24th of December 2009 at 11:30am one fabricator (Charles Page), one pipefitter (Michael Rowlands) both from Babcock marine (Devonport dockyard) and a 41year French car will set off from Plymouth on an epic journey to Bamako Mali, this will see team Two-by-Four cover approximately 5000miles through 9countries and across 2continants all in around 3weeks all in the name of charity!
This is the route:
- starting from Plymouth we will head north to the mothers for Christmas dinner and final farewells!
- travelling under the sea, Paris is our first stop.
- from there (after a spin around the Arch de Triomphe and a hike up the Eiffel tower of course) to Andorra, hitting the slopes if time permits.
- next stop Alicante this is just to break up the drive through Spain, no real reason other than that.
- final stop in Europe is Tarifa this is where we will catch the ferry to Morocco.
- now the journey really begins and heads into the unknown, we will be staying in Marrakesh for New Years Eve (and probably new year’s day!)
- next is a 2-3day drive through the Western Sahara following the coast.
- once through the Sahara we will tackle Mauritania.
- and finally Mali when our actual finish point will be Bamako (this is due to the route to Timbuktu being known as the car killer and as the basic idea of the challenge is to take a group of banger cars costing around £100 from Plymouth to Africa, on arrival auction off the vehicles to the highest bidder to raise money for charity so they’ve decided to move the finish line)
The vehicle of choice
Stats
• Make: Renault 4L
• Year: 1968
• Engine: 0.8ltr (30bhp)
• Millage: 64000km
• 0-60: how long you got?
• Top speed: 72mph
The challenge is totally unsupported and will be 9cars containing 19people travelling through many climates and over rough terrain.
For full details please visit the www.plymouth-dakar.co.uk we are in group 4 of the Timbuktu section.
The challenge will be paid for by ourselves and all money raised will go to the two charities we have picked which are the Rotary club Amitié (www.rotary.org) The rotary club will be helping people in Africa to improve fresh drinking water, schools and housing, and St. Luke’s hospice (www.stlukes-hospice.org) St. Luke’s hospice which helps and cares for terminally ill patients in Plymouth and surround area.
To raise extra money for the charities we are turning to you to give as much as you can, anything that you can spare will be greatly received and will make a difference. (The online donations will be set up in the next few days)
We require a few parts for the car some need replacing now and others would be invaluable spares so if you’d like to sponsor us in a different way these would also be greatly received.
- we require a water pump (bearing is gone in the one fitted)
- a rocker cover gasket (one fitted leaks like a sieve)
- alternator (not sure what wrong with it but it’s not charging the battery)
- fuel pump (this works fine but my mechanic told me these are weak and that we should take a spare)
- complete dizzy and coil (coil is fine but again he thinks we should take a spare as for the dizzy points are new but the shaft the rotor arm fits to is worn and there’s a fair bit of play in it)
- any other bits if left off that you think I shouldn’t of
Thank you,
Charles Page and Michael Rowlands
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