Scumrun 2011, full review!
09 May 2011, 12:52 PM
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Scumrun 2011, full review!
2011 is going far too quickly for my liking, it only seems like 5 minutes ago that we had sold the Espace shuttle and were thinking of signing up yet again than it got to within 1 month of the rally and we had absolutely nothing organised!
Well, that's not strictly true, the amount of times we had done this meant we were never short of ideas for themes and as we'd taken fast cars in previous years, we wanted something different, in short we wanted a morris minor.
For a long time the right car eluded us, so much so that we were starting to give up hope, then we saw one on bay that looked perfect. A phone call to the seller led us to believe that the car was tatty, but functional. However a 2 hour slog across london proved that "tatty" actually meant a blown head gasket and holes in the sill you could put your fist in.
With a week to go, things were looking bleak. We were reduced to spamming the morris minor forums on the internet, begging for a car we could use, even hiring a good one for 500 for the weekend. Everything came to naught though, so it was time for plan B.
I do this every year. When booking the ferry, I book my daily driver, then change the reg to the rally car when we buy it. With L reg E36's going for around £500 these days, it certainly qualified, but it was just as well modifications don't count towards the total as I would have been 10K overbudget! It was no minor, but fully loaded, well maintained and comfortable coupe, best of all, it was gear to do stupidly high speeds with minimum of fuss....
The day of the rally approached and we stickered up the car and made our way to the startline.
This year it was relatively local,
Brands hatch was pressed into service, with the promise of full facilities, ample parking for the cars and a lap of the indy circuit to boot. When we got there, most of the field had already arrived.
One launch party later and it was time to move, Dover beaconed, with a 3am redeye crossing for an extra early start on the continent and we queued up at o'darkhundred to get on board...
Eventually the ferry arrived and we all piled in.
A pleasant crossing later and we arrived in a mist sodden Calais. The early tactics paid off with no border control at all and we hit the autoroute and disappeared into the fog
Our route cards had been given to us on the ferry, same as last year, cryptic challenges are the key, with specific locations in specific towns being the holy grail. Photograph your car and your team in front of this location and you've hit the jackpot. Our first port of call was the region of champagne, specifically, reims.
The directions were suitably cryptic, but in the end we found our first port of call, the Head office of Veuve Clicquot. There were two of them, so predictably we went to the wrong one first, but eventually, we found the right one.
As we were there, more Scumrunners turned up and it quickly became a scrum
So we did the decent thing and dusted, besides, we had another checkpoint to tick off, same region, different champagne!
We had done the checkpoints and it was barely 9am, we were driving for ourselves now and the only thing we had to do was get to the first overnight stop in Strasbourg.
Well, not the only thing. As 10am UK time loomed we were conscious we were in the wrong country to witness an important event. Important enough to ensure a crash stop of the entire damn rally, at a hypermarche, in a town we never did pin down.
No not here, but the picture made me laugh
Cue two hairy arsed rally competitors taking over the entire damn electronics section, demanding they turn down the **** music they were playing and demanding they turn up the wedding
Three hours later, we were back on the road and headed towards Strasbourg. Eventually we get to our destination and park up under a handy tree.
Seeing as the previous night consisted of zero sleep, it was understandable that the party that night was somewhat subdued, but come the morning, we were raring to go.
As the teams crammed round for the driver briefing, someone shouted "Where we going today Ed?"
"Prague." was his reply. He also said that the majority of our journey would be on desrestricted autobahns. Rather handy that I have bought a tutonic performance car with a suitable powerplant under the bonnet then First things first though, the customary pre highspeed checklist was carried out:
Then we were on our way. Although not to the checkpoints, we had one of our own to deal with. There was a very special town enroute and we had to pay a visit.
This is Dune, Live!
It was recorded in a forest in a little town near the french/german border called Rastatt. Many consider it to be one of the finest examples of a live recording of european Happy Hardcore ever made. I include myself in that last statistic, so it would have been rude not to pay a visit, don't you think?
Anyways, back on the road and what a road it was, most the time it was relatively straight, not too busy and good enough for me and my fellow enthusiasts to to get the hammer down.
Then, another distraction, we began seeing signs for a museum with a concorde picture on it, we were on a mission so we noticed it, but paid it no attention. Then we saw the museum at the roadside and had to put in a stop.
This is the Tu-144, russia's answer to Concorde, except much less reliable. It, like its contemporary is a museum piece now, but I had never seen one in the flesh before. This was solved by pulling over and getting the camera out. Top boss 8)
So! Back on the road and we had a checkpoint to get to, so we got the hammer down. We were going about this fast:
When about a 1/4 of a mile ahead of us, a police car pulled onto the road. despite being desrestricted, we figured that tonking past them at over a ton 20 might be a bad idea, so we slowed down and pulled in behind them. We were then promptly pulled over.
To make matters worse, the lay-by we pulled into had the saab golf team in, so the copper got two for the price of one! To be fair though, he was fairly pleasant, despite questioning the legality of the rally and he took our documents away for checks. As we were fishing them out, a police helicopter hovered low overhead, packing camera turrets on each skid. "Is that for us?" I asked, "yes, they were tracking you" was his reply 8O
About 10 minutes later, he came back with our documents. You have to love the germans. we'd been tracked by a police helicopter at well over 120, but because our papers were in order, there was no further action to be taken
Onwards! we still had a checkpoint to complete, but as we were aware of the bacon overhead, we adjusted our speed accordingly.
:wink:
The clue was especially cryptic this time, we had to find the place where hitler made a famous speech, but for some reason the satnav coordinates given on the route card took us to a gynaecological hospital instead? The man was a ****, but this was not where we needed to be, so with the help of a handy english speaking fanny mechanic, we set off again. about 45 minutes later, we arrived in Nurnberg.
The infamous Nurnberg rally grounds were the checkpoint and it was from here we made our push towards prague. Only one problem, as we got closer, we ran out of Satnav!
The official border of western/eastern europe is at the border with the Czech republic, so in order to get to the campsite, we had to go old skool.
Here's a few pictures of us crossing the border into dragon country :wink:
Note general kerfuffle regarding where the hell we are going.
With the route card was google maps directions, which we followed and only got milady lost. Eventually we made it to the campsite and after a few victory donuts (we knew this was about as east as we were going to get) we put the car to bed and got ready to hit town.
The evening passed in an alcohol fuelled frenzy of smoking and gambling. We ended up at a nightclub on the banks of the Vltava river, having a fine time and making sure we made the most of the beer which cost less than water. Then the tequila came out and we called it a night at around 2am.
Woke up the next morning to slightly damp conditions and a bit of a hangover, but that aside we were feeling great. Just as well as it was day three and we had a funny feeling we'd be heading west. As the cars lined up, we got ready to go again.
The start of the driver briefing saw the teams making their way over again:
This time, the entire day was to be spent in germany, with, again, cryptic checkpoints along the way. Once again, the derestricted autobahn loomed and after checking the tyre pressures once again and blowing a 0.0 on the breathalyser (the Czech republic has zero tolerance for drink driving, even a 0.1 will see your **** getting kicked) we set off.
Distractions are the name of the game on this rally, spend the whole day on the road (even if it is at 120+) and you'll soon get bored. However, the lay-by we pulled in for a **** was nothing short of inspired.
We saw this.
Its a combine harvester.
Aaand now it's on the rally
As well as that, behold! the sign which reduced us to giggling 8 year old in less than 5 seconds!
Anyway, enough of that, we had a checkpoint to get to! We only had vague co-ordinates (again), but some deft work in the satnav saw Davespice taking us in round the back route and not having to walk 3 km uphill to get to the statue of hercules!
Looks quite nails, wouldn't you say? Best make ourselves look hard too.
Onwards! We chewed the miles at a steady rate, with lots of german autobahn giving way to depressingly slow back lanes. However, eventually we get to the final campsite, which was on a hill near a reservoir, just to the West of Kessel. This was the final night, so the organisers had put on a barn party for us, complete with outside bar. Unfortunately, as soon as the sun went down, we realised just how high up we were and just how cold it was! After putting on the beer overcoat, the rest of the night was spent locked in battle with our sleeping bags, trying to avoid letting in any kind of draught.
The final day is always coloured by the fact we knew where we were going, back to calais. However, the checkpoints along the way were a welcome distraction, so we set off once again, heading west. Our first point of call was to Bruges, to get a shot of the belltower made famous by the film. However, as seasoned rally veterans, we knew our route would take us straight past Antwerp. If hell has a road network, it's a safe bet it'll be something similar to Antwerp's so we boxed round it and ended up getting into Bruges early doors. The cameraman we had with us proved useful in operating the, err, camera and we got a nice shot of the car infront of our quarry.
Next up we were going back, way back, all the way to the early days of the rally. We were on our way to Eastenders! Belgium gave way to France once again and Eastender's close proximity to the ferry point meant our rally was almost over by the time we get there.
But got there we had and bloody early too, we were about the 10th to arrive and as we waited to board the ferry, we made sure we kept ourselves amused.
Once aboard, we got good seats and waited for the rest of the rally to fill up our private lounge that the organisers had laid on.
Everyone jostled for position as the rough crossing made standing up difficult, but everyone still gathered round when asked.
http://s179.photobucket.com/albums/w...t=IMG_2646.jpg
The final presentations were for the awards, with the well deserved winners going up for the spirit, the best dressed scum, best modified car and best best fancy dressed car.
And that was it! The final teamclsm excursion on the Scumrun rally. This time next year, my best friend and Navigator Davespice will be getting married. It wouldn't feel right doing the rally without him by my side so next years rally is not happening for us. But what a year to finish off on. Okay the first day was tough and we were feeling pretty grumpy by the end of it, but the second day was a relentless cascade of awesome and badass. Best of all, the tracker we had fitted gave us, for the first time, an exact readout of the route we took.
Team CLSM would like to sign off by thanking everyone who donated towards our charity fund for this year. Tough economic times have made it difficult but each of you rose to the occasion magnificently. My heartfelt thanks to each and everyone of you for digging deep and making it happen, cos it sure as hell wouldn't have without your help.
Cheers,
Astraboy & Davespice - TeamCLSM.
Well, that's not strictly true, the amount of times we had done this meant we were never short of ideas for themes and as we'd taken fast cars in previous years, we wanted something different, in short we wanted a morris minor.
For a long time the right car eluded us, so much so that we were starting to give up hope, then we saw one on bay that looked perfect. A phone call to the seller led us to believe that the car was tatty, but functional. However a 2 hour slog across london proved that "tatty" actually meant a blown head gasket and holes in the sill you could put your fist in.
With a week to go, things were looking bleak. We were reduced to spamming the morris minor forums on the internet, begging for a car we could use, even hiring a good one for 500 for the weekend. Everything came to naught though, so it was time for plan B.
I do this every year. When booking the ferry, I book my daily driver, then change the reg to the rally car when we buy it. With L reg E36's going for around £500 these days, it certainly qualified, but it was just as well modifications don't count towards the total as I would have been 10K overbudget! It was no minor, but fully loaded, well maintained and comfortable coupe, best of all, it was gear to do stupidly high speeds with minimum of fuss....
The day of the rally approached and we stickered up the car and made our way to the startline.
This year it was relatively local,
Brands hatch was pressed into service, with the promise of full facilities, ample parking for the cars and a lap of the indy circuit to boot. When we got there, most of the field had already arrived.
One launch party later and it was time to move, Dover beaconed, with a 3am redeye crossing for an extra early start on the continent and we queued up at o'darkhundred to get on board...
Eventually the ferry arrived and we all piled in.
A pleasant crossing later and we arrived in a mist sodden Calais. The early tactics paid off with no border control at all and we hit the autoroute and disappeared into the fog
Our route cards had been given to us on the ferry, same as last year, cryptic challenges are the key, with specific locations in specific towns being the holy grail. Photograph your car and your team in front of this location and you've hit the jackpot. Our first port of call was the region of champagne, specifically, reims.
The directions were suitably cryptic, but in the end we found our first port of call, the Head office of Veuve Clicquot. There were two of them, so predictably we went to the wrong one first, but eventually, we found the right one.
As we were there, more Scumrunners turned up and it quickly became a scrum
So we did the decent thing and dusted, besides, we had another checkpoint to tick off, same region, different champagne!
We had done the checkpoints and it was barely 9am, we were driving for ourselves now and the only thing we had to do was get to the first overnight stop in Strasbourg.
Well, not the only thing. As 10am UK time loomed we were conscious we were in the wrong country to witness an important event. Important enough to ensure a crash stop of the entire damn rally, at a hypermarche, in a town we never did pin down.
No not here, but the picture made me laugh
Cue two hairy arsed rally competitors taking over the entire damn electronics section, demanding they turn down the **** music they were playing and demanding they turn up the wedding
Three hours later, we were back on the road and headed towards Strasbourg. Eventually we get to our destination and park up under a handy tree.
Seeing as the previous night consisted of zero sleep, it was understandable that the party that night was somewhat subdued, but come the morning, we were raring to go.
As the teams crammed round for the driver briefing, someone shouted "Where we going today Ed?"
"Prague." was his reply. He also said that the majority of our journey would be on desrestricted autobahns. Rather handy that I have bought a tutonic performance car with a suitable powerplant under the bonnet then
First things first though, the customary pre highspeed checklist was carried out:Then we were on our way. Although not to the checkpoints, we had one of our own to deal with. There was a very special town enroute and we had to pay a visit.
This is Dune, Live!
It was recorded in a forest in a little town near the french/german border called Rastatt. Many consider it to be one of the finest examples of a live recording of european Happy Hardcore ever made. I include myself in that last statistic, so it would have been rude not to pay a visit, don't you think?
Anyways, back on the road and what a road it was, most the time it was relatively straight, not too busy and good enough for me and my fellow enthusiasts to to get the hammer down.
Then, another distraction, we began seeing signs for a museum with a concorde picture on it, we were on a mission so we noticed it, but paid it no attention. Then we saw the museum at the roadside and had to put in a stop.
This is the Tu-144, russia's answer to Concorde, except much less reliable. It, like its contemporary is a museum piece now, but I had never seen one in the flesh before. This was solved by pulling over and getting the camera out. Top boss 8)
So! Back on the road and we had a checkpoint to get to, so we got the hammer down. We were going about this fast:
When about a 1/4 of a mile ahead of us, a police car pulled onto the road. despite being desrestricted, we figured that tonking past them at over a ton 20 might be a bad idea, so we slowed down and pulled in behind them. We were then promptly pulled over.
To make matters worse, the lay-by we pulled into had the saab golf team in, so the copper got two for the price of one! To be fair though, he was fairly pleasant, despite questioning the legality of the rally and he took our documents away for checks. As we were fishing them out, a police helicopter hovered low overhead, packing camera turrets on each skid. "Is that for us?" I asked, "yes, they were tracking you" was his reply 8O
About 10 minutes later, he came back with our documents. You have to love the germans. we'd been tracked by a police helicopter at well over 120, but because our papers were in order, there was no further action to be taken
Onwards! we still had a checkpoint to complete, but as we were aware of the bacon overhead, we adjusted our speed accordingly.
:wink:
The clue was especially cryptic this time, we had to find the place where hitler made a famous speech, but for some reason the satnav coordinates given on the route card took us to a gynaecological hospital instead? The man was a ****, but this was not where we needed to be, so with the help of a handy english speaking fanny mechanic, we set off again. about 45 minutes later, we arrived in Nurnberg.
The infamous Nurnberg rally grounds were the checkpoint and it was from here we made our push towards prague. Only one problem, as we got closer, we ran out of Satnav!
The official border of western/eastern europe is at the border with the Czech republic, so in order to get to the campsite, we had to go old skool.
Here's a few pictures of us crossing the border into dragon country :wink:
Note general kerfuffle regarding where the hell we are going.
With the route card was google maps directions, which we followed and only got milady lost. Eventually we made it to the campsite and after a few victory donuts (we knew this was about as east as we were going to get) we put the car to bed and got ready to hit town.
The evening passed in an alcohol fuelled frenzy of smoking and gambling. We ended up at a nightclub on the banks of the Vltava river, having a fine time and making sure we made the most of the beer which cost less than water. Then the tequila came out and we called it a night at around 2am.
Woke up the next morning to slightly damp conditions and a bit of a hangover, but that aside we were feeling great. Just as well as it was day three and we had a funny feeling we'd be heading west. As the cars lined up, we got ready to go again.
The start of the driver briefing saw the teams making their way over again:
This time, the entire day was to be spent in germany, with, again, cryptic checkpoints along the way. Once again, the derestricted autobahn loomed and after checking the tyre pressures once again and blowing a 0.0 on the breathalyser (the Czech republic has zero tolerance for drink driving, even a 0.1 will see your **** getting kicked) we set off.
Distractions are the name of the game on this rally, spend the whole day on the road (even if it is at 120+) and you'll soon get bored. However, the lay-by we pulled in for a **** was nothing short of inspired.
We saw this.
Its a combine harvester.
Aaand now it's on the rally
As well as that, behold! the sign which reduced us to giggling 8 year old in less than 5 seconds!
Anyway, enough of that, we had a checkpoint to get to! We only had vague co-ordinates (again), but some deft work in the satnav saw Davespice taking us in round the back route and not having to walk 3 km uphill to get to the statue of hercules!
Looks quite nails, wouldn't you say? Best make ourselves look hard too.
Onwards! We chewed the miles at a steady rate, with lots of german autobahn giving way to depressingly slow back lanes. However, eventually we get to the final campsite, which was on a hill near a reservoir, just to the West of Kessel. This was the final night, so the organisers had put on a barn party for us, complete with outside bar. Unfortunately, as soon as the sun went down, we realised just how high up we were and just how cold it was! After putting on the beer overcoat, the rest of the night was spent locked in battle with our sleeping bags, trying to avoid letting in any kind of draught.
The final day is always coloured by the fact we knew where we were going, back to calais. However, the checkpoints along the way were a welcome distraction, so we set off once again, heading west. Our first point of call was to Bruges, to get a shot of the belltower made famous by the film. However, as seasoned rally veterans, we knew our route would take us straight past Antwerp. If hell has a road network, it's a safe bet it'll be something similar to Antwerp's so we boxed round it and ended up getting into Bruges early doors. The cameraman we had with us proved useful in operating the, err, camera and we got a nice shot of the car infront of our quarry.
Next up we were going back, way back, all the way to the early days of the rally. We were on our way to Eastenders! Belgium gave way to France once again and Eastender's close proximity to the ferry point meant our rally was almost over by the time we get there.
But got there we had and bloody early too, we were about the 10th to arrive and as we waited to board the ferry, we made sure we kept ourselves amused.
Once aboard, we got good seats and waited for the rest of the rally to fill up our private lounge that the organisers had laid on.
Everyone jostled for position as the rough crossing made standing up difficult, but everyone still gathered round when asked.
http://s179.photobucket.com/albums/w...t=IMG_2646.jpg
The final presentations were for the awards, with the well deserved winners going up for the spirit, the best dressed scum, best modified car and best best fancy dressed car.
And that was it! The final teamclsm excursion on the Scumrun rally. This time next year, my best friend and Navigator Davespice will be getting married. It wouldn't feel right doing the rally without him by my side so next years rally is not happening for us. But what a year to finish off on. Okay the first day was tough and we were feeling pretty grumpy by the end of it, but the second day was a relentless cascade of awesome and badass. Best of all, the tracker we had fitted gave us, for the first time, an exact readout of the route we took.
Team CLSM would like to sign off by thanking everyone who donated towards our charity fund for this year. Tough economic times have made it difficult but each of you rose to the occasion magnificently. My heartfelt thanks to each and everyone of you for digging deep and making it happen, cos it sure as hell wouldn't have without your help.
Cheers,
Astraboy & Davespice - TeamCLSM.
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10 June 2012, 10:07 PM
#10
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What a difference a year makes eh? Last year I was young free and single, this year I'm married, with a baby on the way and soon to be mortgaged up to the eyeballs!
The only downside, I may have to sell the car that put in such a storming performance last year
Does anyone have any ideas where I can store a car for 5 years free of charge?
Astraboy.
The only downside, I may have to sell the car that put in such a storming performance last year
Does anyone have any ideas where I can store a car for 5 years free of charge?
Astraboy.
11 June 2012, 12:54 AM
#12
I didn't realise you used the E36 last year, I missed that 
Last I heard you were looking for a morris minor and that was that!
It'd be a shame if you have to sell considering how long you've owned it and what you've put into it. I may be able to store it in my other garage but I'd need a hand shifting things around and I couldn't guarantee 5 years but it's possible.
Last I heard you were looking for a morris minor and that was that!It'd be a shame if you have to sell considering how long you've owned it and what you've put into it. I may be able to store it in my other garage but I'd need a hand shifting things around and I couldn't guarantee 5 years but it's possible.
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