For your convenience, all the photos of our Scally Rally can be found by clicking on the belo links:

Scally Rally 1

Scally Rally 2

Scally Rally Preparations

So with the actual Scally Rally under our proverbial belts, we entered the next phase of our European tour. 

Lunch outside the Ferrari factory at Cavallino's with the family-Quinn was great, and was followed by a stop over in Santa Margarita, en route to Nice.  We even managed a not so flying lap of Monaco!

Nice offorded us a few days recouperation from the drive (until we discovered what "Giraffes" of beer were that is!).  We attended a great Irish wedding - as invited guests this time ;o) and "sang" our way through to the wee small hours of the morning.

We then began the 1000 mile trek up through France back home, stopping over in Beaune to sample the local wine, and Reims to sample the Champagne (except that all we actually sampled was how bad a night sleep you can get in a 2 star auberge).  A ferry crossing and a quick stint back on the left hand side of the road saw the Woodyhoodies home, and closed the chapter on our 2008 Scally Rally.

We managed 3136 miles, raising £4000 for Adoption UK.  We drank 5 Giraffes of beer, we repaired 1 clutch, we took 363 photos, we got a little bit too close to the barriers in San Remo, and we didn't park close enough to them in Nice to avoid the toolbax being swiped from the boot. 

We discovered that the French like their speed camera to be in the central reservation, and that the Swiss like a good fondue. The Italians like to beep their horn for no reason.  We discoverd that it doesn't just rain in the UK. 

We stayed in a lovely hotel in Cortina, we stayed in a terrible one in Reims, we almost stayed in one in Santa Margarita until we unwittingly contravened international marketing laws and instead made a hasty exit as self preservation set in.  

We had a great time...

The hoodies were up early for the last day of the Scally Rally. As the hairpins turned first to sweeping curves and then to motorway, the task of the day centered on Venice. We arrived in good time, determined to have as long as possible taking in the sights and sounds of Venice. We managed to get our tasks done and settled in for lunch before heading back on the road for the final leg of the journey.

After setting several land speed records we arrived in Rimini and crossed the finish line to join those already there, and to greet those that weren't. It was a great sight to see the cars that had made it – some of which we had never seen. It was strange that we seemed to meet up along the way with the same group of cars.

The evening saw us joining our Scally peers in the bar for the Wrap Party. While we didn't win, (we were robbed!!!), we can console ourselves by generally being considered to have been a passing red blur by most of the people we spoke to! We finally dragged ourselves to bed about 4am after a very entertaining evening, paying the price (literally!) to our efforts with a round of headaches the following morning.

We upped and left Rimini and headed towards Marranello, the spiritual home of our chariot. En route we went to Imola, and paid our respects to Senna at Tamburello. A quick bite to eat saw the hoodies tucked up in bed by midnight, looking forward to the post Scally Rally episodes that await us...

photos HERE
More Photos HERE

A relatively calm night in Basel saw the hoodies tucked up in bed before the chimes of midnight, ready to face the prospect of one of the most scenic drives known to man, taking in the mountains, lakes and valleys en route up and over the Grimsel pass... well, I'm sure the view was out there somewhere, but it was difficult to tell because the wipers wouldn't shift the rain quick enough. If we thought yesterday started in monsoon conditions, our sense of perspective was quickly readjusted as we headed through the Swiss countryside.

We climbed our way around the hairpins of the Grimsel pass, and as the rain turned to sleet and then to snow we wondered if we would have been better off packing waterproofs and wellies instead of shorts and flip flops. More drama was to follow as we reached the summit of the next pass - the Furka pass - amid scenes normally reserved for the Rally of Finland and we were told that the road was impassible and we would have to turn around and make our way back down and find an alternate route to Como. We duly did this, calling on Graham's navigational resources, to take in another winding climb in a convoy of a few scally cars slipping and sliding our way up and over another pass.

After a well deserved lunch of carbonara we continued into Como. The snow turned back into rain - a lot of rain – and just as we caught our first glimpses of lake Como the sun welcomed us across the Italian border. We were waved straight through the border control – they must have recognised the Italian credentials of the chariot (and Mike's wig)...

Our challenge for the day was to get the vital statistics of some of the world's most exotic motors (and a Ford Focus ST), and extra points for photographic evidence if we happened to see any of them. So the sight of Porsches, Ferraris, Astons, and Beemers heading the opposite direction down the pass got us all overexcited and trigger happy on the camera... amazing though that the Alfa Brera is clearly not sold in its native Italy as it eluded us all day,

A beautiful drive along the edge of the lake saw us into Como, where we duly found our hotel, and prepared for an evening of comparing notes with our scally peers...

Day 3.......Well there's no two ways about it....we are having a ball! The whole thing is just fantastic.

Having arrived in Como on Saturday night, we had a lovely evening despite the rain!! After a few drinks and a good italian meal with the locals, we decided to head to a bar in the main square for a quiet drink before heading home! But it wasn't meant to be...the Taylor-Quinn combo couldn't escape the Como party and managed to stumble across and gatecrash a good irish wedding, which turned out to be a great shindig!

After just 3 ½ hours sleep, we were on the road again and heading to the Stelvio pass....and the early start was well worth it....what an amazing experience. We had a ball going up the mountain and took lots of pictures, it was a truly memorable experience, particularly seeing other scally cars before and after us, keeping the comaraderie going!

It was a long day, but truly worth every minute, and we even managed to squeeze in the beginning of the grand prix (go, Vettel!) and finally landed in Cortina, several passes later, at around 5.30pm.

Ains & Mike took to the hotel jacuzzi for some well deserved r & r, before we all headed off to explore the delights of Cortina...and what a beautiful place, it really is stunning! With the banter still on top form and with laughs aplenty, we enjoyed a nice meal in the town, before heading back to the hotel to catch up with some fellow scallies and share some stories! After a rather crazy 48 hours though, the woody hoodies opted for an early night....after all, Monday is the last day and we have Venice and a wrap party in Rimini to face tomorrow, and that could be rather hectic!!

Photos here.....

With the kind people of Silverstone (that's Laurence, Carol, and Alison to you and me) offering us a trade pitch where we could display the chariot, we dispensed with the balloons and set about a charity raffle instead.  Managing to acquire some BMW Motorsport clothes, some VXR goodies including signed photos and cap, as well as 2 Superbike tickets amongst others, we set up our camping table next to the car and began to shake our buckets.  We were keeping illustrious company too, situated right next to the Seat stand, and opposite the VXRacing pitch, we couldn't have been more in the thick of it if we'd tried.  The only downside was that it was like listening to the world's worst DJ mix as both camps competed for the mantle of who could play the loudest music.

Saturday was sparce but gloriously sunny, made up for Sunday being the polar opposite, with tens of thousands of people battling the driving rain.  We stood strong, and between most people hiding under their rain macks and umbrellas, we managed to up our total by over £250, with some great support and enthusiasm for our quest.  Our running total now stands at over £3,500 raised, with a week or so to go.

We did manage to see all three BTCC races, with particular attention being paid to our sparring partner from a few weeks ago at the Aston Martin test track, Matt Jackson.  There was no doubt that the experience at Gaydon of seeing our red beast in his mirrors had galvinised his team into action, as he put on a spectacular display, managing to win the final race to rapturous applause.  We credit ourselves with that, even if no-one else does ;o)

That sees the last of our official fundraising duties before the big off.  It's been such a long time coming, it's hard to believe that the actual event is just around the corner, or should that be the hairpin....

Pictures available HERE!

That's right, you heard it correctly - whilst going about our fundraising business a few weeks ago with kind permission from Tesco in Banbury, it seems their trigger happy parking contractor cunningly spotted us outstaying our welcome.... which is pretty impressive work when you consider that perhaps the sight of a bright red, green, and white car, filled to the gunwales with balloons, parked right across the entrance to the store is not the typical profile of your average criminal looking to avoid putting pennies unnecessarily into the pockets of messrs N, C, and P ;o)

V. amusing and one for the scrapbook...

Well, not that we're taking the blame for the 0-0 scoreline at Oxford United on Bank Holiday Monday, but parking the car outside the main stand at the Kassam Stadium and shaking our proverbial "thangs" at fans as they strolled by certainly gave a motorsport theme to the proceedings.  Fans were generous with their loose change and we are very grateful for the £160 plus we managed to count out at the end of our pre-match fundraising stint.

The female contingent donned their footy tops and managed to capture the attention of fans and photographers alike, we are still scanning the nationals to see if any royalties are due ;o)

Barry / Timothy - your collective efforts in making this possible are greatly appreciated, and our thanks to Paul Mason at PMC for funding the italian stallion's livery.

A few photos have been added here!

Last weekend saw the latest installment of the Woody Hoodies' fundraising attempts - this time the destination was Tesco in Banbury, where our designated zone was coincidentally right next to the ATMs!  We continued the "guess-the-number-of-balloons" theme of the BMW Festival, and quickly established the best way of enticing interest from adults was to give balloons out to their children ;o)  With our lungs working overtime, Tesco was quickly filled with people under 4ft carrying orange balloons, with donations from those over 5ft dropping into the buckets!

All in all, the balloon events managed to raised over £250, so a big thank you to all those that donated, and to Julie at Nick Whale BMW Ltd for putting up the prize money.

Our next stop is the novelty of a carpark picnic on Bank Holiday Monday at Oxford United, thanks to Paul Mason Consulting (PMC) Ltd, where in between pork pies and pukka pies, we will be shaking our orange donation buckets at the U's fans!

Thanks to the esteemed Ewan at Mobile Industry Review, typing the words "Scally Rally" into google currently returns the following link at number five in the list!  That's right, we're well and truly on the cyber map!