The Event

The Sucata Run is a 4 day charity road rally from Rouen in France through to Cabo Da Roca in Portugal, in an old banger worth less than £250. About 60 teams attempted to take their bangers roughly 1500 miles or so, stopping off at La Rochelle, Salamanca & San Sebastian along the way, all in the name of charity. The event took place between the 27th to 31st August this year (2009)

Our Team

Our team, On the road to nowhere, consisted of 4 members. Myself, my partner, and a couple of friends. We successfully raised £1025 for Gemin-i.org, so thank you very much for your donations and your support. The running costs, fuel, flights, food, etc, were incurred by the team so all the money raised went to the charity. 

The Car

The car we used was an old Mazda MX3, which had 240'000 Km on the clock! It's certainly been around a bit. Costing us £200 and needing a cam belt was a bit of a gamble, but she made it perfectly without any issues at all. She had blackboard paint on several body panels, which made for some very entertaining comments throughout the trip.

The Story

Below are some brief notes about the trip taken as they happened! 

Day Zero - Leaving England

We arrived at Newhaven ferry terminal and bumped into two other teams at the port, The Ghostbusters in there replica 406, and Secret Mission. We met up with both teams on board talking about the event, and got separated when the ferry docked at Dieppe. We didn't have a sat nav so a map was our only hope of getting to Rouen, where we were spending the first night. We made it into the city centre and found the Information shop, who gave us directions to our campsite 15 minutes away. Two hours later we finally find the site, pitch up, and head back into Rouen for a Sucata Run gathering with other entrants. 

Day One - Rouen to La Rochelle

Left the campsite early to register the team at the start line. We drove around for a while in Rouen until a Sucata organiser escorted us to where we needed to go. All the teams were parked up & lots of photos taken, then the cars were released into Rouen in batches. We got lost immediately, easily done when you're following cars who are also lost, but eventually found our way. We had planned on avoiding toll roads due to the cost and the fact they're so boring, but it was a long day so decided to proceed with them anyway. We even managed to mess this up, taking the wrong exit and were greeted with a toll gate for the wrong road. We couldn't back up, so had no choice but to go through. We paid the fee, did an immediate U turn on the other side and proceeded back straight into another one, having to pay the fee twice. We eventually got onto the correct road and proceeded towards La Rochelle. We passed and were passed by several other teams along the way, including the Top Gun's Volvo which you can see in the pictures below, blowing a lot of smoke. 

When we reached La Rochelle, the camp site was full so checked into a hotel instead. Again we got lost trying to find it, then lost trying to find a parking space! You could tell getting lost was going to be the recurring problem of the trip! We eventually found it, checked in, dumped the bags and head towards the harbour where all entrants met up at one of the bars for drinks. 

Day Two - San Sebastian

We checked the charity box which was bolted to the bonnet of our car, to see that 6 Euro's and an empty box of tablets were in there, and Team Fiasco had also fly posted our car with one of there team stickers (that's given me ideas for next year!) We got lost yet again finding the camp site in San Sebastian, but found it up in the hills. Quite a few Sucata teams were staying here, so enjoyed a few drinks and a game of electronic darts in the bar with them. The weather was a bit crap so everyone stayed on site rather than venturing into town, which according to other people was quite nice.  

Day Three - Salamanca

Very hot day driving south through the Spanish mountains to Salamanca. We were in convoy with the Ghostbusters, who's diesel engine kept leaving us behind on the hills but the MX made it without an issue. There was a bit of minor paint scraping at first, followed by some major impacts between the two cars! All good fun of course. Lots of dents and scratches exchanged. We arrived at the hostel in Salamanca which had a balcony overlooking the main street into the city. The meeting point was in the main town square, where there's lots of late night bars and shops with loads of people staying up until the early hours. 

Day Four - Cabo Da Roca

The final day, and one of the longest & hottest so far. Temperatures reportedly hitting 42'C so over 100'F. The air conditioning in the MX had never worked so bottles of water over our heads and sticking them out the window was the only working solution. We drove through Spain and into Portugal, being stopped and searched for drugs by border patrol. We heard one team didn't get into Portugal for having a damaged wing mirror, not sure what happened with that. Also the Top Guns Volvo blew up and were being towed to the finish. We stopped along with many teams at a services to take some of the bags. Other teams took team mates on board! Glad to see them at the finish though. The finish point was Cabo Da Roca, Europe's most westerly point, with stunning views over the Atlantic sea. We all left and proceeded to the camp site not too far inland and pitched the tent. The Sucata BBQ and awards ceremony took place down on the beach, and everyone toasted a successful and amazing Sucata Run 2009. 

Click on the images below to enlarge