An update on team Army Landrovers

"A cunning plan." To quote blackadder

chopper_gray wrote:

"A cunning plan." To quote blackadder

**Engages disdainful mode** Does it involve a dream turnip...?

The maiden voyage of team army Landrovers vehicle last night was a great success. A 50 mile round trip to team Galloways dance buffet disco type event. We found out breaking the 60 speed limit is an aim not a privilege. Also £100 in fuel doesn't fill the tank, looking forward to luxemburg. The look on people as you drive past seems to be "what the f!!! Is that?"

things to improve. Seats and the horrible sqealing fan belt. Communication between driver and co-driver is almost impossible so rally intercom system is required. And the nee naa's have stopped working (not a necessity but why have an ambulance with no nee naa's)

A busy weekend has come and gone at team army landrovers. Prep work on the 101 has moved on and the spare wheel carriers are ready to accept the new wheels when the tyres are fitted. Another 20 or so miles have been added to the running in and we had a Fund raising event with a local motorcycle group. Some coffers in the tin and some publicity gained.

Also on Friday an article was written about us in the Dumfries and galloway Standard. Quite possibly the worst bit of publicity I've ever had as most of the information is inaccurate. But as the old adage says "any publicity is good publicity". Tom from team Galloway even got mentioned as my co-driver. The woman seems to have completely got the wrong end of the stick. The article and photos from the bike rally can be seen at our site.

www.surplusandsafety.com/rally

Welcome to the world of PR guys Ha. I find it amazing that journalists so easily turn fact into fiction and report it as 'news'; but you are right "any publicity is good publicity".

That's good news re the M/C fundraising event - it all helps for sure.

Do I need to change our spreadsheets to read Tom as your Nav Ha

Love the site Stu, brilliant

Over the weekend I do believe that sanity has set in. I have realised that after spending almost twice the refurbishment budget (before having LPG and overdrive fitted) trying to get the ambulance ready for the rally it just ain't gonna happen. I have made the executive decision (Gareth is still hiding under the sea) that our old dependable 110 diesel is a far more reliable and sensible option. So defeat at this stage is admitted but team army landrover is still not out. The carbon footprint will be dramatically reduced and we will be able to pass the odd petrol station.

Our AA companions should be grateful and it will still be able to tow team Galloways disco 3.

That's the spirit Stuart.

Adapt and Overcome

Onwards and upwards. A brave, but no doubt, correct decision.

Although the word 'sanity' is rarely used on the event - it is normally prefixed with 'in' or some other expletive!

Ohhhhhh the relief

Todays news

"The wanderer has returned"

Just in time for the fundraising to go mental.

Does he know that it's a no to the 101?

Great news that the fund-raising is about to go mental

He has been told.

I'm sure after a couple of days he will be back on the forum ready for the banter to begin.

Helping at team galloway clay shoot tomorrow
Games night 14th
Collecting at Dumfries and Galloway aviation museum 15th
Dance on the 20th
High street collecting 28th
Collecting at two different Tescos on 4th June (Lockerbie, Cadets bag packing for us and we have a collecting table at Dumfries.)
Scottish Rally Preview day with collecting on Dumfries High Street 11th June

Then I've got some thing on the week after but for the life of me I can't think what it is!!!!!

Brill news all round Stuart. We need all those pennies if we are going to beat the 2010 figure; with your efforts and those of others we've heard about we should just about 'crack it'

Hi guys,
Well as Stuart says I'm back and desperately trying to catch up on everything that's happened over the last four months. Hugely disappointed about the 101 but at this stage of the game then it's got to be the right decision. In all honesty I expected to be under the engine cover most nights of the rally tweaking etc but their is a difference between tlc and major unreliability and the priority has to be to make it to the end of the event. Unfortunately the 110 isn't really a viable option either because we promised our sponsors we would keep the stickers on the vehicle for at least the rest of the year and I need to sell the 110 before I go back to sea to help pay for the money spent on the 101. (So if anyone wants a 110. 2.5NA softtop with a few shiny bits added then let me know :-) ).
Various plans were hatched including fitting an engine to Stuarts non running but otherwise very nice 110, just buying a hardtop roof for the stickers which we cld transfer to another vehicle after the rally and all sorts of plans generally involving far more engineering and tinkering than we really should be
Doing this late in the day!

So I decided to follow the mantra "when the going gets tough.......cheat!" a frantic search round eBay resulted in me being given a very good deal on one of these new fangled discovery things. It's a landrover but not as I recognise it (the heater works and it has a stereo!). It looks like it's lost a fight with an angry rhino but it's mechanically sound, any potentially rusty bits appear to have been repaired with armour plating and most importantly it has ridiculously big tyres on it :-).
What this does mean is I can't carrying on taking the Mick out of team Galloway for taking something as boring as a discovery but we can still take the Mick for having a shiny car! Possibly more importantly, it means we can really have a good go at the off road sections of the rally and stand a good chance of getting to the end of the trip whi ch remains objective 1!

Photos of the beast to follow soon.

Welcome back Gareth - Decisions and comments all noted!

101 to 110 to Disco! The big Q 'will you arrive in a Ranger Rover on the day?' Ha

The finish is the objective - that's the main goal; whilst keeping yourselves and your sponsors happy. If the Disco does that then it's job done.

Blimey Gareth I thought we cut it fine a bit last year I am getting excited this year because I vehicle is ready (other than having the rear fitted out for shelving etc) but mechanically is blooming marvellous, everything new and tickety boo! (she say's crossing everything)

evo4x4 wrote:

Welcome back Gareth - Decisions and comments all noted!

101 to 110 to Disco! The big Q 'will you arrive in a Ranger Rover on the day?' Ha

Well that would have been an option except for the fact that my old p38 is currently needs at least a turbo and probably an engine which takes us back to heavy engineering again!

Although it does seem like total madness acquiring a vehicle this late I'm fairly confident in it. The guy we bought it of had prepared it for a trip to the sahara this summer which has now been put on hold so it's had a lot of work done to it. It drove back from Ipswitch to Dumfries without missing a beat and is set up to handle some reasonably stiff off road terrain. So today is going to spent recovering from yesterday (Glasgow to Ipswitch and back in a day should be good preparation for the rally!) and investigating fuel cards etc before starting to sticker the disco, install CBs fit big red start button and all the other essential preps that need doing before we kick off the adventure.

And lastly as team rockape appear to be reading this.....it was dads birthday last week and he loved your maps that I gave him as a present....many thanks!

ahh glad to hear that, and good luck with the car, I think you are beating us on the build lead time, Chris re-built ours last year in 8 weeks, including new paint job etc! I daren't look forward to the rally as I was so nervous we were not going to be ready!

After months of little comments and being laughed at for taking a Discovery on the rally I am extremley amused to see Stuart and Gareth in one!!!!

I can confirm that the "new" Army Land Rovers Discovery did make it from Ipswitch to Dumfries on Wednesday, I was following it in the back-up vehicle. I'm still feeling the effects of breathing in large amounts of black smoke though............

Well at least you definitely couldn't call it shiny!

Another update to you all, just finished our games night which was a good evening despite a slightly disappointing turnout. Final figures will have to wait until we count all the coins but we are definitely over the £300 mark. Collecting tomorrow (or rather later today!) at the local aviation museum so hope to bring a bit more still.

A busy w/e for you guys.

Great going - don't be disappointed re £300+; every penny counts. It's a collective responsibility; if everyone raised another £300 we'd soon be close to our target.

Brilliant to see entrants in the Help for Heroes 4x4 European Rally arranging fund-raising activities and meeting and shaking those tins in front of the Great British public.

Thanks Keith. Final count came in at £435 which is really good for the numbers involved. Today is a quiet day but it's giving us a chance to sort out where to put the stickers on the new truck. Hope everyone else is having a successful weekend.

Gareth

I am really disappointed to say that we are having to cancel our dance that would have been on Friday. In the last 10 weeks the box office has sold a total of 17 tickets. We had sold about 50 but the minimum for the event to go ahead is 80. This problem has been compounded by the newspapers and radio publishing the wrong dates. The media has raised the rally's publicity but not helped with team army landrover much at all.

A few pounds in the collecting tin yesterday afternoon and a couple of possible sponsors making enquiries.