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The Italian Job Rally 2008
pictures of the italian job 2005 rally
Hello... and thanks for visiting our fundraising page!
From the 24th October until the 1st November this year, to raise funds for Children in Need, we will be taking part in 'the Italian Job' - an incredible 8 day fund-raising car rally inspired by the 1969 classic film starring Michael Caine. Thanks to B4BMW and A4AUDI in Glasgow, who have generously provided the Mini that has made our participation possible, we will be competing to win the rally for Scotland!

Dates: Friday 24th October 2008 – Saturday 1st November 2008
What: The Italian Job Rally takes place annually and since it began in 1990, has raised over £2 million for children's charities in the UK. Up to 100 Mini’s, old and new, compete annually to win the rally by navigating the 'off the beaten track' roads across Europe!

Where: 4000 miles from the start line in Imola, Italy to the finish line in Brighton (oh, plus the small matter of driving to Italy to begin the rally!!) The route takes in lots of locations from the film, including the famous Lingotto roof top Fiat test track – fantastic!

picture of zena malki and gordon connelly, drivers at this years italian job 2008 rally Who: The 'B4BMW Children in Need Team' includes Zena Melki, Gordon Connelly and a famous celebrity (soon to be announced!). Follow our progress by tuning into Fred MacAulay daily on Radio Scotland and catch us very soon on BBC1.


Day 11 - Our last day in Europe
Our last day in Europe and we're off to Brighton - first stop Calais and the ferry to Dover. At breakfast we agree to follow a couple of other Jobbers - team 94 who have sat nav and promise us they can get us out of Paris without spending 2 hours lost again! We jump at the chance! We follow them out of the city and onto the A16 north to Calais.
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Day 10 - Our final French city Paris

Day 10 and the trip is almost over. Today we head to our final French city Paris, before we cross from Calais to Dover tomorrow. We begin the day with our rally tests for the day and then have to head off to Paris. We do well we think and leave for our long journey positive that we're doing Scotland and the team at B4BMW and A4Audi proud! Its another 5 hours in the car today to get to Paris. I do the driving today as Gordon drove yesterday. My navigational skills have improved but not enought to deal with Paris. That said, driving in Paris should be quite an experience too!

Despite Gordon navigating, we get lost! And more lost and more lost! Eventually Gordon's ingenious idea of taking a photo of a map outside a metro station gives us something to follow through the city. 5 hours there and 2 hours looking for the hotel - what fun!

We do a little wandering about at night to see some of the city but we need sleep and head to bed very early as the next day we return to the UK and the finale ball that we're looking forward to! We will find out then if we have a coveted top 10 position and how many of the experienced Jobbers we've managed to beat even though our stop watch is little better than counting 1 elephant, 2 elephant, 3 elephant...!

 
Day 9 - Passing Nice, Cannes and Marseille

We're on the radio again with Fred MacAulay on BBC Radio Scotland. We do the interview outside the casino in the bright morning sunshine sitting in the car. Not that anyone tuning in can see us but it seemed appropriate. Having finished our morning broadcast we set off for Lyon. This is a 5 hour trip. The rally is all but over - only a couple of days to go. Our friends are in 5th place apparently (team 39) and we're still hoping to catch them!

We set off for Lyon, passing Nice, Cannes and Marseille before heading north. Its getting colder and wetter, easy know we're getting closer to the UK!

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Day 8 - The famous Lingotto roof top test track

day 8 in the alps The day begins with a trip to the famous Lingotto roof top test track - the track on the roof of the famous Fiat factory in Turin. We ascend the building in a convoy but sadly aren't allowed to go onto the track because of the bad weather. It really is strange to see a race track on the 6th floor / roof of a factory. The camber on the track is so steep I'm glad we're not rallying around the track in this weather or any weather!

The next leg of the rally is to take us to Monte Carlo, Monaco... In our infinite wisdom Gordon and I hatch a plan to take a short cut through the mountains. These mountains are not any old mountains, they're the Alps and what was meant to be a short cut turns out to be the longest cut in the history of rallying!

 

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