European Charity Car Rally 2011 April 28th in a CAT C Fiat Coupe

Team Shawaddy Paddy
(Camillus Hamill & James Flanagan)

A rally inspired by The Cannon-Ball Run (But longer with more cars and up to 10 borders!!!)

4000 miles in 4 days, in a car worth less than £500.

Cannon ballers went 3,000 miles - the distance from the East-West coast of the USA!!!

So what car did we decide to use? BMW, Mercedes, Honda, Nissan, Toyota... no we decided to take a Fiat coupe 20v! No Fix It Again Tony jokes please! Our 12 year old Fiat has been in a major accident and has been written off by the insurance company, the chances of us actually getting to the start line at Portsmouth are slim!!!

(It's currently being repaired and painted by Custom Paint of Doncaster)

Our dedicated charity "Dreams come true"
Dreams Come True is a national charity serving the whole of the UK with the mission of bringing joy to children who are terminally or seriously ill by making their treasured dreams come true. Since the charity was incorporated in 1988 we have fulfilled the dreams of more than 4,500 children with severe and life threatening illnesses such as cancer, cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy

http://www.dctc.org.uk/

The car

1999 2.0 VIS Fiat Coupe (Currently Red)
Soon to be orange!
Car had collision with a large caravan and was purchased as a CAT C
VIC checked MOT and return to road
New clutch and Radiator @ £600
Service Oil etc…

Couple of pics on here - showing the car/drivers and outfits - going as Clarksons favourites "The Mexicans"
Im talking fake bake - big "Hommade tasches" bellys out - the pic on the page is the exact look we are going for!!!!

Coupe Sumrun CHarity Page

Spares amassed over the year – Springs/Alloys 20vt/Tyres/Cloth interior from 20vt and various other necessary bits and bobs that might fall of or need replacement during the gruelling 4,000 mile journey – probably cost me £400 + but I bought the bits over time so as to minimise the bump on my pocket…

We took the car to a friends lockup near Sheffield and a local body shop offered to put right the major bumps and scores for £70 – and this car was mangled down 1 side.(Due to the charity focus of the run)
The body shop then went on to offer there facilities/oven on any number of Sundays we wanted – allowing use of all there tools – we just had to secure the paint/filler
The paint and filler has been supplied to us in the shape of a pledge from a large energy drinks company!

We are now finalising a few charity deals with various organisations and small businesses – as well as the usual fundraisers we can locally.

Since then I got a call yesterday to tell me the lock up had been broken into and the scallys had taken practically all of the bits and bobs I had amassed over the year!
They did kindly leave the car though…

So im back to square 1..

We are really eager to make it back and represent the coupe – we will carry on but would ask that if you have ANY spares you may be chucking as part of an upgrade – or bits from breaking a coupe that might not be of use to you then PLEASE let me know.
It would be great too if between us we could rustle up a set of 20vt alloys – no matter how rough we have agreement from the body shop to have them prep’d for us…
Really anything you guys can give – even if it’s a small donation
Or if you’ve got a business we would love to pop your company name over our car and website etc – even a pledge for a few components would be great – or a spare wheel or 2 that’s sitting lonely in your yard…

Myself nor my mate are professionals in the prep and spraying of a car – but we aren’t afraid to have a go –
However you might be around the Yorkshire area and a couple of hours on a Sunday to give us a few pointers on spraying the car up would be considered as much a donation as anything!!!

Im hoping that the forum can really get behind this effort – which ultimately helps us raise cash for a fantastic cause!!!
If you can offer anything - dont worry either I will get it picked up - or we will do a run in the van and pick up a few items at once...so you have nothing more to do
We will update the thread and our facebook/virgin page as we go through the stages…

Please feel free to PM me or respond to the thread.

I would like to thank the committee members for there support in this to – Particularly MarioCrillo!

Long live the Coupe.

Sorry to here the scallywags had been at you spares. Good luck with it.

Pair of 20vt front discs and a set of pads here - second hand but lots of life in them (I found them a little hard, cold). Yours if you want them.

Thanks fella will pm you!

Where are you? I'm driving to Skye in the morning from Hemel - if you're somewhere close to the M1/M6/M74 we can meet - but I need to know before about eight tomorrow!

Kenilworth mate m6 not far j2 or 3

You have pm. I expect to be passing the Corley services about ten or so - could meet there. I can't hang around though, got a long way to go!

Hi, what is the itinerary?

We don't know until the starting gun!

You find out at the starting line...

If you pass Belgium, I got a full set of water hoses from a 20vt plus I can lend out, just in case any would break, to have spare in the car maybe. Will look into sponsorship as well.

Paint now received
From Stil 2 gallons!!!

http://www.stihl.co.uk/html/default_fr.php?category=product

Forgot to mention it's to be painte in Stils corporate colour .... Orange!!!

CJH - do you have a list of parts you need?
may be able to help in some way if i know what you need!!

ive got sitting in my garage, 20vt seats (Cloth), sprint blue bonnet, a few water pipes stuff like that!!

i also think i have a spre set of rear pads also, but i need to check that!

Cheers Marco ! Top lad!

Thanks also to Barnacle for the front discs and pads!!!

Your bits sound ideal Marco - where abouts are you?

As for list of bits - here we go
Im including the majority of parts i had STOLEN and some wish parts...

Selection of hoses - inc Rad hoses etc
Springs (Front and back)
20vt alloys - no matter the state/condition!!
Ideally LE lips - skirts etc (Again condition any)
Shocks and SPrings
Wishbones
Exhaust
Lambda Sensor
Coil Overs
Headlights
Rear Lights
Handbrake cable
steering rack
bonnet pull

The list is not exhaustive and the car will benefit from ANY additional parts you can offer...
Again if you are upgrading any parts and feel that you want your coupe to live on in a car raising money for terminally ill kids then please please let us know - it may be the difference between us making it back or not - and every mile we complete is money in the bank for the Dreams Come True Charity...
I know it may be a bit of an ask - and i've invested a fair whack of my own dosh to put this fella in a fit state for the run - New Clutch - New Rad - VIC - MOT etc etc and if you guys can be good enough to offer a few loose parts then thats brilliant!

THanks alot to everyone whos already given a few bits - and thanks to the folk who have at least taken time to read the thread.

Thanks coupesters

Where do you live and by when do you need it all?

Hi Thanks Kayjey

My location in the UK is in the Midlands near Birmingham/Coventry
THe car is being prepd at the moment in Yorkshire.

We have exactly 70 days to go to the rally - so as soon as possible really - we have access to a garage and a great mechanic!

As mentioned before we will happily arrange collection/do a run in a van if we get enough offers of parts around the UK if necessary - we will do what has to be done to get the coupe to the start and finish line!

Hopefully with all your help...

I'll keep the hoses in my garage, might try and find someone to bring them. If I had known where you were I would have brought them last week.

Bit of an update - on Monday i began a press junket!!!

Papers carrying our story - Before - During - After the event

(Confirmed) Pics already taken and first story out on Friday!!!

With the plus in it..

Kenilworth and Leamington Weekly News
Coventry Evening Telegraph

Others who returned my email and are getting back to me...

Top Gear magazine
Nuts
FHM
Loaded

Birmingham Post
Yorkshire Post
Belfast Telegraph
Sheffield Star
Irish News

TV programmes

Look North (Yorkshire)
The One Show
Midlands Today

Those are just the ones with a response to date - still good - 2 days in 1 story done and live on Friday - the other having a photo or 2 on Saturday...

More to follow...

Our sponsors are over the moon as they didnt expect us to go aftr this much attention...next we go viral...looool


Again another plea for parts - anyone who can spport us i will do my best to mention - and may even pop some names on the car after we finish the paint job and renovation in the next few weeks!!!

Thanks

Hello hello fellow Forumers! I feel quite strongly about this charity so...

Because I know many small donations can make one big donation, I suggest the following: if you make a small donation to myself via Paypal, I will forward the money through my Visa to the above charity under the name of 'Fiat Coupe Forum UK'. In addition, I'll add 10% of whatever you give on top of the total (I'll put a limit at £100 though, meaning £ 1.000 would be donated by the Forum).

I've already donated through my company, so my challenge to the Forum is: beat the donation with yours!

I know these are hard times and not everybody has the means to do this. But if you have, imagine what these families are going through. I've witnessed what a charity like dreams come true can do myself and I was totally moved by the faces of the children that probably had the best day of their (often short) lives. Sometimes, you can't do anything but give them a few days where they can forget 'themselves'.

My Paypal is:

klaas((a))straydesign((.))com
(and if you don't understand this e-mail address, PM me)

I'll report of what is given on here. I just hope it's not going to be nothing?

AlanC -- £20

Thank you Alan! Hope this has set the ball rolling. Come on people, even £1 will do, and I can keep the amount anonymous if you want!

Many thanks to the below for making a real effort and contribution!

Kayjey
Marco
Barnacle
Magooagain
AlanC

Quick update - we are now getting support from Lamborghini Energy Drinks

http://www.lamborghini-energy.com/main/news.aspx

And a new Vodka company!

So we will be supplying drinks every night we stop - Drinks to be delivered to the location by suppliers - we then sell the drinks at a reduced rate in the bar!!!

The director of the Scumrun is over the moon - as you'd imagine

We are getting alot of support now...

A local fancydress store - Fun Fancy Dress FunFancyDress

They supplied our full costumes!

Since completing our first little news article - got front page of a local paper (Readership @ 30,000)
Coupe in news article

Its been easier to talk to local businesses as the papers we chatted to want to do a before during and after story..
Then used this local story to go to regional papers - Coventry evening telegraph this Tue/Weds - a better article with full costumes on - (Readership 1.8 million)

They have given me confirmation that they will run another story after the car is fully prepd - so this is fantastic leverage for businesses who want to give to charity - put there name in-front of so many people or just generate some great PR...

Next week includes appointments with Birmingham Post and Yorkshire post with even larger readership!

Then we will aim to use this leverage to attract national cover and fingers crossed TV!!! (Why not - may as well try)

All in all its been alot of work so far - but worth it - 160 mile trip today and 3 hours outta my Sunday to pick up a much needed bonnett from Marco and we still need a fair few bits for the car...so im pleading to you all again to help if you can...
Ive been amazed by the good faith and charity shown by some folk - truly brilliant

We decided that the guys who give from here we will carry your names into Europe on the boot!

Anyways will update the thread with all and any press we get - and if you want us to talk about you business in our article with Brum and Yorkshire papers -please get in touch!

as i said mate, you will have the water pipes and drop links from me some time in the week...

*IF* you want and are willing to return them....

i have a set of KYB 20vt shocks (fron and rear) at home...

they are in my pile of stuff...

you will need to check if the 20vt shocks will fit..

Dont worry about the shocks mate - if you value them i cant guarantee theyll come back in the same nick...

but the rest is brilliant!

Is that from the Cov Telegraph CJH?

yeah - yesterdays = and they want updates on the days and pics after the event - so another 2 slots...

CJH Theres a standard 20VT catback exhaust (presume that'll fit a VIS?) sat at MotorMechs thats yours if you want for this? Used but plenty of life in it and a nice shiney tail!
Let me know and I'll speak to Steve..........

Done I can pick it up any day !!!

Bonnet of Lights out - new BOnnet from Marco about to be sprayed - sanding begins today

Great stuff mate!

can we have an updated list to what is still needed for the run?