This section covers all the Ws: who, where, why, what, when, and, erm, how. 
A daily record of the plans made and the decisions taken. 
Click on the articles below for the latest news.

How hard can it be to deliver a package on time? If you are DHL, the answer seems to be 'very'. As I mentioned a little while back, I took the plunge and ordered myself and Lisa some snazzy sunglasses from SunGod. The company sends them out recorded delivery, using Bonn's favourite delivery service. I received an excited email from SunGod saying my shades were packaged and ready for collection and that DHL would pick them up shortly. Sure enough, I received an email from t

Can you believe this is the 200th blog post on our pokey little corner of the internet? If that isn't a good enough reason to write a post taking stock of where we are, our achievements and what is still to do, I don't know what is. So where are we? We have registered three cars for the event and have five of the six drivers sorted. Carl is still looking for his co-driver, but Lisa and I are completely invested in driving Team: Dirty Martin around Europe, as are Richie an

So the Facebook algorithm has been doing its job, as it started showing sunglasses ads after I clicked on one link. Now I'm being bombarded with adverts for eyewear endorsed by everyone from Oasis' Noel Gallagher to F1 driver Oscar Piastri.   The Gallagher offerings are designed by FINLAY, an independent British eyewear brand founded in 2012. They handcraft their own frames and grind their own lenses, and have stores in Notting Hill and Soho, so you get the picture of the qua

So the new kicks have arrived! We are the proud owners of Puma Speedcats, driving-inspired trainers. They look much better in the flesh (suede) than in the pictures, if I'm being honest, and they certainly give the racing driver vibes. They are lovely and sleek, and fit surprisingly well given their slender design. The uppers are really soft, and the bottoms have a tiretread pattern with the Puma logo right in the middle. Mine match our team colour scheme perfectly, Lisa's

After baulking at the cost of Martini-branded training shoes for the trip, I returned to my original thought of buying 'driving' shoes. Not the fantastically priced, Italian-made leather mockasins designed to let the wearer feel every ridge of the pedals while still looking stylish enough to pose around the harbour in, but proper trainers. Puma seems to have cornered the market when it comes to knocking out race-inspired trabs. They have collaborated with Ferrari, Porsche

So my £13 t-shirt is back from Inkthreadable , and the old adage 'you get what you pay for' may be true. It isn't exactly what I was after, to be honest. That's not to say it is a complete loss, more that my expectations have been recalibrated. Let's start with the good. The t-shirt was cheap, but the quality is decent. It is exactly the right size, has good weight, and the colour is spot on. I am more than happy to order again if this is the base for the design. Now,

I've just stumbled across a company that will print your designs onto a t-shirt. Yeah, I know there are tons of those sites out there, but this one piqued my interest, as someone had linked to them from an Etsy store, meaning the user designs, Etsy provides the platform, and the printing company handles the graphics and shipping. Slick. So I had a mooch around to see what the process was for getting a design up to them, the method they used to put it on a t-shirt, the colou

I did a bit of browsing for gear today. I stumbled across the Porsche Martini Racing store, which was an experience. Adding the P word to anything instantly hikes the price. Want a branded t-shirt with the motor manufacturer and the sponsor on it? £50 that mate. Ouch. To be fair, the t-shirt was cracking, with the iconic striped pattern covering the whole garment and both brands' logos printed in white on the front, and the Porsche logo on the back. £50 is too much, but

When Carl was arounf the other night I showed him the Sparco bag I'd found, which is both massive and fits in with the rally aesthetic. He agreed that it is precisely the sort of thing we need, and that we should be able to fit all of our clothes and toiletries in, and that it will fit perfectly in the back of our little Abarths. Lisa saw it and said it wasn't girly enough, so it was out. Back to the drawingboard for us. The difficult search for a large, pink, soft-shell b

I bought something from Etsy the other day, and the site showed me all the items that I'd marked in the past, no doubt hoping I'd jump in and treat myself to an epic Lancia Delta t-shirt - I was tempted, I can assure you. What it did was get me onto the official Martini Racing Sparco website, where I looked at their wares. Several things jumped out at me, like officially licensed and branded sunglasses, a 'pit lane' fleece (thinking it will be cold in merry old England and a

When football meets motorsport. Ebbsfleet United have unveiled their 2025/26 away kit, marking a nostalgic reunion with their historic...

Carl was also invited to the birthday party at Dave and Jacky’s and decided to wear some of his ‘rally wear’.  Having decided to go full...