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.

While browsing for some Martini Racing bits ahead of the summer trip, I stumbled across this beauty. Distinctive yet minimal, this looks the mutt's nuts. This then sent me down a rabbit hole of looking for VW T2 vans on eBay, and the results were initially surprising. For a few grand, I could pick up a '70s T2 with around 50000 miles on the clock - result. But, in the immortal words of Prince, "all that glitters aint gold". After examining the pictures a little closer, th

I don't know, you wait months for new content, and then, just like buses, three articles arrive at once! If you have been paying attention, you will know that R&R have a new car for the trip and are thinking about ideas for decoration and theme. I sent them a link to the article the other day, and Richie responded with an AI-generated image of a Q2 in blue with full rally markings. The livery included their granddaughter's name and the day she was born as a number - very f

Now that R&R have their car for the journey, we need to think about a theme for them. Initially, they played around with the idea of buying a Ford Transit and making it look like the A-Team van, topped off with Richie in an inflatable dinosaur costume to represent Hannibal Smith's penchant for working as an extra in films, and Rachel dressed as B.A. Baracus (the idea of her crossing international borders in disguise as a black man didn't faze her). Then Richie bought a black

The tale of the third car in our convoy has had more twists than the Gotthard Pass. Remember when R&R were supposed to use an Abarth ; then, when more comfort was required, there was tongue-in-cheek talk of a funeral car? Next, a van was suggested to help with the fancy-dress part of the trip, before they settled on a Ford Kuga , which was then potentially swapped for a campervan . Yeah, well, all that is in the past. The Abarth/funeral car/van/Kuga/campervan is dead! L

I stumbled across this advert from the 2012 Super Bowl the other day. I'd never seen it before, and it had me giggling. No spoilers here, except that the title of the post is a translation of the first line spoken in the ad. Oh yeah, it is all in Italian...deliberately. Click below to watch. The full translation is: Line 1: “Che cosa guardi, eh?” (repeated twice… followed by a slap!) Translation: “ What are you looking at, huh?” Line 2: “Mi stai spogliando con gli occhi?”

Hot on the heels of the dashboard in 'Bert' doing an impression of Blackpool Illuminations , Abbie decided to join the party with a light of her own after a trip down a particularly bumpy road. Over the weekend, we went to our friend's 50th birthday party. They live in an idyllic hamlet up in Lancashire, about 30 minutes away. We were running a little late, so I used Google Maps to give me the quickest possible route to their house. Next time, I'll study the route before b

Ever experienced that sudden jolt of panic when your engine light unexpectedly flickers on? That's exactly what happened to Carl, as he was happily cruising in to Cheltenham this weekend.  He messaged me to say the dreaded light had come on on his way down south, not long after he stopped for fuel at a 'dodgy petrol station'. 'Bert' was limping along, but he wasn't well. After spending a few days down South, Carl was preparing for the long journey home by filling up Bert. H

I almost found the perfect support vehicle for our epic jaunt across Europe next year. I stumbled across this cracking-looking...

Remember I was saying that I might need to cut AI some slack after Leonardo, the image-creating website, took my prompt, embellished it,...

I'm still struggling to come up with content for this little corner of the Internet because of stuff happening in the real world, but as...

I write these stupid little posts when the muse takes me. So often, I knock out four, five, or six articles in one session and then sit...

If I change the car's scheme to the new, fresher Martini Racing or the Castrol Oil one , I will be copying Scalextric vehicles rather...

After the stunning Castrol-themed Toyotas caught my attention , I delved into the world of rally cars. I discussed this with Carl on...

I’m having a wobble!  My head is being turned by awesome Castrol Oil-sponsored Toyota’s.  For months, I have been unshakable in my desire...

Picture this: Toyota's engineers walk into a bar and say, "What if we took our perfectly sensible GR86 and made it absolutely bonkers?"  ...

After gaining an understanding of car maintenance, I was made aware that there are home-use devices that can test battery health. ...

After posting about the handy F.L.O.W.E.R. upkeep tips provided by The AA, I thought I’d check out what their full maintenance regime...

Before we leave, I hope all cars participating in the rally will have a thorough once-over from a trained mechanic. I know ours will,...

We had an eventful weekend a couple of weeks ago. First, there was an early dart from work, then a trip to Leeds in convoy with R&R in...

I stumbled across this on Facebook. A madman/genius (delete as applicable) has created a one-of-a-kind 'Smartborghini' built on a Smart...