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.

I couldn't put it off any longer; the car is booked into the garage for its shake-down. I explained to the mechanic over the phone that we were driving to the South of France in it. He interrupted me to say, "In a Fiat 500?" with a surprised tone. "Yes," I said. "Right," he replied in the same surprised tone... I explained that the car is running well. The only real issue it has is a squeaky clutch, which, according to the internet, 'often results from a dry, worn throw-out b

Oooh, an update that has got me all excited! There is news on our design from the guys over at Colour Create, we could have lift off in just a few days. Let me go back to the beginning. I've been emailing Kevin at the company roughly once a week to request updates and make design changes. I don't want to pester them, but I need to nudge them to keep us on track, for my own sanity more than anything else. In my last email, I requested a raft of changes, plus additional sticker

I completed the most boring upgrade to the car today by replacing the cover on my key with a new one. I know, I know, but content is content, as all those insufferable influencers would say. In my defence, the old case was cracked and had been manhandled by god knows who with their unknown hygiene regime - Kim and Aggie would have a field day, I would suggest. I also wanted to change the buttons themselves as they were well-fingered and were shinier than Duncan Goodhew's he

It was a good news/bad news kind of day today. The bad news was that Lisa's little car, 'Ava', wouldn't start. The good news is that it gave me a chance to try out some of the tech bought for the rally, namely the Ring Ultraboost Battery Jump Starter Power Pack. As well as being snappily titled, it also packs quite a punch. It is a rechargeable unit designed to jumpstart engines without the need for another car - nifty. This baby is designed to safely revive flat batterie

I received a phone call yesterday from a lovely gentleman called Steve Fowler at New Start, the charity we will be raising money for on the trip. He apologised for no one ringing back after I left a message recently. It turns out that the Fundraising Manager has left, and their replacement doesn't start until early May. Not a problem, really, as we haven't started our push for donations, but it was good to know they are still operating and want us to back them. I explained

The organisers of the rally finally came through with a vector graphic of the official rally log, which means I can get on with the final requests for the livery. Speaking to Lisa, we agreed that another '27' on the back would look good next to the Martini stripes. We can put the Bust Rallies logo on the other side too, so it looks nice and symmetrical. We will do exactly the same on the front too. I've also asked the guys if they can make us two smaller stickers with QR cod

Time to get some charity admin done, which started, ironically, with a non-charity-related task. I spoke with Sarah about New Start. While we were on the call, I asked her to send the picture of Ellis she used for his Snugzy so we could order one for the trip. She sent over a picture, and I had a crack at creating the pillow with his face on a shirtless body covered in tattoos. I came up with something and showed it to the group; they all gave me the thumbs-up, so I sent i

I mentioned the idea of getting a 'tour' t-shirt for us all to wear during the rally in an earlier post. Rachel read it and thought it was a great shout, as did Carl, because I think it was his idea in the first place! I'm not a designer, but I don't need to be now that A.I. is with us and doing all the donkey work for us, so I fired up Claude and entered the following prompt: "Please create a design that can be printed on the back of a t-shirt detailing a road trip we are d

I promise you, I don't always go on the internet looking for things to buy for the rally; sometimes stuff just drops into my lap, like this smart-looking piece of headwear. So there I was, looking through my emails, deleting the endless offers I receive from websites I use, when something caught my eye. The webstore 'Size?' sent me a mailout featuring a pair of Diadora Tital Elite in a delicious pale blue shade (see below, right), with soft yellow and purple accents. Costal

I received an email from Kevin at Colour Create saying he had made the changes we requested and asked us to review them. They are brilliant! Not a word of a lie, it is exactly as I imagined it when I was lying in bed, worrying about changing the design from the original with the stripes hugging the windows, to the replacement with the stripes along the door. It is simple enough not to look over-the-top, but colourful and detailed enough to show that some real thought and cr

While scouring the Internet looking for more stuff I don't really need, I spied a hysterical headline on the Liverpool Echo website. This is not an unusual event; their whole schtick seems to be just clickbait bobbins these days. They are not alone in this, to be fair, it is the state of online media these days, but that is a discussion for another day. So the headline was 'Anyone heading to France warned of new €500 fines from this month'. Well done, Neil Shaw, Assistant E

Now that we have added Spain to the list of countries we will be visiting as part of our trip, I thought it was sensible to dig into the quirks of driving in the country, even though it will be a relatively short part of the route. Here are some of the key characteristics that make driving in Spain unique: The Rules That Catch People Out Reflective jacket - you must carry one (ideally two for driver and passenger) and, crucially, you must put it on before getting out of the c

Now that we have the stops on our trip nailed down, I've handled a bit of website admin and added the additional stops to the 'Route' section of the site, since it suddenly stopped at Nice before. Now I've extended the route after the final Rally stop in Nice. I've added the Nice to Séte leg, the Séte to San Sebastián leg, the San Sebastián to Bilbao leg, and the Portsmouth to Liverpool leg to the list, too - more legs than a pantomime horse! I've also created a page detaili

Hot on the heels of looking to waste more money I don't really have on stuff I don't really need, I've been looking at white watches to complement our uniform for the trip. By the way, 'kettle' is Cockney rhyming slang for a watch (obviously: 'kettle and hob,' which is shortened to just 'kettle,' originates from 'fob' - a pocket watch - with 'kettle and hob' rhyming with 'fob'). Every day is a school day, boys and girls. I've got a thing for Casio G-Shock watches as they ar

After Séte our next stopover is San Sebastán in northern Spain. But what do we know about the city that is home to Real Sociedad and a world-renowned culinary scene? San Sebastián is the capital of Gipuzkoa province in the Basque Country of northern Spain, sitting right on the Bay of Biscay just 20km from the French border. It has a population of around 190,000, but its cultural footprint is far larger than that figure suggests. It's compact, walkable, beautiful, and widely c

It looks like it's not just us Rally Ravers giving our cars a makeover. I spotted this on social media and snorted out my coffee. The owner has tried to turn a small, Japanese 'kei' car (vehicles subject to strict length, width, and power constraints to qualify for significantly lower road tax, insurance, and parking costs in Japan) into a fire-breathing European rally monster. Gawd bless 'em, they have gone to town on a shopping cart on wheels to try and make it resemble

Negotiations with Colour Create have been ongoing. Kevin, their Production Manager, has been sending me updates on the design we are looking for. His latest message was requesting confirmation of the car's measurements, so Lisa and I went with a tape measure and a scrap of paper. He estimated the dimensions based on the car schematic I sent him, and to be fair, his estimates were almost exactly right. The bonnet graphic needed to be a little longer, the boot one a little s

I've been trying to find a tracksuit top to take along on the trip that fits our team colours, but doesn't cost the Earth. I thought about buying an Italian-brand top and adding a couple of suitable patches to create something unique and in keeping with our 'brand'. I found a boss, Sergio Tacchini, retro tracksuit top on one of the ever-growing number of 'Football Casual Culture' clothing websites. It was navy blue with white details - perfect for our theme. Showed Lisa, a

While working out our route, we realised that we kinda go past Lourdes and decided to make our own pilgrimage. But what do we know about the place beyond the fact that coachloads of Christians made the trip there from Liverpool in the 80s? Lourdes is a small town of around 14,000 people nestled in the foothills of the Pyrenees in south-west France. It sits alongside the Gave de Pau river, with mountains rising dramatically around it. Despite its modest size, it receives aroun

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