Leeds to Mongolia Rally 2009: More info!

Since we announced the Leeds to Mongolia rally a few weeks ago, we’ve had a steady stream of emails from interested parties and quite a few questions have cropped up time and again, so we thought that we’d answer the more common ones here for all that are interested in the Craic Addicts 2009 rally.

FAQS:

Q: What kind of vehicle can I take?

A: There are no restrictions on the type of vehicle that you can take. Whatever floats your boat, however, we’d recommend a smaller engined, cheaper vehicle than a larger engined, expensive vehicle for several reasons :

- fuel isn’t cheap these days, a larger engined vehicle will consume more fuel and as a result require fuelling more often. On certain possible routes fuel depots can be quite far apart, so the distance you can travel on a single tank of fuel could become very important.

- older vehicles are plentiful and cheap, and spares for most older vehicles are readily available (and cheap). Completing the trip in an old Skoda Favorit will certainly be more rewarding than doing it in the comfort of an air-conditioned BMW X5 (did we mention that it would also be cheaper?)!

- carnets (although not currently required for most routes) are based on the value of the vehicle - a more expensive vehicle means a more expensive carnet.

- an expensive vehicle is harder to sell, and limits your options as to what you can do with it at the end of the rally.

Of course, as we’ve already stated, there are no limitations, so if you want to bring a London bus, then feel free - this is YOUR adventure, after all!

Q: Is this a charity event? Do I have to raise a minimum amount for charity?

A: No. Although there is a charitable donation built into the £450 entry fee, this is not officially a charity event. If you wish to raise money for your chosen charity then we will do everything we can to assist you, but this is by no means mandatory.

Q: Are there any rules?

A: No, there are no specific rules, no vehicle restrictions, no minimal charity donation and no fixed route - It’s YOUR adventure, YOUR way.

Q: What happens to the vehicle at the end of the rally?

A: That’s entirely up to you. You have several options :

- turn around and drive it right back home again.

- keep going till you arrive back at where you started.

- ship it back home via air/sea freight.

- sell it locally - subject to conditions of carnet (if applicable).

- give it away or let us dispose of it and the profits will go to our nominated charity.

Obviously, if you take a cheaper car it will be easier to sell (or not so much of a wallet buster if you give it away or it dies en-route).

Q: What is the route? Why Leeds?

A: There is no set route, as this is an unsupported rally, you are free to choose whatever route you wish. We chose Leeds not only because it is twinned with Ulan Bataar, but also because there are several ferry ports within quite close proximity, so you’re not limited to taking the Dover/Calais crossing. We’d recommend - for the more adventurous - that you try the route that will take you from Newcastle to Stavenger, across Norway into Sweden, then Finland and then Russia. Just be sure to wrap up warm

Q: I don’t live in UK but would like to take part in the rally, can you help?

A: Yes, we will be offering a service to our foreign participants whereby we will acquire and prepare suitable vehicles for them, and hand over the ownership documents and keys upon the participants arrival in UK. The ownership documents will be sent to UK DVLA showing the vehicle permanently exported from UK - you will not be able to bring the vehicle back to UK without reregistering it with UK DVLA. Please note that this service looks like it will be extremely popular and as a result we may have to limit the availability of these vehicles on a first-come-first-served basis.

Registration for the rally opens on December 26th 2008, the entrance fee is £450 per team, but you can still grab yourself a free entry by entering our competition to name the rally. Just send your suggestion to competitions <at> t2rally.com before 24th December 2008, we’re drawing the winner on December 25th 2008. We’ve had quite a few entries so far, some names (”Mongolian Madness” / “Mongolian Mayhem”) have proved immensley popular. Should we end up choosing a name that was entered by more than one entrant the person who submitted the first entry bearing that name will be judged the winner. Currently our favourite is “Bangers to (Ulan) Batar”, but we’re sure you can come up with something better.

That’s all for now, more exciting news at the end of the week (really!).