We were delighted to learn that Andrew Smith and his team of intrepid Ramshackle Rally participants not only made it to Krakow in their £136 Micra, but also finished first overall!
Larger than life industry stalwart Andrew Smith from Kramer Electronics has led his team to first prize in the Ramshackle Rally! As we previously reported, Andrew and two friends were driving a 17 year old Nissan Micra purchased off eBay to Krakow in Poland via Strasbourg, Innsbruck and Bratislava. Along the way teams were required to undertake a number of Top Gear style (aka, silly) challenges including the ‘Coke and Mentoes’ experiment in the middle of Rheims and a drive to the top of an 8,000ft mountain in Austria (not easy when your car has just 44BHP).
Andrew’s car apparently overheated several times, was ‘burning oil as fast as petrol’, the engine was making a ‘loud knocking noise’ as they reached Slovakia and the gear box was ‘whining like a stuck pig by the time we got to Poland’.
Arriving in Krakow after 4 long, hard days on the road (and equally long, hard nights in the bars and restaurants along the route InAVate is reliably informed), Andrew’s team had to collect as many different beer mats from the local bars and restaurants and get to the finishing point before 10pm. Amazingly they collected 94 different beer mats in under 2 hours beating the second place team by 20 mats to win the challenge and take first place overall.
Heavily sponsored by many AV industry companies, Andrew and his team raised just over £4,000 in total and have donated their £1,000 first prize money equally amongst the charities they are supporting.
InAVate understands that the Nissan Micra car was given its last rites in Poland. Good work Andrew!
Also, you can still donate to Andrew's cause by visiting his JustGiving page (see below for the link)