A long time ago...

...in a galaxy far far away... or at least on the other side of Southampton!

Option #3 on the quest for the 2015 car was a Ford Galaxy.  This is essentially the same car as the Alhambra but with a ford badge on the bonnet.  This was the petrol 2.5L, seems to have plenty of poke in it, although the air-con and a few other bits left a little to be desired.  I am also not sure there was a single un-dented panel, and it had some serious rust under the door sill both sides.

Asking price was a little higher than we were hoping for at around 600 quid, although we could have probably knocked him down a bit, but by the time we decided to go back it was already sold.

Probably for the best, the guy seemed a bit dodgy anyway, oh well onward to glory, or something.

A palatial ride...

Alhambra is not only the name of an Andalusian palace that is a UNESCO World Heritage site, but also the name of our next candidate in the search for ScumRun vehicles.

The Seat Alhambra is a 7 seater MPV.  The one we looked at was a 1.9L Diesel Manual, with air-con, and all the usual gubbins.

The seats are independent meaning we can re-arrange them a little to suit our needs, and removing 3 of the seats leaves a massive load area for tents and all our other junk.

This specific one wasn't ideal as there were a number of faults which would have run at least a few hundred quid to fix, so we shall keep looking but its certainly a viable option.

Pics below:

Trial and error... mostly error...

Well the hunt for a next years car has begun in earnest.  Mike and I went out to have a look at a Subaru Forester which looked like it might make the cut.  It was the right price, reasonable grunt, but it seems its lacking on a few points:

Firstly the storage space isn't fantastic, specially when you realise the amount of gear 4 people need to carry.  On the face of it, it looks massive, but when you add 4 sleeping bags, tents, clothes for 4-5 days, food, and misc tech, that space vanishes in an instant.

And secondly the legroom in the back is "snug" to say the least. This is the biggest factor in our searches as non of us are small, and at least 2 of us need the drivers seat to be at full-back position leaving the seat behind it with next to zero leg room.

Here are some pics for the history books:

Its looking more and more like a 7 seater wagon will be the only suitable option, but the hunt goes on.

'Lapse in judgement?

So with last years timelapse of the run being a moderate success, We decided that next year we should make our lives easier (and less chance of firing the SD card out to the car.....) and picked up some "Action Cams".

The SJ4000 cameras are functionally (and aesthetically) similar to big daddy GoPro, but 1/5th the price.

Check out this bad boy!

There is a review over at TechMoan which is worth a look it you want to pick one up, we got ours from the big yellow sea cove for the princely sum of 61 quid. Barg!

Comes with all the usual refinements.

Annnyway, I have been playing with it and shoved some test time-lapses up to Y'Tubes. Enjoy!

Quick note: 1 and 2 are basically "out of the box" tests. Mine had a truly filthy lens from the factory, gave it a clean which cleared the video up nice for 3 and 4's recording.

And so, it begins again...

It seems that with the upcoming 10th anniversary event, Team Skunkworks, and Axles of Evil are going to ride again (this time not letting Mike anywhere near the spark plugs!) as a single team.  Team Skunkworks of Evil !

We are currently exploring vehicle options but something along the lines of a Jeep Cherokee, or a Mercedes Ambiente appear to pop up in our price range occasionally.  Other options include 7 seat MPVs, old funeral Limos, Volvo estates, and similar cars fit for 4 people + camping gear.

Artists Rendition

If anyone has any leads on a possible vehicle, let us know in the comments or some other method (semaphore / smoke signals / pigeon).

So watch this space...

The king is dead, long live the king !

Yep, I didn't hang around, the old one is gone, and a new one is already filling its space.  Another bargain GTO appeared on Gumtree.  This time its a MK2, so no flippy head lights, and it has a few other issues that need resolving (needs a service, 4 wheel steer is faulty, some paint issues, and a few other things) but it was acquired for the pitiful sum of £500.. cash.  Its crazy you can get a beast like this for such little money.

Note: There is a distinct lack of tree shaped dent in the back :)

This car wasn't bought with the intention of using it for the ScumRun this time, although the price is right, so we can use it as a fall back if necessary.

I will be taking it down to our friends at MitsiArt for them to give it the once over and if it all checks out I will throw some coin at it to get her back up to par.

Gone to the great garage in the sky...

Well, that's it.  The GTO is no more.  MitsiArt (or a man with a trailer on their behalf) came to collect her to strip her for parts today, and so the driveway is now clear.

MOVING PICTURES !!!

During the run we had an on-board camera connected to a laptop recording time lapse (4 frames per second) video of the entire trip.  This has been sat on Greggs HDD ever since and not touched.  Finally, I managed to prize it out of his death grip and edit the footage into something meaningful, so here it is in all its glory....

ScumRun 2013 Time-Lapse video from Adrian Bawn on Vimeo.

(Note: It seems I cant embed vimeo videos so just click the link above :) )
Fixed the embeddening - Cabe.

Once more unto the breach...

(Note: most of this blog entry was written in October last year (2013), but I just realised I never got around to actually posting it.. oops)

We all enjoyed our jaunt into Wales last time, so we decided to go for another run.  Thankfully the weather this time was far better than it was last time, so it was off to the valleys we went.

For this adventure we each had partners in tow, so rather than just the two cars, we had a total of 4.  Myself and Emma in the Smart Roadster, Mike and Isabelle in the Subaru Impreza, Adam and Sarah in the Mazda MX-5 and Gregg piloting the GTO solo.