Movie time.

Nope, I haven't managed to get around to editing our footage yet.. don't be silly.  What has happened is  the chaps over at ScumRun HQ have sorted out a video for the whole event.. Check it out below:

For reference, we make appearances at the following time-codes:

02:30 @ Welcome party - Dover (in full costume)
03:12 @ Welcome party - Dover (for about 3 frames)
07:16 @ Welcome party - Dover (Adams shaky camera footage)
14:06 @ Camp-site - Liverdun
25:20 @ Casino square - Monaco (for about 3 frames)
25:55 @ Tunnel Exit - Grand St Bernard pass
53:50 @ Back of the ferry - The Channel (Gregg getting his beard trimmer for charity)
59:26 @ Welcome party - Dover (Still shot with Adam and Mike in the background)
60:21 @ Camp-site - Liverdun (Still shot of me)

At some point I will do something with all the time-lapse stuff we recorded.  Until then we contemplate SR2017..  to be continued :D

Day 5 : That's all folks

The final leg of the run was to make our way across Belgium to the ferry terminal at Dunkirk.

As usual the ring road around Brussels was a nightmare, but we managed to get to the terminal on time... only to find the ferry was running an hour late.

Once on board (following a rather "musical" boarding process) we headed to the bar for the final briefing by Ed White, and prizes for the various awards.  We didn't win anything this year, maybe next time.

So that's that, Scumrun 2015 is over... its back to reality for another year.  Apologies for the sporadic and slightly delayed updates.  Our internet availability was limited in places. Stay tuned to the blog for some videos, and a full write-up of the event.

Day 5 : Spa

Another lovely day for a run through some pretty countryside. We had already decided to visit Spa and scalp another racetrack for the Bus, but lo and behold, it's a checkpoint!

Unlike Hockenheim though, the closest it got was the car park. There was what appeared to be a track day going on and thus were excluded from participating. Shame :(

Still though, it brought our total of Racetracks to 5 in 5 days. Not bad if you ask me.

We then grabbed some lunch in Spa town and found a little park to have a bit of a picnic, before heading off to Dunkirk and our ferry home (despite the GPS pronouncing it Car Fairy).

Day 5 : The voyage home

The last day... where will we go?  What will we do?

Well... disappointingly not the Nordschleife, or the gp circuit... at least not the real one.

It seems that it wasn't possible to use the track due to the aforementioned 24hr race and the cleanup of the aftermath.  The track was due to open to the public by 5:30pm but we would need to be long gone by then.

Instead the Scumrun team organised use of the 24 player racing simulator in the Raceroom. Everyone who wanted a go got a chance to race and the fastest lap time got a bottle of champagne.

So where now? We continue the theme of course.  So which track is on our way now? Spa Francochamps in Belgium..  off we go...

Day 4 : Nurburgring

After a fairly eventful day trekking through forests and visiting racetracks, we finally arrived at the destination: The Nurburgring GP circuit.

The ring itself is currently closed due to a 24hr race that finished today.  Will it be open tomorrow? Who knows.  But if it is there will be a load of terrible cars whizzing around the track.

The campsite is literally trackside on the GP circuit.  Our pitch was 2 minutes walk from a spectacular view of the Schumacher S bends.  Maybe if we aren't going on the Nordshcleife tomorrow we will get a run around the circuit.

In the evening we visited the bar and then proceeded to while away a chilly night in front of a fire before retiring to bed.

Day 4 : Checkpoint 2

Continuing our tour of race circuits it seems that Hockenheim is also on our route, so our next task is to get a photo of us at the track... We did one better.

When we arrived at the track it wasn't immediately obvious where the entrance was. We drove around the perimeter of the circuit looking for official signage or entrance. 

After a few minutes the road opened up into a large a area where you could see the track. But the fun thing was that the fence was wide open due to construction work on the track.  We took our photos and Adrian (who was driving at the time) decided to actually drive on the track.  There was noone around so we did a very brief drive along a few meters of track.

Day 4: Checkpoint 1

The route takes us north from Zurich past the black forest so, after the visit on the last run, we decided to skip checkpoint 1 in favour of playing the mountains.

The roads were quite wiggly, and the brakes got a good testing. 

We stopped at a small pub for lunch, but once we were done we needed to deal with a small issue.

After we gave our gift to team 66, they had a gift for us. A raw fish. In an attempt to circumvent problems down the road we opted to leave the fish outside the car.  We double wrapped it, and gaffer taped it to the boot.

The problem was that in the heat of the sun the gaffer tape wrinkled and let some of the juices out.  The liquid had dripped down to the bumper and wicked under the door seal.  This meant we could smell it in the car.

We whipped it off, rebagged it, cleaned up the mess, and affixed the fish to the bumper so any more leaks would end up on the road

Next onwards to checkpoint 2

Day 4: Heading north

After the precedent set by Monaco we guessed that we might be going to the Nurbergring on the way back. It seems we were right.  We won't have time to do anything on the track when we arrive today, but hopefully tomorrow.

Day 3: Zurich

 Not much to say about Zurich. It's like a Sunday morning version of Berlin. That wasn't going to stop us though!

We were one of the first few cars to arrive at the campsite in Zurich (a quaint little site on the lakeside) so there was quite a bit of waiting around after our tents were set up.

We finally headed into town around 10:30pm.  As you might imagine this was trickier than was really necessary.  Most places were closed, and after wandering around for about 20 minutes it became clear our only option was a mcdonalds. Not ideal but better.than nothing.  After food we sampled some of the local beer before heading over to the club where the prearranged party was supposed to be occurring.

The party was loud but nothing much was happening so we headed on  back to the site.

Day 2: Checkpoint 2

Our second checkpoint of the day was to pick up a Top Gear Road trip inspired "gift" to swap with one of the other teams. As we all know that means it needs to be bulky and fragile.

We stopped at a couple of Intermarche's  mostly to aquire some dinner but also to hatch a plan for our "Secret Scum Santa" cursed gift.

Well, what hatched was what could only be called an abomination. In an effort to make life easy on ourselves and hard on our victim..... Balloons! These were duly inflated and a short ceremony was conducted to perform the exchange. Our friends were thrilled with it. They were inside at least I am sure.

The evening saw the usual suspects "tending the fire" and performing last rites on a steak. Much local plonk was consumed and merry was made. We all retired to our tents for some needed sleep after the long stints at the wheel.

Day 3: On days like these.

Good morning campers!

We gather to collect our route cards, and this morning, complimentary pain eau chocolate. We are informed that our destination today is the home of insurance and bankers. Zurich!

Heading out to the Cote de Azure, totally feeling the Mediterranean joie de vive in Nice.

We have a closer look at our checkpoints, and it's a couple of truly special ones today. First stop is Monte Carlo, better known as the Monaco Grand Prix circuit! Then our route north takes us through cinematic history, as we make our ascent through through the Alps via the Turini and St Bernard passes where they filmed scenes from the Italian Job.

Yep.

Day 2: Checkpoint 1 Dijon

There was a nostalgic feel to this stop,  as it harked back to the first run which departed from the UK at sunny Brighton.

Our mission was to get a photo with the owner (Patrice) but like a tired groundhog, declined to make an appearance. We were left with simply a shot of Bar Brighton and some weird looking feller in a Lab coat. 

and a picture of a castle! Vive la resistance! 

Day 2: The morning after

After a reasonable nights sleep (albeit not helped by people playing their car stereo till the wee hours) we awoke to a cool, but clear morning.  

Bacon sandwiches were again the order of the day.  We made use of the camp-kitchen-server to good effect (despite Adam doing his level best to wreck it). Then we repacked the van to mare better use of the load out.  As the saying goes, No plan ever survives first-contact with the enemy. We figured out a few things to that would work better if rearranged.

Once we had packed everything back into the wagon, we rolled over to the main gate to pickup our route cards... Today's destination destination: Nice.

Day 1 : Holy bankroll..

The Scumrunners have collectively raised over £118k for JDRF.  Well done everyone.

Day 1: A costume drama...

Finally we have a full costume team photo.  The doctor theme in full effect.  From right to left: Zoidberg (Futurama), Dr.Cox (Scrubs), Dr. Nick (Simpsons), Waambulance medic (Adam sucks :))

And so it begins

Right thats it.   Everything is packed (we hope) and we're off to dover.  More updates to come... stay tuned.

Last minute sponsor update..

Those of you paying attention will have noticed a fairly epic spike in our charity raising.  We have now surpassed the £1000 mark all thanks to Aquadition Ltd

Thank you so much for the money and it all goes to a good cause.  Having exceeded this mark Gregg now has to follow through with his threat to shave his beard when we beat £1000.  We will be posting video of this when we do it on the launch day.

For those of you still to donate, please give anything you can via our just giving page by clicking the JDRF logo on the right or clicking here:

Anything you give will go direct to the charity, along with 25% gift aid.

Thanks everyone.. this is going to be awesome.

Preparing to prepare the preparations

This update we have some last minute prep work and modifications.  There were a number of things that were "nice to have" that we wanted to do if we had time so over the last few days I have managed to sort most of them out.

First up, a non-slip mat for the passenger side dash.  One thing we noticed during the test run was that the dashboard is quite slick, things slid all over the place.  So now they wont.  Sorted.

Next up, the center console.  I built this following the run as we needed a better way to mount the CB, somewhere to store bits, and additional cup holders :)  I added carpet and non-slip mat to finish it of.

Next item on the list, the CB speaker.  The internal speaker is small and very quiet, so we have attached an external one.  This is now "mounted" to the center of the rear seats, facing forward meaning everyone can hear it loud and clear.

Next we have the health and safety.  We had a fire extinguisher, but no-where to put it.. now we do :)

Lastly, we have the tech-controller.  As you may have noted in an earlier post, we have an automatic relay to turn on / off the power to most of the car when the engine switches on / off.  That leaves us with a small issue.  We cant use the lights without the engine running.  So to get around this I have wired in a set of bypass switches.  Not only that but have also rigged up a set of sealed lead acid batteries as backup that can charge while we are moving so we don't even need to use the car battery, reducing the risk of accidentally running it dry.   The USB ports were just some spare units i had for another project, so I fitted them into the dash as more ports are always handy :)

Just a few days left now, if you haven't already donated, please visit our Just Giving page and drop a few quid.  Its all for a good cause.

A sticky situation

Due to availability of people, and the order in which the stickers arrived, the sticking of the van has spanned two weekends.  First pass was Gregg and I, applying the non-serious stickers.   

Trial and error (without the error)

Its been over 18 months since the last time we went camping, and the long-distance survivability of the Previa is also an unknown quantity, so we decided it was worth going for a test run.

Breaker Breaker One Nine

All the cars on the ScumRun are encouraged to fit a CB radio for free communications while on the road.  We did this last time, so we are doing it again.  The antenna that was used on the GTO suffered a Gregg induced failure (it was taken out when he did a rapid, unexpected, reverse park into a tree), but as we are teaming up with Adam and Mike this time, we had another one we could use.  This was fitted to the front part of the roof, as the rear part cant be use when the moon-roof is retracted.

After a bit of fiddling, we decided to route the cable in via the moon roof.  Due to the way Toyota tend to do their sunroofs, we could do this without too much fear of a leak (the roof pushes down on a lip, rather than butting up).  Unfortunately there's no real clean way to do this other than with duct tape.

Inside the cabin, the routing options are equally limited without spending a lot of effort ripping apart the roof so we opted just to hang the cable via the hand-holds out of the way.  This then goes down to the floor, secured where possible, routed to the center of the car where the CB itself is mounted.

Currently we only have it sat on the floor, but in the final form we will have a box of some kind sat here for the CB to attach to.

Electrickery

We have been slacking a little on our updates, so there are a few to come over the next few days.  The first of which is electrics...

This car is going to be wired... literally.  We are a team comprised of techno geeks so going anywhere without at least 3 electronic devices each is unheard of.  As a result this van will be toting around phones, gps, CB radio, powered cool box, cameras, plus anything else we want to fling in to the mix.

Quite a bit of tech, so we need a way to wire it in.  The current cigarette lighter is only rated to 10 or 15 amps. Daisy chaining everything out of the dash like that would look terrible, likely be a fire hazard, and also be prone to breakage.  We needed to do it properly,  so the first step is to run a decent wire into the cabin from the battery. We still had some of the heavy duty 30amp cable we used in the GTO, so out comes the drill...

Modification time

Right then, its time to crack out the tools.  First up is storage space:

As you can see we have plenty of it, but its in one large lump which isn't so useful when you start stacking stuff in there.  We need something a little more modular, or separated so we can keep wet tents away from dry clothing and the like.  So out with the pen and paper for a quick doodle.

A simple design for a 2 shelf (plus the floor) system.  I have made space at the front for the cool-box to sit on the middle shelf, so we can get access to it from the back seats while in motion, and included some cross bracing for strength.

With the help of some spare wood supplied by Adam, from his recent home refurbishments, we started building.  We decided to not bother putting cross bars all the way up to the seats on the top shelf for several reasons.  Partly because it would have been a pain to do the smaller bits on the sides with supports etc, but also it now gives us convenient access to the middle shelf from inside the car without moving the seats.  Also remember "measure twice, cut once".

Next up the camp kitchen.  A brain-fart I had while pondering this was the idea of a pull out work top for to put the burner on for our morning bacon. An old server comes with sliding rails, and makes a convenient metal box to store hot cooking bits in, and it just so happens I have an old server.... et voilà.

Work in progress...

The whole chassis extends clear of the back of the car, and can be accessed easily from both sides.  The lid is conveniently removable so we can store the stove and bits inside and, when slid back inside the car, the boot closes without issue. 

 The finished product :)

So that's the shelving system sorted, while I was dealing with most of that, Mike attacked the dashboard. The Previa comes with a blanking plate above the radio that we wanted to remove to install the CB.  As it turns out we might be locating the CB elsewhere now, but it was still a worth while exercise as we can install a cubby-hole here for easy access storage.

 After much swearing, bashing and "persuading" the unit was loose.  Not without a few casualties though.  Not only did the cigarette lighter suffer, but the car also managed to draw first blood.

We also found a fairly random CD buried inside the dashboard kind of stuck in place with 10 year old dried up coffee. The CD had Asian writing on it, possibly Chinese, and its black on the back (much like the early play-station games.   The odd thing is the Previa doesn't even have a CD player.  Strange.  The music is some random Asian singer, so I have no idea what it is.  If anyone wants it, donate a tenner to our just giving page and it's yours :)

Anyway, after digging that out, cleaning up the coffee spill and all the other crud in the dash, we re-fitted everything ready for the electrical work next week.  

So what's next?  We have a number of things to do before we are ready to go, and with just 8 weeks left, time is running out.  Some of the things coming up in this blog are:

• Wire up the various chargers and electrical gizmos.
• Do an oil change
• Replace the balding rear tires
• Check the engine over (and possibly switch out the sparkplugs).
• Install the CB and antenna

There are more things on our list, but I will save those for later, so tune in next time....

Workin' at the car wash

Step one, clean the crap off the car so we can see what we are working with.   Lets get some before and after pics up shall we...

That's the inside sorted, off to Adams place to fire up the pressure washer to blast outside...

SOOO much crud came out of the wheel arches, its unreal, but now its all shiny.

Its not perfect and there's some rust around the edges but it should do the job.  More updates on the various mods and repairs to come, stay tuned.