The Most Epic Rally You've Never Heard Of
This Rally Isn't For Lambos And Rockstars
When you think of the Gumball 3000, images of wealthy and famous people riding in their super/luxury/hyper cars come to mind. These rallies are full of partying in ritzy locales, cars laden with sponsorship stickers, and cruising slowly in Ferraris and Lamborghinis thru crowded city streets. You can experience all that fun and glamor if you can afford the steep entry fee (Probably over £50,000 by now).
From Shmee150
For those that want the adventure but don't have Gumball 3000 kind of cash, or have a car that costs as much as a house, there's a rally for you. Fair warning, however, this isn't a rally for the faint of heart. This is probably the most epic rally in the world. It's about as epic as the time the Spanish explorers and Conquistadors wandered aimlessly as they searched for the new world.
They call it, "The Mongol Rally: The greatest motoring adventure on the planet." It's a 10,000 mile trek from London to Mongolia (Actually, it ends in the Siberian town of Ulan Ude, 400 miles north of the original finish line in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. WHATEVER, IT'S STILL GODDAMNED LONG!). In between are mountains, deserts, and many different inconvenient places to break down, get utterly lost, and probably eaten by coyotes or its European/Asian equivalent.
The Adventurists
Read through the rules and you get the sense that there's an air of automotive masochism surrounding the whole thing. Ranging from the strange requirement of your car having to be a "small, shit car" with an engine size of 1 liter or smaller, to the lack of direction or route information, and general lack of support, technical or moral. It's as if the rally was designed for you to struggle along, to fail, and to discover the world, and perhaps yourself.
-The sadistic bunch at Mongol RallyAny ‘Help! We’re broken down in Tajikistan,’ type phone calls to Rally HQ will be met with a snort of derision and a click of the receiver.
The Mongol Rally's entry fee of £650 is a stark contrast to the flashy and ritzy Gumball 3000. Coupled with a requirement of raising £1000 for charity, anyone can join in on the sadistic pain of 10,000 relatively uncharted miles. The steepest entry fee in this case is your courage, for the rally coordinators proudly state: "If nothing goes wrong, everything has gone wrong."
There's even a tribe here dedicated to the Mongol Rally, we suggest you join and see what kind of automotive pain and hardship they like to flagellate themselves with.
This might just be the most epic rally in the world today. This hardcore rally celebrates everything we love about cars: the drives, the adventures, and the bonds we make with friends and people we meet around the world. To those that have braved the elements and have completed, or even attempted this journey, we'd like to formally commend you. And we'd also like to proclaim that you're all mentally insane and deserve to get lost in Asia somewhere. Godspeed!
#mongolrally #rally #adventure #travel #classiccars #shitcars
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