Motoscape 2012 Summary

So the rally is over for another year. It’s been an amazing journey and we’ve all got some great memories. Without hesitation we can honestly say it’s been the most successful year yet, and it’s the entrants and their banger creations that have made it so great!

We had people from all walks of life from roofers, to oilrig workers to teachers and accountants and every one just got on like a house on fire. We had the young 18 year olds on their first jaunt abroad to the mature seasoned travellers now in their retirement years.

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Motoscape Rally – Day 7 – Sopron to Prague

Suddenly it dawned on everybody that it was the final day of Motoscape 2012. We’re not quite sure where this week has gone, it’s flown by! But the teams had to make it to the final morning briefing (some with sore faces from all the sluggin’) to find out what was in store for the day. As this was the last day of the rally, there were no challenges other than make it to Prague in one piece!

The journey from Sopron to Prague in the Czech Republic is around 245 miles, and most teams took the direct route to get straight to the hotel so they could spend the afternoon in Prague before the evening’s events.

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Motoscape Rally – Road Trip Prague 2012 Winners

That’s it, the 2012 Motoscape Rally, “Road Trip to Prague” has come to an end! And I’m sure you all want to know who’s won?

Well we won’t keep you waiting, congratulations… on a first place finish to The New Recruits! They won the rally by 20 points and take home the £800 prize and the gloating rights at being the 2012 Motoscape Prague Champions! They also won the daily prize from the previous day, making their total prize winnings on the rally £1025! They took an early lead on the first 2 days of the rally and it was theirs to lose, but they hung in there to take home the grand prize. A fantastic effort from Andrew, Rob and Tony who are raising money for Help for Heroes, well done lads!

In 2nd place was Ryan, Bianca and Kyle from International Sheriff’s Department who take home £300 for being runners up. They had won 2 previous daily prizes too making that a total of £450 in prize money! They produced some excellent funny photos en-route and were humble runners up on the rally.

Finally congratulations to the Duke Boys, Onk & Rej from who finished in 3rd place and take home the final prize of £100!

Final Prague Top 3:

1st Place: The New Recruits
2nd Place: International Sheriff’s Department
3rd Place: The Duke Boys

Well Done to all the teams!!!

Motoscape 2012 – Day 6 – Venice to Sopron

After the evening’s celebrations it was time to say farewell to the teams on the Venice rally, The remaining 49 teams taking part in the Road Trip to Prague were up bright and early for morning briefing to see what challenges had been set and places of interest on today’s route. With just 2 days left on the rally, some cars were starting to feel the strain a bit, but everyone was in high spirits for today’s journey.

Today we were travelling from Venice to Sopron in Hungary, which is approximately 345 miles, but gives people the chance to drive on another amazing pass, by going through the Triglav national park in Slovenia, taking on the Vrsic pass, many teams commented that this pass was a better driving experience than even the mighty Stelvio pass, and we would agree with them!

Some teams just opted to go straight to the hotel and and relax in the bar, but the teams that drove the pass were not disappointed. The scenery in the national park is beautiful and the road leading up to the pass has sweeping bends that really do engage car and driver. Teams Shaken not Stirred and Funk Soul Dubbers took time to have a dip in the many rivers leading up to the pass, even though the water was freezing cold! Everyone who drove the pass was thrilled and appreciated the recommendation from the Motoscape team. Thanks to the Shaken not Stirred boys for some great pics!

It was the last day for challenges on the rally, and with The New Recruits and International Sheriff’s Department fighting it out for 1st place, both teams were taking the challenges very seriously! The teams headed into Sopron for a bit of monument spotting as they new every extra point was vital.

Sopron itself is rich in culture with some wonderfully preserved old buildings making it one of Hungary’s most charming medieval cities. With it’s abundance of gothic and baroque buildings, it is like a mini Prague and was a must visit for a lot of the teams.

You might be wondering who was yesterdays challenge winner? Well you will have to wait and see as this will be announced at the final nights presentation tomorrow!

Car wise, we had no major casualties but the Martini boys had a couple of issues with HT leads but this was quickly rectified with the standard issue gaffer tape from Stuart and Lee (Team Blown Diff), big thanks to guys for helping them out!

You may have noticed that for the first time ever on Motoscape, we’ve had 2 Alfa Romeo’s (well 3 now Team Stretton have got a Giuletta courtesy car). At the start of the rally other teams thought they wouldn’t last due to Alfa’s reputation, for unreliability but Michael and Michelle’s (M&M’s) black & yellow Alfa GTV and Jake and Lee’s (99 Problems but a Cambelt ain’t one!) silver Alfa GTV have done the full rally without a hitch. Organiser Paul, being the Alfa enthusiast that he his, said they would be good cars to do the rally in due to their fantastic handling, punchy engine and comfy interior.

On to the evening in Sopron and the Motoscape Team arranged a magnificent buffet meal at the hotel, then teams either had a few beers in the hotel or in the town and others had an early night Some teams also chose to relax in the the spa ready for the final night in Prague tomorrow! Organiser Mark accompanied teams, The Red Dragons, Team Stretton, To Be Confirmed and Funk Soul Dubbers into Sopron and they were teaching Hungary about sluggin’ (an interesting tradition originating in Castleford and thought to date back to medieval time), the photo on the right is one of our favourite non-car photos of the rally!

Tomorrow we head to Prague, which needs no introduction and all the remaining entrants are excited for a great day on the road and night out in the beautiful city of Prague. Find out how we got on tomorrow!

Next stop, Prague (Czech Republic)

For more information and photos, visit our Facebook page and click the “LIKE” button:

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Motoscape 2012 – Day 5 – Lake Iseo to Venice

It was the morning after the teams took on the mighty Stelvio Pass, and in the morning some of the cars needed a bit of TLC after taking on those hair pin bends. The Lightening Mcqueen Boys had a break disc problem that they managed to sort and the Funk Soul Dubbers had to do some had-hoc modifications using a Lucozade bottle! Both cars should be fine though.

Today we were heading from Lake Iseo to Noventa di Piave, just outside of Venice in Italy which is around 140 miles, and was the end of the rally for the teams on the 5 day route.

Today was a short drive if you were going straight to Venice (around 2 hours 30 minutes) which gave teams plenty of time to do different things, and for the Prague teams to take part in their challenges for the day.

The teams did a variety of activites throughout the day including taking the time to visit the Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati museums and even driving Ferraris!

Onk and Rej from the Duke Boys got goosebumps on top of goosebumps driving a Ferrari F430 through the streets of Maranello at top speeds. The best driving experience of there lives! The Team GB boys also took the Ferrari’s out on the street and absolutely loved it!

Photos and Videos of the Ferrari experiences will be coming soon!

For the teams that weren’t interested in visiting the Super Car museums, they headed straight to Venice (although some teams managed to squeeze in both Venice and the museums). Teams who wanted to stay there for the day and night and have a few drinks hopped on the train close to the hotel, other teams headed in by car just for the day.

Venice is a beautiful city that sits on the water on millions of wooden piles pounded into marshy ground and has been slowly sinking for the last 1,000 years! It was a great place for teams to get some fine Italian cuisine, enjoy a bite to eat and just relax after a relatively short drive for the day.

The Motoscape Team met up with some teams in St Mark’s Square for a quick photo, then headed back and were navigated through all the side streets by Chris from team Blunderbirds, we’re glad he knew where he was going!

For the teams on the Prague rally that were concentrating on winning the daily cash prize and trying to creep up the leader board as the final day approaches, they headed into Venice to take part in the challenges. Well done to Ryan, Kyle & Bianca from International Sheriff’s Department for winning the daily prize for the second day running. It’s close at the top now between the New Recruits and the International Sheriff’s Department, the final day of challenges tomorrow will decide things!

One part to the challenges today was to come up with a funny limerick about their team. The Prague teams did this as part of the daily challenge, and the Venice teams did this to win a bottle of bubbly to go with their evening meal, here’s a selection of the best ones from the teams!

The best limerick from the Prague rally was from Mario and Luigi, here it goes:

Mario enjoys his food
But can be very rude
A massive gay
Gone a bit stray
Luckily luigi’s a dude

Here’s a selection of other limericks from the day!

Blunderbirds

The drive’s gone without a hitch
Except Chris drove into a ditch
Later James guzzled bottles
And nearly got throttled
For thrusting behind a German bitch!

International Sheriffs Department

There were three Brits in police suits
In Europe they were let loose
But by day four they’d concede
The only way to lead
Was by killing The New Recruits

Team Stretton

It’s something you’d see on Top Gear
Go from Stretton to Prague with no fear
But these 3 stigs have bailed
Cos their gearbox has failed
So we’ll see them in the new year

The New Recruits

Drove the Stelvio Pass with many bends
Then stopped halfway for a mend
With brakes made of wood
Which were clearly no good
We placed trust in the Jag to the end

Piston Broke from Stoke

There once was a team called Piston Broke
Who joined a Rally to Prague from Stoke
They drove all day and drank all night
Until the booze affected their sight
And all that was left was a can of coke

Are we there Yetis

Are we there yetis wanted some fun
Signed up for the motoscape Europe run
Joined some northern monkeys
And petrol head junkies
Then got caught breaking the ton

Veronica’s Fondue

The once was a team called Fondue
Whose driver was missing a screw
Because of the gas
As he raced down the pass
The car smells distinctly of poo!

Old Sycamorians 1

Three men in a 260 E
All planned birthdays in Italy
The wives said “No!
If it means Stelvio!”
But they said “Fuck It We’re Fifty”

Heaven & Hell

We’ve brought a ole banger to thrape
So we thought of you “motoscape”
Heaven n hell is our name
7 countries is the game
Fingers crossed the ole banger don’t break!

Yorkshire Terriers

There were some lads from Yorkshire
Who gave a Honda some torture
Down stelvio pass
Brown stains on their ass
Now straight home to get to their daughters

On the car front today, the only major casualty was Team Sausages in Cider. The car wasn’t running too good to the guys have decided to scrap the car in Venice and fly to Prague to meet up with us all on the last night.

Other than that had no other major banger casualties!

In the evening, some teams on the Prague rally stayed in Venice for the night and got the 24 hour train back late, and others hit the local town for a bite to eat and a few beers, and the organisers arranged a complimentary meal and presentation of prizes with all the Venice teams, a fitting finale to the rally. What a great night for everyone to get together, and well done to Rafa Duchenne for finishing first and taking home the cash prize on the 2012 Motoscape Rally, “Road Trip to Venice”.

Tomorrow we head to Sopron in Hungary, with a route that lets you take on another brilliant driving road, the Vršič Pass. Find out how we get on tomorrow!

Next stop, Sopron (Hungary) via Vršič Pass

For more information and photos, visit our Facebook page and click the “LIKE” button:

http://www.facebook.com/MotoscapeBangerRally

Motoscape Rally – Road Trip Venice 2012 Winners

That’s it, the 2012 Motoscape Rally, “Road Trip to Venice” has come to an end! And I’m sure you all want to know who’s won?

Well we won’t keep you waiting, congratulations… on a first place finish for Raffa Duchenne! They won the rally by 21 points and take home the £800 prize and the gloating rights at being the 2012 Motoscape Venice Champions! So far the team have raised £10,000 for charity and the prize money from winning the rally is going towards that too. A fantastic effort from the guys from Zimbabwe!

In 2nd place place was Team Jeff who take home the £300 runner up prize. A valiant effort from the lads from Shropshire, who were delighted with a 2nd place finish.

Finally congratulations to Jake and Kelly from team Cake and Jelly who finished in 3rd place and take home the final prize of £100!

Final Venice Top 3:

1st Place: Raffa Duchenne
2nd Place: Team Jeff
3rd Place: Cake and Jelly

Well done to all the teams!!!