After much deliberation over when and how to cross this particular item off an ever growing list of things to accomplish before I die, this year has been decided as the year to drive a complete shit box of a car halfway around the world in the Mongol Rally.
Some several presidents back now, I was gearing up for the BABE Rally, a banger rally in the US, from the Big Apple, New York, to the Big Easy, New Orleans, (hence B A B E Rally) in a sub-$500 car. I had bought a car, a 1970 Volvo 145, with the intention of wrenching on the necessary safety things for a year, then running it the next summer that the BABE Rally ran. That year, they decided it would be the last year. Bummer.
So I was on the hunt for something equally ridiculous and dangerous to get myself into with the old Volvo. In the search for some other rallys I came across the Mongol Rally, the greatest road trip of all time. Originally it started at the Greenwood Circuit in Southern England, and finished in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. There is no set route, The Adventurists who go through the arduous task of putting this on every year only give entrants the start location and the finish line – the path to get there is up to the team.
The Adventurists only give 3 rules:
- Teams are on their own – there is no one coming for you if you get stuck, break down, or get thrown in a Turkmen prison.
- The rally car must be 1000cc or less (you can fudge this up to 1.2L given the decreasing availability of 1L cars in Europe).
- Teams raise at least £1000 for charity.
Josh, a close friend, and I will be putting a team together over the next month to take on the 2018 Mongol Rally. Josh and I met in the same university program and came together originally to have a beer or two and talk about cars. The rally came up at some point because he heard about it during his own travels in the UK. We went back and forth on when to do it, and this year, 2018, we are both in a relative gap between school and the more intense responsibilities that come along in life after university.
We’ve got a team name – Mystic Moose Racing, a name originating from Josh’s love of Subaru (and the mystic-ness of Subaru’s stars on their logo) and my own strange fascination with Volvo (hence the moose half of the name).
The next few weeks will be important in getting a team together, figuring out a timeline for our planning, and most importantly, officially signing up for the Mongol Rally!