Wrap Articles

The StreetSafari 2011 Banger Rally season went by much too quickly! This year set the record for the most events done in a season, with six banger rallies and one open event, for a total of seven events in a four month period.

Staples2Naples 2010 was a small affair. Previous years have seen much bigger groups, but small isn't a bad thing.

CzechWrecks is StreetSafari's fourth Banger Rally of the year, and when you write the wrap article you have to ask yourself, where do you start? Thunderbird 4 probably, but we'll get to that in a moment.

This event was promoted in the Daily Telegraph back in 2009 when a charity team had a Telegraph journalist along as a team mate. Our event received some excellent coverage a few weeks later with front page and inside front cover of the Motoring Telegraph section. Talk about lucking out!

Home2Rome 2010 was always going to be a special event. It was the event that was getting the most signups for the 2010 season, had a large number of veterans (good fun element assured), and for some reason had its own energy.

There are some events that are destined to go down as classic events to be on, and this was most certainly one of them.

End2End is StreetSafari's camping event. We're trying to persuade people that caravans are good, especially painted ones, but that's not going so well. Trailer tents are all the rage in the banger rally scene, as we soon discovered this year.

We're off to see the Wizard... or maybe we're just off. BigApple2BigEasy 2010 rolled across the Finish Line. And we lived.

End2End 2009 was possibly the funniest banger rally ever. Banger Rally meets Carry On Camping.

End2End is the new banger rally for 2009, with a first, the first time a banger rally has been run in the UK. We've been too paranoid about the British Police, and we've all enjoyed Europe.

So in many respects we've overlooked the UK, but that changed earlier this year after a recce, which did confirm that our own country is quite a good place to drive. We do have a lot of speed cameras, but once you get out of the centre of the country they aren't as common as you'd think.

The route we quickly decided on was Land's End to John O'Groats.

End2End was also going to be primarily camping, maybe a blueprint for future events. StreetSafari needs a bit of camping experience, and starting on home soil, and with a smaller group makes a lot of sense.

My first question is: where on earth do we start for this wrap article?

The first mention has to be the StreetSafari forum. About six weeks from the event, someone posted the question, "Will BABE2009 Preparations section beat the highest Preparation section ever?" At first look it didn't seem possible. There were only 3,500 posts and there were 3,900 or so to beat (Staples2Naples 2006 Preparation section).

But a few calculations, and it looked like this year's prep section would beat it.

And that's where 2009 became special.

By the time the forum was closed on the Sunday night after Check In, the forum was running at 6,068 posts or so. It didn't just beat the next best, it crushed it.

The 7th Staples2Naples is an interesting one. Every event is different, and none more so than Staples2Naples. It attracts less veteran teams as the veterans move on to CzechWrecks and the other events, and has a larger proportion of first time teams than any of the the other events.

We've said it before, but it bears repeating. Staples2Naples is the see-and-be-seen event of the banger rally world. But then again, it is the original European banger rally and the one that started the entire craze.

CzechWrecks 2009, moving on to its 4th year! The Czechs don't hate us as much as they used to.

Historically, this event is the event for veterans. Teams who start on Staples2Naples or Home2Rome in their first year graduate to CzechWrecks for their second year. This in turn makes it an easier event as the sheer number of veterans coach the new banger rally teams through the etiquette that is a banger rallying.