Whether it's hereditary or environment, peer pressure or perception. As the quote goes: "a lot of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view." As most people, we all see our own limits to be the limits of the world. We all make our own boundaries and because of our pre-determined comfort zones, we very rarely step outside of them. Which is a shame, because when your comfort zone is not expanding it is either contracting or reinforcing boundaries. This is when we all find ourselves 'in a rut' and feel unimaginative. Not to mention increasingly frustrated with loved ones and those close to us.
Thats why I would highly recommend doing something out of the ordinary. Nothing that will cost the Earth, but something well outside any of you or your friends comfort zones... Something like buying a car for £500 between a few of you and driving to Germany and racing round the Nürburgring.
This idea started off innocently enough over, shockingly after only a pint and a half down The Stand Up in Lindfield. It all started after mine and my friend Joel's epic road trip across the USA the previous year and we both had started to get itchy feet.
The rules for the Nürburgring were simple:
-Spend £500 for a car, on the road (thankfully not including insurance)
-For every £1 over £500 spent incurs a 1 sec penalty at 'The Ring'
-Minimum 2.0 litre engine
-Manual transmission
-No vans or trucks
-Pre 1997 registered (not including '97)
-Minimum 2 people insured (for sensible reasons as well as it working out cheaper)
-Every team must have matching jumpsuits (why the hell not)
-Every team to have tents and sleeping bags
-No GPS allowed (where's the fun in navigating Europe if you have tech)
-All people taken in a specific car has to be in said car for lap timings
I would prefer a route that goes from Newhaven to Dieppe and then on through Paris. Just to see how we would all handle the Arc de Triomphe in cheap cars that we've probably bought from a shady bloke called Dave in a Crawley pub.
It looks as though something similar to the above route will be more likely. Even though it's roughly 400-500 miles no matter which way you go. Nontheless I have no doubt it will prove entertaining. As we try to coax our decade old deathtraps across the backyards of our closest neighbouring Europeans and head first into peril.On my team I'll be taking my lovely and 'clued up' girlfriend as navigator (which I may live to regret) and the inimitable Mr Dan 'Splintz' Spencer, who is quite simply a living legend. Between all three of us the combined driver/passenger weight should be something in the region of 30 stone, which I hope should be just about right. I'll be posting up some of the hilarious cars I'm bidding on closer to the time, but so far we all look set for a June-July date for this insane trip.....
Oh and I forget to mention, if any of the cars blow up en-route (betting odds to follow in a future post) we'll probably consider burning them and leaving them in a ditch... Just for jokes. OK maybe not, but this of course means they have the opportunity to jump in other racers cars for the continuation of the trip, thereby weighing down their cars and impairing their times when they reach 'The Ring'.
So I implore all of you to go out and ignore the foolish 'fear tactics' of the newspapers Credit Crunch and go out and enjoy a bit of spare cash while you have some! Seriously, if you can spare £300 between three of you I'm sure you can come up with a similar 'Top Gear' style challenge and no doubt it will be an absolute hoot.
When it all goes wrong it will all be on this Blog for reprisals.... Stay Tuned.
