Roadtrip 2014 - Patent Pending

[MWF]

OK so I know the dust hasn't even settled from this year's epic voyage (some participants have yet to arrive home) but various things that happened this year meant that a great deal of discussion took place about what we could do next time, mainly in that we wasted a lot of time standing about not driving and waiting while arrangements were made to recover broken cars!

So the loose proposal is this:

Nobody brings their own vehicle - we form teams of two who have to buy beaters for 500 Euros max that have to have current registration etc and a minimum of 4 seats. Remaining money can be spent on spares/enhancements up to the limit but all items but be receipted and in case of using other currencies the exchange rate at time of purchase must also be proven.

The event is going to be raising money for charity (proposal is Amnesty International and Medecins Sans Frontieres as they are both global and apolitical). Teams raise money from sponsorship to buy the cars and then pay fuel/camping/food/booze as they would on previous Roadtrips.

We convene as usual at a starting point (Viktoria Station even?) but each day have to complete a gold envelope challenge handed to us by a guy in a lab coat. Suggestions include economy runs, a rally stage (if we can find a road to close off and someone can research pace notes), a treasure hunt, and more.

If a car breaks down the team has an hour to fix it. Once that hour has passed they and their gear have to shotgun in one of the cars that is still running. We take a list of junkyards with us on the route, call them and invite them to come and collect the dead car and if they wish and are able donate to the cause.

Adrian brings the VW Transporter to act as a support truck for extra gear and hopefully refrain from killing anyone.

Cars that remain will attend Ringmeet as usual and can be 'Rung if desired.

Teams then return home, sell their cars for as much as they can and pay the proceeds into the account.

There will be an awards ceremony at the Ringmeet for various categories and bonus points will be awarded for garnering media coverage. Anyone who can get a bona fide TG person to present said awards will be rewarded with champagne and hookers. Probably.

Feel free to expose any flaws in this plan or suggest any enhancements to the basic framework.

 

[eizbaer]

I love it! And I'd love to participate... we'll see how things go over the next year...

 

[thomas]

Regardless of what I think about the practicability of the financial aspect, here my thoughts on the legal bit regarding the cars in germany:

Version 1 - registering the cars regular:
+ car can drive as much as you want
+ car can be driven/kept registered until T?V runs out
+ cars fulfilling the requirenment of T?V probably have at least some resale-value
+ cars can be ringed
- cars need T?V, at least for the month the trip is in
- cars need to be insured on a german, with fee for irregular drivers (~30-100? per month)
- insurance for up to 10 cars on a single person is probably freakin expensive, even if its just basic coverage.
- registration costs 40-65? (depends on where its registered and from where th car is)
- roadtax will be due upon registration for a full year, regardless of the intended registration duration (will be refunded a few weeks after unregistering the car 100-500? depending on emissions and enginesize)
- cars need to be unregistered afterwards manually (10-20?), or when its being "abandoned" (can't leave the plates with the car/scrapyard, actual and potential legal issues)

Version 2 - using temporary plates:
+ cars don't need to have T?V, just need to be roadworthy/safe
+ cars don't need to be insured regularly, as insurance comes with the plates
+ temp-plates with registration and insurance are about 70-80 EUR
+ no roadtax needs to be paid
+ cars don't need to be unregistered
- plates only valid for 5 days, would have to be renewed at least once, depending on the schedule, at least for all cars that survive and do ringmeet probably another time
- plate is officially only for testdrives and at best transfer-drives (seller -> home/ home -> garage etc), NOT for regular driving around
- cars can not be ringed
(- plates can cause trouble in other countries)


General things for both versions:
- car must be sold with a contract to the scrapper (again potential legal issues if its not actually scrapped), calling and leaving is not an option.
- having the scrapper pick it up usually removes any potential profit. as its usually either cash (~100? for a wreck in steel value) on dropoff, or free pickup and no cash
- having a car towed is either expensive (100-200?), or a so called "Schutzbrief" needs to be included in the insurance (regular reg: ~10? per year, temp: 5? per reg)


Thats what came to mind today so far, I'll add more if I come up with more up- and downsides.

 

[Redliner]

So much to go wrong.





Love it!

 

[Labcoatguy]

guy in a lab coat

Well I suppose I'll have to attend now.

 

[Black Z Eddie]

Sounds awesome!

 

[eizbaer]

i just had a quick browse around for cars in the price bracket... mother of god there is some awesome stuff around especially considering the expected use: who cares about rust or optical shortcomings...

also that stuff thomas mentioned... that might turn out to be problematic... and expensive...

 

[thomas]

I don't want to be the buzzkill here, fuck I even considered doing exactly that this year for ringmeet (say: buy a beater, run temp-plates, do ringmeet, scrap it). But its not just burning money, but on this scale of a roadtrip its a fulltime job preparing and organizing all that. And still burning money.

 

[eizbaer]

well, at least one would get the majority of the tax back? so, on top of the car, it'd come to something along the lines of 200eur of money burnt? could be worse...

 

[thomas]

Yes, about 200 eventually, but 200-700 initially. Also I did not even count in minimal preparation/fixup costs to make this thing even go on a roadtrip. Say maybe working brakes, tires that are not beyond dead, shut off leaks.. all the little bit, you know?

 

[eizbaer]

well, all of that should be in the initial 500? cost of the beater car, no? i admit it's hard to find a car that's REALLY working for that kind of money, but that's sort of the challenge, right? (in my little look around mobile.de there were a few cars that didn't look too bad in that regard)
initially it'll be an investment, i agree... oh well... we'll see, we'll see!

 

[MWF]

If attendees buy the cars in their own country and sell them again there then I am hoping that creates fewer problems. Ze Tchermanns will know what to do to get around any laws that may need to be obeyed.

Or in true Roadtrip fashion, ignored.

Just stay the fuck away from Swissistan!

 

[lip]

While I can see the fun in the basic idea, it will mean even more breakdowns and waiting time. - Just think about all the boring-motorway-instead-of-awesome-passes you lot had to do on Saturday the 3rd from Demonte to La Toussuire because of the 7 and xBMW breakdowns, just to catch up.

The idea of beeing stranded with my stuff early on and then have to passenger around in the cars of others isn't my idea of driving. I was very impressed by MXM's and DaBoom's keep-on attitude which was the only reason why I gave up my steering wheel to them and other people during the following days.

If I can't be on a roadtrip with my own car during my holidays nontheless because of rules, sponsorship and you-have-to-donate, then I have lost interest already.

- - - Updated - - -

The idea to just choose two good campsites in France and doing several day-long loops from there and back over all the local alpine passes is way more appealing to me. If somebody has a breakdown during this he isn't holding everybody up, he has time to fix the car, and then join the others for the hoon on the following day.

 

[Dr_Grip]

Regarding the legal problems, the best idea in Germany would be export plates:
-Car can be registered to anyone, no German residency required
-Registration and insurance simply expires, no deregistration necessary


You'd still need a proof of sale to the scrapyard to be on the safe side if anything goes wrong, though.

- - - Updated - - -

If I can't be on a roadtrip with my own car during my holidays nontheless because of rules, sponsorship and you-have-to-donate, then I have lost interest already.

I can understand why the concept of "banger racing" instead of a roadtrip is not everybody's cup of tea, but I am in the opposite camp: I am not interested in a "epic driving holiday" with a convoy of cars - this, on the other hand, screams "adventure"!

 

[Labcoatguy]

Note to self, start looking up prices for tool sets and spare parts. Saabs were popular on the continent, right?

 

[eizbaer]

I can understand why the concept of "banger racing" instead of a roadtrip is not everybody's cup of tea, but I am in the opposite camp: I am not interested in a "epic driving holiday" with a convoy of cars - this, on the other hand, screams "adventure"!

If I can't be on a roadtrip with my own car during my holidays nontheless because of rules, sponsorship and you-have-to-donate, then I have lost interest already.

i don't think it is necessary to force people who wish to participate into the whole beater thing. like lip said, it's just not his idea of a good roadtrip, so why exclude him? i'd say the more beaters the better, but anyone who's coming along with a reliable ride should be just as welcome.

The idea to just choose two good campsites in France and doing several day-long loops from there and back over all the local alpine passes is way more appealing to me. If somebody has a breakdown during this he isn't holding everybody up, he has time to fix the car, and then join the others for the hoon on the following day.

consider me sold on this. it'd take a bit of the dangers of breaking down out of the deal and would possibly make for more exciting (read: unreliable) cars

Note to self, start looking up prices for tool sets and spare parts. Saabs were popular on the continent, right?

i did come across a few 900's in my quick search, but none of those were in a condition that i'd have considered...

 

[geeman]

If attendees buy the cars in their own country and sell them again there then I am hoping that creates fewer problems. Ze Tchermanns will know what to do to get around any laws that may need to be obeyed.

Not sure if that would make it any cheaper or easier. At least for us Finns the registration/insurance/tax costs would be in the same ballpark as the costs of doing the same in Germany. And transporting the car would add costs.
Also there might be some additional bureaucracy and costs if the car would be sold or scrapped in some other country.

Could work for people who live closer though.

 

[Davetouch]

i did come across a few 900's in my quick search, but none of those were in a condition that i'd have considered...

Remember I got my old 900S for ?220. And that was ready to go. I also got it very cheap but finding one within the 500? budget is not difficult at all.

As far as ideas go; all of what lip (greetings, btw) said. Yes it would be fun but the day of the driving loop was epic fun. I've done a roadtrip which was only motorways and the best part of it was playing bumper cars with each other. I'd like it to work but frankly I see it as a better idea as a mini roadtrip where the 'basecamp' is Viktoria Station and we drive roads around the Eifel area for a couple of days followed by the Ringmeet with additional challenges. The only problem I see with that is that there aren't a bunch of great roads around the 'Ring.

Thinking about it; I would much rather bring my car, especially after all the work ill do.

 

[Thujalvi]

Quick look around the local car selling sites revealed a plethora of Saab 900's for the money, some in a fairly reasonable condition. I'd so want to do this, but seems unlikely I'll be able to afford it.

Edit: Wouldn't setting the starting point somewhere like northern France or the BeNeLux area be a sort of smart-ish thing, so that majority of participants wouldn't have to drive a billion miles just to get there?

 

[Matt2000]

Do it in the highlands of Scotland, there's nobody there to upset and plenty of empty, twisty roads to play on (plus plenty of potential rally stages). Obviously doing this would mean it's a separate road trip though.

Thinking of cars, there are a few Galants that look like they'll finish below ?400. Yum 4WD.