Charity Drive feature for Childrens Hospital

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This Charity Drive was done by the indpendent forum I'm a member of here in Ireland.

 

Last year it raised over 20k euros for the same cause.

 

The following is a feature prepared by one of the lads on the drive.

 

The Stats

57 people

39 male

18 female

 

29 Cars,

28 Petrol, 1 Diesel,

9 FWD, 16 RWD, 4 AWD,

58 Litres of capacity,

17 Turbos, 126 cylinders, 488 valves,

6400 Horsepower,

3 Days, 1200 Kilometers,

 

The above is a recipe, like any recipe you would follow to make a cake. But as with every good recipe it always needs some special ingredients to make it work. As any chef will tell you, a loaf of bread isn’t a loaf of bread until the yeast is added.

The recipe listed above under normal circumstances, is a weeks worth of calls to the Joe Duffy radio show, with enraged calls from people calling for the heads of us modern day outlaws of the country’s highways and byways. For the last three days though, everywhere we have gone we have been greeted by friendly waves and smiles.

All it takes to turn this recipe for disaster, into one of acceptance and understanding is the addition of 3 simple things

 

1 Website, 1 Charity, 1 Goal.

 

Put these into the mix and the resulting creation is the 2010 MidnightClub.ie Charity drive in aid of Our lady’s Hospital in Crumlin.A 3 day event where 29 cars rolled through the Republics 5 major cities, and every town and village in between, raising funds for a very worthy cause.

 

 

Day 1

This day was always going to be the heartbreaker of the weekend, an early start for most, and then the longest drive of the whole journey. For me it was an early start indeed, even though my alarm wasn’t set to go off until 7am, I woke up at 6am, as giddy as a child on Christmas morning.

A quick look out the window confirmed my worst fears as I faced a bleak sky, with little hope of reprieve from the heavy rain we had been experiencing lately. Still, there was no way I was letting the rain get me down today. So with an enthusiasm I have never possessed before at such an early hour of the morning I jumped into the car and pointed her towards Limerick.

All the way there my eyes were cast skywards in a futile search for a patch of blue sky that would scare the rest of the clouds away, but to no avail , coming into limerick the sky was as black and showery as it had been in Tipp.

Once there we pulled into Pro Image, one of our kind and very generous sponsors and the place was a hive of activity. All the cars were being herded into the workshop to be dried off and the sponsor’s stickers applied. The buzz about the place was electric, as everyone contemplated what was ahead of us for the next 3 days.

Old friends got re-acquainted and new friends were made as stories of how little sleep each had gotten the night before were embellished and exaggerated, and the usual banter was exchanged

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There was an almighty collection of metal on show, mostly Jap, with a few Bahnstormers thrown in for good measure as well as Clianas wide ass pug

The star of the show was clearly Niall and Sinead’s Toyota Mark II which had only come out of the sprayer’s oven the night before and was looking pristine bedecked in its new paint, and sitting on a set of Work wheels that have more dish than the radio telescopes used to find extra terrestrial life . Something tells me if the aliens knew about this car, they’d definitely come and have a look.

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A quick drivers briefing, and the route maps were handed out, then it was time to fire up the 29 cars which would be making the journey. The industrial estate echoed to the rumble of 126 cylinders and the strange whirring of the rotary engine in Scampers borrowed RX-8. The go ahead was given, our path out was cleared and we hit the public highways as a group for the first time as a convoy and straight away all eyes in the vicinity were on us as we made our way to the newly opened limerick tunnel and our first event .

The 900m long tunnel is Ireland’s newest tunnel and is truly a masterpiece of engineering and shaves about 25 minutes from the trip through the city, it does however have a second purpose which the engineers may not have thought about when the idea was conceived and planned. The acoustics inside it amplified the sound of our V6’s, straight 6’s, flat fours and straight 4 bangers to create a symphony of automotive aural ecstasy.

Once the tunnel run was dealt with, it was straight road to Galway, and bumpy road through Gort, as the thirty odd cars made headway towards the city of tribes on its busiest weekend of the year, Race Week.

We snaked through the gridlock and arrived at the Galway Shopping Centre where a few volunteers from the Galway contingent of Midnightclub.ie were setting up the marquis and had the area cordoned off ready for us to arrive , park up and try and shake a few euro from the race goers before the bookies got their hands on them.

They already had Blaine’s R33 Skyline, npm’s Celica and a minter of a P1 Impreza on show trying to attract a crowd.

As soon as we arrived, the skies cleared and we were treated to some sunshine, the buckets were distributed, lollipops handed out, the roundabout outside the centre was surrounded on all sides, and because the traffic was moving so slowly, no-one could escape our collectors. Some tried to escape, the most notable being the pure chancer who tried to pull a fast one on scamper by pretending to be talking on his phone, when the phone rang in his hand. Scamp finally shamed him into coughing up a few euro.

Time was moving on and we still had a monster drive ahead of us, so we had to get back in the drivers seat and set off for the N59.In motoring magazines across Europe, this is a road that is talked about in the same breath as the Stelvio pass, The Col de Turini, and was featured recently in an issue of Top Gear magazine. It truly is a breathtaking piece of tarmac that snakes in and around the mountains and lakes of Connemara.

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The drivers are rewarded with a challenging drive that pushes cars to the limits whilst the passengers, if they dare to take their eyes off the road, are faced with some of the most beautiful vistas in the whole country. The hills roll and undulate for miles and the road is just a ribbon of tarmac laid down on top of the landscape. The imposing sight of the twelve Bens Mountains is something to behold but unfortunately I didn’t get much chance to gaze on such wonders for more than a fleeting second.

The reasons why were ahead of me, and behind me. I was surrounded by two legends of tarmac rallying, a P1 Impreza ahead and a Lancer Evo behind me, and we weren’t holding back .My own car may not be as focused as these, but its still a turbocharged 4wd monster that has some rally heritage. These roads are what these cars are meant for and we had fun finding grip where the RWD cars couldn’t and nothing beats the feeling of going for the apex on a clear sighted corner

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As we rolled on through Connemara we finally hit Westport, and were greeted by a familiar sight to any car enthusiast, the flashing lights of the Garda car .But today there would be no hassle over tinted windows, loud exhausts, or not having a full window. Today these kind lawmen would be escorting us through the town of Westport as our ever helpful volunteers tried to liberate a few euro from the locals for a worthy cause.

It might have been a good idea to have St Johns ambulance on standby because I don’t think Westport knew what was coming, as 30+ cars were escorted through town with everyone bouncing off limiters and honking horns like demons. The townsfolk were certainly taken by surprise and everyone waved and cheered and covered their ears if I’m honest, because we were LOUD.

With the collecting over, it was time to head to our first overnight stop of the weekend in the Ramada hotel in Drumshanbo. And what a hotel, overlooking the southern shores of Lough Allen it truly is a breathtaking spot. Not nearly as breathtaking as what was in store for the drivers though as every one ,once ensconced inside the bar was treated to some of the Czech Republics finest exports , some 70% Absinthe . Someone made the mistake of entrusting Ernie with the bottle and the rest as they say is history.

Not twenty minutes later he was stripping for a hen night in the bar and outside playing on the slides .Not long after the bus to take us to Cartown arrived and we all waited with baited breath to see what the northwest’s largest nightclub held in store for us. For some members it held a Pakistani man, mad for the dancing, and who was looking for sexy time, the less said about it the better. The smoking area held court to some drinking games and a very optimistic attempt at lifting a vintage tractor.

As always though, time flies when you’re having fun and pretty soon it was time to return and lay our heads down for some well deserved sleep.

 

DAY 2

Everyone arose to a familiar yet unfamiliar sound this morning, and the air was turned blue with a stream of obscenities. POC in his wisdom decided that everyone should get a wakeup call circa 9am. God help the poor receptionist who had to listen to us all shouting at her as she kindly informed us that it was time to get our tired, weary and ever so slightly hung-over bodies out of bed.

An army marches on its stomach so we trudged to the restaurant, and ate what we could of the breakfast in front of us as everyone swapped stories and mimicked the moves that were pulled off on the dance floor the night before. And everyone had a strange common missing memory of how we actually got back to the hotel the night before. We could remember the club, and the hotel, its just the 20 minute journey between the two was missing from everyone’s subconscious.

Afraid of what magic these Leitrim people may be playing on us, we fired up the cars and headed for the 335km spin to Waterford. Taking a route through Longford and Mullingar until we hit the M4 motorway where we all got bunched together again and held court as the people we passed looked on in amazement at the seemingly never-ending convoy.

Of course once we hit the toll bridge it was time for more fun as some people put on a show with some standing burnouts on one side of the booth, and others had a race out the other side, up to the legal limit of 120 of course.

 

 

 

 

The weather played with us on the way down as the sun ducked and dodged behind clouds, and very localized rainstorms were thrown at us .One remarkable storm happened on the N11, when we were driving through torrential rain, and the road absolutely soaked to the core with water, I closed my eyes for a split second, and opened them again to find the sun splitting the stones and the road bone dry. It’s this randomness that makes driving in Ireland such an experience.

Once past Enniscorthy we cut across country to get to our destination, the premises of Cleancar.ie in New Ross, Another one of our generous sponsors. The owners John and Larry were on hand offering a free BBQ and refreshments to the drivers and very kindly cleaning the cars out the back using some of the excellent products they supply. It’s clear the lads are BMW nut jobs when you see the mint examples they have in the showroom, an absolutely spotless E30, a stunning E36 M3, and a pristine Z4 M coupe which has an engine bay so clean you could eat your dinner from it.

After we were all cleaned up it was time to hit the road to our second overnight stop in the Ramada Hotel in Waterford, and the town was electric. The August bank holiday weekend is Waterford’s Spraoi weekend and what a weekend it was .Every street was packed with people reveling in the good weather and soaking up the festival atmosphere . Live bands and street acts were at every corner and every pub was jammed to the rafters.

Our base for the evening was to be Revolution bar in the heart of it all, and nestled away in the corner we made the place our own , startling the bouncers at one stage with a 40 person strong conga line out the door and then straight back in again .

Again all too soon the night ended and we were once again back in bed awaiting the dreaded wakeup call in the morning.

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DAY 3

 

The familiar sound of the hotel wake up call roused us from slumper again for day 3 , the final event .Today’s journey was a quick hop from Waterford to Cork and stop off for a collection in Mahon point , then onto limerick via Aherns slab in Mallow for a quick shot of diffing.

But before any of that happened, the hotels claim of the “best breakfast in Waterford” had to be sampled. I give it 8/10 for effort, but sadly let down by no beans being offered. With our bellies full, we set to work rearranging a few stickers in the car park. Then the rest of the hotel got a stark awakening as we started up the chariots and headed for the N25.

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Another thing you notice about driving in Ireland is you never know what around the next corner or what odd sights you may see, one day I was driving through Clonmel and spotted a man on a motorized couch making headway through the traffic. Only yesterday on day two outside Longford we passed another Charity group in the middle of pushing a VW beetle from Birmingham to Donegal for another worthy Charity, Debra Ireland.

Today was going to be no different, outside Youghal, we spotted a group of men cycling what seemed to be bananas across the country, but they in fact turned out to be incumbent bicycles clad in low drag aerodynamic shells.

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A few miles on we were the involved the most bizarre coincidence ever. The townsfolk of Castlemartyr had gathered on the street to watch a local parade , in which a brass band was going to lead a number of classic cars through town in one direction when we appeared from the opposite direction .It was like a classic Mexican standoff .The old cars on the western side of town, and us leading the eastern attack. The bandmaster raised his hand in the air to start the music and we were off , the poor band were drowned out by a blast of 1jz’s , rb25’s , ej20’s , b-series Hondas , and whatever else we could throw at them .

The older gents replied by hopping their fords , jags and minis off the limiters , but the battle was over , we had emerged victorious and continued on our merry way with nods of approval being thrown both sides of the battle line .

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We ventured on for another glorious tunnel run through the Jack Lynch, before parking up in a reserved spot outside Mahon Point to chat to the early afternoon shoppers and try to garner some more much needed donations for our cause.

At 2pm we packed up and headed through Cork city to the mallow road, and headed onto Aherns Slab where the diffing was to take place.

This is an Ideal spot as its set in a natural amphitheatre; surrounded on 3 sides by high walls of clay which mask the sound as poor tyres get reddened on the concrete. It masks it a little too well I may add, as we arrived a little late and were right on top of the embankment and heard little of the tortured squeals of the tyres below.

The RWD’s in our convoy put on a great show, flitting around as nimble as the multitude of wasps that pestered the spectators. The wasps at times were more entertainment than the cars making people pull some moves, the likes of which haven’t been seen outside

a gay dance club.

That’s not to say that the cars weren’t entertainment either, Daveo putting on a great show, Nialls Toyota is an absolute smoke machine, the glorious sound of Jimmy’s skyline hitting the limiter convinced me to buy one on the spot, POC mastered the M3, and Shane got a chance to get rid of his diffing cherry and went out in Matts S14. The Munster retro boys put on a show as well in the stunning two-tone Altezza and AE86.

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We were behind schedule though and had to leave all too soon, before matt got a chance to try and kill the tyre that would not die. The end was near though and Limerick was firmly in our sights as we managed to stay in convoy all the way into the city, where we parked up outside Penney’s and staged another collection. With Dan and Ciaran trying their hardest to try and wrangle a few euro from the drivers stopped at the lights.

 

 

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Then it was back to the hotel for some R+R before we hit smiths and icon for a well deserved final party. Unfortunately for this poor soul, I got too much R+R and ended up sleeping through it all, but I did hear rumours of some dodgy choice of underwear by some people, and some impromptu stripping by someone other than Ernie for a change.

 

All in all, I was sad to be leaving the hotel the next day as I would have happily spent the rest of the week driving around the country with the crew we had. It truly was an epic weekend, and was a credit to the people who organized, volunteered and took part in it .I for one am proud to be a part of a society where people will put themselves to the trouble of spending many months organizing these events, and put themselves to the task of taking part in an amazing event like this to help the less fortunate. As such I would like to extend my gratitude towards the organizers, the volunteers, the drivers, the passengers and everybody who donated.

All that’s left to be said is ROLL ON 2011!!!