Nissan Micra goes to Monaco on banger rally in aid of Hastings hospice

On the 11th of July friends Pete Sellens and Andy Hughes set off on the Rusty Rex banger rally 2023. Driving a 21 year old car with and engine size of only 998cc the Nissan Micra started the self funded trip, with no support, from the UK to Nice on the south coast of France.

After a stop and search in customs, we left the UK on a ferry for Calais. We used non toll roads, passing through many quiet French villages and towns to get us down to Reims for the meet and greet night. The next morning the start point was the old pit lane of the F1 street circuit of Reims. Where we met the rest of the cars that were taking part.

We travelled south through the vine yards of France into Interlaken in Switzerland completing challenges on the way.

After a night of heavy rain and thunderstorms we set off over the Swiss Alps crossing over several mountain passes which still had areas of snow on them and down to Bormio in Italy.

Waking up to blue sky and sunshine todays roads would take us to Lake Como for a swim, the Acosta valley, the little St Bernard Pass (the one from the Italian job film) to Val-d'lsere.

On the final day of the official rally we left the ski resort of Val-d'lsere and drove the highest paved road in Europe. The car struggled with the altitude and some of the tight switchbacks on the climb to the top.

After this we headed to the Isola 2000 pass, with many tunnels and snow capped mountain views.

from here we headed down to Nice and the famous port of Monaco.

Our car won best car of the rally and we won 3rd place on the points for spirit of the rally which included take part in daily challenges such as laying on a pink lilo on the top of the little St Bernard pass. Or jumping in lake Como with the same lilo.

We have lost a few very close friends to cancer in the last 18 months so we wanted to raise money for a charity that helps with care for this awful disease

We are raising money for St Michael's Hospice in Hastings. The same charity we raised money for in 2015 on a different charity rally.