Bangers4BEN Travelogue - Day 3
Written By Richard Lawton Published On: Nov 18 2009 Day Three - Berwick-upon-Tweed to Mercedes Benz World to Manchester
The final day started bright, cold, and early on the outskirts of border town Berwick-upon-Tweed. The itinerary called for a 7.30 departure from the comfortable Travelodge and back on the road towards County Durham and a 9.30 meet at sports network offices for more coffee and more bacon butties.
Total Day Miles: 601
Progress like much of the journey on duel carriageways and motorways was swift and unspectacular – however there appeared to be a split in opinion as Newcastle-upon-Tyne approached, several teams decided to continue on the A1 until past the busiest parts of the city, however sticking to our trusty satnav we left the A1 to join the A19 and headed straight into a large congested building site called the Tyne tunnel – chaos seemed to be the overriding element on display as road marking ceased to exist and a free for all ensured – and we were hitting this in prime rush hour traffic!
Finally through the tunnel and more roadworks we were safely past Newcastle and Gateshead and onto our breakfast stop in County Durham.More photos, plenty of coffee, and a couple of excellent bacon butties the final push was tackled – only 274 miles until we arrived at Mercedes Benz World at Brooklands, just inside the M25.Back through beautiful Yorkshire, we strategically took the M1 rather than the A1, past the outskirts of Leeds, and onwards to Sheffield. One of the most notable landmarks in this part of the world when travelling on the M1 in times gone by were the Tinsley cooling towers almost touchable from the motorway, unused for many years the towers came down in 2008. A shame.
Total Trip Miles: 1,823
More coffee consumed, although the bacon earlier was still kicking in so no food, and it had become a race against time – not only had we to get to Mercedes Benz World for 3.30pm, but we had to drop the Ford Mondeo Estate at BCA Blackbushe before the centre closed at 5.30pm. Fine margins! But what of the car? Amazingly it was still going strong, yes the windows had again played up when we stopped at the Travelodge the night before but it had performed admirably on the motorway. The perfect cruiser! Perhaps.
Through the Midlands, and into the South East we continued to countdown the miles of this mammoth trip. Incredibly we encountered no congestion or incident travelling the whole of the M1 until our turn off onto the M25.Dusk was beginning to drop as we finally arrived in Weybridge, but here our trusty satnav let us down and we had to follow our noses to locate the spectacular building of Mercedes Benz World.
Family pack sized fruit pastel bags consumed: 1
A quick driver swap and a few blasts around the Brooklands track, which had only played host to thousands of fans and Lewis Hamilton only a couple of days earlier had the eye-catching sight of seeing the remaining bangers zooming around the alippery, wet track.After three long days of travelling the Ford Mondeo had made it, and along with all the other teams we collected our impressive trophies and copies of the latest Car Dealer Magazine.
End of the tail? Well not quite, we still had the small trip to the car auction site to contend with, in the gloom of dusk, increasing rush hour traffic, our best laid plans were in danger of derailing. Crawling tortoise like to the M3 the blood pressure rose and the anxiety levels went through the sunroof! Thankfully the traffic cleared as we finally hit the M3, and with a little over 20 minutes to spare we pulled up at a very dark BCA Blackbushe.A quick change over later, saying a fond farewell to our trusty stead – seriously, someone will bag themselves a bargain if they can look past the scratches, bumps, and dents on the bodywork – and into the luxury of our waiting SEAT Altea – loaned to us for the trip by those good people at SEAT press office – thanks guys. We only had the small trip back up to the North West, Cheshire and finally Manchester to contend with!Encountering the worst traffic of the whole journey around Bracknell and the surrounding area, progress was slow, however the fancy new car kept us going. Climate control, excellent stereo, built in satnav, and a very perky 1.4 petrol engine there is much to like in the SEAT Altea, and with plenty of room in the boot we had no problems. It provided a stark contrast to our Ford Mondeo - the levels of luxury and comfort have progressed in the intervening 11 years between the Mondeo and Altea.Finally, at something like 9.15pm and some 1900 miles under our belts we arrived in the leafy and pitch black Cheshire countryside. This left only 15miles to get to Manchester city centre – and by 10pm that night the rally – and both prologue and epilogues had been a resounding success and had finally come to an end.A marvellous and long three days had finished and with it, BEN were the real winners, as all teams raised good money for the charity – and with the promise of all proceeds from the auction as going to the automotive charity a very worthwhile experience.Team Really Good Domains would like to pay special thanks to (in no particular order) Fords of Winsford, HPI, SEAT Press Office, BEN, Car Dealer Magazine, BCA Blackbushe, and all the teams that took part in the challenge.
- Bangers4BEN is an event organised by Car Dealer Magazine and the automotive charity BEN. While we aim to raise as much money as possible through the auctioning off of all the participating cars you can also donate to the very worthy cause by clicking here.
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