WHEN you think rally, you think Monte Carlo and the Mille Miglia. You think Lancia, Porsche, Audi and Alpine Renault.
You don’t think Shitbox. You don’t think Suzuki Shitara, 1993 SAAB convertible, 1969 Mini Van, Mitsubishi Nimbus and XF Falcon hearse.
Of course with rallying you can visualise glamorous teams, serious driving suits and good-looking drivers. Teams like the Zombie Apocalypse Response Team, the Wolf Creek Taxi Co, The Boobsters, Lucky Shag and Two Girls One Is Mad don’t immediately resonate.
But you can see them all on Saturday when Australia’s Shitbox Rally 2014 roars to life at the appropriately named Lovekin Drive in Kings Park, Perth at 8am. Yes, 500 drivers, 250 cars costing no more than $1000 each, including registration and roadworthiness, bumping and shuddering the 3500km from Perth to Darwin along some of Australia’s most deserted and dusty roads.
South Australian James Freeman founded the Shitbox Rally in 2010 to raise money for cancer research after losing his mother and father to cancer within 12 months. This year he aims to raise $1.4 million for the Cancer Council. The teams need to raise a minimum of $4000 to participate in the rally. Some have raised more than $20,000.
Naturally The Weekend Australian has its own team driving a very up-market but rusty 10-year-old Ford ute.
What the team lacks in mechanical sophistication it makes up for in communications technology. The ute might strain to complete the rally after a decade’s service to the nation’s building industry, but rest assured that every trial and triumph of this herculean challenge will be broadcast to you, dear readers, via satellite from the dusty, harsh, endless plains of this sunburnt country.
Follow The Weekend Australian team — that’s me and my son Tom — as we rise to the challenge of the Shitbox Rally at theaustralian.com.au/motoring or on Twitter @connollyshitbox. Live means we will be trying to post videos, audios, tweets, photos.