The 2025 Skinflint Rally – Bovec or Bust saw 28 colourfully adorned cars of all makes travel well over 1,000 miles through France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria and Italy en route to the stunning Slovenian town of Bovec!
Shaftec entered two teams and set a target to raise £10,000 for Zoe’s Place Baby Hospice in Coventry as part of our “30 for 30” campaign, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Shaftec brand.
Team 1 – made up of Marc Wise, Chris White and Callum Dunbar – travelled in a Ford Focus, while Team 2 featured Mitesh Thanki, Aidan Vellender and Jim Harvey in a Volkswagen Golf.
Throughout the event, each team is set a range of challenges. For example, points are awarded for photos of the following:
The teams left Birmingham on Wednesday 17th September for the drive to Folkestone in preparation for the rendezvous with all the teams in Calais, France.
On the first day, the teams took on the journey to Cologne via Spa (home of the Belgium Grand Prix).
The second day started off a bit rocky with our good friend Yalcin having to say goodnight to his poor Citroën! The crankshaft pulley snapped which ended his rally early.
Thankfully, Team Shaftec came to their rescue and, as a result, added two new members to their rally team! The teams reported that they were looking forward to Prague and were all ready for a cold water (with hops of course!).
With their two new team members, the third day made for an epic last adventure! There were plenty of ups and downs and to top it off, we won the award for the highest amount raised for Zoe’s Place Baby Hospice. Together with our sponsors, friends and family, not only did we meet our target, but we raised a whopping £11,141.25!
Marc shared some key points from the third and final day: “On the last leg of our journey from Prague to Bovec, we had an inflatable policeman make a surprise appearance! We were spotted and stopped by the Austrian police! We think they appreciated the look of the cars. We also visited one of the most stunning lakes we have ever seen, we met some Austrian locals that like to climb on top of cars, and we lost our car key!
“And if 10 hours of driving wasn’t enough, our Ford Focus ended up on the wrong side of Slovenia, adding another three and a half hours to their journey! Somebody set the wrong address into the satnav… we’ll leave you guessing which team member was in charge of that. After all of that, we finally arrived at Bovec in the pitch black, three hours late to the awards ceremony.
So, it turns out that cars with a value less than £500 showered in aftermarket parts can indeed comfortably make a 1,300-mile journey across Europe through some of the toughest terrain!”
And just for good measure, our two teams also drove onto Croatia, adding an extra 168 miles (270km).
So how did they do on the challenges?
Team 2 finished on the leaderboard in a creditable 8th position, with Team 1 just three places behind.
Very well done to our team members who took part! You did us proud!
We would also like to thank the following sponsors:
Jim: “At least with the taxi you won’t get taken to the wrong place. Marc, no more mountains in the dark – stress levels rise too much. It’s been great.”
Marc: “Great trip guys. That will be in the memory bank forever!”
Mitesh: “Been a fab few days with some great memories, and we raised a few more pounds for Zoe’s Place. Ironic that we are in a Golf as our taxi to the airport! Two good workhorses got us and a few more passengers over the 1300 miles.”
Chris: “Great trip boys! Loved it once again.”
If you wish to make a donation to our “30 for 30” campaign, you can visit our JustGiving page. We are getting closer to our £30,000 target and we would appreciate any donation you can make!
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