This is it; the call has been made, money has changed hands, the countdown is on! GK Garages is going rallying where no amateur garage has gone before (probably) – nearly 20,000 miles to Mongolia… and back! Strap in, strap on, prepare yourselves – we’re going on a real adventure!
First things first who are we?! Simply put we’re just a couple of daft lads from England – Aerospace Engineers by day, and biscuit fiends by night! The GK Garages name is just a façade to make us sound wayyy more professional than we actually are! Both keen on anything remotely mechanical, we back ourselves to be able to fix our car in the arse end of a desert, with nothing more than a flip flop and the spittle of a passing llama. For more personal stats on the both us us, check out the effort we put into our Team Page!
So now you know we’re a pair of serious professionals, it’s blindingly obvious that the decision to undertake the Mongol rally was a pretty straightforward one! We both like doing silly things with cars, and the thought of transforming a classic motor into a rally stallion was something we simply couldn’t say no to. Seeing amazing parts of the world on the route? – yeah that’s nice – but thinking about the naughty rally things we’re going to do to an old British classic – that’s what get’s our biscuits dunking!
Speaking of rally stallions – now’s the perfect time to introduce you to Timmy!
A sight unseen purchase that made our palms sweaty and our trousers tight. He’s a Triumph of British Engineering (you’re welcome), born in 1967 with 1296cc of old school engineering under the bonnet, mild rust, and a thirst for oil. Timmy doesn’t know what’s about to hit him!
We could have got ourselves a true shitbox like a Nissan Micra, but we felt it better for international relations if we rocked up to downtown Tehran in something that would make people point and smile, not shout and wield unpleasant gestures like Micra drivers deserve! We’ve got some big plans for little Timmy – as you’ll see if you follow these blog posts over the next 2 years! In the meantime – check out our dedicated digital shrine to Timmy, where you can marvel over his lack of horses and postulate on his Nürburgring lap time!
Whilst the rally itself is going to be a whirlwind of fun and challenges, before we even get driving we’ve set ourselves the challenge to raise as much money as possible for a couple of charities! Our goal is a minimum of £2k total, with the funds split between the official rally charity Cool Earth, and our two additionally selected charities – Mind, and the RSPCA! You can find out more about why we’re supporting these charities on our charity page – where there are links to our fundraiser if you’re kind enough to donate!
Here we just ask that you spread the word of GK Garages far and wide between your friends and family! Whether it be to see us thrive, or to hear about Ross’ untimely passing in a terrible accident whilst visiting Chernobyl – you’ve got to be following us to find out!
Fundraising for charity is key, there’s no doubt about it! However, from buying the tools we’ll need to go rallying and overhaul Timmy, to paying for fuel across half the world – this isn’t going to be cheap for us! So if you could find it in the kindness of your hearts to also donate to our beer kitty fuel fund – that’ll really help us with whatever bribes we need to get out of Russia with all 10 digits!
Stay tuned to this blog for more updates as we start the prep for this monster journey! You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram where we’ll be posting some naughty rally pics as they’re taken!
Keep your stick on the ice,
Reece x