Sunday 26th February was a very influential day in my life and has been in the planning for over two years and today it all came true.

              My Dad and I have always wanted to go on a great driving adventure, so what car. My Dad had originally thought of a Porsche Boxster due to him racing it for a good few years before. Well fate played its part in what car we would choose.

              In the July of 2021 we were going to a Porsche event at Duke of London in Brentford, London. Whilst getting into the place I spot out the corner of my eye I see a car parked off covered in stickers, I thought it was just a courtesy car, but it was not at all. In 2005 it had been the CEO Dr Ulrich Bez’s company car, in 2006 30 Aston Martin employees drove it 30,000 miles in 30 days, and in 2007 it had been the first car to cross the newly opened Pan Asian Highway Network in support of the FIA’s newly created Road Safety campaign.

              What a car.

              We ended up buying it exactly how you don’t buy a car: sight unseen, neither of us had sat in a Vantage; and it had a high-mileage. When we first got in it the seats would only go forward, the seatbelt warning light came on, on the way home, what had we bought.

              After much preparation we headed for London to start the Vantage World tour on the 26th February 2023 and we started the journey around the world. Our plan is to drive 24,901 miles, the distance of the equator, so we have properly gone around the world. The 2023 Challenge has been termed as Pall Mall to Panama. We set off from the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall, London towards Liverpool. The car will then be shipped all the way to New York where we will pick it up in Easter to head to Mexico and to Cancun where we will leave the car because the temporary import permit can be halted there, so it can stay there for as long as it likes. We will then pick it up in October half-term and head towards Panama where it will be shipped across the Darian gap into Columbia.

All of this is for charity with 100% of the fundraising for the Campaign Against Living Miserably tackling suicide in men, which is the largest killer of men under 50. We are planning to raise a pound a mile, so £24,901 which will greatly help them. For the 2023 Challenge we are covering 7500 road miles, so £7,500 miles for CALM. We have smashed this target and have passed through £10,000 just this week.

I am currently writing this on a train back from Liverpool to London after having a photo with my Dad at the entrance of Liverpool’s port, so I am ready for school tomorrow.

 

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