June 18, 2013 • 37 mins
What is a charity road rally? Which causes do these events benefit, and what makes them so popular? What do you need to know about participating in or supporting a road rally? Tune in to find out.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Go behind the Wheel, under the Hood and beyond with
car stuff from house stuff Works dot Com. Hi, and
welcome to the podcast on the scott Benchman. And I'm
Ben Bolland, and we've got a topic today that comes
from a listener, right, Um, Glenn Beck. Yes, yes, Glenn Beck.
(00:23):
That's with two ends. We keep saying his name because
we're fairly certain this isn't be Glenn Beck. Uh. We
were joking about earlier this in a previous podcast, our
Nuts and Bolts podcast, which I believe was what number
nine for us. Ye, So we read Glenn's excellent email
here wherein he gave us this idea, and I'm just
(00:45):
gonna read an excerpt from it here. All right, So
Glenn says, Hi, guys, I'm a big fan of podcasts.
Haven't heard you discuss gimmick road rallies for charity. I'm
sure there are several organizations that do this sort of thing.
Here's some info on the and that I've become involved with.
The group is Rally North America and the rally format
is basically a three day scavenger hunt on wheels by
(01:07):
eight teams of enthusiasts and their rides. Each day includes
an off road activity, maybe a dozen scenic or historic checkpoints,
a few hundred miles of some of North America's most
scenic roadways. Mustangs, G t O, s BMW's corvettes, lotuses,
low tie, he says, vipers and other performance cars will represented.
(01:27):
But you also see the occasional corvet escort, Prius and
even a smart car speedings discouraged citation constitutes disqualification. Smart
navigation usually wins the day. And uh, he goes on
here and um, he wanted to hear some more about this,
as he said, now, Glenn, we loved your email. We're
not going to read the whole thing, though, UM. We
(01:49):
might come back to it with a couple of good points.
We should, because there's some there's some interesting information here
about how much they raise last here, how much they
hope to achieve this year. Um, and some of the
you know, the good um causes or supports that they
that they are support that they provide for these local
charities and national charities. Really I guess it could be national. Yeah,
(02:12):
not exactly sure in this case. I'll have to double check.
But um, and that's the whole point of these things,
really is uh is that it goes to support a
cause of some kind of It could be a local
family in need, It could be a you know, and
local individual in need of of money for who knows
medical expenses, that heart transplant or you know, something like
that life saving surgery is some kind. Or it could
(02:34):
be just for a general cause like maybe the the
you know, the American Cancer Society or something like that.
So you know, they could be really really localized and
uh and small, or they could be as something that's
for a larger cause and it has a much broader base.
I guess sure, sure in a much larger mandate or
something like that, so breast cancer awareness or something something
(02:58):
related to that. And what we like about this is
that this means these rallies are for causes large and small.
And when when I say that, we just mean I
guess a better way to say it would be local
and national, as you said, And and that's really cool
that you can get together with your friends form an
organization to benefit some people and have a lot of
(03:20):
fun while you're doing it. Scott, I think the first
question that we need to answer for everybody is this,
what is a road rally? Well, you know, it's a
if it can vary depending on the event, but but
generally what it means is just a drive uh somewhere
to a certain destination where something is going to happen.
I mean, that's that's such a broad way to say that.
But what happens is everybody gathers up in one area.
(03:42):
Typically uh, they go through the rules regulations, they they
head out on the first trip, and it can either
be like a scavenger hunt type of thing where you know,
there's certain uh locations we have to go to checkpoints,
I guess, for for clues or to pick up a
you know tag that says yes, I was here, you know,
I made a checkpoint number one to three, etcetera. And
they go along a very um, well thought out course,
(04:05):
I guess, and usually there's not a lot of tricks
involved and not trying to fool somebody into getting lost
out in the middle of the country or exactly. Um,
but what they're trying to do is just trying to
get everybody to to uh find their own way, and
I guess people will interpret those rules in different ways,
but it's fun and seeing how people get to the
same point in a different manner. And then from there,
you know, they go to the next checkpoint and the
(04:26):
next checkpoint, and then oftentimes they'll you know, because we're
talking about road rallies with cars and later we'll talk
about motorcycles. But they may have them go to something
that is specifically of interest to the group or the
club that's putting on the the event. So maybe they'll
go to a local race track and allow them to
do um like I think I've seen a couple that
allow you to do you know, like two hot laps
(04:48):
on the track or something like that. Maybe a pace
lap with you know, following the pace car at you know,
a relatively high rate of speed um or just you know,
maybe a museum that would be of interest to the group.
Let's say it's a Corvett and they want to go
to uh, you know, the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
So they do that. That's a checkpoint. And there might
also be something that's a local point of interest, like
(05:10):
the longest covered bridge in the country. That's something that
Glenn mentioned. You also see local natural formations like the
Devil's Gorge in uh, South Georgia. I think it is
it's kind of a leisurely thing. It's not like the
road rally that you're thinking, like the UH, you know,
the World Rally Championship, the more competitive where cars start
at you know, strictly determined one minute intervals and are
(05:34):
competing for seconds the entire way. This is a different
kind of rally. Yeah, And a lot of times they
have gimmicks that go along with them. People dress up
in costumes, the cars are made up certain ways. Um,
you know, it's it's fun. And then and when they
get to the final point, you know, where they check
in at the end, they do I think, have you know,
determine a winner or somehow Typically I just they can
award prizes and you know, I have fun and things
like that. There's no cash word usually in these things,
(05:57):
because all the money is going to the charity or
they cause um. But they may culminate in a in
a benefit dinner or um. You know, something like a
silent auction or you know, we're maybe a concert. Yeah,
Concert's a good idea where people are encouraged to donate. Again,
you know, more money than what they did for the
UH for the initial entrance fee or you know, any
(06:17):
other fees that they had to pay. A long way,
but um, you know donate, you know, out of the
kindness of their heart, I guess, you know, open up
the checkbook and give a little bit of money to
the cause, which they probably would have done anyways. But
they're just getting a day of fun and activity out
of the whole thing as well. One thing I want
to add that I think is so cool bogey time.
What is this? Sounds like fun? Right, It's either it
(06:39):
sounds like a great time or a time you'll regret later. Yeah,
uh boogee time. And this may not apply at all
charity road rallies, but in road rally um terminology, this
would describe a nearly impossible time for each each section,
each leg of the route. So uh, they might you
might be able to do it, but they would require
(07:02):
speech that are way above the speed limit, so which
is usually discouraged in these things. I mean, because we've
seen like the cannonball run type that you know movies
where they encourage you know, getting there as quickly as possible,
as fast as possible. Usually in these things, like like
um Glenn mentioned, um, you know, if you get a citation,
you're disqualified, you're out adition, So you know, they're watching
(07:24):
for that kind of thing. Yeah, so this bogie time
is like the um the perfect time, I guess, right, well,
I think it varies freeze the race. But you know
when when bogie time uh existed, it was largely before Yeah, okay,
I'm confused by this whole. So so it's like in
(07:44):
an it's kind of an anachronistic thing because as technology involved,
it was easier for cars to get bogeye time. I see,
so they had to make the bogie time shorter, which
just lad the higher speech. This is interesting. Yeah, this
is this is a weird thing. It's just a little
sidebar that I thought I thought would be of interest.
And honestly, Scott, I just like the phrase. Yeah that's
kind of cool. That's now. Bogie is a bad thing
(08:06):
in golf, but it would be a great thing in
road rally competition, right, Yes, unless that you unless you
were automatically busted, because they knew that no one could
get that time without going over a hundred or something.
As the crow flies, right, as the crow flies, the
Duke Boys used to say, yes, and we should, uh,
we should maybe talk about some specific road rallies, charity
(08:29):
road rallies. You want to hear about something. Yeah, you know,
what have you got there? Because, UM, I'll be honest,
I've got very few, but I've got more types of
rallies that have happened in the past, not specific specific rallies.
I guess. Okay, well how about this, Scott, let's uh,
let's pepper through uh both of these, so we'll have
we'll mention some information about Glenn's rally organizations Rally North America. Uh,
(08:53):
and then we'll talk about some types of road rallies.
Can I mention one thing please, just real quick, is
that we we tried, we both tried to find some
upcoming rallies that we can mention other than Glen's, and
there's very it's it's it's really tough to find information
about a specific upcoming road rally unless you know the
name of the rally that that's happening. UM. If you
(09:14):
try to search for you know, just road rallies, road rally,
you know, car road rallies, you know all that, a
charity road rallies, You're gonna come up with a lot
of information about rallies that have already happened. Um. You
know a company that's called road rallies or something like that.
And uh, you know, unless you have the name of
specific rally like Rally North America. UM, you're not going
(09:37):
to get a whole lot of information easily. Yes, but
do not let that discourage you, because ladies and gentlemen,
we are going to close this podcast with some advice
on how to find a rally next near you. Okay,
and uh, let's see where let's go with Rally North America.
Glenn told us about this hip this to it, and
(09:58):
so Scott, you and I checked this out and we
found that it was established in two thousand and nine.
They got a nice website you can check out. Uh.
This is a not for profit organization and what they
want to do is bring in, as Glenn said, automotive
enthusiasts from all over the US and Canada just for
auto rallies. So each of these rallies by Rally North
(10:21):
America has a common idea, which is driving for a cause.
And so they believe I'm gonna quote him here. Uh,
they believe that by combining the love of the automotive
lifestyle with a worthy charity organization, it is possible to
do something good through the automotive hobby and so their
their team is pretty um, it's pretty impressive here because
(10:43):
if you if you think about it, all of the
organization and planning that goes into something like this, it
seems to me that this would be especially because it's
all charitable, right, it's all U philanthropic. It seems that
it would be very easy to get discouraged or to
not do this after doing it one year. So these
guys are going strong. Yeah, that's true, and they raise
(11:06):
a good deal of money for the cause. Now, UM
just just wasn't twenty twelve so last year UM, and
I think they look looking at the the the amount
that the sponsorship raised, and they raised nearly seventy thousand
dollars for the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple sclerosis. And
so seventy thousand dollars been Now, remember you gotta keep
(11:27):
in mind that this is a an event that I
mean not only this is a lot of people, mus
say only, but they only have um about eight eight
five cars teams participating in this UM and the entrance
fee I think is somewhere around three dollars per car.
And I looked this up on their their site. UM
that alone, I mean if you just the entry fees,
(11:48):
that alone is something like, UM, oh my gosh, I'm
gonna have to you know what, I'm gonna have to
give you different numbers here. That's okay because the fees
um are two twenty five dollars they go to Rally
North America, and then seven five dollars it goes directly
to UM, you know, the the the cause. And so
that means that if you take that eight five teams
times the seventy five dollars, that means it's like roughly
(12:10):
sixty dollars, I think is what it comes out to.
So you can see that when they raise seventy thousand dollars,
a lot of that is just people again opening up
their checkbook and saying, I'd like to also give you
a thousand dollars for this cause or a hundred dollars
or ten dollars or whatever it is. UM. You know,
people often, you know, in an event like this, they're
very generous. You know, they don't have a problem giving
(12:31):
for the cause, and they're they're you know, in there
for the right reasons, and people are donating time and
and goods and services, and uh, you know, this year
they've got an even more ambitious goal. Uh. They want
to raise eighty thousand dollars this year for Camp Sunshine UM,
whose mission is to provide professional assistance and respite for
a terminally ill child and their immediate family. So again
(12:53):
they want to raise eighty thousand dollars, which is ten
thousand more than last year. UM. Again with eighty five teams.
I think it was UM, you know, and we mentioned
the fees that go to the road Rally Association. I
don't know if all of those actually you're used, um,
you know, just for setting up the rally, or some
of that does go back to you know this this
UM UM Camp Sunshine or not. And I'm not sure
(13:14):
that you know, I'm not sure how all the funny
marks out. But oftentimes you'll hear with these you know,
UM just for an example of every dollar goes to
the actual cause of the charity that the other man
senses to, uh, you know, to help us put this
thing together, for you to do it. Yeah, just keep
the keep the building running, keep the dream allow exactly,
keep the lights on, yeah, keep the lights on. Gott
(13:35):
Let me tell you why I think that they're going
to reach this uh, this goal I hope they do.
I think I think they have a great shot. I
think they're gonna swing for the fences and I think
they're gonna get it because uh in let's see, uh,
the the their history has been, um, just a rising
(13:58):
curve here. As far as stuff raised, they went from
I think seven thousand dollars raised for their charity. Uh
this Stephanie Spellman Fund for breast cancer research. Um was
Let's see, that was two thousand ten, and the second
year of two thousand eleven, they raised over fourteen thousand
(14:20):
dollars with Intrepid Falling Heroes Funds. Okay, so they doubled
it there, huh. And then we go up to two
thousand twelve. We already heard that number, and that's huge dollars. Yeah,
and now they're up to eighty thousands. So this is
a this is a rally that's on the move here.
I mean, it's it's really growing fast. So you know,
I think you're right. I think they're going to achieve
that eighty thousand. I really hope they do. And if
(14:41):
not more Yeah, and before we move on, UM, we
would be remiss if we didn't give a shout out. Um,
this is I think the last, the last time or
the last thing I'll say about Rally North America before
we move on to different types of road rallies. Flynn
is going to be in this race, in this rally,
(15:02):
in his two thousand six legend Lime Mustang g T
as Team Limber. Very cool and we want to give
a shout out to him, wish him luck. You can
check out his fundraising page as well, um, which I
guess we'll post online when this when this podcast. Why
not yeah, yeah, why not? That everything to help, anything,
(15:23):
to help, any anything, help and uh, we wish him
the best luck with Camp Sunshine. Let's move on to
can I just want to I think we need to
kind of bust a myth here, Ben, what's in the myth?
And we just kind of heard maybe a little bit
of this in in Glenn's email, and you know then
the mention of his vehicle. Now it's not you know,
that's a nice car, but yeah, you know the vehicle
using But um, the myth is that a lot of people,
(15:46):
I think I have to feel like you have to
have some kind of exotic car, some kind of sports car,
you know, some type of classic car in order to
participate in something like this that's really not true. I
mean sometimes you know, they'll they'll specify that this is
what we're looking or this type of vehicle that you
know has this type of heritage. But mostly, um, charity
(16:07):
road rallies are open to the public, and that means
that you know, anybody can participate in anything they've got.
Sure it's a lot more fun if you can, you know,
bring the project car out of the garage and use
that for you know, your your vehicle or something unusual
that you don't see every day on the road. But
you know they're not gonna, you know, turn you away.
If you pay the entrance fee and you and you
enter in your smart car or whatever you happen to have,
(16:27):
that you know we'll get the job done. I guess
if you have, you know, the the will and you
know you're you're willing to donate and give to the
cause or the fun, I'm sure that they're not going
to turn you away. Now. One one other thing is that, um,
you know I know that for this uh this rally
North America. Uh, they're saying that you know, they're already full,
but there's a waitlist, and they say don't be discouraged
(16:48):
by a waitlist on a on a road rally ever,
because things happen. You know, people say like, I'm gonna
have my car ready by the date. I'm you know,
maybe I won't have the car ready by the date.
And if they don't, maybe they draw up out they
say like, well, I'm sorry, you know, our teams are
not gonna be able to participate if you're on that waitlist.
Of course you'll make it in. And they said, I
think last year ten teams made it from the waitlist
(17:09):
onto the into the actual rally. So um, again, don't
be discouraged by you know, waitlist, you know, go ahead
and enter your car, your team and uh and just
kind of wait it out and see what happens. It's
for a good cause. Yeah, you never know what happens.
And and you know what, if you're willing to do
that anyways, why don't you go ahead and uh, you know,
maybe if you don't make it onto the actual rally itself,
then donate what would be you know, be the equivalent
(17:31):
of your entrance fee to the to the charity of
the cause. Anyways, you know that's a great ideas. Yeah, yeah,
I mean you're willing to do it anyway, so why not?
And uh. These are also big events in the United Kingdom,
which yeah, which is strange, even bigger than they are
here in the States. True. There. I wanted to talk
about one called the Mongolia Charity Rally. Um. So this
(17:56):
is run by a what's called an adventure charity Scott
this sounds right, And they're called go Help that's the
name of this charity and they run several road rallies.
Mongolia Charity Rally is how I ran into this. This group,
so they support community projects in Mongolia as well as
(18:16):
Mongolia's first ambulance service. Yeah, and and um they have
they have some great stuff on their website. It is
a charitable rally. Uh. They one one thing that I like.
They made a point to say that if you have
any local contacts of Mongolia would benefit from a helping hand,
let us know, which I think is I think is
(18:37):
really proactive. And so they have, Um, they have this
great part where they talked about why they chose Mongolia
on their f a Q. They said, we couldn't have
picked the Madrid or of crossing continental divides, was that important?
The nice successible city of Casablanca. Nah, where would be
the fund? Um? We set out from London in many countries,
(18:58):
later across the finish line in the ancient gold capital
of Ulaanbatar. Uh So there's no set This sounds difficult,
This sounds difficult. Um So I think that, Um, I
think that this is clearly an adventurous thing. They were
nut kid when they said an adventurous charity. You know.
(19:19):
While we're on this on the subject here, I mean,
I think we need to mention just briefly, the Gunball
three thousand rally, because that's another European rally that gets
a lot of attention. Um. It's in it's believe this
or not. You know, believe this. It'sn't believe this. I
won't believe you believe it or not. How about that
that's a better way to believe it or not. Um,
it's in its fifteen year of of running. I mean
(19:39):
for you know, charitable events. I guess, uh. You know.
The thing is, it's got a new Gunball three thousand foundation,
which is like its own charity now that it's set up.
So that's something kind of new to this whole thing. Um.
It's a not for profit organizations have been set up
for under underprivileged youth and educate for education and infrastructure.
UM so again a new charity. It's a three thousand
(20:02):
my all. They called a road trip not a race,
but come on, these cars are they're they're super exotic cars.
There's this is one that you know, it's like a
hundred thousand plus dollars to enter. It's a big it's
a big time uh you know rally that gets a
lot of media attention. A lot of a lot of
celebrities enter this thing in exotic cars. Um it's like
the real life Cannonball Run, only it's not really a
(20:25):
candid They say that we don't like to be compared
to that, but it's very much like that. It's it's
very similar. How about that. I mean it runs through Copenhagen,
Denmark money and ends in money Carlo. Um. They have
the enormous parties. It's kind of like a sky's the
limit type thing. I mean they when they have to
transport the vehicles they take you know, great big jet
airliners you know, um cargo transport planes and why the
(20:47):
cars you know, to wherever they need to go to
finish that stage. It's a it's really a big deal.
And there's a few spinoffs, UM of this thing now
and of course you know they they don't need it
to other charities in the past, like the Wounded Warrior Project, UM,
different charities each year. Again they've got their new foundation.
But there's spinoffs of this, right, there's the dumb Ball Rally.
UH craises money for uh the Teenage Cancer Trust. And
(21:10):
these are these are all like gumball puns, right, yeah, exactly,
and it's uh. And there's three rules to the dumb
Ball Rally. UM. You have your car is to be
worth less than four hundred pounds because the European Rally,
of course, right right, not wait exactly, four hundred pounds
is dollar mountains for US. UM, you have to raise
over a thousand dollars for UM the Teenage Cancer Trust.
(21:32):
And you have to, uh, you have to look ridiculous
for the entire event. That's the third rule. I like
that now, that's how it's written. Yeah, and it's funny
if you go there and you know, check out dumb
Ball Rally and UH and and look at the gallery
and just see what some of the people have done
in the past. There's some amazing creations that people come
up with. It's really kind of fun and people are
dressed up silly, you know, and it's just it's a
good event. Raises a lot of money for charity, good causes,
(21:55):
so it's it's definitely worthwhile. I've I've got another one
that is I think a spinoff of the Gumball Rally.
But but before we get to it, what I wanted
to uh to bring up again was that excellent Gumball
rallying Cannonball runs stuff we had seen on Netflix instant.
Now I've I've I've watched it before. I'll probably watch
(22:16):
it again if I need something new, man, I need
my Netflix. I'll tell you what. I've got. Something that is,
uh is right up our alley here. It's it's and
you're not gonna believe this when you first hear it,
but i'll tell you why, all right, I'll hear you out, sir.
The Monsters. And I'm talking about the TV series of
the Monsters. Oh I know why? Why is that? Because
of that beautiful crazy car. Yeah, well they've got a couple, really,
(22:37):
they've got um Well, okay, let's just well i'll tell
you in just a minute. But it's a it's basically
it's a comedy sitcom. Um, I guess horror television. So
it's like a horror theme sitcom. Yeah kind of, yeah, exactly.
It's probably the best way to put it, with Herman
and Lily and Grandpa and Eddie and um, who was
the niece? Um, the niece is the normal way. Yeah. Yeah,
I'll think of her name in just a minute. Um.
(22:59):
But anyway, they live in a Victorian mansion. Oh, Maryland,
that's her name. And they live in this Victorian mansion.
Of course, you know, the father is the Frankenstein's Monster
characters kind of bumbling and goofy, and everybody's really kind
of goofy. But um, anyways, there are a few episodes
and not I mean I can kind of promised us
in every episode, but there are a few episodes that
really focus heavily on their cars. And you got to
(23:21):
remember that this was on air on television in nineteen
sixty four to about nineteen sixty six, and that was
right in this customization hot rod craze here in the
United States, and the family drove what they called the
Munster coach spelled with the K. You know about that, right,
the car culture thing we talked about, right, So the
Monster Coach, which was the family car, and then the
(23:43):
grandfather drove a car in a couple of episodes called Dragula,
which is made out of a coffin. And these were
awesome hot rods. They were really really cool. Their museum
pieces now, um, but you know these were designed by
George Barrets, the guy that built the original Batmobile. And
I think they were designed by a guy named Tom
Daniel Um who was like a builder customizer guy at
(24:05):
the time who worked for George Barris. But Dragula and
the Monster Coach are worthwhile seeing in this thing. And
besides that, I mean, I think the whole series is funny. Yeah,
especially you know, I I still have retained a childhood
love of monsters into my adult age and I will
sit down and watch something like that all the time. Now,
I'm not gonna ask you, and I'm not gonna ask
(24:27):
anybody listening now to choose between the Adams family and
the monsters. I don't feel like that's a fair decision now.
But if we're basing it on cars, clearly the monsters
are superior, hands down winner in that case. Yeah, hands
out winner. In the car category. But the good news
is that people who don't have Netflix can still watch
this for free on Netflix. All you have to do
(24:50):
is go to Netflix dot com slash car stuff and
can sign up for a free thirty day trial where
you can watch not only The Monsters, but every other
single film we recommended. And what's nice about that is
now you don't have to you don't have to go
with that our pick. There. You can watch anything you want,
but thirty days. Ben, It's not like you just get
one option. I mean you can go there for thirty
(25:12):
days and watch as much or as little as you want. Um,
it's a great deal. So I think it's it's worth it.
And you know, I might not check out the Monsters
way there because you can watch you it's one of
these where you can watch the full season at a
time and it's at once in one sitting. Uh they're
relatively short, so you know it's Uh, it's I think
it's definitely worthwhile. Now, one thing we should mention here
is that titles are subject to availability. They may come
(25:33):
and go off of Netflix instant but every time that
we're recording before you and I go in the air,
Scott we check and make sure these are up. Yeah,
they're there. I mean I know that one's there, so
so check it out. It's definitely worth it and hopefully,
you know, you'll get to see one of these these
amazing hot rods, these George Barress created hot rods because
they're so cool. And speaking of cool rides, let's get
(25:56):
back to our Gunball rally spinoffs. Yeah you know, and
oh the spinoffs. Okay, go ahead, once you wrap up
with that one, and then I just want to mention
some other types of clubs that put on these things.
And I don't give you an idea of who's doing these.
Scott Scott, Scott Scott, let me tell you about the
Screwball Rally, that screwball route like gunball and dumball. Uh So,
this is about having fun and visiting a few European
(26:18):
countries with other like minded people. And they they have
a couple of minimums. They want people raise a minimum
of two hundred fifty pounds per team for the charity
of your choice, so it's up to you. And then
that's interesting, that's a twist on this whole thing. Yeah,
it's a little bit more customization. So, uh, there will
be stuff like um, Yorkshire Air Am, Yillens Leukemia Research,
(26:41):
cancer Research, uh, several other charities. So everybody is running
for their own cause. Really, yeah, they can go for
their own cause. Interesting and uh, as they say, is
it if it's a local charity or charity you have
a passion for it. It's for a charity that you
have a part in. Charity means something to you personally
or loved one. It will be easier and mean more
(27:02):
for you to raise the money. That's that's their logic there.
And they say it's up to you how you root it.
Which is another thing I love about road rallies, just
to get to the checkpoints, you know. Um. And that's
what I really like about the Mongolia charity rally. That
is so wide open. Let's just drive to Mongolia, no roads,
no worries, no rules. Okay, so it's like an out
(27:26):
it does it does all right. So one thing that
I thought was really neat about the Screwball rally, aside
from the ability to kind of choose your own charity there, Uh,
it's up to you how you run it, but they
do ask that you, um, you can you put some
consideration into matching your car and your costumes. So I'm
(27:47):
gonna read another part here here we go dresses Laurel
and Hardy or the Blues Brothers. Customize your car to match.
So they've had teams that came as Scooby Doo and
the Mystery Machine, um Sheila's Wheels, Country Gents with their butler,
and of course some Star Treks and some seventies throwbacks.
But you're not required to, you know, dress up in
(28:07):
some costs. To dress up isn't required. But but participating
that sounds like a lot of fun. I mean, just
to be in in that with other like minded individuals.
That's probably the big fun of this whole thing. Really. Yeah,
so I thought that was a pretty funny one. And
now we should talk about some different types. Well, I
guess so, I mean, because I just wanted to mention
that a lot of car clubs will put these on.
So let's say that you know, you're in a Jaguar
(28:28):
Car Club or an MG Car Club or you know,
something like that, and or Corvette or whatever. They they
will sometimes say, like you know, in the the end
of July, we always do these, uh the you know
this this drive for breast cancer awareness let's say and uh,
this year, we're gonna organize this, and everybody has a
part and organizing this and how it works. And you know,
they figure out how to get people to donate time
(28:50):
and and uh and goods and services again and you
know what they're gonna do. If it's gonna be an
art auction, they're gonna auction off maybe an old project
car or something. UM. There's all kinds of things that
people can do to um, you know, to raise money. UM.
So you know, like you may find like the Ferrari
Owners Group will run something like this um you know,
or that you know, they be like a UM something
(29:10):
that runs in conjunction with another event. I saw one
where their rally drivers there at the rally course rather
for an actual rally competition, and they allow people to
bring their own vehicles onto the rally course, maybe minus
some of the more dangerous parts of the stage UH
and drive for you know, for this cause and for
you know, one hundred dollars or whatever it happens to
(29:31):
be for that one day you're allowed to drive on
most of the rally course uh and compete in the
competition of your own you know, for time, UM, with
all the proceeds going to charity, and that runs in
conjunction with the event that's happening, you know, uh, for
the series itself. So you know that's a different spin
on this whole thing. Um. You know, charities could organize
these things for you know, for to benefit their own needs. Um,
(29:53):
you know what they need, you know, churches or groups
or whatever, um, you know, for diseases, um, you know again,
families that need you know, a critical surgery or you know,
just need help out. You know, something terrible happened to them,
their house burned down, you know whatever. Um, there's individual
organized events you know again for families, individuals, you know,
for trying to help out a member of their family. Um.
(30:15):
There's all kinds of things that that can happen here,
that can that can lead to a road rally happening.
And sometimes you know, if they catch on, they can say,
you know what we did such good last year, let's
try it again this year, and here's how we're gonna
make it different and better. And that's exactly what you
know Glenn had mentioned with it with their rallies, that
they're making it bigger and better each year. So these
things tend to snowball in that they gain popularity, they
(30:38):
gained speed, to the gain momentum, uh, and the the
local area knows about them and it kind of spreads out.
Especially now with the Internet. Um, it's a lot easier
to find and gather people for something like this. They
they can raise awareness a lot quicker and uh and
get a you know pool poth may a larger pool
of people and hopefully gain a lot more money for
(30:58):
their cause. And what's to like? I mean, it seems
like such a cool idea. A You're probably be You'll
probably be going to someplace that you have never visited before.
You will probably see some things that you have never
seen before, and you're probably going to have an adventure.
I know him three probably deeps here, but I think
it's pretty true. They always make it fun. I mean,
(31:20):
the closest thing to this that I've ever done. I've
never gone on a charity road rally, and probably should
at this point. You know, it would be a lot
of fun. We should do that, and for a great cause.
But um, I've been on like ride and drive events
for for corporations, you know, where they take the press
out in a new vehicle and when they when they
give you in the morning, you you're you're handed the
keys to your new vehicle, you know, your Mercedes whatever
(31:42):
it is. And they head out and into North Carolina
into the mountains and they say, here, you're gonna stop
at this this little general store and you'll find it
on this map in this location at your first stop.
And you pick up a moonfire there and it's gonna
have a message for you with the clue to the
next stop. You've done that, yeah, something like that. That
was really it was fun, that is. And so you
go to this little tiny, out of the way place
(32:03):
with this you know, like a general store that looks
like something out of you know, the the late eighteen hundreds,
and uh, you know, it's really really cool. It's just
a it's a fun type of thing. And from there
you get the include in the next place. So it's
like a big scavenger hunt almost. Um. But it's it's
really a good time and they always make it a
lot of fun. And you know, usually the culmination of
the day is again like a great big charity dinner
(32:26):
or a gathering, or a carnival in some cases um
or an art auction car show, maybe car show. Car
show is a great idea because you know, of course
you've got everybody there with their vehicles. Um, just there's
so much good to be had here in something like this.
So you know, if if you find one locally, don't hesitate,
you know, to to enter this year, even if you
(32:46):
don't have an exotic or a custom or something. Find
out the rules and find out if you're allowed to participate,
because it's it's a lot of fun. Oh yes, that's right.
That brings me to our ultimate questions. And I was
wondering if you could take a swing answering it for us,
how would one go about finding a local charitable road rally?
(33:06):
Oh man, okay, well you may have to do this
several months in advance really, because as we found out,
you know with Glen's letter that you know as we
dug into it, that you know, the spots quickly fill up.
So you need to kind of keep your eyes and
yours open well ahead of time and know when a rally.
I guess the rally season would be in your region.
So let's say you're in the in the Pacific northwestern
(33:28):
let's say the northeast rather where there's a lot of snow,
You're probably not gonna find many road rally charity road
rallies happening in the winter months, so you know, keep
your eyes open in the fall for the next spring
summer season maybe fall. Um, and I don't know, it's
probably just a good idea to to check around local churches. Uh.
You know, of course, you can scour the internet with
just the name of your town or your city or
(33:49):
surrounding cities, and you know the keywords charity, road rally,
road rally, um, you know, charitable cause I don't know,
just all kinds of things like that. Um, there's a
there's a smart way to go about. Yeah, your local
car clubs are good resource. Car clubs are a great
way to find one, and you can also go to
If you are one of the people who's lucky enough
(34:12):
like Scott and I to live near a large racing facility,
then they will certainly know of any other UH race
rally related events, and often because a lot of them
will make that a stop on their on their trip.
Like we're near Road Atlanta here, and Road Atlanta is
a huge stop for a charity road rally event. If
you're anywhere in this part of the South. You know,
(34:34):
if it's if it's a longer event, like maybe a
day or two eventum, they'll make that a stop because
that's always something that people are really interested in seeing
and driving on the track, and oftentimes they'll get to
do just that. Um. So you know, there's there's so
many different ways to find this. I wish we could
point someone specifically at a list of charity road rallies
you know they're coming up soon, But that's really really
(34:56):
hard to do. Like I said, you have to know,
you have to know specifically the name of the of
the charity of the event that's happening in order to
search the information for it. So if you know one
that's happened last year, try searching that again. Just add
this year's date onto it or next year's date onto it.
It's great advice. I mean, it's not even too early
to start looking for events. We're in the middle of
Why not look up something that's happening early next year.
(35:18):
I'm gonna see you and raise that because that is
the best device we could give. Right now. Now, I
would advance is the perfect time to start looking for
the team, because they're probably not out of spots yet. Exactly.
So I guess this is gonna wrap up our episode,
our listener inspired episode on charity road rallies. Um, I'm sold.
(35:42):
I really want to drive to Mongolia. Uh, nothing bad
about my car, but I don't think I can make it.
Um now, probably not. Well, it's just gonna be it's
gonna be a lot of red tape to get it
into Europe. So I might just have to try to
go to Europe and then rent a car and then
join the road rally and then drive to Mongolia. So
you've got a road rally in a rental car in
(36:02):
a country that you've never driven in. You know what.
It sounds more and more like a plan. Well let
me let me. I'm just spitballing here. It could be
at we'll we'll figure out the details whether or not
this will work. Um, maybe I can get our producer
Noel to uh to hop in and uh, well hey,
maybe we can all go. Maybe he can do all
the work and get his car sign over there and
(36:24):
then we can just kind of show up to ride along.
I don't know, he's Noel shrugs. Yeah, maybe it was ambiguous. Okay,
So we're gonna work this out and we're gonna go
ahead and head out of here. We'll talk to you
with our next episode in the meantime. Let us know
if you participated in a road rally. Also, let us
know if you're part of a local road rally organization
(36:47):
that you would like to hear a shout out given
to on the air. Yeah. Sure, Glen died and you know,
we were happy to to mention that one because of
course we want, you know, them to to achieve their goal.
So you know, send us what you've got and we'll
see if we can get it on air. Yes, and
congratulations and thank you to every single person who has
made the decision to take some time out of their
(37:07):
day or some money out of their own personal finances
to help people in need. There is literally nothing better
that I think you can do. So you can find
us on Facebook, you can drop us a line on Twitter.
We're gonna go ahead and head out of here. Our
email address if you'd like to send us a real
life electronic letter is car Stuff at Discovery dot com.
(37:33):
For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
how stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think.
Send an email to podcast at how Stuff Works. Dot
com
Go behind the Wheel, under the Hood and beyond with
car stuff from house stuff Works dot Com. Hi, and
welcome to the podcast on the scott Benchman. And I'm
Ben Bolland, and we've got a topic today that comes
from a listener, right, Um, Glenn Beck. Yes, yes, Glenn Beck.
(00:23):
That's with two ends. We keep saying his name because
we're fairly certain this isn't be Glenn Beck. Uh. We
were joking about earlier this in a previous podcast, our
Nuts and Bolts podcast, which I believe was what number
nine for us. Ye, So we read Glenn's excellent email
here wherein he gave us this idea, and I'm just
(00:45):
gonna read an excerpt from it here. All right, So
Glenn says, Hi, guys, I'm a big fan of podcasts.
Haven't heard you discuss gimmick road rallies for charity. I'm
sure there are several organizations that do this sort of thing.
Here's some info on the and that I've become involved with.
The group is Rally North America and the rally format
is basically a three day scavenger hunt on wheels by
(01:07):
eight teams of enthusiasts and their rides. Each day includes
an off road activity, maybe a dozen scenic or historic checkpoints,
a few hundred miles of some of North America's most
scenic roadways. Mustangs, G t O, s BMW's corvettes, lotuses,
low tie, he says, vipers and other performance cars will represented.
(01:27):
But you also see the occasional corvet escort, Prius and
even a smart car speedings discouraged citation constitutes disqualification. Smart
navigation usually wins the day. And uh, he goes on
here and um, he wanted to hear some more about this,
as he said, now, Glenn, we loved your email. We're
not going to read the whole thing, though, UM. We
(01:49):
might come back to it with a couple of good points.
We should, because there's some there's some interesting information here
about how much they raise last here, how much they
hope to achieve this year. Um, and some of the
you know, the good um causes or supports that they
that they are support that they provide for these local
charities and national charities. Really I guess it could be national. Yeah,
(02:12):
not exactly sure in this case. I'll have to double check.
But um, and that's the whole point of these things,
really is uh is that it goes to support a
cause of some kind of It could be a local
family in need, It could be a you know, and
local individual in need of of money for who knows
medical expenses, that heart transplant or you know, something like
that life saving surgery is some kind. Or it could
(02:34):
be just for a general cause like maybe the the
you know, the American Cancer Society or something like that.
So you know, they could be really really localized and
uh and small, or they could be as something that's
for a larger cause and it has a much broader base.
I guess sure, sure in a much larger mandate or
something like that, so breast cancer awareness or something something
(02:58):
related to that. And what we like about this is
that this means these rallies are for causes large and small.
And when when I say that, we just mean I
guess a better way to say it would be local
and national, as you said, And and that's really cool
that you can get together with your friends form an
organization to benefit some people and have a lot of
(03:20):
fun while you're doing it. Scott, I think the first
question that we need to answer for everybody is this,
what is a road rally? Well, you know, it's a
if it can vary depending on the event, but but
generally what it means is just a drive uh somewhere
to a certain destination where something is going to happen.
I mean, that's that's such a broad way to say that.
But what happens is everybody gathers up in one area.
(03:42):
Typically uh, they go through the rules regulations, they they
head out on the first trip, and it can either
be like a scavenger hunt type of thing where you know,
there's certain uh locations we have to go to checkpoints,
I guess, for for clues or to pick up a
you know tag that says yes, I was here, you know,
I made a checkpoint number one to three, etcetera. And
they go along a very um, well thought out course,
(04:05):
I guess, and usually there's not a lot of tricks
involved and not trying to fool somebody into getting lost
out in the middle of the country or exactly. Um,
but what they're trying to do is just trying to
get everybody to to uh find their own way, and
I guess people will interpret those rules in different ways,
but it's fun and seeing how people get to the
same point in a different manner. And then from there,
you know, they go to the next checkpoint and the
(04:26):
next checkpoint, and then oftentimes they'll you know, because we're
talking about road rallies with cars and later we'll talk
about motorcycles. But they may have them go to something
that is specifically of interest to the group or the
club that's putting on the the event. So maybe they'll
go to a local race track and allow them to
do um like I think I've seen a couple that
allow you to do you know, like two hot laps
(04:48):
on the track or something like that. Maybe a pace
lap with you know, following the pace car at you know,
a relatively high rate of speed um or just you know,
maybe a museum that would be of interest to the group.
Let's say it's a Corvett and they want to go
to uh, you know, the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
So they do that. That's a checkpoint. And there might
also be something that's a local point of interest, like
(05:10):
the longest covered bridge in the country. That's something that
Glenn mentioned. You also see local natural formations like the
Devil's Gorge in uh, South Georgia. I think it is
it's kind of a leisurely thing. It's not like the
road rally that you're thinking, like the UH, you know,
the World Rally Championship, the more competitive where cars start
at you know, strictly determined one minute intervals and are
(05:34):
competing for seconds the entire way. This is a different
kind of rally. Yeah, And a lot of times they
have gimmicks that go along with them. People dress up
in costumes, the cars are made up certain ways. Um,
you know, it's it's fun. And then and when they
get to the final point, you know, where they check
in at the end, they do I think, have you know,
determine a winner or somehow Typically I just they can
award prizes and you know, I have fun and things
like that. There's no cash word usually in these things,
(05:57):
because all the money is going to the charity or
they cause um. But they may culminate in a in
a benefit dinner or um. You know, something like a
silent auction or you know, we're maybe a concert. Yeah,
Concert's a good idea where people are encouraged to donate. Again,
you know, more money than what they did for the
UH for the initial entrance fee or you know, any
(06:17):
other fees that they had to pay. A long way,
but um, you know donate, you know, out of the
kindness of their heart, I guess, you know, open up
the checkbook and give a little bit of money to
the cause, which they probably would have done anyways. But
they're just getting a day of fun and activity out
of the whole thing as well. One thing I want
to add that I think is so cool bogey time.
What is this? Sounds like fun? Right, It's either it
(06:39):
sounds like a great time or a time you'll regret later. Yeah,
uh boogee time. And this may not apply at all
charity road rallies, but in road rally um terminology, this
would describe a nearly impossible time for each each section,
each leg of the route. So uh, they might you
might be able to do it, but they would require
(07:02):
speech that are way above the speed limit, so which
is usually discouraged in these things. I mean, because we've
seen like the cannonball run type that you know movies
where they encourage you know, getting there as quickly as possible,
as fast as possible. Usually in these things, like like
um Glenn mentioned, um, you know, if you get a citation,
you're disqualified, you're out adition, So you know, they're watching
(07:24):
for that kind of thing. Yeah, so this bogie time
is like the um the perfect time, I guess, right, well,
I think it varies freeze the race. But you know
when when bogie time uh existed, it was largely before Yeah, okay,
I'm confused by this whole. So so it's like in
(07:44):
an it's kind of an anachronistic thing because as technology involved,
it was easier for cars to get bogeye time. I see,
so they had to make the bogie time shorter, which
just lad the higher speech. This is interesting. Yeah, this
is this is a weird thing. It's just a little
sidebar that I thought I thought would be of interest.
And honestly, Scott, I just like the phrase. Yeah that's
kind of cool. That's now. Bogie is a bad thing
(08:06):
in golf, but it would be a great thing in
road rally competition, right, Yes, unless that you unless you
were automatically busted, because they knew that no one could
get that time without going over a hundred or something.
As the crow flies, right, as the crow flies, the
Duke Boys used to say, yes, and we should, uh,
we should maybe talk about some specific road rallies, charity
(08:29):
road rallies. You want to hear about something. Yeah, you know,
what have you got there? Because, UM, I'll be honest,
I've got very few, but I've got more types of
rallies that have happened in the past, not specific specific rallies.
I guess. Okay, well how about this, Scott, let's uh,
let's pepper through uh both of these, so we'll have
we'll mention some information about Glenn's rally organizations Rally North America. Uh,
(08:53):
and then we'll talk about some types of road rallies.
Can I mention one thing please, just real quick, is
that we we tried, we both tried to find some
upcoming rallies that we can mention other than Glen's, and
there's very it's it's it's really tough to find information
about a specific upcoming road rally unless you know the
name of the rally that that's happening. UM. If you
(09:14):
try to search for you know, just road rallies, road rally,
you know, car road rallies, you know all that, a
charity road rallies, You're gonna come up with a lot
of information about rallies that have already happened. Um. You
know a company that's called road rallies or something like that.
And uh, you know, unless you have the name of
specific rally like Rally North America. UM, you're not going
(09:37):
to get a whole lot of information easily. Yes, but
do not let that discourage you, because ladies and gentlemen,
we are going to close this podcast with some advice
on how to find a rally next near you. Okay,
and uh, let's see where let's go with Rally North America.
Glenn told us about this hip this to it, and
(09:58):
so Scott, you and I checked this out and we
found that it was established in two thousand and nine.
They got a nice website you can check out. Uh.
This is a not for profit organization and what they
want to do is bring in, as Glenn said, automotive
enthusiasts from all over the US and Canada just for
auto rallies. So each of these rallies by Rally North
(10:21):
America has a common idea, which is driving for a cause.
And so they believe I'm gonna quote him here. Uh,
they believe that by combining the love of the automotive
lifestyle with a worthy charity organization, it is possible to
do something good through the automotive hobby and so their
their team is pretty um, it's pretty impressive here because
(10:43):
if you if you think about it, all of the
organization and planning that goes into something like this, it
seems to me that this would be especially because it's
all charitable, right, it's all U philanthropic. It seems that
it would be very easy to get discouraged or to
not do this after doing it one year. So these
guys are going strong. Yeah, that's true, and they raise
(11:06):
a good deal of money for the cause. Now, UM
just just wasn't twenty twelve so last year UM, and
I think they look looking at the the the amount
that the sponsorship raised, and they raised nearly seventy thousand
dollars for the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple sclerosis. And
so seventy thousand dollars been Now, remember you gotta keep
(11:27):
in mind that this is a an event that I
mean not only this is a lot of people, mus
say only, but they only have um about eight eight
five cars teams participating in this UM and the entrance
fee I think is somewhere around three dollars per car.
And I looked this up on their their site. UM
that alone, I mean if you just the entry fees,
(11:48):
that alone is something like, UM, oh my gosh, I'm
gonna have to you know what, I'm gonna have to
give you different numbers here. That's okay because the fees
um are two twenty five dollars they go to Rally
North America, and then seven five dollars it goes directly
to UM, you know, the the the cause. And so
that means that if you take that eight five teams
times the seventy five dollars, that means it's like roughly
(12:10):
sixty dollars, I think is what it comes out to.
So you can see that when they raise seventy thousand dollars,
a lot of that is just people again opening up
their checkbook and saying, I'd like to also give you
a thousand dollars for this cause or a hundred dollars
or ten dollars or whatever it is. UM. You know,
people often, you know, in an event like this, they're
very generous. You know, they don't have a problem giving
(12:31):
for the cause, and they're they're you know, in there
for the right reasons, and people are donating time and
and goods and services, and uh, you know, this year
they've got an even more ambitious goal. Uh. They want
to raise eighty thousand dollars this year for Camp Sunshine UM,
whose mission is to provide professional assistance and respite for
a terminally ill child and their immediate family. So again
(12:53):
they want to raise eighty thousand dollars, which is ten
thousand more than last year. UM. Again with eighty five teams.
I think it was UM, you know, and we mentioned
the fees that go to the road Rally Association. I
don't know if all of those actually you're used, um,
you know, just for setting up the rally, or some
of that does go back to you know this this
UM UM Camp Sunshine or not. And I'm not sure
(13:14):
that you know, I'm not sure how all the funny
marks out. But oftentimes you'll hear with these you know,
UM just for an example of every dollar goes to
the actual cause of the charity that the other man
senses to, uh, you know, to help us put this
thing together, for you to do it. Yeah, just keep
the keep the building running, keep the dream allow exactly,
keep the lights on, yeah, keep the lights on. Gott
(13:35):
Let me tell you why I think that they're going
to reach this uh, this goal I hope they do.
I think I think they have a great shot. I
think they're gonna swing for the fences and I think
they're gonna get it because uh in let's see, uh,
the the their history has been, um, just a rising
(13:58):
curve here. As far as stuff raised, they went from
I think seven thousand dollars raised for their charity. Uh
this Stephanie Spellman Fund for breast cancer research. Um was
Let's see, that was two thousand ten, and the second
year of two thousand eleven, they raised over fourteen thousand
(14:20):
dollars with Intrepid Falling Heroes Funds. Okay, so they doubled
it there, huh. And then we go up to two
thousand twelve. We already heard that number, and that's huge dollars. Yeah,
and now they're up to eighty thousands. So this is
a this is a rally that's on the move here.
I mean, it's it's really growing fast. So you know,
I think you're right. I think they're going to achieve
that eighty thousand. I really hope they do. And if
(14:41):
not more Yeah, and before we move on, UM, we
would be remiss if we didn't give a shout out. Um,
this is I think the last, the last time or
the last thing I'll say about Rally North America before
we move on to different types of road rallies. Flynn
is going to be in this race, in this rally,
(15:02):
in his two thousand six legend Lime Mustang g T
as Team Limber. Very cool and we want to give
a shout out to him, wish him luck. You can
check out his fundraising page as well, um, which I
guess we'll post online when this when this podcast. Why
not yeah, yeah, why not? That everything to help, anything,
(15:23):
to help, any anything, help and uh, we wish him
the best luck with Camp Sunshine. Let's move on to
can I just want to I think we need to
kind of bust a myth here, Ben, what's in the myth?
And we just kind of heard maybe a little bit
of this in in Glenn's email, and you know then
the mention of his vehicle. Now it's not you know,
that's a nice car, but yeah, you know the vehicle
using But um, the myth is that a lot of people,
(15:46):
I think I have to feel like you have to
have some kind of exotic car, some kind of sports car,
you know, some type of classic car in order to
participate in something like this that's really not true. I
mean sometimes you know, they'll they'll specify that this is
what we're looking or this type of vehicle that you
know has this type of heritage. But mostly, um, charity
(16:07):
road rallies are open to the public, and that means
that you know, anybody can participate in anything they've got.
Sure it's a lot more fun if you can, you know,
bring the project car out of the garage and use
that for you know, your your vehicle or something unusual
that you don't see every day on the road. But
you know they're not gonna, you know, turn you away.
If you pay the entrance fee and you and you
enter in your smart car or whatever you happen to have,
(16:27):
that you know we'll get the job done. I guess
if you have, you know, the the will and you
know you're you're willing to donate and give to the
cause or the fun, I'm sure that they're not going
to turn you away. Now. One one other thing is that, um,
you know I know that for this uh this rally
North America. Uh, they're saying that you know, they're already full,
but there's a waitlist, and they say don't be discouraged
(16:48):
by a waitlist on a on a road rally ever,
because things happen. You know, people say like, I'm gonna
have my car ready by the date. I'm you know,
maybe I won't have the car ready by the date.
And if they don't, maybe they draw up out they
say like, well, I'm sorry, you know, our teams are
not gonna be able to participate if you're on that waitlist.
Of course you'll make it in. And they said, I
think last year ten teams made it from the waitlist
(17:09):
onto the into the actual rally. So um, again, don't
be discouraged by you know, waitlist, you know, go ahead
and enter your car, your team and uh and just
kind of wait it out and see what happens. It's
for a good cause. Yeah, you never know what happens.
And and you know what, if you're willing to do
that anyways, why don't you go ahead and uh, you know,
maybe if you don't make it onto the actual rally itself,
then donate what would be you know, be the equivalent
(17:31):
of your entrance fee to the to the charity of
the cause. Anyways, you know that's a great ideas. Yeah, yeah,
I mean you're willing to do it anyway, so why not?
And uh. These are also big events in the United Kingdom,
which yeah, which is strange, even bigger than they are
here in the States. True. There. I wanted to talk
about one called the Mongolia Charity Rally. Um. So this
(17:56):
is run by a what's called an adventure charity Scott
this sounds right, And they're called go Help that's the
name of this charity and they run several road rallies.
Mongolia Charity Rally is how I ran into this. This group,
so they support community projects in Mongolia as well as
(18:16):
Mongolia's first ambulance service. Yeah, and and um they have
they have some great stuff on their website. It is
a charitable rally. Uh. They one one thing that I like.
They made a point to say that if you have
any local contacts of Mongolia would benefit from a helping hand,
let us know, which I think is I think is
(18:37):
really proactive. And so they have, Um, they have this
great part where they talked about why they chose Mongolia
on their f a Q. They said, we couldn't have
picked the Madrid or of crossing continental divides, was that important?
The nice successible city of Casablanca. Nah, where would be
the fund? Um? We set out from London in many countries,
(18:58):
later across the finish line in the ancient gold capital
of Ulaanbatar. Uh So there's no set This sounds difficult,
This sounds difficult. Um So I think that, Um, I
think that this is clearly an adventurous thing. They were
nut kid when they said an adventurous charity. You know.
(19:19):
While we're on this on the subject here, I mean,
I think we need to mention just briefly, the Gunball
three thousand rally, because that's another European rally that gets
a lot of attention. Um. It's in it's believe this
or not. You know, believe this. It'sn't believe this. I
won't believe you believe it or not. How about that
that's a better way to believe it or not. Um,
it's in its fifteen year of of running. I mean
(19:39):
for you know, charitable events. I guess, uh. You know.
The thing is, it's got a new Gunball three thousand foundation,
which is like its own charity now that it's set up.
So that's something kind of new to this whole thing. Um.
It's a not for profit organizations have been set up
for under underprivileged youth and educate for education and infrastructure.
UM so again a new charity. It's a three thousand
(20:02):
my all. They called a road trip not a race,
but come on, these cars are they're they're super exotic cars.
There's this is one that you know, it's like a
hundred thousand plus dollars to enter. It's a big it's
a big time uh you know rally that gets a
lot of media attention. A lot of a lot of
celebrities enter this thing in exotic cars. Um it's like
the real life Cannonball Run, only it's not really a
(20:25):
candid They say that we don't like to be compared
to that, but it's very much like that. It's it's
very similar. How about that. I mean it runs through Copenhagen,
Denmark money and ends in money Carlo. Um. They have
the enormous parties. It's kind of like a sky's the
limit type thing. I mean they when they have to
transport the vehicles they take you know, great big jet
airliners you know, um cargo transport planes and why the
(20:47):
cars you know, to wherever they need to go to
finish that stage. It's a it's really a big deal.
And there's a few spinoffs, UM of this thing now
and of course you know they they don't need it
to other charities in the past, like the Wounded Warrior Project, UM,
different charities each year. Again they've got their new foundation.
But there's spinoffs of this, right, there's the dumb Ball Rally.
UH craises money for uh the Teenage Cancer Trust. And
(21:10):
these are these are all like gumball puns, right, yeah, exactly,
and it's uh. And there's three rules to the dumb
Ball Rally. UM. You have your car is to be
worth less than four hundred pounds because the European Rally,
of course, right right, not wait exactly, four hundred pounds
is dollar mountains for US. UM, you have to raise
over a thousand dollars for UM the Teenage Cancer Trust.
(21:32):
And you have to, uh, you have to look ridiculous
for the entire event. That's the third rule. I like
that now, that's how it's written. Yeah, and it's funny
if you go there and you know, check out dumb
Ball Rally and UH and and look at the gallery
and just see what some of the people have done
in the past. There's some amazing creations that people come
up with. It's really kind of fun and people are
dressed up silly, you know, and it's just it's a
good event. Raises a lot of money for charity, good causes,
(21:55):
so it's it's definitely worthwhile. I've I've got another one
that is I think a spinoff of the Gumball Rally.
But but before we get to it, what I wanted
to uh to bring up again was that excellent Gumball
rallying Cannonball runs stuff we had seen on Netflix instant.
Now I've I've I've watched it before. I'll probably watch
(22:16):
it again if I need something new, man, I need
my Netflix. I'll tell you what. I've got. Something that is,
uh is right up our alley here. It's it's and
you're not gonna believe this when you first hear it,
but i'll tell you why, all right, I'll hear you out, sir.
The Monsters. And I'm talking about the TV series of
the Monsters. Oh I know why? Why is that? Because
of that beautiful crazy car. Yeah, well they've got a couple, really,
(22:37):
they've got um Well, okay, let's just well i'll tell
you in just a minute. But it's a it's basically
it's a comedy sitcom. Um, I guess horror television. So
it's like a horror theme sitcom. Yeah kind of, yeah, exactly.
It's probably the best way to put it, with Herman
and Lily and Grandpa and Eddie and um, who was
the niece? Um, the niece is the normal way. Yeah. Yeah,
I'll think of her name in just a minute. Um.
(22:59):
But anyway, they live in a Victorian mansion. Oh, Maryland,
that's her name. And they live in this Victorian mansion.
Of course, you know, the father is the Frankenstein's Monster
characters kind of bumbling and goofy, and everybody's really kind
of goofy. But um, anyways, there are a few episodes
and not I mean I can kind of promised us
in every episode, but there are a few episodes that
really focus heavily on their cars. And you got to
(23:21):
remember that this was on air on television in nineteen
sixty four to about nineteen sixty six, and that was
right in this customization hot rod craze here in the
United States, and the family drove what they called the
Munster coach spelled with the K. You know about that, right,
the car culture thing we talked about, right, So the
Monster Coach, which was the family car, and then the
(23:43):
grandfather drove a car in a couple of episodes called Dragula,
which is made out of a coffin. And these were
awesome hot rods. They were really really cool. Their museum
pieces now, um, but you know these were designed by
George Barrets, the guy that built the original Batmobile. And
I think they were designed by a guy named Tom
Daniel Um who was like a builder customizer guy at
(24:05):
the time who worked for George Barris. But Dragula and
the Monster Coach are worthwhile seeing in this thing. And
besides that, I mean, I think the whole series is funny. Yeah,
especially you know, I I still have retained a childhood
love of monsters into my adult age and I will
sit down and watch something like that all the time. Now,
I'm not gonna ask you, and I'm not gonna ask
(24:27):
anybody listening now to choose between the Adams family and
the monsters. I don't feel like that's a fair decision now.
But if we're basing it on cars, clearly the monsters
are superior, hands down winner in that case. Yeah, hands
out winner. In the car category. But the good news
is that people who don't have Netflix can still watch
this for free on Netflix. All you have to do
(24:50):
is go to Netflix dot com slash car stuff and
can sign up for a free thirty day trial where
you can watch not only The Monsters, but every other
single film we recommended. And what's nice about that is
now you don't have to you don't have to go
with that our pick. There. You can watch anything you want,
but thirty days. Ben, It's not like you just get
one option. I mean you can go there for thirty
(25:12):
days and watch as much or as little as you want. Um,
it's a great deal. So I think it's it's worth it.
And you know, I might not check out the Monsters
way there because you can watch you it's one of
these where you can watch the full season at a
time and it's at once in one sitting. Uh they're
relatively short, so you know it's Uh, it's I think
it's definitely worthwhile. Now, one thing we should mention here
is that titles are subject to availability. They may come
(25:33):
and go off of Netflix instant but every time that
we're recording before you and I go in the air,
Scott we check and make sure these are up. Yeah,
they're there. I mean I know that one's there, so
so check it out. It's definitely worth it and hopefully,
you know, you'll get to see one of these these
amazing hot rods, these George Barress created hot rods because
they're so cool. And speaking of cool rides, let's get
(25:56):
back to our Gunball rally spinoffs. Yeah you know, and
oh the spinoffs. Okay, go ahead, once you wrap up
with that one, and then I just want to mention
some other types of clubs that put on these things.
And I don't give you an idea of who's doing these.
Scott Scott, Scott Scott, let me tell you about the
Screwball Rally, that screwball route like gunball and dumball. Uh So,
this is about having fun and visiting a few European
(26:18):
countries with other like minded people. And they they have
a couple of minimums. They want people raise a minimum
of two hundred fifty pounds per team for the charity
of your choice, so it's up to you. And then
that's interesting, that's a twist on this whole thing. Yeah,
it's a little bit more customization. So, uh, there will
be stuff like um, Yorkshire Air Am, Yillens Leukemia Research,
(26:41):
cancer Research, uh, several other charities. So everybody is running
for their own cause. Really, yeah, they can go for
their own cause. Interesting and uh, as they say, is
it if it's a local charity or charity you have
a passion for it. It's for a charity that you
have a part in. Charity means something to you personally
or loved one. It will be easier and mean more
(27:02):
for you to raise the money. That's that's their logic there.
And they say it's up to you how you root it.
Which is another thing I love about road rallies, just
to get to the checkpoints, you know. Um. And that's
what I really like about the Mongolia charity rally. That
is so wide open. Let's just drive to Mongolia, no roads,
no worries, no rules. Okay, so it's like an out
(27:26):
it does it does all right. So one thing that
I thought was really neat about the Screwball rally, aside
from the ability to kind of choose your own charity there, Uh,
it's up to you how you run it, but they
do ask that you, um, you can you put some
consideration into matching your car and your costumes. So I'm
(27:47):
gonna read another part here here we go dresses Laurel
and Hardy or the Blues Brothers. Customize your car to match.
So they've had teams that came as Scooby Doo and
the Mystery Machine, um Sheila's Wheels, Country Gents with their butler,
and of course some Star Treks and some seventies throwbacks.
But you're not required to, you know, dress up in
(28:07):
some costs. To dress up isn't required. But but participating
that sounds like a lot of fun. I mean, just
to be in in that with other like minded individuals.
That's probably the big fun of this whole thing. Really. Yeah,
so I thought that was a pretty funny one. And
now we should talk about some different types. Well, I
guess so, I mean, because I just wanted to mention
that a lot of car clubs will put these on.
So let's say that you know, you're in a Jaguar
(28:28):
Car Club or an MG Car Club or you know,
something like that, and or Corvette or whatever. They they
will sometimes say, like you know, in the the end
of July, we always do these, uh the you know
this this drive for breast cancer awareness let's say and uh,
this year, we're gonna organize this, and everybody has a
part and organizing this and how it works. And you know,
they figure out how to get people to donate time
(28:50):
and and uh and goods and services again and you
know what they're gonna do. If it's gonna be an
art auction, they're gonna auction off maybe an old project
car or something. UM. There's all kinds of things that
people can do to um, you know, to raise money. UM.
So you know, like you may find like the Ferrari
Owners Group will run something like this um you know,
or that you know, they be like a UM something
(29:10):
that runs in conjunction with another event. I saw one
where their rally drivers there at the rally course rather
for an actual rally competition, and they allow people to
bring their own vehicles onto the rally course, maybe minus
some of the more dangerous parts of the stage UH
and drive for you know, for this cause and for
you know, one hundred dollars or whatever it happens to
(29:31):
be for that one day you're allowed to drive on
most of the rally course uh and compete in the
competition of your own you know, for time, UM, with
all the proceeds going to charity, and that runs in
conjunction with the event that's happening, you know, uh, for
the series itself. So you know that's a different spin
on this whole thing. Um. You know, charities could organize
these things for you know, for to benefit their own needs. Um,
(29:53):
you know what they need, you know, churches or groups
or whatever, um, you know, for diseases, um, you know again,
families that need you know, a critical surgery or you know,
just need help out. You know, something terrible happened to them,
their house burned down, you know whatever. Um, there's individual
organized events you know again for families, individuals, you know,
for trying to help out a member of their family. Um.
(30:15):
There's all kinds of things that that can happen here,
that can that can lead to a road rally happening.
And sometimes you know, if they catch on, they can say,
you know what we did such good last year, let's
try it again this year, and here's how we're gonna
make it different and better. And that's exactly what you
know Glenn had mentioned with it with their rallies, that
they're making it bigger and better each year. So these
things tend to snowball in that they gain popularity, they
(30:38):
gained speed, to the gain momentum, uh, and the the
local area knows about them and it kind of spreads out.
Especially now with the Internet. Um, it's a lot easier
to find and gather people for something like this. They
they can raise awareness a lot quicker and uh and
get a you know pool poth may a larger pool
of people and hopefully gain a lot more money for
(30:58):
their cause. And what's to like? I mean, it seems
like such a cool idea. A You're probably be You'll
probably be going to someplace that you have never visited before.
You will probably see some things that you have never
seen before, and you're probably going to have an adventure.
I know him three probably deeps here, but I think
it's pretty true. They always make it fun. I mean,
(31:20):
the closest thing to this that I've ever done. I've
never gone on a charity road rally, and probably should
at this point. You know, it would be a lot
of fun. We should do that, and for a great cause.
But um, I've been on like ride and drive events
for for corporations, you know, where they take the press
out in a new vehicle and when they when they
give you in the morning, you you're you're handed the
keys to your new vehicle, you know, your Mercedes whatever
(31:42):
it is. And they head out and into North Carolina
into the mountains and they say, here, you're gonna stop
at this this little general store and you'll find it
on this map in this location at your first stop.
And you pick up a moonfire there and it's gonna
have a message for you with the clue to the
next stop. You've done that, yeah, something like that. That
was really it was fun, that is. And so you
go to this little tiny, out of the way place
(32:03):
with this you know, like a general store that looks
like something out of you know, the the late eighteen hundreds,
and uh, you know, it's really really cool. It's just
a it's a fun type of thing. And from there
you get the include in the next place. So it's
like a big scavenger hunt almost. Um. But it's it's
really a good time and they always make it a
lot of fun. And you know, usually the culmination of
the day is again like a great big charity dinner
(32:26):
or a gathering, or a carnival in some cases um
or an art auction car show, maybe car show. Car
show is a great idea because you know, of course
you've got everybody there with their vehicles. Um, just there's
so much good to be had here in something like this.
So you know, if if you find one locally, don't hesitate,
you know, to to enter this year, even if you
(32:46):
don't have an exotic or a custom or something. Find
out the rules and find out if you're allowed to participate,
because it's it's a lot of fun. Oh yes, that's right.
That brings me to our ultimate questions. And I was
wondering if you could take a swing answering it for us,
how would one go about finding a local charitable road rally?
(33:06):
Oh man, okay, well you may have to do this
several months in advance really, because as we found out,
you know with Glen's letter that you know as we
dug into it, that you know, the spots quickly fill up.
So you need to kind of keep your eyes and
yours open well ahead of time and know when a rally.
I guess the rally season would be in your region.
So let's say you're in the in the Pacific northwestern
(33:28):
let's say the northeast rather where there's a lot of snow,
You're probably not gonna find many road rally charity road
rallies happening in the winter months, so you know, keep
your eyes open in the fall for the next spring
summer season maybe fall. Um, and I don't know, it's
probably just a good idea to to check around local churches. Uh.
You know, of course, you can scour the internet with
just the name of your town or your city or
(33:49):
surrounding cities, and you know the keywords charity, road rally,
road rally, um, you know, charitable cause I don't know,
just all kinds of things like that. Um, there's a
there's a smart way to go about. Yeah, your local
car clubs are good resource. Car clubs are a great
way to find one, and you can also go to
If you are one of the people who's lucky enough
(34:12):
like Scott and I to live near a large racing facility,
then they will certainly know of any other UH race
rally related events, and often because a lot of them
will make that a stop on their on their trip.
Like we're near Road Atlanta here, and Road Atlanta is
a huge stop for a charity road rally event. If
you're anywhere in this part of the South. You know,
(34:34):
if it's if it's a longer event, like maybe a
day or two eventum, they'll make that a stop because
that's always something that people are really interested in seeing
and driving on the track, and oftentimes they'll get to
do just that. Um. So you know, there's there's so
many different ways to find this. I wish we could
point someone specifically at a list of charity road rallies
you know they're coming up soon, But that's really really
(34:56):
hard to do. Like I said, you have to know,
you have to know specifically the name of the of
the charity of the event that's happening in order to
search the information for it. So if you know one
that's happened last year, try searching that again. Just add
this year's date onto it or next year's date onto it.
It's great advice. I mean, it's not even too early
to start looking for events. We're in the middle of
Why not look up something that's happening early next year.
(35:18):
I'm gonna see you and raise that because that is
the best device we could give. Right now. Now, I
would advance is the perfect time to start looking for
the team, because they're probably not out of spots yet. Exactly.
So I guess this is gonna wrap up our episode,
our listener inspired episode on charity road rallies. Um, I'm sold.
(35:42):
I really want to drive to Mongolia. Uh, nothing bad
about my car, but I don't think I can make it.
Um now, probably not. Well, it's just gonna be it's
gonna be a lot of red tape to get it
into Europe. So I might just have to try to
go to Europe and then rent a car and then
join the road rally and then drive to Mongolia. So
you've got a road rally in a rental car in
(36:02):
a country that you've never driven in. You know what.
It sounds more and more like a plan. Well let
me let me. I'm just spitballing here. It could be
at we'll we'll figure out the details whether or not
this will work. Um, maybe I can get our producer
Noel to uh to hop in and uh, well hey,
maybe we can all go. Maybe he can do all
the work and get his car sign over there and
(36:24):
then we can just kind of show up to ride along.
I don't know, he's Noel shrugs. Yeah, maybe it was ambiguous. Okay,
So we're gonna work this out and we're gonna go
ahead and head out of here. We'll talk to you
with our next episode in the meantime. Let us know
if you participated in a road rally. Also, let us
know if you're part of a local road rally organization
(36:47):
that you would like to hear a shout out given
to on the air. Yeah. Sure, Glen died and you know,
we were happy to to mention that one because of
course we want, you know, them to to achieve their goal.
So you know, send us what you've got and we'll
see if we can get it on air. Yes, and
congratulations and thank you to every single person who has
made the decision to take some time out of their
(37:07):
day or some money out of their own personal finances
to help people in need. There is literally nothing better
that I think you can do. So you can find
us on Facebook, you can drop us a line on Twitter.
We're gonna go ahead and head out of here. Our
email address if you'd like to send us a real
life electronic letter is car Stuff at Discovery dot com.
(37:33):
For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
how stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think.
Send an email to podcast at how Stuff Works. Dot
com
CarStuff News
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Scott Benjamin
Ben Bowlin
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