Mission: The Plymouth to Dakar Challenge www.plymouth-dakar.co.uk was dreamt up by one Julian Nowill, a Stock Broker in Devon. Julian has thrown down the gauntlet to those of us with budgets too limited to tackle the great Paris / Dakar Rally. The Plymouth / Dakar Challenge has a few rules that will help to ensure that team budgets do not run too much a risk of financial peril.

The Challenge is to simply drive the route from Plymouth to Dakar with the principal aim of helping some charitable causes in UK,Senegal and The Gambia. There are 3 rules for the Challenge:

The car should cost no more than £ 150

Preparation should cost no more than £ 25

All rules are made to be broken (a bit and sometimes!)

B & M Aims: get to Dakar in one piece, raising a load of cash for BEN and GO Gambia! in doing so.

Why the odd name? Well Bill is a motor trader (bangers) and George is a (whisky grain) farmer (mash) - makes sense now doesn't it.

Where are they going?

Bangers and Mash are driving on the Plymouth to Dakar Rally this year, to raise money for two charities: Ben (ben.org.uk) and Go Gambia (Gogambia.org.uk). They are crossing over the channel on New Years Eve (spending the last night of 2003 in Rouen) and then hoping to arrive in Dakar three weeks later. After a party or two, the car will be donated to Go Gambia and Bill will fly back to the UK.

So what are they driving in?

The rules determine the budget for the car purchase and in order for it to be a suitable car for use by Go Gambia, it has to be a left hand drive. It also has to last them as long as possible as it is destined for use by a field worker - helping to improve education and health care in rural areas.

Bill and George are therefore going in a Rover 200, being the only car available ! It is a 1998 car, 2 door and 1400cc. It needs a bit of tweaking (new radiator, door mirror, protective sheath around the fuel and brake pipes, and a sump guard) but apart from that, it's in good nick.

When they are on the road (or in the desert), you will be able to see how they are doing each day via the progress page. And you can see where they are headed to via the route page.

To see what Bill, George and the car look like - see the pictures page. And to find out who's sponsoring them (or to sponsor them yourself) see the sponsors page. .