Saturday 21st April 2007

As the sun rose on the Saturday it was the first opportunity to see all the cars together, as the more local boys (and girls) arrived, the array of cars was quite spectacular.

Greg and John arrived in the Ronart Lightning. They couldn’t make it on the Friday evening as it was Greg’s wedding anniversary, (good political move Greg). Time for a bit of history regarding Greg and the Rabbit Run!

For Rabbit Run 2004 he came in a Ronart, and did........................................well useless!

Two weeks before Rabbit Run 2005 his Ronart melted so he brought his other half’s Saab Aero Estate and won!

For 2006 the new Ronart that was being built for Greg, was not ready in time so he came in his co drivers Audi A4 3.0 Quattro and came second.

So we arrive at Rabbit Run 2007, Greg’s Ronart is still not ready, so Mr Ronart let Greg use his own personal Ronart, so how would they get on?

A further piece of Rabbit Run history. Brett does have the knack of buying buzz cars and getting almost one of the first editions to roll off the production lines. For Rabbit Run 2005 it was a Porsche 997S cab, Rabbit Run 2006 saw him in a Aston Martin V8 Vantage and this year saw him driving a Porsche 997 GT3.

Brett and his very trusty co driver Chris had secured third place on Rabbit Run 2005 and 2006 and because of this Brett and Chris were convinced that Rabbit Run 2007 was to be their year..........well was it??

At 8am on Saturday 21 st April 2007 the Rabbit Run briefing began with the Rabbit Run Team making sure that everybody had all the correct documents with them, passports etc, this was reiterated several times. Could this be the first year that all the nodding heads at the briefing were concurring that yes, they all had what was required for the tour. It was now 8:30 am and the Rabbit (Jon and Chaz in a 3 series touring BMW) made its first getaway of the weekend.

So it was out to the front of our hotel, time to appreciate each others cars again and then do what was meant to happen, in the words of the hotel manager “could you all leave quietly please”! This of course did not happen as a testosterone fuelled “start your engines” happened with the grunt of the Aston Martins and the Mercedes Mclaren SLR coupled with the highly strung wails and whines from the Ferrari’s, proved the very best soundtrack for any car enthusiast. The Aston Martin Vanquish (Joachim and Lee) sounded absolutely amazing and as Joachim revved his engine it splattered oil all over the front of the Tim and Ian’s Mercedes Mclaren SLR, oops,............................oops indeed!

So the order was given that “when Faye and Caroline leave in the silver Porsche feel free to follow”, and everybody did with great enthusiasm.

With us all on our way to Folkestone we got the word that the Rabbit had boarded the tunnel on time (two trains ahead of the hunting pack), so this should give the Rabbit a 40 minutes head start into France.

All was going to plan, well almost! A few cars chose to fill up at the last services before Folkestone, a good tactical move, however time was short. We were all booked on the 10:50 train, so as Gids and I arrived (Aston Martin V8 Vantage) and checked in at 10:15 I asked “are we ok for the 10:50 a.m?” no problem was the answer. So we drive though the barrier and deciding there’s not enough time for a coffee, go straight through and join the queue for the train, at that point John and Simon in the Mercedes SL drive up to us, and grumpily inform us that they are one passport down, having left it at the hotel in Surrey!. So off they went trying to find their way out of the terminal, not a good start and the hope of everyone having a passport, had once again vanished.

So, sat in the queue we receive good news over the radio from Darryl and Ian in the Audi RS4, the car is fixed, they have two current passports and are just boarding the train! This is quickly followed by more good news; passport control let Simon and Jon through in the Mercedes SL without one of the passports, as the hotel in Surrey had faxed a copy through, amazing! With all going according to plan, we were surely due another setback! And it arrived; customs had stopped boarding cars on the 10:50 train. Due to earlier problems, it was now over-booked! To rub salt in the wounds as we were sat on the platfrom being told the next train would be another 30 minutes, we could hear via the radios, the cars ahead of us boarding the train!

Anyway, 30 minutes later we were on our way. 14 cars on the second train making it 16 lucky cars on the first train. By the time we hit French shores we were 20 miles behind the first cars and 40 miles behind the Rabbit. With the bit between our teeth it was time to reel them in, if possible!

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