Morris Minor Owners Club

<FONT face=Arial>Hello all!<BR><BR>Myself and a friend have entered a 1964 Minor 1000 in this years Mongol Rally<BR><BR>www.mongolrally.co.uk<BR><BR>You can see the car and learn a little bit about us from the 'Teams' section of the site.&nbsp; We are called the 'Mongol Minors' (near the bottom!) and are from Devizes in Wiltshire.<BR><BR>This is a charity rally in aid of Save the Children and Send a Cow.<BR><BR>7 Mountain Ranges, 2 Deserts, 1 War Zone and a 1/4 of the world.<BR><BR>Any support, advice and above all SPONSORSHIP! is much appriciated!<BR><BR>We can offer business advertising o&shy;n the car (and indeed, we now have - the picture is out of date)<BR><BR>Thanks guys - Let the good times roll!<BR><BR>James. <IMG src="http://www.morrisminoroc.co.uk/modules/ ... if"></FONT>

Hello all!<BR><BR>Myself and a friend have entered a 1964 Minor 1000 in this years Mongol Rally<BR><BR><A href="http://www.mongolrally.co.ukYou">www.mongolrally.co.uk<BR><BR>You</A> can see the car and learn a little bit about us from the 'Teams' section of the site.<BR><BR>We are called the 'Mongol Minors' (near the bottom!) and are from Devizes in Wiltshire.<BR><BR>This is a charity rally in aid of Save the Children and Send a Cow.<BR><BR>7 Mountain Ranges, 2 Deserts, 1 War Zone and a 1/4 of the world.<BR><BR>Any support, advice and above all SPONSORSHIP! is much appriciated!<BR><BR>We can offer business advertising o&shy;n the car (and indeed, we now have - the picture is out of date)<BR><BR>Thanks guys - Let the good times roll!<BR><BR>James.

With all best wishes & that,
but!

The rules are 1000cc engine or less - the 1964 Minor is 1098cc????

Ooops!

Colin

I think '64 was the changeover year....

1962 was the changeover year. My 1963 has a 1098.

BUT!!! According to to rules:

You can only use a car with an engine of less than 1 litre, that is generally considered to be cr*p. (This being said, we're amicable chaps, so if you're desperate to use something bigger you can be accommodated, though people might be sniggering behind your back and calling you a weener.)

So, it looks like a 1098 would be fine!! Good luck and have loads of fun!

Thanks everyone!

You can donate to me direct via www.paypal.com
My email for doing this is su_nioj@hotmail.com

Thanks

James.

Good luck, think you're gonna need it, you're either&nbsp;completely bonkers&nbsp;or very, very brave, not sure which!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Btw, like the&nbsp;DylanThomasesque email <IMG src="http://www.morrisminoroc.co.uk/modules/ ... n/wink.gif">.

You can donate to me direct via www.paypal.com
My email for doing this is su_nioj@hotmail.com

or people could give the money to charity instead...
This has 2 advantages
1) Gift aid - the charity then gets more money
2) the charity gets the money

Sounds like a scam to me! paypal indeed.

Instead of spending all that money getting a Morris Minor to Mongolia- why not give the money to charity yourself??

Instead of spending all that money getting a Morris Minor to Mongolia- why not give the money to charity yourself??

The point of these kind of things is that it provides somethine tangible for friends/family/colleagues to support. Whereas A.N.Other might not give, say 10 quid to providing water in Africa, they will give 10 quid to see a bonkers bloke trying to drive to Mongolia in a clapped out car. Their 10 quid then goes to the charity. in my experience all the costs of the trip are met personally (as a kind of 'holiday'), with the donated money held as 'sacrosanct'

I say "Good on yer" It's also nice to see a "real" Morris Minor tackling an event like this and not one so heavily modified that it ends up as a 'Bitza' in a Minor body which is guaranteed to get you to the moon and back.

Robin

I'm with you, Woo. Seems a bit odd to condemn the guy before the trial...

The point of these kind of things is that it provides somethine tangible for friends/family/colleagues to support

There's nowt wrong with using these events to raise money for charity - I've entered one myself
The point was that if it's done to raise money for charity, then people should give money to the charity directly as it gets the charity more money and secondly people are more likely to give to stuff that they KNOW isnt a scam. Asking for money to a paypal account is not giving a good impression so it's only fair to comment on it. Personally I think the trip is a great idea and hope that it does raise a lot of money for charity

in my experience all the costs of the trip are met personally (as a kind of 'holiday'),

My experience is different - I've seen people raise money 'for charity' on a number of occasions that was used to pay towards their own costs before seeing if anything is left over for the good causes. This has been for all kinds of things from bungee jumps to walking the great wall in China.

Ray,

I take your point about the PayPal account but I suspect that James just saw this as a convenient way for 3rd parties to forward money to him. I may be being naive, but I think that perhaps too much is being read into the PayPal aspect of what he is doing. Is there another way of sending him money that some folk might regard as preferable?

Regarding personal use of donations, perhaps I'm lucky that I have only seen Church folk doing this type of thing so far. As such, I believe, they have taken a much higher view of the value of the donations. Many of this type of thing needs a promise to raise a minimum amout for charity before they can enter. In this case I believe it is £500 per person or £1000 per car. Perhaps some people may use some of the excess of this figure to pay their own personal exenses. But in my opinion, that is where the real 'scam' would lay.

Also I fully agree that ideally one should try to raise awareness of the particular charity being aided. however, personally, because of my nature, I would find it very difficult to approach people for donations and so I would probably end up paying both the £1,000 and my own expenses.

Is there another way of sending him money that some folk might regard as preferable?

Well if there's a fairly well known messagboard user that can vouch for him/them, then that will surely put minds at rest - anyone know 'join_us' personaly?
If not, then you can consider getting a name and address and do it by cheque as that is far more reputable - however the safest way is to give to the charity itself.

We're looking into this for our own rally for people to give direct to the charity whether it goes through us or not [and making sure gift aid is not lost in the system - don't want the government making their margin on aid money when it could go to better places]

Regarding personal use of donations, perhaps I'm lucky that I have only seen Church folk doing this type of thing so far.

I'm always amazed by the stuff done by my church and can see where you are coming from. On a depressing note however there are a lot of charity scams out there - not just the ones that you used to see exposed on telly by Roger Cook etc...

I notice he's gone quiet!

Inspired by the alleged attempt to drive a Morris to Mongolia, I will give a sum to charity (in addition to the regular monthly payments that I make allready).

James,

Perhaps others, like me, think that while we support what you are doing in principle we need something more concrete before we give money. It is not unreasonable for it to be suggested that a first post to this forum asking for money by PayPal could be interpreted as a scam.

So give us some more info. Pictures and details of your car. A picture of yourself and your co driver. What preparations you are making for the journey, etc. Details like this will enable us to make our decisions on your authenticity and will also add extra interest for us in your on-going rally.

Hi again guys. Thanks for the words of wisdom. Maybe being a country lad I'm being a bit naive about this. You are of course, welcome to meet me and inspect the Minor if you're in the Wiltshire area. You will be able to follow my progress (or lack of!) on the www.mongolrally.co.uk site (and learn about the other cars, teams, and charities).

I'm planning to take the car to the next SW MM meet at Staverton on the 1st Thursday of next month. It would be nice to meet some of you fellow enthusiasts!

Currently I have raised £700 of my £2500 target. However, the rally has been paid for and we will roll!

Best wishes

James Higgs
Devizes, Wiltshire.

How do you plan to get the car back to the UK?

The cars are supposed to be auctioned off for charity at the end of the rally but there has been talk of abandoning this. If I can find a reasonable qoute then I ship her back, otherwise we will abandon her and fly back.

Unless anyone wants to collect her and drive her back to Blighty? LOL!

Oh, Do any of you know if a Minor has been driven further before? I read of someone attampting to drive to Australia but they had a change of heart during the trip!

Thinking about it, if you donate to either of the charities direct and (here's the important bit!) mention that it's a donation for the Mongol Minors and obtain a receipt to post to us then that would count for sponsorship money that I have to raise, security for you and giftaid for the charity.

Does that seem like a fair solution? I could set this up automaticly at www.justgiving.co.uk if anyone is interested?

Thanks

James.

Sorry to be thick, but how exactly do you link to a picture? (for your signature)!

james.