Well somehow we got through, did every stage & didnt get pulled once, passed a Belgian police van at about 110 & got our piccie taken coming out of a tunnel in Spain but "hopefully" they dont have any agrereements with the British authorities yet to share info.

Some of you have probably read about the problems in Spain with the authorities, basically they decided to pull every Cannonball car they could find for being involved in an illegal road race which obviously it wasnt

Things had been made worse by one person they couldnt catch who is rumoured to have been running through the outskirts of Barcelona at 200+ & having decided to cheat on the route was running some time ahead of us. So it was Police cars everywhere, helicopters spotting us etc & they decided to do the main pull at the toll booth but we had been tipped off. The stupid police decided to all stand on one side of the road at the payage exit so we went into the booth furthest from them & then waited for the lorry next to us to pull out, he had to come left to get round all the pulled cars so I flashed him out & then pulled right across to run by the side of him as we passed the Police, I got the feeling he was trying to help us so if a driver of a large green lorry with a trailer ever reads this THANKS.

The Police then proceeded to start trawling the motorway collecting people who had stopped in lay byes & even pulled people who had already de-stickered their cars, we had an un marked Ibiza trying to "persuade" us to speed, having pushed us for a while he pulled into a lay bye so we took the next exit which had no Police (these spanish are really stupid), headed into the hills & de-stickered the car, although Briskoda, Jabba & Allard remained on the car, then continued on to Benidorm (wont go there again).

Overall it was a stitch up, not sure how many actually got pulled, figures range from 54 to 70. Once they were all in the Police station a lawyer was found for the Group as a whole, who brokered a deal with the Judge which everybody had to agree to or no body was released, each driver was fined just over 300 euros & also EACH DRIVER had to pay the lawyer 600 Euros & he would only take Cash, the whole thing stinks !, I am left wondering if the Judge was "on a cut".

From then on until we left spain it was hassle, people were nicked for speeding obviously, driving through tunnels without lights on, Stick on number plates, one guy was fined 100 Euros for going round a corner to quickly in the policemans opinion but the most blatantly corrupt was a Policeman who made a driver remove his neons because they were illegal & then gave him the option of paying a 75 Euro fine or selling them to the Policeman for 150 Euros. The police came into the Hotel where we were staying & checked all the cars, as luck would have it the guy we got owned an Octy so we spent more time talking about the car. We got the third degree at the border when leaving Spain & the car got the once over

After Spain it was back to normal, The Hotel in Andora was fantastic as were the roads in & out of Andora, the run from Andora to Paris gave everyone the chance to stretch the cars & we only saw 2 police the whole way, managed to beat an M3 on that stretch, the speedo needle was around about the point where 160 should have been has Skoda bothered to put numbers that far round & the rev counter was about 500 into the red (never raced or rallied, honest!). Thanks to Jabba for raising the rev limiter

In Paris more stickers had been delivered so we all restickered as best we could & then it was off to Calais on Friday via a lunch stop in Belgium & then the Party at Arundel in the Evening.

Overall a fun event although ruined for a lot of people by the attitude of the Spanish police, I will add that a lot of the Spanish people were waving & were really pleased to see us, perhaps they have a better idea of the aparent corruption !

As for the car, had a small problem with the check engine light coming on, I think due to a small leak in the exhaust but a quick text to Jon (TaviaRS) confirmed the cure to that so thanks to him. The only other problem was the pipe coming off the washer bottle. The car had a very hard 3000 miles & once again its a tribute to Skoda for building such a strong car & Jabba for pushing the limits RELIABLY. & Allard for the Intercooler which certainly helped

Where we came I dont know, we were not in the top 5 as thats all that was anounced last night but to have finished at all & having done all the stages without any real problems & having numerous competitors somewhat amazed by the cars performance is satisfaction enough. Not only is it a Skoda but someone pointed out it had one of the smallest engines on the event.

I said this was the last Cannonball I would ever do but maybe, just maybe, well who knows

Wendy will do her full report in a few days

Stuart

Welcome back Stuart :wave:

Tis a shame the Spanish plod ( : fap ) decided to spoil that leg, but overall i assume it was a blast as usual. Simple answer is....don't go back to Spain

They should run through some of the new EU countries next year. I can almost guarantee them a warm welcome in the Czech Republic etc

Well done, Stuart! All the preparation you did with your car clearly paid off and its performance on the Cannonball Run 2004 is a measure of just how good the Octavia is.

Welcome back

Glad you got back safely and managed to avoid the wrath of the :fap: Spanish :cop:..... silly t0553rs!

Congrats Stuart, tis a shame the event was somewhat soured by the spanish gestapo. Also nice to see some positive feedback about the Skud aswell....

well done..... the wife and I have been keeping a eye on the event..

Congrats Stuart. Very well done.

Wow ... very imposing !!

Sounds, like you

Sorry , I meant "Limit"

welcome back stuart and congrats!

Welcome back Stu. Speak soon.

Welcome back Stuart.

Hey Stuart - How about some pics of the car in gumball stcker livery etc?

Hey Stuart - How about some pics of the car in gumball stcker livery etc?

Frontpage mate

Also..

And here are a few 'before' pictures of Stuart's car:

Is that the standard rear spoiler? Looks bigger than mine?

Car looks good tho

Welcome back Stuart, glad you made it!

Welcome back.

Thanks for all your comments, just got up & life suddenly seems so slow & boring

Is that the standard rear spoiler? Looks bigger than mine?

Car looks good tho

The spoiler is from JH Butt, the 4x4 has a diddy little lip spoiler as standard & this one is bigger than the standard RS one but is not the full WRC WING which I felt would be a tadge too big. The badgeless fromt grill surround is also a JH Butt item.

The Front mounted Intercooler was from Allard Turbosports & was a one off, has the soldered core rather than welded, inlet & outlet are opposite corners giving may flow & it cost

In the flesh Stuarts car is amazing. The trick paint is awesome!

Welcome back Stuart. Good to see you got back in 1 piece after a challenging run this year!

Well done Stuart !, good to hear you finished again and got back in one piece

And here are the results... 17th out of 93!

Cool, welcome back and well done!

Well done Stuart and the Skoda.

"not a race" hmmmmm - with a +74mph net speed difference for the last competitor, I'd say not everybody was aware of that

Well done Stuart and Wendy!

Glad you got back safe and sound and all was sorted before your departure.