Motoring stupidity on a global scale
The Mongol Rally
This is the greatest motoring adventure on the planet. This is 10,000 miles of chaos across mountain, deserts and steppe on roads ranging from bad to not-a-road in a tiny 1000cc car you bought from a scrapyard for £4.60.
There’s no backup. There’s no set route. There’s no guarantee you’ll make it to the end. It’s just you, your rolling turd and a planet-earth sized bucket of adventure.
Have a goosey gander at this little videogram from last year.
The Machines
Driving 10,000 miles in a 4×4 with heated seats and an electric milk frother is pointless. That’s why we set some rules for what constitutes a suitable Mongol Rally machine. They’re simple.
- Cars: 1.2 ltr (1200cc) or less
- Motorbikes: 125cc or less
We occasionally make exceptions, but there’d better be a good excuse or a really terrible car. With a rubbish vehicle, you’re more likely to break down and therefore more likely to have adventure, so you can remind yourself you’re alive without jamming a fork into your eyeballs.
The Unroute
Knowing where you’re going is boring. The Mongol Rally follows our ‘unroute’ ethos; you go where you please. Adventure doesn’t happen following a nob with a flag, It happens when you’re lost.
We want you to go your own way, make it up as you go along, improvise and get lost. We won’t tell you where to stop, where to visit, where to stay or what to do. Our only job is to tell you where the finish line is and wait for you to turn up a battered but better person.
Reality can occasionally scupper this idyll. Visas will need to be pre-planned if you are intending to go to certain countries, but on the whole, you can pretty much wing it and for those of you who live out that idea, we salute you.
On your own
The Mongol Rally is an adventure. What would be the point of it if we trundled along behind you to wipe your arse and fluff your pillows.
To have a real adventure you need to be out in the world lost and stuck with only your team to rely on. So to ensure we don’t rob you of the point of the Rally once you set forth, you are on your own. And thus the “on your own” rule was born. If the sky falls on your head, prop it up with a stick and carry on. If you break down, find a way to fix it, buy a horse or start walking. If you want to know someone is helping you get to the finish line then the Mongol Rally is not for you. But if you’re here to get slapped about the jowls with the gauntlet of adventuring chaos you’ve found your calling.
Save the world
The planet is the playground, so it only seems fair that if you’re having the mother of all adventures on it, you should give a little back to help keep it in good shape. With that in mind, we ask teams on the Rally to raise a minimum of £500 for our official charity Cool Earth. Anything above this can be raised for any other registered charity of your choice.
Rally Shop
Ah the Mongol Rally engine polishing cloth. It works best as a replacement for your air and fuel filters, but can also be used on oil leaks and stuffs very neatly into any holes in your vehicles bodywork that might have recently been smashed in by a rock. It really is the only tool you need to complete the Mongol Rally.
Plus if you take advantage of its secondary purpose – as a handy piece of upper body skin jazz you will instantly become indestructible and attractive to all members of the coleoptera genus.