By Cam Lucadou-wells
IF IT looks like a lemon and is coloured like a lemon surely this 1986 ex-RACV service vehicle is a lemon.
It’s just a pity that the mighty Meteor doesn’t come with a current RACV mechanic in tow as its owners Emily and Martin contemplate a 3800-kilometre odyssey from Adelaide to Cairns via the lonely expanses of central Australia.
The Endeavour Hills couple picked up the station wagon – with just a couple of front dents and in need of a new head gasket – for a princely $600 to compete in next year’s cancer charity fundraiser Shitbox Rally.
“The car runs a bit but not for a long time,” Emily said.
Emily and Martin’s aptly-named Without A Paddle team will dress the car up as an RACV mobile fix-it van as they join the fun convoy of other sub-$1000 shitboxes through the Red Centre’s dusty roads in late May.
About 10 per cent of the fleet are expected to make the finish line within a week.
The couple will be packing spare fuel and a bevy of spare parts such as fan belts in the hope of easing their wagon into Cairns.
“It’s usually the parts you don’t take that die, though,” Emily said.
The other endurance component is keeping entertained while driving together 12 hours a day.
There’s a CB radio to talk to other drivers and join in some good old-fashioned car-travel games to while away the hours.
“There’s going to be times you run out of things to say,” Emily said.
Emily and “Ford maniac” Martin are back for seconds after successfully completing this year’s rally from Mackay to Hobart in a 1993 ED Falcon.
The Falcon only blew a hose, and a freezing LPG converter that required the couple to permanently turn on the heaters.
Not a bad situation in Tasmania, but not a lot of fun as they drove in north Queensland.
Along the way, mechanically minded Martin’s skills were put to use to help keep the seven other shitboxes in their squad on the road.
His lofty reputation earned him the nick-name ‘MacGyver’.
The rally is a great chance to see far-flung parts of Australia, including travelling the fabled Oodnadatta Track, Emily said.
It was also a chance to pay tribute to their loved ones who have succumbed to cancer and raise funds for the Cancer Council.
Besides that, this rally is a genuine challenge to not be ‘without a paddle’ … as the saying goes.
To sponsor or donate to Without A Paddle, go to shitboxrallyau-2017.everydayhero.com/au/without-a-paddle.
