We are now able to bring you further details of their amazing car journey, including the fact that they have managed to raise a huge amount of money for their chosen charity.

In fact, let's start wth the fundraising. They are still totalling up from the gala ball held on their return, however it looks like the amount raised is now well over £30,000. That is a remarkable amount of money to raise, from an idea formulated over a pint in their local pub, over a year ago.

The Team
Andy Green, who dreamt up the idea, was in a 1979 MGB GT, with co-driver Dave Heard.

Then there was father and son combination, Reg and Jack Vincent, in a 1977 MGB GT.

Tootling along in a 1983 Austin Maestro, were Frank Lyons and Mark Eastham.

And last but not least were Nick Filleul and co-driver Steve 'T-Bone' Raynor, in a rather magnificent 1978 Reliant Scimitar GTE.

These guys live as far apart as Devon, Kent and Milton Keynes, but most are based in or near Berkhamsted, Herts.

The Mission
Their challenge was to drive 4 pre-1984 British sports cars a distance of roughly 2,500 miles, from the UK to Kalkan.

In a 'Top Gear twist', the cars they used all cost less than £1,000 each - including tax, MOT, insurance and all parts.

And as if that wasn't challenging enough, they set themselves a time limit of 3 days to complete the journey - that's over 800 miles a day!

The outward journey
It all started on Tuesday 21st September 2010, when they arrived at Eurotunnel, armed with hope and determination - and a good sat nav.

Most of everyone’s equipment was loaded into the Maestro - a theme that was to continue throughout the journey.

The cars were fuelled with unleaded at the petrol station, whilst the drivers were fuelled with 'Whoppers' at Burger King. Frank bought the entire WHSmith supply of double AA’s, to power assorted devices en route.

The journey proper kicked off in Calais, at 4am on Wednesday 22nd September. The passage through France and Belgium was uneventful, but in Germany the fuel line in Reg's MGB GT sheared, spilling lots of fuel on the petrol station forecourt.  Everyone lifted their bonnets in sympathy, to check everything was OK with their cars - this was to become another recurring theme on the trip.

Onwards through Germany, and following a brief spell in Austria, the convoy arrived in Hungary, where they stopped, at the end of day one.  Thoughts turned to liquid refreshment (in moderation, obviously). However, there was nowhere to go for a drink other than the local brothel, so it was back to the hotel to get a few hours sleep.

Thursday 23rd saw another 4am start. Under the cover of darkness, the convoy drove away from the hotel, trying to avoid a group of people stumbling out on to the street, from the nearby brothel.

The cars were now heading for the border with Serbia. At the border crossing, some of the group were charged 130 euros for a green form. Nobody was too sure what this was for.

Whilst traversing Serbia, the starter motor went on the Reliant Scimitar. Fortunately, on this occasion, 'T Bone' managed to fix it.

Driving through Bulgaria was tough. It's a challenging route, with difficult roads, which often turned into nothing more than dirt tracks. The exit from Bulgaria, into Turkey, (via Edirne), was a real nightmare. Again, some of the drivers had to purchase a green card, plus a variety of other stamps!  As the drivers got hot under the collar, dealing with the bureaucracy, the Reliant Scimitar joined in and spewed hot water over everyone!

The cars drove on through the night.  In the north of Turkey, the clutch went on the Reliant Scimitar, which meant that Nick had to drive in 3rd gear all the way to the next town. Fortunately, they managed to find a kebab shop next to the garage doing the repairs.

The convoy was making good progress, driving south through Turkey, but then about 75 miles from Kalkan, the suspension on the Scimitar sheared.  For KTLN readers who are not mechanically minded, having a sheared suspension is not good. In fact, the car could not move. Nick was going nowhere. He had to wait with his car, whilst the RAC sorted out a recovery vehicle.

Meanwhile, the others pressed on to reach Kalkan, within their 3 day deadline.  Despite being only 75 miles away, each corner they took seemed to add more distance between the drivers and Kalkan - due in part to the number of winding dirt track roads they ended up taking.

As they got closer to their destination, fatigue was setting in. It's a good job they were travelling in pairs, so that the driving could be shared, with the non-driver able to grab some sleep en route.

Three cars finally arrived in Kalkan at 1am on Saturday 25th September, with the Scimitar arriving shortly afterwards, on the back of a lorry - thanks to RAC Relay.  There was just time for a few beers and a couple of requests for the DJ, and it was off to bed, in the Pirat Hotel.

Saturday 25th September
The team surfaced after a few hours rest, and after savouring that feeling of success, their thoughts quickly turned to the return journey.  The mission was to get to Kalkan in three days - which they had achieved, but of course, their journey was only at the half way point.

KTLN turned up for an impromptu team talk over breakfast at the Korsan Meze restaurant, by the harbour.  It was a beautiful morning.  If only the drivers had had the luxury of relaxing and taking in the scenery.  Instead, everyone was focussed on how to make the return journey home.

On Friday evening, KTLN had been in touch with the drivers, and we were already on the case, trying to identify a local mechanic who could fix the Scimitar, and check over the vehicles ahead of their return trip.

On Saturday morning, with the help of our friend, Bill Porter, we asked Ramazan, ace mechanic from Yeşilköy, if he could help.  We are happy to say that not only did Ramazan do the critical welding to the chassis of the Scimitar, but he and his colleague also gave all the vehicles a mechanical and electrical health check.

Having sorted out the cars, the drivers made the most of their short stay in Kalkan, and settled in to the Salt & Pepper, for a few drinks, and later, the Aubergine restaurant, for an evening meal, and a few final beers.

The return trip
The return was much less eventful than the outward journey. The KTLN team was happy to share details of the route we took in January 2010, when we drove from Kalkan to the UK.  The guys followed it, for at least part of the way, and were glad they did. 

The convoy made it to the border by the end of Sunday, and spent an uncomfortable night in the cars, on a petrol station forecourt, being half bitten to death by a million mozzies.

Once in Greece, the drivers split up.  Mark and Frank in their Maestro, headed for Thessaloniki, where they arranged for the car to be scrapped, before making their way to the airport, and a quick flight home.

The remaining six decided to keep driving, but not in a convoy. Now it was every man for himself, as some had a more pressing need to get home than others.  The Greek E90, which traverses the country from east to west proved to be every bit as good as predicted by KTLN.  It's a new road - smooth, wide, clear and almost entirely toll free.  They were all heading for Igoumenitsa - a ferry port on the west coast of Greece.

From this port, you have a choice of destinations along the Adriatic.  Reg and his son Jack went on ahead in their MGB GT, to rendezvous with their pre-planned ferry booking from Igoumenitsa to Brindisi. The crossing was fine, but unfortunately the car expired in Bari, Italy, so they had to fly home. Later, the car was brought back to the UK by the recovery company.

Andy and Dave in the other MGB GT along with Nick and T-Bone in the Scimitar, also drove to Igoumenitsa to take their chances with the ferry operators.  They didn't fancy taking on a drive through Albania. The two cars went along at their own pace, but by luck they were reunited at the port, where they all shared a beer and then caught the mid evening Superfast Ferry crossing to Ancona.

This was a much longer crossing than the one taken by Reg and Jack, at 14hrs, but it arrived 350 miles north of them - so swings and roundabouts really.

The ferry was more like a cruise ship.  Spotless and classy, albeit the shoe-box cabin with four smelly blokes in proved one of the major challenges of the entire trip.

By 11am on Tuesday 28th September, the two remaining cars were away via Italy, Switzerland (Basle), France via Reims and thence Calais.  The Chunnel ran out of time to process both cars so the MGB GT crossed by tunnel and the Scimitar took the ferry.

Having made superb progress across Europe, Nick and T Bone in the Scimitar eventually ground to a halt on the M25 northern section. They called Andy and Dave in the remaining MGB GT to see how they were doing.  And guess what - they were similarly crawling along, on the southern M25.  Ironically the first traffic jam in over 5000 miles!

[Editor: Why am I not surprised.  Whatever anyone may say about Turkish roads, you can always console yourself with the thought that they are a delight to drive on, when compared to the roads in the UK.]

The Turkey Trot team has asked KTLN to pass on a message.  They found this to be an amazing experience, and have fond memories of Kalkan, and all of the friendly, helpful people they met along the way.  They particularly wanted to pass on their gratitude and thanks to the people in Kalkan who provided so much support, and helped with their preparations for the return trip.

Here at Kalkan Turkish Local News, we applaud these guys for coming up wth this fundraising idea, and for seeing it through, and achieving their objective. In so doing, they have raised over £30,000 - that's a huge amount of money, for a worthy cause.

Just one bit of advice guys. The next time you come to Kalkan, you must allow more than 24 hours to see the place.