Author Archives: Alwin

The final day, the final stretch to London, with the full group of (well over) 100 rally cars. Not a lot of kilometers to cover today, but still an interesting trip, as we crossed the channel to the UK, and then drove into the city of London, right into the very center.

Still rallying to London! The group is getting bigger. Today another 15 or 20 cars joined, first some at the Hyatt hotel in Mainz, then later at the AM Test Center at the Nürburgring. We’re now driving around with roughly 100 cars, so you can imagine the chaos wherever we go 🙂

The second day of the Rally to London, on which we drive from Konstanz to Mainz, with a checkpoint and lunch in Schloss Weitenburg.

The rally has started! We have completed Day 1 of the Rally to London, 500 kilometers, and are now actually getting (a bit) closer to London. And what a day it was… beautiful locations, a fantastic route, amazing weather and over fifty wonderful Britisch machines 🙂

Another 300 kilometers completed. And still not any closer to London 🙂 But today’s route was wonderful, cruising through Switzerland, taking the long route over the St. Gotthard pass, as opposed to going through the tunnel. Then a short stretch in Italy, to Saronno, which is halfway between Milan and Como. Perfectly situated to get to the starting point of the Rally in Como early tomorrow morning.

This Wednesday is the start of Aston Martin’s Centenary Rally to London, in which my wife Sytske and I are of course going to participate. However, the rally starts in Como in Italy and we are located in Amsterdam… so we have to make our way down to Como first 🙂 Today we completed the first stretch of our pre-rally trip (hence “Day Minus One”), from Amsterdam to Basel. 750 kilometers in the pocket and not an inch closer to London yet 🙂

There will be 100 participants in next week’s Rally to London (that is, 100 cars, about 200 people). Around 50 cars will start in Como, Italy, the rest will join the convoy on its way to London at one of the checkpoints in Europe. Each car has its’s own rally number, displayed on the car using a rally sticker designed by Marek Reichman (Aston’s Design Director). And yes, they gave me #002 as my rally number, how cool is that? Only one problem: where will I put Marek’s sticker?

Next week, we are going to participate in Aston Martin’s Centenary Rally to London! 1,000 miles, 5 days, 7 countries and 100 (one hundred!) Aston Martins. The trip starts on Wednesday in Como, Italy and will take us through Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom, to end in London, for a big centenary party on Saturday, then a picnic in Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park on Sunday, with 1,000 (one thousand) Aston Martins!!!