Canada 5000 Rally Against Alzheimer's

[DeathBy240]

I wanted to share with you guys the crazy project I've been working on for the past 10 months or so! On June 12, along with my buddy Dave, I will leave Vancouver and drive to Halifax along all of the best and worst back roads Canada has to offer. Of course I'll be doing it in my 1967 Volvo Amazon.

Why you ask? I got the idea after reading about the legendary Shell 4000 Rally, which ran across Canada in the 1960s. It was an FIA-sanctioned rally that brought professional drivers from across the world right here to Canada to drive across the country. (You can read more about it at shell-4000-rally.org if you're interested). The rally usually ran from Vancouver to Montreal or vice versa and one year it ran from Calgary to Halifax. I've decided to splice a bunch of the routes together and follow the original routes from Vancouver to Halifax over 10 days of actual driving, with a pit stop at Mosport to take in the Canadian Historic Grand Prix.

My co-driver Dave has a personal connection to Alzheimer's as his mom has the disease, so we've decided to make the entire trip a massive fundraiser for Alzheimer's. You can donate online on our website at Home - Canada 5000 and you can also read more about exactly what we are doing there. You can choose your province and all donations will stay local.

Of course it wouldn't be a true car build without an insane timeline to get the car done. We started building the car in early March and we've got 29 days until the rally actually starts now. We've got the front suspension/brakes all done, the rear suspension/brakes almost done and the engine is ALMOST ready to drop in the car. I sheared off an alternator bolt in the block though, so we need to extract that before it goes in! Then we need to finish the body work and put the whole thing back together! And for those wondering, I chose the Volvo Amazon as they won the rally twice and are known for being super reliable.

Here's the car as of yesterday:



I know a lot of people have driven across Canada before, but this is no ordinary trip. If you were to follow the Trans-Canada from Vancouver to Halifax it would look like this:
- 70ish hours of driving
- 30 turns
- 3000ish miles

Our trip will be:
- 144 hours of driving
- 700ish turns
- 5000ish miles

We'll be taking logging roads, off road trails that aren't even considered public roadways anymore and we've even convinced a pipeline company to open up one of its closed-to-the-public roads for us as it was on the original route. We've also been in contact with a certain Canadian Forces Base, as the original route went along its tank range. We're crossing our fingers for permission to use that!

So please check out our website and donate if you can! You'll also be able to follow us along as we go on the rally on our website, as we'll have a live GPS tracking device with us.

Home - Canada 5000

Us posing with the car, looking like idiots before the teardown:

[underscore]

This sounds epic! I'll be following this closely as it sounds like quite the task.

[StylinRed]

wow...congratulations on just embarking on this task! everything about this sounds awesome and to attach a great, and very fitting, cause to this...wow

The best and coolest news I've read all day!


edit: Donated!

looking forward to updates

[murd0c]

WOW talk about an adventure of a life time, I'm looking forward to updates as well!!

[Zoomy]

Wow, this looks incredible, I'd love to do something like this. Will be following closely.

[westopher]

Yep. As I thought I would be, very stoked where this is going. I see you guys are from my hometown too. Is this going to be a single car event or are you planning on having a convoy of sorts?

[DeathBy240]

StylinRed- Huge thanks for the donation! Appreciate it!

We've just decided to raise $10 for every mile we drive, so we're aiming for $50,000. Here's the direct link to the BC Alzheimer's Society for anyone else who wants to donate:

Anything for Alzheimer's Events

Thanks for all the other comments. We'll definitely be taking a lot of photos and video along the way. This year, we're just taking one car. The route has many questionable sections and we want to be able to drive it once to make sure everything is passable before inviting others along.

With that being said, there are some sections we'd love to invite people on if they donate to Alzheimer's. For you BC guys, the route from south of Merritt to Kelowna would be great. Message me for more info.

[underscore]

Bumping this up as imo it should be getting more attention.

[DeathBy240]

UPDATE: We left June 10, trying to make it to Vancouver, blew a wheel bearing between Kamloops and Merritt, which screwed the spindle. Spent way too long in Merritt awaiting parts, then heading to Van to dip the tires in the Pacific, before immediately heading east.

Swapped in a new trans in Calgary, did some brake work along the side of the road, ran a few laps at Mosport at the Canadian Historic Grand Prix, DROVE THROUGH A FRIGGEN TANK RANGE at CFB Gagetown today and broke my windshield wiper switch in the process! Tomorrow we are off to Halifax for the last day of rallying!

I've posted a ton of photos on Facebook - www.facebook.com/traveldriverace

If you enjoy any of this, I'd please encourage you to go online to Home - Canada 5000 and click DONATE NOW, as we're doing this as a fundraiser for Alzheimer's which has affected the mother of my co-driver Dave. Donate even a couple bucks if you can, it all adds up and stays in BC!

[StylinRed]

knew it would be an awesome adventure but it's totally different when you actually see the pics and hear the stories

fantastic cause too

way to go guys




also to you underscore