Been busy doing various jobs and tasks and enjoying living life! However I am back with loads of content to get going with this year, so I'll start off with an Article I did for the USA based blog I write for Fitted life, whose main site can be found here
This was an article I write just after Christmas about the Miss Banzai London Tunnel runs, so without any more waiting here it is in full :)
Lots of events take place in the name of charity every day. All over the world people club together to raise money for good causes and over here in the UK, among the automotive Japanese car community we’ve found another fun way to raise money..in the form of Charity London Tunnel Runs!
Tunnel Running itself is nothing new however, some of the biggest UK car clubs, like Pistonheads have ran their own for several years, but Miss Banzai is the first to do it solely for charity and solely for Japanese cars to take part in.
So let me introduce you to Miss Banzai, a car club that have taken these events to a whole new level, they are a Japanese make only car club and through some crazy organizing and perseverance have pioneered the idea of Tunnel Running to raise cash for some very worthy UK based charities.
Charities that money have been raised for include most recently The London Air Ambulance, but in the past has seen money raised for the Royal London Hospital Kidney Patients Association & Bowel Cancer UK.
Well over £5k has been raised so far by Miss Banzai over the period of 4 Tunnel Runs. Their idea is to do 2 a year and raise money for Charities that either directly affect members of the club or that are held dear to the community they have built up.
So why would you want to take part in something like this? Apart from the fact that you’re doing proactive for charity, well..it allows you show off the noise of your pride and joy in our capital city among like minded people. Oh and you do get to see some of London’s sights too! do you need anymore appeal than that? Thought not.
So the club organizes a starting point based just outside London late on a Saturday night. From there, after you’ve paid your donation and a small entry fee you are handed a map. This map then routes you through some of London’s oldest and biggest tunnels, you are then unleashed on London at around 11pm armed with a walkie talkie to communicate with the other “tunnelers” and a sat nav that soon becomes useless as you enter the city, but mainly you are all set for a night of being lost and having a complete giggle. Oh and it’s very much a shock and awe experience for the people of London!
The idea is not to race though, that is completely against the principal, and Miss Banzai encourages everyone taking part to drive responsibly during the night. The safety record for this event speaks for itself with only around 3 accidents occurring among Tunnel Run traffic on the nights of the runs. Not bad for an event that has attracted around 500 cars at some of its runs.
Think of the Tunnel Runs as more of a rally with checkpoints, as you pass through the tunnels, you tick them off and head to the next one, of course the City of London being what it is, traffic is completely against you. So more often you end up in a very expensive and noisy Japanese metal traffic jam! Sometimes someone gets a tad cheeky and does a burnout..as captured in pictures by myself in one of the tunnels. However, the amount of cars present on nights like these is quite amazing though, not to mention the various noises the tuned cars make.
Now I’m sure a lot of you are wondering what the authorities make of all this? Well the police are warned and they have a presence at the starting point. On all occasions, the authorities have applauded Miss Banzai on how they handle their Tunnel Runs.
Whilst on the run, the police have been known to pull people over and do various tests on the cars taking part. However, no one has had too much of a hard time from any authorities. I mean if you keep to the speed limits, and the numerous speed cameras in the tunnels and all over London make sure of that, then you really can’t get yourself into much trouble.
I’ve had the opportunity to take part in three of these Charity Tunnel Runs, twice as a driver, and once as a navigator. On all three occasions I had an absolutely amazing time! And as Navigator I only got us lost once, not bad for someone that lives out in the country and avoids cities pretty much whenever possible ;)
One of my favorite experiences on a run was my first time, where I did it in my old T bar Mr2 Turbo. The roof was off for the entire night and the noise we generated in the tunnels was just insane. The cars you ride along with are some of UK’s biggest and greatest Japanese tuned cars and you’re simply overwhelmed by the noises they all generate. There really is no other way to describe it and the fact I was in an open top car just made the experience one I will always remember.
The pictures included in this write up are from the various tunnel runs I have taken part in over the last two year, they are mostly from either the start of the run before entering London, during stops in the tunnels either due to traffic blocking the way or simply to stop and admire some of the other cars on the tunnel run with you!
The night usually ends up with those who managed to complete all the tunnels meeting up at a place just outside the center of London, recap on the run with friends and share each others’ experience, but as this usually ends at around 3-4am, it’s not always that busy at the end point.
However I am greatly looking forward to the next Miss Banzai Tunnel Run, and I have to seriously applaud them for their organization and the scale of people that they manage to attract for charity. Inspiring stuff!
Big thank you to Miss Banzai for all their hard work to make these events happen!
I have genuinely enjoyed taking part in these events on every occasion and have met some very cool people that I otherwise probably wouldn’t have ever met, and that’s just an added bonus. Until next time.
:. Dan Fegent
Plenty more content to follow :)
Thank you for looking!
