Somerset duo's triumphant return from 'Europe's silliest banger rally'
Two Street men have made a triumphant return to the village after taking part in the Ramshackle Rally.
The rally, billed as Europe's silliest banger event sees teams compete in a 1,450 mile drive across Europe.
This year, the rally finished in Valencia, Spain, just as the La Tomatina festival took place, and thousands of people converged on the tiny town of Buñol to throw tomatoes at each other.
Phil Humphries was just one of thousands of people taking part in the seven-day rally, with his friend and team-mate Paul Levitt.
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"A lot of people get involved – ultimately it's a lot of fun.
"Loads of teams buy old cars – it can't cost more than £200 – setting out to tackle a route across Europe," said Phil.
The team chose a Fiat car – which managed to survive the adventure.
The duo faced trials such as humid weather, and the cars eyeballs falling off en route.
Calais, France was host to hundreds of teams, with the end of the rally in Spain.
At the end of the rally the teams met at Buñol for the exciting La Tomatina festival.
"Day six and we found ourselves in the town, but with no obvious signs to the tomato madness that would start.
"You couldn't hope to describe some of the madness.
"It was just an incredibly surreal situation to be in."
Tiring rapidly in the heat, even with flying tomatoes, the "ramshacklers" could only watch the chaos of the festival, meeting up with some of the others taking part in the rally.
The trip home took in Jersey and Guernsey and added to France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Andorra to the list of countries visited.
Despite a valiant effort, the boys only managed to amass 155 points.
The winners of the rally had over 1,000 points.
Phil said: "We found our way back into Street by 2.30am on Friday, 3,100 miles from the start in Street and back again and more than 55 hours driving between us.
"We are really grateful to Den at North Park Garage, my neighbour Keith, and the guys at Warners Tyres for their help. And I'd like to thank my partner Claire and my son Edward for letting me go.
"It was an amazing experience.
"By the way, does anyone want to by a Fiat Multipla Diesel?"
You can find the full account of the rally at http://www.pah-software.co.uk/dl/ramshacklerally2012.txt.
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