From Wellingborough to the Swiss Alps - Rust Bucket Rally to take on Europe’s best sights in aid of Northamptonshire charity

This year, the trip will be in aid of Northampton-based charity Cynthia Spencer Hospice that provides inpatient care and outpatient specialist care to those with long-term illnesses.

Each of the 71 vehicles – which must cost no more than £1,000 – will be fundraising for the charity along the way.

Carl Baldry, one of the organisers of the annual event said: “Everybody is buzzing to go.

"It’s growing year on year, we just can’t wait to go. People put it in their calendar, definitely, and look forward to it all year round.

“It’s a long way to go, but if it was easy people wouldn’t sponsor us, so we’ve got to make it difficult, and day one is a long day.”

The trip will begin on Friday, June 6 at the early time of 2am, as the first leg of the journey will be a 15-hour drive to Davos in Switzerland.

Over the course of the three days, ‘rust buckets’ of all shapes and sizes will navigate 12 mountain passes through the Alps.

On the evening of June 9, around 6.30pm, the rally will return to its start point of the Old Grammarians in Wellingborough where there will be refreshments, music, and fireworks to celebrate the convoy’s completion of the trek.

Carl will be taking his trusty £500 Mercedes CLK for its ninth rally, and over the thousands of miles clocked in the convertible, he’s found a ‘friend’.

He added: “It’s hard work on the cars because as you get to the top of a mountain the atmosphere is thinner up there, and they’re old cars, so they do break down, and they do need looking after.

“You definitely grow attached to your rust bucket, without a doubt. Everybody falls in love with them a little bit along the way.”

Fundraising for 2025 Rust Bucket Rally has already generated almost £40,000 for the charity.

Over £85,000 was raised by the 57 teams for both Ailsa’s Aim and MND Association during the Rust Bucket Rally’s 2024 journey --and tenth anniversary-- to the French Riviera, Cannes, and Monaco.

More information about the Rust Bucket Rally can be found here.