Fixed Video – THOTC 2013 BABE Rally Day 1 Update

Apoloigies for the broken video link posted earlier. This one should work.

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Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep… and THOTC knows exactly where to find them…

Would anyone care to guess what the BABE Rally organizers (in their infinite cruelty) have settled on for costume day this year…?

(For those just tuning in, Day 2 of the BABE Rally traditionally is Costume Day. We don’t get to pick the costumes. The organizers do, and they do do with an eye towards the maximum potential for embarrassment, humiliation, and arrest – for disturbing the peace, indecent exposure, or both. The traditional Costume Day challenge is to require teams to solicit passers-by to congregate in groups of ten and have their photo taken with the team. The fact that Day 2 already has the teams deep into the rural south, it makes for an especially… interesting… day.)

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Dodge has been invited to two more car shows…

On the heels of a highly successful appearance at the Dunwoody Driving Club’s Friday Night Lights Show a few weeks ago, Dodge the Retro Dart Rally Car has been invited to put in two more public appearances before the start of the 2013 BABE Rally. We’re not quite sure why — Dodge may be a sight to behold, but he isn’t much to look at… but we can hardly say no to a chance to meet some more adoring fans!

If you are within walking, driving, or towing distance of Kennesaw, Georgia or Braselton, Georgia please feel free to stop by to say hi and have your picture taken with Dodge at the Braselton Bash at Year One in Braselton on April 20th or Joe’s Crab Shack Open Car Show in Kennesaw on April 28th!

Whether or not you can come by to say hello in person, please also take a moment to visit the Pledge tab at the top of our homepage to pledge your support for the two great charities the team is supporting in the 2013 BABE Rally — Hot Rodders Children’s Charity and Toys For Tots!

 

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Leverage Corporation signs on as a THOTC sponsor for BABE8!

 

Leverage Corporation, a leading Atlanta provider of information technology strategy and sourcing services, has signed on once again to sponsor THOTC in the 2013 BigApple2BigEasy Rally. The company will be making a generous donation to the two worthy charities THOTC is supporting this year — Hot Rodders Children’s Charity and Toys For Tots. To learn more about Leverage Corporation, please visit their website at www.leveragecorporation.com.

To pledge your support for these two great charities, please click the Pledge tab at the top of THOTC’s webpage at www.thotc.com.

 

 

 

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THOTC announces new charities for the 2013 BABE Rally – Toys For Tots and Hot Rodders Children’s Charity!

Team Two Horsemen of the Carpocalypse are pleased to announce two new charities for whom it will be raising money this year by competing in the 2013 BigApple2BigEasy (BABE) Rally.  Both these charities have long been supported by THOTC’s sponsors and friends at North Georgia Mopar Club because of the important work they do in support of underpriveledged and at-risk children, and THOTC is honored to be able to suport them in kind.  Please consider pledging your support for these two great charities. As a reminder, THOTC does not handle money donated for the charities we support — all donations are made directly to the charities by those who pledge them.

The Pledge tab at the top of the page will be available for you to pledge your support in the next few days once it is updated to reflect information for these two great charities.

Improving the lives of children is the primary mission of the Hot Rodders Children’s Charity (HRCC). A registered 501c(3) organization, HRCC harnesses the enthusiasm and innate sense of responsibility found in the automotive enthusiast community and successfully raises funds and awareness of the various children’s causes at events throughout the year. While many charitable organizations focus on a specific need or
group, the HRCC aligns with a variety of local and national organizations representing a multitude of causes. This allows the HRCC
to effect positive change in the lives of many different children with many different needs. More information about Hot Rodders Children’s Charity is available at www.hotrodderschildrenscharity.org.

The mission of the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots  Program is to collect new, unwrapped toys during October, November and December  each year, and distribute those toys as Christmas gifts to less fortunate children in  the community in which the campaign is conducted. Over  its life span, the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation has supplemented  local toy collections with more than 102 million toys
valued at more  than $750 million; plus provided promotion and support materials valued  at over $10.5 million. More information about Toys For Tots may be found at www.toysfortots.org.

 

 

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BABE 2013 spec theme announced… and THOTC is in trouble!

 

In past BABE Rallies, there sometimes has been a specified type of vehicle teams are encouraged to bring. While never quite mandatory, bringing the spec vehicle type has been worth both *serious* points and bragging rights, especially when the vehicle brought is not only of the specified type but also a particularly decrepit example of the specified type.

Also in past BABE Rallies, teams have been encouraged (and often rewarded) for theming their vehicle in some way, whether or not it was of the specified type. Teams historically have been very creative with (and occasionally ticketed and arrested for) their themes.

This year, just to make the participants lives a little more miserable, the organizers have specified not a type of vehicle, but a spec theme. For reasons we can only imagine are driven by pure sadism, the organizers have decreed that vehicles in the 2013 BABE Rally should be:

“…identifiable themes of famous rally cars. We will accept racing themes as long as they are famous, and not NASCAR  famous.”

While perhaps not a big deal for the teams that bring VWs and various other Euro beaters, the spec theme presents a rather serious problem for THOTC… How in heaven’s name are we supposed to make a vintage four-door Mopar banger of the sort we usually bring to the BABE Rally look like a famous rally car??? Keep in mind that, due to the late announcement and early dates for the rally this year, we have only about half the time to identify, acquire, repair [sic], and field our rally car. Up until the organizers inserted this particular thorn into our side, we were thinking that Dodge (the 1969 Dodge Dart that carried us to a second place win last year) might just ride again. Unless…

Does anyone have any ideas about how we can make this…

… look like this?

(And on a BABE budget?!?!)

 

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Allpar.Com resumes coverage of Team THOTC as the 2013 BABE Rally is announced

 

THOTC is honored to once again to have Allpar.Com, the largest online Mopar community in the world, covering the team’s preparations for and participation in the 2013 BABE Rally. Through Dave Zatz’s (the editor) kind efforts, literally thousands of Mopar fans have been able to ride along vicariously with the team in the 2010, 2011 and 2012 BABE Rallies.

Allpar.Com’s coverage even netted an additional classis Mopar team for the 2012 BABE Rally — the awesome Team LooVinLoonies and their equally awesome 1971 Dodge Dart. With the announcement that this year’s BABE Rally is the last and THOTC’s willingness to help fans who want to experience the rally live rather than vicariously, we and Allpar.Com are hoping this will be the year of utter BABE Rally Mopar Domination!

 

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Provisional 2013 BABE Rally route released!

The organizers have released a provisional route for the 2013 BABE Rally.  Why “provisional”?  In our experience that means the organizers have determined some of it may not be quite gruelling enough to satisfy their urges to inflict misery upon the participants and they are leaving the window open to find an even more difficult path.

(Well, actually, it means they haven’t quite nailed down all the details and are leaving themselves an out if they need to make a few minor changes. The organizers do suffer from such urges as described above, but rarely need to change the route to indulge them. 🙂 )

Read on for the gory details revealed thus far…

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BABE 2013… The good, the bad, and the ugly…

 

After much waiting, dates for the 2013 BigApple2BigEasy Rally have been announced!

BABE8, as it has become known affectionately as it is the 8th BABE Rally, will be run May 12-17, 2013. Even better, it will be starting in comparatively warm, sunny, and friendly Harrisonburg, Virginia!  The organizers have decided to eschew the traditional Big Apple starting point in favor of a less expensive and less frustrating alternative. The more southerly start will allow the route to spend more time in long-time BABE-favorite locales and to explore some intriguing side roads the organizers noticed their last time through.

 

Well, the inconvenient at any rate… Between the late announcement and the earlier dates, THOTC will have less than half the usual time to source, repair and make road-ready a classic Mopar. When the typical total disasters of vehicles the team typically selects and the sheer amount of time required to get them moving under their own power, this could put a bit of a crimp in the team’s historical style. While no decisions have been made yet, it is possible one of the team’s past steeds will be called back from vehicular Valhalla to bear the team to victory in BABE8.

 

While it has been rumored for a while, along with the announcement of the dates for BABE8 comes the news that this will be the last BABE Rally. The organizers have decided not to put the rally on next year, and will be focusing only on its European offerings. Though there may be a European rally in THOTC’s future and a BABE successor could potentially emerge in the U.S., it just won’t be BABE.

If you have enjoyed following the team’s adventures vicariously in 2010, 2011, and 2012 and ever have given thought to experiencing it yourself, THIS IS THE YEAR TO DO IT.

Stay tuned for additional news and updates as the team prepares to compete in the final BABE Rally and, as always, please pledge your support for the great charities we will be supporting!

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$2,835 pledged to American Diabetes Association and March of Dimes!

The final calculations are in, and our generous sponsors, families, friends and fans have pledged over $2,800 to two very worthy charities by sponsoring Two Horsemen of the Carpocalypse in the 2012 BigApple2BigEasy Rally!

We wish to thank our sponsors: Allpar.com, North Georgia Mopar Club, Pathfinder Advisors, Leverage Corporation, iVision, Paul Chambers Mopar Restorations and zAlt for their generous pledges. We also wish to thank all of our family members, friends and fans who also pledged generously.

Information about how individual pledgers can make their donations will arrive next week via e-mail. Sponsors who have not yet made their donations will be contacted individually by phone during that same time frame.

As always, please let us know once your donations have been made. As in previous years, we will be pleased to remind those who need it in a few weeks by appearing at their home or place of business in our Day 2 costumes. (grin)

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