We’re so close to hitting our goal and we need your help!

$875 / $1000

Thanks to some very generous corporate and individual pledges, we are getting very close to our goal of raising a thousand dollars for two great charities. But we have only five days to go before the start of the 2013 BigApple2BigEasy (BABE) Rally and still need help to close the gap!  A $0.01 per mile pledge equates to a $15.00 donation and it wouldn’t take many of them to get us to our goal! If you have not already done so, please visit our Pledge page or use the Contact form to pledge your support for our two great charities.

Please remember that donations to these charities are tax deductible and both charities make a little money go a very long way to serving the needs of needy children.

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BABE8: The Field So Far…

Nobody actually knows which pieces of automotive detritus will show up at the starting line on Day 1 before it actually happens.  There are two reasons for this… First, not every team announces what they will be bringing in advance. Second, not every team that does announce what car they are bringing in advance will actually make it to the starting line.  There is a frighteningly high rate of attrition when trying to get 20+ year old, sub-$500 cars to move out of the driveway much less several hundred or thousand miles to the starting line of the Rally. However, some teams have announced their intentions and most of them have a history of making to the starting line (or catching up with the Rally a few days later) and so we have a sense for at least some of the craptacular vehicles that should be coming along for the adventure.

And craptacular they are!  In addition to our own 1969 Dodge Dart Custom barn rescue, a few of the more… interesting… vehicles expected  at the starting line include:

– a 1971 Ford C-750 Cab Over gas semi tractor

– a 1971 VW Beetle

– a 1974 VW Thing

– a 1978 Mercury Colony Park wagon

– a 1981 Lancia Beta coupe

– a 1985 VW Quantum Diesel (modified to run on waste vegetable oil (WVO))

Peruse the slideshow below to see some of the rust, duct tape and bailing wire holding together the remains of once-spectacular cars competing in the 2013 BigApple2BigEasy Rally!

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Something was missing from Dodge’s artwork… the official BABE Rally decal!

However, that has now been taken care of.  This is Dodge’s “good side” — the combination of an inexpert application and the large dent in the door over which the decal had to be applied left it serviceable but slightly less pretty.

(Many thanks to Misfit Toys member Jim Thwaite for the excellent vinyl.)

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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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Ah, memories… (They could be twins)

For anyone who cares to reminisce or catch up on THOTC BABE Rally history, every one of THOTC’s posts from the 2010, 2011, and 2012 BABE Rallies is available on our website at www.thotc.com.

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Dodge debuts at the Dunwoody Driving Club’s Friday Nite Lights event

Now that Dodge is all decked out, we needed to get in a little social time with potential fans. The Dunwoody Driving Club spring Friday Nite Lights event seemed like a good opportunity.  Some of the other participants were a little leery of Dodge at first and Dodge was a little shy, but soon enough everyone was getting along famously.

Please view the slideshow below to see photos of Dodge’s new friends. and friends.

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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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Dodge is all decked out!

As mentioned previously, BABE8 has a new wrinkle… a spec theme.  Where in previous years teams had leeway to decorate their cars however they saw fit, this year the organizers in their infinite… wisdom… decided to have all the teams decorate their cars within a single theme. With major points to be had – or lost – THOTC set aside its previous plans to one-up even last year’s zombie car and began puzzling how to transform Dodge into a “facsimilie of a recognizable famous rally car.”

Continue reading to see how we did!

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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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