The Longest Black Taxi Cab Journey Ever

Driving A Classic Car Around The World For Free

Performance Direct run a fantastic scheme designed to give you (yes YOU) free money.  Free money sounds far too good to be true doesn't it?  Well with Performance Direct's Non Standard Awards you really can get granted money, up to £10,000, for your automotive project. 

As long as it's an interesting idea, isn't dangerous and is achievable you really could win the needed funding.  The scheme has so far funded a diverse range of projects such as restoring such vintage vehicle's as the first British dragster, helping Duncan Mortimer to take his classic Mini Clubman around the world and providing the money to sponsor Practical Classics journalist Matt Jones to buy a classic 1978 Cadillac and drive across America - all for the same price that a holiday in Center Parcs would have cost him.  So as you can see there is little that we shy away from here at the Non Standard Awards.

Our most recent venture has been working with Paul Archer, Johno Ellison and Leigh Purnell who are also known as 'It's on the Meter' as they try to break the world record for the world's longest taxi ride to raise money for the British Red Cross - a worthwhile charity I'm sure you'd agree.  Their taxi, nicknamed 'Hanna' after the Ella Fitzgerald song "Hard Hearted Hanna" is a 1992 LTI 2.7 litre diesel FX4 which was once a common site across London but would now be defined as a classic auto, although the team have modified the car far beyond the original spec to include a winch, new electrics and radiator, as well as various other modifications to enable the taxi to take on the pending tough terrain.  The launch event on 17th February 2011 held at the London Transport Museum in Convent Garden saw a whole host of old London Taxi's from the 1940's, 50's and 60's come along to offer their support and form a convoy behind the 'It's on the Meter' team and 'Hanna' the taxi as they set off on their epic adventure.  This was right up our street as Performance Direct, one of the UK's largest specialist insurers, provide some of the best classic car insurance you can get.
 
The world record breaking journey will take the team through some potentially inhospitable area's;  Thus far the plan includes such places as Egypt, Libya, Iran, Pakistan, India and China.  The boys are relying upon the couchsurfing website to provide them with free accommodation on the sofa's of like-minded people as they work they way across the world towards their ultimate destination of Sydney, Australia.  The team are already well on their way and have taken it upon themselves to buy a nice china Teapot and cups so that they may share a real English cuppa with the people they meet.  The journey so far has taken them through Paris with barely enough time for the obligatory Eiffel Tower photograph, onto Amsterdam where the team accumulated some interesting stories to tell before getting the vehicle impounded in Berlin via bad parking and having to beg for her return. After heading over Europe's longest bridge into Sweden and onto Denmark they arrived in Finland just in time to meet Santa Claus, see the Northern Lights and to put the taxi into a snow filled ditch from which they needed rescuing.  They also met a couchsurfer who not only provided them with a place to stay and something to eat but also provided them all with snowmobiles to have some motor-based fun on.

As I finish writing this blog post the 'It's on the Meter' team are driving across Russia and are rearranging their route to avoid both Egypt and Libya which really needs little explanation as to why.  They have been on the road for 22 days, travelled 3265 miles, been through 9 countries, currently have the meter running at £6554.80p and have eaten 19 pancakes.  We, at Performance Direct, are proud sponsors of the 'It's on the Meter' team and their fundraising efforts for the British Red Cross.  

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