Two take up £100 rally challenge

The pair have spent less than £100 on the car

Two men from Kent are setting off to drive the 4,000 miles from Plymouth to Dakar in a battered 1992 Ford Escort that cost them less than £100.

Simon Cray, from Strood and Dan Sergeant from East Malling, are driving with more than 30 others across Europe and the Sahara to Senegal.

After the rally, which should take about three weeks, the vehicles will be auctioned to help charities in Africa.

The pair are also hoping to raise £3,000 for Yalding charity GamBLE.

Limited budget

Dan Sergeant said: "It's going to be difficult getting a two wheel car through the desert, across minefields and across Africa.

"It will also be difficult being together for three weeks."

The challenge was set up in 2003 as an alternative to the Paris-Dakar rally.

Aimed at people with a limited budget, the rules state that competing vehicles must cost no more than £100 and no more than £15 can be spent preparing them for the rally.

So far, rally competitors have raised more than £112,000 for charities in Senegal and The Gambia.