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- Student
- 03/07/2019
Eighty bonus points for HenK’s pink road trippers
This article is worth eighty points. Eighty bonus points for this dose of media coverage for the teams HenK and HanK, who will take part in the Budapest Rally next week. A somewhat recalcitrant bright pink Saab 9000 and an equally fierce pink Renault Scenic have to take the eight students of independent society HenK from Amsterdam to Budapest.
'Two thousand kilometers of pure driving pleasure,' preferably in an as original as possible four-wheeler, with some mandatory afterparties en route: that’s the Budapest Rally in a nutshell. If we have to believe the organization, participants will not just be treated to a memorable journey on Europe's most beautiful roads; the Budapest Rally is also a competition. For example, teams have to find different checkpoints on the route in seven stages and they can also earn points with various assignments (such as fixing this media coverage), Stijn Peeters of society and team HenK explains.
Teams are judged by, among other things, their overall appearance which is preferably in line with this year's ‘Back to the Sixties’ theme. For example, a bright orange, hysterically green or fierce pink car is worth an additional fifty points (score for HenK and HanK, who had their cars wrapped in the pink color of their society), up to eighty points can be earned with original team outfits and a flashing light on the roof of the car or a 'unique mounted horn with a beautiful sound' puts another twenty points in the bank.
Read on below the video.
Whether the extremely stylish yet illegal neon lighting at the bottom of the HenK mobiles will give the Eindhoven based team extra points is not yet clear. The personalized stickers that the society had printed, as well as the brand new Facebook page that was launched yesterday, sure do.
Fiat Multipla
The teams can also earn bonus points when they, for example, come with a specific old-timer or a ‘too ugly to be true’ Daihatsu Move or Nissan Cube. The ‘ultimate ride’, by the way, is the Fiat Multipla, rewarding the participants with a phenomenal forty extra points - but the men of society HenK unfortunately won’t get those. They were already content to have fixed two cars at a ‘fair price’, which could be tinkered with in the garage of society member Abby’s father.
That facility was necessary, because the Saab in particular turned out to be "a bit of a problem", Peeters says. A blown engine, new bearings, that kind of work - the Swedish beauty obviously does not just come to Hungary. The Renault Scenic also did not make the intended road trip go smooth, but with a new battery and fixed radio the future is promising. By the way, all the society’s members prefer to drive the Saab ("that's just a sicker ride") and therefore Peeters expects that the teams will keep changing who drives which vehicle on the way to Budapest - two teams, but one beating pink heart.
The men from HenK are taking part in the Budapest Rally for the first time. Peeters: “A friend from high school participated once a few years ago and I thought that was really cool at the time. At the start of this academic year I thought: why not participate with HenK as well? We are kind of shysters after all."
Not everyone was immediately on board, by the way, says the bachelor’s student of Sustainable Innovation: “It's quite an expensive trip. Participation, camping and food together cost around 420 euros per person. A major investment, but of course it is also a vacation of almost two weeks. We will enjoy the return trip as well; no stress, just chill.”
Poison green Trabant
For the winners of the Budapest Rally, apart from all the new memories and tall tales, a beautiful grand prize is at stake: a Trabant in a poison green shade, icon of the former USSR. According to Peeters, the Eindhoven based team would really like to win the rally, "although I wonder who of us will benefit from that Trabant. Of course we would like to earn a lot of points, but a cool week is the main thing for us.”
Stijn, Has, Rick and Arend-Jan (HenK) and Mark, Abby, Jasper and Niek (HanK) will depart from Amsterdam on July 13, together with around two hundred other teams. Columns of cars will also depart from Brussels, Paris and Lyon on and around that date. All teams will eventually meet in Budapest, Peeters believes.
What will be the hallmark of the Eindhoven based society on the event? “I especially hope that people see us as a group of cool guys. Maybe with a bit of a rude edge, but who know how to party."
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