Ideas for Roadtrip Challenges?

[Feathers]

As the title suggests, I'm looking for ideas.
First here's the background to my question...

I will head overseas in June to join some friends from another forum on a roadtrip from Helsinki, Finland to Oslo, Norway, via Nordkapp - the northernmost point of the European continent to which one can drive a car.
It is a trip of nearly 5000km.
We're planning on taking 2 weeks, and then jumping on a ferry from Olso to Kiel in Germany, before heading to a campsite near the Nurburgring for our annual forum trackmeet weekend.

There will be another group who can't do the main roadtrip, but who will be taking 3-5 days to drive around central Europe, before coming to the meet as well.

As the entire concept (and actually the forum itself), started in honour of Top Gear, and inspired by their epic roadtrips, I've decided we need some challenges to complete.
*Apart from all the cars actually making it in one piece, which never happens anyway (almost like it's scripted)*


~They have to be objectives both groups can complete, regardless of the fact we will be in different countries.

~Obviously anything obtained, or done, as part of the challenge has to be legal.

~The challenge will start when the second group depart their meeting point, so both teams have equal time to complete the tasks.

~If items are to be collected, then they should be relatively small, as we're looking at having a 10-12 people in 4-5 cars on both trips, and that's a lot of luggage, tents, spare parts, etc.

~Objectives will be given a points value, with some more difficult than others. However there will be room for discretionary points added during judging, for creativity/comedy value in completing the task.

The winners of the challenge will be decided by the remainder of the trackmeet attendees who do not participate in the roadtrips, so we will need to be able to provide evidence that the objectives have been met, eg. photos, video, collected items.

I think I've covered almost everything...now I just need ideas...so if you can think of anything, please post it up!

[Stefan]

Umm what type of cars are you using? bought, rented? are you trashing the cars?

Most challenges in Top Gear require closed tracks, result in ruining the cars beyond repair and are based on car type ie they all have a similar car like $1.5K Porsche challenge, the 10K supercar challenge, saloon challenge, 4wd challenge...etc.

No point doing a performance challenge when one guy has a 10K car and everyone else has 500 dollar cars.

First challenge needs to be based on the type and the budget of the cars themselves.

[nuthin' fancy]

See who can buy the smallest object that expands to the largest object (a tent, for example).

If you have access to an open area, a pairs event to guide the driver through a witches hat obstacle course whilst blindfolded.

A contest to see who can change a wheel the most quickly.

What a great trip. I remember a Reader's Digest book my parents had called "Cape Cold to Cape Hot" where in the 1950s Richard Pape drove a Vanguard from Nordkapp (Cape Cold) to Cape Town (Cape Hot).

[MercurySilver]

U have to buy a fridge magnet from each town and put it on the outside of the car.

[hawkgirl]

see who can tie a lolly snake in a knot entirely with their tongue, while inside their (own) mouth.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by Feathers

~If items are to be collected, then they should be relatively small, as we're looking at having a 10-12 people in 4-5 cars on both trips, and that's a lot of luggage, tents, spare parts, etc.

~Objectives will be given a points value, with some more difficult than others. However there will be room for discretionary points added during judging, for creativity/comedy value in completing the task.

Unedited Photographs of you in front of some sand dunes in Scandinavia.

[Stefan]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

Unedited Photographs of you in front of some sand dunes in Scandinavia.

A picture of you and your car with something uniquely Australian, but not brought in by yourself.

Or

Buy something Australian for under 10 dollars, must provide receipt as proof of purchase.

[Feathers]

Originally Posted by Stefan

A picture of you and your car with something uniquely Australian, but not brought in by yourself.

Or

Buy something Australian for under 10 dollars, must provide receipt as proof of purchase.

The guys would just go for vegemite....

Originally Posted by Stefan

Umm what type of cars are you using? bought, rented? are you trashing the cars?

Most challenges in Top Gear require closed tracks, result in ruining the cars beyond repair and are based on car type ie they all have a similar car like $1.5K Porsche challenge, the 10K supercar challenge, saloon challenge, 4wd challenge...etc.

No point doing a performance challenge when one guy has a 10K car and everyone else has 500 dollar cars.

First challenge needs to be based on the type and the budget of the cars themselves.

The cars will all be people's actual daily drivers. We looked at doing a cheap car challenge, but cars can only be scrapped in the EU country that they are registered in. So if a $1000 Finnish registered car dies in Norway, or once we get to Germany we can't scrap it, and it would cost more than the car is worth to get it taken back.
By using their regular road cars, if (when) the cars breakdown, their insurance covers the cost of recovering the vehicle back to their home.
-On the 2012 trip, none of the 3 Finnish cars made it to the Nurburgring. They all ended up being delivered back to Finland from their various dump points in Germany/Austria/France on the same truck.
-During the 2013 road trip 2 cars had wheel nuts come loose/fall off completely and wheels start to part from the vehicle.. A fairly new M3 BMW got gravel in it's brake rotors, the infamous V12 BMW belonging to a forum member overheated many times.
Last year he bent a wheel rim...oh and they bought a poo coloured Zastava from a town in Croatia. Along with the guys that got a convertible Suzuki Swift for the trip...
At this point, I think we nearly out Top Gear, Top Gear.

Originally Posted by nuthin' fancy

See who can buy the smallest object that expands to the largest object (a tent, for example).

If you have access to an open area, a pairs event to guide the driver through a witches hat obstacle course whilst blindfolded.

A contest to see who can change a wheel the most quickly.

What a great trip. I remember a Reader's Digest book my parents had called "Cape Cold to Cape Hot" where in the 1950s Richard Pape drove a Vanguard from Nordkapp (Cape Cold) to Cape Town (Cape Hot).

We'll have a bunch of tents already packed for the camping portion of the trip. For the most part we on the main roadtrip will be staying with people's family and friends, or in summer cottages in Lapland, but on arrival to the main meet we camp for a few days.
The guys on the smaller roadtrip will be camping the entire time.

The blindfold challenge is a good one too!

Originally Posted by MercurySilver

U have to buy a fridge magnet from each town and put it on the outside of the car.

I like that! By the time the challenge starts, our trip will be mostly over, so we'll be heading back into civilisation, rather than the remote wilderness above the arctic circle.

Originally Posted by GasOLane

Unedited Photographs of you in front of some sand dunes in Scandinavia.

Hahaha! slightly easier for us in Scandinavia than those who will be in Germany for the most part.

[39ClevoUte]

A photo in each place with known famous person. Most photos of "Big" things...eg like in Aus the big prawn, that type of thing. Selfies with the most (different types) of people in uniforms, higher the ranks = most points, eg tram conductor 1 point, police 2 points, army 3, air force 4, general 5, prime minister 10.

[Stefan]

Can you get Vegemite in say Germany? Never seen it there.

I thought it was a bunch of aussies, but it is local dudes...makes it hard for challenges. It is obviously harder for an Aussie to do stuff in Germany than it is for local guys.

That's the funny thing with top gear because the guys are in a foreign place.

[Feathers]

Originally Posted by Stefan

Can you get Vegemite in say Germany? Never seen it there.

I thought it was a bunch of aussies, but it is local dudes...makes it hard for challenges. It is obviously harder for an Aussie to do stuff in Germany than it is for local guys.

That's the funny thing with top gear because the guys are in a foreign place.

There are specialist shops for expats that do carry it.

People are coming in from various countries across Europe. There is a Brazillian guy and at least one from the US planning to attend.
The guys on the German trip will mostly be from elsewhere. Our trip will be mostly Finns, a Norwegian and myself.

It's why I was looking at more of a scavenger hunt type of deal, so that we can complete against the other team.
Much like the TG episode where they were in the hot hatches in Italy and had to collect a dog, a vine, a CD (without getting out of the car), that kind of thing...

So far I have: photo with emergency services (bonus points if a team member has handcuffs on if with police).
Also a photo with the recovery vehicle driver if your car has a catastrophic failure...

Most creative way to spell out James May's favourite catchphrase..