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Team 'Delft Dustbusters'
Michiel van der Meulen, Mark Hoekstra,
Steven Quaak & Egbert Pot The
Amsterdam-Dakar Challenge
is similar to the
Plymouth-Banjul Challenge, and like it, actually ends in Banjul rather than Dakar!
There were several teams taking part in both Challenges who decided
to help Pageant. For more information see our
2005/6 Challenge
Page.
The cost of Amsterdam-Dakar Challenge cars must
not exceed 500 Euros, and extra tuning can cost no
more than 150 Euros. At the end of the challenge, each car must be
donated to a Gambian 'good cause'. The Delft Dustbusters - Michiel van der Meulen,
Mark Hoekstra, Steven Quaak and Egbert Pot - were all aerospace
engineering students at Delft University in the
Netherlands. They were in Group 1, and left
Amsterdam on 5
November 2005. The
official route was
from
the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, on the south side of the Straits of
Gibraltar, through Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal to
Banjul in The Gambia.. Obviously the teams had to drive through
Belgium, France and Spain first, a challenge in itself!
The Dustbusters had acquired
a 14 years old Renault Trafic van, with a 2.1 litre diesel engine. After seeing the Pageant website,
Michiel and his friends decided to donate their van to Pageant
at the end of the challenge. However, there was a change of plan!
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the Renault Trafic van |
the Volvo |
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Many vehicles fail to
make it to Banjul, but Team Dustbusters' Renault Trafic van
failed to make it to the start! The garage where the van
was being prepared, declared it a total loss, and the team
had to look for an alternative vehicle.
They found a
new car for just 175 Euros, with literally days to go. This was a
Volvo 740 saloon with a 2.3 litre injection engine. It had
heated seats, electric windows, but with failing air
conditioning.
(all pictures on this
page have been taken from the Dustbusters website) |
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the Volvo in the desert |
They reached Banjul on 24
November 2005. On their return to the Netherlands, they made a
donation of 1500 Euros to Pageant.
More Delft Dustbusters Information
Amsterdam-Dakar website for
general information.
Dustbusters
website - (click on the Union Flag
for the English version)
pictures -
Photos taken during the journey.
daily news - Day-by-day news in Dutch.
(try
Babelfish translator to turn
it into English)
See our
2005/6 Challenge
Page for more information about
other teams who took part in the Plymouth-Banjul 2006 and Amsterdam-Dakar
2005 Challenges.
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