Some car rallies will have you driving over 500 miles in one day! Our carefully planned route, tries to keep driving to around 6-7 hours per day. This gives you enough time to fully appreciate incredible roads like the Stelvio Pass, and superb attractions like the world’s longest toboggan run, and Ferrari and Lamborghini Museums. At the end of the day, you need to have enough energy to share your stories with other teams whilst enjoying a drink.
All the teams meet up for rally registration in Reims, France on Saturday 20th July 2024 from 7.00pm. Reims is a 3 hour drive from Calais, and is actually the home of Champagne. It’s a stunning city, with beautiful pedestrianised boulevards and lots of brasseries and bars. It’s the perfect location to meet your fellow Funballers, have a few beers and kick-off you rally adventure!
The Funball Car Rally starts at 9am on Sunday 21st July 2024, this is your chance to see the wonderful variety of cars taking part.
The first stop on our route today is the famous Reims Grand Prix Circuit. Established in 1926 as the second venue of the Grand Prix de la Marne. The circuit became known to be among the fastest of the era for its two long straights 1.5 miles in length, each allowing maximum straight line speed, resulting in many famous slipstream battles.
Next we travel on to Basel and check into our hotels. In the evening, all the Funballers meet up at the Rally Rendezvous for drinks and to talk about petrolhead pleasure at the Grand Prix Circuit!
Today you will take on not just one, but three, legendary mountain passes! The Grimsel and Furka are the first passes of the day, this pass was made famous by the Aston DB5/ Ford Mustang chase, in James Bond’s Goldfinger. The road is wide, perfectly smooth, and has some excellent tight hairpin turns. Stop at the Hotel Belvedere close to the top of the pass, and admire the stunning views and Rhone glacier.
Your heart barely has a chance to recover, before you have to deal with the Oberalp Pass. Often described as the most beautiful of all the mountain passes in the Alps, it's an absolute dream to drive on due to the superb smooth road surface. It has lots of wide sweeping turns lined with Alpine trees, the views really are a sight to behold. Stop for a break at the summit, there's a great restaurant there.
We travel on to Chur, which is Switzerland’s oldest city for the night. Again all the teams meet up for the evening to enjoy a luxury buffet and drinks and laughs together.
The Funball Car Rally just keeps getting better, as today a serving of the Stelvio Pass is in order. Described by Top Gear as the best driving road in the world, it certainly lives up to it’s reputation. Before we tackle this awesome pass though, we all meet up to have a blast down the world’s longest toboggan ride. At over 2 miles long, this really is not to be missed, after you’ve raced down the toboggan run, we’re off to take on another three passes. The first of the day are the Julier and Bernina, followed by the incredible Stelvio Pass. At 2757m, this is the third highest pass in the Alps, it’s also the most dramatic. With 48 sensational switchback turns running up the north face, the view back down will take your breath away. Make sure you take a photo of your team under the famous Passo dello Stelvio sign.
We all meet up on the shore of Lake Garda at a hotel with it’s own private beach! We’ve hired the roof terrace which overlooks stunning Lake Garda to enjoy a luxury buffet dinner together.
The last day of the Funball Car Rally is more relaxed, starting with an amazing drive along the shore of stunning Lake Garda, which is the largest lake in Italy. If you like, you can stop at Malcesine, and take the cable car which rises to 1760m in just ten minutes. On a clear day you can see the whole of the lake. There are lots of car parks along the shore if you want to stop and take some photos. From here you can head down to Maranello, to visit the incredible Ferrari and Lamborghini Museums if you wish. They’re both £12 each to get in, you get to see the £1 million 950hp La Ferrari, which is worth the admission price alone. You can also drive the latest Ferrari’s for around £100 if you want to live the dream.
From here we travel to our final destination of Venice. Often described as the most beautiful and unique city in the world. Venice is built on millions of wooden piles that have been driven in to the sea bed, and consists of 118 islands, 416 bridges and 177 canals. It has incredible architecture, superb food, and is simply magical. Visit the magnificent piazza San Marco, experience the vast history, and take a trip on an iconic gondola. There really is something for everyone.
We all meetup in the evening for our awards dinner to celebrate finishing the Funball Rally 2024. We hire a hotel rooftop terrace for your welcome drinks, which has one of the best views in Venice. You’ll receive a Funball Rally medal, wear it with pride knowing that you’ve conquered the world’s toughest roads, whilst having a brilliant laugh along the way. We all then enjoy a luxury buffet awards dinner, it’s here that we finish the Funball Rally in style!
We now offer an additional package that includes 2 extra nights of accommodation on the way back from Venice to the Eurotunnel at Calais. This package is limited to only 20 cars and you can add it onto the Petrolhead Package, we currently have 18 spaces left.
The Funball Rally continues as we travel in convoy from Venice to Switzerland, taking in the incredible Fluela Pass! We stay overnight and leave after breakfast.
We travel in convoy to France, on the way we tackle the awesome Susten and Klausen Passes! Again we stay overnight and leave together for the Eurotunnel after breakfast.
We all travel in convoy back to the Eurotunnel at Calais, it’s here that the dream ends!
