The MGF Register Forums

The Arctic Circle Run

Friday 1st Februray, 12:00 midnight!

I've been talking about doing this for a couple of years now and i was reminded of it last night at the ER meet, so i've decided to do it!

The idea:
We all know the M25 is a right poxy bit of road, i had an idea a while ago that might make it a bit more fun to drive.

A complete lap of the M25, with the roof down, at midnight, mid-winter!

The details:
Start at Thurrock Services, end at Thurrock Services, going anti-clockwise. It'll be a staggered start, and is not a race - although i am proposing to regroup at Junction 2 so that we can all go through the left hand bore of the Dartford Tunnel together (to make some noise - need to get some value for money out of the toll! ).

And that's pretty much it. There'll be no organisation or route books, just turn up around 11:30pm, hood down (no hardtops!) with a warm coat and wooly hat and we'll set off from midnight for (hopefully) a traffic jam free circumnavigation of the countries' capital city.

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Add your name to the list if you are interested:

Andrew
Emma
Bart

What happens if it rains? are hardtops aloud then?

No Paul - I think Andy's point is to do it topless come rain . snow , moonshine or whatever - however if we do it I've just worked out we'd have to go twice around the M25 I think to start and finish at Thurrock as it's diagonally opposite you and me !.

I'm on nights so won't be able to do it but I'll try and distract the Motorway room when you're south of the River !!

Hi Andrew,

This looks like a fab run and it would be really nice to see you & catch up as it's been quite a while.... However I'm away in St Lucia then so won't be able to come along.

Good luck with the run & sorry to miss it, look forward to seeing you soon.

Angela
xx

Hi all, to respod to some questions...

1 ) Yep, hoods down even if it is torrential rain! In fact, the more inclement the weather the better i reckon - it'll keep us awake! The only valid excuse to raise hoods is a jam (not too bad whilst moving, but stationary in the rain is no fun at all).
2 ) I chose Thurrock to Thurrock as it was convenient for the ER crew & it gives the Dartford Tunnel as a 'finale', however any of the three main services could be used as a start / finish point - it'd be kinda cool i reckon to do this every year, maybe linking up with the Herts group too and have three concurrent rallies at the same time, starting/finishing at Thurrock, South Mimms and Clackett Lane - could even do it as a relay, picking up people as we go, that'd be good too.

5-10 F/TFs waiting in Clackett Lane when the Thurrock group turn up, with the South Mimms group and all three groups set off together - all would do the tunnel as one, then the Thurrock group would finish, followed by the South Mimms lot leaving the Clackett Lane group to finish on thier own. The South Mimms and the Clackett Lane group would also get to do the other two tunnels (Holmesdale by the A10 and the other one by the M11) togther. Could be fun i reckon, but maybe a bit of a late start/end for the Clackett Lane party.

I'm really just trying to prove it works as an idea this year - i think it'll work, but have no idea what the timing will be, or if we are (as intended) going to miss the traffic. They do roadworks at this time of night on the M25 so there is a chance we'll get snarled up in that, but it's a lot less likely that during the daytime that's for sure!

Anyway, you are all more than welcome to come along - it's going to be pretty informal (although i may do some free rally plates as a memento, depends on numbers of participants) and if it works, then maybe next year we can expand it with some of the ideas above.

Sounds great fun - would love to do it, unfortunately I am going to be stuck in Swindon working! May be next year!

Great idea for a drive.
I'd come along (even in the wrong car) but coming from West of the M25 it'd mean driving it twice in effect - half way round to get to the start, once round to do it, then half way round again to get home again - all in all about a three hundred mile round trip

yes i think if we were going to do it we would have to find a start point this side of london.

Would have been interested if the loop would have started this side of the M25....

Would be a 400mile evening out for me !!!

I've figured out that i'm going to do the Dartford crossing at least 7 times this weekend!

After work i'm driving to Emma's place - 1x over the bridge - kerching!
Then Emma and i are going to Thurrock - 1x through the tunnel (2 cars, although i only pay for one of them!)
We then go on the ACR, finishing with another trip through the tunnel - one more toll...
Afterwards, we head back to Emma's place - again, another toll.
Saturday, i am helping Adrian track down a rattle in his F, a trip each way - 2 more tolls.
Then on Sunday i return home - another toll!

7 tolls total - good job i have a DartTag

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Weather report looks like being very cold with an outside chance of the odd snow flurry - bring your thermals!!

If anyone is thinking of joining us from the SEF, we leave Thurrock at 12 sharp

How'd it go then Andy ? It was a cold night. I was up until 8am and it was darned chilly ! New MGF register Benny Hats would have been essential.

TimM wrote:New MGF register Benny Hats would have been essential.

Don't you mean "Beanie" hats, Tim? The Morris typo strikes again...

Then again... maybe not!

Ah... now it depends if you were a fan of Crossroads or not - if so then they are "Benny" Hats after the amiable character who always wore one.

In my day they were just "bobble" hats after the wooly bobble or pompom that was often found on top of them and now seems to have disappeared altogether. I believe that the term "beanie" is a bit of an amercanism deriving from the slang term of "bean" meaning head from the early 20th century.

We could also call them Whoopee hats, wooly hats , dinks, tuques, toques, watch caps, knit hat, sock cap, skull cap , skully, ski capor, ski cap, sipple cap , monkey cap or perhaps a snookie ! Amazing what you can find on the internet and a little sad that I bothered to actually research it !! Oh dear.

Midnight, Friday 1st February, Turrock Services - Weather forecast, snow flurries!

4 MGFs line up for the first annual Arctic Circle Run.

The first thing to say is that it was flippin' freezing! I had a thick leather coat, a fleece and a T shirt on, with thick gloves and an F-Register beanie hat to complete my ensemble and yet i was perishingly cold – whose crazy idea was this anyway? Err, that’d be me then!

My fellow Artic Circle Runners (a.k.a. mad people) were Michael and his wife, Emma & Jaime and Garry, ah yes, the hardtop… Although not in the spirit of the run, it was so damn cold and only four cars were there so we turned a blind eye to it (actually mine was frozen shut! - in truth I don’t think any of us there weren’t secretly jealous of them in their snug cabin!)

Around midnight we set off, the M25, cursed and blighted road of despair, beckoned us…

The idea behind the ACR was simply to try to make the M25 even a little bit enjoyable to drive – turn an appalling road into something fun. And in this regard I think we succeeded admirably – it was practically disserted the entire way round and for the first time ever on this road, driving at the speed limit was possible – a real novel experience I can tell you and after the many lost hours stuck in one jam or another on this motorway the grin appeared on my face in no time at all and remained for the entire run.

However, the cold was a real issue for me in the early stages, my extremities were really feeling it, although my core temperature was perfectly fine. As we came to the two tunnels on the Essex stretch, I realised that we had covered 20 miles or so, or a sixth of the lap completed and I decided that I could put up with the cold for the remaining 5/6ths – with this decision made it ceased to be a problem for me, a psychological effect I suppose. Once I stopped concentrating on the temperature it became less important.

South Mimms services and the M1 came and went, then the Aylesubry turn off with no sign at all of the usual jam. The ‘Peas’ viaduct was shrouded in the darkness after the street lighting ran out and then the M40 exit was passed and we were onto the Heathrow stretch and the halfway point loomed closer and closer.

This stretch of the motorway has multiple lanes and there was ample opportunity for some Top Gear style, one car in each lane all on a row formations – great fun, and surprisingly tricky to keep lined up

Into the Home Counties South and heading for Gatwick, 3 Fs headed into the starry night with slightly mad, frozen smiles on the driver’s faces – the miles clicked away and pretty soon Clackett’s Lane services were passed and we were onto the homeward leg, and it was here that we encountered our only real problem…

For some months now they have been digging the M25 up at the A2 junction and although we were never in a jam, we were sadly diverted off the M25 for a junction, ruining the goal of a complete lap, but I suppose giving a good reason to do it all again next year.

Back on track and through the Dartford tunnel making a right racket! Quality

And then it was over, 120.6 miles later we pulled into Thurrock and said our goodbyes – a crazy thing to do, but a fun one never-the-less – Emma and I headed back to the crossing and the Kent countryside – hoods still down of course!

Thanks to my fellow mad people – you are crazy, but then, no one is perfect!

Glad it all went well, Andy, and thanks for the excellent report. I enjoyed reading it - from the warmth and comfort of my home!