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Alumnus conquers 7,450-mile Mongol Rally in battered £500 Clio

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A former ÎåÒ»³Ô¹Ï×îйÙÍø student and his friends have completed one of the toughest motoring challenges on the planet.

Food Technology graduate George Loftus, 27, now a senior development technologist at the Jones Village Bakery, teamed up with pals Tom Suter, Jon Fowell and Hua Ying Baker to take on the mammoth 7,450-mile Mongol Rally.

Along the way they overcame a catalogue of breakdowns including two broken axles and were even banned from entering Tajikistan because their car’s steering wheel on the “wrong side”.

The gruelling adventure took the team from Prague in the Czech Republic to Oskemen in Kazakhstan, crossing 15 countries in 43 days.

The rules were simple – cars must have engines no larger than 1.3 litres and each team had to raise at least £500 for the environmental charity, Cool Earth.

But the journey was anything but simple for the group who called themselves No Half Sends – a slang term for no half measures. Their £500 Renault Clio 2009 Sport Tourer – already boasting 138,000 miles on the clock before it even left home – took a battering.

Its rear axle snapped on the Turkish-Georgian border and the team was forced to strip out the back seats to lighten the load and give the struggling motor a fighting chance of reaching the finish line. The lads had to wave goodbye to the trusty Clio at the end of the rally because repairs had drained their budget, leaving them unable to ship the car back to the UK.

George, who lives in Shrewsbury, said: “It was sad to leave the car behind but it’s gone to a good place.

“At the finish line there was a local businessman who was accepting cars from people who said he was building a museum out of all the rally cars that took part.

“Hopefully in a few years when the museum is finished we’ll be able to go back and see it again.”

Around 130 teams took part in the challenge this year and one high point was when the team drove to Cappadocia in Turkey, a renowned site for hot air ballooning.

 “In the interests of time and saving money, we didn’t go up ourselves, but if I was there on holiday I probably would have done it,” said George.

Another high point came even before the rally began when he and Tom drove on the world famous Nurburging in Germany on their way to the rally start point.

As well as raising money for the Cool Earth charity, George’s team supported five other charities in their sponsored drive, Lupus UK, the Stroke Association, Grinshill Animal Rescue, mental health charity BEN support for life, and the farming charity RABI.

They have launched a for those five charities and have so far raised £1,750.

Village Bakery CEO Simon Thorpe was full of praise for George and his three motoring mates. He said: “George is a hugely capable and resourceful young man whose problem-solving skill were subjected to the severest of tests.

“It’s no surprise at all that they managed to reach the finish line in style and they have raised a lot of money for good causes in the process.”