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Rick,
Some stockbroker lunatic came up with something amazing.
Plymouth-Dakar Challenge. Buy a £100 shitbox. Drive 4,400 miles through
Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania to The Gambia. No race. No prize. J
ust you versus the desert versus entropy. When you arrive, if... auction
the car for charity.
They've done this since 2003. Teachers. Plumbers. Office drones. Last year
a Suzuki Alto became legend. £50,000 raised. A Citroen died completely in
the sand, just abandoned it there. A Lexus got towed 700 miles to the wrong
border. Stretched limo in the Sahara because fuck it.
Network television is drowning in survival shows where nobody's actually in
danger and travel shows where everything's been focus-grouped into beige
submission. This is the antidote. It's the real descendants of those mad
cross-continental adventures when people just went, no support vehicles,
no medics on standby, just a roadbook, some duct tape, and the irrational belief
that a Fiat Uno can climb mountains. Because it did.
This isn't Top Gear safety, net bullshit. This is actual people having actual
breakdowns—mechanical, psychological, existential. Gibraltar film crew's already
embedded.
Network TV is drowning in fake danger and focus-grouped travel porn. This is the
cure. Real stakes. Real failures. You can't script a transmission dying in Western
Sahara. You can't fake the moment someone realizes their Omega limo was a mistake.
The documentary writes itself. But we need rights NOW. Before some asshole makes it
glossy. Before the Travel Channel adds a voiceover and indie rock.
Pitch video concept: Open on Plymouth—grey, drizzly England. Pan across the collection
of automotive disasters in the car park. No explanation. Cut to Morocco. Cut to the
desert. Cut to Mauritania at sunset with someone changing a tire while explaining
they're a pediatric dentist from Birmingham. Cut to the auction in The Gambia where a
painted VW Beetle sells for ten times its UK value and funds a school. End on a title
card: "They're already planning next year's run."
The film rights are probably available for nothing because the guy is too busy
organizing next year's logistics to worry about Hollywood. That's exactly why we
need to move now, before someone else realizes what they're sitting on.
We couldn't do it at eighteen. These people choose it. Every year. That's the
story.
In or not?
