Mongol Rally 2024

The Mongol Rally thunders 16.000 kilometers (10.000 miles) across Europe and Asia's mountains, desert, and steppe each summer. There's no backup, support, or set route; just you, your fellow adventurists, and a tiny car you bought from a scrapyard for 50 EUR (more or less). If nothing goes wrong, everything has or will go wrong.

Bollocks to tarmac, ABS, and gadgets that help you find your navel. The Mongol Rally is about getting lost, using your long-neglected wits, raising shedloads of cash for charity, and scraping to the finish line with your vehicle in tatters and a wild grin smeared across your face. Neither your car nor your life will ever be the same again is what the rally promises.

If it ain't broke, break it.
A Mongol Rally car should be 1000cc, ideally less, because it's not always easy to find a car with an engine that small these days we may overlook any car up to 1.2 liters. But seriously, no bigger. There are very few rules on the Mongol Rally, but we are somewhat persnickety regarding the matter of vehicles.

You must bring the shittest rolling turd of a car you can find. Use a car you swapped for a bag of crisps. Seek out a steed that most people wouldn't even use for the weekly shop. Better still, come along on a scooter.  

After all, an adventure is only an adventure when things go wrong. Where in the name of Uranus would the fun be in cruising 16.000 kilometers (10.000 miles) in a 4x4? If you look at your vehicle and think, "This is the right car for crossing a desert," you've got it badly wrong.

The Unroute
Knowing where you're going is boring. The Mongol Rally follows the "unroute" ethos: you go where you please. Adventure doesn't happen following a nob with a flag; It happens when you're lost.

The organizers are hoping you could go your own way, make it up as you go along, improvise, and get lost. They won't tell you where to stop, where to visit, where to stay, or what to do. Their only job is to tell you where the finish line is and wait for you to become a battered but better person.

Reality can occasionally scupper this idyll. Visas will need to be pre-planned if you intend to go to certain countries, but on the whole, you can pretty much wing it, and for those of you who live out that idea, we salute you.

The rules of the Mongol Rally are gloriously simple
1. You can only take a farcically small vehicle (Cars: 1ltr (1000cc) or less // Motorbikes: 125cc or less)
2. You're entirely on your own
3. You've got to raise a minimum of 500 GBP for charity

How to participate
It's as easy as filling out a form and getting everything needed, such as a car, visas, a planned route, and a big wallet filled with cash. On a serious note, however, it's not cheap, but you can get a spot on the starting line for 795 GBP (car) or 375 GBP (motorbike). You need a car and all the other things needed to reach the finish line sometime after the start outside of Prague, Czech Republic. Expect 3-4 weeks before you finish, if you need to take time off work.

2024 Dates
13th July: Launch Party
14th July: Launch Day
10th August: First Finish Line Party
17th August: Another Finish Line Party
24th August: Third & Final Finish Line Party & Closing Ceremony