Lads take on one of 'world's most dangerous roads' in £200 car
If you're faced with the task of driving a road known as 'one of the world's most dangerous', you'd probably want a pretty strong, reliable car, right?
Not if you're Niall Gray, apparently!
The adventure-seeker and radio presenter took on the hair-raising road with two of his mates as they embarked on a four-day drive across Europe - a challenge they managed to complete in a car that cost Niall just £200.
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Nicknamed 'Lightening McQueen' by the team, the 1998 Toyota Starlet was found on Facebook Marketplace and jazzed up with some lightening bolt designs before the group headed out on their adventure, with plans to drive through nine countries as part of the Two Ball Rally driving event.
Niall told LADbible he was hopeful the car would make through the challenge in one piece, but he didn't really have much confidence in it - especially considering it was almost defeated by a car wash.
"There was the world's biggest car wash in Germany. We thought, 'we're gonna have to take it through and see what happens'.
"Straight away, as soon as we started driving in, we just just forgot to put the windows up [...] because the car hasn't got aircon... So we just had to wind the windows down for this whole trip... So water started spraying in straight away.
"The car wash also broke the back windscreen wiper, so that was coming off, and there was a seal on the front of the car, around the actual windscreen, that was ripped off.
"The door started leaking, so that's always handy in a car wash. But it made it out, and the car still looked just as bad."
The old car obviously wasn't going to go down without a fight, and the drivers were faced with another challenge when they reached Italy, where they were faced with the Stelvio Pass.
Top Gear fans might be familiar with the sight of the windy road, which features in a number of lists for the scariest and most dangerous roads in the world.
It has an elevation of 9,045ft and features dozens of tight hairpin turns, all of which must be navigated while avoiding oncoming traffic.
Recalling his experience on the road, Niall said: "As we were driving up, there were so many other cars that were pulled over on these hard shoulders, bonnets up because cars had overheated, batteries died.
"[It's] super narrow. There's no defining lanes on the road. You've got to squeeze past each other going around these corners.
"It was so scary, because there weren't a lot of barriers either. So if you if you just went a little bit too far over to the right, you were sort of dropping off the mountain. I think that's why it's one of the one of the most dangerous roads in the world."
Footage from Niall's trip shows the group nervously navigating their way around the corners, but amazingly the Starlet made it to the end in one piece.
Not only that, but it successfully managed to carry the three passengers throughout all nine countries in the challenge.
The achievement earned the group the award for 'the car that [organisers] thought wasn't going to make it' to the end of the rally, and Niall couldn't be prouder.
He's considering putting the car into retirement now, but he's not done with challenges just yet.
"I think I'm going to have to buy a potentially worse car and go on an even bigger trip," he said.
All I can say is, good luck.
Topics: Cars, World News, Travel, TikTok
Emily Brown