FROM PLAYSTATION TO DÉGUSTATION: TOYOTA SUPRA ENTERS THE 2007 HACKETT BEAUJOLAIS RUN

The Toyota Supra takes on a new challenge this month: the ultimate Japanese GT car and icon of the Sony Playstation Gran Turismo game is swapping the racetrack and (virtual) mean streets for a fund-raising foray into rural France in the 2007 Hackett Beaujolais Run.

Team Toyota – driver Gareth Jex and navigator Phillip White – will be competing in Toyota GB’s classic Supra, finished in full Castrol racing livery. They will line up in a field of 59 distinctive, high-performance machines, departing from Goodwood race circuit on November 12. Speed is not the defining element in the challenge, however, with the ultimate winner being the team that records the lowest overall mileage. The journey to Macon, via a Champagne-sponsored stop in Reims, includes a navigation challenge with four cryptic checkpoints to locate. After the famous Beaujolais Nouveau celebrations in Beaujeu, the teams will head back to the finish at Goodwood on 16 November.

Gareth, 38, a design agency director from Farnham, and Phillip, 38, from Teddington, UK director of an international drinks firm, will be raising money for the event’s three official charities through sponsorship and advance sales of the wine. Two weeks ahead of the run they have already amassed more than £3,500.

“The Supra might not be the obvious choice for a traditional ‘booze cruise’, but it’s the perfect high-profile machine for this event,” said Gareth. “I doubt there will be a more instantly recognisable car on the run, given its worldwide fame through Gran Turismo, but there will be nothing ‘virtual’ about our efforts. We are out to win and raise as much money for charity as possible.”

The good causes benefiting from the run are: the Richard Burns Foundation, set up in memory of Britain’s former World Rally Champion to support sufferers of cancer and other serious conditions; Winston’s Wish, which works with bereaved children and their families; and the Down’s Syndrome Association.