THREE madcap motorists are plotting a journey with a difference - driving 4,000 miles across eight countries in a clapped-out car.

The trio of 24-year-olds, school pals Jon Dent, from Elswick Gardens, Mellor; Carl Holden, from Hollowhead Avenue, Wilpshire, and Jim Rogers, from Northcliffe, Great Harwood, will set off on their 21-day trip on December 26 as part of a charity fundraising adventure.

More than 150 cars will be taking part in the second annual Plymouth to Dakar Challenge from as far afield as Britain, Russia, the Netherlands and even Bermuda.

All money raised will be donated to handicapped children's charity, The Pilgrimage Trust, and Cancer Research UK.

As a rule of the competition, the three lads had to buy a car for less than £100 and spend only a few pounds preparing it for the journey.

They purchased a 1989 F-registered Austin Montego estate, with 71,000 miles on the clock in a local scrapyard for the princely sum of £45. The battered car, if it makes the trip, will be given to the Gambian Association for the Deaf and Hard Of Hearing (GADHOH).

Jon, a quality technician, said: "I read about the challenge in a motoring magazine and my friends said they were up for it, so it went from there. We bought the car from the scrapyard for less than £50 which gave us more some money to make it suitable for travelling in the desert, such as installing a bigger radiator and adding an extra cooling fan."

The route of the challenge will take the lads from Lancashire, through France, Spain, into Gibraltar, across the Mediterranean by hydrofoil, into Morocco, and down through Western Sahara, Mauritania and Senegal to the finish in The Gambian National Stadium, in Banjul. The three adventurers, who are pals from their days at St Augustine's High School, Billington, have managed to raise £1,500 for charity and are hoping local businesses and individuals will help them by sponsoring them.

Jon added: "We have even taped off the bonnet of the car into sections and are selling them off at £10 a square. We really want to raise as much money as possible."

Anyone wishing to find out more about the lads' challenge or sponsor them can access their web site, www.thefastandthedubious.co.uk, or e-mail them by writing to john.dent@hapeu.hitachieu.com