THEY’LL need a good toolkit and a whole lot of luck, but Beryl Walker and Dave Roberts are hoping to coax a £100 car all the way to Prague for charity.

The Wrexham couple are joining a banger safari on August 29 that will take them and their beaten-up Citroen Xantia 1,500 miles from Calais to the Czech capital.

They’re hoping to raise thousands of pounds for the British Lung Foundation in Wales.

Dave, 58, a farmer from Sontley, has spent weeks getting the 1994 vehicle ready for the challenge.

“The car was the old farm workhorse. We retired it at 170,000 miles but we’ve brought it back out of storage for this rally,” he said.

“It’s had new brake pipes, suspension and MOT, but the worst job was cleaning it, as you can imagine after years on the farm. It’s not bad now but the bumps and dents remain.”

Sharing the driving on the rally will be his partner Beryl Walker, 52, a health and safety executive with Wirral Primary Care Trust.

“She’s been trained to demolish chimneys so I’m sure she’ll be able to tackle anything this rally throws up”, said Dave. “I’m a former grass track racing champion myself and a mechanic too so that’ll come in handy.

“The hardest part will be driving through the Alps. It’s very demanding but I’m confident we’ll make it,” he added.

The rally is called Czechwrecks and there’s a good reason for that – all the cars taking part are worth under £100.

Dave said: “We decided to use the trip to raise money for the British Lung Foundation because it’s a very important charity and we’d like to make people more aware of it.

“It does a lot of good work in supporting people with lung disease and I know from first-hand because my uncle had emphysema and a good friend of mine suffers from asthma.

“We have raised £1,000 already and are hoping for lots more and we are inviting businesses to sponsor us in return for having their logos on the car. We are covering all the costs ourselves so money raised will go straight to the BLF.”

Sponsors, friends and family will be giving the couple a grand send off at the Fox & Hounds pub at Eyton on the evening of Tuesday, August 26. They will begin the rally at Calais on August 29 and reach Prague on September 1.

To sponsor the couple ring Dave on 07803 600487 or Beryl Walker on 07853 889554.