ROMANIANS AT MONGOL RALLY Romania's history of the rally - an ambulance, a Dacia and a fan turned team-member

"We miss being able to fix the cars with chewing gum and a baked bean can", and "If you're not lost you need to try harder" are just some of the statements that best embody the Mongol Rally, a road adventure created in 2004 that provides competitors with a start point and a finish line and no other indication.

The start of the rally is in London (July 20) or Prague (July 22) and the destination is Ulan Bator, in Mongolia. Between these two points in space, the teams coming from highly diverse countries will go through adventure, crisis and wonders, in a rally that has as a purpose raising funds for social causes. Mongol Rally celebrates this year "a decade of motoring stupidity", as the adrenaline-addicted organizers state on their official website.

In order to make the race more interesting, the rules do not allow the registration of off-road vehicles, the race being restricted to vehicles ill-suited for the attempt: city vehicles and various strange four-wheeled vehicles. Things can go bad, as the competition's motto anticipates: "if nothing goes wrong, everything has gone wrong", but the question to be answered by participants is "how wrong?" or "wrong in what way?". In 2004 six crews took part in the rally and in 2013 — 297. The Romanian side of the Mongol Rally adventure began in 2011 when five friends drove an ambulance to Ulan Bator.

The Paramongols
Photo credit: (c) Radu TUTA / AGERPRES PHOTO

The Paramongols team was formed by five friends from around the country coming from different professional background, united in their desire to do right when it's tough and where it's needed. Maria Enache, Florin Cobuz, Paul Budan, Gheorghe "Gigi" Bratu and Gabriel Herdean, after finding out what the Mongol...