THREE charities are set to benefit when a team from a Bury firm get their teeth into a Top Gear-style “Bangers and Cash” car challenge.

Led by sales director Geoff King, the four-strong group from Pennine Telecom is set to drive across Europe in a 12-year-old BMW — bought for a mere £395.

They will be competing in the Gamma Ball Rally II, which will see them travelling more than 1,000 miles in the Y-reg estate car from Newbury to Budapest via Brands Hatch, Bruges, Warburg and Vienna.

The team will depart from Newbury next Wednesday and aim to arrive in Budapest three days later.

Along the way they will also complete four laps of the famous Nurburgring, a private motorsports track.

Despite visiting both UK and German tracks, the rally is not a race. Instead competitors will earn points by completing tasks set along the way.

They must tackle the journey in a car which they have bought for less than £500 and, if it breaks down, face the embarrassment of completing the trip in the official back-up vehicle — a pink Ford Ka!

The Pennine team’s participation has already ensured that two charities are £500 better off. The rally’s organiser — business communications and software services company Gamma — has arranged for all entry fees to directly benefit Action Through Enterprise, which helps starving Ghanaian children, and East Cheshire Hospice.

In addition, Pennine are seeking to raise more funds for Bury Hospice, which it already sponsors.

Mr King said: “It looks like a great challenge, one that promises a lot of fun, some potentially emb-arrassing moments and, whatever happens, it will raise a good deal of money for some excellent charities.

“We already support Bury Hospice and know the fantastic work it does, so this is the perfect opportunity for us to raise funds for them. We encourage our customers and suppliers to donate via our JustGiving page.”

The Bury team will compete as “4 Mancs in a Car”, with Geoff joined on the four-day challenge by operations manager Xavier Senelle, mobile business manager Steve Tipper, and Adam Brierley, a Manchester-based account manager for Gamma.

If and when they make it to the Hungarian capital, they will attend a gala prizegiving dinner and a “money can’t buy” charity auction.

They can then choose whether to tackle the return journey in their jalopy or have it recycled and instead fly back.

“I think we’ll play that one by ear,” Mr King added.

l To sponsor 4 Mancs in a Car and support Bury Hospice: visit www.just giving.com/Pennine-Telecom