Bangers and Cash, the UK's first art road show banger car rally is set to travel from Sheffield to Monte Carlo this September.

A number of rally car teams will take on the challenge, navigating the 1219 mile route in a car worth £650 or less - but each of these cars will also have a very special feature: its bonnet will have been hand-painted by an artist featuring a unique design inspired by the rally. Bangers and Cash will help tackle youth homelessness by raising valuable funds for Sheffield's youth housing charity Roundabout, providing shelter, support and life skills to young people (aged 16-24). Prior to setting off on their travels, the car bonnets will all be exhibited at Sheffield's beautiful Winter Garden throughout August 2018.

Ipswich artists Anne-Marie Byrne and Lois Cordelia are very excited to have had their designs selected for inclusion in the art car rally. Anne-Marie and Lois both frequently paint designs for public art trails around the UK - they met and became friends through Pigs Gone Wild 2016 in Ipswich. Anne-Marie's rally car bonnet design is called Van Go (sponsored by Horbury Group) and features her delightful adaptation of Vincent van Gogh's swirling style of painting to evoke the excitement of the car rally. Lois's design Imagination Can Take You Anywhere takes its inspiration from a famous quotation of Albert Einstein: "Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere", and celebrates themes of travel, transport and progress - at whatever speed - conveyed via dramatic silhouettes on a brightly coloured backdrop.

Lois's rally car bonnet has been generously sponsored by Steve and Carol Morris of Signs Express Sheffield, whose granddaughter helped choose the design from among those shortlisted. Lois has a reputation for being a 'speed-painter', working with a big brush, sweeping strokes and unusual canvases (often three-dimensional), but this is her first time to paint a design onto a rally car: speed-painting takes on a new meaning! But progress is more important than speed - especially in ending youth homelessness - and so the design depicts not only swift movers and high flyers but also those who move slowly and modestly, like the snail, or those who travel via the power of imagination and curiosity, like an astronomer observing the distant stars.

Lois will travel to Sheffield in late June 2018 to paint her design onto the bonnet of a red Ford Focus, ready for inclusion in the rally.

The Route

The Bangers and Cash car rally will start in Sheffield on Friday 21st September 2018, with the first overnight stop being in Brussels, Belgium. On Saturday 22nd September, the teams will travel from Brussels via Luxembourg and Strasbourg, to Lucerne, Switzerland. On Sunday 23rd, the rally continues via St Gotthard's Pass, Lugano, Lake Como, and Monza to Milan, Italy. On Monday 24th September, the teams will reach the grand finale of Monte Carlo itself, before going on to celebrate and enjoy a well-earned rest in Nice, France. On Tuesday 25th, the teams will head home towards Sheffield.

Following the rally, the car bonnets will be sold at auction in October to raise additional funds for Roundabout.

Below: a small excerpt of Lois's design Imagination Can Take You Anywhere featuring Lois's characteristic silhouette art style. N.B. Lois cannot reveal her full design publicly until the exhibition opens on 1st August.
Bangers and Cash Artist pack

And (below) a teaser of Anne-Marie Byrne's rally car bonnet design: Van Go (sponsored by Hanbury Group)






Roundabout