A firm part of the motoring calendar, the Beaujolais Run allows for plenty of fun in the name of charity, writes Kevin Hackett
THE AVENUE leading down to the lights at the end is vast. In the distance all we can see is an ocean of headlamps and tail lights and we're heading towards them on an unstoppable course. Nowhere to turn around, there's no chance of doing a U-turn; we're careering towards a calamitous end as though in a canoe thundering along a fast-flowing river towards a deadly waterfall.
The sea of lights is the infamous, uninsurable Arc de Triumph and it's like some malevolent force drawing us inexorably towards certain death. Or at least a dented Jaguar.
I'm with my better half in the Tuesday evening Paris rush-hour - something I never wanted to experience - but this is all in a good cause. We're in Jaguar's brilliant XKR-S en-route to Mâcon. We're on the annual Beaujolais Run and we're lost already.
In our times of donating to charity online, or via some phone-in, it's easy to forget that you can raise serious amounts of money for good causes by rolling up your sleeves and having a really good time with like-minded people, doing something that inspires onlookers all around the world.
The Hackett (unfortunately no relation) Beaujolais Run is such a thing. Now a firm part of the motoring scene calendar, it all began in 1972 when a journalist at the Sunday Times called Alan Hall challenged others in Fleet Street to "Bring back the Beaujolais" with the winner gaining a case of the stuff and the kudos associated with being the fastest to Mâcon and back to Britain.
The Run has happened every year since with varying degrees of success, raising money for charity and bringing home the first of the Beaujolais harvest.
Three years ago the event looked like it was faltering and two previous competitors seized the opportunity to overhaul things, smarten it up, get some proper sponsors on board and offer participants an experience they'd never forget. Rob Bellinger and his delightful other half, Elaine Hart, both have regular day jobs but tirelessly work to make the Beaujolais Run the best event of its kind in the world, without earning a single penny from it.
Back to Paris. We manage to find a right-hand turn and narrowly escape the carnage, fortuitously driving past the British embassy where we're able to park up.
"Part of the fun of the event is you get to experience things money can't buy," Rob Bellinger had told me a few weeks back. One of them being a champagne reception in the most palatial surroundings imaginable with F1 legend Eddie Jordan.
Other experiences are dinner at Louis Jadot's Château des Jacques, a black-tie awards dinner hosted in the famous Galeries Lafayette department store restaurant (the entire store being closed to the public), and we've already knocked back the bubbly at Hackett's flagship store in Sloane Street. Hackett has been the main sponsor of the Beaujolais Run since it was taken over by Bellinger.
"Following on from our association with Aston Martin Racing, the Beaujolais Run offered us the opportunity to become involved in something less formal that had a kind of quirky eccentric British motorsport feel about it," says company founder Jeremy Hackett. "The idea of 50-odd cars of all shapes and sizes in a charity run, travelling down to deepest France to collect the Beaujolais Nouveau appealed . . . as long as I didn't have to drink the stuff!"
Each team pledges to raise at least €2,400 in sponsorship and it all goes to the nominated charities. There's also an entry fee for each team which covers their costs.
So what to drive? This year's featured marque is Jaguar, in celebration of 60 years of the XK model lineage, so there was really only one choice for me: the latest XKR-S. It has surreal comfort levels, but you can throw it into bends now and it doesn't wallow one bit. Instead it's focused, massively entertaining and, despite its spoilers, still looks utterly gorgeous.
The winner of the Run is the team that has covered the least distance between Paris and the final stop. The event is a good thousand miles and the XKR-S eats them up effortlessly.
On our way back to Paris after our night of revelry in the streets of Beaujeu, we travel north through spectacular scenery. The XKR-S comes into its own as a pair of Aston Martins play with us. This is the life: fast cars, stunning scenery, superb socialising and zero guilt because you're doing some good for worthy causes. Roll on 2009.
• For further information see: beaujolaisrun.com