TWO friends are putting their faith in an old car for a 4,500-mile adventure to raise money for two charities.Jonny Manning, whose family run Mannings Amusements in Felixstowe, and Dave Henderson are currently fine-tuning their car in preparation for a three-week drive from Suffolk to Africa.

TWO friends are putting their faith in an old car for a 4,500-mile adventure to raise money for two charities.

Jonny Manning, whose family run Mannings Amusements in Felixstowe, and Dave Henderson are currently fine-tuning their car in preparation for a three-week drive from Suffolk to Africa.

They will leave the county on January 10 and hope that the 1988 Volvo will take them through France, Spain, Gibraltar, Morocco, the Sahara, Mauritania and into Mali where they will finish at Bamako.

A rotary club there will then auction the Volvo with money going to local charities while the pair will be raising money from the trip for Macmillan Cancer Support and Water Aid.

Their entry in the car challenge is called Boxybutgood with the title taken from a line in the Dudley Moore film Crazy People.

Ken Wells, of K W Autos, Felixstowe, has been overhauling the car for the trip.

Mr Manning said: “We bought the car for £420 and it already has 190,000 miles on the clock, so what's another 4,500 miles?

“But people doing this challenge tend to break down a lot and so drivers tend to group together so that when things go wrong we can help each other out.”

They are both aged 29 and former pupils of Woodbridge School. Mr Henderson, who recently lost his job in banking in London due to the credit crunch, said: “For me this is a one-off challenge, it's not going to be a holiday, it will be an adventure.

“It is difficult to know what to expect but we are planning as best we can.”

They have been given discounted camping equipment by the Millets shop in Felixstowe.

Mr Manning added: “We will be camping along the way and Dave is taking Liverpool football shirts to spread the word about his team.

“I gather that the border crossings can take a long time and so we might need something to ease our way through - I could always take teddy bears from our arcade.”

He has an A-level in design and technology and he said that could come in handy when the estate car requires attention.

Details about making donations are available at their website www.boxybutgood.org