Team Raebirds- Mysterybox Rally 2026

14/10/2026

The big girl is back home from BCV Mechanical after having a few things sorted!

Unfortunately we couldn’t get the A/C to work fully, despite the BCV team trying everything they could and replacing a few components, the rally gods just don’t want us to do a rally in comfort 🤣

A massive thank you goes out to the team at BCV mechanical for sorting the car out for us, if you are in the Beaudesert area and need some work done on your car, go see Eric, Amanda and the team!

We leave for the start line in 1 week, there is still time to donate!

https://2026.mysteryboxrally.com.au/raebirds

09/10/2026

2 weeks to go and we are looking good!

Donate now!
https://2026.mysteryboxrally.com.au/raebirds

27/09/2026

The excitement is building!
We are about 4 weeks out from starting the rally in Charleville, we can’t wait to see our close rally friends and make some new ones, not to mention have a few cold ones at some amazing country pubs along the way!
The car is still at BCV Mechanical getting some attention but shouldn’t be too far off returning to Raebird HQ.

Don’t forget to donate, every dollar raised goes to cancer research and you get a tax receipt with all donations $2 and over!

We are currently at $4092 and we would love to keep that number growing!

https://2026.mysteryboxrally.com.au/raebirds

Mystery Box Rally
Cancer Council Australia
RPM Dubbo
Hel Performance Australia Pty Ltd
Dynamic Wheel Co.

15/09/2026

Alright everyone, we are getting close now, only 5.5 weeks to go until we make our way to the start line in Charleville!

The big girl is off with BCV Mechanical at the moment getting the aircon re-commissioned (hopefully 🤞) as we think it could be a hot rally this year, this will be the first time in 5 rallies that we have had aircon, hopefully it stays working for the entire trip!

In this last stretch to the start line we are asking anyone that has promised they will donate or has thought about donating to please do so, there isn’t much time left!

All donations over $2 are tax deductible and you will receive a receipt from our donation page to help you with claiming your deduction, all funds raised go straight to Cancer Council Australia to fund cancer research.

A massive thank you to anyone that has donated already and to the businesses helping us get the car ready for this epic journey in the name of cancer research!

So what are you waiting for, donate now!!

https://2026.mysteryboxrally.com.au/raebirds

Mystery Box Rally
Hel Performance Australia Pty Ltd
Dynamic Wheel Co.
RPM Dubbo

19/08/2026

Our biggest day in Sh*tbox history!!

🗺️ Day 5 - Alice Springs, NT to Daly Waters, NT

922km total
922km sealed
0km unsealed

After over 1,000ks of corrugations, vibrations and a whole lot of red dirt, the teams are treated to a day (albeit a big day) on the tarmac! But just because there’s no unsealed roads today, does not make it an easy drive. It’ll take the teams all day (and potentially into the night) to get into Daly Waters, where a hearty meal and no doubt one or two cold ones will be consumed.

19/08/2026

What a massive day for the Sh*tbox Rally teams today, good luck to everyone, hopefully all the teams make it into camp at a half decent hour!

Our biggest day in Sh*tbox history!!

🗺️ Day 5 - Alice Springs, NT to Daly Waters, NT

922km total
922km sealed
0km unsealed

After over 1,000ks of corrugations, vibrations and a whole lot of red dirt, the teams are treated to a day (albeit a big day) on the tarmac! But just because there’s no unsealed roads today, does not make it an easy drive. It’ll take the teams all day (and potentially into the night) to get into Daly Waters, where a hearty meal and no doubt one or two cold ones will be consumed.

03/08/2026

Finally a successful test drive!
We took the car to the Oz Volvo Nationals event this past weekend, it’s always a fantastic weekend surrounded by fellow Volvo nerds!
Thankfully the car was flawless (enough) over the entire weekend, including the long drive to and from the event (Toowoomba, QLD to Sawtell, NSW) and got plenty of attention!
We even ran into a Sh*tbox Rally car, owned by Team Broken Humans, brought to the event by Taylor Hannan and his partner. It was great to chat about all things Box Rallies and Volvos, not to mention meeting these two legends!

Cancer Council Australia
Mystery Box Rally
Dynamic Wheel Co.
Hel Performance Australia Pty Ltd
BCV Mechanical
RPM Dubbo

28/07/2026

So it’s been a while…
Fixing the car has taken a little longer than expected, but we have the car running good again!
So the problem that occurred on our test trip was a failed undercar fuel pump (Volvos have 2 pumps, one in tank and another under the car), I ordered the replacement parts to convert it to a single intank pump the day after we got back and they arrived within a week!
Got to work converting the car to a single intank pump and all went fairly smoothly, until I started the car and it did not want to rev cleanly 🤦‍♂️
Started trying to diagnose the problem (without appropriate testing equipment of course, in true rally spirit!), spent far more time than I care to admit searching for the cause of the problem, ordered some testing equipment after going around in circles with the help of Neill from RPM Dubbo while he was in Toowoomba.
Long story short, low fuel pressure was the culprit, so I pulled the fuel tank out (again 😔) and discovered the hose (which I did not replace) from the pump to hardline leading out of the fuel tank had split in two places.
Replaced the hose (like I should have from the beginning) and put it all back together today with great success!

Don’t forget to donate!

https://2026.mysteryboxrally.com.au/raebirds

Mystery Box Rally
Cancer Council Australia
BCV Mechanical
Dynamic Wheel Co.
Hel Performance Australia Pty Ltd

06/07/2026

06/07/2026

The True Rally Experience!

Unfortunately our 5 day test run trip turned into a 3 day rescue mission 😔

We started our trip by going to fill up the fuel tank, upon returning to the car it would not start so had to head back home and replace the voltage regulator/brushes in the alternator, jump started all good charging again so off we went heading for Mitchell, QLD.

Few minor issues identified on the drive with plans to fix them at camp in Mitchell, then suddenly about 30km from our camp for the night the car just shut off!

Tried topping up fuel, just in case the gauge was lying to us and we were out, no good.
Couldn’t hear the undercar fuel pump working, all good we had another pump with us!
Unfortunately that pump leaked like a sieve once fitted and we were running out of daylight.
Decided to tow the car into camp for the night and call our rescue team (Ma & Pa Rae) as we were unlikely to find the parts we needed in the small town of Mitchell.

Rescue team arrived Saturday night and stayed the night for our journey back home on the trailer on Sunday.

Have decided to delete the two pump system and go to a single in tank fuel pump that is more reliable and easier to get if it does fail again, parts have already been ordered!