24 Hours Of Shitbox: 18 Nation Sprint

Two nights across eighteen countries in twenty-four hours, self-guided, starting on the Czech, Slovak and Polish border.

The record for the most countries driven through in a single day stands at eighteen, and this event exists to do it in cars bought for next to nothing, for no better reason than that it might be possible.

The field assembles in Czechia on the first evening, at a hotel near the point where the Czech, Slovak and Polish borders meet, which is the only sensible place to begin a run of this kind: central Europe is where the borders are closest together. The following morning allows time to buy food for the road before the group moves to the starting point in Poland, and the clock then runs for twenty-four hours. Doing it means crossing a great deal of Europe without stopping for anything beyond fuel, which is less about speed than about not breaking down and not getting lost, in that order.

The entry is priced by team, with the hotel night before the start included for the whole crew: €300 for a team of three and €400 for four, and an early-bird rate that has sold out. Registration for this edition has closed, so anyone interested should ask the organisers about the next running. Late October is the date. There is a group for entrants to join once registered, which on an attempt of this kind is worth using: route planning matters more here than on any other event the organiser runs, and the crews who have done it before know where the border queues form.