Meet The Reverend And The Car Designer Driving a 1949 MG From Glasgow To Monaco

Adam Gompertz and Craig Callum have made the brave decision to drive this tiny 1949 MG TC in the Rallye Monte-Carlo Classique, leaving Glasgow on January 30 and finishing in Monaco on February 3. Their aim is to open up and kick out the stigma attached to talking about mental health and to raise money for the OCD Action charity. Adam, a former car designer and now a Reverend and a motoring artist, has himself battled OCD. He’ll be joined by car designer Craig Callum, recently appointed as director of the National Transport Design Centre. The two of them are driving as part of the Blue Diamond Riley Specialists team, the company that specialises in Rileys and early MGs.

“OCD gets bandied around too much. It’s not an insult, it’s a real, life-altering condition,” said Adam Gompertz. “I feel, as men specifically, we don’t talk about our problems, including that of our own mental health. Being a Reverend, I try and help as many people as possible, but opening it up to people outside of my parish and including my second passion–cars–is something I’m really trying to do in 2019 and beyond.” Rather than simply being tidy, or something we might jokingly say we all have, OCD is characterized by disturbing intrusive thoughts (obsessions) producing anxiety which are alleviated only by repetitive actions (compulsions). It can leave sufferers isolated, trapped in an endless cycle of checking and double checking, of being a prisoner to the obsessions and resulting compulsions.

Follow the progress Craig and the Reverend make from January 30 as they leave Glasgow and aim for Monaco via Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, under #montyonthemonte. To donate, visit their Just Giving page.

Images courtesy of Blue Diamond Services