Novice banger racers Gareth Parfitt and Jordan Paver drove 2,300 miles across Europe in two old cars – and spent six hours in a cell after being pulled over by police.

In their first ever banger adventure, the 20-year-old students made a mad dash from Yorkshire across France and Spain to Gibraltar, where they delivered packages to be taken to needy school children in Morrocco.

But their charity trip took a turn for the worse when a French policeman stopped them and impounded their two cars, a 1995 Mercedes estate car and a 17-year-old Volkswagen Golf.

Gareth, of Baildon, said the French authorities pulled them over just south of Lyon and questioned whether they had the correct documents for the old cars.

He said: “We had a slight issue with the French police – mainly because they didn’t like our documents – but after six hours in a French police station, they decided they were fine.

“None of us could speak any French and they spoke a little bit of English, but not much at all. We managed to communicate by speaking English slowly.

“It took a long time, but they suddenly got a phone call and decided to let us go.”

The trip started with a send off event at the Old Tramshed in Saltaire, before the pair set off last Tuesday.

They were joined by friends Jason Fowler and Andy Murgatroyd on the journey, which took them to Dover, on a ferry to Calais, then to Les Arcs in the French Alps.

From there, they headed for Valencia, Spain and drove down the coast to Malaga, where they met Baildon businessman, David Price, 40 and James Waggott, 34, from Leeds.

They picked up the bangers in Gibraltar before completing the second leg of the rally to Agadir, Morocco, which is expected to take just over two weeks.

When they get to Morocco, they will give boxes of stationery, collected by Gareth and Jordan from Glenaire Primary School in Baildon and St Oswalds in Bradford, to children at schools there.

Gareth said that, despite their run-in with the police and a minor oil leak, the European leg of the trip had run smoothly.

He said: “It was really good. We covered 2,300 miles and the mechanics were sound. The little oil leak needed fixing but, other than that, everything went fine and we’d love to do it again.”