Best friends Chris Turner, Craig Lapine, Tom Osenton and Ryan Orton converted a car into Scooby Doo’s Mystery Machine for a surprise stag do and banger rally

by Rebecca Hughes

When a man is about to get married, he relies on his mates to come up with something different for his stag do.

And Ross Bradley's best friends did just that.

The bunch transformed an old banger into Scooby-Doo's Mystery Machine for a surprise stag rally raising funds for a cancer charity.

The five friends, from Medway, donned the disguises of the famous group of ghostbusters and set off on a 2,000-mile banger rally for The Prostate Cancer Charity.

The group came up with the idea because 25-year-old Ross, pictured left, looks like the Scooby Doo character Shaggy.

Their undercover mission is one Scooby-Doo and his pals would have been proud of.

Best man Craig Lapine, 25, Ryan Orton, 24, Chris Turner, 24 and Tom Osenton, 25, bought the 1996 Volkswagen Sharan VR6 for £500 three months ago.

Since then, they've been hiding it in a field and have spent about 50 hours transforming it into the iconic Mystery Machine after Strood-based company Press On donated the themed vinyls.

Chris, of Coombes Farm Lane, St Mary Hoo, will be dressed as the character Daphne during the trip.

He said: “We have always said Ross looks like Shaggy and for years, we’ve got him something Scooby-Doo related for his birthday.

"A banger rally is something we've always wanted to do, and we had to organise a stag do for Ross so decided to do this. He didn't know anything about it and we've been hiding the car from him for three months."

But the boys have had a few close calls with the groom almost finding out.

Chris said: "Craig left his iPad lying around and Ross was flicking through the pictures and saw it before we decorated it.

"Then he was upstairs in my house looking out of the window and if he looked hard enough, he would have seen the bright blue roof in the middle of the field."

The boys, nicknamed The Herberts, will spend a week travelling through France, Switzerland and Italy before heading home.

Chris said: "We have never been so excited about anything before."

The Herberts are hoping to raise £2,000 for Prostate Cancer.

To sponsor them visit www.justgiving.com/HerbertMachine.