TEAMS taking on the Twin Town Challenge achieved the 'wow factor' as they launched their epic journey from Blenheim Palace to the French coast.

Smurfs, Men in Black, Hogwarts students, Power Rangers and dinosaur handlers were among those to make the trip to Witney's twin town of Le Touquet yesterday.

Before setting off on the fundraising challenge - which includes madcap games like blindfolded driving and car jousting - participants lined up their 100 movie-themed cars on the grounds of the Woodstock World Heritage Site.

Organiser of the event Brendon Cross said: "Everything went absolutely brilliantly. There was rain but it certainly didn't dampen our spirits.

"It was great to see everybody at Blenheim Palace in the morning. All the teams were really up for it and they all had smiles on their faces.

"It's quite funny the amount of people who see it and just say: 'Wow. I had no idea it was this big.'"

The cars, many of them blaring their horns and blasting music from their speakers, left the palace grounds shortly after 9am.

Witney MP Robert Courts and West Oxfordshire District Council leader James Mills were there to wave off the participants - the majority of whom were donning fancy dress.

Mr Cross said: "There was more lipstick on me in the morning than there ever has been in my life - and most of that was from blokes."

They were due to arrive in Le Touqut at around 5pm where they were to be greeted with an evening of 'celebration, fundraising and laughter'.

Along the way teams will take part in a wide range of challenges ranging from silly to outright ridiculous.

The challenges include attempting to grab a photo with a celebrity while en route and making a James Cordon-style carpool karaoke video.

Other challenges include car boxing and bowling.

Nick Jones is the managing director of Focus Oxford Risk Management, which, as well as entering a team into the event, is also insuring it.

Mr Jones said it was the event's charity that drew him to it.

The Twin Town Challenge 2018 hopes to raise £500,000 for charity SpecialEffect.

Based in Charlbury, the organisation helps make disabled feel included by developing specially tailored video game technology.

Mr Jones, whose car is based around the theme 'The Fast and the Focussed', said: "The whole event is just awesome. It's such good fun and great to be able to have that much fun while raising funds for such a good cause.

"It's amazing what Brendon has achieved through this event and we just wanted to be involved in the whole thing."

On Bank Holiday Monday the teams are expected to return to the country and arrive in Witney at about 3pm.

Follow the journey over the course of the weekend by following @twintown18 on Twitter.