The Fiat Panda's Unlikely Rally Journey
It's me, Mark Stone, and in this episode of the Backseat Driver Podcast, I take a look at the remarkable journey undertaken by rally drivers Anthony Harrison and Marcus Pomfret as they navigate the Desert Trophy event in Morocco using their Fiat Panda.
I talk to them about their experiences in the challenging terrains of the Moroccan landscape, characterised by both camaraderie and competition. We explore the unique challenges they faced, including navigating unmarked routes and adhering to strict speed regulations, which ultimately tested their skills and perseverance.
Our discussion encompasses the logistical considerations of participating in such an event, underscoring the importance of preparation and teamwork.
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Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker B:Yes, it's me, Mike Stone and this is the Backseat Driver podcast.
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Speaker B: -: Speaker B:I'd like to introduce the Backseat Driver radio show.
Speaker B:Two fine fellows.
Speaker B:Why do I say that?
Speaker B:Because they are chaps after my own heart.
Speaker B:They are lovers of the Fiat Panda and everybody knows I love my Fiat Pandas.
Speaker B:So without further ado, and before we start chatting about why they, like, fear pandas, I'd like to introduce Anthony Harrison and Marcus Pomfret.
Speaker B:Gentlemen, welcome to the Backseat Driver.
Speaker A:Hello.
Speaker A:Hello.
Speaker C:Thank you very much.
Speaker B:Now, before we get into your Panda obsession, I mean, you both are rally drivers of, shall we say, you've been at it for a bit, haven't you been.
Speaker A:Been having a go at it for a while.
Speaker A:Yeah, I started in competing in about 96.
Speaker A:Yeah, I've been spectating right through the 80s.
Speaker C:Really?
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:My brother's a little bit older than me and he, he got me into it.
Speaker A:Took me out of school, went to watch the Lombard RAC Rally when it were a proper one, when he was a proper one year.
Speaker A:And we just progressed from there really.
Speaker A:And a little bit of 12 car rallying.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Why not have a go at stage rallying?
Speaker A:And it just, it snowballed and snowballed.
Speaker D:Really?
Speaker B:I mean, what, what were you driving then?
Speaker A:So started off Talbot Sambas.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Ernie Latin led motorsport.
Speaker A:Oh, yes, yes.
Speaker B:Past the guest.
Speaker B:You heard it?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Built a fabulous engine in one of the.
Speaker A:The cars for me.
Speaker A:So I did a lot of night rallying in that.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then.
Speaker A:But my real love, and his love as well is a Mark 1 Escos.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So I've had a lot of make for this one Mark twice.
Speaker A:Some of them haven't any.
Speaker A:Well, some have Come out of Gisborne Forest needing a new body shell.
Speaker A:Yeah, I still own one.
Speaker A:I still own.
Speaker A:I've got Mark one, Mexico, Pride and joy.
Speaker A:And we've basically done local forest rallying is really what my.
Speaker A:My love is of the gravel and sideways and stuff.
Speaker A:I'm not very good.
Speaker A:I can go sideways, I can wave at spectators, but I'm not that good.
Speaker A:And I got to know Marcus through taking photographs.
Speaker A:Yeah, it took some photographs, probably 95, 96.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Devil's Own.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah.
Speaker A:Well, it wasn't.
Speaker A:There were tiger rallies then with him, but.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:So we used to just come across each other at different.
Speaker A:Different events and he would take pictures or be competing as well and sort of developed a rally friendship through that, really.
Speaker A:And I was looking to do the 20.
Speaker A:Was it 23 rac rally.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Looking for a co driver and a team.
Speaker A:And so I approached Marcus, I put an entry in and said, I now need a call driver.
Speaker A:A coal drive.
Speaker A:How do you fancy it?
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And at that point he'd only done a few sort of forest rallies.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:As well.
Speaker A:And on pace notes.
Speaker A:So anyway, he stepped up to the mark and off we went on a bucket list event for most of us, which love.
Speaker B:I mean, what's your.
Speaker B:What's your history in rallying, Marcus?
Speaker B:Yeah, I mean, not being funny, you have the cheapest side.
Speaker B:As somebody once said, cold drying pencils don't cost as much.
Speaker B:Of course.
Speaker C:Yeah, my.
Speaker C:My background in it.
Speaker C:My father competed back in the 70s in the.
Speaker C:In road rally and he was a member of Clithero Motor Club.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker C:And he.
Speaker C:He rallied Minis first, then Escorts.
Speaker C:Mountain escorts in the 70s he was sponsored by Radies on the Music.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah, by Gav.
Speaker B:That's a name from the.
Speaker C:There they go.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:So we were from Blackburn.
Speaker C:That's our sort of family history.
Speaker C:And he competed then and.
Speaker C:And I just grew up with the rally car always being around and.
Speaker C:And I was obsessed.
Speaker C:I. I had rally sport, I had car and car conversions and all the posters and just was obsessed.
Speaker C:But ironically, I never went to a road rally.
Speaker C:And he was involved in rallying, but I never went along.
Speaker C:You know, maybe two.
Speaker C:Too young, really.
Speaker C:And then first big rally, I went to.
Speaker C: I went to the: Speaker C:Yeah, I went and spectated.
Speaker C:My dad took me and that was it.
Speaker C:I was hooked.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:My dad stepped out of motorsport from the sort of 80s period.
Speaker C:He jumped out of it all together and I remained at school.
Speaker C:Absolutely obsessed.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:We still weren't watching, but he Said.
Speaker B:Wednesday morning, get down and get your nurturing.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So it took until basically I could drive to.
Speaker C:To get properly involved and I got.
Speaker C:Me finally got my own car.
Speaker C:I bought a Mini.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And that was it.
Speaker C:It was enter 12 car enter out.
Speaker C:You could.
Speaker C:I had no money.
Speaker C:I was.
Speaker C:Went to university and it was just rallying on a shoestring, doing 12 cars, doing whatever I could.
Speaker C: s in the: Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:I spent a lot of time involved in that marshalling and organizing.
Speaker B:I mean just looking at.
Speaker B:That's one of the great things about motorsport, what you might call local rallying.
Speaker B:You can be involved in it without the expense of having a car.
Speaker C:Sure.
Speaker C:Exactly.
Speaker C:And that was certainly the earlier days was more that.
Speaker C:And it took until I was sort of nearly 50 to do a stage rally.
Speaker C:Ironically done a lot of road rallying.
Speaker C:Did a lot of historic road rallying.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I got to midlife crisis and another mate of mine approached me.
Speaker C:He bought a rally car and said he'd always said if I buy a rally car, you call driving you're core drive it.
Speaker C:And that was like 30 years ago.
Speaker C:I always said yeah, if you buy one, I will.
Speaker C:And it took to them and we got one and went off rallying.
Speaker C:So first forest rally we did.
Speaker C:We went and did well.
Speaker C:We weren't even going to do a forest rally.
Speaker C:We're going to go and do a single venue like you should start with instead.
Speaker C:No, we're into the forest.
Speaker C: e did the grizedale stages in: Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:And finished it.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:And, and that then led to well.
Speaker B:Not being funny to finish.
Speaker B:Everybody thinks that like we say before we went on air, finishing is quite important.
Speaker B:It don't off build your confidence if you finish and anybody can wrap a car around a tree.
Speaker B:But to do a stage rally and to pop out the other end and you can think I finished that and it boosts the confidence, don't it?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:You got to get the miles in and.
Speaker C:And it's more important finishing than, than going too quick and bending it really for us anyway because again it's still rallying on the shoestring and you know there's.
Speaker C:There's no big title sponsor.
Speaker C:There's no.
Speaker C:We're doing it itself and.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:And that carries through to everything Anthony and I have done.
Speaker C:It's the same thing.
Speaker C:You gotta have the fun but you gotta get to the end.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I mean Escorts and Minis.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:How did we arrive with Fiat Pandas.
Speaker B:Not that there's anything at all.
Speaker B:We Fiat Pandas.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:So there's.
Speaker C:I'll jump in here that there.
Speaker C:There is a family connection with that.
Speaker C:And back in.
Speaker C: I think it was in: Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker B:That'd be one of the early ones.
Speaker C:It was early one.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And it was.
Speaker C:It even came.
Speaker C:It was bought from Barkers in Preston.
Speaker C:I think it was Fiat dealer.
Speaker C:And it was an ex demonstrator that initially came with all the stickers on it, the Panda stickers and all sorts.
Speaker C:And as a young kid at the time, mad interally and I was desperate for the garage to leave them all on.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:But father insisted they all got took back and so yeah, he had a couple of fate pandas.
Speaker C:Ran them as family cars and.
Speaker C:And I loved them back then.
Speaker C:Never thought I'd go rallying.
Speaker B:Well said.
Speaker B:Probably never thought you'd go rallying in one.
Speaker C:Never did until.
Speaker C:Until a conversation a few years back and I let Anthony fit their own stuff.
Speaker A:We were.
Speaker A:We went to do the.
Speaker A:The Bagger Rally which was a road rally in Devon.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And was the last time it's supposed to be run and we were on our way down there.
Speaker A:Six hour drive.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I think we saw a panda on the motorway or.
Speaker A:Or something.
Speaker A:Marcus mentioned it.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:In the back of my head I'd heard about this event in.
Speaker A:I thought, oh, this sounds interesting.
Speaker A:But I parked it because we'd gone under the racing 18 months he had gone and.
Speaker A:Forget about that.
Speaker A:And then he started mentioning the Fiat Pandas, how much he liked them and told him about his dad having one eyes like, oh, have you ever been to Morocco knowing he's always up for it.
Speaker A:So within the.
Speaker A:Within.
Speaker B:I suppose your problem is to try and assimilate the connection between Fiat Pandas and Morocco, ain't it?
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:This is not what you call the natural connection.
Speaker C:I've never heard of the.
Speaker C:The rally in Morocco but I obviously knew that the Pand and In particular the 4x4 panda was so capable that they will go anywhere.
Speaker C:And so when Anthony broached the idea I was like, yeah, I'm up for that.
Speaker A:Trouble with markers.
Speaker A:Anything I say to him, he's always up for it.
Speaker A:Challenges we can go to.
Speaker A:So yeah.
Speaker A:So the next thing we looked into the event.
Speaker B:I mean what's it called?
Speaker B:It's the Desert Trophy Panda edition, isn't It.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's correct.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:The organizers, it's a Spanish group that organize it.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And they also organize other like four wheel just in like land cruises and things like that.
Speaker A:But this is purely for fit of pandas.
Speaker A:There is another event called the Panda Raid.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Which is a 300 cars.
Speaker A:They stop in tents in the desert.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:We went the slightly softer version where we stop in hotels.
Speaker B:Nothing wrong with that.
Speaker A:Apart from one night we did stop in a tent.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:In a beaverweight.
Speaker B:That were enough.
Speaker A:That was that cold in bezit.
Speaker A:So it was like.
Speaker A:Well, that.
Speaker A:That was the.
Speaker A:The plan.
Speaker A:So the event is.
Speaker A:It's based in Spain.
Speaker A:You.
Speaker A:You all arrive in Spain and gather at a hotel and then do all the formalities and scrutineering work.
Speaker B:I mean, before we get to that, how did you go and find the panda?
Speaker B:Because at the time when they struck you was a good idea.
Speaker B:You didn't have one knocking about, did you?
Speaker A:We went and looked at one locally.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:That had done the event before.
Speaker A:It wasn't quite.
Speaker A:I'm quite OCD when it comes to my own preparation.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I could see that I would end up taking the whole thing apart.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Somebody about to get it.
Speaker A:Not there was anything wrong with it.
Speaker A:So I thought, no, it's not for me.
Speaker A:We're going to go for a standard one.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I joined a Facebook group.
Speaker A:One popped up there for sale.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:In Western super mare, which is 230odd miles away from here.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Shouted to the chap.
Speaker A:He did a video for me.
Speaker A:I was convinced that it was rust free, which is the main thing.
Speaker B:Concurrently.
Speaker B:Because a standard car.
Speaker A:Standard.
Speaker A:Yeah, standard car.
Speaker A:Didn't have a tow car at the.
Speaker A:At the point.
Speaker A:I know, I'll go on the train, I'll drive it back.
Speaker A:It was only on the way down, I was thinking to myself, it's a Fiat Panda 750 Fire Edition.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I thought, oh, it's a bit of a limited edition and then it.
Speaker A:Then it clicks.
Speaker A:750.
Speaker A:Bugger.
Speaker A:But it's only 750cc and only two wheel drive.
Speaker A:The four wheel drive prices are horrendous.
Speaker B:An original Panda 4 before is worth fortunes even in tatty condition.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And it just wasn't.
Speaker A:We thought about going abroad and buying one and bringing it back, but obviously the logistics and the.
Speaker A:The time away just didn't work.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:So off went to Western Super Mare, purchased the car, set off.
Speaker A:Great.
Speaker A:I thought right off on our way back, broke down on the way back onto the Hard shoulder.
Speaker A:I went and I had to bump start it myself.
Speaker A:Which all added to the excitement, but then was fine.
Speaker A:It got itself back home.
Speaker A:It was just a minor electrical glitch.
Speaker A:And then set about building it to the best possible way I thought I could do, which was to keep it as light as possible.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Standard as possible and light as possible.
Speaker A:The organizers provide a support vehicle.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Which you can put a box in the back with spares.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Plus I knew that they really encourage you to keep the car standard.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So there's an abundance of spare parts.
Speaker A:So basically spent quite a lot of money on new suspension.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:New springs, dampers, fabricator, sunk guard, which I still say to this day was the best sump guard on the event.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Withstand anything.
Speaker B:I mean, do you have to put a roll cage?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:So the.
Speaker A:The basic rule is it's got to be under 1.4.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:At a CC and you have to have a fire extinguisher.
Speaker A:Handheld fire extinguisher.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:A tow rope and quite a medical kit.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:I think that's about it, really.
Speaker A:It's like a road rally, really.
Speaker A:But there's no other.
Speaker B:So you don't put rear seats in or harnesses or anything.
Speaker A:We went with the standard seats and standard seat belts.
Speaker C:Standard seat belts you can do.
Speaker C:And some.
Speaker C:Some go to an awful lot of trouble.
Speaker C:There's some cars there which are like.
Speaker C:Like proper stage cars.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:Some of them are performing like a stage car as well.
Speaker C:But you really don't need to in order to attain a good result on the event.
Speaker C:You don't need that.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:And more safety and vanity, I suppose, isn't that.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I mean like wheels and tires then, if it's standard, is it standard wheels and standard tires?
Speaker A:Van tires I've had.
Speaker C:All right.
Speaker A:I was recommended.
Speaker A:There was four of us went from the uk.
Speaker A:A chap over in Yorkshire, Howard, he.
Speaker A:We call him our rally manager and he sort of got us all together and he'd done it before, so he said.
Speaker A:I asked him about tires because I had a garage full of very worn out.
Speaker A:And Pirelli.
Speaker A:No blue tires to get rid of.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:Put van tires on it.
Speaker A:So spent 23 pound on some.
Speaker A:Some van tires.
Speaker A:Never had a puncher.
Speaker A:Absolutely fantastic, weren't they?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:We had quite a few of the other competitors looking and looking and shaking their heads at the tires, but.
Speaker A:And then.
Speaker A:But they're laughing with us when we were overtaking them and stuff.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So van.
Speaker A:Van tyres, van tires.
Speaker B:So what's the format of the event you get yourself to Morocco?
Speaker A:Well, we start in southern Spain in Almira.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:We all get on a ferry together.
Speaker A:The organizers sort all that.
Speaker A:That's all covered with the entry fee.
Speaker D:Yeah, they.
Speaker A:They do all the logistics side of it, which made things a lot easier for us.
Speaker A:They covered so out the customs for us.
Speaker A:They sorted out local insurance for us.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:SIM cards for us.
Speaker A:We have a gp, we fit a GPS tracking device they provide.
Speaker A:And I think, and I'm led to believe it's the same sort of what they use on the Dakar rallies.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And the format is very similar to that.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:The.
Speaker A:Every morning at 8 o' clock they would give us a route.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:That markers would download and that has waypoints.
Speaker B:So that'll be iPad time or tablet time.
Speaker A:Tablet time, yes.
Speaker A:Stressful for Marcus at that point because at some points we're looking for WI fi.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:In these foreign places and trying to get electronics to work that you would find at home.
Speaker A:But suddenly we're in Africa and then that we're doing all sorts of hotspots and stuff.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:Yeah, we basically needed a.
Speaker A:Our daughter or somebody to press something and make it work.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:But so the whole premise, it's like orienteering, really.
Speaker A:You follow, you're going from one way point to the next.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:So there's no Marshalls.
Speaker A:So you start in the morning.
Speaker A:Yeah, A start line and there's a finish line, but you don't see anybody else in between.
Speaker A:And you visit.
Speaker A:You're visiting all these.
Speaker A:These imaginary points.
Speaker B:So there's nobody out the waypoint.
Speaker C:No, no, the waypoint is.
Speaker C:Is purely virtual.
Speaker C:It.
Speaker C:So it can be.
Speaker C:So on.
Speaker C:On day one, we set off.
Speaker C:We did, we did about 250 kilometers south from the ferry, basically, to what was our then stage start, as they called it.
Speaker C:So that was like a 250k liaison, rock protection.
Speaker C:And then we start a competitive section, which we were following Maypoint.
Speaker C:So we pulled off onto like a gravel track in the mountains and at the allotted minute, you start.
Speaker C:And there was a start marshal and a big flag and the whole thing, it was quite good.
Speaker A:There was a slight pause while a.
Speaker C:Chap on a donkey went.
Speaker C:Yes, was through with a donkey carrying a cargo.
Speaker C:Went fast.
Speaker C:And then we set off into the competitive section and you're literally following a track on a map.
Speaker C:It can be a gravel track, it could be some bits of broken tar through villages and you pick the waypoints.
Speaker C:Up you go.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:So you.
Speaker C:You can see them on the map and when you get close to it, if you pass within, they did vary the.
Speaker C:The proximity, but I think on the road it was something like 10 meters of.
Speaker C:Of the waypoint.
Speaker C:You pass through it and the device will be.
Speaker C:And that's you capturing.
Speaker B:Was there actually anything there?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker C:All right.
Speaker C:Nothing there.
Speaker C:Nothing there.
Speaker C:Sometimes they would put them at strategic places.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker C:So that, that comes sort of later in the event where they specifically took you somewhere where the waypoint would be.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:But it.
Speaker C:So on.
Speaker C:On the first day, we were just following a route, just like you would follow a route on an OS map on.
Speaker C:On a road rally and you're picking up your time controls or you, in this case, your code boards and your way points.
Speaker C:So it's very similar to UK road rallying.
Speaker C:But the way they got the result was a whole another ball game for us, wasn't it?
Speaker C:Which we didn't fully understand when we set off, because having never done it, you don't know.
Speaker C:And so the accuracy of your route following and you're also your speed a little bit like doing an average speed regularity.
Speaker C:Yeah, that was very important.
Speaker C:We didn't realize this and we now know where the result is won and lost.
Speaker C:Nowhere near.
Speaker C:Nowhere near.
Speaker C:So if you're coming into hamlets, villages, towns, the speed is really reduced, even if it's not reduced actually on the road by speed limit, localized speed limits.
Speaker C:The event will limit you.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:Speed limit, year.
Speaker C:And you've got to stick to it.
Speaker B:So the transponder is busily.
Speaker C:Yeah, the transponder is giving all the data back for the event and you pass away point where the Speed drops from 80k down to 50k and lower.
Speaker C:@ that waypoint, you've got to be doing that speed and you've got to be below it the whole way through that section, otherwise you penalize really heavily.
Speaker C:And we found this out to our cost.
Speaker A:Yeah, we found it out to our cost.
Speaker A:So unfortunately we mounted the GPS device over towards Marcus.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Which meant that I couldn't really see it very well.
Speaker A:So keeping a tab on the exact speed you're doing was quite hard.
Speaker A:So we did come follow of that.
Speaker A:Don't get me wrong, we didn't barrel through, rear jam, things like that.
Speaker A:But it was sensible, wasn't it?
Speaker A:Yeah, but yeah, very creepy.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Because we did literally go through people's backyards.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:How they PR'd it, I'm not sure, but they were all very welcoming.
Speaker A:They were all children just running out to greet you and smiling at you and so friendly.
Speaker A:It's all friendly.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:Morocco's, obviously, is a very, very different place.
Speaker B:I mean, I love it.
Speaker B:I've never been.
Speaker B:A friend of mine used to go regular and loved the place.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And you certainly were driving on some of the roads and thinking, there is no way you'd do this in the uk, even in Western Europe.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:It's just so.
Speaker C:I think Morocco's.
Speaker C:They have a lot of space.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:And a lot of sand.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Although, you know, more of the event wasn't on sand, was it really?
Speaker C:It was great.
Speaker B:Which is where the vantage would win because they're just like rock hard things.
Speaker B:Yeah, they are.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker C:So day one took us from the ferry down into the sort of mountains.
Speaker C:The weather was.
Speaker C:It was strange.
Speaker C:It was quite overcast.
Speaker C:A lot of day one, it wasn't particularly warm.
Speaker C:It was kind of.
Speaker C:And then the first night we were overnight in a ski resort in Morocco, which I didn't know about.
Speaker C:You know.
Speaker A:A beautiful place, Ilfan.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yeah, really nice.
Speaker A:Just high up in the thing.
Speaker A:And they literally shut the main street.
Speaker A:He had all the Fiat Panthers with 75 of us, 75 Fiat Pandas all had us all lined up.
Speaker A:They had a huge blow patch that you took everywhere with us and this huge screen that they had the daily highlights running on it all in the main square and there's big lights and stuff.
Speaker B:It sort of be like not being funny, but like the.
Speaker B:My car itself really.
Speaker A:Very much.
Speaker C:It felt.
Speaker C:It felt like it was.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:And everyone's so welcoming, laughing and smiling because of the quirky car.
Speaker A:Really.
Speaker A:And my car is purposely kept plain.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:It looks like I've just.
Speaker A:We bought it off an old vicar or something.
Speaker A:Like it literally is just playing with it.
Speaker A:Just had the.
Speaker A:The event stickers on it.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And a lot of the people liked it because of that.
Speaker A:They were all pointing and laughing and welcoming and laughing with us and stuff like that.
Speaker A:But the organizers are so good.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:They put on a.
Speaker A:A translator for us.
Speaker D:All.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Because they were briefers all in the morning.
Speaker A:And that was all in Spanish, which obviously is all lost on us.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:What was team of from Britain were we had the luxury of a translator.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Which we couldn't have done without.
Speaker A:We really couldn't.
Speaker B:I mean, yours is.
Speaker B:Yours is a two wheel drive.
Speaker B:Front wheel drive.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker B:Was there any benefit or would there be any benefit to having a 4x4 version?
Speaker A:Deep sand.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker A:The deep.
Speaker A:The deep, soft sand.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Would have made.
Speaker A:It would have made the difference.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And there would be probably about 30 of us with two wheel drive cars and the rest four wheel drive.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:So only I would say 30% of the event you definitely could benefit from four wheel drive.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And on some of the days the four wheel drive cars did go on a slightly different route right into the.
Speaker B:So they were slightly penalized to be a four wheel drive.
Speaker B:No, I know they ain't been lying.
Speaker A:But yeah, yeah they had different waypoints to reach.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:We couldn't have got in a four in the two wheel drive car.
Speaker A:Yeah we tried and I can get confer that yes, the two wheel drive car will not go to Samui's places.
Speaker A:So we, we were well told keep you know in the soft sand and don't go there.
Speaker A:Well obviously, obviously as a super fast driver I'm not going to listen to that.
Speaker A:Straight into a sound and it's a lonely place is the desert and it's.
Speaker A:It's eerily quiet.
Speaker A:We were, we tried pushing and it just sank and sunk and sand.
Speaker A:So we deployed some sand boards which.
Speaker B:Were only with Marcus saying I've told.
Speaker A:You it's actually so.
Speaker C:Yeah we had the shovel out the sass shorts mine any useless.
Speaker A:Luckily the the as well as GPS they are an assistance button.
Speaker A:They are an SOS and there's a doctor on the.
Speaker A:The event as well.
Speaker A:Yeah, an SOS button.
Speaker A:An assistance button.
Speaker A:It's all right.
Speaker A:Okay Marcus, press the button man.
Speaker A:Press the button.
Speaker A:Then it all starts coming back to us in Spanish.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And it's the only one place we haven't got a signal because we're on Google Translate thinking what's he actually what are they asking us?
Speaker A:So I don't know it's pressed a few random buttons.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Within 15 minutes there was a big white Land Cruiser appeared and he was like shaking his head was like why have you gone down there?
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Anyway put a, put a strap on and took a bit of a tug though didn't it?
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah it was well, well in up to its sills in the site.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:But another, another learning curve as well is that again we.
Speaker C:You read the rules of these things but you don't fully pay attention and no, if you do request assistance which.
Speaker B:Is only for courts really going that.
Speaker A:Way they can do.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So in all the regulations for the event it explained all the penalties but you're skirt over all that and calling for assistance leads to heavy penalties.
Speaker D:All right Nick.
Speaker C:So we finished that day with a lot more penalties.
Speaker C:So the speeding was one thing, then the penalties and then oh, yeah, it.
Speaker A:Just goes up these days.
Speaker A:We were out on one.
Speaker B:I mean, how many days did he last.
Speaker A:We were away from home for nine days.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I think we're in compared to six.
Speaker A:Six.
Speaker C:Six days earlier.
Speaker A:And this is 8:00 clock in the morning till 6 or 7 at night.
Speaker A:And there's one day that there is a time limit.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:So there is an element of speed, but we sort of controlled a little bit.
Speaker A:But we were on one special, one test, if you will, for six hours and 58 minutes.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And we only stopped for a quick way in.
Speaker A:A packet of Pringles.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Henry was just going and going and going and going.
Speaker A:Yeah, going and.
Speaker A:It was like that most days.
Speaker A:Really.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And each day varied in where we were at.
Speaker A:We did like a.
Speaker A:An anti clockwise loop.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Morocco.
Speaker A:Sort of down through the center of Morocco and then round and.
Speaker A:And back up.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:The other side.
Speaker A:We got within a couple of kilometers of the Algerian border.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:Which was, you know, exciting and nervous at the same time as well, because I often.
Speaker A:They're quite as friendly as the Moroccans.
Speaker A:And the night we were closest, we stopped in, in the bivouac in the tented city.
Speaker A:So when you get to.
Speaker A:To your hotel or the tent at night, you're then free to work on your car.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So there's this, that old Dakar truck transporting all your gear around.
Speaker A:You have a big box you can take.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And the spares you can carry on the car, so.
Speaker A:Or you can hire local mechanics as well.
Speaker A:These lads were working.
Speaker A:We predominantly were going to have something to have a couple of.
Speaker A:A couple of beers and some food and then we have a walk around the service area at night.
Speaker A:And it was amazing what these lads were doing.
Speaker A:Wasn't it midnight?
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:They're taking gearboxes out.
Speaker A:They said they were going to do an engine on one of them, weren't they?
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:So simple to work on.
Speaker A:And you know, throughout the night you'd hear them driving up and down the road.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:You stuff testing cars and things like that.
Speaker A:But they're in duty in what they could make happen.
Speaker A:There's very few retirements.
Speaker A:We think there was only three that didn't actually make it back in the road under their own steam.
Speaker B:I mean, how did your Panda stand up?
Speaker B:Did you have much to do to it?
Speaker A:So that's me touching wood.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:No, no, nothing.
Speaker A:Spanner check.
Speaker A:I spanner checked it every night.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Blew the.
Speaker A:I put two air filters on it, you know a pre air filter.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:I blew Them out every night as well.
Speaker A:We took it to a local car wash. We, we borrowed somebody's pit at the car wash.
Speaker A:He was happy for me to go underneath it.
Speaker A:And yeah, Spanner Chicken just kept going.
Speaker A:Just the starter motor clicked a couple of times.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Towards the end of the event, but it just kept going.
Speaker A:And all four of the cars that came from England, one had the carburetor rebuilt just through dirt.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:But they all just kept going.
Speaker A:They're so simple.
Speaker A:It was just so simple.
Speaker A:I mean we weren't flogging them.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:But you know, 100 kilometers an hour across the desert, they're getting some abuse.
Speaker A:You know, the rattling and banging and.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's bumpy.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's bumpy.
Speaker A:But the, the lightweight.
Speaker B:I suppose the beauty of it is if you look to Fiat, it's a bit like if you look at the Citroen 2cv, you look at the Fiat Panda, each one was built for the French and the Italians to abuse because these little cars, both of them, the French one, the Italian one, the people who bought them tended never to look after them.
Speaker B:The only thing they did was thrash the little.
Speaker B:And when they went wrong, after three years of no oil checks or anything else, complained bitterly that had conked out.
Speaker B:So I suppose you're rallying in a car that was designed to have a very hard life.
Speaker A:Very hard life, yeah.
Speaker A:They're just fantastic.
Speaker A:And the places even the two wheel drive car would go, it was amazing, wasn't it?
Speaker C:Many a time, yeah.
Speaker C:I told we were going up the hill, we were coming down the hill.
Speaker A:We refer to a place of hell, you know, you said, oh, going up there, Hellvellyn, it was like in the leg of the street.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:One of the days, I think it was day two, wasn't it?
Speaker C:We spent literally we were on a section of hillside where we spent probably about an hour in first gear climbing, but it was like rock crawl.
Speaker C:It was literally from one rock to another.
Speaker C:It was Anthony picking his way very quickly, carefully, just to preserve the drive shaft, preserve the car, but just kept going.
Speaker C:Yeah, there's many a time I thought it'll stop in a minute.
Speaker C:That's it.
Speaker C:It's going to be, it's going to be game over.
Speaker C:You know, we'll just be stuck.
Speaker C:I mean, oh, we break it, you know, and, and I just thought somebody finds it.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I mean the beauty of, of the way the event works, obviously you are tracked and, and roughly a minute behind you there's another Panda coming.
Speaker B:So I mean, did you see Your other competitors much.
Speaker A:Boy.
Speaker A:From when you.
Speaker C:Some sounds.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I mean, nighttime was very social.
Speaker C:We're all together.
Speaker C:But when you're out on the day section, quite often, though, you're on your own.
Speaker C:And you will have a panda roughly a minute in front and another one roughly behind.
Speaker C:But you might not see them.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:Unless somebody's got a problem and they stopped at the side of the road or we would then stop and always find out if they're all right and you know, somebody else will do that for you.
Speaker C:But.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Often you're running alone and certainly when we were stuck in the desert, we were stuck and there was not.
Speaker C:There was nothing.
Speaker C:You couldn't even see from the cells.
Speaker B:Of the organizers were behind the sand dune laughing.
Speaker C:No, it probably were, but.
Speaker C:Yeah, but you're looking.
Speaker C:You're looking in all four directions of the compass out to the horizon and you couldn't even see dust rising.
Speaker C:You couldn't see anything.
Speaker A:It's a very place, isn't it?
Speaker C:Very strange.
Speaker A:We did spend one day where we.
Speaker A:We ran together with some Spanish.
Speaker A:Other Spanish people.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And that was purely because it was really soft mud and it rained Morocco and it rained one day and we ended up.
Speaker A:We thought we started getting competitive.
Speaker A:So we looked at the results and we picked out which cows are winning.
Speaker A:Yeah, we'll follow them.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:So we.
Speaker A:We sort of chugged together with about four or five of us and we stuck with us for the day and we helped each other.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And they were really great.
Speaker A:There was a very.
Speaker A:There was a language barrier.
Speaker A:There was one, a young lad who could speak translated for us and he was like, right, no.
Speaker A:And they.
Speaker A:We pushed each other in and out and.
Speaker A:And after that they.
Speaker A:They insisted we went for a meal with them.
Speaker A:They were.
Speaker A:They were so.
Speaker A:Just so friendly and.
Speaker A:And the social side of it is what I think is missing from the normal rallying because.
Speaker A:Yeah, we come and do a forest event and then everyone goes home, whereas we're all in the same hour town.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:So it was.
Speaker A:It was good fun, that side of it.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:That made it nice.
Speaker B:I mean, would you do it again?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Yeah, I would.
Speaker A:Yeah, I would.
Speaker A:Because I like the adventure.
Speaker B:I think Marcus doesn't seem quite as enthusiastic.
Speaker A:I know he's more enthusiastic than me.
Speaker C:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker C:Do I get.
Speaker C:I think, I think, I think certainly when we worked out how the event was working in terms of getting a result and then, yeah, we had our eyes on the competitive side of it there.
Speaker C:And I think going back, you know, we'd be going into it with a obviously experience and a different mindset and we'd be looking at.
Speaker C:Yeah, we could top 20, maybe top 10.
Speaker A:We finished 21st.
Speaker B:I think there's not bad.
Speaker A:And a couple of times we were.
Speaker B:I know from not being funny, from everybody's point of view, to have finished 20th, it would have been that little bit more.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Well, if we just got a bit slower.
Speaker B:Well, we don't know me that stick.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:We were fastest two wheel drive in a couple of.
Speaker A:A couple of times.
Speaker A:You know, I was really chuffed about that and stuff.
Speaker A:But just.
Speaker B:You've received ord penalty because of it.
Speaker A:Now we're eating a cheese sandwich one day we missed it completely.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:It's beeping again.
Speaker A:This thing's beep.
Speaker A:Why is it beeping at us?
Speaker A:All time.
Speaker A:But it.
Speaker C:Lots of things fell into place really good.
Speaker C:This time we had the.
Speaker C:We didn't drive the panda there ourselves.
Speaker C:That.
Speaker C:That is an option to drive down to southern Spain.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:You got to get.
Speaker C:That's what you've got to do.
Speaker C:You've got to get your car to southern Spain to start the rally.
Speaker C:So anybody living in Spain, they've automatically got an advantage.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:For us, we're going a long way from the uk.
Speaker C:Initially, when we put the entry in for the rally, there was.
Speaker C:We didn't know anybody else doing it.
Speaker C:It was just us.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:Slowly it became apparent there was three other crews from the UK and one of them had arranged transportation to basically take all our cars there.
Speaker C:Simon luckily had a transport business and connections and a truck and he was happy to take the pandas down to Spain, which meant we could fly out and start the rally.
Speaker C:And that made a massive difference, obviously, to have the other three crews as well from England.
Speaker A:It was nice.
Speaker C:It was nice.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:It was a nice feeling that you knew that someone would come at any point.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:They were great people.
Speaker C:We all got on.
Speaker C:So the social side, obviously, going into next year, if we.
Speaker C:We look at doing it again, there's question marks over who's going and.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:And logistics.
Speaker C:Logistics as well.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:So that's.
Speaker C:We'd have to get those boxes ticked.
Speaker A:But the car's still at home.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I think once a bit of a WD40 on the starter monitor.
Speaker A:And here we go again.
Speaker A:We go again.
Speaker A:There's a lot of sand in the car.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I want to say I once had the pleasure of test driving the Porsche 959X Safari rally car.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Well, look at you.
Speaker B:And yes, I remember opening the door and the better part of a sand dune seemed to fall out of it.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:Nobody.
Speaker B:What you try.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's everywhere.
Speaker B:It's everywhere.
Speaker B:Dusty sound is everywhere.
Speaker D:But you.
Speaker B:At least when you show it to fork.
Speaker A:I do.
Speaker B:That's from that Sandu.
Speaker B:That's really, that's from there.
Speaker B:It's not Blackpool.
Speaker A:You know, some of it on the garden, I've poured it up.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:Genuine Sahara sand.
Speaker A:But yeah, I'd love to go again.
Speaker A:Whether we do or not, I'm not 100 sure.
Speaker C:But yeah, I think, I think we both concluded that the event is incredible value for money in motorsport terms.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I mean obviously it sounds like it's a real first world problem thing when you're talking about rallying and money and.
Speaker C:But no incredible value for money because cheap.
Speaker C:Not cheap at all, but, but we had, you know, nine days away and six days of competition.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:And we were looked after in some of the best hotels in, in Morocco by some wonderful people.
Speaker C:And it really, we came back from it thinking, yeah, that that was good value, man.
Speaker B:The Fiat Panda, from your description of it for that event, you have a full blown rally car for probably not.
Speaker A:A lot of money in, in rally terms.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's good, it's good value.
Speaker A:It's good.
Speaker B:No, let me ask you, what's it standing out about?
Speaker A:Stands me just shy of 3,000 pound.
Speaker A:And that's with quite a bit of spares as well.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And there are cheaper ones out there.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Don't be wrong.
Speaker A:But the rusty ones out there.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker A:This doesn't have any rust at all, which is the main thing.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:With a 90s Italian Fiat.
Speaker B:I mean, do you intend driving it about as a normal car at all?
Speaker B:It's going to make appearances.
Speaker A:It's good.
Speaker A:I think he's going to make an appearance on the Morecambe tour.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I think so.
Speaker A:It needs an MOT first, so it depends on that.
Speaker A:But I went out in my Marlon Escort the other day and I thought, oh, I'm going to use this for that.
Speaker A:And then I thought, oh, it's hard work getting in this bucket seat and it's hot and noisy and stuff, you know.
Speaker A:And then I got home and drove the Fiat.
Speaker A:End of me driving back, I thought, I like this.
Speaker A:It was always going to be sold.
Speaker A:It was going to go and that was the end of it.
Speaker A:But I've become really attached to the blooming theme.
Speaker B:Vander Avam, like me love them to bits.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:And it's from the sounds of it, you.
Speaker B:But you.
Speaker B:You'd probably be skeptical when you bought this thing.
Speaker B:Yeah, we'll do this, then get shot of it.
Speaker B:You fall in love with these little figures, don't you?
Speaker A:You do.
Speaker A:And everybody laugh, laughs, laughed at me when I told them what I was doing.
Speaker A:And you've bought a Fear Panda.
Speaker A:And then I said Morocco and they're like, what do you know?
Speaker A:That sounds really good.
Speaker B:Anthony Harrison, Marcus Bomfrey, it's been a pleasure chatting to two fellow Fiat Panda enthusiasts.
Speaker B:Although you two is by.
Speaker B:It's by.
Speaker B:By default and by chance.
Speaker B:But I look forward to seeing the car because you're doing an event that I'm doing.
Speaker B:But apart from that, Anthony and Marcus, it's been a pleasure chatting to you.
Speaker B:So thanks very much for joining me on the backseat driver.
Speaker A:Thank you very much.
Speaker B:Thank you for having us.
