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Fiat Panda Cape Town to London Record Attempt - February 2013

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Fiat Panda Cape Town to London Record Attempt - February 2013

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mtc1tony

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Driving 10,000 miles non-stop from Cape Town to London to claim a new world record and raise money for 'Farm Africa'.

AlbertHallLaunch_500.jpg


In February 2013 Philip Young and Paul Brace will attempt to break the record for driving from Cape Town to London in a near standard Fiat Panda TwinAir, which has only been lightly modified with an additional fuel tank, sump guards and a re-positioned engine air intake.

To beat the record, the pair will have to drive the Panda over 1000 miles a day through Botswana, Ethiopia and war-torn Libya, before catching the ferry to Europe from Tunisia to continue on to London.

The crew will set off from the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town on February 2, finally leaving Africa six days later. Following a 24-hour ferry crossing from Tunis to Marseille they will spend 11 hours driving to Calais, where they will take a Channel Tunnel crossing ahead of their final leg to London on February 11.

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A few details of the car's preparation.
build03.jpg


From past experience we have chosen an extremely comfortable driver's seat taken from a very second hand Volvo 340. This has been covered in sheepskin sourced from Devon tanners Devonia of Buckfastleigh. Jackie from C.E. Moore, a specialist trimming company in the next street to Tony Fowkes Automobiles took on the job of covering the seats. Many years ago Rosemary Smith convinced us of this simple modification. Rosemary was sponsored by the International Wool Secretariat when she drove a works-Austin Maxi to 10th spot on the 1970 London to Mexico World Cup Rally, with seats covered in sheepskin, which Rosemary says is a major contribution in the fight against fatigue.... “cool in the heat, and cosy at night, it’s just what you need for days and nights at the wheel.”

build12.jpg


The modified passenger seat will fold totally flat to form a full length bed.
 
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The ride height has been raised by fitting stronger and taller van tyres along with uprated springs and shock-absorbers. The suspension has been made by Gaz of Essex, and the rear shocks, which fit on the standard mountings, will soon be available to other Panda owners seeking uprated rear shocks.


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The front top mounts have been reinforced and a cross-bar now joins the struts along the top of the bulkhead.

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The bottom front suspension arms have been beefed-up:
build11.jpg


The raised ride height has reduced negative-camber at the front and the first drive into the traffic of London’s North Circular Road, along with the taller, harder van rubber, makes the Panda driving experience “interesting” and something we now have to get used to.
 
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The Panda now has a Tony Fowkes radiator-protecting nudge-bar; will it withstand nudging elephants?

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Tony Fowkes at his bodyshop in Park Royal, north London. (2nd on the ’77 London to Sydney as a works Mercedes driver behind Andrew Cowan, beating Hopkirk’s Citroen, and 4th on the 74 Lombard RAC Rally in a home-built Escort are two of his rally achievements).

He and his sons have prepped the Panda, some 500 hours have gone into ensuring it won't easily fall apart...

More on http://www.africarecordrun.com
 
Four mounting points, top and bottom, going through to the chassis...a couple of holes were drilled into them as they were so stout, it was thought prudent to make sure they would collapse on severe impact rather than just transmit all the shock into the structure of the car. It was a lot of work to make, but, who knows, the Mk2 or Mk3 versions might prove to be easier...if they were asked.
 
Spares amount to a puncture repair kit and an inner tube, pair of pliers, adjustable spanner, tube of super glue, roll of tank tape, at the moment...am minded to take a few lightweight components, pair of bump stop rubbers and a throttle cable, sort of thing - nothing heavy.
 
fingers99 said:
I love the strut brace -- just as it should be done.

I hate the idea of bull bars on road pandas. Damn things kill bikers and pedestrians. You don't meet many bulls in Kensington..........
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Yeah I hate bull bars too, but I guess they need them for bulls, rhino's, elephants etc that they might come across in Africa. Wonder if they'll beat the record? Hell of a drive I wouldn't want to drive my Panda on those roads
 
I'd say take a spare one of each damper and a spare one of each spring. The suspension is going to take a bit of a beating.

Also lots of inner tubes and flat tyre repairing equipment, including a proper jack as well as a lighter one (bottle jack?) for propping the beast up if you have an emergency.

I wouldn't worry about throttle cables and the like.. just get underneath and have a look at what can a huge rock rip off if you drive over it? That's what you need to have a spare one of.

Ralf S.
 
Take a bottle of Gorilla glue too! Sticks anything to anything, unlike super glue. But don't go glueing gorillas, they're endangered!

Vic
 
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