Philip Young writes:
Firstly a big thank you to all the Fiat enthusiasts who joined in the crowd at Marble Arch. It felt like we were driving into a crowd of a couple of hundred as we turned off under the Arch.
The car performed as well as we could have dreamed of....the tool kit remained unopened. We checked the oil and water now and then, and it didnt use a drop. No oil, and not even extra water when in Egypt the temperature was a soaring 40C (about as hot as we could endure - inside the car was the place to be).
Roads were rougher than expected in places, it coped. The desert crossing across northern Kenya was done at night having arrived late...that was never in the game plan. We limped along at an average of 18 mph, coping well with long stretches of sand, never once getting bogged. (low down torque - unbelievable what it will chug through when the going gets sticky). Smooth tread van-tyres (not chunky types) helped with sand. In Ethiopia, a national shortage of petrol saw us press the Eco button, employing driving styles recalled from the old Mobil Economy Run of limping up hill and flicking into neutral downhill, saw us average an amazing 90 mpg, we really did have the planets lining up for us.
The World Record was chopped down by over a day - now standing at 10 days, 13 hours, 28 minutes.
Other cars we looked at before buying the Panda: VW Up!, Khia i120, Citroen C1, old style Ford Ka. Neither could have put up with what we went through - we had the right car under us. Total and utter reliability was what pulled this off.
The engine mounts, suspension bushes, and much else perhaps could have been changed and improved but what we have done is drive across two Continents in a car which is very much what you drive out of the showroom.
Chief modifications: Extra fuel tank in the spare wheel well. (we only ever carried one spare wheel, bolted upright to the side of the car at the rear - only carrying one was a big risk), K&N air cleaner was the only mod to the engine; strut-brace across the top of the bulkhead was the only body reinforcement; Gaz stronger springs and shocks, a lot of Thermawrap foil covered bubble-wrap in the roof and under carpets; 5 inches of foam mattress in the back, the rear seat having been removed; nudge bar across the front, (not tested), and two good spotlights which made a big difference (we saw elephant, hyena, antelope, pigs, goats, donkeys in the road, often sleeping on the warm tarmac at night).
We kept to the speed limits. The most we ever saw on the speedo was well over 100 mph briefly, but mostly it was cruising along around the 70 mph mark.
Nothing slices through traffic (gridlocked in Lusaka, Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Khartoum, Cairo), like a Panda.
We had the right car for the job - a heavier more loaded 4x4 would have hit the bumps and craters twice as hard and broke something and would have been nothing like as economical. Cant praise the car enough - I knew nothing about about Pandas in particular and Fiat in general before we set out on this but Im convinced of one thing now - the Panda is might tough, well built, up for anything.
On the way to the airport in a Mercedes taxi to fly out of Heathrow for Cape Town, I noticed that the near new Merc didnt have a ride quality as good as the Panda waiting for us at Cape Town...from that moment on, our faith in the car rose and rose every day.
The World Record will take a lot of beating - it can be done, but whoever beats it will have to do it in a car as good as the Panda.
