Hi there, I can help with some advice hopefully. I will cast my mind back to a most epic and slightly stessful car prep stage which involved me doing an engine swap!! (going for a dramatic setting) :devil:
So yes wheels and tyres are pretty critical. I used Malatesta Traks which come in 13" 145R size and I had very little trouble in sand with them. The benefit I had was inner tubes, so I could drop tyre pressures down without too much risk of wheel / tyre separation. That helped spread the load but tbh, it did reasonably well even with normal tyre pressures. 4wd + knobly tyres and a light weight car is a winning combination in the desert!
The thing with the malatesta traks is how deep the tread is. It is like having paddles...I only got stuck once in the sand with them and that was because I forgot to put it in 4wd
...and we were rescued before we realised this! But everyone helps out on this rally.
So I don't know if later pandas had inner tubes in the 4x4? Mine is a mk1 (<1986).
Another thing to be careful with is wheels size. Some of the teams fitted big tyres (rules seem fairly relaxed on this) and they had issues with their wheels rubbing on their fuel filler pipes...leading to significant fuel leaks! So I would stick to 13s unless you check that nothing can possibly rub in the arch. Also bear in mind that you'll be quite heavily laden with spares, tools, and supplies and charity stuff (for the first half) and the car will be riding much lower than you might expect! On that note, if I were to do it again I would make sure I packed even lighter than I did. I was on bump stops and the wheels were rubbing on the arch at the back.
Also Andy (
AndyPanda4x4 ) I think you can vouch for 14" and 1 litre engine being a bit of a pain for the steep rock climb bits. You lose a lot of torque with the larger wheels it must be said! So leave 13" on I think unless you are upgrading to punto 1.2 engine! You get a small ride height lift from using the malatestas as the tyres are a little bigger on the rolling radius.
Here is a link to our Panda Raid facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/PandaRaid2014CharityRally/
and here is the preparations I did:
https://www.fiatforum.com/members-motors/200730-mk1-4x4-panda-original-5.html
Sounds like you've got everything else nicely under way though anyway.
A radiator fan switch is a good idea, so you can leave the fan on for steep and slow rock climbs which can overheat the engine.
Sump guard is a definite must, I modified mine quite a bit out there! But I would be careful that it doesn't block too much air flow to the engine...I might have done this and have to run a little warmer...it did keep the water splashes nicely out the engine bay though!
blocking out the rear windows made it much cooler inside but visibility was poor it must be said and did feel a bit dangerous especially when driving back through spain while very tired!
Anyway, most importantly have fun but don't go for a speed record. The cars which did that were bodging and fixing all evening at the stopping points and missed out on lots of the evening socials. Had some cars which snapped their rear leaf springs, shattered engine mounts, and one car went for a jump off a small cliff and snapped the chassis! Having said that there are some fast bits and they are huge fun! driving right in the middle of the desert with Pandas and Marbellas criss-crossing all over the place. Just have to keep a look out as sometimes it can be smooth for a while and then you hit hidden rocks and bumps under the sand. I had 1 puncture because of this...
Look forward to following your adventure anyway. I will definitely do this again sometime!
