Day Two

December 30, 2005

 

Okay, so here’s the deal.  A Fiat Panda and hills are not good friends.  Or let me be a bit more specific.  ‘Uphills’ are not a Panda’s good friend.  Speeds regularly drop down to the 40-50 mph range on a tougher mountain, with shifts from our 5th down to 4th a frequent necessity.  ‘Downhills’, on the other hand, get along mightily well with the little Italian fellow.  As a matter of fact, just today we reached 95 mph on one good run.  I have to admit I was a bit worried about that curve at the bottom of the mountain, but the sticky 135/80R13 tires held their ground and guided us securely along the smooth Spanish asphalt.

 

We arrived in Spain today and I’m quite pleased to have reached one of the southernmost countries of Europe.  Snow is rare down here and we were able to move along at a nice rate after having run the gauntlet of freezing rain & snow back in France.  And let me tell you, there was some serious weather up there.  First we had a veritable blizzard for a few hours, followed by an ice storm that created skating rink-like conditions on the highways.  As a matter of fact, on the north bound lanes of our highway, we saw the aftermath of a multi-car collision (not too serious though) that blocked all lanes and had traffic at a standstill for miles.  Needless to say, very happy we weren’t in the northbound lanes.

 

As you can probably imagine, lots of the conversation today once again revolved around the actual preparation of the vehicle.  Trevor’s the expert here, so I was picking his brain to try and understand what he’d done to this $180 vehicle to make it rally-worthy.  So here are some of the ‘mods’ our loyal CarDomain readers might find most intriguing:  rear seats (and seatbelts, etc.) removed completely, all sound insulation (except carpeting) taken out, larger capacity fuel tank installed (increased from 35 to 45 liters), cargo net put in place to keep luggage from falling on pilot & co-pilot and, finally, glass tinted to keep prying eyes off of our valuables.  Now we may have stretched the race preparation budget just a tiny bit (approximately $22), but I think we stayed pretty close.

 

But here’s what I found most intriguing.  As mentioned yesterday, we’ve got loads of spare parts that we salvaged from a junked Panda.  And then today, Trevor mentioned that we even have a spare clutch.  Now, even though I can’t take apart and put together a car like Trevor can, I am aware of the fact that you have to remove at least the transmission to put a new clutch in a car.  And when I asked how on earth we would be able to manage that feat out in the middle of Mauritania (or Senegal or The Gambia), the answer was simple.  We’d just tip the car onto its side!  Imagine that – the most logical explanation of all was right there in front of me!  I’m almost hoping our clutch goes out.  What a picture that would make!

 

Oh yeah – we also tested out those PIAA driving lights after it got dark.  And let me tell you – we’re going to be lighting up around 25% of the Sahara (or 90% of Senegal) with those bad boys.  Some of you may have heard that story about the Great Wall of China and that it’s the only man-made object you can see from outer space.  Well that will now have to be amended to include Team Sand Flea in the Sahara at night with driving lights on.  You’d better believe, however, that we’ll be keeping the motor running when those PIAAs are all lit up.  You combine those puppies with our multiple on-board electronics, I’d give the car battery about 10 minutes of life.  Then again, we’ve got an extra battery too!

 

Well, my loyal CarDomain readers, that’s the news for today’s journey.  Signing off from sunny Spain.  And we’ll be reporting again tomorrow on New Year’s Eve.