First, quick history lesson. The first generation Fiat Panda was introduced in 1980, and was produced until 1986, when it underwent several changes. From 1986 until 2003, it was produced with only a few changes. Pandas were made to be cheap utility vehicles, so they weren't particularly well engineered, and they borrowed parts from old Fiats. The Panda Raid is open only to the Pandas up to 2003, so I'm not gonna go ahead and talk about the ones that followed. Although, Seat did make a car identical to the Italian original, meaning they have a right to participate.
The 9th edition of the Panda Raid took place this March. 300 little Pandas went from Madrid to Marrakech, crossing the Moroccan desert and covering 3,000km of road in 7 days. For Panda owners, this has now become the most important rally of the year. It has also been the most successful Raid yet.
Stunning natural off road environments, from dirt tracks, mountains and barren planes to 360˚ desert.
The first goal in Tissaf (after 322 kilometers of tracks) made it clear that the 2017 edition would have been the hardest Panda Raid in history, but also the most exciting.
The teams faced up to complicated terrain through sand, rocks and dunes, with many of them falling into water and mud traps.
The fourth stage was in the deepest part of the desert and this tested the endurance of the mechanics and also of the participants, who had to combine ingenuity and team work to overcome the challenges , with only two days to the end of the race.
With the fifth, and longest stage of Panda Raid came heat and a lot of sand. Getting through the difficult terrain was worth the effort with only one more day to go. The final stage of the Panda Raid 2017 was the most testing of all . The day began with a series of fast tracks that took the participants to the doors of the film studios of Ouarzazate, the location of hundreds of films. The second part of the day passed by the highest mountain road in Africa, the Col du Tichka, 2,260 meters high.
Panda Raid: a low cost dakar
Participating to the rally is relatively cheap, pay the organizers 1500euros, buy a car and get it ready to cross the desert for 1 week (considering it's a Panda, it doesn't need much). Pandas are cheap cars, as I have already explained at the beginning, you can find a second hand one for less than 1000 euros!! So there are only 4 rules to follow in order to participate: you must have a Panda (or Seat), you must have a drivers license, you may not modify the engine to make it go faster, and you cannot use a GPS, only hand maps and a compass. For the rest, fun is the main goal.
Being a charity rally, the organisers asked that each car carries 20kg of school materials, such as pencils, notepads, backpacks, calculators, sports equipment, old laptops, computers, etc. The educational materials were donated to a local school during stage 3 of the rally.
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Comments (3)
Amazing! I never knew about this race! Great article 👍
ps: (La Panda può fare qualsiasi cosa, altro che i SUV di oggi 😂)
d'accordissimo, io sono sempre indeciso sul se usare panda o jeep. Hai visto il video che ho messo un paio di giorni fa?
Me lo sono perso, lo guardo subito!