My, don't things move at pace! Today saw the purchase of the rally vehicle. Predictably, given that the website is called 'Across the globe in a Fiat Panda' - Ben and I chose a Fiat Panda, with which...to go across the globe. So fully 48 hours after deciding to participate in the adventure - the wheels are procured.
Special thanks must go out at this stage to Ross (Ben's bother), who drove the team down to Dover from Birmingham in the early hours of this morning to collect the car on a trailer - kindly supplied by his friend Scott (thanks) And also to my mother who has kindly allowed the short term storage of the vehicle in her garage.

So. What does the bad boy look like then. Well. Some pictures will follow. For those that haven't checked the official rally site yet, you won't be aware that the idea is to use as shitty a car as possible (and it must be less than 1000 cc, so don't be alarmed by what you see next!

(pics may not appear just yet - something up with server)

Emotional scenes in Dover when the Panda is collected:


Here it is. Ready and loaded:


Interestingly, we plan to drive it 8,000miles across the globe, but didn't have the confidence to get it from Dover back to Birmingham!


Early acclimatisation for the wee fella - we took it to the countryside:


Next up is to register and insure it, learn how to drive it, repair it, rebuild it - how to earn £1500, learn russian, survive in the desert and much much more.
The next post we make will have a final decision about whether to compete in 2006 or 2005.