It seems ages ago now when we found out our front shocks looked a bit suspect. I sent a few emails out and Julian at Balance Motorsport got in touch. He really kindly offered a set of Bilstein front shocks. What with all the breakdowns we've had it took us a while to get the Panda roadworthy enough to go see him. We decided this weekend would be a great opportunity to give the Panda another road test and to go see Julian. So we set off on a 400 mile round trip from Birmingham to Sussex.

It's been a really gorgeous day, and with the sun streaming and a temp of 31c it was a bit of a warm up for the 40c temps in Uzbekistan. We found Balance Motorsport and Julian wasted no time in striiping the old shocks off.

I think he had plans to settle down in front of the telly to watch the Le Mans 24hr with a few friends and a barbie. Unfortunately he hadn't factored in any embuggurance time that always seems to rear it's ugly head when working on the pad. First we reliased the dust sleeves were in tatters. A few quick phone calls established that the only replacements were in Warrington so this was not really an option. In true Mongol Rally style Julian did an amazing bodge job on the old sleeves with superglue and this tar like stuff. He'll hate me for telling you about this because its not up to his usual high standards, but this was a case of needs must.
.
I'm not even going to mention the whole drama with the different sized bolt holes in the new schocks. I'm just going to gloss over it. It was a matter of minutes before the Panda was back on the road, now with a much better chance of staying on it. The old shocks were literally useless, this explained why the car bounced and took off over every bump we hit. The springs were taking all the stress and they simply would not have survived the rally.

Thanks a lot Julian for all your help. Amazing work.