News January 6 2007

Fiat Pandas to take part in Dakar Rally

Dakar 2007 will this year be graced by two Fiat Panda Cross’s (or should that be Crosses?). The event starts this Saturday 6 January 2007 in Lisbon, Portugal and ends in Dakar, the capital of Senegal on 21 January.

The two cars – renamed PanDAKAR for the occasion – are in the hands of Miki Biasion, paired with Tiziano Siviero, and Frenchman Bruno Saby, with the Italian Rudy Briani as co-driver. Both are racing in the colours of Team Fiat PanDAKAR, which has also entered an IVECO Eurocargo truck driven by Livio Diamante, Giorgio Albiero and Nicola Montecchio.

Twice world rally champion in the Lancia Delta, Miki Biasion drove trucks before moving over to the decidedly smaller dimensions of the Panda. He has already driven in the Dakar six times, four times at the wheel of a truck and twice in cars. Team-mate Bruno Saby is a world champion of the Rally Raid 2005 and won Dakar in 1993. Biasion and Saby were team mates in the Eighties when both drove for Lancia.

The two Panda Cross’s are racing in the T2 class which allows only a minimal number of modifications compared to production versions.

To survive the tough 8696km challenge of the Dakar, the Pandas are fitted with rollbars, fire extinguisher systems and specially-made dampers, and FPT engineers have upped the power output of the 1300 cc Multijet engine to 105 bhp without losing any torque. Inside, room has been found for a 160 litre fuel tank along with three spare wheels and all the equipment they will need to dig their way out of sand: shovels, sand jacks and two aluminium plates. And not forgetting a water reserve of 10 litres (5 litres each) which takes the vehicle’s total weight to about 1400 kg.

Before its official unveiling at the Bologna Motor Show on 5 December, the PanDAKAR went through a series of tests in Tunisia, where it demonstrated an ability to “float” on sand dunes, as well as excellent manoeuvrability. After these tests, the two drivers had nothing but praise for the performance of the Panda Cross, even though the route they will have to face is testing in the extreme. However they’re not taking any chances - the PanDAKAR cars are supported by three service vehicles: a Fiat Sedici and two Iveco trucks.

© italiancar.net 6/1/07