Fiat to enter two Pandas into the Dakar 2007.

Fiat will be entering two Pandas into the famous long distance Dakar 2007, the cars are based on the current Fiat Panda Cross model, with a few modifications.

The cars will start in Lisbon, Portugal and travel through Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali, and Senegal and covers over 8,696 km's of some of the roughest and toughest terrains. The race date is set to start on the January 6th and will finish around the 21st in the Senegal capital.

The team has a serious back up and support team who will travel in three large Iveco trucks which carry the mechanics, spares and everything else that they could possibly ever need.

The cars themselves are of course different to the road going vehicle as they are powered by a 1.3 ltr Multi Jet Turbo Diesel, with a speed gear box, the power is around 105 brake horse power at around 4500 revs, the power is key to some of special stages that are ahead of them. They also need to carry some essential equipment, such as shovels, metal platforms which enable them to get out of deep sand, plenty of water and three spare wheels, it is crucial that they have all the tools to survive any eventuality, not just to win the race, but in order to survive this harsh environment.