Friends rescued in Sahara after Fiat Panda blowout

A man has described how he and his friend averted disaster when their 25-year-old Fiat Panda blew its radiator in the Sahara Desert.

William Davies and Duncan Kite took part in the Panda Raid international race in March.

Mr Davies, 55, from Buckinghamshire, said the pair were "arranging transport home" when a local in Morocco offered them an old Panda radiator in "the back of his van".

They were driving one of the 405 Fiat Pandas that were competing across 3,000km (1,864 miles).

"It was the most battered radiator you could ever imagine," explained Mr Davies.

"Somehow we fixed it up in our car and we were back in the race."

Mr Davies told BBC Three Counties Radio how the pair bought their Fiat Panda "unseen" from Italy at an auction, and how it took six months to register it in the UK.

"It didn’t go when we first got it," Mr Davies recalled.

But after the pair changed the brakes, raised the suspension and took out the back seats, it was good to go.

They flew to the south of Spain while the Panda travelled on a transporter, before catching a ferry to Morocco for the week-long rally.

On two occasions, they thought the race was over: when the radiator blew and when the car overheated after the fan stopped.

Joking that the rally was a response to a "mid-life crisis", Mr Davies described the experience as “brilliant fun - an unbelievable experience” but also "really tough".

"We got lost plenty of times but we weren’t the only ones, you’d find yourself completely in the middle of nowhere as far as the eye could see," he said.

"We got very little sleep. We would invariably pitch our tent in the dark, repair any issues with the car, then crawl into bed.

"But outside would be the noise of 400 Pandas and their occupants working on the cars, revving engines or snoring!"

They have raised £14,000 for Alzheimer's Research UK.

Follow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email [email protected] or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830