There are few things in this world like a carefully-prepared-fully-home-made English breakfast. We woke up today to English bacon, poached eggs, mushrooms, sausage, tomatoes, brown toast, and some freshly squeezed orange juice and piping-hot English tea to wash it all down.
After breakfast we thanked our gracious hosts and headed to Greenwood Motors, where we had to hammer out the final details of all the modifications that needed to be made to the Punto. Our main contact at Greenwood was Julian, an awesome guy from Central London who had a lot of experience in fixing up cars for rallies (and has an unnerving resemblance to Dave Atell). We had a long conversation on what would be the necessary things for our car, and then we had to make that fir our budget and our schedule, since we only had 5 days to do all the modifications. We cut the fat and focused on the most important stuff.
This is the final job list that :
– Waterproof the air-intake
– Waterproof the exhaust
– Reinforce the engine mountings
– Complete engine overhaul (change spark plugs, cam belt)
– Replace radiator thermostat with a blanking sleeve
– Create a manual override for the radiator fan (wth a switch inside the car to turn it on/off)
– Drill holes in the bumper for additional air flow
– Raise the back of the hood to maximize airflow
– Add sump guard on the bottom of the car
– Add a roof cage for spares (tyres, springs, etc)
– Add spring assisters (to raise the car)
– Create a spares kit, with additional fuses, spark plugs, cables, belts, etc.
After all the modifications had been decided, we headed to the local tourism office to find adequate accommodations for the Basic Cruising team, and after a few phone calls we secured a room at a local farm. The ball was finally rolling.