04 SMILE LIKE YOU MEAN IT...

As we emerged from 18 months of lockdown, thoughts inevitably turned to stretching our legs and, because the whole thing reminded us of how fragile life can be, getting out there and making memories.  I convinced Lisa that we would do the next rally, no messing about, get a car, get it fancy dressed up and get onto the continent.  Well, that was the plan.

The reality was slightly different, with illness getting in the way and other family-related issues.  Right, the new plan was to do the rally in 2025.  This is a plan we are sticking with!

I mentioned what we were doing to a few friends, and most of them rolled their eyes, but one, Carl, got a grin on his face like the Cheshire Cat!  He thought it was the best idea he had ever heard.  "A proper once-in-a-lifetime trip, something you can look back on when we are old!".  He was definitely in, especially when I told him about the car we would use and my idea for a theme.

I checked the images on the official website and am trying to remember seeing a Fiat 500 used for the trip.  We already have a Fiat 500 as our daily driver, so it wouldn't cost us anything, other than for materials to make it look boss, so it was a no-brainer…right up until I told Lisa. She confirmed that 'her baby' would not be driving to Monaco and back (oh yeah, as we would be using her car, she wasn't keen on scrapping it in Marseille and would insist we drive it home!)

Lisa’s 500 was out, but I was convinced that using the baby Fiat was a good idea.  I would need to buy a car, which meant more Auto Trader trawling and more barrel scraping on our budget.  Again, I upped the cash, and a world of good alternatives opened up, including a battered Abarth 500 with 150,000 miles on the clock, which gave me a great idea.

That particular car would never be bought, but the thought of a 'hot' Fiat 500 blasting along the autobahns, uneven Italian streets, and, most importantly, the twisty Swiss alpine roads got my juices flowing!!!  Before you could say, "Christ, they are expensive," I saved searches on Auto Trader for white Abarth 500s with less than 80,000 miles on the clock.  

Then the inspiration hit: Why not dress the 500 as a pocket rally car?  Let's see if I can make an Abarth look like a little Lancia Delta in full Martini Racing livery!  YAAAS!  I told Carl.  He said he was well up for buying an Abarth for the rally but wanted a black one.  The issue is that no rally teams use black cars, but there are race teams…