But there’s no Mongol Rally for us without a car.
We’ve spent a lot of time checking the car ads. And there wasn’t a suitable car for sale for a really long time. Our criteria evolved during the time. I was starting to think about buying an alternative car and even Mateja started to look at the ads that were previously deemed unfit.
I started to think about the alternative cars for the 1990’s era, such as Renault Twingo, Clio mk1 and even the Renault 5 became a dot on my radar. There were also a lot of »newer« cars for sale. Such as Opel Corsa, Clio mk2 and Fiat Punto.
They all had the potential to make our adventure even more adventurous. As there were plenty of such cars for sale, albeit not for our budget, we’d be able to buy one in almost no time.
Hope
Mateja, however, had something different in mind. She spent countless hours combing through the ads. Her effort wasn’t in vain. She found a car which suited all of our criteria. The price was set at 500€. Well inside our budget. It was produces in 1990. It had 5 doors and a small body. The engine had the capacity of whopping 1124ccm, and it produced (when it was new) 40kW. All weighing at less then 1000kg. Not bad at all.
It’s silhouetto is legendary, only surpassed by it’s racing pedigree. It was battle hardened in all kinds of rallying. But the fans knew it best for it’s legendary group B spec. Which made me all giggly as it will, if we choose it, go rallying. Sort of. It wasn’t really rallying in this particular body variant or with this engine, admittedly. Just details.
We were slightly wary of our optimism. The cas was old. It probably had a tough life. And slightly risky rust wise. I did find form the past experience even the crappiest car can look good when washed. On the photo especially. The reality can be different. The paint could be faded and it could have more dings than the surface of the Moon.
We soon remembered why we’re buying it. Not becouse it’s a prized oldtimer. We don’t want to drive it from concourse to concourse. We’re buying it for the Mongol Rally. It doesn’t really matter how shiny the paint is or if there are numerous dings. It doesn’t matrer if it’s not the nicest car of it’s kind in Slovenia. We’d be quite happy as long as it has an engine, a gearbox, most of it’s body panels, four wheels and some brakes. All it takes for it to move under it’s own power.
Thorough look at the photos confirmed it has four wheel attached and the body panels were there as well.
But we were mainly cautious due to the seller’s location. Some parts of Slovenia have bad reputation when it comes to buying cars. It doesn’t mean all of the cars are broken there. Or botched together. Or have had their tacho rewind.
The same way the smoking only increases the risk of getting some disease, buying car there just increases the risk of buying a lemon.
The voyage
We gathered enough courage and have appointed Mateja to make all the arrangements. She bravely called the seller and has arranged the meeting.
We went on our way to Celje to take a look at the car on a beautiful late autumn day when the leaves on the trees were dancing slowly in the lazy wind. When we were leaving the most beautiful city on Earth* with our hearts filled with hope. And with enough cash in our wallets to secure the deal, if we’d like the car.
Kilometers were sowly going by. We gre more impatient with every second. Our GPP was leading us to the destination bravely. Just like the lighthous guieded the sailors on their jurney.
The roads got narrower and narrower when we got closer to our destination. The motorway became dual carrigeway. And it became a narrow street. At the far end if this narrow street we saw our destination. There was the vehicle which might lead us on an adventure.