Finally, and I mean this in the best possible way, today was the day we were able to drive into our 12th country; Peru. We had fantastic experiences in Ecuador with the most astounding generosity displayed towards the team, but between the shipping, fire and crash we had been delayed enough and we really wanted to move on! So with this in mind, we left early from Machala and headed for the Ecuador/Peru border; our first unassisted land border since going into Panama some month and a half ago! I say unassisted because between Colombia and Ecuador we had Sebastian and his legion of contacts helping us out, so today we were to be retested on our border skills!

The 70km to the border was a very easy drive with smooth roads. Almost the entire way the road was lined with banana plantations; apparently this area is a major world exporter of bananas. However, even in this 70km you could see a marked shift in the landscape and climate, from tropical vegetation and hot humid air in Machala, to a more arid and drier scenario as we neared the border. In fact, the rapid change of landscape is something we have noticed a lot on this trip, particularly so in Colombia and Ecuador where within just a few miles you can pass through a range of climates due to the altitude and mountain influences. It makes for a thrilling drive I can assure you!

Anyway, onwards we drove towards the frontier, following the road markings to Peru, when all of a sudden a sign indicated that we had left Ecuador and that we were very welcome in Peru! It distinctly reminded us of the Alaska/Canada border where there appeared to be no controls whatsoever. However, we knew that it could not be this easy, especially as we have certain paperwork pertaining to the vehicles going in and out of Ecuador that needed to be stamped by various officials. Indeed, our passports needed to be stamped too so we were a little perplexed as to what to do!

However, after technically driving into Peru, we noticed a few roadside huts with border guards outside. Asking them what the story was revealed that we had to go back into Ecuador to get our passports and papers stamped. After being given the directions, we arrived a few minutes later at the customs building where we could get our exit stamps for our passports. Of course, someone came up with the cunning idea of putting a toll booth just before this building so that everyone leaving Ecuador has to pay to pass through it; that’s Latin America I guess!

Arriving at the customs building revealed another side of Latin American bureaucracy; there were 4 windows, 2 for people exiting the country, and 2 for those entering. Nobody was staffing the exit windows, and we were told that we had to stand in the entry queue to get our exit stamps. This long queue was needlessly long as the second entry window was staffed, but the guy was just refusing to do anything, so everyone for both exit and entry were queued up behind one window! Despite our best sweet talk, the lazy customs guy was not going to stamp our passports, so we were forced to wait an unnecessarily long time.

Upon reaching the window and getting our passports stamped, we were told that the vehicle papers had to be completed at a building about 4km up the road. Why everything can’t be in one place is a big mystery for us, but nonetheless we had no choice and we raced over to this other customs building! Fortunately we met with very efficient guards here and in a matter of minutes all the vehicles were cleared to leave Ecuador and we were on our way to Peru, for real this time!

Arriving at the Peruvian stretch of border huts a few minutes later revealed a slow but fair process to allow the vehicles into the county. We were the only people there, and the guard took his time to check through all our paperwork, but without much hassle, everything was signed and stamped off and we were free to enter Peru! The whole border process had taken a little over 2 hours, an hour less than expected, and with a super smooth road stretching out into the desert, we continued deeper into the Southern Hemisphere!

It seemed that the country border also seemed to be a landscape border because almost immediately after entering Peru we found ourselves driving through real desert. Quite a change from the tropics in which we had been in for the last 2 months, but beautiful nonetheless! Before long we found ourselves driving along the Pacific coastline where we stopped for a delicious seafood lunch right on the beach. We had heard from numerous people about the great seafood in Peru and we certainly weren’t disappointed!

Back on the Pan-American Highway after lunch, we found ourselves driving on a straight road through a few small fishing villages before hitting a twisty desert mountain road. The mountains weren’t actually that high, but they were dramatic with deep gorges and plunging cliffs. The views of the sea from the road were unbelievably spectacular and, once again, this drive topped many we have had in the past. Claudio managed to get some great shots for the documentary, the weather and the road was absolutely perfect, and we continued on into the sunset.

The whole drive would have been absolutely trouble free had it not been for a problem with the car that we had noticed whilst driving since the crash. For some reason, the car seemed to be using about 20% more energy than normal whilst cruising. Naturally this took a big hit on our range, and while we had enough juice even with this diminished range to complete the 250 mile leg without any worries, it was still very perplexing. We suspect the prime culprit is the front splitter which is slanting down slightly on the left hand side; an effect of the way it was fixed after the crash. Over the next few drives we intend on finding out what is the problem by experimenting with different aerodynamic setups, wheel alignments and anything else which could be causing the problem.

However, leaving this issue to be sorted on another day, we happily drove on into the sunset, by now on perfectly straight and smooth roads. It was easy driving at its finest, and barring a few rough patches, we arrived in Piura after a very successful driving day. We were finally able to rack up the miles once more!

Upon arriving in Piura, we met up with our contacts here. They were volunteers in a program called Ayni where they teach poor Peruvian children English, help with micro finance projects to assist families in starting self supporting businesses, and generally do good things to help lift this community out of poverty. We were due to go and see some of their work the next day, but for now we needed to get the car on charge, eat, and spend some time with our very friendly hosts.

Our hosts, all from the US and Canada, had kindly organised the use of a garage at one of their friend’s house where we would be able to charge the car. However, upon arriving there we realised that their circuit was simply not enough to sustain the power we needed to charge the car. While the circuit breaker was rated correctly, if anybody in the house was to use an appliance, the breaker would trip and cut off all the power; not a desirable outcome either for us or the occupants of the house!

So now the search was on to find a place for the car to charge. We tried several hotels but all to no avail; none of them were prepared to entertain the idea of a sporty electric number charging in their car park! While we were searching for hotels, we were also in contact with a sponsor in Lima, and she was trying to get her contact at the local university to find us. Completely by coincidence, Toby bumped into her at one of the hotels he was viewing, upon which she then explained that we would be able to charge at her university with no problems. Great, we thought, charging problem solved!

Not quite so, unfortunately, as we were led to a car park without any electricity supply…someone clearly hadn’t thought this through properly. By this time is was late, around 12pm, on a Friday night, and we still didn’t have a place to charge. However, after scouring the university and having them call in their electrician, we managed to find a point where we could charge off. As there was no plug, just wires from the mains, this took a while to set up, and it was only at around 1.30am that we were able to leave with the car charging.

From the university we went to grab a bite to eat, and then we headed to our hostel to get some very needed sleep! However, to top the night off, the hostel had ever so kindly given away our reservation, which probably could have been avoided had we called ahead to tell them we would be late, but nonetheless meant that we had no place to stay. However, our hosts were really helpful and offered us to crash at their place.

And so it was that on Friday 15th October we ended up sleeping in a random house in the desert city of Piura in Peru. It topped off a long and exciting, but occasionally frustrating day, and we were glad to finally get some sleep, albeit at 3am in the morning! However, all these little mishaps are part of the adventure, we love the unpredictability and spontaneity of it, and we are so happy to be doing a trip like this!

Thanks so much to Hannah, Jessica, Troy, Christin and Lauren for helping us out so much…we really appreciated not having to sleep on the streets!

In order to try our best to make up some lost time, we had done our research and had found that by going directly to the southern city of Machala rather than going to Guayaquil as initially planned, we could gain a day. The problem was that Machala is 520km away and this would be a stretch to do in one day and on one charge given the very mountainous terrain. But we were determined to make up for lost time, so how could we do it without running out of juice in the middle of the jungle somewhere?

The answer is an intermediate charge. We had done this only twice before on the trip, once on the way up to Chena Hotsprings way back in July, and one on the way to Santa Rosa in New Mexico. Basically, you have to find somewhere on your route where you can quickly charge for a couple of hours and then shoot off, and try and minimise the time you have to drive off the main road. So, on the recommendation of Alfonso, we ended up at an extremely smart Toyota dealership and workshop in the city of Ambato, around 160km from Quito, where the manager, Carlos, was waiting to greet us.

The reception we got from the staff was incredible as, working on cars all day, they were also a little car-mad! They asked a lot about the technical specifications of the car while we set it up for charging, and there was also a local TV channel there to document the event. However, the team was absolutely starving as we had missed breakfast in order to get moving so quickly, so we walked over to the local mall to grab some food.

Given the SRZero’s excellent range, we were actually fairly confident that we could make the whole journey on one charge, but we didn’t want to take chances. As such, it was only a small amount that we charged up with; around 20% of the total energy stored in the pack. With this complete at 12.30pm, Carlos lead us back to the main road and we continued south.

The road was smooth and often dual carriage, so the driving was fast and easy; just how we like it! The odd thing was that, despite the fact that we were told we would be descending to sea level, we were actually climbing in altitude, and the road was winding its way through ever more remote areas. We began seriously contemplating that we had taken a wrong turn as we were driving well above 3,000m! However consultation with the map showed us to be on the right route, so we continued driving whilst enjoying the wonderful weather and road.

After around an hour, we began the long decent down to sea level along an amazing road carved into the mountain face. The road conditions began getting more difficult as it narrowed to just one lane and overtaking became the only method to keep up our average speed. However, as always, there are forces at work trying to make the route just that little bit harder, and at around 3pm we were hit with a double whammy…

The weather closed in big time and then the roads became all but undrivable! Firstly, the weather; we have experienced bad weather before in the form of heavy rain, but so far we hadn’t encountered cloud. At this time, and for the next few hours, we were engulfed by thick cloud that severely reduced visibility and turned bright daylight to dusk. Couple this with idiotic drivers who obviously think it’s a lot safer to keep their lights off, especially when overtaking into oncoming traffic, and you have some potentially hairy situations! However, having become used to Latin American driving, all vehicles made it through with no problems.

And now for a quick rant about the roads; as I’ve said before, the worst thing you can have for us is nice smooth road with the occasional bad patch because it means that you are driving fast when you suddenly have to brake to avoid obstacles. This is exactly what we encountered time and time again on this journey, except the obstacles weren’t potholes or rough patches, they were unmarked steps down onto the most abominable, unpaved gravel and rock surface you can imagine. Our top speed on these patches, some of which lasted for 5km or more, was never above 10mph. In fact, even approaching this speed shook the car more than we had ever experienced. Even the term “shake down testing” never envisaged so much shaking!

However, the car made it clean across on every occasion, and was able to pick up its speed. Nonetheless, these rough patches severely reduced our average speed, and it was only after a total of 13 hours of solid driving that we made it to our charging point for the night. This was a garage/workshop belonging to some racing contacts of Fernando. They very kindly let us tap into their electricity supply, and before long we had the car on charge and were driving to the hotel.

We still needed to eat, do emails and all the other whatnots, and it was only at around 12.30am that we managed to get to bed. It was an absolutely massive day, a total of 520km driven in 2 non stop stints, and it unequivocally proved that the SRZero was back! The car had performed flawlessly through some severe battering, and it lived to drive another day.

It felt really good to be able to get back on the road with a big leg completed. Racing Green Endurance really earned its name today, well, perhaps more so the first and third word than the middle! May the good progress continue!

First up, I went with Fernando to pick up the crash box which we were supposed to have had delivered yesterday. As this is a crucial safety feature of the car, I was very much hoping that the job would have been a good one, but truth be told, I had a few doubts in mind. The job was a tricky one to get right, and I had no idea of what this metal worker was like.

However, upon arriving at the workshop and seeing what he had done, any doubts I may have had were completely and utterly vanquished! Unless you had built a Radical or you were in fact an engineer at Radical, you would be hard pressed to see the difference. The crash box was beautiful extended, and the attention to detail was exceptional, even right down to the rivet pattern which was complex. I gladly handed over the $70 dollars we had agreed upon the day before; it may well have been the best money I have ever spent!

Upon returning to Pro-mecanika, we injected the crash box with a foam to give it extra strength in a crash but without adding significant weight. When this had dried, we were finally able to get moving on the rest of the car. The reason for this bottleneck was because the crash box had to go on before the front splitter and bodywork, and we also had to determine whether it still fitted well.

By now, the splitter and bodywork had been beautifully finished and painted. They were both a work of art and it is nearly impossible to tell the difference between the old and new bodywork. In fact, I suspect that most people will think we have cheated and just ordered in a new piece of bodywork, but we haven’t! Thanks to Victor’s skill along with the dedication of the Pro-mecanika staff, we had all the pieces needed to restore the SRZero.

The rest of the day was spent fitting the bodywork, then unfitting it, then bending a few things, bolting a few things and generally getting everything to fit together in the way it did before. The tow hook was resurrected from the mangled front end of the crash box, lights were fitted into the bodywork, a few mounts and brackets were made, and by 7.30pm the car was ready to drive once again, including a new sticker job for all the logos that got destroyed in the crash. Don’t worry, dear sponsors, your logos are fresh, alive, and well!

The team really put in a great effort today, and we even managed to squeeze in some media interviews as well. Everyone was really pulling their weight, and in just 5 days we had repaired the SRZero after its worst accident to date! However, we could never have done it without the help and support of so many people here in Quito; honestly, it just wouldn’t have happened anywhere near as fast or for so little money. Our total bill for repairing the car was a shade under $1,000, still very expensive, but nothing compared to the $6,000+ we would have had to spend by express shipping in new components. So, all in all, an absolutely cracking effort by absolutely everyone involved!

The number of people who have helped us in Quito is astounding, and to each and every one of you, RGE would like to thank you profusely! Without your help and enthusiasm, we would still have many days to go before being back on the road!

There were bits and pieces to fix on the car, more wear and tear than anything to do with the crash, and this occupied us until around 11.30am. During this time we also came up with a plan as to how to fix the crash box, but given the lack of machinery available to us and the time we needed on other aspects of the car, we gave the metal cutting job to a local contractor. He promised to have the job completed by 4pm. After this we were summoned to Victor’s fibreglass workshop to collect our repaired bodywork and splitter, something we had eagerly been anticipating!

The results were more than astonishing; somehow he had been able to take this completely smashed up bodywork and repair it to a standard that any car owner would be proud of! The left sides of the splitter and nose were completely reconstructed, and there were no indications of the myriad cracks and tears that were seen before.

After Victor’s we made a quick stop at the hardware store for more supplies followed by a lunch in the local shopping mall which was, incidentally, where we were due to display the car on that fateful Friday. After the food we headed back to the workshop to finish off the bodywork; it had to be sanded down and painted. However, the incredible helpful staff took it from us and insisted they did all the work. And so, with the car waiting to receive the crash box and bodywork, we had literally nothing to do until the crash box arrived; a very rare occurrence for RGE.

So we made use of the time to answer emails, clean out the van which had somehow morphed into an absolute pigsty after the last few days, and generally potter around the car tightening and inspecting little things. However, 4pm soon passed us by, and we had a call that it would be ready at 6pm; another 2 hours of waiting.

Then, at 6pm, we got a call saying it wouldn’t be ready until 10am tomorrow…damn frustrating! With the bodywork still being painted, we had no choice but to call it a day. This was rather disappointing, but quite out of our hands at this stage. So, we left the workshop and organised with Alfonso what time to meet up later because very kindly, Alfonso’s dad had invited the team out for dinner that night.

A few hours later we reconvened at a well known pizza joint in town, and had a delightful meal with Alfonso and his wife Michelle, Fernando and Maria, as well as Alfonso’s parents. The conversation and company was great, and we have them to thank for helping us out so much with getting the car fixed. Thanks a lot guys!

We now look forward to tomorrow where hopefully we have more luck. As always, the old adage sticks; everything always takes longer than expected!

Meanwhile, Sebastian and I went in search of a printer to be able to print off the engineering drawings of the crash box. These were kindly sent over by Radical in the UK and were crucial in ensuring that our fix of the crash box was carried out accurately. This took longer than expected, as usual, but with these documents obtained, we went back to the garage, picked up Nik and the crash box, and headed out to a workshop where we could get some work done on it.

Basically, the crash box is a box-sectioned cone of honeycomb aluminium; extremely strong and very light, it’s designed to concertina inwards in the event of a crash, thereby absorbing much of the energy of the impact. This stops the crash forces getting directed into the chassis and the driver, both of which could cause considerable and lasting damage. As the crash wasn’t particularly fast, only half the crash box was damaged, and the rear part was still in tact. So what we needed was a skilled machinist who could cut off the damaged section extremely neatly and straight such that we could affix a front piece that we would make.

Under normal circumstances, we would have gladly taken on this challenge as us engineers love getting our hands dirty with some metal and machinery! However, without the proper tools with us, we opted to give the box to a workshop. Following this decision we spent around 45 minutes getting lost in Quito’s crazy maze of streets before finally finding the place. The guys at the workshop assured us they would do a great job, and that it would be ready in 2 hours.

With the crash box now being seen to, we had a small window of time in which we could move the car to a new home. Alfonso had kindly offered the use of his brother-in-law’s car repair shop a short drive across the city. Driving the SRZero over there would normally be something we wouldn’t even think of, but now we had a car which hadn’t driven since the crash, an untested suspension, and no front bodywork, lights, mirrors or any other essential features needed to legally and safely drive on the road! So the question was, how on earth do we safely get the car across town without putting it on a costly flatbed? The answer?…

Call the police! Back when we were having our police escort into Quito, the Captain had assured us that if we needed any assistance we were to call his mobile and he would send out some units to help us with whatever needs doing. So, half an hour after calling the police and explaining what was needed, they turned up to the garage and helped stop the traffic so we could whizz through to our destination.

Upon arriving at Fernando’s car repair shop, we were amazed at what he had going there. Some old vintage cars were in for some work, everything was clean and tidy, and machinery such as car lifts were there which would make our job a lot easier! Immediately, a swarm of workers descended on the car, polishing it and lifting it up to a more comfortable height to work on. While this was being done, we were shown through to a seating area where Alfonso and his sister Maria had kindly ordered us some pizza, correctly assuming that we would be starving when we arrived! This was incredible hospitality and not something you find so easily everywhere in the world.

After the food, Nik and Toby went back into the workshop to help optimise the suspension setup with Fernando while I drove over to the workshop to pick up the dissected crash box. I was extremely impressed with the job they had done, and truth be told, they probably did a better job than we would have been able to do with the same tools. This left the crash box looking good once again, and the task of building on a front nose cone suddenly became a lot easier to imagine!

While this was all happening, Claudio had made it over to Victor the fibreglasser to film the latest developments on the bodywork, and while this was obviously good for the documentary, it also saved us going to have a look as we could view what had happened on video. From what we could see, he was doing a truly excellent job and we are very much looking forward to seeing the finished job tomorrow. It is clear that because of all the work Victor has done on Alfonso’s Radical, he needed much less supervision when fixing the bodywork than previously thought.

After reconvening at Fernando’s place, we had a look at the results of the suspension setup, and it had turned out that the rear wheels were both toed out by 6mm meaning that they would have sucked up way more power than necessary when driving. As such, we are now very keen to see if this realignment results in an increased range; in theory it should do! The camber and toe of the wheels were checked and corrected where necessary so the car should drive a lot smoother now.

Next up we proceeded upstairs to where Fernando had a complete studio for printing stickers which is something we needed given that many were destroyed in the crash. We spent some hours here with the graphics artists going over exactly what we needed printing, and by tomorrow these should be ready to be stuck onto our rescued bodywork.

And while all this engineering work was going on, Andy and Clemens were back at the hotel doing a whole bunch of important things to keep our website up to date and the information we’re putting out there up to scratch. This actually takes a lot of time too, so it is sometimes good to have non-driving days (but not with a crashed car obviously!)

This concluded an extremely successful day, and with all going well this should mean that we have a fully repaired car by tomorrow evening. We are going to work late into the night to try and ensure that we can leave on Wednesday, 2 days earlier than originally thought. However, things can often take longer than expected, so Thursday is probably a good estimate for our departure date!

A massive thanks go out to Alfonso and Fernando and his team at Pro-Mechanika for all there help and support!

Upon arriving at his small workshop, and by small I mean smaller than a bedroom, he proudly displayed his handiwork. Despite seeing it 6 hours ago, I am still in shock as to how well he had done after only just a day! Yesterday, he had insisted that the repair could be completed a lot faster if he had the pieces of fibreglass that had broken off in the crash, so we had called up the university, got in touch with the cleaner, and asked her to retrieve the pieces. It was immediately evident how this had helped, as it ensured that the bodywork retained it’s original shape.

There were still cracks in the bodywork and splitter, but it was evident how strong his reconstruction was, and despite the cracks, the former glory of these beautifully shaped pieces of fibreglass was beginning to reemerge! And to prove that his repairs weren’t just cosmetic, he started jumping on the bodywork, much to our horror! Yet it all remained completely intact and we were very hopeful that by tomorrow we may have a credible piece of bodywork to put back on our car.

While at Victor’s workshop, we met with Alfonso, which you may remember as the businessman who owns a Radical here in Quito. Very kindly, he had brought along the upper and lower wishbones that we needed, and comparing them with our components, it was clear that they were a match! This was fantastic news and ensured that we could get down to work today to fully repair the suspension! So, after a quick stop at the local hardware store, which by the way trumps anything I have ever seen in the UK, we returned to the garage.

One thing to realise about race cars is, as Sebastian puts it, that no one is similar to any other. Each car gets stressed in different ways, and small fluctuations in the constancy of new parts mean that sometimes they fit, and sometimes they don’t; if only it were as easy as a Mecano set! This fact became all to apparent when we tried to replace the old upper wishbone with the new one. For some reason, whatever we tried would not enable the new wishbone to fit into the suspension points. This could be due to one of 2 factors; either the new wishbone was made slightly differently to our old one, or the crash had damaged the suspension points so much that a new component wouldn’t fit.

Upon close inspection, it would appear that the likely reason for the misfit is a combination of the 2, but much more leaning towards the former explanation. As you may remember though, the top wishbone was only very slightly affected in the crash, and so, as it still fitted onto the suspension points and didn’t stress them like the new component, we decided to use the old wishbone.

Over the next 4 hours Nik and I reassembled the suspension, and by the end we could see that it was a good job! Everything fitted very nicely together, and aside from a few adjustments needed in the setup, namely toe, camber and damper settings, the car is good to drive!

This concluded a very successful day; the bodywork was well on its way to a speedy recovery, and the car was back on its 4 wheels ready to roll! Many thanks to Victor and Alfonso for spending so much of their time to get us back on the road!

Alfonso, as he is known, is a smartly dressed business man, and from the moment we met him, we knew he was a no-nonsense character. He was extremely keen to help us out, and so without further ado, we drove over to see the car. On the way, he made a call to the guy who does all the fibreglass bodywork repairs on his Radical, and asked him to meet us at the garage.

Upon arriving at the disabled SRZero’s new abode, a quick look from Alfonso elicited the exact same reaction as we had; the car was very fixable. And in an extremely generous gesture, he offered to give us the suspension components that we need from his car so that we wouldn’t have to ship them in from America. We still need to check if the components are the same, but if they fit this will cut out a lot of wasted time and money in having to order in the components from abroad. Unfortunately, his car model uses the old bodywork and impact attenuator, and so he was only able to offer replacement parts for the suspension. The discussion then moved over to how we would fix the fibreglass bodywork and splitter; cue entry of Victor, master fibreglasser (we hoped!).

Victor is a loud Ecuadorian with a potbelly, but the way he came in, looked at the bodywork and manipulated it showed that he was a professional. He was adamant that he could have not only the bodywork, but the splitter as well, completely repaired as new by Tuesday. Seeing is believing as the saying goes, so we wait with bated breath to see what he comes up with, but rest assured that we will be in his workshop every day to make sure the job is done and done well!

Next up, we dismantled the left front suspension to fully inspect the damage. Our initiall prognosis the day before remained accurate; the only damaged components we could see were the 2 wishbones, and other crucial suspension and braking members were kept fully in tact. So, assuming we can use suspension components from Alfonso’s car and that the bodywork and splitter are repaired correctly, the only thing left to fix is the impact attenuator.

We have 2 choices when fixing the attenuator; we could either get a new one shipped in from the US, or we could repair the old one. Given that the chances are that we will not have to order any components from abroad, shipping just one component that we can fix seemed a bit pointless, so we made the decision to fix it ourselves. It is a crucial and difficult component to get right as it’s also a structural member of the splitter, but he have a great design which we are going to get working on tomorrow!

This concluded our day in the garage; it was productive and helped us set everything up for the rest of the work still to come. Having solutions to the problems has made us feel a lot better, and we are really excited to carry on fixing! Just like the problems we had in Cartagena, we are determined that the car will come out better than before!

Everything was pretty normal up until around 11am. There was a huge crowd of people attending the viewing of the car at the university, and we had made a presentation which was very well received. The weather, despite the predictions of rain, was holding up brilliantly, and the day seemed like it would be a walk in the park. We turned on the car, and Nik took it out and drove around it around a basketball court to demonstrate how quick and quiet the car was, and then the unthinkable happened…

He crashed! While demonstrating to the crowd and trying to brake a little harder than the not-so-grippy surface would allow, the wheels locked up and he slammed into a wall at around 25km/h. For some reason, the crowd cheered, but as you may imagine, the team were less than amused! We immediately went into action and checked that the car was safely shut down before inspecting the damage.

It was one of the worst feelings each of us had ever encountered, seeing something which we had lovingly built and driven for so long, smashed up against a wall. The car had hit at an angle, with the left side taking the full brunt of the crash. The front bodywork was severely damaged, as was the front splitter which had its left side completely decimated. We all felt sick.

The team’s reaction was absolutely priceless though. Our attitude was instantly that the car could be fixed. After all, it’s only fibreglass and metal, and seeing as we built it, we were confident we could fix it! There was no shouting or ganging up on Nik, who had immediately apologised to the team, and we instantly got to work assessing the damage, and working out how we would manage an extended stay in Quito; where would we stay? Where could we fix the car? People further down the route needed to be alerted and events postponed…there was a lot to get done aside from getting the car fixed!

The reaction from the university, KPMG, and the British embassy was equally reassuring; they made it explicitly clear that anything we could possibly need, they would help us with. It was great knowing that despite the awful situation, our sponsors and supporters were still 100% behind us. So, with the massive crowd around us, and the country’s media looking on, we pulled the car away from the wall and got down to peeling off the bodywork to ascertain what damage had been done internally.

Initially we had fears that the chassis would have failed in some way, the main concern being the suspension hard points, or that the electrics may have been badly damaged. However, it immediately became clear that our fears were not justified; the impact attenuator had done a fantastic job at cushioning the blow, and the chassis as well as the electrics were completely unaffected. The left suspension was damaged to some extent, with the wishbones clearly being damaged. We needed to wait until we were in a garage before we could dismantle the suspension and make a more thorough inspection.

Certainly the car was fixable and we were looking on the bright side. Nik was not injured, and fortunately no one was involved in the crash; the mere thought of this potential outcome sent shivers down our spines! In fact, Clemens was in the crash path, but managed to jump aside just in time. So now, with the job being purely a mechanical one, we began piecing together how we were going to approach fixing the car.

Fortunately, and I can not emphasise how fortunate this was, we had Sebastian Moreno with us; the race car driver who had travelled with us since Pasto. His reaction, like ours, was that we could get it fixed fast, and he instantly put his full weight behind finding a solution to the problems. Using his extensive network of contacts, he located the owner of a Radical car here in Quito, and organised through this guy the use of a workshop and a flatbed truck to get the car there.

While he was organising all of this, we were busy removing the front bodywork, impact attenuator and splitter, and implementing a makeshift solution to fix the suspension well enough for the car to be able to role around and ride on the back of the flatbed. I have to say, with the damaged components off, the car still looked like it was going to conquer the Pan-American Highway; all it needed was a few new components to bring it back to its former glory! This instantly gave us a fresh wave of energy and optimism, and by the time the flatbed had arrived, we were ready to load it up and take the SRZero to its new temporary home.

A short drive through the streets of Quito took us to a light industrial facility where we had kindly been loaned the use of a workshop. It was, at the time, being used as storage for various things, but within minutes, Sebastian had managed to organise a forklift to move all the stuff out, and the team got to work getting the car off the flatbed and into the garage. Meanwhile, I made a call back to Radical in the UK, informing them of the situation and advising them that we may need some new parts sent out from one of their distributors in the US.

Back in the garage, we jacked the car up, took off the wheels, and had a closer look at the suspension. In general, it all looked fine except the upper and lower wishbones. The upper one was only very marginally damaged; we could probably still use it, however the lower wishbone had been damaged beyond repair. So, the initial prognosis was good, and we were looking forward to the next day whereby we would be able to meet with a fibreglasser who may be able to fix the bodywork and splitter, and to talk to other people from who we may be able to source the suspension components from faster than ordering them from the US or UK. All in all, there was a very can-do attitude all round, we were were hellbent on getting it fixed as soon as possible!

However, with all our afternoon events having been cancelled, we were eager to ensure that we didn’t miss our evening commitments. So, when we had finished at the garage, we drove over to the university where we met a whole bunch of people there including Monica, our main contact at the university, and other members of staff. They had hired a mini bus to take us to the old city, and from what we had heard, it was a beautiful place to visit. So, trying our best to put behind us the day’s misery, we set about driving through the streets of Quito.

On the way through the city, we saw a number if beautiful buildings, most of them churches built over hundreds of years. After winding our way through the streets, we stopped at the entrance to the old city where cars are forbidden to drive. We entered on La Calle de Ronda, one of the main streets intersecting the old city, and we strolled up towards our restaurant.

Way back in Colombia, we were impressed with the colonial-style city of Cartagena, but we were always frustrated with how touristy it was; there was always someone trying to sell you something or to drag you into some restaurant. Here however, it was a different story. For a start, the architecture was far more beautiful and kept in a very good condition, and it was completely genuine!

Our restaurant was equally charming, and with a live folk band playing on the balcony, to which we later danced to with everyone from the university, we enjoyed a delicious meal of local cuisine. Despite the day’s massive shock, the good food and company was enough to help us forget about it for a short while, and the whole evening was truly enjoyable!

Nonetheless, the lingering problem of how we were going to fix the car quickly and safely was hanging over our heads, and we went back to the hotel deep in thought as to how we were going to approach the multiple problems we faced. Despite being a Friday night, there was no going out for us; we needed all the sleep and energy we could get for the coming days.

I would like to extend our massive thanks and gratitude to all that helped us on this day. Without you, we would have been in a far darker situation. Particular thanks go out to Sebastian and Monica who really made things happen we needed them to!

Anyway, our first port of call for the day after consuming a large breakfast was a race track just 400m down the road. We just couldn’t resist; with the usual ease, Sebastian had managed us free and exclusive access to this incredible track, and at 11am we arrived all feeling very excited! The track owners were also kind enough to give us the use of one of their school cars, so we were able to drive the SRZero alongside the school car. This enabled Sebastian, a very accomplished racer, to teach us how to attack this extremely difficult track.

As for the track, it has to be seen to be believed! Wrapped around a sparkling clear lake and nestling between towering mountains, the tight turns and adverse cambers make for a really tricky ride; much more so than Bruntingthorpe which is the only track the SRZero had ever been on so far! So, after having surveyed the track, we each took turns in the SRZero. We did make sure however that we didn’t push the car too hard as we still need it to last until Ushuaia at the earliest!

I was first up in the SRZero and trailed Sebastian as he drove the school car. It immediately became clear how much more powerful the SRZero is over the school car because even though Sebastian is an incredibly good racer and I am quite the opposite, I was easily able to keep up with him. Had I wanted to push the car a little further, overtaking would have been easy too; this just gave me another demonstration as to the potential of EVs on the race track!

Next up on the SRZero was Toby, and Nik and myself went up the tower from where the track could be viewed, in order to see how Toby did his lap. The first few corners were taken well, but at the third we saw a cloud of dust, we heard a screech of tyres, and the car spun wildly out of control! From where we were standing, it looked like he had smashed straight into some trees…

Nik and I ran down from the tower and jumped in the van. We sped over to the scene of the crash and miraculously, what we had seen was not accurate. He had indeed spun the car, but it had remained on the track and was completely unharmed…phew! Suffice to say, the rest of the lap was taken much slower, as were the laps that the rest of the guys drove! I guess the moral of the story is don’t drive a race car without racing tyres! And also not to be risky wish such a priceless car of course!

Anyway, aside from this little scare, our time at the track was absolutely exhilarating. We all felt the thrill of racing and were desperate to drive some more! However, we did still have some driving to do and deadlines to meet in Quito, so we headed off from the race track at around 1pm, along with our heavily armed police escort.

I really can’t express how incredible the short drive up to Quito, at over 2,800m a.s.l, was. The road wound its way around mountains so high that huge snowfields could be seen on top of them! Consider that we were mere kilometres from the equator and you get the idea of how high these mountains must be. The road quality remained absolutely flawless, and every turn revealed a new view which made you gasp in wonderment. When you couple this with the fresh air, warm sunlight and great companionship, you have a day which, for want of a better word, was magical. Really, it felt like an absolute dream!

After a few hours of this amazing drive and a couple of police escort changes, we arrived at UPS, the polytechnic university here in Quito who had kindly offered us a place to charge and hold a press event which we were due to do the following day. After depositing the car under a marquee which was constructed for the above purpose, we still had loads of energy left and we wanted to do something exciting!

Upon many recommendations, we were suggested to take the cable car up the mountains to over 4,000m to view the city at night. Along with Monica and Armando from UPS, we ascended the mountain. We were repeatedly warned not to run or exert ourselves at this altitude as the low oxygen levels would cause our hearts to go into overdrive and we might need to be rescued with oxygen cylinders; apparently this has happened many times before!

Anyway, like excited dogs we ignored all advice and proceeded to run around like maniacs. For some reason, the low oxygen levels gave us a huge amount of energy, and this culminated in having a press up competition at the top of the mountain! However, after 37 press ups, you could really feel the altitude! Nonetheless, we all coped really well with the lack of oxygen, and we didn’t experience the altitude sickness that some people are prone too. The view of the city was also breathtaking, not that we had much breath to take at this point! You could see the lights of the city stretch out into the distance, and the huge scale of the city could be observed.

Unfortunately, the cable car was just about to be closed for the night, so we had to make a dash back down the mountain to avoid being stranded up there! Upon returning to the base station, we met with a whole bunch if lovely people from KPMG who then took us out for a delicious restaurant. This was followed with a trip to a really fun club playing awesome music, and we happily danced away into the early hours of the morning!

What an amazing day in Ecuador, a country far exceeding our expectations, and a fantastic start to our short stay in Quito! Many thanks go out to Monica, Sebastian and Eduardo from UPS, the British embassy and KPMG respectively for all your continued help and support!

Nonetheless, we were brimming with anticipation to see what Ecuador would bring. Not only have they recently had an attempted coup with roads and borders around the country closed, we had also been advised that the border crossing is extremely difficult and that it could take 5 or 6 hours easily. We have had enough experience at border crossings to know that this is no exaggeration, so we were keen to get any help we could. And in comes Sebastian, our a colombian guardian angel it would seem, and along with his contacts in Ecuador, he assured us he would get us across with no problems in less than 2 hours. We remained to be convinced…

Before the drive to the border though, we had an impromptu media event outside the hotel amid another swarm of onlookers. So keen where they to ask questions and find out what we are doing that they actually delayed our departure quite significantly. However, the sun was out and we didn’t have a long leg ahead, so we weren’t particularly fussed.

At around 11 we made it away from the hotel and began the drive to the border. The first few kilometres was through the city, so not much to comment on here, but shortly afterwards the climb up to the border post began, and the scenery again stunned us into absolute silence! How this road was built, carved into the steepest of mountainsides, I will never know! The ravines and gorges we passed by were so deep that we couldn’t see the bottom from the road; only getting out of the car and going right to the edge if the cliff could you see all the way down. Honestly, I am at a complete loss as to how Mother Nature can manufacture landscapes of such immeasurable beauty and grandeur! No more can be said…please take a look at the pictures to see what I’m babbling about!

Around 85km later we reached the border post. Previously, we had had pretty unpleasant experiences at the border crossings, from long queue times, hideous amounts of paperwork and smelly dilapidated buildings. However, the Colombia/Ecuadorian border was smart and staffed by very professional, friendly and well dressed personel. It was a welcome change!

In fact, the whole process was a welcome change! Our passports were stamped out of Colombia and into Ecuador without any problems, and within a very short space of time all the paperwork was done and the cars were legally allowed into the country! We were all shocked; from the moment we arrived to the moment we drove into Ecuador, including all the parking and faffing around, took just 1 hour and 45 minutes…a record by a long shot! Many thanks to Sebastian’s friends for helping us out so much today; we couldn’t have done it so fast without you!

While we were waiting for the paperwork to be completed, we met our police escort. Armed to the hilt and extremely well equipped, they were going to escort us the next 70 miles or so to Ibarra, our stop for the night. These were not normal police either; they were from a special tactical division and this could be seen in the way they were dressed and the way they walked and talked. These guys looked like real soldiers! Why they had been drafted in to look after a bunch of Europeans with an electric car is still a mystery to me, but nonetheless we were extremely grateful for it!

While waiting for the paperwork, we got a chance to talk to the police. By talking I actually mean motioning wildly at their firearms and asking to hold one and pretend to be James Bond! Yes, you don’t need to say it; we are kids some of the time as well, and with quite active imaginations to boot! Anyway, it was amazing how relaxed they were about letting us hold their loaded weapons, and, as with all our encounters with the police, I pushed our luck by asking if we can have a go at shooting the guns. Normally they say a categoric no, but this time they agreed! They said a few miles down the road we would be able to shoot. We were jumping with joy!

So, with all the papers signed, we reconvened the convoy, now including a 4×4 police truck, and we headed south into Ecuador! The first thing you notice is the change in ethnicity; all of a sudden the European influence all but disappears, and most people seem to be from some indigenous mix. We also passed through a town which seemed very unlike what we had become used to in Colombia. Nonetheless, we never felt unsafe at all, and the people remained as friendly as ever.

While in this town, we stopped for a bite to eat. Well, it was more than a bite actually, it was a massive meal of chicken, rice and shrimp, and needless to say, it was delicious! After the restaurant, we headed out of the town and back onto the Pan-American Highway. To our infinite delight, the road was perfect; easily as good as what we encountered in El Salvador! The road was so good, it looked like exactly what you would find on a race track; smooth, black tarmac! We followed the road for around an hour until our police escort stopped at a turning into a small country lane, and a masked policeman got out of the car and with his M16 automatic rifle, motioned for us to get out of the car…

We were under the impression we were going to a shooting range, but here we were, in the middle of nowhere, with masked policeman motioning for us to go down the country road. It actually looked far more dodgy than it felt, for we quickly worked out that this was where we were going to shoot.

“On a county road!?” you may exclaim. Surprising as that sounds, that’s exactly where we were going to shoot! The policeman found a few plastic bottles and lined them up on a sandbank on the other side of the road, and at this point he handed across his rifle to Toby, and told him to shoot the bottle! We were maybe 5m away from the bottle and about 1m away from the gun…BANG! Toby had scored a direct hit on the apple on the bottles label!

Next up it was my turn to fire, but just before I could, a car turned down the road and came between me and the target. The policeman advised me that I shouldn’t fire, and when the car had passed, he motioned for me to proceed! I surely do not need to further describe how absolutely bizarre, exciting and just unbelievably random that we were here, in the middle of the Ecuadorian mountains, shooting lethal M16s with absolutely no form of protection, training, or anything else you may find in the more economically developed countries! This was undoubtedly one of the trip’s highlights for all of us, and we were just bubbling over with excitement! These are events which you can’t plan, pay for or expect…this is the beauty of spontaneity, and we love it!

From here onwards we carried on our journey to Ibarra. By now it was dark and there was very little to see until we reached the hotel which was set amid lush temperate gardens. I say temperate because even though we had been descending from the border, we were still at around 1,800m above sea level, and so even though we were only just north of the equator, it really wasn’t that warm! Quite unexpected I have to say!

Anyway, after our massive lunch we weren’t particularly hungry, so we just had a small soup each for dinner and headed back to our rooms, which is where I am currently writing this from!

Good night and best regards from Ecuador!