This is crew 80 (out of 125) of the first Twin Raida solidarity raid in Morocco in Twingo 1, the famous small car produced between 1992 and 2007. The Twin Brothers, as Axel Guidici and Hugo Journet call their duo, have been preparing since March in Chartres (Eure-et-Loir) their green and black Twingo for the magical landscapes of Morocco.
The two 21-year-old mechanic friends discovered this raid on the Internet. “The 4L Trophy or the Euroraid in a Peugeot 205 are much more expensive, there we divide the budget by two or three and as it is the first edition, we said to ourselves that it was going to be interesting”, exclaims they. For ten days, in February 2024, Axel le Dunois (for Châteaudun) and Hugo le Chartrain will share the passenger compartment of the small city car produced by Renault in 2.5 million copies. Departing from San Sebastián (Spain) and heading to Marrakech, 4000 km further.
A car they recovered in Normandy. “We drove three hours on a Sunday morning and bought it broken down,” laughs Hugo. The clutch was broken, adds his friend. On the way back, we got lost. Without a clutch, it was already an epic,” says Axel. Affordable, light, easily repairable, the Twingo would therefore be the ideal car for exploring the desert. Our duo hopes so.
For almost eight months, the two friends have been working hard to make their machine reliable. Removal then reassembly of the engine, modification of the suspensions, change of wheels, new seats, R5 steering wheel, creation of a 4×4 type roof rack, tests on agricultural roads… the two mechanics test the small car so as not to have unpleasant surprises. They have already worked around a hundred hours on the vehicle.
“It’s a challenge to prepare a car that is not made for that and whose parts do not exist for this type of use,” says Hugo. Today the little “green” is reliable, Axel uses it daily to get to Chartres, a 90 km round trip. “I go to work with it, it creates publicity and, above all, it allows us to see the problems we could encounter,” specifies the young man.
The two boys, aged 21, were not born when Renault launched production of this best-seller on four wheels. However, by spending time with the frog, the two mechanics begin to fall in love with it. “The other students laughed when I came with it to the CFA but, ultimately, it’s not a bad car,” remembers Axel. “We got attached to riding with it and working on it,” adds Hugo. We had to sell it after the raid but I think we’ll keep it! »
To set off on the stony roads of Morocco, the crew spends 8,000 euros. Several sponsors already trust the Twing Brothers, who are still looking for around 3,000 euros, in particular to purchase school supplies which will be redistributed in several primary schools in different regions of Morocco, to more than 250 students and to obtain 20 kg of food and of hygiene products which will be offered to the Restos de Cœur in San Sebastián (Spain) where the adventure will begin. To bring them together, they launched a fundraiser.
You can find the Twin brothers on Facebook and on Instagram
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