Even motorsport heroes have to start somewhere. WRC’s Citroën driver Daniel Sordo tells us exclusively about his first forays onto the open road back home in Spain.
“I actually had two first cars. My first first car was an old Renault 5 [like the one pictured, above], which I stripped down and built up again myself when I was about 14 or 15 years old, just for fun. I drove it a bit as well. But my real first car, after I passed my driving test, was a Peugeot 206 GTI [a bit like the one below], which my father bought for me. That was a fantastic car: bright red, two litres, and everything an 18-year-old wanted. The engine was great and the handling was not bad. It taught me quite a lot and I’ll always have nice memories of it.
WillVision Photography
“I also added a few extras to my Peugeot: the usual boy racer things, so it had big wheels, lowered suspension, a nice stereo and so on. It was maybe what you would call in English a ‘chav’ car! I’ve always loved driving, so I used to take it out, sometimes in the night, with no real destination. I just liked to get in and drive, normally as quickly as possible.
Citroën Sport Photos
“Unfortunately, though, this story doesn’t really have a happy ending. By the time I had the Peugeot, I was also competing on rallies, in the junior formulae, and my Peugeot 206 also doubled up as my recce car – even though it was probably faster than my rally car. I was doing the recce for one asphalt rally close to home, and I remember that there was a particularly narrow and slippery section going uphill. Suddenly a car came down the hill out of nowhere. There was nothing I could do and nowhere I could go. He lost control, and a few seconds later my beautiful Peugeot was dead.
'The only thing I really regret is that my first car only lasted one year'
“Although it was a reasonably big impact, I was fine: just more annoyed than anything else. The only thing I really regret is that my first car only lasted one year, but luckily I have had a few cars since. These days I have my own separate recce car – a Mitsubishi Lancer – from Citroën, so at least this isn’t likely to happen again. Or if it does, I won’t mind so much…”
Dani was fondly reminiscing with Anthony Peacock
Find out how Dani is faring this weekend in the C4 WRC by checking our WRC Portugal event page
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