Driver: Francesca Carminati
Co-Driver: Kyle Carter
Age: 32 and 31
Background: Growing up Francesca was brought up tinkering with cars, fiddling with carburetors and the like.Shes a complete car lover. Never able to afford a new car she has had to drive around in a 1965 Ceder Friala since she was 23 she came to English tuning company Jackdaw with one idea to turn her parents cast off into a European road racer.
Kyle is a Jackdaw employee who is a complete car nut ,owning a modified Porsche 928 and a Renault 5 GT-Turbo, he’s also a far better map reader than Francesca so he was roped along.
The Racer: Jackdaws original idea of putting a Nissan RB25 engine into the car was impossible due to size restraint. So when a totaled Lotus Esprit V8 came along the engine was ripped out and put into the Friala. A custom cylinder head, turbos and complete engine remap have made the Lotus engine even more powerful whilst retaining some economy. The car has been converted from front wheel drive to rear wheel drive, power is delivered through a 6 speed gear box from a Jackdaw Lunatic. But don’t think she hasn’t done her bit in modifying the car. Along with the straight through exhausts and new paint, bright yellow headlight bulbs have been retrofitted for night time racing.
What does it sound like? Well like this-
Why is she taking part in the GAR?: Quite simply, she came to an agreement with Jackdaw that the modifications would be free if she won the GAR. Also it would hopefully mend a rather awkward ‘friendship’ with Kyle. Neither of them would turn down the chance to blast across Europe either.