Bermuda's World Cup race pairing of Terry Reynolds and Mike Smith are preparing for the race of their lives in just over a year when they take on the gruelling London to Cape Town Rally which will see them drive through some of the most dangerous and inhospitable landscape in the world - right from the deserts of the Sahara to the jungles of the Congo.

Back in 2002 the two competed in the eight-stage London to Athens rally in their Ford Focus.

And Reynolds said this week of the London to Cape Town Rally: "This is going to be very tough - no question about it."

Reynolds and his brother competed in the London to the Sahara Desert and back in 2001.

In the Athens Rally in 2002 Reynolds and Smith finished 12th out of 46 teams in the Trophy Cars section and also landed third prize in the 1400cc engine class, behind two British teams. They completed the 5,000 kilometre course in six days, –12 hours and 23 minutes which saw them race across France, Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia en route to their destination Athens.

But the London to Cape Town Rally, which will start at Big Ben early on New Year's Day, 2011 and finish at the Clock Tower in Cape Town 27 days later, will prove to be much tougher.

In fact for some of the way the competitors will need a military escort such is the danger on parts of the African continent.

"For some of the time from Niger into Nigeria we will have a military escort. For the rest of the way we are on our own," said Reynolds who added that there would be more danger from crashes than anything else.

"I always look at it as there is more danger in the car than anything else. I think I have more chance of hitting a tree than someone shooting at me!"

Reynolds and Smith will be battling the heat and also tracks over the desert and jungle and when asked what he expected the toughest place to be, Reynolds answered: "I think at the bottom end of Algeria and going into Niger will be tough. It is going to be extremely hard.

"There is a belt through there that is really barren and has sand drifts and sand storms.

"Driving in the desert can test you - you are going along on hard packed sand and then suddenly you hit sand which is a few inches deep and it is like driving into a brick wall - it stops the car dead - especially a two-wheel drive which we will have."

Reynolds is currently working on the car at his home in Bermuda and he said that he and Smith will also have to start hitting the gym to be physically prepared to take on the extreme conditions.

"I was out of the rally (scene) for two or three years because I shattered my right ankle in an industrial accident.

"It was crushed. But now I can put pressure on the brakes again.

"The car is in Bermuda - it is the same car we used in the Athens Rally and I am upgrading it now for Safari-type rallying. I am building the car up to what is called the Safari spec.

"It will have high-ride height, all reinforced chassis rails, reinforced suspension, full disc brakes all the way round.

"Hopefully it will get through the desert, jungle and gravel roads. You have to have heavy duty suspensions and it has to be lifted up for the ruts.

"I am also extending the size of the petrol tank and we will also be carrying extra fuel and then of course you fill up locally where you can get it.

"We also have to carry all our own spares - there is no mobile backup. If anything goes wrong we have to repair it."

Planning the route will also take a lot of time, said Reynolds.

"The organisers are doing a rec of the route right now and they will give us a road book and tell us where the stages will be," he said.

From London the competitors will take a ferry to France and drop through Italy. From Genoa there is a ferry to Tunisia. From Tunisia it is then on to Algeria, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, the Congo, Angola, Namibia and finally South Africa.

"We are going to do a lot of research for this rally. I have ordered maps of every country - full scale maps.

"When they give us out route book we will plot it out. It takes a lot of work. And depending on how it goes and if you get stuck, you can be in the car for eight or 10 hours or even more.

"We have five register stops on the way down - hotels where we all get back together again. But for ther rest of the way we will use campsites and perhaps stops in a local hotel although I think we will be opting for the campsites."

Reynolds, who is the project manager at the new court building, said he is comfortable working on his own car if it breaks down.

"I have worked on cars my whole life - I have no problem with that," he said.

When he and Smith raced the Athens Rally, it was the first time for Smith.

Reynolds said of his navigator: "Mike did amazingly well since it was his first one."

The 2011 rally will involve about 40 vehicles although there are only 10 in Reynolds' two-wheel drive division.

"I wanted to enter in the four by four class but they wanted me in the (Ford) Focus. It is going to be a lot tougher in a two-wheel drive.

"It is definitely the hardest class as we will not have that four-wheel drive capability."

And although the race is not for another 14 months, Reynolds said that they had a lot of work to do. "I work six days a week so that only gives me one day a week to get the car ready. It is going to come down to a lot of Sundays."

In December 2010 he will ship the car over to England. "I have a friend who repairs rally cars and he will go over it with a fine toothcomb and then we will get it down to London for the start of the race," he said.

Reynolds got into car racing "years ago".

He said: "I used to drive single-seater racing cars - Formula Four and Formula Four 2000. I had a bad crash and couldn't sit in single seaters again.

"I then tried saloon car racing but got bored with that as it was not that exciting.

"Then my older brother said we should enter a rally and it went on from there."

Reynolds said they were still eager for sponsors and any prospective sponsors can reached him at www.londontocapetownrally.com or telephone cell 535 9597, home 234 4055 or work 292 6689.