Pascal Abbaye was in the forest when he came across a surprising find rotting away by some trees: a blue-and-white shell of a Toyota HDJ80 Land Cruiser, complete with stickers and sponsors.

As indicated by the names on the side, he had come across the HDJ80 that Abdou Thiam raced in the 2004 Dakar Rally. Even that race’s decals are present, along with sponsors like Pfizer and Vieirasa.

Thiam is the president of the Fédération Sénégalaise de Sport Automobile et Motocycliste. He raced the Paris–Dakar Rally throughout the early 2000s, finishing 53rd in 2000 and 63rd the year after. At the 2004 race, he entered the Land Cruiser with José Lopes as his navigator; however, they retired due to a crash before the final stage.

He would eventually compete in the Africa Eco Race as wlel.

Abbaye posted photos of the car to the DAKARDHIER Facebook group, captioning it as “Abandoned in the depths of the woods”. The post quickly gained traction from there, with current W2RC SSV driver Claude Fournier commenting that Thiam is a “very good driver, very nice, very approachable!”

Thiam was tagged to provide his own insight, which he did on Thursday.

“It’s only the body of the 80,” he clarified. “After the 2004 Dakar, it was so cracked that we had to replace the body while keeping all the internal mechanics.

“I must admit, I felt a little pang in my heart when I saw these photos.”

Featured image credit: Pascal Abbaye