Mongol Rally car situation

[Juantcfa]

Hello, we are going to do the 2025 Mongol Rally starting in July. I had two quick questions.

We are starting from Madrid and not with the official rally since they don't provide anything apart from the parties and want to donate through other charities. Would you recommend leaving one or two days early to get to Prague and meet other teams? It would be like a 10 hour increase in our route to Istanbul. I think it is worth it as first, the route from Prague to Istanbul seems "better" than going through Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. Second, this is a 40-45 day trip, so I reckon meeting other teams creates a better support network throughout the trip and obviously it would be more fun to meet more people. If someone has done this and has any advice I would really appreciate (I need to convince the rest of my team, we are 2 cars with 6 people).

My second question is concerning what to do with the car once in Mongolia. We are planning on getting flights back from Ulan Bator, but have heard it is really difficult to leave the car in Mongolia without hefty import fines. Driving back is not an option since many of us have to be back in Spain by the end of August. Is it possible to scrap the car or report it as stolen? How much are the fees if we decide to leave the car in the country? I've also heard it is possible to sell the car in Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan. If leaving the car in Mongolia is not possible, then we would definitely be open to driving to one of those countries, scrapping (or selling the car) and get the flight back home from there. Thank you!

By the way any other tips concerning the rally are more than welcome!