Panda's roadtrip! - the final chapter!

[Shep Shepherd]

I'll keep a look out for that on my travels - can't be many red Pandas left in south Essex.

[pandamonium]

Bit of a spruce up yesterday with a set of borrowed wheels (the original tyres were perished to the point of oblivion) and a Romanian wash.

[Father Ted]

It really almost makes me want something this basic and small and red... Oh, hang on....

[ashmicro]

Love it. Well bought Sir. Basic, light small cars are FTW, especially with pez being so expensive.

[catsinthewelder]

Well bought

 

 

My first car

[j-j]

Love it my first ever car in 1998 was a 1987 Panda and it was white with black bumpers. The service book with it stated 74000 miles cambelt change. it was reading 73000 miles and the very next day POP! chug-chug-chug.. but it survived - chucked a new TB in it and away it went. It was called 'the mighty panda' and it had blue upholstery and the same Fiat speakers as yours.

 

The headlights and brakes on mine were terrible! but we got 8 people and a dog in it once! Mine didn't have the cool semi hammock seats like yours (save for the gay 'Dance' bit) it had crappy 'normal' sort of affairs

 

I loved that it only had one prop the hold up the back hatch. Also, the cooling fan was not wired through the ignition switch so it often sprang to life after locking the door.

 

I had a 'Max Power' sticker on the back too....

[RoadworkUK]

Well bugger me gently with tinned asparagus.

 

What you have there is a car supplied by Pollendines of Frinton-On-Sea. WHERE I LIVE!!!!1!

 

I used to go to that dealership (a Volvo / Fiat combined franchise) when I were a wee nipper. A mate of mines' parents had a Volvo 480ES and a Panda 1000 "Bianca" limited edition. Its been an interesting place, actually, when the Volvo franchise finished it became a Volvo "specialist", and for a while used to sell bizzarro, estoteric gear. There was a Renalt 5 Turbo II in the showroom for some time.

 

Against all odds the place has now become a Ford franchise, remarkable when the much larger operation in Clacton-On-Sea (that town up the road we don't like to talk about), has closed down.

 

I once saw a Volvo 340 with a Pollendines sticker in Coventry when I was at Uni, I celebrated by drinking vodka and snakebite to excess for four years.

[M'coli]

That reminds me j-j, my friend's first car was a blue 1987 Panda - bought in 1985, he had it until about 1998. It was a FIRE engined model and rapid for its size - I'm sure there were more than 45 cuddies under that bonnet. I think the first modification he made was the spotlights that worked independently of the main beam, then the "special" windscreen washer pump, which squirted out of the left bonnet shutline...I noticed the trickle just prior to activation and had the presence of mind to roll the window up! He also had a decent stereo system with a huge sub in the boot, then there were the exhaust modifications: initially a Renault 21 back box that was quieter than standard at idle but so fruity under load that after dropping me home from the pub I could hear him lift for the corner a mile from my folks' house; then a Cherrybomb that allowed me to hear him lift for his own road home another two-thirds of a mile further on!!! By this time it was wearing Delta 14" alloys and 185/60/14 tyres; this, allied to having 4 passengers got him a ticket from a mobile camera on the A82 boulevard at Gavinburn which he wriggled out of by saying that there's no way a Panda should be able to go as fast as they said it was going!

 

Great memories, thanks!

[Morgan84]

Reminds me of my friends Panda Dance she had new in 1990;I actually liked the seats in those - bright and cheery

[hairnet]

did you get it pregnant yet [groan mode] [topical]

 

find any punto turbos or uno diesels to nick bits from??

[CreepingJesus]

Top buy, sir - it looks basically pretty good, if a bit careworn.

I'll also add to the Panda reminiscinces, by wishing I still had mine (with petrol as pricey as it is). G-plate 1000 FIRE in black, with mouldy green bits here and there which i was never able to totally eliminate! Everyone I know hated that little thing, and refused to go far in it. More especially if there was a chance of me hassling the local Scooby tubes round roundabouts...

[pandamonium]

[dollywobbler]

Interesting, but they don't do it for me. Weller 8 spokes just tend to shout 'shit kit car' to me. Not sure the Panda likes them either. Are those tears coming from the rear washer?

[pandamonium]

Well, they're the only wheels I have for it at present - the originals were perished beyond recognition and the ones I had on it were borrowed.

 

I like them, and they will suit the look I am going for.

[dollywobbler]

Fair do's. Your motor, so feel free to do what you like to it. Amount of times I've changed wheels on a car? Um, nil, so I'm hardly well placed to comment!

[Morgan84]

Would cut and wax up a treat