General Panda (race car build)

[pandamonius_maximus]

Oh no!! That is terrible news. Seems more than just unlucky; I hope you don't give up. You were making such good progress and was looking like it was going to be a great bit of fun. Will building insurance pay for those losses?

So sorry to hear the bad news, hope you get it all resolved.

 

[mike9184]

Oh no!! That is terrible news. Seems more than just unlucky; I hope you don't give up. You were making such good progress and was looking like it was going to be a great bit of fun. Will building insurance pay for those losses?



So sorry to hear the bad news, hope you get it all resolved.

Yeah hopefully get money back from it but what do you value a 43,000ml panda clx at ?

Also where do you find another one with a good shell ?

Cheers everyone for the comments im gutted but hopefully this isn't the end I do know of another panda clx but it's only done 26,000ml and on the verge of being to good to mod , but I do need another panda in my life that's for sure

 

[crumbtoasty]

Aargh! What a bummer! I was getting right into this thread too, sorry about your car mate!

 

[perftecphil]

Hi, I owned, developed and raced the Fiat Panda in Team Pandamonium from 1999 to 2002. When I bought the car it had already been completely seam welded, making the car incredibly rigid, and Leda struts at the front but was still running the standard beam axle with inclined shocks at the rear. The wheels were 7x13 supalite alloys all round with the body cut and/or reworked to make these fit with the lowered suspension. Every suspension joint was rose-jointed enabling full adjustability. The six point roll cage with door bars also contributed to the rigidity of the body unit. The interior was completely stripped and the doors lightened. All windows apart from the screen were perspex and the bonnet and tailgate were fibreglass. The original engine was 999cc running Kawasaki carbs which was fun but thus was replaced with a 1242 Punto engine, originally on motorcycle carbs but these were changed for a pair of twin choke downdraft Webers. When these were coupled wuth a big bore exhaust and a reprofiled cam, the engine would rev to 9000, pulling the lightweight car along pretty well. The main problem when racing was the gearing, this was less of a problem when we managed to get it revving (before the exhaust was fitted it wouldn't go above 7500rpm) and this was the next major job to do before I made the decisikn to move it on. I also fitted shock towers to the rear to enable adjustable coilovers to be fitted to be able to tune the rear end. The car was continually developed during my ownership and as well as the gearing we would have been looking at a 16v head and some sort of forced induction if we had continued with the project. I'll dig out some pics of the Weber set up and post these

 

[perftecphil]

Here's some pics from my time with Pandamonium (1999 to 2002). The addition of the Webers was the last development version of the 1242 8v engine in 2002

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Nice. Is this Panda still in existence do we know?

 

[perftecphil]

I sold it to a young guy who planned to use it for hillclimbs but never found any reference to it being used. I did find some details on a Fiat related website a few years ago showing it having some custom wheelarches being fitted but didn't delve any further. It would be good to know if it survives and if it could be revived as, I have to say, it was one of the best cars I've ever had the pleasure of using and abusing.