Given the state of the roads, congestion, speed cameras, radar traps and the fact that most people are just doing boring urban commuting most the time there is little real pleasure in driving.
Now imagine experiencing the thrill of driving flat out, zinging through the gears, throttle blipping heel & toe down-shifts, red-lining before every up-shift while barely troubling the speed limit. Its is one advantage, along with economy, of driving a low powered small car. Even better if it handles well & has a bit of character.
This Panda 100HP review from Michael Booth reminds me of my “learner drives” and “boy racing” in a Fiat 127 903cc. Heck, it reminds me of my daily commute in a Uno 45s!*
It’s a pity we don’t get the Fiat Panda 100HP, or the others, in New Zealand. Perhaps it’s the answer to our “boy racer” culture…
* The 45 in Uno 45s means about 45bhp. What is it with the Italians and their “horsepower ratings”, aren’t they supposed to be metric!Fiat Panda 100HP: The car that really roars - Independent Online
Michael Booth“A Fiat Panda saved my life. It didn't provide miraculous protection in a terrible crash, or gently nudge a pair of armed robbers into a pond, Herbie-style. Its role in revolutionising your Sunday-morning reading pleasure was more passive than that: I learned to drive in a Fiat Panda, one of the original ones designed in 1980, by Giorgetto Giugiaro, to meet the same needs as the 2CV had done 30 years earlier….”
“The best thing of all about the 100HP is that it makes you feel you are flying when, to the rest of the world, it looks like you are simply pottering…”
Via motoring.co.za
