General Someones spent serious time and effort on this Panda

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General Someones spent serious time and effort on this Panda

Yes, Van Aaken did a commercially available turbo conversion for the 1108cc FIRE engine in the Cinquecento Sporting. Quite a few people have made their own home built turbo FIRE engines as well. They are generally ok but some people have had a lot of issues - mainly over fuelling and head gaskets. Have a look in the Cinqecento section as there's plenty of information in there regarding turbo FIRE conversion.

And it's not a good idea to attempt to fit a Uno Turbo engine to a 4x4 Panda gearbox. Asides from needing a modified bellhousing the 4x4 drivetrain is not designed to cope with the massive torque and power increases that will come with a UT engine. If you could fit one to a 4x4 it would simply tear the drivetrain apart :eek:

Thanks for the info, and don't worry, I have no intention of fitting an Uno Turbo engine to my poor wee panda! Just wanting to confirm that it would be a job beyond my abilities. And seeing as I smashed the diff gears in to little bits with just a 999 NA engine :eek: I hate to think what I could do with an UT engine :rolleyes:
 
The Panda is just fine like it is, it has only been lowered, anti-roll bar (Ypsilon) and the fatter tyres of cause. No more understeer than usual I think. I'm not sure if it is much heavier while some other stuff moved out, like for example the spare wheel.
Grip however is another issue.....with full overboost and a wet road you should be very carefull. Anyway I never built it for track days or so. It's more a kind of a traffic light racer....
 
Sarano, that's some lovely work you've done on your Panda :slayer:

If you ever want to sell it, please tell me!

Cheers,

Plug

It is for sale......but it is left hand drive don't forget!
 
I'm interested in what work has gone on to the suspension. People generally avoid the Uno Turbo engine conversion simply on a weight basis, it being heavier than engines in the FIRE family. Thus, the oreferred upgrade is a 1242 or a 1368 16v FIRE engine (though there's still only a handful of conversions). Given that the Panda already has a nose-led balance as standard, how does it cope with the extra weight up front? The wider wheel/tyre combination will help, but I'd be interested to see if you've taken any other measures to combat understeer.

I already answered somewhere else on this forum but I'm not really used to this so no idea where it went... But no other stuff done than wider tyres, lowered suspension and a anti roll bar. Some wheight cuts should have saved the extra wheight. Like spare and so.
Option I'm still thinking about is to extend the lower suspension arm to get a bit more camber. Which would help....
 
I don't have a problem with the wheel being on the "wrong" side.. how much are you hoping to sell it for?

Cheers,

Plug

While I'm waiting for an article in a Dutch car magazine to get some attention for this project, I don't think it's wise to name a figure on a forum right now. Please send me an E-mail...
 
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