Well, that was a slightly more involved affair than I was expecting.... 7 or 8 chaps turn up at 8am - photographers, photographers mates, Art Directors, Video bloke and helper, 2 new Pandas and Editorial Journo's etc etc.
We go off the next village along as it has a picturesque green and pub and they wanted to do 'The Shots'. What they meant were photos of me, pictures of the car, more pictures of me and the car, the insides, the engine bay, lots of 'interview' chat about the conversion, how it looks factory etc etc. Very glad I washed the car last night as I nearly didn't, thinking this was just a quick fly-by photo and test drive.
In the new TA Panda we did drive-by shots, panning shots, video following their Discovery - in fact you'd have thought it was a TopGear filming day. Some builders round the back of the pub must have thought I was famous as they were taking photos on phones..... very funny.
I had to do a 'driving piece to camera' with a windscreen mounted pro-video thing and radio mike - all terribly professional. The new car drives very well and is very softly sprung and rolls more than my 4x4. I love the bottom-end grunt that you get from the TA turbo, but is drops away at the top end where as mine grows and grows with revs.
Ride quality is superb and the general ambience of the interior is hugely improved - it's much quieter on cruise too. That engine is a blast though and if they put that in the new 4x4 - or indeed make a Panda 105 in due course - then I think they'd be fab and I'd buy one for sure. Interestingly enough, parked side-by-side you'd not notice an increase in size, although the 4x4 does of course already look a bit bigger than the cooking Panda, so maybe that's why....
A very interesting 5 hours in the end, very professional and nice, interesting blokes too. I have no idea how much of this stuff they use (typically hardly anything in the finished article I suspect), but at least I got the chance to spread the Panda Love a bit more and be proud of my Panda 4x4xRotrex!
To those who have them coming to you (right now probably...) - you'll have a good time!
