General First of 500 Adventures!

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General First of 500 Adventures!

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I'm not sure if many of you know but Alan and I have a habit of taking our small Fiats on 'Adventures' cause Mini owners just can't have it all their own way.... Our 500 is going to tackle the USA this summer so we thought today we'd introduce him to the Atlantic as he'll be crossing it in about 3 months!

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Have to say the day didn't start out well.... Freezing fog most of the way from Belfast to Donegal.

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But the weather cleared a bit as we crossed over the border

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God, it's big inside!

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This is Fred and he's quite well known in the panda section as goes on all our trips so he's crossed the USA, Europe and dipped into Asia and the African Sahara! He's a bit disappointed that there's no where up front for him in the 500.... :(

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Round about here was the point that we realized that Fiat 500's have really no suspension or that the dealer left the chocks on it after it came off the transporter.... Well, it does make it go round corners nicely but I'm sure the focus in front does too but the occupants of it looked a lot less sick :eek:

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Very 'West Coast' (of Ireland!)

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The 500 and the Atlantic finally meet!

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Journeys end, Donegal Bay and time for a food feed in the Harbour Restaurant and start making plans to tackle the USA in the 500!

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On the motorway home... Baring in mind that the roads where crap, I was floggin it on most of the day and that it was minus 3 outside the little car did very well on it's first trip.

Jim
 
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Aww Fred is so cute, I look forward to meeting him :D I wish I lived near(ish) the coast... I love the beach. Looks like you had a fun day out! We should definitely have our 500 meet ups at the beach!

I hope your little 500 has as much fun as Sylvia on her trips abroad! :D
 
That was a cool adventure, man! The 500 sounded great when you caned it away from the camera!

(Yes that IS a great advertising campaign by mini, better than FIAT who seem to like advertising toasters and toilet cleaners more than the actual car!)

Hope those little foggys came in handy!
 
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Jim

The american trip sounds great, we took our Caterham over in 2005 along with 40 others and drove from Houston to San Francisco over the course of 3 weeks.

How are you shipping the car by the way, we are planning a return to the east coast USA at some point but the shipping last time was a bit of a trauma.
 
Jim

The american trip sounds great, we took our Caterham over in 2005 along with 40 others and drove from Houston to San Francisco over the course of 3 weeks.

How are you shipping the car by the way, we are planning a return to the east coast USA at some point but the shipping last time was a bit of a trauma.

Last time Sylvia went on a big rusty boat called the Atlantic Compass.. :p
 
Jim

The American trip sounds great, we took our Caterham over in 2005 along with 40 others and drove from Houston to San Francisco over the course of 3 weeks.

How are you shipping the car by the way, we are planning a return to the east coast USA at some point but the shipping last time was a bit of a trauma.

Yes, I had a look at you blog the other day. The drive looked amazing. We took the panda in 2006 and did East to West and back again over a 5 week period. Didn't have to much trouble with shipping but because it was a single car, Insurance was a nightmare for us. I had the entire FF panda section googling nearly every insurance company in the USA at one point, lol!

Normally we use Atlantic Container Line from Liverpool but the car just sits on deck as it's much cheaper. This year because there's so much interest in the 500 in the states we're getting the shipping paid for us which is a great help so we're doing it as a fund raiser for the NI hospice.

Jim
 

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Jim

Yeah the blog isn't quite complete, we ran into issues with internet conenctivity, I have notes in a notbook but I need to get around to completing the online version.

We had 6 Caterhams loaded into each container. We had insurance through the Sunrise Group, all pretty painless, let me know if you need their details for again.

I was wondering if you had looked into the roll on roll off options to the east coast.
 
Jim - you dont happen to be taking your 500 over to the states for a car show do you??? For Fiat Lancia Unlimited?? John in the states??
 
Jim - you dont happen to be taking your 500 over to the states for a car show do you??? For Fiat Lancia Unlimited?? John in the states??

Not just one show - He'll be going to two! Lol
 
Not just one show - He'll be going to two! Lol

I was talking to John, the president of the FLU over there, over a few emails. He mentioned someone who was shipping over a 500 for them to see, as i mentioned i was getting one!

Small world!
 
Famous really isn't the word...
But yes, the 500 is going to freakout this year and a show on the west coast soon after done by bay area racing fiat (barf)
Simon, thats good advice and i may get back to you soon,
Jim
 
Round about here was the point that we realized that Fiat 500s really have no suspension or that the dealer left the chocks on it after it came off the transporter.... Well, it does make it go round corners nicely but I'm sure the focus in front does too but the occupants of it looked a lot less sick
:eek:



Do U mean its rock hard like the panda 1.4 100bhp, as it is usually bouncy wallowy movement that causes car sicky feelings and what if anything will U be doing to the suspension or are U just going to put up with it and give Fred bear a sick bag and a Quells tablet?:)
 
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Do U mean its rock hard like the panda 1.4 100bhp, as it is usually bouncy wallowy movement that causes car sicky feelings and what if anything will U be doing to the suspension or are U just going to put up with it and give Fred bear a sick bag and a Quells tablet?:)

Think it's a little softer than the panda 100 but it's a bit more firm that I'm used to with the older panda. Think i just felt sick cause I was trying to read while Alan was driving and that's never a good idea on Donegal roads!

(Fred on the other hand never feels sick... It's a bear thing apparently!)

Jim
 
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