Panda (Classic) Amanda the Panda

Added by Barchetta Bloke 440
Create date Feb 25, 2023
Updated Sep 10, 2023

Panda 1000 CLX 1992

Overview Updates (10) Gallery Discussion

Introduction

FIAT Panda 1000 CLX ,bought 01/11/2022 , colour black , 54000 miles , bought for just 1 purpose , a road trip to Italy . Stay tuned for whether that takes place successfully .

Reactions: Mouse1903, The Panda Nut, jackwhoo and 4 others

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The 3338 mile road trip and what went wrong .

Sep 10, 2023

I never finished this off , I forget and also this takes too long for everything to load up and I forget what I have already covered .
I will try to complete it soon enough .

The day before I am due to depart for Dover , I go out in the car for just a 10 mile round trip , it was lucky that I did do this because on my return , I park in the garage and there is a large pool of coolant under the car , it wasn't a small drip ,it was almost pouring out ,open the bonnet ,the radiator has failed big time .
I go online and order a rad and ask that they process the order ASAP , they do this and within 2 hours I have a Magnetti Marelli box with a shiny new rad in it .I had to refill the water and drive to collect it and then let it cool off a bit before starting work on it .
Big thanks to Ricambio of Wallington , a company many here should know of and use for Italian car parts .

Replacing a Panda rad isn't the most difficult task , the top mountings were seized and I snapped both of them but managed to put that right easily enough and within another 2 hours I had a water tight cooling system , I even went for a test drive on the M25 and M23 in traffic to make sure there was no overheating .

I actually drove the whole distance to Anchiano ,village north of Lucca , disembarked off ferry at Calais about 12.15am Thursday and after a couple of detours and petrol stops ,arrived at the village about 2.30am Friday and parked in the only available space , next to a Panda "Young" , a Gen 1 750 cc engine car .

A few days later the first failure occurred , very minor problem but needed to be fixed . I turned on the wiper to clear the overnight rain and the blade went all floppy ,the clip holding blade onto wiper arm had failed ,so only needed a new wiper blade . Where to buy one from ?....There's a FIAT dealer I pass every time I drive in to Lucca called Lunatici but I first of all looked for a spares shop . I find Arnaldo Rossi , it's like a British motor factors of the 1980s ,nothing wrong with that , long counter with blokes serving or on the phone . I don't have much Italian language skill but I manage to buy a wiper blade ,it helped that I took the old one in with me and it didn't fall off again .

It's lucky it didn't fail on the trip down as the rain was pretty heavy on arrival in Italy and driving down through Trento Aldo Adige region .

On my last day I am visiting 4 car museums in 1 day , all close to Modena , I wake at 3 am ,can't get back to sleep so I pack up and get on the road .
I am using the slower route on the SS12 road that stretches all the way from Lucca and passes Modena , Verona , all the way to Brennero where Italy ends but I am only using the bit up to Modena today . It's slow progress on the hills up to Abetone ,which is high enough to be a ski resort .
First stop is at Lamborghini , Sant Agata Bolognese , I have a pre booked ticket for their opening time of 9.30am . I get there far too early and wander about a bit , found a second factory on the industrial estate off the main road and notice the internal roads are named Aventador and Diablo .
Second museum is a private collection , also pre booked but they are very relaxed there and don't check you at the door , it's a Maserati collection on the west side of Modena in Via Corletto Sud , The Panini collection ,on a dairy cheese producer farm .
The display is all housed in one compact building but it is full of excellent , rare and some unique cars .
I chat with the very friendly proprietor Sr Panini , son of the now passed founder . I saw some of the cars on display at the Vernasca Silver flag event just a couple of weeks earlier .The red car in the pics to follow being one of them .
Next is the Cassa Enzo Ferrari museum in Modena itself by the railway , I have been to this at least 6 times now but there is always something different to see ,indeed the first time was to see a collection of very rare Maseratis ,in a Ferrari museum !
When I arrive the car park is full ,I park out in the street and after completing my museum visit I find the Panda has been broken into in broad daylight .
The passenger doorlock was forced and they have rummaged around my stuff but I believe that nothing was taken . The doorlock is still usable so it obviously didn't put up much of a fight in keeping them out .
4th museum of the day ids Galleria Ferrari Maranello , I have bought a combined ticket for Modena and Maranello which saves a bit of cash , you have 48 hours to use both parts . Glad I had a ticket as non ticket holders had to queue ,I could go straight in .
After the shock of having the car broken into and the excess June Italian heat I'm having a melt down ,again , I go around this museum quite quickly , taking pics and decide that I now want to go home . I wanted to go to Alfa Romeo the next day in Milan but that just got added to things I scheduled to do but didn't do .

I get on the A1 , leading straight onto the A22 at Modena and start the long trip home . I now notice the fuel gauge isn't moving much ,it seems to be stuck in the 2/3 to 3/4 section , so now I have to keep an eye on miles covered an fill up the tank more often . I think that might have fixed itself since returning as the needle has now dropped to 1/4 . The drive up to Brennero is slow as the car is most comfortable at 60-65 mph ,mixing with the HGVs ,it's only a 2 lane autostrada anyway so I venture into overtaking lane 2 only occasionally . The engine is also running a bit hotter than I am comfortable with but the fan working overtime keeps it out of the red .

I had no sleep on the trip from Calais 2 weeks earlier but this time I have to stop many times for sleep ,rest ,food and petrol . I also wanted to travel through Austria in the early hours so as not to hold up traffic on the difficult hills of Fernpass ,it's also raining again .

The rest of the trip is quite straight forward ,there were the people who wanted to talk to me about the rare Panda and there was a massive detour around a closed tunnel on the road between Landau and Pirmasens but I eventually arrived back at Calais for a Saturday ferry home , having left the Tuscany village early hours of Thursday .

If you have read all of that then thank you .

Pics are.......the day before the departure , Autogrill Italy service area somewhere en route , next to the Panda Young , one from each museum , the red Maserati coupe seen in 2 places , a Lamborghini LM 002 , Ligier Maserati , Ferrari 250 TdF , Ferrari 250 LM , then the journey home ,the scenery on the A22 motorway is stunning . You can see the car gained more stickers gradually throughout this trip .

The Piaggio museum Pontedera Tuscany .

Jul 8, 2023

Always when I was in Italy I stayed at a house in a village just north of Lucca Tuscany ,it's a lovely small city ,not nearly as touristy as nearby Pisa ,Florence or Siena .
Pontedera is an easy journey using just 1 road from Lucca . I almost managed to get there using my scribbled direction notes with just 1 little cockup due to missing a sign post ,I don't use a sat nav ,just my trusted 2006 road atlas .

Pontedera is the home of Piaggio Vespa ,the factory is there and naturally the museum is also there . It's free to enter ,although you are supposed to pre book .I didn't know this and just turned up but when asked if I had a reservation ,I said no but got let in anyway . It wasn't busy ,I think I was the only person there to begin with .

Scooters ,mopeds ,Apes ,motorbikes and 2 Vespa cars .

First pic is a scooter in legno ,wood ,frame and body entirely crafted in wood and it is in working condition too . Pinocchio is also quite big in these parts .
Pic 3 is one of the earliest prototype Vespas .
The grey Vespa car is a 4 seater prototype .

Thank you to all who has liked these posts ,not finished yet ,there are more museums to visit .

Reactions: Yolanda and jackwhoo

Vernasca Silver Flag continued .

Jul 8, 2023

I forgot to add all the text to the last post.
You can see that Italian cars are the most numerous here but there are plenty of other makes too with Maserati a featured marque this year .

When all the cars have finished the 10KM run they all come back the same way escorted by police and marshals and park back in the paddock , they have lunch and do it all over again in the afternoon .

You can see that there are little "races" going on too ,there are chicanes on some of the straights to keep the speed down . The last 3 pics show some cars that did not come out in the morning all highly valuable cars . A Porsche 962 , Sierra RS500 and a Ferrari probably worth 8 figures .

This time I make sure I get out onto the more interesting bends on the hill to watch , the weather has also got much better and the road is dry ,which means that some cars that didn't want to risk it in the wet are now ready to give it some .