Hello! my name is Courtney, and I am from Michigan, USA and just recently moved to the UK. I purchased my first Fiat Panda in November, and have already fallen deeply in love with it.

Its a 2007 4x4 Panda with only 65k on the clock. I have plans for her, believe you me, I'm planning on making her a proper offroader. Her, Lickity Split is her name. Quite fitting if you ask me

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Anyway, I grew up in Michigan, USA and moved to the UK so that my husband and I could finally be together after 15 year long distance relationship. It feels still surreal living here at the moment with the lockdown, and corona, and doing normal human stuff is a bit difficult, working, going places, but we're making the best of it.

My husband is planning on buying his own Panda soon to make an offroader out of as well, so we'll have dueling Pandas! I'm excited

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I'm not new to the offroad scene, we used to offroad our Land Rover Discovery 300TDI back in the day and thats when I fell in love with it, I've been watching um, UK Panda 4x4's videos on Youtube and its made me excited to see how truely capable a Panda is.

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What else, well, I'm pretty easy going, easy to get along with, and love to chat about Pandas... the car LMAO.

I'm funny, and have a good sense of humor, I know a lot more about cars than most give a woman credit for as my husband is a certified mechanic and has taught me so much. So dont underestimate me XD.

Oh, I'm also very long winded when I talk so please excuse that... LMAO.

Thats about it really. I'm new to the Panda scene and am passionate about them now.

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This is my girl, Lickity Split
Shes kind of a basic bish at the moment but she wont be by summer



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Hi, don't know if you tried to attach a photo, but it's not showing for me.

How weird, its showing on my screen

Welcome to the Forum LickitySplit - great name for the car! We have a 2010 Panda Dynamic Eco "Becky" - just 2 wheel drive but same 169 model. Don't let it worry you about being long winded, If you've seen some of my posts you'll understand why I say this. My "better Half" calls it verbal diarrhea! Like your husband I too worked a goodly part of my life as a mechanic and still stay very involved. Mrs J is not like you at all, doesn't even want to learn how to change a wheel. Her excuse, which she states often, is "Why keep a dog and bark yourself"? Woof Woof!

Pugglt Auld Jock said:

Welcome to the Forum LickitySplit - great name for the car! We have a 2010 Panda Dynamic Eco "Becky" - just 2 wheel drive but same 169 model. Don't let it worry you about being long winded, If you've seen some of my posts you'll understand why I say this. My "better Half" calls it verbal diarrhea! Like your husband I too worked a goodly part of my life as a mechanic and still stay very involved. Mrs J is not like you at all, doesn't even want to learn how to change a wheel. Her excuse, which she states often, is "Why keep a dog and bark yourself"? Woof Woof!

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Aha, Thats one of the reasons why my husband married me Among others of course, I dont mind being muddy or covered in oil I have always had a fascination with cars and even did a waterpump replacement on a Landrover Disco once I basically rebuilt a aircooled engine for our VW Bus as well :3 I love learning and my husband is an amazing and wonderful teacher and is willing to take the time to show me, explain to me and help me understand how things work.

The other day it was clutches and gear boxes and he actually had a clutch on hand to demonstrate.

Its both of our passions and I am very blessed that I have such a wonderful husband

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Yeah, I dunno I write straight from my conscious ( Stream of Conscious ) so whatevers in my head comes out.

I often dont have a filter either lol.

But yeah, Thank you!!
I love the name Lickity Split for her. It fits way too well.

Our favorite movie is Wreck it Ralph so we have a Landrover Defender named Ralph and then, Lickity Split is basically the name of the character Venellope's first car in the movie and mine is my first car living in the UK so it was only fitting haha

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Get under the car and soak the back end of the bolts holding big stuff to the engine/gearbox/etc with penetrating oil. Being American you'll know of this stuff https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313&_nkw=283216945429&_sacat=0

For some reason, Fiat drill the bolt holes all the way though. Being open, the bottom ends of bolt threads get bound up with aluminium oxide. The bolts can be very hard to get out and it's likely the threads will be damaged.

I've tried a number of these over the years and I've not, so far, found anything to beat Plus gas formula A. My American friend disagrees. He swears by PB Blaster, which I haven't actually tried yet as, over here, it's about twice the price.

LickitySplit said:

Our favorite movie is Wreck it Ralph so we have a Landrover Defender named Ralph and then, Lickity Split is basically the name of the character Venellope's first car in the movie and mine is my first car living in the UK so it was only fitting haha

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Land Rovers are also a passion of mine. I used to do a lot with series 3 models when I worked in a country garage. I have vivid memories of doing "skull" seals which our MOT tester loved to fail them on for excess leakage of oil. If I ever buy one though it will have to be a Series 1 or early 2 with the headlamps in the grill. It may sound heresy, but I'd take an early Jeep too. I like old vans too having owned a Daf 33 van and a Hillman Husky (imp based version) in the past. Actually, come to think of it, almost anything from before they started putting electronics in them!

I love my films, Science fiction is my deepest passion but anything with cars in features pretty strongly too. Probably my two favourites of all time are Two Lane Blacktop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPbqV9CgV9s and Vanishing Point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P2VCMT8vAw Although i have a very soft spot for the original, Michael Caine, Itallian Job.

If you haven't seen them you should. I like stuff like Lock stock and two smoking barrels, Layer Cake, Rock N Rolla, Crank, etc when I want a break from Star Wars, Serenity, Alien, and the like. Best film moment? Russel Crow's Master and Commander on blu ray where they are under fire from the other ship and there are cannon balls and splintered wood flying all over the place. It's an extraordinary experience if you have a really serious Audio setup to make the most of it - which I can as we are lucky enough to be a detached property! Mrs J on the other hand is a murder mystery/thriller type person. She's just loving the present flood of Scandinavian thrillers on the TV channels. So, if I ever kick the bucket in "strange" circumstances you'll all know who to suspect - Ha Ha!?

Hey, I just noticed, The black Chevy's got Firestones on the rear wheels! Whoohoo! The numbers of times I've watched this film and never before noticed! - For those who don't know I worked for Firestone's racing division for about 6 years back in the very early '70's and loved every moment of it!

You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off



The wobbling bus was filmed at Del Colle Del Nivolet hanging over a small lake and set of hairpins. The air gets pretty thin at 2612 metres. It's appeared quite often on Top Gear.

Here's the view they had from the back of the bus.

It's technically a north-south pass, that will get you between Nivolet and Aosta Valley. The road stops a short way further on becoming a trail/path. Our skills on an MZ 250 and Aprilia Pegaso 650 were not up to coping with the rocks.