Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to say hello as the proud owner of a newish 100HP that I'm thoroughly enjoying (we've been together for two weeks! - still very much in the honeymoon period). Appreciate this should be in the newbie bit but I wanted to know if there's an ultimate Panda 100HP twisty country road out there that suits her bouncy personality (particularly oop north??) or what your favourite routes are in the little fiat?

Andy

andyellenator said:

......ultimate Panda 100HP twisty country road out there that suits her bouncy personality (particularly oop north??)......

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Oulton Park

Hi Andy and welcome to the forum - I hope that you are enjoying the car?

Don't think I've found one yet, the ride is too hard and compromised for the kind of roads it should shine on (twisty B-roads) and it hasn't enough power to make fast sweeping A-roads fun. Feels like you're driving a lowered boy racer special ie the owner bought lowering springs but was to much of a chav idiot to buy matching dampers and as a concequence the spring and damper rates are totally mismatched!

I used to enjoy going out to the Pennines and taking a route that would tak me over Holme Moss, Torside to Glossop, Snake Pass and then The Strines Road. The Strines Road in particular is great fun but it's so bumpy that the 100hp make a complete and utter meal of it. At 45mph it feels like the damn thing is going to shake itself apart!

Demic said:

Feels like you're driving a lowered boy racer special ie the owner bought lowering springs but was to much of a chav idiot to buy matching dampers and as a concequence the spring and damper rates are totally mismatched!

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Good job I never bought mine then :spin:

They love european motorways.. Not fun, but cruises lovely..!

Demic said:

I used to enjoy going out to the Pennines and taking a route that would tak me over Holme Moss, Torside to Glossop, Snake Pass and then The Strines Road. The Strines Road in particular is great fun but it's so bumpy that the 100hp make a complete and utter meal of it. At 45mph it feels like the damn thing is going to shake itself apart!

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Which is why the suspension on the 4x4 is so well suited - which would be perfect were it not for the fact that it's not any too fast......

Phil

Forest of Bowland.
Exit A6 north of Garstang.
Unclassified roads, open moorland, multiple hairpins, a luvverly 1.4 descent.
Watch out for totally mad sheep. ( wheres the mint sauce )
Sport button on and warp 9.
Avoid at the weekend, and watch out for farm traffic and locals, there normally doing warp 15.

pdtrewern said:

They love european motorways.. Not fun, but cruises lovely..!

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I thought it would be a bit slow? I'm assuming that you mean the autobahn etc. where there are no limits? As it has a top speed of 115mph I would have thought there would be a lot of faster cars?

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for that - I definitely agree with the Forest of Bowland, that was the first road I went for a blast down - the thought still brings a smile to my face when I found out just how much grip it had - and even bigger smile when I thought I have to turn round at some point and do this all again.

Wouldn't mind getting into the track day stuff either (I noticed some adverts on another section of forum). Do you 100Hp'ers ever get together for a day?

Contrary to what others may have said. I find my car the most fun on fast sweeping A roads. Whatever is going on I always seem to be doing about 80mph as that seems to be the speed where it's good fun and you can use 4th or the top of third when slowing down for slower corners.

I find it works very well on fast A roads.

I'm not going to recommend any roads as such, simply because it's not the kind of car where I will actually take it for a drive. I generally prefer a reason for going.

Come to Wales mate! I used to have a Panda, admittedly a diesel one, but wanted something a bit more suitable for the Welsh roads (hence the Abarth) Check my Abarth photos in my link in my signature to get some ideas, they're mostly of the car obviously, but all were taken on my mini road trips around Wales! I'm sure the HP would enjoy them just as much

DraigFlag87 said:

Come to Wales mate! I used to have a Panda, admittedly a diesel one, but wanted something a bit more suitable for the Welsh roads (hence the Abarth) Check my Abarth photos in my link in my signature to get some ideas, they're mostly of the car obviously, but all were taken on my mini road trips around Wales! I'm sure the HP would enjoy them just as much

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Very nice! the roads / scenery look pretty cool too. Not sure I needed to see another Fiat looking quite that good after only just splashing out on the little Panda.

Think I'll have a word with the misses, see if she's up for getting the Panda part ex'd - must be worth somthing - I've only had it two weeks

andyellenator said:

Very nice! the roads / scenery look pretty cool too. Not sure I needed to see another Fiat looking quite that good after only just splashing out on the little Panda.

Think I'll have a word with the misses, see if she's up for getting the Panda part ex'd - must be worth somthing - I've only had it two weeks

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What!? Don't be daft, the HP is a great car, i nearly bought one, but preferred the Abarth 500. Besides yours is better value for money at almost half the cost of an Abarth!

One or two car journalists rate the HP higher than the Abarth too

DraigFlag87 said:

What!? Don't be daft, the HP is a great car, i nearly bought one, but preferred the Abarth 500. Besides yours is better value for money at almost half the cost of an Abarth!

One or two car journalists rate the HP higher than the Abarth too

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Yeah you're right, i'll hang on to her for a while yet (all the while coveting any Abarth that over takes me)

Besides the HP has been a year long 'blag my other half for one' project. Up until a week or two ago I was doing 80 miles a day in a 1.1 (53 plate) Seicento so it was quite a leap in running costs that I also had to get past her (yes ..... I am extremely hen pecked).

andyellenator said:

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for that - I definitely agree with the Forest of Bowland, that was the first road I went for a blast down - the thought still brings a smile to my face when I found out just how much grip it had - and even bigger smile when I thought I have to turn round at some point and do this all again.

Wouldn't mind getting into the track day stuff either (I noticed some adverts on another section of forum). Do you 100Hp'ers ever get together for a day?

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Wel I've tried my 100hp on track, but found it throw up the limitations of the chassis. It was okay in the faster corners but was terrible in the slower corners Due to lifting an inside front wheel which makes trail braking all but impossible and results in lots of understeer. F1's are notoriously useless on track. Mine over heated in 3 (1 mile) laps!

The re-aligned bits of the N25 and N30 - nice wide road, fast alignment but still a good selection of corners.

Advanced Driver said:

I thought it would be a bit slow? I'm assuming that you mean the autobahn etc. where there are no limits? As it has a top speed of 115mph I would have thought there would be a lot of faster cars?

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I meant the suspension is ace on european motorways, not for top speed, but for such a small cheap car sitting at 80-90mph it is very smooth and stable. Not jarring and bumpy like the uk.