As promised a few thoughts on the last two legs of the trip, I drove the Selecta from York to VmanC's workshop in deepest Hampshire, about 250 miles without incident.
The next phase was to take 'chiaro' (not sure if I got that right) from the workshop to Palio's a trip of nearly 2 hours. It's 20 years since I've driven a Panda with a choke so I was a little dubious I had the right technique. After a couple of stalls I hit the road running, mainly as I'm not used to the brakes on these older cars, the pedal travels little before becoming rock hard whilst the slowing of the car gave me a 'am I slowing down here or what'. They do work but in a gentle way, they will never throw you towards the windscreen or cause the inertia reel seat belts to tighten. A slight alteration in driving style - well remembering to brake sooner kept me out of trouble.
The car drove really well, 'perky' is probably the best description of the car, the ride whilst typical panda had a really direct and positive feel to it, the car turned in quickly and willingly. I think I described it to Gavin as 'very pointy', I only tried to put it into the nonexistant fifth gear three times too.
Now the car had a cd player/radio, but the radio bit didn't work, I ended up listening to a dodgy soft rock of the 80's giveaway cd that I suspect neither Gavin or Vernon will admit to owning
Despite the ICE there was no cig lighter so the sat nav was relying on the charge up it received on the way down. It hasn't been updated for a while so it was a challenge to guess which exit of the unmapped roundabout system I needed to take, luckily I ended up going the right way on the M4! As the miles ticked by and I retraced my way across the country roads and dual carriageway the power indicator got lower and lower, traffic got a little heavier as I was again village hopping. Thankfully whilst flashing on the very last red bar I set eyes onto a very pink little car telling me I had reached Gavins.
This is the first time I've clapped eyes on Pinky and my first reaction was too laugh out loud - man that is one pink car!
After a bit of a chin wag it was time to get on the road again, pinky has a cig lighter which didn't work and no radio, luckily I remembered enough about wiring the lighter to get it going.
My choke skills deserted me and I managed to fill Gavins hall with noxious fumes and set off his smoke alarm! Leaving Gavin coughing I set off for home. I drove for about forty minutes before realising Pinky had a fifth gear (aftermarket gear knob so no markings) and we were cruising the M1 Northwards. I found Pinky gripped well (four matching tyres on a Panda
) and again was eager to go and suffered none of the vibrations I'd encountered at speed in the Selecta. We fair romped home travelling up to but within the limits of the road. Pinky's braking characteristics are similar to Chario's but I was used to it now so felt very confident.
Once I hit the familar roads of home I could really appreciate Pinky's road holding and handling, the 3 hour 'Italian tune up' made him more willing than ever and in no time the journey was over.
So approximately 500 miles, 13 hours all told and 3 Panda's driven.
Would I do it again? - you bet
Here's the drive the next morning:
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