Hiring a Fiat Panda to drive the Targa Florio

[Foxy100]

Hello all, I'm new here and temporarily don't have a Fiat, although that could change very suddenly! Last year I finally managed to fulfil a dream and flew to Sicily to drive the Targa Florio course. 44 miles long, somewhere around 800 corners and almost all of it bar the main straight along the coast is either climbing up the side of hills and mountains or going down the other side. I hired a brand-new hybrid Panda and did a couple of laps over the course of three days (sadly my wife was with me and she didn't want to spend all weekend just driving - weird). I took a bunch of photos and sold them with a story to a few car magazines in Europe and the US. It was great fun, cost very little to fly from London Stanstead (you can fly to Palermo from all over Europe - and New York) and the car rental was about 40 euros per day. I highly recommend it if you're interested in motor racing, although next time I go I'll try to rent a Panda 4x4, the roads are terrible. Here are some photos I shot, I hope you like them.

 

[rmjbn1]

One of those things I've always fancied doing - glad to see you chose a 'proper' car for the job

We had a hire Alfa Giulia for a trip to Emilia Romagna so took in a lap of the old Mugello. I swear the Panda would have been much more fun

 

[Foxy100]

One of those things I've always fancied doing - glad to see you chose a 'proper' car for the job

We had a hire Alfa Giulia for a trip to Emilia Romagna so took in a lap of the old Mugello. I swear the Panda would have been much more fun

The hybrid wasn't ideal, it didn't seem to want to rev and sounded bloody awful doing so. I just drove it very carefully and it all worked out fine. A month later I was in Corfu and rented an older petrol Panda for the day, that one was superb.

 

[rmjbn1]

Quite agree, we hired a 500C in Spain last year and the 1.0 Firefly (*cough hybrid) is hopeless. If ever an engine needed a turbo... The older 1.2 FIRE is a cracking engine and suits the car perfectly. I also suspect more economical out of town.

Like you, I usually have a passenger whose enthusiasm for charging around old circuits is limited, but I still insist on a detour when possible.

Rouen and Reims were quite fun, but largely ruined by modern street furniture. Followed the 1903 Gordon Bennett route in Ireland, but it's not great - only a couple of places where you get any sense of its history.

The Targa Florio route in contrast looks dripping with atmosphere - great photos! And good to see racing graffiti still intact.

Charade is one I really want to get to, good excuse for a holiday to the Auvergne

 

[The Panda Nut]

One of those things I've always fancied doing - glad to see you chose a 'proper' car for the job

We had a hire Alfa Giulia for a trip to Emilia Romagna so took in a lap of the old Mugello. I swear the Panda would have been much more fun

I wonder how that all hangs with the hire car insurance.... Panda would have been better. My drive across the Alps into Switzerland and back to Bellagio in a Panda 1.2 was amazing. I was amazed there was no notable drop off in performance even at 12000 ft up. The car really shone on the tight bends narrow tunnels and steep climbs. I did have a bit of fun with a big BMW on the way back down. I decided to go round a couple of hairpins rather faster than necessary. He wont stick so close behind a Panda again for a while. Too busy changing his pants I suspect.

 

[SB1500]

Looks like an amazing journey. Nice photos. Thanks for sharing