General Pandas playing polar bears

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General Pandas playing polar bears

Golly Vern,
Are those really bamboo trees in the background?
Going on runouts to China to test the fleet is going a bit far.
Or are you going to write a book, Round Hampshire in 80 snow drifts.
Dave
 
There's been a lot of snow over this way with some large drifts some making roads impassable.

I had to go let the Panda out
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Hooray - snow at last!!! :slayer: Therefore time to revive this thread.......

Now I know we didn't get a huge amount (more required!!), but it was enough to bring this area to a standstill, with pretty much all the local lanes blocked by idiots - why they go up some of the hilly lanes with summer tyres and lead boots is really beyond me :bang:

Anyway, I did manage about 4 hours playing in the snow and avoiding formation sliding Volvo's & BMW's.

Bit of a quandry this year - I like the mk2 Sisley, and I like the scraggy mk3, but which is best - FIGHT!! One clearly is an old mechanical system (Howie's on decent Nankang Winter tyres), and one works by magic (just put onto new Uniroyal MS+6 Winter tyres to replace the 4 different ditchfinders).

So red mk3 first. No drama - sails up everything I could find, including a hillstart & 5 point turn on the steepest part of Kop Hill (snow & ice underfoot) thanks to a crunched Volvo. Can't really tell if it's working, but must be as it ran rings round everything else & zipped up hills other 4wd cars got stuck on :D Hmm ok, nice heater too, please note Howie........



So a couple of hours later I fire up Howie - much trickier getting him warmed up, but hasn't been started for a month.

Very very different feel. I can tell exactly what the tyres are doing & feel every bump through the seat and steering. Much easier to provoke wheelspin if you're being an idiot (I was trying to compare), but a satisfying biting down and launch forward when you accelerate. Once again no chance of getting stuck, and ran around all the stuck stuff like there was nothing there. Heater's hopeless, not as comfortable, but you know what's going on. (y)



So which is better, no idea at all. :shrug: They are both brilliant in the snow and ice (already knew that about Howie), and I think I would need a serious amount of snow & a fair amount of stupidity to get either of them stuck - they just feel like they are on tarmac (particularly the mk3 as you don't feel any dramas underneath). I think I like the feel you get from the Sisley more, but it's pretty impressive not to know you're out in the snow with the mk3. I need some more testing & much more severe conditions to work this one out - at the moment it's pretty much a draw in my eyes & a sharp poke in the eye to all those £40k offroaders sitting in ditches or at the bottom of hills..... :D

I did get some very odd looks from people who were out in tractors & landrovers pulling people out of hedges - I just waved at them and carried on. :worship:
 
My 500 was OK in the snow we had in Aylesbury, although I did get some funny looks from people as I went along the road with the roof down. Katie is taking Po out later, I will report back on her first encounter with adverse conditions :eek: .
 
Nice picts, so where is the snow?:D:D:D



ps: 5cm of snow must be really an extreme weather phenomenon in UK if the roads look really like you said with cars in the hedges everywhere:)

ps2:

my friends pandabella 4x4 , last weekend, southern Poland.

 
Unfortunately we don't get much snow - when we do, no one has the first idea how to drive! Where I am it's all hills and the 4wd cars on the wrong tyres don't go anywhere let alone the 2wd cars on wrong tyres & brains disengaged!! It's natural selection though - all the idiots get stuck or crash & leave 1/2 a dozen of us to play in the hills. (y)

Pretty much no one in the UK uses winter tyres, so that must make a difference. Because they don't get practice and have no brain, they also think the way to get traction is poweeeerrr - this results in wheel spin, flying into ditches, hitting other cars, and other idiotic behaviour. I don't think that is an unreasonable summary of what I saw this morning! :rolleyes:

I've always liked driving in snow - 127's on 135 tyres used to be great & I'd happily welcome the next ice age.....
 
Excellent pics Gav :thumbup: there's LOADS of snow up here in the Dales but I've no Panda to enjoy it :mad:

I think that may be worse than having a Panda but no snow!! You're just that bit too far to get to easily - if it was a couple of hours I'd be popping up to try out the Yorkshire snow! :bang:
 
I think that may be worse than having a Panda but no snow!! You're just that bit too far to get to easily - if it was a couple of hours I'd be popping up to try out the Yorkshire snow! :bang:

Well as you you are a huge fan of accounting Gav, I have successfully deducted that Pandas are way better (and safer) than a 4-door Astra "Elegance" amongst the white stuff :rolleyes:

So here's a reminder from last year's drift bashin'...
 

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