30 Oct 06
Fiat's little Panda is a very cleverly conceived car. What other car lends itself as naturally to being a handy family supermini, a credible 4x4 and now a hot hatchback, all with the same basic body? A Panda - boxy, friendly, classless - is a kind of blank car canvas. So if the mechanical genes are up to it, you can create all kinds of things.
But a hot hatchback Panda could be stretching the notion a bit far, you might think. Think on, though. A Panda, by definition, is cheap. So how about 100bhp for £9995, with group five insurance? For that you have a 1.4-litre, 16-valve, twin-cam engine, a six-speed gearbox, 0-62mph in a lively 9.5 seconds (stay with me here) and a 115mph top speed.
You also have 195/45 tyres on particularly good looking 15" alloy wheels, a unique bespoilered nose, black wheel arch lips feeding into chunky sills, and a toughened-up tail with a mock-diffuser in the bumper and a neat blade spoiler above the rear window.
OK, those performance figures will hardly worry a Mini Cooper S. But cold digits really don't matter here. It's the fun you get from driving the Panda 100 HP that's important, and believe me it's huge. It's like rediscovering those lively little Fiats of the 1960s and 70s all over again, overlaid with (but not swamped by) all the things expected in a modern car.
