Top Gear Build Fiat Panda Limo

How about a Fiat Panda Limousine???

It is often found in the luxury car and limousine industry that if you have enough money, you can build the most outrageous and unique car you can think of. Jeremy Clarkson of the popular BBC car show, Top Gear is at the moment in the process of creating a 120 foot stretch limousine out of a Fiat Panda.

The Fiat Panda is an Italian car manufactured from 1980 until 2003 and with few mechanical and body changes, it is known as the 'old panda'. A second model was launched in 2003 and is often referred to as the 'new panda' and won European Car of the Year in 2004.

The old Panda was originally designed to be a simple utility vehicle which was easy to drive and maintain. The Panda relied on its predecessors in the Fiat range for much of its mechanics and construction.

The Panda embraced its role as a utility vehicle with rear seats which could fold flat to form a bed or fold up to be a bottle carrier. The front seats and dash board also had removable covers for washability while there was the option to have a panda with a full length roll back roof.

The four-wheel drive system in the Fiat Panda was also popular because of the often poor roads in some parts of rural Italy. However, the old panda was phased out in the 1960s across Europe because of corrosion which was seen across the Fiat range, as well as tougher safety restrictions. The old panda was still produced in Italy until 2003 when the new panda was launched.

The new Panda has a similar body and styling to mini SUVs and has an option for split rear seats which makes the new panda a four seater. The new pandas have sold well in a market moving more and more towards utility vehicles and 4WDs and over half of the new Fiat Pandas produced are sold in Italy.

The Fiat Panda has already made two appearances on Top Gear, the Panda Dynamic was tested by James May in 2003 and the Panda Climbing was tested by Jeremy Clarkson in 2005 and made it to The Cool Wall.

The new Fiat Panda will also make an appearance in the latest Bond film Casino Royale, to be released in late 2006, early 2007.

So you can look forward to seeing the panda on the big screen as well as back on Top Gear again when Jeremy Clarkson completes his stretch limo version.