Tomorrow morning,
with the weather permitting, at around 8.30am, a new breed
of nautical Fiat Panda will be clambering into the English
Channel at the seaport town of Folkestone in Kent; not
merely to escape the British heatwave by cooling off in the
water, but with every intention of reaching the French coast
and then driving all the way home to Italy!
This Panda’s
creator is Milan born Maurizio Zanisi, an independent former
Iso Rivolta engineer, and his self-built Panda Terramare 4
is based on a Panda 4x4 chassis, but with an inflatable
flotation belt, and waterjet propulsion driven off the rear
axle.
The Panda Terramare
4 is certainly no stranger to water, and it has already been
spotted frolicking in the great Italian lakes, (Como and
Maggiore), the River Po, and the Mediterranean off Sardinia.
Its longest sea journey to date has been a return trip from
Naples to Capri – a journey of some 25 miles. The Channel,
however, will be its greatest test to date.
